For the "Skewered meat dish" (9A), I wavered between possible spellings, and settled on entering only K-B-B, intending to wait on the crosses for the vowels required. It turned out to be SATAY. I guess I should B more #.
Steve, After the recent ADO about the spelling of K-B-B, I was wishing and hoping to see SATAY. ANDHOW. No DRAMA.
@Steve L Yeah, that NW corner took a bit more work to unknot than I was expecting on a Tuesday -- Kabob was a good misdirect.
Walking on an icy sidewalk: if you don't C#, you may B♭.
@Michael Weiland and hurt you spinal column.
Some of this puzzle fell FLAT for me, but the NE corner was super SHARP. Some 15 years ago a friend invited me into a writing group that met once a week in the evening. There were about a dozen of us, a philosopher, lawyer, plumber, dog-walker, professors, published poets, a chemist, et al. One of us would volunteer to do "the prompt" -- read some published work, then get everyone to do some writing on a particular theme or directive. Then we'd read what we'd written and others would comment. The rules were simple: you could only comment positively on elements that you liked or worked for you. If there was something you didn't like, you kept it to yourself. The group has morphed considerably but we still get together -- by Zoom now, all things considered. For me it's been life-changing: that simple rule, to focus only on the good stuff, has slowly rewired my critical instrumentation. Lewis from Asheville is a master at this and I suspect that he's that way for many things besides puzzles. I'll never be at his level -- he really knows how to seek out hidden pockets of delight -- but I see The Way. Haiku: Into the abyss Of lava drop your red cent. Melt, blob. Aloha!
@john Ezra I enjoyed your Haiku. Thanks
@john ezra Excellent, JE. Thanks for this post. Your Lewis observation is spot on. I always knew there was something very unusual and special going on there, but until your post I had’t quite put my finger on it. You described it to a T. — — — —
Any Tuesday puzzle I can't solve on autopilot is okay by me. Lets hear it for mor Toughened UpTuesdays. Clever theme, guys. Thanks
Welp, there are those who play instruments, those who gave up instruments, and then (the group that Sam doesn't know) those who never played an instrument at all. I'm in the final group and did not know what any of the symbols meant. If I were someone else, I might rail against the NYT for daring to include something I know nothing about. But I'm me, so I just see it as another tragic, gaping hole in my knowledge. I'm glad this was done on a Tuesday, where the crosses are always kind. An enjoyable post-solve time was had as I looked up the symbols to find out why my fill made sense. Very clever!
@Nancy. J Yeah, music theory is WAY over my head. I know that, on my guitar, my frets are semitones (so if I play, say, a C, one fret higher is C sharp, two frets higher is D, so I would play D flat the same as I would C sharp). I also know that going from E to F and B to C are just semitones (one fret instead of two). But that’s it! I don’t know why. I also think I know that music theorists say that, e.g., A sharp and B flat are not the same thing, even though I might play them the same and they might sound the same. So, if (when) I see a crossword clue that says, e.g., “F sharp,” and the answer has 5 spaces, I will surreptitiously fill in “G flat,” but I try to feel guilty about it. I know there are folks on here who do know why, but it’s probably much too complicated to explain in this space.
"How can I conduct business if I can't find my notes?" "You need a new staff." ("Sounds like A-major move.")
@Mike Q: What do you get when you drop a piano down a mineshaft? A: A flat miner. 😜
@Mike These days it would be natural to google it. For many, that would be the key thing. Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye, four and twenty emus baked in a pie.
@Mike A real clef hanger this time. 🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹 🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹 🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹 Sing along, Emu, we're eager to hear your arrangement.
Just as a reminder, Garret, now in his first year at the University of Chicago, had Andrew as a teacher in high school, and this is their third NYT collaboration. It’s a backstory that makes my heart smile. Their first puzzle together -- <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/25/2023" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/25/2023</a> -- featured a grid that at first glance looks like it has normal symmetry, but a longer look shows that it actually doesn’t. I thought that was so cool, and believe it’s worth a look. Uncovering APARTMENT from its clue did bring a “Hah!”, and made good riddles out of the rest of the theme answers. Along the way there was a supporting cast of appealing answers: SATAY, NIHAO, ALL TALK, RED CENT, AND HOW, BLINI, HAIKU, ARTISTE, BANKSY, BLOB, YOYO, and OY VEY. Speaking of OY VEY, I like how it was bolstered by a backward OY OY. Andrew and Garrett, I loved your accidental theme, and the smooth and sweet solve. You two are a-natural. Thank you for this!
Administrative note: I will be away for about a week and a half, for a family event. I'll try to sneak in my "favorite clues" list, but it may show up several days late. I look forward to joining you again!
SATAY, PREGO, NIHAO and AGHA in one corner. On a Tuesday. Seems a bit cheeky. Cannot recall the last time I couldn't finish a Tuesday. So it goes, so it goes...
@Greg Chavez And so it goes and so it goes And so it goes and so it goes But where it's goin' no one knows
@Greg Chavez Yes, that was my tough corner, too. I was AGHAst. But stepping away for a few moments and then coming back, it all filled in NIHAO. YOYO Milage May Vary.
@Greg Chavez Foreign words in English language puzzles shouldn't be allowed.
I’d rate this Tuesday Xword puzzle a 2 on the Mohs scale of hardness. I had almost no treble at all with it. I’ll give my brain a rest — at least forte winks — until tomorrow evening, as I expect a major challenge with the Wednesday Xword.
The 2 Lanai clues reminded me of a story I thought I'd share. We were in Hawaii last summer for a friend's wedding. I'd never been before, so we went a few weeks early to visit some of the other islands. We started off on Maui and after doing the off road ATV tour (which leaves you covered in red dust that is impossible to remove) we walked around Lahaina to kill time before dinner. My wife and I enjoy looking for art that will complement our home. As we passed an art store, I saw some caricature paintings that I thought were well done. I immediately recognised one of Kevin Nealon. I then did a double take, because Kevin Nealon himself was actually standing in front of a painting of himself! We went inside, and it just so happens that he was having his art show. Kevin Nealon took up painting during the pandemic, and it turns out he is pretty good. He's done Chris Farley, Christopher Walken, Rami Malik, and Jennifer Aniston, among many others. He published a book to tell the story of why he painted each person and how he knows them, entitled "My brushes with fame". It's definitely worth looking up. Anyway, one painting in particular caught mine and my wife's eye, and we ended up buying it on the spot. It is the most money that we have ever dropped on an impulse purchase, and is the most expensive thing in the house (besides the cars and her engagement ring) but I have zero regrets. The painting sits in an art nook outside our bedroom door, and I smile every time I pass it...
@DocP This is the painting: <a href="https://www.fascinationstart.com/artwork/sku32843" target="_blank">https://www.fascinationstart.com/artwork/sku32843</a> I love telling that story as much as I love the piece itself. The best part is, it came with an autographed cow bell!
@DocP Sadly, the town of Lahaina burned down 2 weeks after our visit. We were fortunate to visit when we did.
@DocP He actually has a lot of talent! Impressive, since he took it up recently. I hope he didn't lose any paintings in the fire. (I know that pales in comparison to the lives lost that terrible day)
Since I had no idea about the themed clues (I don’t read music, though I do a bit now 🤣) crossings were my friends! I particularly enjoyed the mini math problem on 41A. I finally got to say NIHAO! I learned that and a few more Mandarin words from “Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat,” the animated series that ran on PBS for a couple years at the beginning of the millennium. It was based on a children’s book of the same name by one of my favorite authors, Amy Tan. Crossword puzzles are such an amazing way to learn new things. This one somehow allowed a personal best time though I was in learning mode. Loved it!
a tuesday that involves being able to read sheet music, know mandarin, speak yiddish, and understand italian seems... a bit much. the theme is solid but this is not a tuesday.
Charles, A puzzle that actually required the knowledge you cite would be quite hard for a Tuesday, or for any other day. Luckily, this puzzle required no such knowledge. It did require a bit of literacy and a bit of puzzling, which seems appropriate for a crossword puzzle on any day.
Clever, those notes. I thought I was in trouble, but no, just a fun, smooth solve and more interesting than a lot of Tuesdays. I was sort of mesmerized, actually. Thanks Andrew and Garrett. Good job.
It’s not grammatical, but: C# : SPOTWALDO
I stand strong in favor of dropping the "ly" from adverbs, but don't get me started on the necessity of serial commas, or the annoying trend I see on social media (at least) to treat nouns ending in "ist" as both singular and plural!
A little trickier than recent Tuesdays. What fun.
I don’t know how to post the sign but B natural = GONAKED ?
As somebody who does not read music, I found the theme extremely confusing, but I managed to do the puzzle, anyway. PREGO was a gimme and AGHA became obvious with one or two crosses (AGHA, spelled aga in Polish, was a honorific picked up from Persia by the Tatars, who played a huge part in Polish history, and their language pops up in our literature), so I did not experience the natick that confused some other solvers. However, I was sort of naticked in the SE corner. Not understanding the theme, I entered LOOK ALIkE, and that resulted in having OYkEY. The latter looked slightly ridiculous, but I've learned so many strange-looking words from these puzzles (looking at you, nerts) I just thought this would be another one of those. I should have know better though! In Polish we write that down as "oj wej", and sometimes "aj waj," but that sounds exactly the same as the English OY VEY. In the end I enjoyed the puzzle, but not as much as I would have had I known more about musical notation. I have been told in these comments reading music is quite a common skill in the US, so my complaint is strictly individual.
@Andrzej AGHA is more usually spelled aga in English, also, except when a puzzle needs it to be spelled agha.
As someone who is tech savvy and can read sheet music, E# was just a terrible clue.
Steven, You do understand that your post says you are a terrible clue? I'm inclined to agree. emus do too
What notes are a tightrope walker’s motto? C-sharp or B-flat.
In Iowa we learned to sight read music and sing in four part harmony in public school fourth-grade music class. Serious business. Then my family moved to Texas and in music class we learned all the words to "Texas Our Texas," "Have You Ever Been to Texas in the Springtime," and of course, "The Eyes of Texas," which I already knew as "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad." No idea how primary school classes are taught in either state now, but at the time I preferred Iowa, hands down. The University of Texas, Austin, was a different story. I loved it—a liberating revelation. About the puzzle, I no longer read music, but knew the score on this one. Fun and even elegant.
Boy, you can sure tell the constructors had three theme answers down but struggled to get a fourth one to round it out. E#? Tech savvy? Really? I "get" it but I almost wish I didn't.
B# Rock that suit. Homage to an earlier puzzle
I was sailing along delighted with the slippery clues. Surprisingly quickly, I filled in the last square and...no music. I spent 2 feverish minutes more as the clock ticked away, fly-specking every clue and word. I groaned when I realized the answer was one letter different from "anyhow". Missed my Tuesday personal best, but loved the puzzle.
Yowza! So clever! Was a head-slapper when I stared at APARTMENT…more staring… looking back at clue… 💡!!! What a surprising - yet obvious - difference between Ay-flat and A flat! Only glitch was NE when I wanted some type of kebab, and did not recall the Persian honorific. But SATAY saved the day! A whimsy of a Tuesday with just enough crunch. Brava!!
I started learning guitar last year... and dropped it. In my case it was because I got discouraged by not being able to sing and strum at the same time. I really wanted to play and sing "A Horse with No Name". But that brief foray into music taught me enough musical notes that I was able to get the answers to the music clues! You should be proud of me!
@Alan Parker Don't feel too bad. I've been playing guitar for 40 years, but it took about 30 before I was able to sing anything at all while playing.
@Alan Parker Hey, that hobby came in handy, after all!
I clawed and guessed my way out of the northeast corner and was able to finish the puzzle. Five minutes slower than my average. Some clues were harder than I expected for a Tuesday.
@Jim I was five minutes slower than my average, too! Tricksy, tricksy.
Nice to see a shoutout to my part of the world in SATAY. Fun puzzle overall.
Nice bonus today having constructor notes not just in the column but also the puzzle itself!
"We couldn’t come up with any other notes beyond these four that worked, though we’d love to see if anyone could come up with others!" say Andrew and Garrett. How about C SHARP? Possible answers: ACE THE EYE EXAM HIT THE BULLSEYE AVOID CONTACTS
@Nancy Had that been used, the comment section would be full of "That should have been C-SHARPLY!" I wonder if emus can see sharply?
It was a quick solve and a nice theme until 11D. Sorry but E# to TECHSAVVY is a huge stretch. Got through it but didn't like it.
@Allen Think of it as E-sharp, as in E-mail or E-file. Sharp about things electronic or techy.
I haven't seen this in the replies: Act genuine = B # (natural) (I can't access the 'natural' music notation from myphone's keyboard)
As someone fairly new to doing NYT crosswords, my understanding is the puzzles are ranked in difficulty as the week progresses. The easiest on Monday and puzzles increasingly harder each day of the week. I think this particular crossword is very clever but probably better suited for later in the week.
@Charlie Hav that happens sometimes…where a puzzle earlier in the week has easier clues and words and nevertheless feels tricky. The musical clues as an example…they’re not hard if it’s in your wheelhouse…but could be totally alien if you don’t know sheet music at all. Where does it go? Tuesday…where it might be a bit tricky? Or Wednesday where it’s too easy?
A long day in Natick for me. Including a Mandarin/Persian cross among the musical symbols that might as well have been Arabic. Hammered it home with pure guess work.
Nifty puzzle that required lots of context shifting (more than usual for a Tuesday). Good work.
I hate when people who can read music assume everyone else can. The themed clues were meaningless to me. Luckily, the cross solves were easy. But this felt like too exclusive a theme for the gen pop. No fun for those of us who aren’t trained musicians.
@Jody I cannot read music either, but there wasn’t too much of that actually in here. The symbols are easily looked up, and read as they appear: E# (E sharp) lead to TECHSAVVY.
@Jody “Trained musicians?” “Read music”? It was two symbols # and b. I would argue if you could ‘read music,’ it would be harder because it are fixated on Aflat is Gsharp. Come on. It not like you were asked to sight read some sheet music. I think ‘exclusive’ is overreaching. I ain’t no patent attorney, but I know what TM means. My take.
I don’t know how to read music and have never played an instrument in my life but I learned the symbols for flat and sharp in elementary music class and again in high school music appreciation class (which was a state requirement to graduate, not something I took voluntarily). It’s much less obscure than a lot of stuff they put in crosswords.
Nice Tuesday puzzle. Actually caught on early with 17a (and some crosses). Still got stuck for a bit in a couple of other places but managed to work it all out. Answer history searches today: Wondered if this had ever been done in the reverse order. One find was a Wednesday from November 9, 1983 by Eugene T. Maleska. One pair of theme answers: IFYOUDONTCSHARP YOULLBFLAT But then... stumbled across a couple of other puzzles that I'll put in a reply. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: First puzzle find was not related to this theme, but just stumbled across because I was looking for answers ending in 'sharp' or 'flat.' Anyway... a Sunday puzzle from February 22, 1981 by Tap Osborn. This one was all in the clues, but I thought it was really clever. Clue answer that got me there: "Strip poker" : THEOUTCASTSOFFLAT Some others: "Outgrows" : ATREEINBROOKLYN "Barbell" : BOOKANDCANDLE "Kickback" : COMELITTLESHEBA Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=2/22/1981&g=136&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=2/22/1981&g=136&d=A</a> And one more puzzle find that I'll put in another reply. ..
Spent too much time wondering if it was going to be kebab or kabob, which then didn't work with PREGO, which had me second-guessing if there was some other Italian word the constructors used. Tough corner! I didn't figure out the themers until the puzzle was over and wasn't quite on the wavelength today, but I still found it enjoyable and crunchy for a Tuesday.
YES. Unusual for a Tuesday, and maybe a little hard, but a cut above, in my opinion. I especially enjoy the sound of the song at the end after submitting a grid containing words I've never heard of (e.g., 9 Across). Great theme!
That was very nicely done. Variety in the theme answers, plus Roman numerals and foreign language clues that made me fearful yet solved from easy crosses. Aflat! 🤣
Always fun to have SASS and SASH as answers in the same puzzle.. Nice work!
@Sympathetic Elderly Man with Poor Memory I support you!
The theme I picked up pretty easy, but the NE did give me some trouble, not knowing Italian or anything about Persian honorifics. One of those moments where button mashing was required for the final stretch, which is quite rare this early in the week. Fun puzzle though!
@Stephen I needed two 'cheats' in that NE corner! But the rest of the puzzle was fun. It might have been better as a Wednesday, perhaps.
@Stephen Definitely had to button mash to get the crossing letter between those two answers. Not ideal to have a letter entirely dependent on two different foreign language clues.
This was a nice little Tuesday puzzle. The musical notations provided a nice little fillip to keep this long time solver amused, but were not so obscure that the tyros among us should feel frustrated. This seems like a gentle way to introduce new solvers to the sort of tricks that can make later in the week puzzles more challenging.
The theme barely makes it, but one can only do so much with "sharp" and "flat" I suppose. In particular, E-sharp for TECHSAVVY seems awfully contrived. On the other hand, the fill was solid, with a lovely, eclectic mix of five-letter entries: SATAY, PREGO, NIHAO, AVRIL, BLINI, HAIKU, OYVEY.
Horrible selection for a Tuesday puzzle. The theme was difficult even after getting the music hint. Techsavvy from E# of three of the crosses were not very difficult. This was meant for a Thursday or Friday.
I enjoyed this puzzle a lot but that upper right corner was pretty tough for a Tuesday!
Witty puzzle for a Tuesday and understandable enough for a non-music reader. It's difficult getting stuck on nail polish brands sometimes! Gotta memorize the ones they always repeat and up my crossword game. Glad the Times is back on track with their normal crossword flow.
Well, at least I wasn’t the only one who found this difficult for a Tuesday. I was pleased with remembering PREGO for the answer to .
@suejean , Not sure what happened to the last of my comment , Grazie
Great theme. Great puzzle. Thursday worthy cluing though.