What a fantastic revealer. And a satisfyingly crunchy puzzle for a Tuesday. GIVE ME MORE MOOR (“What Shakespeare’s editor said after reading the first draft of Othello?”)
@Puzzlemucker great alternative from the Bard. On that same thread, would you accept instead: WRITE RIGHT RITE
@William Schrader The PLAYWRIGHT'S WRITE RIGHT RITE?
Good Tuesday joy! As a person who loves an ad hominem attack, as long as it's not directed at me or anyone I respect, like or love, I don't think they're all fallacious. Sometimes a person is simply so odious that going all A-hom on them is totally reasonable & rational. Crazy, but I actually knew Laura Dershewitz's name as an author of one of my grand-niece's favorite books: "The House That Cleaned Itself: The True Story of Frances Gabe's (Mostly) Marvelous Invention" -- a kid's book that came out a few years ago about a real inventor's madcap ideas which she turned into reality. Dershewitz is, if I remember, the main author. It's a lovely book, wonderful illustrations, and my niece, who was seven at the time we gave it to her, still references it at age nine when it's time to clean the dishes. "I wish Frances Gabe were here to help!" I recommend it for the kids in your life. Second favorite nun joke (one of many variations): A woman joins a convent that requires a vow of silence, allowing nuns only two spoken words a decade. Ten years pass. The nun tells the Mother Superior, "Room cold." They give her a heater. Ten more years go by and she says, "Bed hard." They give her a new mattress. Ten more years go by. "Food bad." They change her DIET PLAN. Ten more years go by and the nun says, "I quit." The Mother Superior says, "Fine by me. You've done nothing but complain since you got here!" So I hope there's more puzzles and books forthcoming.
@john ezra What’s your first favorite nun joke?
This is one of my most favorite early week puzzles of the year. I was smiling throughout the whole solve. Such a clever theme and what a great revealer. I surely thought the “Focus of a geologist or music reviewer” was rock. Great fakeout on that one. I especially like “Pro for the pirates?” AYE and “Like checks and balances?” PLURAL. Congratulations, Laura and Katherine!
@Anita I originally had ERAS for "Focus of a geologist or music reviewer." Of course, that meant that 24A was also ERA, so something had to give. ERAS was gone, swiftly.
Now that’s a wow theme, a can’t-help-but stand, applaud, and holler “Encore!” theme. Sparkling theme answers, every one of them a riddle, every one tinged with wit. Even after getting the first and realizing that all will end with a pair of homonyms, the ensuing theme answers are still not obvious, still delightful riddles to crack. All topped by an OMG brilliantly clever revealer. Truly, what masterful thinking to turn the term “ad hominem” to “add homonym”! And the fact that every theme answer has never appeared before in the 80 years of Times puzzles brightens the entire grid. A wow theme. Plus, I learned a new painting style (HARD EDGE), loved LOFI (which I’d never heard of but makes perfect sense), smiled at SCHLEP, and let out a “Hah!” when I figured out [Exam with a capital E] for EYETEST. Oh, I, a veteran solver, know Tuesdays will be relatively easy to fill in, but I never skip them because too often gems like this show up. Too often delight like this shows up. Brava Laura Dershewitz (not to be confused with constructor Ella Dershowitz) and Katherine Baicker, and congratulations, Laura, on your NYT debut. Thank you for this generous helping of virtuosity and beauty. Encore!
Anybody else get to the revealer, misread the answer as "add HOM in 'em", then spend precious minutes figuring out how an extra three letters into the theme entries, only to have a forehead slap moment at apparently not reading the word "phonetic"? ...just me, then?
I thought this crossword was quite clever. The revealer really elevated it from "cute theme" to the next level. "Add homonym" indeed! (I realize they don't sound *exactly* the same, but I'm sure everyone got it nevertheless) :)
@Janine Thank you for this post! I was not sure how the revealer was supposed to work, exactly. Add homonym, indeed! As always, my problem had to do with a different pronunciation of the same phrase in the US and in Poland. Apparently we pronounce AD HOMINEM differently than English speakers do, and as we say it it definitely does not sound like "add homonym." There was also the problem I wrote about below - in Polish a homophone is not a kind of homonym. E.g. "zamek" means both a castle and a lock, and thus we are dealing with a homonym. "Bóg" (god), Bug (proper name of one of our largest rivers, akin to the Ukrainian Boh), and buk (beech) sound exactly the same, but mean very different things, and thus we are dealing with homophones rather than homonyms. I had Latin classes in High School. The teacher discussed with us the issue of Latin pronunciation. I have no idea if what I learned almost 30 years ago is still considered true, but we were told that nobody knows how ancient Romans pronounced their Latin, and the most common, modern pronunciation was influenced by Italian, due to the Catholic Church's use of Latin and its links to Italy. Ancient Latin may have sounded more like ancient Greek, with its song-like quality. The teacher asked us to abandon the Italian pronunciation and just use a standard Polish one - obviously not an English one. Who could have predicted that three decades later that would make a NYT puzzle harder for me?
@Andrzej I didn't realize until I read your comments (here and below) that apparently we (Americans? English-speakers? The lazy or forgetful?) *do* have a broad definition of "homonym." While solving, it didn't occur to me that the theme entries would be better termed "homophones," even though I know better and indeed had this email exchange with my mother not two weeks ago: 'School holiday today, but [your grandchild] indulged me in some covert education in pondering the unfathomable mess that is the English language as we discussed the fact that "bow" is a homophone of "bough," but also a homonym (front of boat v. to a monarch), and a homograph of "bow," which is itself a homonym (play a stringed instrument v. a decorative knot) and a homophone of "beau."' Homograph = same spelling, different pronunciation, different meaning Homophone = different spelling, same pronunciation, different meaning Homonym = same spelling, same pronunciation, different meaning But I still think the theme was fun, nonetheless. 🙂
Oh, this is so, so good!!! Even before I got to the wonderfully amusing theme -- two answers of which made me laugh out loud -- I sensed I was in very good hands. My first three non-theme answers in -- SCOOT, SCHLEP and CRUDE (as clued) -- were so lively and so colorful that I knew the constructors were very much in the entertainment biz. And the theme choices -- Wow! I adored MR RIGHT RITE and thought it was definitely today's marquee answer, that is until SECOND TO NONE NUN came along. Two inspired answers I'll never forget. Well, actually I WILL forget them, being me. Only now I won't, because this puzzle is going into the running list I've decided to keep this year for POY nominations at the end of the year. I absolutely can't rely on my memory. I can practically hear Laura and Katherine chuckling with delight as first they made this and then they clued it with so much verve and imagination. I experienced the same sensation of delight while solving it.
@Nancy “[T]his puzzle is going into the running list I've decided to keep this year for POY nominations at the end of the year.” Anyone who is interested in the POY nominations will probably find it easier to participate if they keep such a list. I’ve tried to make nominations based on a year-end review of the puzzles, and that was challenging. Last year, I kept a running list. In December, I just had to delete the ones that had been eclipsed. Much easier.
Way too hard for a Tuesday puzzle.
@Desi Love I agree it was a tough Tuesday - but it seems like there have been a lot of harder than normal puzzles lately. Maybe they're trying to push folks up to the next level. However, isn't PIGTAILTALE along with PIG'S PAD a rule violation? Are things getting undisciplined while Will is recovering?
Let's hear it for Toughened Up Tuesdays! On another subject, I watched Live with Kelly and Mark Monday morning to see Carol Burnett (Don't judge, emus. She's a national treasure.) She said that she's gotten Wordle in one guess seven times.
@Vaer After your tip, I looked it up and that was a nice interview with Ms. Burnett. I really enjoyed watching her show growing up. She joked yesterday about what she’d like to “do” before turning 90. The Wordle part is linked below, starting at about the 0.49 sec mark. See: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/437df2tr" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/437df2tr</a> Emus, please don’t involve yourselves in this….
Laura and Katherine, well done! That was a fun Tuesday. (Congrats on the debut, Laura. You’ll be back.) I agree with Sam et al., SECOND-TO-NONE-NUN was great. Up-in-the-air-heir was pretty good too. The puzzle played like you had fun making it. Nice one. (Hope that wasn’t too much “toxic positivity” for the hate posse.)
Dorothy’s brainless buddy. SCARECROW Wait, that’s straw man. Ski jumping need. SNOWRAMP Wait, that’s slippery slope. From what the roadies load and unload for small venue gigs. TOURVAN Wait, that’s bandwagon. Paid spot in the NYT. OPED Wait, that’s circular reasoning. How bootleggers transported their contraband. WHISKEYCRATES Wait, that’s burden of proof. He played the engineer on Star Trek. JAMESDOOHAN Wait, that’s no true Scotsman. To what this daily column relates. THECROSSWORD Wait, that’s black and white thinking. My feelings on this puzzle’s theme. IDONTBELIEVEITWORKS Wait, that’s personal incredulity. Fine! My new feelings on this puzzle! WHOCOULDTRUSTASQUARE
Way too hard for a Tuesday. Oh, and, yeah, AEON/EONS totally messed up my grid
The confectionery workers were mint for each other. (They love to whisper sweet nothings.)
@Mike Nougat a give 'em credit for Skoring. I just hope they're not truffling anyone feathers.
I thought this was an outstanding Tuesday puzzle. The fill was fresh, and the theme was extremely well executed. I particularly loved the misdirects at 24D and 6D, and due to those, I briefly considered ROTI for Delhi wrap at 25D. I'm not used to that level of cluing so early in the week, and it really livened things up. Well done, Laura and Katherine!
I’m glad Laura and Katherine are excited and thrilled about their puzzle as it probably means they will be constructing more puzzles. This was a delight to solve and I’m with those who especially liked 57A. I did think it could have been a Wednesday puzzle, and wonder what we are in store for tomorrow.
Bom dia, y’all! The three items that tried to take me out in this puzzle were: Sleepiness, LOFI, and BOLT. Not a clue, but actual sleepiness had me snooze-typing answers to fiendish clues my subconscious developed 😴 💭. I had to go back and find the embedded foolishness. Some of them were funny (to me) 😆. Next, LOFI. For some reason, I wanted to spell 7D as “reis,” and I was darned sure about it! Therefore, I was stuck with the head scratcher, “lefi” for way too long. Finally, BOLT. Again, I stubbornly knew 55D *had* to be “volt” because I knew that electric car by Chevy existed. When BOLT, which is a ride share company in Europe, emerged as inevitable, I thought it was an error until I looked it up after the music. As a result of the three items above, I was bestowed the 🐌 today at the end of the puzzle. I will be going to Lyon in a few days. Maybe I’ll eat some escargot and other food fit for ROIS at the gastronomical capital of France! TTFN!
@Pani Korunova The BOLT and the VOLT are both models of Chevy electric cars. The BOLT is a pure electric car, while the VOLT is a plug-in hybrid. I'll bet the names confuse a lot of people in Spanish-speaking markets.
A great Tuesday puzzle. I really enjoyed the fun theme and the clue for 24a was a cute change from the usual. A little surprised to see LAV, I automatically put loo, assuming Lav was not in common usage in the US. It was the moniker of choice for all my elderly relatives, coined to differentiate between an outside privy and a (rare) inside toilet. As always, I live and learn.
@Helen Wright W.C. is also not in common usage in the US. So that is an indicator that the answer is going to be non-US usage. (And of course, STORY is another word that could confuse non-US solvers, since most of you put an extra E in it.) (The previous paragraph and this one are padding, since my first reply to you was emu-embargoed.) !!!! !!!!
@Helen Wright When I taught high school lav was absolutely what the students used to ask permission to leave 5he classroom.
This one eluded me more than expected for a Tuesday, but no complaints about the puzzle or cluing. Almost every puzzle has some stretched-so-thin-you-can-see-through-it clues, so all good there. Just harder than expected for a Tuesday. Guess I was the TUTEE today.
24A is my Fave Clue/Entry pair. LOL Pippi Longstocking (whose TALEs I never read) was the entree into the uber-solve/trickery, and I agree with everyone that this was especially fun for a Tuesday. We are a little storm-lagged (like being 'jet-lagged' but due to tornado sirens during the night)...DHubby woke me up from a deep sleep to 'take shelter' .... (we do not actually have a truly secure place; almost no one has a basement in this part of the world.) Horrid news of the Baltimore disaster. Unbelievable.
Great theme and all-around great, clean puzzle! My choir director's been teaching me to sing along with all the other voices. I'm a tutti tutee. (Yes, they are pronounced exactly the same! That's my storey and I'm sticking to it.)
@ad absurdum When I served roast beef for dinner, I had to METE meat. (Surprised that you're not going by AD HOMINEM today.)
@ad absurdum - tutti is accented on the first syllable; tutee on the second. If tutti is pronounced correctly, there is a hesitation after closing the first t of the pair before releasing it for the second t. Nearly all of our suffixive English -ee words are accented on the suffix alienee, escapee, mentee, tutee, conferee, referee,
Ugh. This was a Thursday puzzle two days early.
Nice job, ladies. Outstanding theme clues and answers especially —> *Mother superior? : SECONDTONONENUN
Fun, fast and full of frivolity! Got the homonym theme with HOTELSUITESWEET, and I’m Swedish, so Pippi was a gimme. Wondered what the revealer would be and chuckled when I reached it. Very clever. And today is my birthday! Fun all around! (And STORY is an American spelling of storey, so all good!)
@CCNY Happy birthday, CC! Many happy returns of the day.
@CCNY Happy Birthday to you from sunny Somerset. It’s not raining for once so 🎉
@CCNY Happy Birthday! I'm not Swedish, and Pippi was a gimme. I loved that when I was a kid. Are there emus in Sweden? ???
Clever puzzle! But I had to double check the calendar, as it felt more like a crunchy Wednesday in several places…
Quick, fun solve. I didn’t catch on to the Homonym Hominem thing until I came here, but it was fun anyway.
@KK Yeah, as often for me, the hint was no help. I saw the pattern. And, no, hominem and homonym are not pronounced the same way. Close, but not the same. I get that it, but not a great clueing, imo.
This was a fun solve. Can't wait to see the next collaboration. SAM: RE: D.I.Y Genre--- you were close on the alternative; in my book that would be "HOW NOT TO" -- as a longtime DIYer, I can assure you that this is a more common retrospective on what went wrong. And to collaborator Laura: I'm still conjuring up the scenario behind your doughnut party. So far I'm imagining: DRUNKEN DUNKIN' STORIED TOROID WEIRD SCHMEAR GLAZED DAZE
What a fun Tuesday from these sparkling collaborators! TIL what an "ad hominem fallacy" is, and how it's pronounced differently in different parts of the world. Love our global contributors - they bring a fresh perspective and I always learn something.
Enjoyed!!! Had to work a bit harder than the usual Tuesday, but, hey, I'm awake now! Thank you for a great puzzle.
A second to nun puzzle! Thanks for some good chuckles and a fantastically blooming word puzzle!
Very fun double talk puzzle full of ad homonym attacks. I loved SECONDTONONENUN and MRRIGHTRITE. Hopefully there’ll be no ad hominem attacks in the comments today.
So nice to have a fun and slightly more difficult Tuesday puzzle.
LARS AND THE REAL GIRL S/O!! Love that movie. Delightful Tuesday puzzle. I now know what an ad hominem is :D
@Tracy Great movie! I've been meaning to rewatch that one! !
More challenging than the typical Tuesday but I enjoyed the theme
This was so cute! Oh, it was fun! I laughed out loud at 57A - very clever indeed. I was also delighted at seeing the theme, which I very rarely can do. Thank you Laura and Katherine for a splendid Tuesday puzzle! 🎉
Could somebody explain to me, please, how AD HOMINEM was a hint to the themed entries? I understood the theme once crosses revealed one of its answers (and that helped me enter the other themed answers). I also entered AD HOMINEM when I got a few crosses there - we were taught about fallacious arguments in law school. But try as I might, I don't see (or hear?) any connection.
Hm, was it about AD HOMINEM sounding rather vaguely like a homonym? In Polish a homonim (our spelling of the word) is a word that shares both it's spelling and pronounciation with another word of a different meaning. And a homofon (your homophone) sounds like another word, but has a different meaning and spelling. I just googled this and apparently in English the meaning of homonym is broader, and encompasses a homophone, too
Another long workout for me, but a very enjoyable puzzle. Getting enough crosses for the theme answers to dawn on me was the key in most places, and that's always a nice touch. You'll probably be able to guess what led me to my puzzle finds today, but anyway... two puzzles with almost exactly the same three theme answers - one from March 30, 1977 and one from June 15, 1987, each with three 15 letter theme answers. The duplicates: FRANCISSCOTTKEY DAWNSEARLYLIGHT and the slight variants: PROUDLYWEHAILED SOPROUDLYWEHAIL I'm done. ..
None of the comments I made for today's puzzle have shown up so I'm feeling less than confident on this one... but just wanted to say that Sam's photo and caption today were not lost on me! You nearly made me spit out my beloved Diet Coke, Sam! Loved the puzzle! Like many, especially the SECOND TO NONE NUN and MR RIGHT RITE but I thought they were all good fun! I do wish I could make ROIS for French kings stick in my brain! I remember it in Spanish now, at least. Fell for some misdirects but they were mostly easily remedied. In the end, no happy music... I'd put AcE for the pirate pro, which meant that EcE TEST filled itself out.
I didn't get the homonym-hominem homonym until I'd finished the puzzle, but this was a very clever theme. Now that I'm done I love it.
@Chris Oh I thought because people were described in the starred clues that those were the ad hominems, if not insulting per se. Thanks for explaining!
What a wonderful, whimsical puzzle! Every theme clue/answer made me grin from ear to ear. “Second to none nun” was my fav. Thanks Laura, Katherine, and editors!
Great puzzle! Good clues and a clever theme. Made my Monday night :)
A rather tough Tuesday for me. Much slower than my average. Some scattered thoughts: After solving the puzzle, it was a truly “D’oh!” moment for me in not appreciating, until I read Sam’s Wordplay column, the constructors’ brilliance in using the homonymic phrase — there probably never was such a thing until now — “ad hominem” as a stand-in for “add homonym”. Tsk, tsk on Sam for virtually splitting an infinitive: “How to not” instead of “How not to”. Sorrey to all you American folk, but as one of this crowd has already correctly pointed out, “story” is not how you spell the word that describes one of several levels of a building (or of anything else, for that matter). “Storey” it is and you will always lose two marks for a spelling error when I am grading your test paper. I don’t care what your story is in defence (not “defense”) of your carelessness or ignorance. This reprimand will no doubt annoy many of you, in the same way I was upset with my high school Latin teacher who gave me 98 by taking two marks off my spring exam paper for translating “wood” as “silvae” instead of “silva”. And to add insult to injury, she gave me a final course grade of only 99, by averaging it with the perfect 100 I had scored on the fall exam.
@Strudel Dad Now, Dad, the utes tell me it’s ok to split an infinitive now and then, these days. I think you could argue that “how not to…” can have a different connotation than “how to not…” e.g. How not to…pet a dog: If you’re going to pet a dog, don’t push the fur in the wrong direction. How to not…pet a dog: if you want to avoid petting that adorable mutt, don’t look her in the eyes. Not saying that’s what Sam necessarily meant… Your Latin story (storey?) reminded me of a fifth grade geography test. It was a world map labeling exercise and I was marked one off for writing in “America” for the USA. I never forgot that lesson.
@Strudel Dad Little did Mr Webster suspect the endless fodder he would provide to future generations of grammar nerds as he macheted his way through the English language. Or maybe he did, the Dictionary Wars were pretty crazy even in his time! Perhaps USonians nixed the "e" in "story" to emphasiZe that we also brought the first level down to the ground. You don't need stairs to get the first story, so why would you need an extra letter in there? I'm always game for good-natured ribbing about our crazy language(s?), but I'm especially grateful to you for teaching me how to spell Canadian "sorry"!!
This was an excellent solve! I can’t remember the last time I’ve had as much fun figuring out a theme. As always the more US-centric clues were a struggle (especially SCHLEP, which I have never heard used in the UK (Google tells me it’s exclusively North American)) but the cross sections helped me get there in the end. SECOND-TO-NONE NUN, as others have said, was a favourite today. Well done on the brilliant debut!!
What a fun theme that left me wanting more! And then, when the puzzle was done and there was nothing more to do, the constructors left me with the idea of a donut tasting party. Such a sweet send off.
Cross-word whirred. Best I can do at the moment, but this was a fun puzzle theme. Thanks, Laura and Katherine. Good grief, Sam, what a photo for "get moving". No thank you, I don't need a toddy today.
I've always liked HARD EDGE paintings but never knew that name. Thanks Laura Dershewitz and Katherine Balcker! Great Tuesday puzzle.
Not a very good Tuesday puzzle in my opinion. Several important clues were obscure or wrong. The biggest problem was the clue to the theme. Sorry, but “ad hominem” is not a “kind of fallacious argument”. That’s simply an incorrect definition for this word - and importantly - it’s the clue to the theme for the puzzle. Then you have a couple of weird words, like “tutee” - never heard of that one. “Band” for the focus of a geological? That can be true, but really a poor clue. “Sui generis”? C’mon, this is a Tuesday puzzle!
@Anne Perlmutter I was surprised to learn the second definition of “ad hominem.” I only knew the first. For me, “fallacious” works for the second sense. From the American Heritage Dictionary: ad hominem ad hom·i·nem (hŏm′ə-nĕm′, -nəm) adjective 1. Attacking a person's character or motivations rather than a position or argument: The candidates agreed to focus on the issues rather than making ad hominem attacks against each other. 2. Appealing to the emotions rather than to logic or reason. [Latin : ad, to + hominem, accusative of homō, person.] ad hom′i·nem′ adverb
@Anne Perlmutter - Argumentum ad hominem is literally one of the most widely known logical fallacies. Also one of the most misunderstood. I think you need a more complete dictionary. EMUs never argue ad hominem.
Very much enjoyed this puzzle and theme. 52A was superb.
Well, this is a first. I just did today's New Yorker puzzle, and it took me 4 seconds less than today's NYT crossword. I guess it's a combination of the NYT being a little tougher than usual and the New Yorker being much easier than usual. The New Yorker puzzle was by our own Wyna Liu. Today might be a good day to try if you've been thinking of adding the early week New Yorker offerings to your life.
Nancy, Did you try The New Yorker's Monday puzzle? Some of us enjoy the challenge after The Times's Monday. no comments there no emus either
Have never heard of ad hominem but theme is clever if you got that. Otherwise was untouchable for me as crosses just did not fall into place. May just be tired this morning. Loved the clueing of eye test. The suns clueing was odd to me, not sure how is it familiarly, isn't that just the team name? Adding rois to the flashcards, have seen that several times now. Are ogres really so monsterous? I always saw them as allegories for outcasts. Usually just misunderstood. I've seen the wonders it can make by reaching out to someone. A basic friendly gesture and a chance can make a world of a difference. I hope we all try to give the ogres in our life a chance and the benefit of the doubt. But be cautious, not all are shrek, some ogres will make you into soup if I recall my fairy tales correctly.