I need to explain my aversion to the (now quite dated in academic circles) term HERSTORY. Women - like men - are part of *history*. If we segregate women to their own "story" (or special offset box on the textbook page), we end up making them peripheral to the dominant tales we tell about the past. The story of the Nineteenth Amendment is not exclusively a story about women gaining the franchise; after all, at a basic level, it relied on the votes of male legislators to make it happen. It changed the makeup of the electorate as a whole. It reflected an evolution in ideas about citizenship. (It also enfranchised white women *far* more successfully than women of color.) (It's also true that the wordplay doesn't work grammatically, but that isn't my main concern. Additionally, the amendment as written didn't actually grant the vote to "women." Rather, it excluded "sex" as a criterion for limiting the franchise. Though given the historical moment, the effect was to grant the vote to [some] women, it was worded to apply broadly to everyone.) Paying attention to groups who have been traditionally overlooked in mainstream accounts of the past shouldn't just add other stories we can pay attention to or ignore as we choose; it should transform the stories we already have to make them more accurate because they have become more inclusive and therefore better reflective of their subjects. Sincerely, A Historian
@Jannicut Yes to all your points, even as my quibble with those who use HERSTORY in earnest is always first and foremost etymological. Having said that, after my initial flinch at seeing the entry, it occurred to me that crossword puzzle grids don’t account for spaces between phrases: Sam Ezersky just as likely had meant HER STORY, and the fact that it could also be read as HERSTORY would have just added to his sense of wordplay.
@Jannicut Probably could have been clued as a women's business supporting businesswomen and eliminating the history/herstory controversy altogether.
@Jannicut, thanks for your excellent point. And as Cokie Roberts of NPR once pointed out, men didn't *grant* women the right to vote. We had that right as citizens. They just finally acknowledged it and made it into law.
“Atta Way” twice within a week is two times too many for a phrase no human has ever uttered aloud outside of the very specific “well that’s a asinine clue” context.
@Keith Many humans have uttered it. "Attaboy" or "attagirl" is more common, but when the subject is non-gendered or plural, you use ATTAWAY. I have discovered that it's best not to use one's own experience to define the world. Something I've never heard of may be commonly known in other parts. :)
@Keith It was a major player in the hub-bub of chatter from the infield during our little league baseball games. Like, "hey batta batta" before a pitch and "attaway!" following a good one.
@Keith My dad used to to say, “ Attaway, CC!!” after pretty much anything I did that was even mediocre. Same with my siblings. Make a bowl of Cream-of Wheat? “Attaway to have a good breakfast, CC!” So, in some homes, it was/is common. And fun!
Sam notes: "I think there might be a bit too much phrase weirdness, with cobbled-together bits". I have to agree. Cobbled together bits that aren't common phrases really shouldn't make it past the editor.
"This restaurant has so many thermometers!" "It's an all-you-can-heat buffet!" (This is the Fahrenheit of my punning.)
@Mike I centigrade to your parents in your report card.
Yes, a Sam E. puzzle brings a little frisson of excitement, followed immediately by a bead of sweat on your brow that this—this right here right now—is how your cruciverbalist self-respect will meet its ignominious end. Although, sometimes, you wait to see how it goes before bedewing your brow because, hey, maybe it’s not a Saturday Sam E. puzzle and maybe it’s your lucky day. So you reserve your (usually sound) judgement and just dive right in like it’s like any other puzzle. “Phew!” you PSI with relief as 1A is obvious to you as soon as you read the clue. “Not so tricky after all, that other Sam.” You then plug in RETROGRADE and GLASS THERMOMETER with nary a cross, and EUREKA, and PIRANHAS, and EPILOG and, of course, MARCO Polo. Screeeech! Yeah. That’s the sound of the halting of your progress. Ten minutes later, you’re still trying to fit Arf!Aaarf! in as the answer to “Lab report component.” You do finish. You’ve been ant this hobby awhile so you finish. As for your self-respect? Well, who needs that silly OLD thing, anyway. As you fill in that last down clue, in your mind’s eye Sam E. is calling out to you, “SEE YOU! Till we meet again!” And he waves at you with his PSI-shaped pitchfork.
@Sam Lyons Beautiful first paragraph and nice use of PSI (loved the cluing for 1A). PSI with relief still has me chuckling! .
@Sam Lyons For me, it was getting PEEKABOO off the K and then BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY off the B. Fun. (Hope you survived the cold! We were at our mountain cabin when it was 3 below—on the west side of Stevens Pass—and then the power went out. Fortunately, the wood stove chugged along, and after lighting some candles, the youngsters found out that the oldsters aren’t as lame as they thought at either blackjack or Monopoly.)
Fabulousness! I did it! I finished a Sam Ezersky puzzle! I'm going to sleep like a baby tonight, with a smile on my face. Being on the same wavelength as His Excellency, M'Lord, Sir Sam E., is like winning the lottery in my book. The misdirects were satisfying ahas, like he *wanted* me to feel smart. The unknowns were handed on a platter by gentle crosses, like he *wanted* me to stay with it. The themers were amusing, like he *wanted* me to have tons of fun. And I did, and I did, and I did. Thank you, Mr. Ezersky!
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Two things that make me happy? Waking up to a Sam Ezersky puzzle. Puzzles that speak English. Like, ordinary words. Casually said yet cleverly clued. ASKMOM ASMILE WECARD PEEKABOO WONTDO… So many fun answers. And a relaxed theme that didn’t hurt my brain but piqued my curiosity. Okay, that was three things. Any way the wind blows doesn’t really matter to me…
@CC This was my thinking exactly. No gimmick, clever clues, reasonably difficult. Possibly the perfect puzzle? Even the fact I had to look up a lot of trivia (given my origins, I expect nothing else, especially in late-week puzzles) did not spoil my fun. . . . *Place sacrifice to the emus here*
Oh, if it’s an end-of-week Ezersky, I shut the world out and hunker down. I need the focus combined with calm to give my brain elbow room, and I want quiet so I can pick up on nuance. I know that at puzzle’s end I’ll wow at the talent that produced such loveliness, but during the puzzle’s during, it will need to be one-on-one and nothing else. Sam, who’s made uber-wickedly-clued themeless puzzles, notched it down a touch for Thursday. Still, there was enough bite to create delicious-for-my-brain drag. There were also a few “Whee!” moments of splat-fill, not to mention wit in the theme. That is, a terrific solving mix. Every here and there, I like a Thursday without pyrotechnics, the focus simply on Thursday-level difficulty, and here it was. I liked the overall spark – nine answers new to the NYT puzzle, and 12 long answers (eight or more letters). Also, the junk-free grid, but that is an Ezersky given. I also liked the serendipity of three answers that sound like letter pairs: ARTY, SEE YOU, and OWEN. But mostly I loved the quality and shine. Sam, your puzzles are gifts to be unwrapped, and I’m extraordinarily grateful that you’re in the crossword game. Thank you!
Too many clues involving British politics. We fought a war so we didn’t have to care about any of that.
@George C Sam has too many British birds in the Spelling Bee too
@George C Hope you're being a bit tongue-in-cheek — I'll assume you are if two easy clues about British politics is too many.
Gosh. LIB DEM is a centrist in British politics? In the U.S of A, you're considered a pinko Commie Marxist revolutionary. But LIB DEM was actually one of the easier entries for me in the SE where I had most of my trouble. My age means that long before any liquor store had ever thought to post a sign that said WE CARD, I was way, way over legal drinking age. What I don't know about the WNBA would fill a basketball arena -- and it didn't help that I had RATS instead of NUTS where the N of FINALS should have gone. Also the only unit of radioactivity I could think of was RAD. CURIE would have helped me see the wonderfully clued BICEPS -- but I had B??EPS and all I could think of was BLEEPS. Whenever there are some capitalized words like RIO and SORRENTO, I always wonder if it's a car? I only know one 3-letter car, KIA, and the A went with THRASHES. "Aha, PEEKABOO!" I said of the toddler's game. I got ENT from the very clever "stuffy client" clue without even looking at the grid and knowing the length of the answer. This made me feel smart on a day when I was somewhat less than brilliant. Conclusion: this was a lively and interesting puzzle that made deft use of a multi-faceted word you wouldn't necessarily think of to build a puzzle around. And I think it works beautifully here. Nice job, Sam.
@Nancy The way you expounded on your train of thought reminded me of how my brain likes to distract me with funny stuff while I'm trying to solve. "Chips, cookies, etc." Brain: JUNK! Me: Well, it does fit... "Party in the U.K." Brain: Yay, a party --LETSGO! Me: Oh, for heaven's sakes, stop it! I've got to hand it to Brain, though. It's never of two minds -- it flits like popping corn inside my head with only humor as its endgame.
Long time reader, first time commenter. I’ve loved reading all your comments over the years and just had to share this Breyers story :) Years ago, my uncle bought some Breyers Vanilla Bean ice cream and was completely dismayed when he saw what he thought was dirt in his ice cream. He wrote the company a letter saying how appalled he was to see this. And how could their facility be so unclean that dirt ended up in his ice cream. They wrote him back profusely apologizing but also asking - could he possibly be mistaking the specks of real vanilla beans that are in every tub as “dirt”? And included a coupon for him to get another tub and try it again. Still makes me laugh whenever I see Breyers in the store!
@Linds My sister told me some years ago that she too thought it was dirt, but didn’t speak up for fear our mom would throw it away!
Mercury could also be in this… SHOE CATALOG (You know, the page showing different styles of winged sandals) P.S. Sam, I’ll be waiting for that cat-holic puzzle!
Very 2008 Thursday puzzle, with a bit more hipness. Been doing Thursdays from the aughts lately and this would’ve fit in nicely. More like smaller Sundays than the really tricky puzzles that became more prevalent in the 2010s. Smooth, enjoyable with just enough bite to satisfy (as was dinner).
@Puzzlemucker Of course, there were some pretty tricky Thursdays back in the 2000s. I did one before this puzzle, from 3/9/06. If you haven’t done yet, it’s worth checking out. But be prepared to yell at your screen a few times.
I'm working my way forward from the Shortzception, currently in mid-1998. A bit of an anything-goes feel to the early days before the formula got ironed out: some damn-near-impossible puzzles cheek by jowl with others so breezy, I'm pretty sure future PRs will forever be out of reach.
A hypothetical conversation taking place in Paris, January 1906: Young Irène: Papa, does MAGMA contain any rare EARTH elements? Pierre: I'm busy right now. ASK MOM. Young Irène: Papa, will you play PEEKABOO with me and bébé Ève? Pierre: No, I'm busy right now. ASK MOM. (Turning to the governess) Where's Marie? Governess: Mère CURIE might be in her lab. HER STORY: First woman to win a Nobel Prize First person to win two Nobel Prizes Only woman to win in two fields Only person to win in multiple sciences *** Play it again, Sam. The tricky cluing of 1A threw me off my usual course, solving across and down. (PSI.)
Did anyone spot a bonus themer? Emus?
@Henry Su That’s a lovely story. She’s one of my heroes. When I first noticed all the Mercury references, I was expecting the theme answers to be two-word phrase, with the first work starting with H and the second with G. Some other constructor can tackle that project.
A plea: Can the Times please go back to showing the comments by Reader Picks in one of the tabs? On the mobile app now we see Times Picks and Times Replies both, which bump the Reader Picks and makes it impossible to see the most popular comments. We can see the Times Replies easily enough that it does not need its own tab!
The Android app shows the Reader Picks tab. The other two only show up when they exist (not sure I've ever seen Times Picks actually). I guess the IOS app is different?
@Mary I can't say about the Android version, but the iOS app opens the NYTimes app to read the comments, but it's different than if you open a browser and then go to NYTimes.com/column/wordplay. If I open Safari on my iPhone, go to the Wordplay page, open a daily column, I see what I see on the website, which is are very small headings for the Reader Picks and All tabs, with plenty of room for the NYTimes Replies tab. Plus, in Safari, I can put my phone in landscape mode and the screen becomes much wider (you can't do that in the NYT app). Plus, (I don't normally use my phone) in the past there were reports that using the app only let you see the first three responses to any comment, while using a browser shows all the responses. I don't know if that's been corrected, but in any case you'll get a better experience using a browser than getting directed to the NYT news app to read the comments.
@Mary On the iOS iPad NY Times app, which is where I read Wordplay, I see two tabs at the top of the comments: All Comments and Readers’ Picks.
Stately, plump, the used '83 Mercury Lynx, responsive & flesh colored, was my first car; I feel a twinge that such a loyal car met her end from an unfilled radiator. Some cars later I found myself driving a Mercury Sable, sleek and fast and prone to a terminal illness that left the mechanics at a loss. The oldest and wisest of them came forward and pronounced, almost rabbinically, "That which we cannot see we cannot fix." So I was hoping against hope that there would be a shout-out to my cars, like, the answer to "The Mercury might be in this" could've been REPAIR SHOP, since that's where the Sable spent a lot of her time. On the other hand, I don't like to eulogize cars or see them in a puzzle. And I like The WNBA Mercury. I'll like 'em even better if they get Elena Delle Donne, though the Mystics would fain give her up. I don't believe in these things, but when there's a lot of negativity in the air and things just aren't going my way, there's an uncanny correlation to those times and Mercury being in retrograde, which could last for some time. Weeks! And I bet astrologers can deduce personality types from natal charts: the mercurial sort, the saturnine, the martial kind, the venusians, the earthy. Poor Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, they got nothing! And Pluto's been bumped! Again with the attaway? Atta way, attaway! ADORED Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury. Those teeth! Elena Delle Donne. Elena Delle Donne. Elena Delle Donne.
Sorry, meant fain NOT give her up. What I'm most sorry about is using the word "fain" to begin with. Strunk and White, don't come after me! .
@john ezra Omg. Another reason we are kindred spirits. I am so in love with EDD. not just on the court. I love her (in a non creepy, non predatory way?) Can you believe the supermax for the WNBA is only $250K? bananas. I’m not a turasi fan. Never have been. And she is all I can associate with the mercury. No EDD must remain a mystic. And I think Erik Agard would agree with me. <a href="https://youtu.be/OS-CwNniV_I?si=CsSvqt2p3_NRVN1I" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/OS-CwNniV_I?si=CsSvqt2p3_NRVN1I</a>
Toddlers are way past PEEKABOO, for those of you not yet initiated into the mysteries of child development/rearing. GAPE and GAWP before GAWK. 61A Wilfred OWEN..... was born in Shropshire near the Welsh border, and his lineage was partly Welsh... Wales can claim influence on his works, which are sadly few. Rushing off....
Nice and fun. This brought back the memory of my 11th grade Chem teacher having us stick our fingers in a beaker of mercury to demonstrate its surface tension. I used to also break thermometers with my friends so we could watch the little balls of mercury roll around. This make account for why it sometimes takes me a while to finish puzzles.
@Crevecoeur Those little globs of mercury coming together and then splitting up into little balls always fascinated and entertained me and helped me to nearly fail Mr. Goss's 8th grade science class.
The theme was fun, but some of the cluing and fill was wonky, to say the least. WNBA FINALS had no acronym/abbreviation in the clue. ECHECK isn’t a dictionary word, and also doesn’t seem like particularly common parlance. TMEN? Come on, nobody calls them that outside of obscure ‘40s noir films. Calling chips and cookies TECH is a bit of a stretch, too. I see we’re doubling down on “ATTA way” again, which is gonna earn some ire from last Saturday’s crowd. WONT DO clued simply as “is insufficient” felt pretty oblique for a pretty crucial central cross, especially give the options for “goggle” (GAze, GAWp, GApe). ARE OUT for “have no more in stock” just felt plain… meh? I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but I was completely underwhelmed by a lot of the clues and answers today. I didn’t really giggle or smirk at any of the fun wordplay because I was stuck scratching my head over some of the very contorted phrases used to make it all fit. A little bummed because I usually love the Thursdays (especially from Sam.)
@Edward I totally agree with you. Also a toddler is a baby that toddles and would be past the stage of peekaboo.
@Edward agree on TMEN which was the last clue for me. I had GMEN but of course that doesn't work with "Chips, cookies etc." Thought maybe GECH was a Yiddish word for junk food. I always get snagged on the frequent Yiddish entries in these puzzles.
The Constructor Note about CATHOLIC -> CAT-HOLIC reminded me of this. I was at someone's house when their cat jumped on the table. "Willa! Get down!" someone said. Me: Willa! What a great name for a cat! Them: [blank stares] Me: Willa Cather? Willa Cat-her? They'd never heard of her.
I found this one very difficult to break open. I kept expecting a Thursday trick, like rebus squares, or answers that wrap around corners ... but no, it was just a good old-fashioned chewy challenge of a puzzle, with a clever theme that managed to be simultaneously obvious and maddeningly elusive. Solved in 26 minutes, much longer than my Thursday average. Bravo, Sam, and thanks for the workout!
Mercury was often in this THESHOP Mercury was always in this THEJUKEBOX Mercury is in this TUNAFISH Mercury was regularly in this TRANSIT Mercury can be found in this THEMARINA cc: emu handler
@Steven I kept looking for INORBIT
Off to a great start with GLASS THERMOMETER , but it slowed down a lot after that, lots of unknowns or couldn’t think of. I missed having a trick, but it was fun to have LABOUR and LIBDEM in the puzzle.
@suejean I also appreciated the British government references after tuning in to the BBC there for almost 2 weeks. But I got stuck in the lower half until I finally tore my thoughts away from Curling, the sport, and got BICEPS. Then I found RHAPSODY and a reference to Freddie Mercury that I had been hoping for. Fun Thursday.
@suejean I was fine with LABOUR, but I wanted the "Party in the U.K." to be a BOOZER or a STAG DO, because I have friends from England.
A Wednesday with a gimmick and a Thursday without one, what a strange week. I had to look up some trivia, but otherwise I did not find the puzzle particularly hard. I understood the theme, with the exception of RETROGRADE - I only have a basic knowledge of astronomy, and it is mostly in Polish. I got the word from crosses and I googled it then, so now I understand the clue (and unwittingly I learned some things about the annoying idiocy of astrology, too... Apparently my wife can get angry at me because Mercury is in retrograde). WNBA FINALS I was able to fill in once I got a few crosses, even though I don't know a single name of a WNBA team (and very few NBA teams, too. Sadly you are right if you see a hint of sexism here. Basketball is not popular here these days, and all I know about it I learned from friends who were fascinated by it in the quite mysoginistic early 1990s, when after the fall of "communism" we were in inundated with Western culture, inaccessible before, and an interest in NBA was one of the fads, but nobody cared about women's sports 😐). I was glad to remember IMARET from a puzzle a few weeks or months back. I was about to ask here for an explanation of ENT and their stuffy clients, but then it dawned on me - that's what you call a laryngologist, for short. In Polish it's... Laryngolog. In fact, we call most doctors by their Greek or Latin names. It took me years to learn what it is they do, since the names are so strange.
@Andrzej I was surprised years ago when ENT became the de facto for otolaryngologist, which is how I first learned it. More specifically, otorhinolaryngologist. NIce to know I would have been understood if I had needed one when I visited Poland!
@Andrzej Two Words- Caitlin Clark!
No rebus!!!? Cancel my subscription!!!!
@Joseph P. I had the L and U for "show of hands" and tried very hard for a few minutes to make it a rebus for "applause".
I finished in a couple of minutes over my average time. It’s funny how carefully selected clues can mislead me into umpteen wrong answers. The theme part was the easy part. I came up with two or more possible answers to many clues, and somehow managed to pick the wrong answer to enter for each. The curling clue was one. It is curling season, after all, so I wrote STONES. Turns out the curling with a weight was the type of curling Sam had in mind, so BICEPS it was. Anyway, great work, Sam.
@Kris T I thought of the sport as well, but only knowing enough about it to get myself in trouble, I put in BroomS. Sometimes, a little knowledge truly is a dangerous thing. Luckily, Marie CURIE set me straight.
@Kris T - I had houses there and had a hard time getting to biceps!
Whew. And wow. Quite a puzzle - tough one for me with very little on first pass, but then working out each of the theme answers was a series of nice 'aha' moments and ended up being the key to working out everything else. Impressive feat of construction and ended up being a quite enjoyable solve. Answer history search today was inspired by 58a and led to one of the more remarkable puzzles I've ever encountered. I'll put that in a reply. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: Inspired by 58a I went and looked for answers with HURRICANE or LIGHTNING and came across a Thursday puzzle from August 29, 2013 by Timothy Polin. Turns out I had actually done that puzzle but didn't recall it; actually didn't even remember that I'd been around here that long. Anyway... examples of the 'theme' answers in that one (as they appeared): TYPHOON BROOKLYNCYCLONE and then... RETRACENACIRRUH ANIRTAK And, as a bonus - there was an 'EYE' symbol in the very middle of the puzzle with the extensions from that implicitly including it. e.g. (EYE)OFNEWT (EYE)OPENER LONDON(EYE) I can't possibly explain the whole thing. Here's the Xword Info page: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/29/2013&g=17&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/29/2013&g=17&d=A</a> ...
Wilfred Owen was killed leading his men across a stream just about a week before the end of WWI. The poetry Owen and many others produced from the trenches is extraordinary. Owen’s Dolce et Decorum Est is scathingly brilliant.
@John Dietsch - It is certainly worth citing that Owen could have been invalided out of the war that his poetry execrated, but chose to return to the front where he died well too young. I keep Wilfred Owen in mind when I am confronted by the likes of bone-spurs the pumpkin. One of them was heroic. One of them is on course to destroy the world.
On the first mercury clue, I immediately thought RETROGRADE but of course that was too short. But it meant that I had the fill right away for the second one and caught on to the theme quickly. Only got stuck on the WNBA team because I hadn’t heard of them- I was convinced that one had to do with the car and kept trying things like PARKINGLOT and CARGARAGE. ICE for clinching a victory was new to me. At first I thought it had to be ACE but that didn’t work for across. Still, it was the final fix before completing today’s puzzle. Thanks for going a little easy on us today! Doing it later than usual due to a rehearsal that went long, but still got to finish in one sitting. Goodnight, emus and all!
@Rachel I immediately thought of RETROGRADE MOTION, which did fit, but NAH set me straight.
So, I've only been solving since August 2023 so I'm not sure if I've encountered a Sam Ezersky crossword before. I've certainly seen his name though, so I can't compare it to any of his other puzzles but this was a real roller coaster ride for me! There were parts, including most of the theme, that I sailed through and felt on top of the world... Until I didn't! Some of those corners were killer for me with some difficult for me crosses that I just didn't know -- and left me feeling like a real dolt! But not in a bad way... Not like when I had to confess to my boss today that I had no idea how to use the printer for labels, after trying and failing, in an embarrassing fashion. Instead, some of the last ones I got on the puzzle today made me chuckle -- right after I kicked myself! CURLING was awesome! After I accepted that it probably wasn't the sport, I kept thinking of curling hair and what might be a target of a curling iron, then I thought about targets that are physically curling, like the thing a person would shoot an arrow at... then I went back and revisited sports, then hair... Rinse, repeat! EITHER OR was another one I loved and felt really stupid for it taking so long! Anyhow, I got there though a little bit slower than usual. Very fun! Thursday is growing to be my favorite day!
Circled back after looking up the 'longshoreman' cocktail in 59D. Sounds complicated, starting with the ingredients. Basically, it's a Manhattan, but with a special type of sweet-and-dry vermouth, and a liqueur in place of the bitters. Then you set it on fire, and toast the orange slice over the flame. Yeah, no, I don't see dock workers drinking those.
Sadly, this "easier" Thursday turned out to be one of my worst Thursday times. I got the Mercury trick pretty quickly, starting with Freddie, but struggled so much on the other clues. I need more sleep, apparently.
@sunny617 same. Mercury was easy. The corners were brutal.
I was absolutely convinced that one of the theme entries would be tunafish related. In fact my first blind guess at 26A was CANNED TUNA. That one did not last long, but I was quite sold on TUNAFISHES instead of WNBA FINALS, as several of the crosses supported my theory. I think I must be the only person who has never heard of Mercury RETROGRADE. I had to Google it post-solve to understand what the connection was, as I only got if from the crosses. I missed the fact initially that the puzzle was by Sam Ezersky or I would have been even more excited than just the usual Thursday excitement! Great fun!
I always have some difficulty with a Sam E. puzzle. So, this, although not a terribly hard puzzle, took some time and effort to get through. A nice challenge that took some regular thought rather than an outside the box approach. Very satisfying to get it finished, and I'm glad it's over. Thanks, Sam.
Solverati, indeed. Can we use that term without citation, Deb? BB the wee pup adds ARF, since she especially enjoyed this party with Sam's Wise Men. Nice trick without having to use the Rebus key. When my son was in utero, he was known as Hermes, the traveler between two worlds, Mercury, Quicksilver, Hg 80 (weirdly one more than Au 79, gold), god of letters, as well as medicine, merchants, thieves, crossroads, and other wildly disparate things; the planet tide-locked to the sun with one face baked to a crisp while the other shivers in eternal darkness. Whew!!! Thanks to the Magi on the puzzle team for all the fun.
@Foster Also the patron "saint" of florists
I had gMEN before TMEN, and could not figure out TECH for the longest time. Enjoyed it, felt particularly satisfied at getting the "Mercury was in this" clue. And I haven't thought of DREYERS in years, having left California over two decades ago.
I'm remembering an early visit to the dentist many, many years ago, playing with silver globules of mercury he'd spilled onto the tray for my amusement. Sounds crazy, but I'm sure that happened.
@patk I’m sure it did. We rolled mercury around on the lab table in chemistry class. And heated up beakers over pads of asbestos embedded in chicken wire over Bunsen burners. (Fortunately, the chemo worked and I’ve been in remission for years—no kidding! Life is good.)
@patk Like Deb, I certainly played with mercury from a broken thermostat. I loved watching the beads roll around in a glass bottle.
@kkseattle Hey, at least you never walked around with radium in your pockets as Madame Curie was known to do.
Good golly that was hard. So a Thursday with no tricks is harder than a ‘tricky’ Thursday. Going to the column, I see that it was Sam E who made this puzzle. So now, I’m pleased with myself for getting the gold. The themers were clever enough. But all those two word phrases were awkward fill. I definitely feel like this puzzle required a bunch of knowledge to get through. Maybe I’m just trying to pat myself on the back. I feel like Friday will be much easier than today’s puzzle. A Sam E Saturday is the ultimate test for NYT, at least, in my opinion. Can you reset your average stats? I mean, I feel like I really struggled with this, but was 10 minutes below my ‘average’. Is the only way for me to know my (past 52 week) average, to enter in a spreadsheet? I ain’t doin that. I guess, I will use average as a proxy for hard. Of I solve a puzzle over my average, it must be mad hard, as, of course, the average starts day 1.
@Newbie Sign up for an account at xwordstats.com. It’s a bit of a pain if the quick way of granting them access to your NYT stats doesn’t work (it doesn’t for me), but it’s worth it if you’re interested in seeing what you’re averages are for the past year or the past 30 days. It even tells me, for example, that Sam Ezersky is my 129th fastest constructor (out of 240). There are some discrepancies between my stats there and on the NYT site, but overall, it’s much better than creating my own spreadsheet. (I ain’t doing that, either.
Never having shopped west coast markets, Breyers before Dreyers. Three references to British political parties: Labour, LibDem, Retrograde (jk!). Good fresh cluing for the most part!
@Robert Michael Panoff - your comment was a Tory de force.
@Robert Michael Panoff I believe that Dreyers is sold as Edy's (another crossword favorite) in the eastern parts of the US to avoid confusion with Breyers. I likely learned this fact from Wordplay or Wordplay comments years ago.
I notice that the word "tinning" is unacceptable in SB today. Tin, of course, is a metallic element and I may be having a mental lapse. I can't for the life of me think of another use for the stuff than tinning. I'm sure there are plenty, but all of my working life I was tinning stuff, and watching others tin stuff. Tinning, in this use, is the application of a thin coating of tin to some other metal or whatnot, for any of myriad uses. Cans of course, are tinned' tho' we now call a tinned can simply a "tin can", as though it were made of tine, which it is not. It's made of steel, and, aftr tinning, can be used to preserve food. How soon we forget!
@Old Dad - I would still talk about a copper cooking pan being re-tinned. But then, I'm pretty old. And most copper pans are lined with steel these days rather than tin, so . . .
@Old Dad, also, SB accepted "winch" but not winching. I also keep trying "tinning" in the hopes that it will be added to the lexicon. If foods are tinned, then the act of putting them in tins is indeed tinning, as canning is the act of putting food in cans. As for copper pots, I have a lovely hammered copper braisier in desperate need of re-tinning.
I loved this! Was worried at first with few answers on first pass but got enough downs to think of Bohemian Rhapsody, Freddie Mercury/Queen being one of my favorite musicians. Got me thinking about other associations with mercury and I just puzzled my way through it. Very satisfying. Thank you, Sam E.
First I saw Mercury in the firmament, then thought that WONT DO, and once he came down to EARTH, the clues started falling into place. The puzzle wasn't easy for me, so I took it easy and enjoyed every fill. I SALUTE you, Sam. SEE YOU again—soon, I hope.
That was a surprisingly gentle Thursday. I got hung up in a few sections (unknown sports or political clues) but the theme came to me quickly and the crosses helped the unknowns. The clues were quite lively, my favorites being: "Here we are!" EARTH "Light charges?" ARSONS
Had to look up a few of the general knowledge answers but surprisingly I managed to finish this. I had to spell 21 across three times. First time: PIRHANAS but then clearly MHGMA was a bust so I changed to PIRAHNAS but then _ITNEROR was staring at me for a very long time before I Googled to make sure that, oh, it's PIRANHAS. The only answer I really didn't like was 'ARSONS' because, I dunno, just sounds ugly, doesn't it? Not a word you tend to hear pluralised. In fact after seeing it fitted my first re-read of the clue made me think we were verbing the noun.
I haven’t been able to get Wordplay to load without freezing in over a week so it’s nice to be able to rejoin the conversation. Hm, not much to add. Thought it was a little obliquely clued which is fine. Ended up taking me a relatively long time to solve (19 mins). Didn’t like ARSONS. I’ve been working my way through the archives doing the saturdays. Almost done 1993. If you want a challenge, try the oldies. Much harder.
@Byron The oldies are hard, but I've found that, of you memorize the location, of every river in Europe, along with silent movie stars and ragtime bands, things get a lot easier. 😁
I'm curious about EPILOG. I know it spelled with a -ue. Is there another form of the word without the last two letters? Is there a trick I'm missing?
There's one kind of Mercury that Sam left out: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T3MgIRUwj0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T3MgIRUwj0</a> When daughter Emily was tiny, we rewrote the chorus to go Crazy bout my Emily, Gonna find my Emily and push her up and down the mall...
@Steve L There's also Mercury Rev: <a href="https://youtu.be/Y_2c_E_c-U0?si=EeduM524_IwWiCpm" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Y_2c_E_c-U0?si=EeduM524_IwWiCpm</a> I posted this a while ago, but it seems to have been quarantined by the emus. Sorry if it ends up being a duplicate reply once the emus let the original through. 🥚🥚🥚🐣
@Steve L I only knew the cover by the late great David Lindley. <a href="https://youtu.be/54gFPTWja80?si=RpRgoEaPYX3WPSUz" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/54gFPTWja80?si=RpRgoEaPYX3WPSUz</a> Now I know who it came from. Emu fodder.