ROTGUT, CHUG, NAUSEATED, and PURGES all in one puzzle! Please enjoy responsibly.
Yeah, no, this was a brilliant puzzle to pull off on a Wednesday, so much fun, just tough enough to give one pause, lots of clever clues, very smooth, too, of an even strength and wit from end to end. That must be the hardest thing in constructing, keeping the multiple levels up like that. Although I do wonder, in my best Monty Python twitty way, whether there are certain kinds of screws, or places on the other side of the ocean, on one of those Ionian islands, where lefty tighty and righty loosey? I seem to recall, but it might have been a dream, being in some foreign country and being surprised that the screws were so dang contrary. Anyway, Rich Katz, this was a really fine puzzle, and if anyone ever says to you that you have a screw loose, just whip out this puzzle!
@john ezra Reverse threaded screws are fairly common, particularly in rotating equipment or machinery where the rotation would unscrew a regularly threaded screw.
Simply outstanding. A perfect Wednesday. No notes. The creativity of constructors truly never ceases to amaze. Bravo, Mr. Katz. Bravo.
I had a joke about my handyman, but I'll have to retool it. (This pun nut has to bolt.)
@Mike I saw what you did. Hope the emus don't hammer me for that. It would really throw a monkey wrench into the works.
@Mike Let me speak planely. All pliers of puns maintain that a screwy pun is better than no pun at all, but whatever works for you. 🔧🔨 Work is glorious, emus, but someplace else is best.
When I was thirteen, I stopped taking piano lessons, dropped out of Boy Scouts, left the church, and bought an English three-speed bicycle. The only one of these choices that I came to regret was buying the bicycle, which like all English vehicles was mechanically idiosyncratic, including being fabricated with left-hand thread screws and bolts. If a scew, bolt, or nut got lost, you couldn't replace it at the hardware store, where everything with screw thread is right-handed. The U.K. eventually joined the human race and adopted right-hand screw thread in the 1960s. Swann & Flanders incorporate this English quirk into their song about honeysuckle and bindweed, "Misalliance." <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYr0eNtpDHs" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYr0eNtpDHs</a>
@Fact Boy Lots of rotating tools still use left-hand threads to prevent various parts from spinning off and causing mayhem, like the nut to attach a saw blade, etc.
@Fact Boy Are you sure? As someone brought up on a British 3-speed (Sturmey Archer gears) cycle purchased used in about 1961 I just do not recall it being left handed. The British Whitworth thread was the world's first standard (designed in the 1840s). For some reason best known to itself Raleigh - the preeminent English bicycle maker - adopted a slightly different pitch so standard Whitworths did not fit and would bind after a couple of turns. Probably an early example of 'make 'em buy our parts so we all keep our jobs' capitalism. Thanks for the Flanders and Swann link - almost forgotten now, but much loved by Brits of my generation.
Once again in Crosslandia, ingenuity on display. Here Rich crossed paths with the phrase RIGHTY TIGHTY, LEFTY LOOSEY, and didn’t just move on. He IDLED for a moment, wondering if there was a theme there, flashed on it, and got on it. Minds like this are the benefactors of we, the solvers. Marvelous wordplay and riddle rich theme here. But it took skill to pull off, because this theme uses up a sky-high 61 squares – more than a quarter of the puzzle! It didn’t leave Rich many options for filling in the grid, and that he did so at all, not to mention did it without glaring ugliness, IMO, well, I say bravo to that! Puzzpoints: • I can’t believe the ETRE clue – [Oh, to be in France!] – has never been used before! There’s been plenty of clues including “to be”; there’s even been [To be, in France], but never with the “Oh”! Bravo again, Rich! • I like how the puzzle is on a first-name basis: ABE, CHET, ALF, ELI, ILSA, HEDY, KIT. And, I love LOOSEY. • Sweet cross of DAREDEVIL and EVIL (close enough to Evel, no?). What a hoot to crack the layers of this theme. Thank you for coming up with it, Rich, and more please!
@Lewis ".....of we..." Can that be right? .....head desk.... We, the solvers, in order to build a more perfect Wordplay ..... We, the beneficiaries of constructors with minds that can conceive... It's not like I don't find myself writhing over my own typos and awkwardly-worded sentences and grammatical slips, but a somewhat questionable construction like this one can drive one nuts. I usually end up rewriting the whole sentence--still expressing the same sentiment, but without the devilment of whether it's a permissible usage. Where's Barry?
@Lewis I noticed EVIL and DEVIL, too! Having already filled in 'devil', it caught my eye as I entered 'evil' -- and niggled at my brain for a moment, to be honest, how sadly similar the two words are. But then my mind's ear caught how completely differently they are pronounced, and I found myself grinning! I love it when that happens!
How elegant that on the RIGHT side of the grid TiGHT is added to the end of the word, while on the LEFT side of the grid LOOSE is added to the beginning of the word. It reminds me of the purple category in Connections. You could have SKIN, HANG, SLEEP and AIR for a grouping. Or TOOTH, LEAF, LIPS and CHANGE. Fun puzzle! Nicely done, Rich.
I literally didn’t get the theme until about 10 seconds after solve. Must have a screw loose. cc: emu handler
This puzzle was such a delight! I got LEFTYLOOSEY RIGHTYTIGHTY and SCREWDRIVERS right away, which was a confidence boost (doesn’t take much). Sailed through, only to hit snags with SRI (I was convinced it was “san.”) and CUE (I inexplicably had “axe” lol). Y’all, I’m so stoked about my trip this week to Barcelona and Lyon. I’ve never been to France! The puzzle seemed to know this: ETRE, AMI, BERETS! C’est fantastique! Oh yeah, I finally got to use VOLT 😜. Loved the super clever puzzle, Rich.
@Pani Korunova Have a wonderful trip! I've never been to Barcelona, but I sure loved France!
More and more, I have begun to look forward to Wednesdays, rather than just view them as the final day of five-finger exercises before the real puzzle week begins. This puzzle by Rich Katz certainly has raised the bar for Wednesdays. Doubly pleasing to have the RIGHT(s) go off the right side of the grid, and the LEFT(s) go off the left side of the grid. Lots of gentle puns and wordplay, and at least one classic cryptic clue (34D). Thanks very much, Mr. Katz! And I hope Mr. Shortz is continuing to do better!
I needed this puzzle today. When I turned 18, my dad gave me a red tool box and then over the years he helped me fill it. He started with a hammer, rather than a SCREWDRIVER. But whatever!
@Clare I was about eight or nine when my parents gave me a toolbox and some basic tools for Christmas. The box is a bit rusty, but I still have it, along with most of the tools.
@Clare Darn! Your father missed the opportunity to teach you that in the hands of the sufficiently desperate or irate handyperson, *every* tool is a hammer! My husband and I discovered, upon combining households, that we each had an identical socket wrench set in an olive green metal case, handed down from our respective grandfathers. We still have both, for sentimental reasons and also because, of the sockets lost, neither of us had lost the same two and together they are a complete set. May your toolbox ever expand in utility!
Coming up on the year anniversary of my father in laws death and his first lesson to teaching me how to fix things was Righty Tighty Lefty Loosey. Thanks for this. ❤️
I got the revealers easily enough, being well familiar with RIGHTYTIGHTY LEFTYLOOSEY, but as a solver who usually charges ahead without paying too much attention to the theme, I didn’t catch on until near the end of the solve when I entered SLEEP and realized that the implied right was what made it rhyme with good night. So I went back to check the other starred clues to appreciate the cleverness of the construction. Well done. It was nice to see CHET Baker crop up in the puzzle. Although overshadowed by Miles Davis and others, his trumpet playing had a lyrical, wistful quality that is quite appealing, and his singing though perhaps not technically accomplished was often affecting too. Something about the way he sang My Funny Valentine just seemed to capture the pathos of the song in a way that other versions, though lovely in their own right, did not.
Fun puzzle! But regarding the mini, we have a major bone to pick. The three across clue was, "Monkey in the middle (of this puzzle)." The answer, at least according to the puzzle, was chimp. But a chimp is not a monkey, it is an ape. The NYT should know better.
@Drew According to Wikipedia, apes are monkeys, cladistically (I learned a new word right there). In Polish, the term for ape is "małpa człekokształtna," which literally means "human-like monkey." . . . Emus are not monkeys.
@Drew Please do not put spoilers for the Mini in the Wordplay comments! Or at least preface it by identifying it as such. Many commenters here -- and especially speaking for myself -- do not do the Mini before coming to the Wordplay column. Personally, I really don't care enough about nits like this to begin with, but to spoil another puzzle for this kind of trivial knee-jerk reaction is beyond the pale.
@G Thanks for the comment, I Will be sure to add spoiler alert to such a comment in the future. As for being beyond the pale, I respectfully suggest that you have a shallow pale.
I'm impressed at the amount of theme answers here. And how the LOOSEs and TIGHTs hang off the edge of the puzzle. And the island that my grandparents came from is here, though not clued as such.
Perfectly envisioned Wednesday. A good challenge, an AHA! theme and some great clues. Loved the one for ETRE.
LSD... a trip down memory lane or a voyage into the unknown? ERSATZ clues, like shadows in a foggy mind, leading me astray. LEFTY LOOSE, TIGHTY WIGHTY... the cosmic dance of opposites, intertwining like strands of a psychedelic tapestry. IMHO, the whispers of my fractured psyche, echoing through the labyrinth of my thoughts. DAREDEVIL, the daring acrobatics of my inner turmoil, teetering on the edge of reason and madness. But what madness is this? This crossword, a mishmash of confusion and frustration, feels more like a prank than a puzzle. The clues, obscure and obtuse, seem designed to baffle rather than challenge. Where's the elegance, the coherence, the satisfaction of a well-crafted grid? But in this cozy cocoon of crossword bliss, I am invincible. The cold may howl at my door, the darkness may threaten to swallow me whole, but within these four walls, I am master of my domain, ruler of my own destiny. But let's talk about Waterloo, Canada... oh, the bitter chill of its winters! It's like being trapped in an icebox, where even the thought of warmth feels like a distant dream. The streets, coated in a thick layer of snow, become a treacherous maze of slush and ice, testing the resilience of even the hardiest souls. So let the blizzards rage and the temperatures plummet. As long as I have my crossword puzzle, I'll weather the storm with ease, emerging victorious on the other side, my mind sharp and my spirit undaunted.
@Aaron Holy cow! What a howl, loved every luscious part of it. emus, you're undaunted too, righty tighty?
This was a spot-on Wednesday. And with a nice twist (get it)? Did the YOKO ONO sounds remind anyone else of the Barenaked Ladies Song? You know the part I'm talking about. Got ERSATZ right away thanks to the pilot of Remington Steele (It's on Amazon currently). Rewatch shows writing was excellent on that show (that episode at least)!
Vive was my immediate choice for 'Oh, to be in France!' soon followed by ETRE. Great clue. Liked 'Did zippo" and 'Without it, that's neat'. Great clues all around. Always love and respect a CHET Baker reference, but tonight I streamed one of my favourite Aussies, Nick Murphy/Chet Faker. Lots to like from this talented artist. Hope to see you back here soon, Rich.
I consider myself much more handy than the average American male. I know how to tighten and loosen a screw, of course. But today, I came to learn that the phrase is not “righty tighty, lefty LUCY” As obvious as this is. It never occurred to me that it was loosey. Of course. I have never written this phrase in my 50+ years. It doesn’t impact my ability to use a screwdriver any more efficiently, but today, I learned something. Thank you
@Weak Where I come from, convenience stores sold kids individual cigarettes if they couldn't afford to buy the whole pack. (That was a long time ago.) They were called LOOSEYs, too. Or maybe loosies. But definitely not Lucys.
IROC, IONIAN, ROTGUT is just terrible fill.
I think I would be RIGHT in saying this theme was very TIGHT. and now, to feed the emus.... !!! !!! !!! * * * * * *
Not sure about all of what I did, but I did it and it's done! Some cheeky kind of cluing, just daring us to figure it out, which made for a moderately immoderate challenge. Just right for a Wednesday. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I liked it a lot and had a lot of fun solving it. Good job, Rich Katz. Thank you.
Really liked the theme, but some of the crosses seemed a little natick-y. IROC with IONIAN and CHET? And then the LSD/ERA/SRI/DANUBE cluster was clued a little too noun-heavy, especially with the LAIN/LAId for 36D. Still thoroughly enjoyed, just surprised that wasn’t cleaned up in editing.
@Alex had the same thoughts about the same exact sets of clues you mentioned
The C in Chet isn’t too natick-y. Once you’ve got the last three letters there’s really only one thing it could be.
Rich Katz came up with a cute theme and a very nice Wednesday puzzle. RIGHTY TIGHTY, LEFTY LOOSEY has frequently been helpful, even though I often have to shake my hand to figure out which is actually my RIGHT hand.
Oh! This was a delightful puzzle, and had me grinning throughout the solve… Thank you, @RichKatz, for starting off my Wednesday with a smile 💛
fun! “righty tighty, lefty loosey” rarely helps me since, even at my age, i cannot tell right from left 🙃 also, we have some crank windows they work the opposite way, so i came up with my own mnemonic: “‘c’ to close” because of the way one draws the letter c.
Nicely done, Mr. Katz! I’m particularly impressed how the trick plays out visually, with the invisible/imaginary LOOSEs all off the left side of the grid and the invisible/imaginary TIGHTs all off the right side. And if I’m not mistaken, you have a bilingual PuzzPair® with 5A PECK and 15A PICO [de gallo], as PICO means beak. (PuzzPair is a registered trademark of Lewis Rothlein. Used without permission.)
This was terrific! Especially loved 65A "Naval Disaster." I had gotten LIPS from the crosses and that helped me get the theme. Thanks to Rich Katz for a really clever and fun puzzle. And one puzzle off my game list for tomorrow morning. Wordle, Connections, Strands, and Spelling Bee. I am really bad at Connections. I was always bad at analogies on standardized tests so I think this is kind of the same weakness.
@lhwp I think it would be a nice addition to the connections app if you could drag the boxes around and organize them. Likewise in wordle I'd like to be able to select a square and enter a character.
@TMD I’ve found that it helps to screenshot the connections so I can annotate it (but some themes are still challenging)
Yes thank you Mr Katz, I enjoyed your puzzle very much. It was right up my street. Not quite a Wednesday PB, I think my typing speed is slowing down as I age, but pretty close. Love the IONIAN islands; I’ve never seen sea quite that turquoise, even in the Caribbean. My DH taught all our kids how to tighten/loosen screws with that mnemonic. It was a nice trip down memory lane seeing it in the grid. Also, how fitting to have ‘tight’ and ‘loose’ echoed across the puzzle.
This really was a perfect Wednesday puzzle. Sincerely, a Lamarr-loving boomer.
I don't know which I enjoyed more: finishing the puzzle itself, or figuring out the theme. Delightful. At one point I had to check my calendar to doublecheck the date...it felt kind of Tuesday-ish for me. Lately the Wednesdays have felt a bit more challenging, so this puzzle did a lot for my self esteem and suffering ego! Thank you for this lovely experience!
Fun puzzle! Nice theme! I especially appreciated the way the theme answers don't just need "tight" and "loose" added to them, but also need it to their right and left, respectively.
I believe it was Steven Wright who said "I need something to help me remember the word 'mnemonic'." Emus seem to be munching on my last post...
Even though I don't consider myself particularly bad at handy stuff— in fact I'm pretty good, in an elementary way— and my memory isn't too bad, still and all every day when I turn the radiator off at night (I like a cool sleeping environment) or on in the morning, I almost ALWAYS mutter aloud "Lefty loosey, righty tighty" (dunno why I say it in that order, I just do). This was a very fun puzzle. I, like at least one commenter, got TOOTH and LEAF without noting they kinda needed the word "loose" to make 'em a tight fit… and for some reason when I filled in SKIN (9A) I got my screws a bit loose and thought it was the answer to the 10D clue "Footballer's uniform" (I figured "aha, shirts and SKINs"— which is actually more of a basketball thing). So I didn't notice the need for LOOSE or TIGHT (especially since sometimes words fill in from the crosses), but once reading the column I'm very impressed with how well constructed the theme is! And the puzzle was fun overall with the clues etc. A very good, chewy, al dente Wednesday. Thank you Wealthy Felines. I'm sorry, I mean Rich Katz
This was a cute puzzle, loved the theme. However, ‘spays’ is not an appropriate answer for ‘neuters’. They are two different surgeries, and comparatively to human procedures carry different connotations. Maybe I’m being nitpicky because I spay and neuter as part of my job, but they’re not interchangeable.
Sydney, Crossword clues are hints, not definitions. They are not supposed to be interchangeable. Since you spay and neuter, I'm sure you agree they are related. Would you spay or neuter an emu?
@Sydney Hayter I had the same initial reaction when I read the clue, although I got the answer immediately. When referring to the surgery, "spay" indicates a female, while "neuter" indicates male. However, the dictionary definition of neuter says "to spay or castrate an animal". I believe neuter was adopted as common use for male pet castration because the latter sounds too harsh.
Nice puzzle. Felt almost like a Thursday to me the way the lightbulb went on after I figured out the theme.
J.A. Wordplayer was in a TIGHT SPOT. They kept trying to BREAK LOOSE from their stultifying job as a screwdriver assistant. But the boss ran a TIGHT SHIP. J.A. was finally CUT LOOSE when the boss discovered they were using “RIGHTY LOOSEY, LEFTY TIGHTY” and thus getting absolutely no work done.
Delightful Wednesday. Thank you, Rich Katz.
An absolute blast of a puzzle. Great job!
Wasn’t feeling this puzzle. Let it lie while I walked the dogs. Came back. Gripped it and RIPped it with 8:06 off my Wed. avg. Turned out (pun intended) to be a fun one….
ERSATZ, yet another word I have to thank Lemony Snicket for helping me solve.
Your left, your left, your left, right left.* Where was I? Oh yeah - memorable puzzle and a heck of a workout for me. Have never, ever heard of RIGHTYTIGHTY - LEFTYLOOSEY and... never entirely tumbled to the implied trick, though it was obvious in at least a couple of the theme answer (SLEEP tight, e.g.). But somehow managed to work it all out. Thank goodness for the down answers. *Couldn't help but wonder about other variations on this kind of trick - maybe something like FALLOUT. Couldn't find any evidence of that one. Has to have been some other similar tricks somewhere. Anybody know? ..
@Rich in Atlanta Oh! - Thought of another kind of trick theme and that led me to a remarkable puzzle. Anyway... was wondering about the possibility of a letter substitution kind of trick - specifically with the reveal being: IONLYHAVEISFORU (15 letters)* so that answers in the puzzle would have an 'I' where a 'U' should actually be. e.g. something like; SIBSTITITE or LICKYSTAR, etc. *Anyway, turns out that that was an answer in one puzzle - a Sunday from August 17, 1986 by Alfio Micci with the title "Musical shorthand." A couple of other theme answers: URMYLUCKYSTAR ILLBCINGU ITHADTOBU UDBSOEZTOLOVE Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=8/17/1986&g=13&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=8/17/1986&g=13&d=D</a> ..
@Rich in Atlanta RIGHT from the country, Oh by* Jenkins, LEFT a wife and 45 children Just because he thought it was RIGHT... *To me, this doesn't make real sense, so it's possible I misremember or Mom just had it wrong, but the folks used this 'marching rhyme' to get us kids to keep up when we were walking somewhere...
Love to see HEDY! Great puzzle but what an exceptional woman! Her inventions somehow surpassed her breathtaking beauty. What a legend. If you haven’t seen the documentary (I’m sure there’s more than one) do yourself a favor and watch the wild, impressive story of her life and legacy. Wonderful Wednesday!
I think this is the first time I've ever gotten the revealer before its "clues." The off-color mnemonic for resistor color code I learned back in the '70s I still recite today when building electronic projects. Congrats on assembling such an excellent puzzle!
@Call Me Al Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Not NSFW but just as charming as this puzzle: "Beneath Beautiful Reefs, Octopuses Yell "Go Blow Vapor, Great Whale"
If I had ever heard that mnemonic even once, my life might have been completely different. Who knows -- I might be really handy, a DIY-er, maybe even a building superintendent. Because it's not just SCREWDRIVERS, I'm pretty sure. It's radiators. And light bulbs. But not faucets. RIGHTY? I'm such a klutz when it comes to physical objects and how they work. Why did no one ever give me this mnemonic? It would have been helpful to know it here, too. But happily it was inferable -- even though I don't know my SEA green from my PEA green. Just the RIGHTY amount of crunch, I thought. I found the puzzle interesting and enjoyable. My main problem came in the NE, before I had figured out the trick, when I had the S and so wanted SNUG for "close-fitting". It didn't help that I have no idea why a KIT is a footballer's uniform. Nor that I really didn't know what a bobblehead does. Both KIT and NOD only came in once I had the SKIN of skintight. My favorite clue/answer was hooch/ROTGUT. It reminds me of Rahar's -- the only pub near the Smith College campus. Students went there because there was no other place to go. Every drink they served tasted either like nail polish or lighter fluid.
@Nancy - should have tried Packard’s? Closer to campus.
@Nancy Our dad was a handy guy and had the right tools for every job. He built the first house our folks owned in 1948...and added on and remodeled it in 1961 when we finally landed back in Atlanta near the end of his military career. The drawback was: he was a LEFTY. All of our faucets worked the opposite of the norm... Visitors were always turning the faucet the wrong way and getting all splashed up.
LOL I say that one all the time! (My big problem is that the sewing machine's configuration means I am at a right angle to the mechanism with the screw and get confused about which way is RIGHT.... I had a brief struggle trying TIGHT LEAF...LIGHT LEAF? NIGHT LIPS? RIGHT LEAF? Not planning to sign any legal documents today.... This was a lot of fun--clever idea, great fill, over too soon! I love puzzles a bushel and a PECK....a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck... Well, maybe not. Mustn't scare the editors and constructors.
@Mean Old Lady I saw on eBay where someone wanted to trade a sewing machine part for two used iMacs. I guess they were bobbin for Apples. (I feel like there is a Jim Gaffigan voice telling me stop.) Excuse me, I must go. I was doing a little sewing on my patio, and now it's pouring outside. Yes I know -- I really shouldn't leave my Singer in the rain.
A Chimp or chimpanzee is not a monkey. They are Apes. Monkeys have tails. Chimps do not have tails.
@Ann I agree it was a stretch of the term in order to make the pun "monkey in the middle". Technically they are not monkeys, though often referred to as such by the general public because they are related. (Pun is "Malcolm in the Middle" I presume)