Am I the only one who thinks 8 answers starting with "J" is pretty cool?
@hbl I didn't notice until you pointed it out, but I like the letter J so, yeah... pretty cool! :) ...................................... ........................ ............
@hbl I always notice the J’s but didn’t notice just how many in this one! <3 it!
@hbl Thank you for mentioning this! (I'm a bit partial to the letter 'J', liking my 'J' name.) A very fun puzzle for a Thursday!
"Are you going to the hearing specialist?" "Yeah, but I've got an ear-ie feeling about this." ("No worries - his methods are sound.")
@Mike He was booked when I tried to make an appointment, so I saw one of his hearing aides. Emu'ved my appointment to his assistant.
I've never commented here before. I thought I'd give it a shot today because I just scored my first 100 day streak AND had a rebus puzzle that didn't make me want to scream! Great puzzle, thank you!
@Capnsue Congratulations on your triple-digit streak! Perhaps by the time you hit 200, you’ll have seen more rebus puzzles that don’t make you want to scream. They have a way of growing on you if you’re open to the concept.
Congratulations, @Capnsue! Way to go!
Smiling ear to ear after this one. Fun and just tricky enough, with no tEARs shed. Thank you Royce, and congratulations on your Thursday first. You're a dEAR! (This 🌽 is for you, Emu!)
This is the first time I've done a puzzle with a rebus and actually filled in the revealer and the rebuses without any help or hints! I get the hype now, how satisfyingg. I hated them before because it never even crossed my mind when or how to try a rebus, leaving me stuck and mad. But this one kinda naturally came about which put a smile on my face :)
@Alena That’s the insidious way rebuses work. Welcome to the dark side.
@Alena I’m so pleased with your comment. If you look a little back, you’ll see a previous comment of mine in which I recommended this as a perfect Wednesday rebus. I am not in any way demeaning you, but I’m simply pointing out that many relatively new solvers are frustrated with most rebuses, and today we had a really great entry-level rebus that was solvable by, I think, many more puzzlers than usual. I so love your comment, it’s so late, if it’s okay with you, I may repost it tomorrow (BA recently taught me how to do that).
Congratulations, @Alena!
First Thursday I've solved with no hints!! I know it may have been a bit easier for regular solvers but I think changing it up tricky-yet-approachable puzzles such as this one do a lot to grow the community. Fun puzzle!
@Dan Me too! Perfect difficulty
@Dan Nothing like the first time. True for crossword puzzles, too.
Fun rebus puzzle! The clues containing rebuses were very fairly clued. That combined with their predictable placement on the “WALLS” meant this puzzle came together fairly quickly. Well conceived and constructed in my book. Bravo!
I took a moment, before coming to the comments, to JIVE to DURAN Duran's "A View to a Kill." I saw them in concert last year, and they were outstanding. <a href="https://youtu.be/Fp4CR2HcHLQ?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Fp4CR2HcHLQ?feature=shared</a> (Thank you for including them in the puzzle, Mr. Ferguson. And a shout out to Deb for sneaking Outlander into the column. I just binge watched seasons 6 and 7 and am still high on it!) As a whole, I had a great time with this grid, figuring out where the EARs went on the walls once I got the revealer. There was an ease to the clueing and fill, which I found appealing. It made for a very smooth and delightful solve. Thank you, Mr. Ferguson, and congratulations on your first Thursday. BRAVO!
Yes, a bit easy for a Thursday, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Folks sure get a little bent out of shape in the Comments section. Not every puzzle can live up to your own personal idea of a "perfect puzzle". That's a ridiculous expectation to have. Perhaps "personal constructor" will someday be as viable an occupation as "personal chef". Congratulations on the publication of your first Thursday puzzle, Royce!
@Joinville : People who don't share your opinion are "bent out of shape?" 10-4.
The two moments I remember most: • Filling in THE WALLS HAVE EARS off of the first two and last three letters. Kazaam! And … OMG, what a lovely phrase! • My brain shouting “IVEY!” upon seeing [Phil in the Poker Hall of Fame], and me bewildered and stunned that I knew this, not knowing from where. I see he’s shown up a few times over the years in NYT puzzle, but man, the things we have lying in wait in the nooks of our brains! Thrilling solve for me. As rarely happens on Thursday, it was as though I woke up in Royce’s head, just started filling in answers, waiting for stuckness, but no, rub be gone! Along the way, lovely perks, like the scintillating answer OPALESCE, and lovely clue [Odd, duck, maybe?] for DECOY. Speaking of memorable things, take a look at the grid design of his Saturday, 7/25/20 puzzle – ( <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/2020/07/25" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/2020/07/25</a> ). Elegant, gorgeous, and wow! Royce, you repeatedly hit my happy button today. Thank you so much for making this!
@Lewis -- For those who don't have access to the Times puzzle archives, here's Royce's 7/25/20 puzzle on XwordInfo: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/25/2020" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/25/2020</a> . Et tu, emu.
Good call! The spanners in that puzzle were dazzling, yet thanks to some strategic cluing, it wasn’t so terribly difficult. I’ll have to keep my eye out for more from Mr. Ferguson.
Ok, this is probably my favorite of the often troublesome Thursday puzzles - more smiles than frowns in working thru it. It was, dare I say, fun!
Loved it! The perfect rebus puzzle: impossible before you figure out the trick and very smooth sailing thereafter. Because once you have the revealer, you know exactly where the rebus answers will go -- a huge help! I had the advantage of having often heard the expression THE WALLS HAVE EARS -- which, if you haven't, will make the puzzle tougher. Because I had ACL??? and wanted ACL TEAR, as soon as WALL came in at 7D, I wrote in the expression and I wrote in the TEAR rebus. I had wanted WEAR AND TEAR at 1D from the get-go, but couldn't make it work. And now I could. I decided to go the the other "walls" and try to get them all without crosses. And HEAR YE, HEAR YE, I did. All 3 of them. I was helped by the fact that BEAR STEARNS used to be my broker before it folded. I live for double-rebus answers like these! Very well-chosen themers and a smoothly-made grid. One small critique. To ARREAR: ALCOHOLS would like to gift you with its "S". It doesn't need it and you do. But a small price to pay for a really enjoyable puzzle.
@Nancy "To ARREAR: ALCOHOLS would like to gift you with its "S". It doesn't need it and you do." Love it! My favorite comment today.
@Nancy I always feel better about my liking a puzzle when I read that you do, too. I agree that with the clue ALCOHOL would have also fit. ALCOHOLS feels pretty natural to me, as a chemist, because there are a large number of alcohols. Of course, we only drink one kind: ethanol. Still, I think it's common to use the plural in the sense of "we have a variety of alcohols for sale".
This is about as perfect a puzzle as I can imagine. Lots of fun fill, but I suspected something was up in the southeast corner when I couldn’t fit anything in for Unpaid debt. I’ve learned to be patient and just keep going, while staying alert for a rebus. This is Thursday after all. Once I got the long revealer, the jig was up and I romped through the rest. I especially like when the theme helps keep solve other clues. The last to fall was EARNER. Thanks for the great fun!
Harvey and Seeley Mudd and others in that family are worth looking into. They did a lot of good things with their money. I haven’t had crêpes Suzette since somewhere around 1982 but now I want some. As all of my iris are now in bloom, I wanted iridesce, but opalesce will do fine. Both lovely words.
@David Connell IridESCE cost me a little time. I had never seen that word before it was in a 2020 puzzle.
@David Connell My Saeva Mater had a Seeley G. Mudd library--one of many across the country. It. like the rest of the campus, was constructed on rather swampy ground. The lore was that, in its planning, the architects took into account the weight of the building, but not that of the books; thus, the entire edifice was, well, sinking in . . . Not to be confused with Harcourt Fenton Mudd, of Star Trek fame. How would you, David, describe the difference between opalesce and iridesce?
I enjoyed it, and my solve was a little slower than my average Thursday. I feel like this week's solves have all been a little slow--but maybe I'm just a little out of it this week. So many other things I ought to be doing! A singular ARREAR just sounds weird to me.
@Liz B Are you saying there’s a reason they don’t sell just one hot dog bun in the grocery aisle? cc: emu handler
You know what else fits at 45D? Lehnmans, which actually worked briefly until I figured out what was going on with the rebuses. And that there were two possible California Harveys, Milk and MUDD. It seems to me that as time has gone on that hints that a rebus puzzle is afoot have become broader. Finally, I enjoyed all the proper names in the puzzle, which at some point some people will no doubt be along to complain about. WELL DONE, Mr. Royce.
I love the smell of rebus in the morning, it smells like...victory. Also, the sounds of LOONs in the afternoon, which I got to hear last weekend in the North Country. Pretty much off the grid up there, so the streak of 100+ is ended. Oh well, not really bothered.
@Grant I'm in the North Country as well, Grand Marais, MN. I love the sound of loons. I have a dark spot that I set up my telescope, and there's a lake nearby, so I often get to see the Hercules globular cluster while hearing the sound of a loon. I don't think I ever feel much better about life than at those moments.
Easier than I expected. I was surprised to hear the happy music. Now I can go to bed early!
Fun rebus puzzle today, and one in which I actually used the revealer. I liked the two four-letter canal locales, the rhyme at 43D and 44D, and the callback at 31A to today's Mini. In other words, it wasn't just the rebuses today. Thanks!
I do think maybe at least Thursdays are getting easier—the only trouble I had was the cross of Ivey and TCBY, whatever that is. But I had all but the Y so I took a wild guess and got the music (well not actually, I have my sound off, but I can hear it in my head). The revealer was a big help in filling in the sides. Fun and clever. I liked the clues for acne and decoy. I thought of Dewey, he was a bit odd.
@Crevecoeur TCBY is an old frozen yogurt chain
A Thursday puzzle that wasn't a struggle, with a few unknowns (a bank and an opera singer I've never heard of) that were helped by the crosses. I'm glad the rebus squares weren't shaded, that would have made it too easy. In any case, it was the perfect challenge level I needed today. Plus I learned about a new critter, the STONEFLY. 🦟
@Janine For me the STONEFLY was a gimme as it’s a very popular type of artificial fly used by fly fishermen (fisher people?). This critter, like Mayflies and Caddisflies, spends most of its life as a nymph in ponds and streams so the flies are tied to resemble that form, not the big adults that actually fly around. — — — — — — — —
@Janine If you haven’t heard of Jessie Norman, you have some treats ahead.
BRAVO, Royce! This was fun even after the trick was quickly made obvious. I especially enjoyed all the J's. I had a brief moment of thinking "Little pitchers" but clearly that was too long. Anyone else disappointed by 32A when it wasn't FRED? There is always a tug at my heart-strings, because we could have used more than 77 years of Fred Rogers in our lives....sigh. Now to see how many of us TSK-TSKed about the botched clue at 61A....Just "Noted canal" would have been plenty. "I had a mule; her name was Sal...." WordPerfect is denying access to a file it claims is "read only" and I can't get into my recipe! DHubby is heading to the eye doctor with a minor emergency, so my personal geek squad is deserting me. Prayers EARnestly solicited...
@Mean Old Lady Fred made the world better. And *hand up* for initially thinking of little pitchers. The crossings in this one forgave many potential hiccups, I thought. Inclue-ding the ERIE placement. Prayers coming at DHubby. Sorry he’s got an eye-mergency! Hope it’s not too painful!
@Mean Old Lady I enjoyed all the little J's, too! And also thought oh-so-fondly of FRED...totally agree; we could have used more than 77 years of Fred Rogers. Too bad he couldn't live forever. Hope you figure out your computer conundrum and that your hubby's eye is fixed!
This was a fun one for me; the northeast corner was where I figured out the rebus situation, and it all came together pretty quickly from there!
A gentle Thursday rebus made for a pleasant solve and I’m smiling ear to ear. I thought I knew what was up at ACLTEAR, but waited until HEARYEHEARYE to search out the rebus squares. Any puzzle that clues OPALESCE is ok in my book. I also liked the span of musical clues ranging from jazz through opera to pop/rock. For those who enjoy opera, JESSYE Norman’s voice was a national treasure. While I don’t consider myself an opera buff, I learned to appreciate the music through forced exposure in my youth. My father listened to opera all the time and always had Texaco’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera blaring on the radio on Saturdays. At the time I considered it cruel and unusual punishment, but a lot of it stuck with me. And what’s up with having two Christmas themed answers one atop the other in the middle of a puzzle released in June. Nothing wrong with that per se, just an oddity that struck me.
@Marshall Walthew Got a little ahead of myself on the month. May is not quite done yet.
@Marshall Walthew That would be The Texaco Star Opera....it was really wonderful! NPR also covered the competitions (?held at The Met?) for rising singers of opera... Those were wonderful afternoons! I was usually busy, but enjoyed the background as the story, songs, and music accompanied my tasks..
@Marshall Walthew It was fun to see OPALESCE in the grid. But I learned the hard way that iridESCE also fit.
With likely the most guessable revealer I've seen I filled in the center last night and saved the sides for this morning. Sort of like eating an *oreo*? Then with sharper little grey cells I had a lot of fun working on the 4 downs with no crosses. All made for a very satisfying solve. Also noticed all the "J's" walking around. Congrats on your Thursday debut, it was a good one.
"I love the smell of NATURE in the morning" was my first thought. Boy was I wrong! Easiest rebus puzzle I've seen in a long time. Solvers wary of Thursdays could give this one a try and see what fun they're missing.
@twoberry Oh man, I hate rebuses and usually don't even try. I got this and even had fun!
@twoberry It’s an iconic line from that movie, delivered by an insufferably self-assured lieutenant colonel played by Robert Duvall. That was one of the first answers I got.
A fun Thursday puzzle. Not too impossibly difficult, although I slogged away without knowing the theme for quite awhile. But once I got 7D, the light dawned (OPALESCED?). Bonus: though some answers were unknown quantities, the crossings meant I did not have to look anything up. Yay! "Unwanted pop-ups?" was a hoot. More from Royce Ferguson, please.
If I were a gymnastics judge I might take a few decimal points off for having to resort to repetition twice in the themes, but it definitely stuck the landing. Even getting the revealer EARly and the rebus gimmick, there was still a fair challenge and some fun clues. I think “odd duck” for DECOY ought to be one of the best clues of the week.
@SP I see what you mean… though the meanings are very different, so that buys a pass in my book. :)
Fancy! I should not be surprised that, when clue after clue gets me nowhere on a Thursday, there’s a revealer that points to just as many rebi. Yes, that’s how I plural it up.
A gentle rebus. Clues were a tad on easy side so the locations of the EARS was so easy to see. Even before the revealer! Expecting some anti-rebus converts on this beauty. … …
@CCNY don't hold your breath on converting me. New to the Crossword (though I have been on the Mini train for a year or more) and I had never encountered a rebus until this one. I'm not exactly excited for my second. I was very confused, and I don't appreciate being confused. I suppose that on the plus side, it brought me to the comments...
The mechanics of having to enter the rebuses took me longer than having to think of the answers to the super-easy clues. Sort of like how they say Mozart composed in his head faster than he could write the notes down on paper. I have something in common with Mozart!
It didn't take too long to figure out we were missing a few letters here and there. Thanks to [EAR]NER and the revealer, it was obvious where to look for the rebuses. So, the puzzle was a bit easy for a Thursday, but it still had some tricky spots along with the rebuses. I was not familiar with the STONE FLY or JESSYE Norman, so depended on crosses for those. Nice one, Royce, and thanks.
Oh, dEAR. I love rebuses, but I bet you'll get an EARful. My only "hunh" is for the singular form of ARREAR. Never ran across that before. Yes, Barry, I'll go check the dictionary.
Linda Jo, I've only run across the singular in the crossword, but I've seen it here so many times it doesn't bother me. In the U.S. (in real life) it is "usually" used in the plural; that apparently is not true in British English. <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/arrear" target="_blank">https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/arrear</a>
Good theme + Good revealer + Good rebuses = Excellent Thursday puzzle! I was able to guess the big reveal at 7-D early on, and to infer its implications for the puzzle. Nevertheless, a fine puzzle!
During the first week or so of Joel Fagliano's reign, everyone seemed to complain about the difficulty of the puzzles. During the last week or so, everyone seems to be complaining about how the puzzles are too easy. Isn't life interesting?
There was a time I really hated rebuses (rebii?). That was before I learned to think a little more out of the box. Well, in this case, more In the box. Now I really like them and have come to almost expect them on Thursdays. A well done puzzle today.
What a fun puzzle! I figured out 7D and knew there was probably a rebus involved. Very clever.
Dunno why, but just wasn't a fan of this. It felt like a lot of clues (especially in the southwest section of the grid) were just names or references to things, and I was kind of out of luck and natick-ed hard from simply not knowing them. Maybe other people would've better luck, but I'm just not really enthused about so many proper nouns crossing. That said, I did like the theme and rebus, so there is that.
@Evan I can see that, the southwest corner is certainly US-centric and maybe more geared for the older generations. Roy, Ivey, Harvey, TCBY, Sea-TAC, hogan, Al Capone. Emus are said to have excellent hearing, attuned to the frequencies they vocalize in.
As a dead tree solver with a micro-point gel pen, I cringed at the thought of having to solve a Thursday online. I'm a fast typist, but not when I'm jumping around a puzzle and not sure of how to orient the cursor to fill in the across and down clues. That takes practice! But I spent 15 hours - no exaggeration - installing a new router and getting my PC online. I've done this many times before, but obviously bought the wrong router this time. Then another 3 hours on the phone with Apple trying to get my devices online. Ya think I could then print the puzzle? Nah, now the printer won't connect. With no other choice, I resigned myself to a miserable slog. Fortunately, this had to be one of the easiest rebuses (rebi?) I've ever encountered, and it almost filled itself in. It probably helped that I got the revealer with only the first two letters filled in, and it sort of gave itself away. It also helped that I knew I needed to fill in only the first letter of the rebus. All in all, great practice for the weekend puzzles, since I may not get that printer working as fast as I hope to.
@Times Rita Putting you on the Prayer List, fellow sufferer! All of the "Help" scenarios assume that I can get the file to open so I can Rename it, which DUH! If I could do that, I wouldn't need you Non-helpers....
Outlander is an awesome series but the books are even better! (especially if you have Sam Heughan in your mind when reading about Jamie) I recommend listening to the Outlander books on tape. The reader, Davina Porter, is fabulous.
Thanks, @Dee, I’ll look for them!
Another fun one today. For some reason, each of the J crosses made me stumble, and it took me an oddly long minute to realize that tEARANDwEAR isn’t a thing. Otherwise, a breezy rebus with a spectacular spanner of a revealer. Thanks, Royce Ferguson & eds.!
@Josh TearANDWear for those artfully ripped jeans that seem to be all the rage. Even my otherwise fairly sensible 8-year-old granddaughter has a pair. ("fairly sensible"="I want to be Esther not Vashti for Purim, but not in a super-fancy dress")
I often find Thursday puzzles frustrating, but I enjoyed this one! Thanks! 🥂
Cute theme but far too easy for a Thursday. Would have suited a Tuesday nicely. Note to one poster: some of us do know Jessye Norman and are the richer for having heard her sing.
@Teresa z It's definitely a Thursday. There were enough obscure names and references that I needed six 'cheats'. I do agree with you about Jessye Norman, though. I enjoy when my favorite classical music station plays her arias, (giving a shout out to "All Classical Portland", streaming many hours of the day).
Two canals within all the ears. This was a breeze, but then I like puzzles with rebuses, they add an extra dimension sort of.
This wasn’t a difficult puzzle, but I had more trouble with it than others did. I jumped around a bit, having 2D “Facing a judge” as “On trial” (which, even as I typed it, I realized could be IN COURT). And I misspelled 35A JESSey, thought I know who she was. 53A was iridESCE for too long. It wasn’t until B[EAR] ST[EAR]NS that the rebuses clicked. When I got the revealer, I first put the rebuses in the squares along the left edge so that they were symmetrical with those on the right. Thanks for the fin, Mr. Ferguson!
Patrick of NYC said earlier, hope mr shortz recovers soon we need him. year used three times in one puzzle come on. Funny. When Will was well, there were a slew of comments about how he was washed up and should retire. Now that he's not in his chair, everyone wishes he were back. People are funny.
@Steve L My secret hope is for him to come back, but that it's not revealed for a while and see if anyone can tell that he's back.
I loved this puzzle, partly because I caught on early. There may be complaints of “too easy” but it was just right as far as I’m concerned, and I thank Royce Ferguson for a terrific theme that still got me out for my morning walk before it gets too hot. I saw the rebus early too, with HEART TO HEART, and the revealer at 7D was one of my first bits of fill, so that was a big help.
Boy, I enjoy a rebus, and figuring out the gimmick was fun, I would rather an enjoyable grid than anything else. I sometimes wonder if these sorts of themes ultimately detract from the puzzle. Outside of clues involving those eight rebuses, the rest of the puzzle involved more cramped sections and uninteresting fill than I would like (not to mention the absolute deluge of proper nouns). I don't know, this one felt like it missed the forest for a handful of really well crafted trees.
first time in ages that i got the ha-ha without looking it up.
Fun puzzle. Typical slow start for me with not a whole lot on first pass, but then I focused on working the reveal and once I did, thing fell together pretty smoothly. Actually ended up a bit below my average Thursday time. Roundabout answer history search today led to a Sunday puzzle from January 25, 1981 by Maura B. Jacobson with the title: "Crazy Rhythms." A couple of sample theme answers: ALCOTTSCHILLUNGOTRHYTHM ILOVEMYWIFEBUTOHEUCLID Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=1/25/1981&g=40&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=1/25/1981&g=40&d=A</a> ..
@Rich in Atlanta You often deride your solving skills. Why do I feel that sooner or later, you're going to say, "Ah, heck, why don't we just wager a few bucks on this one?"