Tough for a Tuesday, particularly given it was very heavily weighted toward pop culture reference from the 60’s
@Adam B. I see only 4 that might specifically appeal to us geezers: Lady Marmalade, Paul Simon, Frank O'Hara, and Liberty Valance. They're balanced by Lady Gaga, Bantu knots, and Brokeback Mountain, which are of more recent popularity. Then again, there are references to Monet, Notre Dame, Oliver Cromwell, and even Pompeii, all of which predate even me. I'd say this puzzle has something for everyone.
Felt very tough for a Tuesday. Took me 9 minutes, about 2-3 minutes above normal
@Steven M. And I was 30% faster than average for a Tuesday. It’s really interesting to see the variance in people’s solving experiences…
@Steven M. For me this was Wednesday difficulty. I needed the column to figure out the northern regions. Some of the clues were very hard for me elsewhere, too. I'm not that young, but I AM too young to know the Beatles well, I have no idea who or what lady MARGARET is, and I don't go to McDonalds, and definitely not for breakfast - my cholesterol is bad enough without it - so MCGRIDDLE was not a gimme.
With all these trucks carrying marmalade, it's a real traffic jam. (This pun preserves its purpose.)
I have an account at xwordstats.com that lets me see a bit more about how my solving time on any NYT crossword puzzle compares to other days. It also gives me the median solving time for other people who have such accounts. If you thought that today’s puzzle was hard for a Tuesday, you’re not alone. xwordstats.com rates it as “Very Hard” in comparison to other Tuesdays and says that 80% of their users solved more slowly than their Tuesday averages. If you’re at all interested in seeing that kind of data, consider signing up for an account. I’m not obsessed about my solving times, but it’s nice to see a little more context in which to evaluate any particular puzzle’s difficulty level.
@Eric Hougland I agree, it's a fantastic site! Love the extra data. Sometimes if i only have like 20 minutes I'll briefly glance at the rating for a Saturday to see whether I'll be able to fit it in, haha.
@Eric Hougland The site is actually xwstats.com. Using the URL you gave won't work. Even though you can say either MCGRIDDLE or MCGRIDDLES. !!!
Nice to see one of my favorite poets, Frank O'Hara, in this puzzle. O'Hara's poems mix lyricism with a dotty, mercurial conversationalism which is the hallmark of the New York School. To my knowledge, "Morning" is the only one of his poems to mention crosswords, which is weird because his poems often have such a sitting-at-the-kitchen-table-doing-the-Sunday-puzzle-in-pen sort of vibe to them. Anyway, here's "Morning." I've got to tell you how I love you always I think of it on grey mornings with death in my mouth the tea is never hot enough then and the cigarette dry the maroon robe chills me I need you and look out the window at the noiseless snow At night on the dock the buses glow like clouds and I am lonely thinking of flutes I miss you always when I go to the beach the sand is wet with tears that seem mine although I never weep and hold you in my heart with a very real humor you'd be proud of the parking lot is crowded and I stand rattling my keys the car is empty as a bicycle what are you doing now where did you eat your lunch and were there lots of anchovies it is difficult to think of you without me in the sentence you depress me when you are alone Last night the stars were numerous and today snow is their calling card I'll not be cordial there is nothing that distracts me music is only a crossword puzzle do you know how it is when you are the only passenger if there is a place further from me I beg you do not go
@Dan So glad you and I both shared an O'Hara poem, and double glad that you chose the one you did and I chose the one I did, as they complement each other quite well. A pat on the back for both of us! Cordially, John Ez
@Dan Thank you. A lovely scatter of cool and aching longing, and the end the essence of pain. I wasn't expecting this here, now.
@Dan Thanks for sharing that poem. I clearly need to become more familiar with Frank O’Hara’s work.
Well, I love Chloe’s world. The vibe of her puzzles is light, airy, whimsical, and playful. That may hide the underlying puzzlemaking skill that allows the answer set to shine. Today that world includes four terrific theme answers, I mean look at them! How can they not heighten one's mood? What amped my mood most was MARMALADE SKIES, evoking “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band”, an album that for months was the soundtrack to my life, to where without trying I memorized it. Even now, my brain is like a jukebox, where if I come across any reminder to one of those songs, I can hear it in my head as though it were playing out of a speaker. You won me over right there, Chloe. But then you threw in SITAR, which cued another song from that album, George Harrison’s “Within You, Without You”. Excuse me for a few moments while I sup on that in the player of my mind. Where was I? Oh, yes, this is a cute, solid theme that adds a bonus riddle – what do these theme answers have in common? -- to the normal get-the-answer-from-the-clue riddles, to the joy of my riddle-adoring mind. Your world, Chloe, perked me up and brightened my world today, and I’m extraordinarily grateful. Thank you!
@Lewis Sadly, the name CHLOE evokes PhysicsDaughter's previous horse, who turned out to be rather flighty (freaking out with no discernible cause)....and who threw said rider, who suffered a broken wrist....(which, if you drive using hand controls, is much more of a problem for longer time than just the basic healing....) We still refer to that mare as Bad Chloe. (Carter, a Palomino gelding is as steady as a rock...bless his heart.) I'm sure THIS Chloe is sweeter in nature.....
Good Tuesday level puzzle. Today I learned what a tucket is.
@Dave S Tucket is new to me, too. I got it by the crossing words. I breezed through the puzzle so quickly that I didn't catch the 'ladies', and was glad for the Wordplay article to point them out. An excellent puzzle!
@Dave S Many years ago, the wonderful Flanders and Swann had a sketch with a play on words using "tucket": <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GhDTVNqyWbQ" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GhDTVNqyWbQ</a>
That was the hardest thing I have ever accomplished on a Tuesday.
Wonderful fiendish grid! Here's Frank O'Hara's poignant ode to Billie Holday ("Lady Day"): THE DAY LADY DIED It is 12:20 in New York a Friday three days after Bastille day, yes it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner and I don’t know the people who will feed me I walk up the muggy street beginning to sun and have a hamburger and a malted and buy an ugly NEW WORLD WRITING to see what the poets in Ghana are doing these days I go on to the bank and Miss Stillwagon (first name Linda I once heard) doesn’t even look up my balance for once in her life and in the GOLDEN GRIFFIN I get a little Verlaine for Patsy with drawings by Bonnard although I do think of Hesiod, trans. Richmond Lattimore or Brendan Behan’s new play or Le Balcon or Les Nègres of Genet, but I don’t, I stick with Verlaine after practically going to sleep with quandariness and for Mike I just stroll into the PARK LANE Liquor Store and ask for a bottle of Strega and then I go back where I came from to 6th Avenue and the tobacconist in the Ziegfeld Theatre and casually ask for a carton of Gauloises and a carton of Picayunes, and a NEW YORK POST with her face on it and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT while she whispered a song along the keyboard to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing
@john ezra Thanks for sharing that link. I vaguely knew Frank O’HARA’s name, but since I don’t read much poetry, I wasn’t familiar with his work. I particularly liked “after practically going to sleep with quandariness.” I’ve been in a quandary lately, but such things tend to give me insomnia. (This particular quandary, on of a set of related quandaries, may have resolved itself today.) By coincidence, earlier today, I was trying to remember a word from a Strands game a few weeks ago that I had trouble finding because I was misspelling it. It just hit me that the word was “quandary,” which I had assumed was spelled with one A because that’s how I pronounce it. So multiple thanks!
Is today Thursday? Holy bat, cowman, that was *hard*! In fact, it was hard enough that I may speed up the process of transmogrifying myself into an elephant. Be excellent to each other.
@Alan Parker I like at least three things about your comment. At least. .. ..
And today, we get the 15th SET of the new week. How long until we have a full SET? (Second attempt. The rest of this is just filler.) !!!! ??? !!!! Remember when the FIRST LADY of the Philippines was EMUlda Marcos? No?
@Steve L I shoe-r do! I *flat* out recall hearing tales of her *pumped* up collection of footwear. …
Nice puzzle! One qualm — the red alcohol in a Spritz is Campari. Aperol is orange. Both are classics for a Spritz, but the flavor profiles are quite different.
Yup. <a href="https://thenextcocktail.com/aperol-spritz-vs-campari-spritz-choose-right#google_vignette" target="_blank">https://thenextcocktail.com/aperol-spritz-vs-campari-spritz-choose-right#google_vignette</a> Which one do emus choose?
@Kusar I don’t drink but my husband does, and he loves campari which is red, so I had trouble with this one too. But the crosses were good.
Harder than usual for a Tuesday. Too many cultural references.
Two really nice puzzles in a row. MARMALADE SKIES gave me a bit of trouble, as “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds” is not one of my favorite Beatles songs. Like many other solvers, I didn’t know TUCKET. One reason I solve crossword puzzles and play other word games is to learn things. I recently decided that I stood a better chance of retaining that stuff if I kept a list, so TUCKET is now there between “step and repeat” and “wigwag.” It remains to be seen whether I will ever use any of my new words, but who knows? Thank for the fun, Ms Revery!
@Eric Hougland p.s. I meant to say that after easily getting GAGA ABOUT and LIBERTY VALANCE, I tried playing Lewis’s game of guessing the revealer. Not only did I fail miserably at that, the import of “Jackie and Jill” went over my head. Thanks again, Ms Corbin, for helping me to more fully appreciate the theme.
I had to check my calendar to make sure it wasn't Friday. Sheesh this one is just too much for a Tuesday.
Loved it. Clever cluing and no junk, just right for a Tuesday. I didn't roll my eyes even once.
Unbalanced, unimpressive, and too hard in the most unfun way imaginable. Save the random google searches for the weekend puzzles.
@Mike I'm not usually a complainer, but I felt the same way.
@Mike But didn’t you love how the crosses balanced out the unfamiliar tough answers? I found it so balanced, I didn’t have to look anything up, just focus on the crosses, and POW! …there it was! Like a jigsaw puzzle, in a way. Had to rotate some of the pieces to see how they fit. I love puzzles like that.
@Mike et alia I didn't look anything up, but I did look askance at some of the entries: APEROL and IRONSIDES and TUCKET (which never came up at all in 4 years of Band, which involved a substantial amount of academic work/vocabulary/music theory)... Oddly enough, "The Man Who Shot LIBERTY VALANCE" (with a super-wimpy Jimmy Stewart role and every one of the usual Western character actors) was recently on TV... which I turn on while doing dinner prep, though that means I don't do much more than listen...
Weirdly hard. Nice one!
I hate complaining about puzzles, but I did check a few times to see if today was Wednesday or Thursday. I'm having a hard time keeping up with the dates, and the puzzles used to be a good way for me to do it. Yesterday was a real Monday, for me, but today was not very Tuesdayish. I guess what I object to is not the puzzle; once I understood it, I was okay with filling in the missing clues. It was just that it didn't feel like the usual smooth solve I've come to expect on a Tuesday. I have to admit it...it felt like work. But not every puzzle will be on my crudité board, and someone will always love a puzzle that I don't. So, I'll be glad that I finished it, even though it took longer than usual. Today isn't a volunteering day, so what was my rush? And I'll take a breath and go do a puzzle on another platform and see y'all here tomorrow. And anyway, Strands was easy. And I got all the others done. So, what do I have to bellyache about?
Happy with this puzzle’s difficulty BUT how did aperol get past the editors as red? Campari makes a red spritz, aperol an orange one. Reluctantly filled in aperol but grumbled very loudly!
Amy, As discussed in a much earlier thread, they may have relied on wikipedia, which inexplicably calls it red. Only emus drink red aperol.
i thought it was just me but i guess lots of people the this was tough for a Tuesday 🤷🏻 got it done, just a little slower than average.
I enjoyed the theme of this puzzle. I also appreciated the reference to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, one of my favorite 60’s westerns, with excellent performances from John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Lee Marvin. The movie has the theme of many 60s westerns of the transition from the Wild West to the modern world. I learned the word myrmidon from the movie. There’s also a song of the same name by the Royal Guardsmen, of Snoopy and the Red Baron fame.
@Marshall Walthew The more famous version was by Gene Pitney. The song itself was written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, who teamed up for a lot of hit songs in the '60s and '70s
@Marshall Walthew It’s been 30 years or more since I have seen that movie. It’s probably time to see it again. I didn’t remember it being in black and white (which is not a negative as far as I’m concerned).
@Puzzled Thanks for sharing that tidbit. I was unaware of Gene Pitney’s version.
Felt like Tuesday-level match to yesterday’s ditty! Not the so-fast-it-kinda-doesn’t-count type of Tuesday, which is always a happy surprise. A few I didn’t know, but the crosses were so forgiving, ‘twas a lovely, breezy Tuesday that banned Oreos and Yoko! And now I’ll be humming (singing far off-tune) “Lady Marmalade” all day! I’ll take it! Thank you Chloe!
I'm on East Coast time and not used to having the puzzle drop at 10 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. Solving last night, I thought the difficulty was due to sleepiness, so I'm relieved to find out others also found this a tad harder than the usual Tuesday. But, despite the stumbles, I loved this puzzle! Super well-crafted and with a tight theme that made me smile once I cracked it. The reveal was needed to help decipher LIBERTY (I didn't know the Lee Marvin role) and MARMALADE (of course I know the song but it wasn't so simple to zero in on it from The Beatles' huge catalog.) Not strangely, the earworm wasn't "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," but rather Labelle's "Lady Marmalade," a classic in its own right. <a href="https://youtu.be/Tn0-6n_dng4?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Tn0-6n_dng4?feature=shared</a> Thank you, Ms. Revery, for a very fine Tuesday. Had I been solving in the company of others, it would have made for a wonderful ReveLry!
@sotto voce Welcome to the other coast! We have amazing weather at the moment here in the northeast. Wishing you much the same! And yes, 10pm can start to feel pretty late, especially as the week (difficulty) progresses... I love the concept of getting the puzzle drops at 7pm! A nod to the emus, just in case 👋
A rich brew for a Tuesday puzzle, a surprise at every turn. A limb on a trunk when I had a lock, and even considered lips, then suddenly marmalade skies and I lucked out with Claude and Annie hanging around the SW. Pompeii and Liberty Valance. And Notre Dame sliding down in the SE I jumped around, that kind of puzzle, having a good time. A revery with Chloe and enjoying every minute of it. Thanks, and (TRUMPET FLOURISH) you didn't miss this time for sure.
This was a tough one! I got the revealer and theme words right away, but some of the more esoteric clues had me stumped. For the first time in a long time, I couldn’t make it through a Tuesday without some help. That’s not a bad thing. Keeps me humble.
Fun puzzle. Typical slow start for me, but tumbling to the theme was a big turning point and that's always a nice touch. Came in right at my Tuesday average. Odd answer history search today, inspired by the French lyrics of 'Lady Marmalade.' Didn't find a whole lot of anything, but one interesting result... AVEC has been clued as.... "Voulez-vous couchez ____ moi" ...several times. I'm done. ..
I guess hard to complain after a couple of weeks of way too easy puzzles full of PBs, but this is not a Tuesday puzzle. Bantu? Tucket? Liberty Valance? This puzzle relied way too heavily on arcane trivia for this early in the week.
I made this puzzle quite a bit more difficult by trying to put KID SHELLEEN (Lee Marvin's role in "Cat Ballou"--wonderful movie) in at 23A. And then there was 48A, with the Unknown Beatles song and Unknown LADY. Danish shoe? Red alcohol? Trumpet flourish? McGRIDDLE? Srsly? Plus not one, but two! Hairstyles! Ultimate puzzler: Ollie Cromwell had another nickname?? What day of the week IS this? Holy cow. I was so flummoxed that I actually considered CAT and RAT for Dracula's 'alternate form.' I need a nap.
@Mean Old Lady I thought it was difficult for a Tuesday, too.
@Mean Old Lady "Picture yourself in a boat on a river With tangerine trees and marmalade skies Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly A girl with kaleidoscope eyes…" From "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", a very well-known Beatles song!
@Mean Old Lady The most interesting thing about King Charles the First Is that he was 5 foot 6 inches tall at the start of his reign but only 4 foot 8 inches tall at the end of it because of... Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector of England (Puritan) Born in 1599, died in 1658 (September) Any excuse for a Monty Python reference! Oh, and the Ironsides was a general nickname for the heavy cavalry, which Cromwell commanded.
Definitely a hefty puzzle for early in the week. I got through it, but my tired Tuesday morning brain needed a bit more time than normal to figure everything out.
(Written for The Other Blog -- which will help explain my opening sentence.) I'm quite sure that this will always be remembered, assuming it's remembered at all, as "the TUCKET puzzle." I came here to lodge a brief squawk of protest, as in "this is a word???", but Rex excoriated it at such punishing length that there's really nothing left to say. I didn't know APEROL either and I thought I knew most of my alcoholic beverages. Of course if this one is sickeningly sweet, I wouldn't know it for that reason. But I never complain about a puzzle that's too hard for its day of the week. TUCKET and APEROL were fairly crossed and this puzzle didn't RATTLE me at all. It required a bit more thinking than I normally have to do on a Tuesday -- and that's always a good thing as far as I'm concerned.
@Nancy APEROL is an Italian bitter apéritif made of gentian, rhubarb, and cinchona, among other ingredients. It has a vibrant red hue. Its name comes from apero, a French slang word for apéritif. (Wikipedia) Pretty much the opposite of sickeningly sweet.
TUCKET was new to me, but its derivation from “toccata” amused this old organist mightily.
I performed LADY MARMALADE with a student band once upon a time. I'll spare you my version in favor of the amazing Patti LaBelle: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4LWIP7SAjY" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4LWIP7SAjY</a> TUCKET was a brand-new to me word, and the last to be filled in. APEROL was also unfamiliar, though I'm pretty sure I've heard it before at some point; the crosses helped fill both in. And with this puzzle, my no-lookups, no-hints streak has reached 300! Hope I can make it to 365 and beyond...
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen Oh you've definitely heard of an Aperol Spritz before - the Times had a piece that went viral a few years ago when the writer/copy editor declared that Aperol Spritzes were bad. It wasn't the level of peas in guac but close. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/dining/drinks/aperol-spritz.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/dining/drinks/aperol-spritz.html</a>
A sort of clumsy feeling puzzle. I was gald when I solved it as it wasn't any fun. Tucket indeed.
Great puzzle with sparkling fill. I found it a little chewier than most Tuesdays, but it didn’t cause too many hold ups. I’m a huge fan of Frank O’Hara so it was a delight to see his name come up. I chuckled at seeing Harry Styles linked with Paul Simon; Harry should be so lucky, though I whisper this as the DD has been besotted since she first spotted him in the auditions of whatever vacuous amateur carnival show he was on. I’ve had to assume the breakfast thing is produced by the Mc franchise that’s taken over the world. Ugh. I’ve just realised my post is coming over a little snippy; clearly I’ve not had enough coffee or fresh air yet this morning. To recap; I love this puzzle, with its thematic nod to strong women and fresh fill.
@Helen Wright Oh, and my first answer to 1A was tusk!
@Helen Wright I know Harry Styles mainly from his movie roles. I don’t remember being wowed by his performances, but neither did I cringe at them. And he’s easy on the eyes. Like you, I was unfamiliar with whatever a MCGRIDDLE is. I’ll probably keep it that way (sorry, Steve L). We had breakfast at a diner a few days ago and sat at the counter not far from the grille. I don’t know how people can manage to cook under those circumstances. My only restaurant work was a long time ago in a barbecue place that was not hugely popular (though it deserved to be; it is still among the best barbecue I’ve ever had).
Really enjoyed this one! I agree a bit harder than a usual Tuesday but in a good way. Esp liked cedars and pole. Everything accessible by crosses for the “you either know it or you don’ts” Thank you.
Monday’s puzzle was a let down. Using “set” repeatedly was not creative, and then jump to this puzzle, that just didn’t feel clever and was a slog to get through. Tucket, seriously?! It just felt cut and pasted together. Hoping for a better Wednesday.
I like my early week puzzles with a little crunch, and this one did it with style. Thanks for a great Tueday puzzle, Chloe. Any plans for a late week offering?
Aaaay did it without Wikipedia or any clues from the Column in under 20 minutes!
As soon as I got GAGA ABOUT, I thought, "Aha! Ladies First must be the revealer." LIBERTY VALANCE cemented that so I immediately went to the revealer and, sure enough, I CALLED IT!. Kudos to the constructor for almost getting it right. Speaking of the Beatles, I recently saw Yesterday and really enjoyed it. How on earth is Usain Bolt's nickname not UBOLT?!
This was a fun puzzle — only want to point out that technically, MCGRIDDLEs is the singular form of the sandwich, not McGriddle. I don’t make the rules 🤷♀️.
@Karen having never had or seen a McGriddles, I didn’t question it without the ‘s” on the end (and solved it from the crosses) but couldn’t help but look it up after reading your comment and you are correct! McDonald’s refers to McGriddles in the singular form on its website, e.g., “The Bacon, Egg, & Cheese McGriddles is 430 calories.” (Yikes!) Good catch but probably however people might say it in modern vernacular is acceptable. Very fun puzzle, love when I need the crosses to solve a Monday or Tuesday puzzle.
There once was a horn player, named Nan, who was so talented she could tucket. She said with a grin..............
Chloe, thank you for the lovely Tuesday puzzle. I enjoyed working the grid for the solve and had a laugh at 8d considering yesterday’s theme. Today’s theme was less natural for me to conceptualize, but when I got it based on the (terrific) clue and not the “revealer hint” everything snapped into place for a nice aha moment! Perhaps I’ll treat myself to an APEROL spritz later.
A bit more difficult than the usual Tuesday. Nice construct Chloe.
Due north was a Natick for me. I'm not a plumber and multiple vowels fit between the L and the G and all sound schleppy. Tough Tuesday!
Josh, If you don't know the meaning of "schlep" *and* you can't think of what vowel might form a shape to secure a pipe, IMO you're going to have quite a few tough Tuesdays. In Natick or anywhere else.
@Josh M It was for me, too. Fortunately I knew whatever was between the L and the G had to be a vowel. Slapped my forehead when I finally got to U.
Let's hear it for another Toughened Up Tuesday. Had to switch off autopilot to solve. MARMALADE SKIES keeps DOOKing to MARMALA DESKIES, whatever they are. Thanks Chloe.
@Vaer Add me to the list of those who are just learning the word TUCKET. “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” is not one of my favorite Beatles songs, so MARMALADE SKIES was slow in coming — probably because I was dooking it into something else.
A fun and somewhat tricky Tuesday puzzle. Made trickier by the error at 39 ACROSS. The native language of Galicia is Galician and gold in Galician is OURO not ORO. Otherwise a fun solve.
@BCN Error, really? Implying that Spanish is not a language of Galicia is not the correction of an error. It is a political statement, nothing more or less. Most of us know that various regions in Spain have had separatist movements, but as of now, none of them have produced results, and Spain remains a single country. Spanish is the official language of the entire country, even Galicia, and may I say, even your Catalonia. Regional languages are also official languages in many of the historical provinces, but of course you're still going to be able to use your Spanish anywhere you go in Spain. Of course, regular solvers that the constructor and/or editor chose "Galicia" (rather than, say, Castille or Leon) because of the alliteration, not any other reason.
This was a difficult one. I probably should have backed away from the puzzle, slowly, and come back to it later in the day. Did not know that nickname for Cromwell (I kept trying to fit in "regicide"). The clue with "trunk" made me flip back and forth between elephants and large suitcases. Could not remember whether spiders had eight EYES or eight LEGS. However -- TUCKET was familiar, from an old British comedy skit (the Two Ronnies?). And I saw "... LIBERTY VALANCE" back when movies were projected on the cave wall. APEROL? Is that a favourite of our primate cousins?
@Natdegu knew all the other ones, but Tucket, I learned today from the crosses. Always good to learn!
Theater worker here--having worked on dozens of Shakespeare plays, TUCKET was a gimme. Loved this puzzle, and actually figured out the theme before the revealer (a rare occurrence for me).