T Squares by Patrick Berry, 9/16/23 WSJ

[Jace54]

Wow, finally cracked this one but it was brutal! Got the top half eventually filled in but then had to resort to Google to get some toeholds below. Even then it took multiple passes and new printouts to finally finish. 0% chance I could have solved this without some assistance.

[auee89]

Haven’t seen this one before. Will dig in tomorrow morning with my coffee!

[SewYoung]

I've written down what I think are the answers to about half of the clues, but have no idea how to even begin to fill in the grid. I will look with fresh eyes after coffee in the morning and see if inspiration strikes.

[ChrisKochmanski]

Wow, finally cracked this one but it was brutal! Got the top half eventually filled in but then had to resort to Google to get some toeholds below. Even then it took multiple passes and new printouts to finally finish. 0% chance I could have solved this without some assistance.

Agree. Brutal! Also needed to do some googling. Fun, though. Heck, I’m still up at nearly 2 am, so you know this was involving.

[Joe Ross]

Hello, stranger!

♥️

[SewYoung]

Hello, stranger!

Hello, Yourself!! I have (obviously) been absent for a while. Partly because I have been very busy and partly because I am embarrassed by my poor performance on the metas. I still do the puzzles. Work the grid, see nothing, say I will look at it again later, either never get back to it or look again and still see nothing, look at the solution Monday morning, slap my head and say "I'll get it next week", rinse and repeat. We are leaving for the Lake Sunday after church and will be there all week. I hope to make the Zoom call Tuesday.
I hope you are all well. I miss everybody.

[auee89]

Just finished! Really enjoyed this one. Thanks Patrick!

Back to the WSJ Friday grid.

[DebbieC]

Got them all except 25A. I'm a huge Patrick Berry fan but really stumped on this one entry (actually just a couple of letters). Any help? Thanks in advance, Debbie

Figured it out. A very clever Patrick Berry, tougher and more complex than most of his, in my opinion. Great workout.

[iggystan]

Wow, I don't recall doing one like this before, and I agree, it was a tough one. Worked mostly around from top left to right, to bottom right and then to the left which took a while to drop. Didn't have to resort to Google, tho I thought I would have to. Incredible construction, IMO. Tip of the hat to Patrick.

[Richard B.]

Unbelievable construction! Brutal solve. Too much going on for me to say I like this style puzzle. And I normally love a PB puzzle.

[KayW]

Wow!! This was a tough one, but very satisfying to finally solve. I don't remember seeing this type of puzzle before.

[Katiedid]

I was excited to see a new kind of puzzle by PB, but am a little disappointed. I managed to finish, but it was a slog.

[Richard B.]

It’ll be interesting to see if the WSJ offers this style puzzle again. Seems like mixed reviews here and elsewhere.

[Joepickett]

This was a tough one. Had to sleep on my final solve. I don't see how he can conceive these.

[iggystan]

This was a tough one. Had to sleep on my final solve. I don't see how he can conceive these.

Me either!

[Bird Lives]

Yes, difficult. After penciling in a couple of entries, I foolishly switched to pen. Soon realized I'd need to print out another grid. Finally, when I was finished, I checked by outlining the T around each entry. After a few of these, it would look like there was an isolated letter unchecked, but then a few words later, I'd see that it was part of another entry. So not only is it amazing that Mr. Berry could find three dozen words and phrases with internal palindromes, some of five or even seven letters, but it was beyond amazing that he could fit them all into a 12x12 grid with no blank squares.

[Wendy Walker]

I too needed to print out two grids! Solving got easier when I had some letters in the grid to play with. Figuring out the instructions reminded me of my very early meta days!

[TMart]

Just finished. This was pretty amazing.

[Scott M]

Giving up after my third attempt. How someone could put a puzzle like this together is simply beyond me. But I'd be fine never seeing one again. I've got 5 different color highlighters trying to keep track of what squares belong to what clues. But I just can't make PIANO SONATA fit in with ALAN ALDA and MOBILE LIBRARY.

[Nino]

18 was the last solve, for me. I had the two words of the solution reversed. After I put it aside and came back to it, I realized what the correct solution was.