Thing is, when my Yugo breaks down, I often say, "Ach, she's gone gnitca again." And anyone knows from reading Tolkien that Faelwena is that period -- anywhere from twenty-five to a hundred years -- when young elves mature enough to be given more agency and powers. And anyone knows that "Niatnuom" in Yeti means, literally, "Euro-Litter" but linguists are divided whether this refers to all the junk the alpinists leave behind or the alpinists themselves. Also, people who know me from the Reagan era know that I called Oliver North "Dr. Revilo" because we reviled him so much. The way he tried to spin his revival, even though he's the sort of minor demon in the outskirts of some Dantesque inferno* was more shameless than Werner Herzog on a volcanic island interviewing the stalwarts. So the theme never occurred to me until Bad Moon Rising. Who in the heck ever said Noom Dab after all? *Anyone who uses Dantean instead of Dantesque is going to Purgatory, and that's just for starters. -- Virgil
@john ezra laughing a lot - thanks for this
@john ezra I recently joined a website to help me eat healthier. Whenever I get on the bathroom scale and see that I lost some more weight, I do a happy dance! My wife calls it my "Noom dab"
A fun puzzle, but a request: Although technically correct, would it be possible to not clue “man” or any other masculine word as a reference to all humans? There are plenty of other ways to clue it.
@Julie This is absolutely a dictionary term, though. Like many words, "man" has multiple meanings.
@Julie Thank you for saying this. I had the same feeling. I have been doing a lot of archive puzzles recently, where I expect there to be outdated gender stereotypes and masculine-focused clues because of where we were societally at the time. When I got to 8D tonight I did a double take and had to check if I was doing the newest puzzle or one of the old ones.
@Julie I also disliked that. I refused to enter MAN until the very end, hoping somehow to find a sensible word.
Such fun. I knew 9d was bad moon, so NANA threw me for a while. The aha moment came with GNITCA. What the? Ooh, clever. I’ve mentioned in a reply to a post further down (which gently complained of the difficulty this theme causes for dyslexics), that in fact my son, who’s severally dyslexic, finds it easier to read backwards than forwards. So much so that, coupled with the first Pokémon craze when he was a kid, he found the Japanese language, reading right to left, plus the vertical picture language of Kanji, easier to read than English. He went from feeling a failure in our school system at the tender age of 9, to feeling like a superhero because he could read a language that was inaccessible to everyone else, including his teachers. That sorted his future career for him; a degree in Japanese, a few years in the country and now a specialist in independent travel to Japan. The human brain is a wonderful, magical organ.
@Helen Wright Now that’s a great example of turning lemons into lemonade. Thanks for sharing.
@Helen Wright Thank you for sharing this wonderful story! I spent much of my 'conferencing' time as a special ed teacher repeating to parents that "there is a place for everyone." A student with OCD was a dream come true for the radio station that desired accuracy down to the very second .......and closer to home, it little mattered that PhysicsDaughter can barely ambulate; she was hired for her brains, not her locomotion. Don't we wish we could have known this way back when....?!
@Helen Wright thank you for sharing that! My seven-year old also has dyslexia and writes every letter from right to left unless he's really focused on not doing so. But even then, many individual letters and numbers are reversed. I found your anecdote and your son's journey quite G N I T F I L
That was fun! Slightly harder than your usual Monday. My solving time was severely impacted by staring at "FAELWENA" for a minute or so and feeling that it just can't be right, April Fools or not. Also appreciated row 2, it reads like a Grindr profile...
@Turing - yeah I definitely cocked my head at that pairing, trying to understand if it was intentionally risqué or if I was just juvenile 😂
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Oh, to be in France! (4) 2. Hunks of plastic? (4) 3. Thrower of a reception (6) 4. Patient check-ins (6)(9) 5. When the lights go out? (9)(6) ÊTRE KENS PASSER GENTLE REMINDERS CHRISTMAS SEASON
@Lewis I like your picks. My list would include: 1. Exam with a capital E (3)(4) from Tuesday 2. Wood source (4)(3) from Saturday EYE TEST GOLF BAG
Constructors never cease to amaze me, and this was no exception. A fun, unusual yet accessible Monday twist for April Fool’s Day. Nice work, Alan! But today my heart belongs to Sam for her parenthetical commentary on the “post-truth era”. Thanks, Sam! Your columns always offer varying degrees of encouragement, wisdom, humor, and perspective. A great place to land after solving.
Absolutely terrible! Why am I paying good money for this junk? I’ve checked every English and foreign language dictionary I could find and NONE OF THEM has FAELWENA, NOOMDAB or any of the other so-called “themers.” Time to cancel the NYT crossword from my subscriptions! I’m flipping it DRIBEHT!!! (Try and censor that you flipping UMES!)
@Puzzlemucker You rant out of steam too soon, there, PuzzMucker! Next time please add more kicking and screaming for the full tantrum experience!
@Puzzlemucker Obviously you're a newer solver. And you certainly have never tried constructing a crossword yourself. If you had, you would realize that it's impossible to fill a grid completely with actual words. That's why constructors must resort to making up words like FAELWENA and MERER, and animals like the LEE RAT.
A gentle Thursday on a Monday, courtesy of it being April 1st. Found myself skipping the italicized clues for the horizontal crosses until I cottoned onto the tricks. This was quite a fun solve, and I liked the fact that each themer had to be finished with a different modifier, from 'rising' to 'north' to 'turn over' and more. Quite clever, Alan, and thanks!
@JayTee Ah- the modifiers are what make them make sense now. Thanks 👍🏼
By the way, this is Alan’s 133rd NYT puzzle, spanning 43 years. 43! They remain bursting with spark – what a puzzlemaking talent! His last puzzle, for instance, a Thursday, had theme answers AFTER SOAVE and FIRESIDE COAT, among others, with the revealer H2O – Hah! He clued H2O as a “fire fighter”, brilliant, IMO, and a clue that has never been used for that answer, or even for WATER. I loved the lovely Puzzpair© today of MINIDONUT and BE LITTLE, and all the backward answers made me realize that ANAL is a Lana Turner. I did like seeing a backward NONI, affectionately used often in Italy for “grandma”, sharing the puzzle with NANA. I made a point to say each theme answer out loud in its backward version, my favorites being FAELWENA, which sounds like a fairy tale princess, and NOOMDAB which sounds like it could have come out of Mork’s mouth. Thank you for all you’ve given Crosslandia, Alan, and for your sweet A.F.D. romp today. Keep ‘em coming, please!
One of my favorite treats on my April 1 birthday is the Times puzzle. Thanks for the present! It was fun.
@Sue Have a good one, Sue! 🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯 (won't ask how many)
It took me a moment, but .... S B M U H T Happy April Fools Day!
Easy for a Thursday! Boy I feel bad for all the new solvers today...I hope they come back next week!
"Will you rake already?" "Fine! Now leaf me alone!" (I haven't done yard work in a lawn time.)
@Mike Well, you can always do mower all the time. 🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
@Mike Hoe, hoe, hoe! Adding something for the emus this time.
I always recommend people try Monday’s crossword when they want to start - but this would be a terrible one to begin on. The wordplay was nice- but this is not a Monday puzzle. April Fools I guess?
“Bad Moon Rising” is possibly my favorite Creedence Clearwater Revival song,* so as soon as I saw the clue for 9D, I knew what the trick was. The puzzle was fun, but I learned that I don’t spell backwards very well. *It’s also the source of one of my favorite mondegreens: “There’s a bathroom on the right.”
@Eric Hougland I am new to crosswords, so I am happy to have just learned the term “mondegreens.” Like many a clue, I had to google that. Thank you!
@Eric Hougland Although I have always enjoyed mondegreens, like Johnny Rivers singing Secret Asian Man, or Jimi Hendrix singing Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy, or (conversely) Herb Alpert singing The Sky’s In Love With You, I never knew there was a word for those mishearings. Thanks for adding a word to my lexicon. My personal favorite mondegreen is Elvis Costello’s Washing The Defectives, which I couldn’t unhear after someone pointed it out to me.
I was thinking that even the Mondays are getting quite difficult, but about halfway through I remembered that it was April 1, always tricky. I finally got the trick at 39D, laughed out loud and went on to figure out the rest. Loved the trick, thanks, Alan.
I look forward every year to the April 1 puzzle. Some of them have been very devilish. Unfortunately, because this year April 1 is a Monday, the trick had to be d e s a e considerably. If you're newish but not brand new, do yourself a favor and check the Archives for prior April 1 puzzles. Some of them will stun you!
@Steve L haha I was wondering…I solved it but it was frustrating me…then the twist and I questioned why it was a Monday puzzle lol - now with your comment, it all makes sense. I’ve just been solving the puzzle for little over a year and must have missed Apr 1st last year.
@Steve L In today’s Gameplay email, Wyna Liu particularly recommends these April 1 puzzles: Alan Arbesfeld’s two day burn in 1998. Roger Barkan’s 2002 puzzle. Peter Gordon’s all-timer from 2016. Howard Barkin’s 2017 puzzle.
Oh joy, Oh happiness -- a crunchy, cryptic-like challenge on a Monday! My cup runneth over. I saw the trick immediately when I couldn't make the letters FAEL go away. Since I was stuck with them, I therefore had to explain them, so I immediately saw LEAF upside down. I then immediately thought of TURN OVER A NEW LEAF and all was clear. OLIVER NORTH was hilarious. For those of you who are too young to know or remember, this answer may have been perplexing to you -- but all the crosses are easy and fair. We probably got this treat because it's April Fool's Day as well as Monday. Would that all Mondays could be April 1st. I know some of you will complain that this is too hard and too tricky for a Monday, but to me, this is what fun is all about. Loved it!
PEOPLE! It's April Fools' Day! This was SO clever. Wonderful. An amazing construction. MUCH credit to the crew. Cancel your subscriptions...and we won;t have to hear your caterwauling!
With April Fools Day falling on a Monday, a gentle trick was needed, and Alan came up with a nice one. This is a good way to get newer solvers used to the type of thing that might come up in Thursday puzzles without the tricky cluing. Not a spoiler: Connections was special today. If you don't do it every day, check it out.
@Nancy J. Not a spoiler, either. Connections was weird today. I guess because it’s 4/1? ????
@Nancy J. And @ Steve L. I didn't do well on this one...the pictures were questionable, IMHO. At least two of them were definitely misleading or peculiar... and then one also hit a weak spot in my "cultural" education. I think they are running out of gimmicks...
We all know that CCR lyric said “there’s a bathroom on the right”
On Mondays, I know the puzzle will be relatively easy, so I aim for speed, with the goal of solving in under 10 minutes. I succeeded today, with a decent 9:29, but as a result I didn't take the time to figure out today's trick until I had filled in the entire grid. Yes, I new that six of my answers were rather strange, but I was waiting for the "reveal" clue that would make everything clear. An interesting lesson for me: a primary interest in speed and efficiency makes one less conscious of the joys to be found on the journey.
That's the most valuable lesson that ANYONE can learn about crossword solving, I'd argue. I'm convinced it will bring you far more enjoyable and rewarding puzzle-solving experiences in the future, @Linda.
Not only was this puzzle difficult for a Monday, the clues were dumb IMO. When does literally mean backwards? More likely I’m dumb, but it was annoying to have to give up on a Monday crossword.
Fun puzzle. Slow start, but once I tumbled to the trick it all fell together pretty smoothly. Thought it was a really nice touch that each of the theme answers implied a slightly different addition - e.g. "turn over," "up", "rising," "climbing," etc. For no explainable reason, a set of fifteen letter answers dawned on me this morning that seem very appropriate for crossword solvers. I'll put those in a reply. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened - three 15 letter answers: STICKSANDSTONES Been an answer in seven puzzles, always clued in one way or another to the nursery rhyme - e.g. - "Bone breakers, perhaps." But then... MAYBREAKMYBONES - never been in a puzzle (but words....) WILLNEVERHURTME - also never been in a puzzle. Does seem particularly appropriate for a number of comments on today's puzzle. I'm done. ..
The real gag is that the constructor got both 14A and 16A past the editors, next to each other in the puzzle.
Why is Monday so tough? Then, I realized its April 1. AHA! Or is it easy and the joke is on me.... Have a good day everyone
Enjoyed today's puzzle. A little tickle of a theme. These themers aren't easy to construct wittily and fluidly but of course I had to try… ____ A N O Z I R A ... Coen brothers' 2nd film— starring Nic Cage— about rearing a kidnapped child, literally - - - - (raising ARIZONA) _________ E C N E I T A P M I ... What one might feel during an hour spent in the waiting room when one's doctor is running late— literally - - - - (growing IMPATIENCE) _________ E L I B O M . . . A term for a person aiming for and achieving higher status, social position and income— literally - - - - (upwardly MOBILE) ________ R E D R O ... One of two options in which to view one's photos or files size-wise or chronologically— literally (this would probably need a lot of kind crosses) - - - - (ascending ORDER) _________ S S A M L A C I T I R C ... Achieving the minimum amount required to start or maintain a project, venture or nuclear reaction— literally - - - - (reaching CRITICALMASS) *********** I tried to find a way to make "BEAN sprouts" work but it didn't really track. So anyway these aren't all that great, clues a bit clunky, but it was fun to try, and it kind of illuminates how fresh today's puzzle was. Even OLIVER North was pretty nifty. Oh wait, I just came up with one more! _______ E C I L A ... A Ralph Kramden catchphrase, never ACTUALLY threatening to his long-tolerant wife— literally - - - - (to the Moon, ALICE! To the MOON!) Heh! !YAD SLOOF LIRPA YPPAH
An unexpectedly tricky Monday! I had to come to the comments to understand the THEBIRD and OLIVER entries. After I noticed the confluence of AWAIT ANAL ORAL, I couldn't unsee it. 😮 DOPE puzzle! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Not at all pleased with this Monday's puzzle. Don't pull your sneaky tricks on a Monday puzzle. Please. Makes me feel discouraged about continuing on throughout the week.
@Kip - I'm not sure what the Monday puzzle has to do with your feeling toward the rest of the week. I wouldn't read anything into it... it's an April Fool's prank and a definitely hard Monday puzzle. If you got through it, count it as a win and carry on to Tuesday.
@Kip this is how i feel after eating an unhealthy breakfast....might as well throw in the towel on the other meals, too 🤭
Ogle rudely? Does that mean there is a way to ogle politely?
As other commenters have said, this seemed mid-week rather than Monday. Unlike them, I don’t attribute it to April Fool’s Day, but rather as part of a pattern since Will went on medical leave and Joel took over. I like Monday and Tuesday puzzles to make me smile on my way out the door (or on my way to bed, depending on when I do them), and I want Wednesday and Thursday ones to make me sweat and feel accomplished if I solve them without the column. For the last few weeks I’ve just felt disgruntled every time I finish, except on Sundays (go figure). I hope things smooth out a bit, if only for the sake of beginners who aren’t already too hooked to give up the chase.
Jay, Actually, no other commenters said this puzzle seemed mid-week rather than Monday, except a humorous and positive reference to Thursday. There are always April Fool's Day puzzles on April 1, as Steve pointed out earlier. Sorry the puzzles haven't been meeting your expectations recently. I'm quite sure it as nothing to do with Will Shortz being on leave.
@Barry Ancona Barry, Perhaps I interpreted Lisa and Sammy’s comments differently than you did - I thought of them as agreeing with my take, and I understood the humorous Thursday reference to be a different one than theirs. No need for you to apologize for the puzzles lately, unless you’re on staff at the Times. And if you are, please take this as feedback from a subscriber. If you aren’t on staff, it seems bold of you to say you’re “quite sure” that a change in editing hasn’t happened with a change of editor. Best wishes for a pleasant week and no falling for April Fools pranks!
@Jay Meashey Did you read the column? “The twist here is that we’re running a gimmick we wouldn’t normally run on a Monday,” said Tracy Bennett, a puzzle editor for The New York Times. She added, however, that editors had “worked hard to make the clues friendly, both in the theme answers and their crossings,” and that she hoped newer solvers would “enjoy the extra challenge.” So that's a NY Times puzzle editor attributing it to April Fool’s Day.
I’m digging’ all the Michigan clues recently— the Lions & Tigers, Belle Isle, & Lansing have all made an appearance. Thumbs up! (— get it??) No real point to make, though I’d be remiss (or just flat-out missed) if I didn’t shout out the Eagles of EMU.
So… I got Wordle in one guess today! There I was, staring at all the blank squares, when for some reason, the word WINTER hit me. I typed it in, and it was correct! Et tu, emu.
@Lewis Thanks for ruining it for everyone! ;-) Do emus understand the significance of the opening day of April?
@Lewis That's not the same solution in the Wordle I completed an hour ago.
@Lewis That's not the same solution in the Wordle I completed an hour ago. Oh! You got me!
I’ve been doing these puzzles pretty much daily for 4-ish years. This was my favorite Monday ever. Took me a frustratingly long time to get the trick. Satisfying when it finally clicks! (9 out of 10 Emus agree)
"Man" for Homo Sapiens??? Is this the 1950's?
@Jacqueline M if you are looking to be offended, some people will find it everywhere they look. Terrible way to go through life.
@Jacqueline M Agreed! The time when we used MAN to refer to all humans is long past. Better clues were available.
@Jacqueline M Actually, as repulsive a species Homo Sapiens is, I would think women would be glad to disassociate to some extent.
Quite the send up, eh? I can't understand why DHubby is eyeing me suspiciously this morning. I haven't pulled a trick on him in several years now. In other news, walking at daybreak turned out to be hazardous--I have a number of horriibly itchy mosquito/no-see-um bites on my hands, of all places (the rest of me being fairly well-covered.) Dang. Which Circle of Hell is this? (Did anyone else want 'DANTEESQUE?')
@Mean Old Lady I know exactly what you mean, although we're still a few months away from the noseeum season up here. DANTÉESQUE indeed.
Homo sapiens = Man. Really? In 2024? Can't tell you how many letters I received in my career that started: "Gentlemen". I would ask the sender when they claimed it covered all people, "How would you react to a business letter that started: 'Ladies'", and they'd laugh. Yeah, that's the point, I'd say but the next letter still started: Gentlemen. Some, to be fair, changed the heading to: Ladies/Gentlemen. You can be better too Alan.
@LivelyB You may be firing at the wrong target. Mr. Arbesfeld (nice job on today's puzzle, BTW, Alan) may or may not have written that clue. The editors revise many/most submitted clues and would in any event bear the ultimate responsibility for an objectionable clue. I agree with your point as to *usage.* I don't like "Gentlemen" as a letter-starter either, and would like to to see language become more gender-neutral. People may differ on whether this clue-answer combination crosses the line and becomes objectionable. But as a *valid* clue, this passes. "Man" is a synonym for "homo sapiens," appearing in the first online dictionary I checked: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Homo" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Homo</a>%20sapiens The use of "man" to cover everyone is fading. Someday, it may be marked "obs."
@LivelyB Man(kind) includes everybody; gentlemen does not. I don't see a reason to get upset over a gender-neutral term just because it is more commonly used to refer to a single person of a particular sex. I do think English could use more gender-neutral terms, both to simplify addressing groups of people and because addressing people differently based on their sex is odd, no?
At first I was mystified by all the clues with the italics. What I obtained from horizontal fills resulted in what looked like gibberish. "This is a MONDAY puzzle?????" Then I caught one of the answers to the italics clues, filled in by all the horizontal answers. I looked at it with my head turned, "Oooooh, THAT's what's going on!" I figured out the rest of the puzzle easily after that, in 'average' time for a Monday. Happy April Fools Day!
I haven't done the crossword for quite a while but I do Connections every day. Just here to say how much I dislike the emojis. Please, no more emoji Connections!
@Raincoaster : I second the motion!
@Raincoaster It’s a fairly safe bet that the NYT will not repeat the emoji theme today’s Connections anytime soon.
I hope some of the newer solvers will grasp the theme on their own (i.e., before coming to Wordplay and the comments). In pre-digital days, when there was no music to tell you all of the letters had been entered properly, people were less likely to consider a puzzle solved if they didn't understand what all the answers meant, and they kept pondering the filled grid.
Pretty spicy for a Monday, well done! Love the CCR shoutout.
My Wordle streak ended the other day when it was sally. Today I read @Sam Corbin’s use of the idiom sally forth. Was it a coincidence or cosmic unconsciousness?* *Repo Man reference
@_chs_ When our family was stationed at Schofield Barracks on Oahu, we had quarters across the street from a big three-story quadrangle. Access was via a "sallyforth" --basically a tunnel through the block-long wall; the term harked back to the days of castles and fortresses, to my youthful mind....
A crunchy Monday! I hope it lures newer solvers into some new territory. The cluing made it accessible, if the theme made flyspecking tricky. I had MOMMa, and never read the clue for STY in the SE corner until I finished to resounding silence. Nice job!
@Jennifer Ditto, it was the very last square in the puzzle where I finally noticed 61D and saw the error. Although I suppose in the deepest Southern drawl it might indeed be a "pig STa"
Once we got the got the little PRANK.... we pitied the fool. Thank you Alan. Is your refrigerator running? Better catch it!
As usual, it falls to me to provide the fons et origo of a timely topic. April Fools' Day was first observed by the ancient Egyptians, who went to elaborate lengths to pull the eggs(what we now call pulling one's leg) of the pharaohs. Everyone in the city would build a pyramid of huge stones over a sleeping pharaoh that he would have to extricate himself from in the morning. Centuries later, when no pharaohs had yet emerged, the word "tomb" evolved from meaning "prank" into its current usage.
This was a nice change of pace from Mondays which can sometimes be too easy. Just the right amount of added spice today.
This was a Monday puzzle? Oh, that it was kinda off was the April Fool's Joke? Not amused >:(
What gets under my skin is not the tricky nature of this Monday puzzle but rather the clue/answer combo of 8D. Once I determined that the editors let this highly gendered clue stand, I was mad for the rest of the puzzle. I mean come on, isn’t it standard now to say “human” and not “man” for Homo sapiens? The NYT puzzle editors should have caught this and helped the puzzle maker find a better clue.
@Hungry Piggie I came here to comment on this also! This isn't 1950! I solved most of the puzzle except for this section because I had no idea that Homo Sapiens would not include me. At a time when women's rights are being eroded -- just today Florida decided women can't have an abortion in the first trimester -- I would at least expect the NYT Crossword to see me as a human. Alas.
Great puzzle! The most difficult puzzle in the world? Of course not. But it’s a fun twist to a Monday.
This one was on the up and up, you might say. Fun to work once I managed to get past trying to fill clues from bottom to top. It was a little gritty for a Monday, but with solid cluing and nothing too obscure. I hope the new solvers agree. Thank you, Alan Arbesfeld, for not making fools of us all!