My mom makes fabulous posole. My wife makes amazing pozole. Both are delicious, spicy treats. I would never correct the most important women in my life!
@Luis Bernal Sometimes we post recipes on this Comment site... [hint, hint]
@Luis Bernal And of course, if you're in ES, there's a pronunciation difference. I wonder why Spaniards would ever use the -Z- spelling, given than Mexicans would pronounce either with the S sound.
I enjoyed SHTETL. I like it when an answer makes you think you've made a mistake somewhere.
"Do you always pay in bills?" "Well, sometimes I use coins for a change." ("Makes cents.")
@Mike That's a loonie idea. I'd say it in French but that's too huard for me.
@Mike I'll just add a token reply today. Tried to post earlier, but there was an obstruction -- something in the way, emus.
Ah. I love reading the comments after I struggle endlessly with a puzzle only to see how easy others found it. Insecurity: confirmed!
Ok, it's time to once again come to the defense of software developers nationwide. An IT PRO will generally be the guy who sets up your computer and your network or helps you deal with non-code-related issues. People who write software (and therefore deal with bugs in code) are known as Software Developers or Engineers (or some combination of those terms). Most software developers would be offended by being called an IT PRO. Software Developers generally have degrees in Computer Science. People who staff IT departments are generally technicians who have been trained to maintain existing software packages, not develop new ones. While it's true that they solve issues, and issues can be called "bugs", these are not bugs in code but rather issues with a working system not unlike the mechanic who fixes your car. You wouldn't say that a mechanic deals with bugs. You wouldn't call the guy who developed the Tesla an auto mechanic. Don't call the guy who developed the software an IT PRO.
@Mark These days software developers are as likely to have spent three months at Code Academy as four years at Cornell. That said any English major can write software with the help of AI. AI can also design cars. It just can't balance your tires or change your oil - yet. Change is coming and it's going to be interesting.
@Mark If you're of an age (mmm... say 40 or older), I'd be willing to guess that at some point, you've done a transaction somewhere that was in part processed by some program that I designed and coded for IBM mainframes, which I am aware was installed not just in North America, but several countries in Europe, and Australia and Japan and Korea and even... Israel. And in college I majored in... philosophy. I just kind of stumbled into my profession on the basis of a test, after some years of doing manual labor in Florida. Just saying that I don't think the terminology you reference is not necessarily precise over all possibilities. ..
Rather gentle trot around the park today, but I did enjoy it and was delighted to see Rousseau and Nolde here, especially the embedded IVE in NAIVE, and the faint echo of that in Nolde, a FAUVE. Pacino & Roker, not Jolson & Capone. ALIVE ALS. The theme has the ease of a Tuesday puzzle but there is a veneer of the highbrow, not only those two painters, but Gehry and Orson, the Bolshoi Ballet, a nod to Safran-Foer's "Everything is Illuminated," and the unusual foodie-fodder: purple rice, amaro, and posole. Like a Tuesday puzzle crashing the Thursday gala wearing a tux, a bit naive but with enough ego to act like a proper snot, the kind who would put an ice cub in a fine glass of Vouvray from the Loire Valley and declare that Marc Chagall is "neo-shtetl." You know the type of puzzle I mean. They just give off that vibe. Fine with me, I put ice in my wine too. Shy but deadly sorts. RECLUSIVE RECLUSES It's also a plus that things do come IN PAIRS here. Two kinds of acid: LSD and AMINO. Two past times: AGES AGO and ONCE. Two kinds of footwear (or foot actions): KICKS and SLIDES. Two kinds of hand-touching: a DAP and a FIRM handshake. Physical theatre? ACTIVE ACTS Rapper who signed a record contract without reading the terms? NAIVE NAS Uncle empathizes RELATIVE RELATES
john ezra, I’m hogging one of the few replies available today, to say: another one by you that is just brilliant! A pleasure to re-read.
Sometimes it’s the theme cleverness in a puzzle that stands out. Sometimes it’s the cluing, or a scintillating answer set. Sometimes it’s memories that answers evoke. What stood out for me today was the work involved in filling out the grid itself, that is, this puzzle satisfied my brain’s work ethic. I had a number of sticky places that I had to return to. They prevented me from seeing what was going on in the theme answers for quite a while. When I finally saw that it was IVE shifting to ES, the dam broke, and kazaam instant finish. But, up to that moment, I was embroiled in the sweet riddle-cracking work that my brain hungers for and reveres. I did like seeing USH, OSH, ISH and ESH in the grid. In fact, every H in the grid is preceded by an S from one direction or another. Just a little puzzle quirk that jumped out at me. And I liked seeing GEHRY, whose work makes my heart melt. But I mostly liked that Michael threw this grid out here, challenged me to solve it, and when I did, it felt well-earned; my brain was satisfied after shifting from regular to hi-test. Thank you so much for that, Michael!
@Lewis You are always so upbeat and praiseful! I just don't want to work that hard. I know GEHRY is very famous, but it's Maya Lin who reaches in and clutches my heart with her works.....
This was a clever puzzle, and I can see why it was slotted as a Thursday. It played harder than your average Wednesday puzzle would, so by that measure, it was in the right place. But it wasn't tricky enough to be a Thursday. I know that trickiness isn't a given just because it's a Thursday, but it's a letdown when there really isn't any trick at all, just a letter substitution, the kind you might find even on a Monday, with gentler clues. I'd rather have this thing placed on a Wednesday and call it a bit hard for that day than to have it on a Thursday without any trickiness at all.
@Steve L Kept thinking, “it can’t be that, this is Thursday!” But it was! So I guess today I was tricked by the ease…
@Steve L I agree with your assessment. It was a let-down for a Thursday, but also hard. I think Friday would have been fine. The theme was not fun.
I found this pretty hard, and also not that much fun for some reason. The theme was fine, if not inspiring. I had a lot of trouble with the upper left / middle but worked through it. And expanses of white until I got to the theme. Well constructed I suppose. I just.... didn't like this one? I guess I've become used to more entertainment on Thursdays.
Re 6A: Once upon a time in a singing group, we were working on a madrigal with the line, "Weep O mine eyes, and cease not..." The director warned us about our diction, so that we did not "... see SNOT."
@dlr, same! John Bennet. Here, everyone can sing along: <a href="https://youtu.be/_-3vvR8WOlE?si=botsS-mnqYoy-Q69" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/_-3vvR8WOlE?si=botsS-mnqYoy-Q69</a>
@dlr That reminds me of an ad I used to hear on NPR. I think it was a PR firm and the ad had a line that said in part: "creative and effective solutions" It sounded so much like "creative and defective solutions" that it made me wonder who would hire such a firm. It ran for a very long time and used to bug me to no end.
@Nancy J. Hahaha! To all on this comment thread. Around the time of the aftermath of January 6th, I heard on a weekly business talk show, “And don’t forget to read this week’s sedition:)!”
I confused “Everything is illuminated” with “The Theory of Everything” and wound up in deep SHTETL.
So after a night of fretful insomnia, worrying that my tossing and turning might disturb the one sleeping next to me, I decided to get up an hour before the alarm, do a crossword that I might not have time for otherwise, and still have time to read Wordplay. Of course, many of the comments today will be attempts to come up with alternative entries: it's not as easy as it sounds, since, for the ones in the puzzle, the two parts are unrelated etymologically, or so far back it makes no difference: "alternative alternates"? See what I mean? However my current insomnia seems to be an example of one: RESTIVE RESTS.
@Bill Expanding on a quite good one from john ezra, below: [Ill-considered vote-downs in the Scottish Parliament].
15D is quite a stretch, although the cross makes it solvable. Granted, Spanish is a second language for me but I have never seen “pozole” spelled with an “s” and a lazy review of the Google results suggests that the “s” spelling is not widely accepted.
@Darren B I’ve never seen it spelled any other way than POSOLE. Maybe it’s a regional thing?
@Darren B it’s certainly not used anywhere in Mexico, and I audibly groaned when I realized my “mistake” was spelling a word correctly
I hate to say it, but this was a great Wednesday puzzle. I feel bad for the constructor who obviously can't choose the publication day. I suspect the editors simply aren't getting enough Thursday level submissions that have novel, tricky tricks, without being incomprehensible. Many of us have seen all sorts of rebuses. We've seen answers that veer off in different directions or merge with other answers. We've seen answers that go backwards, upwards and off the grid. We've seen black squares that are black holes or letters. We've seen sunny days that we thought would never end. I'm not saying there are no good Thursday ideas left, but they might be pretty tough to find and bring to fruition. BTW, in order to be (more)annoying, I have decided that from now on my pronouns are US/HERS.
@ad absurdum Speaking of USHER. <a href="https://youtu.be/O1d2DYZZrek?si=g-qgfOSHP8TJe1oY" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/O1d2DYZZrek?si=g-qgfOSHP8TJe1oY</a>
I really look forward to a tricky Thursday, so this was a little disappointing in that respect. Otherwise, it was enjoyable, with especially good clues for POSE [Strike one!], and BEAK [Cardinal point?] As far as the POSOLE/POzOLE argument, I've seen both in cookbooks. I've cataloged all of my cookbools in an indexing website, and in my personal library, there are 11 appearances of POSOLE and 9 for POzOLE.
I learned a lot from this puzzle —just really interesting but still get-able clues. And I laughed out loud at the revealer! We’ve all changed!
It’s not a terrible theme but is it worthy of a Thursday? Hardly. I miss a good, tricky rebus. This theme is nicely cohesive and there are some great answers in here that go beyond crossword-see: POSOLE, SHTETL, SCRIP and PROPHESIED were all strong. But the trick to the puzzle isn’t worthy of a Thursday imo.
@Alexandra Almost exactly what I was going to comment. The puzzle was challenging enough, but the theme wasn't quite up to Thursday trickiness. Not quite a complaint, I still enjoyed solving it.
Anyone else find the SHTETL/EMIL/SETI crossing challenging? No? Just me? Seems there's a general consensus that this puzzle should have been a Wednesday. I, for one, was happy to have a slightly zippier than normal Thursday puzzle at my fingertips. And who doesn't love an emu spotting? Favorite clue: toss up between 15A and 57A, the latter of which I filled in on my first pass. Consistent solving is certainly improving my reaction time on those question mark clues. Happy solving to all!
@Michelle me too! That as one of my hardest spots. The northeast was also super hard for me. I agree- maybe the theme was Wednesday-ish, but the other clues (especially the crossing you pointed out), I thought were Thursday-level difficult.
Yup easy peasy, breezed through it in a tad under 6 hours - almost 20 seconds slower than my average time for a Monday - which I generally find too easy for me to even start the week. So I actually wake up after the weekend on Wednesday ensuring that I can kvetch about the utter simplicity of it all. I can only hope that we can add days to the end of the week - Emuday and Nattickerday - so that my brain can be properly exercised. At this level of simplicity my late onset dementia might reemerge… Breathes out. I quite enjoyed it and found it perfectly challenging.
@William James You "breezed through" in a tad under 6 hours?!? I mean ... I guess I need a new explanation for "breezed through." What is your usual Thursday time? Not being mean ... just curious. ;-)
Perhaps for those that solve frequently and have developed the skill set of the adept puzzle solver, this was far too easy for a Thursday. I am not one of those people. I found the puzzle challenging, and was eventually able to solve through it without help, but it did take some time. There have been Fridays I thought were easier solves others have said were difficult. I believe it will always vary from person to person. I don’t really care what day of the week it is. I just like solving these puzzles, and I usually learn some new words along the way. To me, it felt like a well balanced puzzle. It was nice having an easier theme, as some of the smaller clues were definitely new entries in my lexicon, so having the extra crosses was a big help.
@Josh Your outlook is marvelous, very mature.
Good theme and the Eureka moment was rewarding. Some tougher crossings than I would have liked included EMIL/SHTETL and ORSON/DON (was convinced it was DOc). And we got our EMUs
@Steven M. I had issues with that too and I still haven't figured out what DON has to do with an Oxford figure. Go figure. Any help? Is this an British thing? Or a literary reference?
To me, this theme was so simple that it went past me, and I had to read Deb's column to understand that there's nothing else to this. Meh.
Thanks for the great puzzle. It reminded me to reread “Everything Is Illuminated”. Great book decades ago, but very relevant now.
Oof, this was a toughie for me; having little Spanish (French and German were the only languages offered when I was a girl), the stew, in either spelling, was unknown. Ditto the 101 verb, the Cleveland thing, the rice, the book and the Govt dept. That left a few wide open spaces. I did chuckle at SNOT, after sticking with ain’t for too long. I needed Deb to get the theme, despite completing the grid I just couldn’t see it. So, a clever grid, slightly wasted on me.
@Helen Wright 'Snot' was cleverly clued, but 'gut' was not. It was typical Thursday toughness, maybe even tougher than some.
@Helen Wright Rather a waste for a lot of us... Like sitting down to a picnic and finding PBJs or some such... POZOLE Verde is so wonderful! Our quilters' group used to adjourn to a Mexican restaurant in Little Rock after meetings (Santo Coyote, in case you're there) and that was my invariable order. The waiter always smiled and gave me a menu anyway, but we both knew what I was going to order. I lived East of Cleveland for some years, so...and OSHA (Occupational Safety is an important focus of the Dept of Labor,) is oft-seen. I have read _Ambersons_ (don't bother) but might want to read the other book eventually (long queue). PURPLE from the crosses. I'll pass....new to me!
I stumbled right out of the blocks, with Resusci ANNIE. I don't think they had DEFIBs when I took CPR. Then I got stuck trying to think of an architect who might have featured in Thackeray's Vanity Fair. Christopher Wren? Oh, you meant the magazine. My only quibble (apart from no rebus) was the missed opportunity to use "grimoire" in the clue for 28A, because it's one of my favorite words. So much eleganter than "witchcraft guide."
I loved the cleverness of the cluing for ITPRO and USHER. If the puzzle had one flaw, it's that once I figured out the trick for the first themer, it became super easy to get the other crosses. That said (and despite rex parker totally dumping on the theme), I thought it was pretty ingenious and well executed. It made for an easy Thursday, but that's only because the theme jumped out pretty quickly. All in all: kudos to the constructor and the editors.
@BAuskern I cannot for the life of me work out what the clue for USHER means
SERENER was I ere I saw SERENER. Rarely do I catch the puzzle when it drops the night before, but I'll be traveling and off-line for a week or so. Get that "read more comments" thing fixed, okay? Maybe it's the CURSIVE CURSES of the EMUs.
Absolutely loved this puzzle! Beautiful and almost poetic.
This is the 20th appearance of SHTETL as a crossword answer. Its most recent prior appearance was last year: Fri Apr 14, 2023 46A Old Jewish enclave Billy Bratton and Clay Haddock The most common clue (6 times) has been ["Fiddler on the Roof setting"].
["Fiddler on the Roof" setting]. Emus: After you fix See More Replies, please correct the last line of my post.
Not the strongest Thursday, rather gentle, and not very tricky. Nothing against the puzzle itself—it was cute, had some challenges, and was high quality as usual, it just wasn't what I expected for a Thursday as I had little difficulty solving it. I'm wondering if this isn't because of a lack of candidates. You can only publish what's coming in, and if people can't produce what you want, you have to put out what you have, and the best editing can only go so far. You can make it more difficult, but then it's just a harder puzzle. If the tricks aren't there, there's not much else you can do other than send it back for revision or run it on another day.
I am going to go through this puzzle, clue by clue, and critique each one as too easy or two difficult. Ready? This should only take five or six successive posts with the 1500 character max. Follow along closely. 1D Way too hard for old people 13A Very, very easy, especially for biochemists 6A much too hard for people who are easily nauseated 12D too easy for someone who loves to torment their grandkids with kidding. ... Get the point? There is not point in categorically stating a puzzle is too hard or too easy, in general. One can rightly say this was too hard to too easy *for me*, but to take a general statement as if it were an intrinsic property of the puzzle? That's insane.
@Francis I completely agree! The complaints about too hard or too easy are truly annoying.
@Francis I have commented several times on past crosswords that the difficulty level of a puzzle can be subjective and difficult to quantify, especially to specific days. However, not all criticism is negative. I worked in a collaberative art studio for many years. When I finished a painting other artists would spend some time critiquing it, pointing out the good and the bad. It helped me become a better artist. "This puzzle was challenging in some areas but I felt the theme didn't have Thursday level trickiness"= helpful criticism "This puzzle sucked and should have been a Wed, editor fail!"= unhelpful criticism (and really rude) Some complaints are valid, and should be taken as feedback by constructors to help improve their next creation. They already get a lot of feedback from the editors, but we are their target audience, after all. :)
This was not my wave at all so the constructors note cracked me up immensely! LOL! Thanks Michael! :)
I thought this was a cute theme. Typical slow start for me and I actually cheated a bit to get going, but then once I caught on to the trick it all fell together fairly smoothly. No complaints here. Puzzle find today was inspired by today's date. Here you go - A Wednesday from February 25, 1998 by Robert H. Wolfe. Just four theme answers in that one, but thought it was kind of cute. XRAYORINGS GMANSEMAIL AFRAMEIBEAM and... the answer that led me there: DDAYKRATION I'm done ..
I was going nowhere fast. Filled in Deb's "Tricky Clues" and had another go at it. Had the Aha! moment with one of the theme entries. A few more Googles and Whew it's done. A toughie for me.
@Call Me Al Those saying this should have been a Wednesday must be way more smart than I, as I racked up thirteen 'cheats' and it took roughly the same amount of time a Thursday usually takes me. It was a cute theme, though.
This was just the right level for me. Not too impossibly difficult, but certainly not a gimme. Several words that I stubbornly clung to had to be changed in the end. I only had to look up one word (the Mexican stew). That gave me the correct answer to "Strike one!" -- a great, funny, misleading clue, among many others in this puzzle. I am now mildly curious about "Everything is Illuminated", although films with that setting tend to be sad. More from Michael Lieberman, please.
I was so sure 1 across was Dummy that I couldn't solve the puzzle lol
@Paul Me too! Except it didn’t stop me from finishing the puzzle, as it quickly became clear that dummy didn’t work with the Down crosses. As a former CPR instructor-trainer with the Red Cross, in the very early days of teaching CPR, I really wanted dummy to work. Do you remember Resusci Annie?
@Paul I was paramedic, CPR instructor, and ACLS instructor. I have done CPR more times than I can count and have defibrillated a lot of people. I have never referred to an AED or defibrillator as a defib, nor have I heard anyone else do so with any regularity. A CPR dummy, however, is still a common term. I feel your pain.
For me this could have been a Friday, ( continuing to blame it on jet lag)
When participating in the forum tonight, please be aware that "Read More Comments" has not been loading across all NYT comment sections for several hours and is not likely to work right now. If you want to reply to something someone has posted, remember this and do not post as a reply if there are three replies already posted--maybe not even if there are two, as someone else might be posting while you're typing. Post your thoughts as a new comment until this is resolved.
@Steve L When participating in the forum tonight, please be aware that "Read More Comments" has not been loading across all NYT comment sections for several hours and is not likely to work right now. If you want to reply to something someone has posted, remember this and do not post as a reply if there are three replies already posted--maybe not even if there are two, as someone else might be posting while you're typing. Post your thoughts as a new comment until this is resolved.
@Steve L It has been fixed. At least on Android phone and NOT using app
Agree that this was more Wednesday than Thursday but it was a good standard of pleasantness.
My ignorance made itself the star of today's show. This is perhaps the hardest Thursday of the year for me. The puzzle was filled with trivia I did not know. I like learning new things, but I'd rather a Thursday struggle be the gimmick rather than the lack of knowledge on my part. C'est la vie.
Trying to find a way to say kind words to Will Shortz and to his (temporary, I hope) successor, Joel Fagliano. To Mr Shortz: Get well and bring that marvelous logic and clarity of mind back to the NYTimes puzzle pages. If that is not to be, please enjoy a healthy life beyond the pages of the Times Magazine (my favorite guilty pleasure)! To Mr Fagliano: bravo, for stepping up to a big challenge (and, I suspect, bringing the puzzles to a new and younger audience). To both: Thank you for many hours of head-scratching and eureka moments! Allegra McFarland <a href="mailto:allegra@earthlink.net">allegra@earthlink.net</a>
@Allegra McFarland That is Port Townsend. And I love emus.
@Allegra McFarland And you found it. Brava. What a kind and lovely comment.
What do you get when you cross a Thursday puzzle with a Tuesday/Wednesday theme? Methinks it’s this puppy right here! I enjoyed it. I've seen both spellings of the stew, equally. So, I never know how to spell it. And SHTETYL is just plain fun. Because…crosses. SNOT made me work for it. An odd one, but it scratched the itch. Hoping for a very Friday Friday tomorrow!
I agree with Deb that it was not a difficult puzzle, but it was fun. Serener, though?
@chris When I say SERENER in my head I hear someone saying Serena (Williams) in a Brooklyn accent. Fuhgeddaboudit.
Solved the puzzle last night and still haven't been able to get over my disappointment that this was the Thursday puzzle, which isn't fair to the constructor, so sorry for that. My time to solve, which I generally don't pay attention to, was very close to what my average Wednesday solve time is, so I agree with Steve L and others that this would have been a very nice Wednesday puzzle. Strike a POSE. (Some very impressive fan work here.) <a href="https://youtu.be/vAxafxgHt5U?si=cCmVYnmNyhvlAoC0" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/vAxafxgHt5U?si=cCmVYnmNyhvlAoC0</a>
@Vaer "Disappointment that this was the Thursday puzzle"? Disappointment? My God, if disappointment is what you feel, I can't imagine what the rest of the world must seem to you.
ITPRO is close enough for crosswords. I worked in the IT department for 20 years. The department consisted of developers and people who provided hardware and software support. I consider everyone in the department an ITPRO. The clue was a clever bit of misdirection, as I had considered the possibility the clue wanted another word for entomologist. (This is in reply to a previous thread, posted as a new comment due to the VIEW ALL REPLIES bug. Ironic.)
@Jim Agreed on the clever misdirection. In my experience, most of what an ITPRO does out on the production floor to debug software is click an "enable Java" button, or download a patch. You know, things the rest of us don't have permissions to do. I have no idea what they do inside the IT Cage of Mystery. Moe EDITors and IT PROs, please, and fewer EMUs.
Late puzzle finds: This started with me wondering about homophonic themes - specifically I thought about something like: CZECHMATE. Welll... a search for answers containing CZECH brought up a host of puzzles with homophone joking clues and answers. Just one example: a Sunday from September 3, 2006 with the title "Triple Play." Some theme answers: CZECHBIMALE KNOWSFOURGNUS BAREINMINED MEATBUYCHANTS BORNETWOLOOS And some other 'czech' answers that have appeared in other puzzles: CZECHPLEAS CZECHSFORERRORS CZECHKURDPATTERN TRAVELERSCZECHS CZECHKURDPATTERN And there were several more. I'm done. ..
Overall, found the puzzle fun and challenging. Solved it 4:38 faster than my average, but was frustrated by the spelling of “posole”, which is just incorrect. Nowhere can I find pozole spelled with anything but a z. I think contractions in puzzles are fun. I even love puzzles where some of the letters are missing or that one where they were reversed between two clues or ran on into others. But you can’t just spell a word wrong so it works in the grid.
I loved it! Glad it was submitted and not rejected 😁
I don't think I've seem shtetl in a puzzle before, so when I had filled the last 3 letters only I was sure I'd made a mistake somewhere. Took a while to fix, especially as I had ecosphere, not exosphere. Sorted all that out, after I changed slades to slides, neither of which made sense but here we are. And I still was waaay below average for a Thursday.