Thursday, April 4, 2024

I don't want some of the martini: I want olive it. (Just a little dry humor.)

I love this puzzle, and I gelled with it, even though I've learned that if you give me a drink in a martini glass it will end up on the nearest wall (I apparently talk with my hands, who knew). I love the graphic upon solving, but my favorite part of the puzzle is the Scott Joplin clue. My aunt is a professional RAGTIME piano player so I shared that with her. This was solve #972 in my streak... eek....!

There are those who thought the Dorothy Parker quote in martinis was too racy for this space. I’m not one of them. …… I like to have a Martini,
 Two at the very most.
 After three I’m under the table,
 After four I’m under my host.

Initially seeing the puzzle shape ginned up my curiosity. That, and the dry humor, nothing dirty (as that would have shaken me), stirred an icy resolve. I felt cordially invited. Olive this puzzle. cc: emu handler

Many NYT Thursday crosswords strain for awkward themes. This one floated down clever, smooth and sweet. Enjoyed the puzzle--especially the olive.

Deb -- typo in column -- derby, not debut in 54A. I enjoyed seeing the olive pop up at the end, and didn't notice the swizzle stick. But the puzzle was fun. Didn't know the EB White quote, and was wondering what a MARTINI was an ELIXIR OF for a while.

I started with a thrilling crossword moment: Looked at the grid, saw it was asymmetrical, wondered why, and after the first word I filled in (DOH), my brain from out of nowhere shouted “Martini glass!”. Then I glanced at the clue for 3D spanner, and without hesitation filled in SHAKEN NOT STIRRED. Swee-eet! The rest of the fill-in was The Tale of Two Cities, whoosh-ville and inscruta-burg, areas of splat, and zones of battle, the battle coming from no-knows and vague clues, resulting in return-to’s and, eventually, ahas. Well, since I love both the rush of bam-bam-bam, and the hard-work riddle solves, unraveling this was an all-encompassing pleasure. If anyone’s solve time was a bit longer than usual, it could be because of the extra row (put in, no doubt, to accommodate SHAKEN NOT STIRRED). I love ELIXIR OF QUIETUDE, so calming and beautiful in sound and feel. Never heard it before. Serendipitously sharing the puzzle with SITCOM, which sounds like SIT CALM. I also loved the PuzzPair© of CASTE and AWAY. Congratulations on your NYT debut, KC, and thank you so much for a well-worth-it outing today!

One thing it’s key to note - Bond didn’t drink a gin martini, he drank a vodka martini. Which is why shaking it wasn’t an absolutely terrible idea. Don’t shake gin martinis unless you want a bad drink.

The puzzle was... fine. But I miss a Thursday trick. Where's the rebus? Where's the math? Where's the cleverness? This felt like it could be any day of the week.

Well worth it. I have never had a martini and have never been tempted (I'm strictly a beer and wine man) but I think I might change the habits of a lifetime and tell them that Deb and Kevin sent me. Some great clues - I especially liked the Scott Joplin one - not difficult, but a good snort of laughter.

This puzzle drove me to drink… but in a good way. The left side of the grid went down smooth and easy, the right side much less so. I had “lift” instead of TBAR for a long time, and “I feel” instead of IDBET. I was certain the July derby had something to do with Kentucky horses, and I’ve never heard of a TOEPOKE. I had to look up the unfamiliar EB White quote in order to get a toehold (not poke) on that side, and it eventually came together. The triumphant flash of color at the end felt like a wink of respect. I’m sure this comment was unnecessarily lengthy, so please feel free to TLDR.

Olived it!!

In Constructor's Notes, Mr. Curry ended with a side note about dad jokes. My adult daughter and I have fun with them, so I texted her with his joke, "When does a dad joke become a dad joke?" Instead of "When it becomes apparent, she replied, "When your children are all groan?"

Long time lurker, first time commenter: I LOVED THIS PUZZLE. A few clues in had me on the rocks, as Thursday clues should. Thank you!

On another note, though I have been skiing for 61 of my 66 years, and was briefly on the US Olympic Ski Team, the only place I have seen a t-bar in the last several decades is in the NY Times crossword. They were frightening when I was little. Any difference in size or weight between the two passengers immediately led to imbalance and loss of purchase. My father was 180 pounds, and I was, what...50? I did a face plant nearly every time when trying to get on during the first season. Fortunately, though my father was a very determined person, he was also very patient with his many, many children. I eventually got the knack, and then they were gone....

My dad's social commentary: "Why do you kids take drugs when there is gin?" He took a lemon twist in his MARTINI. Very nice Thursday puzzle, well done Kevin.

What a debut! It was three puzzles for me- West was a fast-fill, frivolous, free-for all. Each answer just wrote itself in. East was a Saturday-ish head-scratcher. Every letter very slowly chipping away at the solve. And a beautiful, buzzy grid with animation for dessert! What more could I ask for? Maybe the coolest clue for RAGTIME? Oh. Got that too! 👍 👍

Simply magical solo debut, Mr. Curry. Between first laying my eyes on the MARTINI glass and seeing it come alive in colors, I was transported to a gala in REGAL surroundings, stilettos on the feet and drink in hand, swaying to SINATRA singing on the stage alongside Tom Jobim... <a href="https://youtu.be/NldPFVKYmiw?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/NldPFVKYmiw?feature=shared</a> How could I not love this puzzle? Bravo and thank you to Mr. Curry, Joel Fagliano, and the Graphics Tech Team for a dreamy night I won't soon forget...

I think I am allowed to day-drink in honor of this puzzle!

Did anyone else think it was Charlotte smiling at them in the grid after they saw the clue about E.B. White?

A refreshing puzzle, and it even made me feel a little heady. The martini glass was a bit of a puzzle all by itself, though. Was the red meant to be a pimento in the olive? I don't like martinis much, and usually go for something sissy-er, like a piña colada, or a pastis, or a Campari and soda, and all of this makes me long for a sidewalk cafe in Paris. One night when I went back to the Cafe Les Deux Magots and asked the waiter if I had left my umbrella there, he came back to the table, shook his head, and launched into a song about la femme sort toutes les nuits sans son parapluie (oh-oh, oh-oh-oh), and we all started laughing. Lovely days and lovely nights. Thank you, Kevin Curry. I loved your puzzle and there's nothing like a nightcap to warm a chilly mood. À votre santé.

Golly, that was cute, replete with pimento upon completion. ONTILT and TOEPOKE were revelatory, but even more surprising was the notion of quietude in association with martinis. Having grown up in a family with some heavy drinkers, I have more often seen boisterous and sometimes belligerent behavior associated with this particular elixer. My maternal grandfather is reported to have said, "Martinis are like women's breasts: one is not enough; three are too many; two are just right." And then there's the classic, One martini Two martini Three martini Floor Approach with caution. ;-]

I can’t believe I just finished Thursday’s puzzle WITHOUT peeking! I’m just so pleased that I’m making progress.

Imagine that! TIVO two days in a row! What are the odds??? (About fifty-fifty, I’d say - lol) Gotta laugh. Don’t believe the baloney about these puzzles being submitted by diverse people all over the country. Here’s the fact, as I’ve pointed out before: ALL the daily xwords are composed by THE SAME GUY. He comes into the NYT office at 6 every morning and turns in the next day’s puzzle between 9 and noon. He gets paid daily in cash and retreats for the afternoon to a favorite watering hole with his three best friends: Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, and Sweet Gypsy Rose. And sometimes he gets a little lazy and re-uses a word two or three times in a week, then retires it for a year or two - or five. He does all the puzzles by himself but has a staff of three interns, who compete in making up the fake bios and composing the hilarious ‘constructor’s notes’. He has never met them. And now you know.

Perfect puzzle five olives 🫒🫒🫒🫒🫒

Just read the column...Kevin Curry's crossword debut AND he had to look up what a martini was AND his puzzle is a winner! Looking forward to more from Kevin Curry!

I was happy to see that the general consensus on Kevin Curry’s delightful debut is positive. While it may not check everyone’s boxes for Thursday, it was a clever puzzle that brought joy and humor to the solving experience. Perhaps deviating from the expected puzzle format for a day is not really a crime punishable by whining. Regarding martinis, using a stemmed martini glass does not turn just any drink into a martini. Some might argue that there are only classic martinis and the rest are simply cocktails (no matter what it says on your favorite bar menu—and no disrespect, judgement or offense intended to any cocktail!). The E.B. White reference was a gem.

Enjoyed this puzzle a lot -- but I especially love that the original seed of the puzzle was RAGTIME and the martini theme came later! It presented as an extremely elegant and intentionally written martini puzzle, so I'm very impressed that the martini theme took shape after the puzzle was well underway.

Lovely solo debut and big congratulations! I found it a little challenging and had to solve this together with my partner, but a lot of fun. Some great puns in there - RAGTIME was the standout, but 'BOSSY' for giving orders was pretty good too. The EB White quote took forever to fill in, though it was solvable in the end even without knowing it, so that wasn't too bad.

Congratulations on your solo NYT debut, Mr. Curry! For me, the puzzle was three parts smoothness, one part struggle. The placement of the black squares registered more as a chalice than a martini glass, but when I got the SH- of 3D, I knew what the rest of that answer was. Then, I must have mistyped that answer, because it didn’t fit when I first tried it. After that, it was pretty easy until I hit the SE. I didn’t know the E.B. White quote and the concentration of the crossing sports answers (34A TOEPOKE, 44A DQED, 54A BATTERS) didn’t help me get the quote any quicker. The olive at the end was cute.

As someone who pretty regularly listens to Joplin while solving these puzzles…. Bravo!

Stuck with the puzzle to hear what E.B. White had to say and was, of course, rewarded. Now I’m inspired to comb through the New Yorker archives for more of his brilliance. Elixir of quietude. Beautiful.

so cute! loved this puzzle! ~ just enough crunch to satisfy while i wait at the gate for my flight to puerta vallarta i intend to maintain my streak while i am in mexico, provided the wifi cooperates and the margaritas don't impede my efforts ~ so far it's at 1567 days happy thursday everyone!

I love an interesting looking grid , and this one especially brought back 70+ year old memories of my father always giving me the green olive in the martini he had ordered at the restaurant on an evening out. Although not tricky I found this a really fun solve and loved the graphics at the end, so congratulations to Kevin for his solo debut.

This one had nice grid design and the color graphics were a nice surprise. The cost of that, however, was more three letter fill than I care for. On the other hand, as a cocktail lover, I enjoyed the theme. I’m a stirred, not shaken man, 007 notwithstanding. I’m also something of a martini purist (some would say bore) as I lament the dilution of the martini to include drinks made with ingredients other than gin, vermouth and either an olive or a lemon twist. Even adding a cocktail onion changes it to a Gibson. Using vodka, or (shudder) flavored vodka or cordials changes it to something else altogether. I also lament the trend to put so little vermouth in that the drink essentially becomes nothing more than a glass of iced gin. The vermouth is meant to complement the gin, not to be superfluous gesture.

I got hung up on DQED, and I don't know TLDR from a hole in the ground, so suffered with MIASMIC on the crossing until that didn't look right and PRIGS came to the rescue and MYALGIC coalesced. Then I got jammed in the southwest. REDOS and MARTINI came easily enough, but I confused MIR with MER and thought AYE was ARE or ARM. Nice to see the SINATRA name skirting the booze-soaked theme entries. I sure could used a drink.

Loved the Joplin clue! I really struggled on the right-hand side, especially the bottom right. I had to reveal two letters in the top middle as well. I had PpI instead of PSI, DOH! A fun puzzle, even if it broke my steak.

Generally I like recipes...but not if I have to go scrambling about looking for the ingredients and instructions, thus ending up with a tangle --or rather, a disorganized sprinkling-- of letters that need to be organized into sensible answers...which might include a game show host (if it's not Alex Trebek or Ken Jennings, I don't know them), a movie poster, a movie franchise, soccer moves, and poker slang. On other words, how did I manage to get this thing solved? Not that I didn't enjoy a few of the entries.... There was the cousin of yesterday's PRAT-- PRIG (plural!) ...plus Elevated Vocabulary : BRAVURA, PUNIER, MYALGIC, and the quote, no doubt seen in a New Yorker magazine of yore: ELIXIR OF QUIETUDE! Maybe tonight would be a good time for a vodka MARTINI with a twist of lemon peel from my own tree..... Quite the debut! More, please!

I used to work at a campus that abutted wetlands and had loads of green space. Every spring the place would get taken over by Canada geese, who defecate everywhere. I was often singing or thinking "Little goose poop..." quite a bit during those times.

Gin is the original “loudmouth soup.” Elixir of quietude? This is strictly the old ackamarackuss. You’d think E.B. White would know his onions, but come on! Getting kaylied up at a gasser makes you happy as a ring a ding bird in a ding dong tree. Abbysinia.

I can’t be the only one who had Stephen FRY instead of REA for the longest time.

In regards to 40A: I'm surprised the editor didn't catch this. Bog is not a synonym for FEN, in fact the word difference distinguishes two clearly distinct biomes. Fens are alkaline, bogs are acidic. The clue "wetland" or "peatland" would've worked, or "often mistaken for a bog", or "wetland that can become a bog", but fens are not bogs. The whole reason both words are still in common parlance is because the differing pH levels lead to distinct flora and fauna, so it's a valuable bit of info for anyone in the natural sciences. Which I am not, I know this because of a Tumblr post that sent me down a rabbit hole last month, but REGARDLESS, it is true.

Fun quick romp out here in the wilds of the Olympic Peninsula! 30% (ish) faster than average. Had a little tumble on the e b white quote…

In 4A, was the "?" really necessary at the end of the clue: "Apt name for a Feb. 14 baby?" The answer, VAL, seemed pretty straightforward to me, not a pun or an irony. The "?" actually had me stumped for a while, thinking that there was some deeper meaning other than the plain and obvious one.

@Deb Amlen I enjoyed your nostalgic reminiscences of your first "martiini", but is a Lemon Drop a martini? To this old-fashioned purist (and pedant), a martini is, as the puzzle suggests, a mixture of a lot of gin and a little vermouth, chilled with ice in a shaker (or stirred in a pitcher) and then strained into a handsome glass. (Could it be a COUPE glass [48A]? I think so and bemoan this missed opportunity for the clue writers.) Nowadays it seems any mixture of strong drink can be called a martini (apple martini, espresso martini, cosmos, your lemon drop, etc.). The only shared characteristic seems that they are served in a martini glass. An abomination of linguistic usage? Hardly. But isn't it nice to hold on to old meanings sometimes?

I suppose it's five o'clock somewhere.

I spent WAY too much time trying to make this puzzle about "Charlotte's Web!"

What a delight! I’m going to get out my pink gin and some olives and enjoy this crossword. Thank you for the fun solve.

I was waiting on a Bond reference, but this was a nice puzzle in spite of its absence. Had to wait on crosses for a few things, but it finally came together. It also helped to notice the grid art along the way—that made things quite a bit easier. Congrats on the solo debut, Kevin, and thanks!

Kevin Curry, what a delightful puzzle for any day of the week. Loved the theme (and the beverage). 18A is my clue of the year. Thank you.