Fri & Sat NYT puzzles

[rhu]

After bad-mouthing Eric's Sunday puzzle a while back, I feel the need to balance the record: I really enjoyed his Saturday as well as qaqaq's Friday. They were clever, original, and fun to solve. (Although Trip's 1A had me going for a while there: I had PALACEGUARD instead of CASTLEGATES, and thought it was confirmed by my early crossings. I'm sure he planned it that way.)