Solution: Statement of admiration after someone's impressive feat - NYT Crossword

This clue, “Statement of admiration after someone’s impressive feat,” is the kind that makes a Saturday puzzle a Saturday puzzle, in my opinion. Once a few crossing letters fell into place, the obvious answer came to me — “what a beaut,” right? Every remaining crossing entry agreed with this deduction except for 8D, a three-letter word for “Stuff in microdots.” I had no idea what a “microdot” was and went with “lud,” therefore, until the very end of my solve. This is wrong. I wondered briefly if a “microdot” was an electronic component that contained LCDs or LEDs, but neither “beact” nor “beaet” made sense, and I eventually ran through the letters of the alphabet to get WHAT A BEAST and LSD. BEAST versus “beaut” struck me as a fun contrast, and now I know what a “microdot” is, or can be (the term also describes tiny cold war-era cameras, which I imagine took other solvers down a completely different path).