I thought there were too many clunky fillers, abbreviations, and obscure proper nouns - IRR? LEU? DEY? NOOR? INREM? GARR? PCBS? SINO? NEA? Many of these were deducible but I felt there were just too many. The theme was cute though.
@Intermediate level This was my impression exactly, too.
@Intermediate level I think it was a trade-off for getting the themed entries to fall in such a precise pattern. We've seen them all before, so I didn't find them particularly obscure, but I'm sure they would be for newer solvers.
@Intermediate level I'm glad PCBS are now considered obscure, but sad to see that Teri GARR is as well.... one of my favorite actresses. ............................................
Quite the meal for this Last Supper, not one to induce ketosis with its peas, breadfruit, taro and tempi (I. e. various kinds of tempeh), flavored with a hint of oregano. They all ate sparingly to save a little wiggle room for desert, a cheesecake with both Nilla wafers and oreos which rather made up for the blandness of the entrees. When one of His disciples refilled the Eldest Son's chalice with a delicious Villa La Mesa red (the great vintage 27 C.E.) from that quaint vineyard north of Gibraltar, He fingered the man's curiously colored robe. "Ecru, Judas?" Well I liked this puzzle quite a bit, the wiggle was adorbs, and was tickled by little things like the APER/EARP anagram, or the sweet coincidence of ASTOR on the day it was reported John Jacob Astor's pocket watch from the Titanic fetched over a million pounds at auction, or the trio of P-cronyms: PCBS, PSAT, PTSD, not to mention the chewy TINCTS & KETOSIS and the weirdness of TEASES (apparently from my brief research "teases" is used specifically for television spots, also called "bumper teases," whereas "teasers" --which is the more common term -- is used for most other forms of media and quite a bit of the time for TV). I could DRONE on...
@john ezra First paragraph, Hall of Fame. You are so entertaining. Thank you for letting your consciousness stream out upon us! Et tu, emu.
This wasn't quite a NOFRILLS puzzle, and that is a compliment! The bells and whistles made it a cut above the usual Tuesday, not only because of the homage to the Clue game, but also due to the interesting cluing ("National animal of India," "Wealthiest couple on the Titanic") and fill (KETOSIS, GIBRALTAR.) All around a very nice puzzle, Ms. Govier! Thank you!
Second day in a row with a revealer that surprised and delighted me, after yesterday’s HUE AND CRY. I tried to guess the revealer before uncovering it, and was thinking it had something to do with the game Clue, so when I finally admitted defeat and filled it in, it made me smile all over at how much better it was than that. Clever clever clever. Plus, the plusses. The passel of long-O-enders (EGO, TARO, OREGANO, COCO, SINO). The lovely misdirect in [Auto setting] for STREET. The five foods in the first three rows of across answers, not to mention the CAPN wannabe there, short a “Crunch”. LEU and GNU in the same column. LEU and LEI in the same column. LEI making me think “hula”, echoing the WIGGLE of the theme. But the best serendipity to me was ISITI, for here we have the question reading forward, and the answer reading backward. So, much to relish. A gift that brightened my day. Thank you, Michèle, for making this!
People have been pointing out iffy answers, but please realize that when things happen in diagonals in theme answers, as they do with these zig-zaggers – man, that makes a grid very tough to fill in. So, the question is, is the theme worth it? Does the joy that comes from the theme outweigh the compromises that were necessary to make it happen? My opinion? In this puzzle, absolutely! The “Oh, sweet!” that I felt when I uncovered the revealer easily (previous president)-ed an HGT here and an ATO there.
@Lewis et al If you WIGGLE doing the hula, you're doing it wrong! The hula is slow, graceful, and modest.
@Lewis I liked STREET too! Took me a long time to get there. Fun!
Sometimes I love a puzzle more for the comments than anything else! Here we all are, sharing our experience, and a lively discussion ensues. Since my spouse & I are retired, we don't get much of that anymore. For my own part, I have decided that I am not much of a theme person. The Sunday themes are fun, but most of the time in weekday puzzles the theme is lost on me even once it's been explained. Themes are not why I come to a crossword. But most of the time they don't detract from the solving fun, as in today's puzzle. I played Clue a lot as a kid, as a solitaire game. All my siblings were 10 or more years older than I, so I surrounded with toys and activities that were for much older kids & folks. I spent hours in those rooms with the lead pipe & candlestick, and my set had a real rope, not the plastic lump that's in there these days, and I'd make up stories and scenes and situations. However, I didn't get any vibe of Clue while I solved the puzzle, and once I looked at 62A's clue and squinted at the circled letters, I couldn't make anything out of them, so I just carried on solving. After reading Sam's explanation, I see the room names, but it's not clicking in my brain. No matter! I enjoyed the solve, and I enjoyed the Comments, and I'm happy to be sharing this experience with folks from all over the globe!
@Cloudy Rockwell, The Clue set that we had growing up was also an old one, with a piece of string for the rope — and a tiny bendable pipe made of real lead!
@Cloudy Rockwell - Greetings from a former Corvallisite. It's one of the very best places I ever lived. If you ever go into Squirrel's tell Greg you met a one-time regular. Greg knows me well, but I won't reveal my name here!
This went pretty smoothly until I crashed up against the rock of GIBRALTeR. Also, +1 for the stacking of NILLA and OREOS.
@MikeW Add some bananas and vanilla pudding, top with meringue and you've got a fine Southern desert. 🥧🍌🥧🍌🥧🍌🥧 A lot of emus really like this.
Call me a pedant, but YEAST is not an “ingredient” in a sourdough starter, at least not in the same way it is in non-sourdough bread recipes. It’s present, sure, but not added, so I’d argue it’s not an ingredient.
@Patrick Ryan It's one of those rare ingredients that adds itself.
I had the same objection to YEAST as @Patrick Ryan, and then admitted to myself the same point made by @Bruce. It's comforting to know others reach the same conclusions as I do, even if not any single individual does.
@Patrick Ryan It isn't starter (or sour) until the wild yeast present in the air has infiltrated the flour/water mixture. The clue does not specify that it was added directly by a human.
Solid puzzle. Could do without entries like HGT and IRR as clued (or at all).
@Mark DelGiudice I'm still unsure of what HGT even is? I got it from the crosses. I feel silly, and lost, even though I now have the context clues.
My heart always sinks when I open up a puzzle and see a bunch of arbitrarily placed tiny little circles -- circles that are not even especially close to each other. I know that they will be totally irrelevant to my solving experience and that, once I am through with my solving experience, it will be incumbent on me to go back and thread them together. Yawn. BLEHHH. I have never once gone back and threaded the annoying tiny little circles together. No, I say to the constructor, YOU go back and thread them together. If I were granted one magical wish and could make one -- and only one -- category of puzzle completely disappear forever, this would be the category of puzzle I would choose. Abracadabra. POOF! Gone forever! RIP! I will die on this hill.
@Nancy With you 100%. I get so sick of the dumb little gimmicks. I always ignore the "little circles" too. Just give me a good puzzle. I don't care about your inane "themes."
@Nancy "...it will be incumbent on me to go back and thread them together." This must be very serious business to you.
“Auto setting” should 100% have had a question mark at the end
Fastest Tuesday in a while. No particularly tricky clues. I thought 13A might have mentioned “for short” but CAPN was the only logical answer. Just a quick reminder that PTSD in veterans may come from issues in addition to combat. Have a great day everyone
Had a brain f*** over 35D for a minute, and was a little relieved when the answer was just a wardrobe malfunction, but the actual answer made me relive the horrifying day in 4th grade when that happened to me. I tried to hide it until my teacher graciously and quietly invited me to go to the office so they could call my parents for replacement pants. I remember that lesson in kindness that year more than anything I learned from a book.
@JB Lordy! I walked into Spanish class in 10th, only to see an upperclassman sprawled (spraddled) in his front-row desk, displaying a RIPped inseam and tighty-whities.) I don't have a poker face, and my shocked expression must have alerted him. He sat straight up through the class....
An ingredient is something that is added to make a dish. Yeast is not an ingredient of sourdough starter, as it is not manually added. Pedantic yes, and I’m not sure why I care, having murdered several sourdough starters, including Kevin, the Son of Kevin, and Kevin’s revenge.
Wow, stupidly hard for a Tuesday. Much more difficult than this past Sunday (or maybe even Saturday) for example. There just no longer seems to be a reasonable progression through the week. As others have noted, this was also another case of the theme being entirely extraneous. In fairness I suppose that may be more the rule than the exception. It's just thet it's much more fun when a theme can actually help solve a puzzle, rather than being an "aha wasn't he so very clever in his head" moment after solving everything the normal/hard way. Tuesday forums should be empty fields of grazing emus. And yet....
@B To each his or her own, I guess. I found this one perfectly appropriate for a Tuesday. I actually finished faster than my average time!
@B Having several areas in the crossword that were unfilled and included circles when I figured out the theme, I went ahead and filled those circles thinking it would help me finish quicker which I think it did as some clues were on the tougher side for a Tuesday.
A pleasantly fun solve. The theme was more of a bonus, as it wasn't needed to solve the puzzle, but I got a kick out of it. Hopefully there is nothing nit-picky, imprecise, or controversial and everyone can enjoy it as much as I did. :)
Clunky puzzle with some bad clues. I'm sure I'm repeating what others have said, but: APER? SPRIER? ANISES? Yikes. "Auto setting" would have been a subpar clue for STREET even _with_ a ? "Self-care?" for EGO? Come on. EGOISM or EGOTISM, sure, but EGO is too stretchy. Finally, since when is YEAST an ingredient in sourdough starter? This clue is just plain _wrong_. If we define "ingredient" as "one of a list of items required to correctly make the recipe," then yeast is the one thing that is NOT an ingredient in sourdough, because it is understood as "commercially cultivated yeast" (aka instant yeast) in baking recipes, not the wild yeast that is present in everything, which inadvertently becomes the raising agent for traditional sourdough. I'm sure one of you "defenders" can pull up some more complex (usually pro bakery, volume-oriented) recipe that includes instant yeast AND starter made with wild yeast - I've seen and used a couple myself - but the very distinction of sourdough is that the dough ferments (for a much longer time, because it is necessary) using wild yeast, NOT instant yeast that can develop in an hour. To summarize: if you want sourdough in a home setting, yeast is the one thing you are _specifically_ not adding separately, because it would make the "sour" part of "sourdough" harder to achieve, therefore it would be _purposefully_ absent from an ingredient list. Why not just "frequently used dough ingredient"? On a Tuesday, zero problem with that.
@super spud Your definition of "ingredient" is not the only way to think about that word. For the clue to be "just plain _wrong_" you would have to make the case that the word "ingredient" could never, ever conceivably be parsed as "one component existing in a mixture of things." Your eloquent description of making sourdough at home, while indeed knowledgeable and charming, is quite irrelevant to the actual clue, which neither mentioned nor suggested any specific locale.
coming from a far away land, I have no idea what NILLA, GMA and LAMESA is, so today's crossword for me ended in a brute force guessing game. TINCTS looks like more like a typo than an actual word, but I was so confident in my crosses it didn't matter. Had TINges at first though, until I changed it.
@Tristan the rest of the puzzle was easy in a fun way, and obscure clues paired with clever crosses made everything else simple to suss out. Learnt a few new things, which is a success anyway in my books
I thought the theme reveal was quite cute! I like a silly little theme like this; it doesn't detract from the rest of the puzzle, and it adds a bit of extra fun for me to think about.
i really enjoyed the theme but these clues were real stretches for a tuesday. tincts/aper/natter/ecru?? this felt forced and pushed out the door before it was ready for the limelight. great idea, fell short on execution.
Nowadays the $ is often with 1 vertical line, but the original version with 2 vertical lines (also still used) was because it began as a superimposed U and S (U.S. dollar).
However, wikipedia says this seems to have been discredited, so maybe I'm just remembering a myth from my childhood.
Quite a large Tuesday. Very roomy spread. cc: emu handler
Might have been crosswordesed quite a few times in this puzzle, but surprisingly, in every single case today, I gnuer. (as per the column ;)
I love working on a puzzle and just knowing that the comments here are going to be spicy. ;) I thought the theme was cute but some of the puzzle word choices were cringeworthy. TEMPI, APER, SPRIER made me grimace. Got it done though! Thanks for puzzling! Onward to Wednesday!
@Alex APER is definitely Crosswordese (spellcheck doesn't even like it); SPRIER is ungainly but grammatically correct; but TEMPI is used by musicians all the time.
Nice puzzle Michèle, with some fun fill like BREAD FRUIT, GIBRALTAR and KETOSIS. I didn't use the theme while solving, but post-solve appreciated how difficult it must have been to keep a consistent WIGGLE pattern for all of the themers.
I thought this was very tough for a Tuesday, glad I wasn’t completely alone. Very clever theme, which I’m afraid I didn’t get. I’m not sure if I ever played Clue, maybe a couple of times. Sam was correct about it starting in the UK. called Cluedo (long before I moved here.)
@suejean I never once thought of Clue. There is defiinitely no PANTRY, and I don't recall an ATTIC either. Library, conservatory, hall, and no bathrooms. That's gonna bea hard one to sell!
Another long workout for me, but ended up being an enjoyable solve. Catching on to the theme was a big 'turning' point and that's always a nice touch. Two Tuesdays* for Ms. Govier. Looking forward to more. *and that led to my puzzle find today. One of the odder ones I've ever encountered. A Sunday from October 7, 1990 with the title "Midway mergers." A couple of theme answers: TUESDAYANDNIGHTINGALE LOSALAMOSANDANDYHARDY PLYMOUTHROCKANDROLLOVER Will confess that I still don't get it. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=10/7/1990&g=22&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=10/7/1990&g=22&d=A</a> ..
@Rich in Atlanta thank you for that old crossword link. I believe they wanted us to see “day and night,” “Amos and Andy,” and “rock and roll.” I really enjoyed today’s puzzle.
I needed Sam’s mention of Clue to get the theme as I just couldn’t parse the circled letters no matter how I turned the iPad. It didn’t help that I spelt DaY wrong. A good Aha moment when it all slid into focus. The game has been featured in a grid not too long ago, though I never remember which ones. I never played Clue(do), we were a Monopoly and Scrabble family, but am of course aware of the concept. A very neat twist to a Tuesday grid. Delighted to see 53A as that’s what I’ve been in for the last 7 weeks and intend to carry on indefinitely. Even better, it doesn’t prevent me from having an occasional nip (ahem, previous puzzle…not SIP) of my favourite, 64D. Happy days.
I appreciated Sam and Michèle Govier's mention of Clue, as I was almost surprised when I completed the puzzle and found no mention of the game. The echoes of Clue were a pleasure, though. The only hiccup I encountered was TEASES, which I incorrectly wanted to be TEASErS, but of course the space allotted for that clue pre-clue-ded that option. (sorry)
John on the terrace with an iPhone (and coffee!) 😹
It took just short of half an hour but I still managed to finish a Tuesday properly. It might have taken me somewhat longer if those circled letters hadn't been there to provide useful crosses.
Today’s Crossword had an erroneous clue…31D there is no yeast in sourdough starter.
Sourdough starters have wild yeast in them, that’s how they make the bread rise.
@Anne, True, but the clue was for an ingredient in sourdough starter, which implies something that needs to be added. Sourdough starter is just water and flour
Fun puzzle - the theme/circled letters I got somewhat early on, and it was a quicker than average solve from there. I did have a mistake of TEASEd instead of the correct TEASES that took an embarrassingly long time to find.
@TESmith I had TEASER, so same problem!
This puzzle made me hungry. Need to wiggle down to the pantry, I reckon!
I was just sure we were looking for CHAIRS or something. And "S-ree_" had to be SCREEN, so I was misdirected for a bit, until the island north of the Philippines got iin the way... Trickery at 21D, too. ELBOW ROOM, LEBENSRAUM, what th'? TINCTS...hmm. I use TINTS or TINGES. The practice of INTINCTION during Holy Communion... (SamE never allows more than TINCT, and the Bee is allergic to S....) More than the usual Tuesday, I'd say. Nice. On with the day.
It's sad that it took more time to read the blog and decipher the gimmick than it took to solve the entire puzzle without ever discovering the gimmick.
@Eddie This is indeed one of those puzzles where I ignored the circles and figured out what they were there for after the solve. They were completely unnecessary for me to solve the puzzle. Others may have needed a letter or two because they were stuck on a word, but I'd hardly be able to say where that was likely to be. Everything in this puzzle seemed straightforward and simple to me.
A fine confection with some nice chewy bits. Many thanks.
I still do not get the little trick but it did not prevent our Gold Star. My inner 12 year old always chuckle over ANISES and for a bonus today it is plural. ko is rolling her eyes and looking for the nearest exit. Thank you Michele a very pleasant Tuesday/
I don’t think I’m the only one but I spent a extra 10 minutes on this fine Tuesday puzzle because I started 43 across with an O rather than an E.
@Ray Hagan I saw right away that it could be either. In such cases, best to leave it blank until you figure out the cross. Or use the pencil feature in the app. Or sometimes I put in a rebus like (O/E) to remind me of the possibilities when looking at the cross. .:.:.:.:.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term 'NATTER', it rose in popularity after Spiro Agnew described Nixon's critics as 'nattering nabobs of negativism'. While I didn't like his politics, show me a politician today who could turn that phrase.
@Allen Spiro Agnew did not come up with the famous phrase "nattering nabobs of negativism." It came from the pen of William Safire, presidential speechwriter who for many years wrote the "On Language" column for the New York Times Sunday Magazine.
I’m surprised that I don’t see more whinging about TINCTS. The stuff that colors a tincture is more usually a TINT. Oh well, not fatal.
Juniors take the SAT. Freshmen and sophomores take the PSAT.
@Janna Straub In my recent experience as a testing coordinator of a NYC high school, a post I have continued in since my retirement from full-time teaching, I have seen a trend toward giving the SAT in the junior year and the PSAT in the sophomore year, but seniors have always (and can still) take (or retake) the SAT as a first-semester senior, and juniors can take the PSAT in the fall of their junior year. The College Board has programs for students to take the exams even earlier, as early as 8th grade for the PSAT, but I wouldn't say that as a general rule, they or HS freshmen take the PSAT. I'd say they have the option of taking the PSAT. And of course, the clue is fine as it is because it doesn't have to include every grade that takes the exam.
@Janna Straub I recall taking the PSAT as a junior. Granted, it was over forty years ago. Your comment has me wondering if it's changed since then, and if it's codified for all high schools everywhere. Would you happen to know?
@Steve L, our kids take the PSAT their Junior year here in TN. It’s a big deal because that’s what is used to determine National Merit Scholars—your 11th grade PSAT score.
Nice Tuesday, Michèle, glad to see you back here again. Liked seeing the rooms from Clue show up after experiencing the secret passages not too long ago; and I liked the way they presented themselves. This went fairly fast, but I did have one correction to make, on the landmark used by the Prudential companies, but it didn't take long to fix it.
@JayTee I’m not sure this “Clue” connection really works with this puzzle. There are nine rooms in the board game (ten if you include the inaccessible central area where the cards are, often referred to as the stair or cellar). As hinted at in the constructor notes, only three of these would need to be excluded because they contained ROOM. Of the five WIGGLEROOMs in this puzzle, only two (LOUNGE and STUDY) appear in the board game. IMHO, hardly worthy of playing such a significant role in the column today. Not meant so much as a complaint, but rather it puzzled (!) me a bit.
Hey Sam, if you’re into old school, coal-fired pizza, I highly recommend John’s on Bleecker in the west village. Then you can walk down a block or so to Rocco’s for some excellent cannoli.
@Warren I grew up on John's. It's still THE pizza in my book. At the risk of opening the great pizza debate...Even though I've lived in CT for the last 30 years, John's beats New Haven any day.
Strands #58 “Pour it on” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🟡 The title doesn’t work for me. And I learned that I don’t really know how to spell a couple of words.
@Eric Hougland Strands #58 “Pour it on” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🟡🔵🔵 It did take a bit to get several spellings even though I was sure the words were there.
@Eric Hougland 🔵🔵🔵🟡 🔵🔵🔵 Yeah I don't really associate the spangram with pouring. If it was "Spread it on" that would make more sense.
@Eric Hougland Strands #58 “Pour it on” 🔵🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵 This was the fastest and easiest one for me so far. Yay.
the PSAT is actually taken prior to junior year. (the PRE SAT). the SAT and ACT are taken by juniors and are the official college prep exams.
@aidan - It was a very long time ago, but this National Merit scholar took his PSAT in 11th grade. Has that changed? 10th seems a bit soon to determine such things.
@aidan As Steve L has previously pointed out, there are forms of the PSAT that can be taken prior to the Junior year. However, one of the main reasons for most students to take these in the Junior year is that is the requirement to use only those scores to apply for the National Merit Scholarship Program. From the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC): “Can sophomores qualify for National Merit recognition? No. Even if your scores are high enough, you will not be eligible for National Merit as a sophomore unless you will be graduating a year early. In that case, you should contact NMSC or your principal about next steps as NMSC has no way of automatically knowing your eligibility.”
I thought it was a pretty reasonable Tuesday. Well over average time for me though because I always want to spell SINO as cyNO. Which I did at first before correcting it to cINO and eventually (after much fly-specking) to SINO. KETOSIc ending in a “c” sounded fine to me (like diabetic). My other problem was misreading the revealer clue. As someone who works on planetary spacecraft missions, perhaps it is understandable that I missed the “to” in the clue and thought they were looking for a “space maneuver”, of which there are various kinds that spacecraft can do 🤓 .:.:.:.
Answer to 49 Across is incorrect. The agency that funds PBS - the Corporation for Public Broadcasting - is an independent federal agency and not part of the NEA.
@DM But the NEA provides a significant amount of the funding.
@DM I’m not so sure that the clue is inaccurate. If you go to the PBS.org website, in the section “Government in the Arts” it specifically refers to funding from the NEA as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities. “In fact, both agencies provide support to some of the most popular programs…on PBS.” See: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/4vveh6sv" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/4vveh6sv</a>
I really appreciate a Tuesday that solves quickly, but was certainly not a fill-in-the-blank. I had to suss a little! Tuesday sussing! And I loved finding GARR KETOSIS TINCTS TARO LAMESA in an early week puzzle! Sure there was an OREO, but nice to add a few spicier ingredients to the recipe! Fun! Thank you!