Oof, the MEHTA/INS/TINCT/HANDHOLD section was rough. Wasn't familiar with the non culinary use of entree, or what I assume is a shortening of tincture. HANDHOLD, meanwhile was the weakest of the theme answers. Good theme though
@Steven M. The proto-Indo-European root word of "tinct" means "to soak," from whence it came to mean "to dye," which is how it enters the English language as "tincture" in the 15th c. and gets shortened to "tinct" in the 16th, which is where we get Queen Gertrude pleading: O Hamlet, speak no more! Thou turn’st my eyes into my very soul, And there I see such black and grainèd spots As will not leave their tinct. Kind of neat that INS and TINCT cross. What's the color of an entree? INSTINCT.
@Steven M. I really disliked the cluing in that section. Sort of ruined an otherwise nice puzzle for me.
Five letters having to do with ketchup is ALWAYS Heinz. Everything else is tomato jelly!
Fun puzzle, but the setting of "Fiddler on the Roof" (53A) is Ukraine, not Russia. Anatevka is modeled on Boyarka, a town near Sholom Aleichem's birthplace in central Ukraine. See this, from NPR's "All Things Considered" back in February 2022 at the start of the war: <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/25/1083155890/if-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-feels-familiar-look-to-broadway-in-the-60s" target="_blank">https://www.npr.org/2022/02/25/1083155890/if-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-feels-familiar-look-to-broadway-in-the-60s</a> And yes, I know that in 1905 when the musical takes place, Ukraine was ruled by "Imperial Russia." The clue still seems extremely unfortunate IMHO.
@John Steed "May God bless and keep the Tsar...far away from us."
@John Steed I was so excited that SHTETL fit, and really dubious as it became clear that RUSSIA was the desired answer…!
“TAO” is not Confucian, it’s (believe it or not) Taoist. Totally different school of philosophy.
@Ant this bothered me too… Confucianism and Taoism are fairly opposite in a lot of ways
My daughter worked with KOKO at the Gorilla Center some years ago, and my favorite story was when Fred Rogers came to visit. (This was not during my daughter’s time there, but she heard about it.) Koko was a fan of his show, and when she met him, she immediately went to untie his shoes. Those who remember the beginning of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood will understand! Other visitors Koko greeted fondly were Betty White and Robin Williams. According to my daughter, the gorilla could be quite sassy at times, though!
What a neat facet of the English language! These were fun to figure out. Good puzzle.
I'd like to know who, thought to run this Saturday puzzle on Wednesday
@Bill in Yokohama indeed! Happen to be in Yokohama this week as well 😃 Also had a miserable time of some of this.
Much to like & admire. I particularly liked BUTTONS for Remote possibilities and ATTIC for Top-flight destination. I also liked the clickity-clackity sounds of the words in aggregate: attic, smack talk, spackle, hawkish, chopstick, Koko, railcars, kit, Keanu, acorns, soaking, sucks, stopwatch and matchmakers, and I don't know if constructors pay attention to that kind of thing, but I do. In 1506, an ancient Roman sculpture was unearthed in a vineyard near Rome and caused great excitement: the Pope even sent Michelangelo to the site to make the first drawings of it. It was not just any old sculpture but one that Pliny himself extolled as one of the greatest works of art of his time. It has been on display at The Vatican ever since. The sculpture depicts the Trojan philosopher & priest Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being attacked by sea serpents. In the 18th century, a dispute between the German art critic Winckelman and the author Lessing regarding the expression of agony on Laocoon's face led to Lessing's composing "Laocoon," an important essay in which the serpent becomes, for Lessing, a complex metaphor for the constraints placed on artists and intellectuals. Don't get me started on The Princess Bride - the book AND the movie are both fantastic! Here's the sculpture: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laoco" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laoco</a>ön#/media/File:Laocoön_and_his_sons_group.jpg Also liked the smackdown in the constructor's notes. Lil Brad-W can bring it!
@john ezra I remembered Laocoon & Sons deaths from translating the Aeneid in Latin class a million years ago (thanks for the memories, Ms. Farshtey!). Was puzzled for a bit because I thought the answer should be SEASNAKES but that wasn't enough letters. To my mind, sea serpents are fictional creatures rebuild sea snakes exist, and in my mind's eye the scene was very real. Blame Virgil for being such a vivid writer, I guess!
On reflection, I’m not sure that the punny clue for 40D is funny: 300 human beings were killed. For myself, I wonder whether we would feel ok about a clue like “Ouch wits” for CONCUSSED or “Warsaw uprising” for WINDA (the Polish word for elevator).
@Paul Thanks for sharing that. Particularly jarring on a day like today when we acknowledge past racist injustices and oppression, and worse
Oh my goodness... I just had to buzz over here to rave about this elegant, challenging, witty, overall gem of a puzzle. Best Wednesday in a very long time. Every clue was awesome... even the little guys.
"I finally read my stopwatch manual." "It's about time!" ("Now I don't have to second guess myself.")
I slight modification to a clue. Captain Kirk will be born in IOWA in the future
@coloradoz He has said the words "I was born in Iowa". Just don't think of "now" as "now now".
A tough little Wednesday puzzle (for me) I thought the theme was tight and well constructed. I got the gist of it from the first themed clue, but even then the answers weren't gimmes. I was surprised at how many compound words could be parsed into common phrases all linked with "and". Amazing! The hardest one for me was HANDHOLD. The whole NE corner was a little tricky, I had two wrong answers filled with "tinge" and "edges" which made getting the unknown names like MEHTA, SUMNER, and FANDUEL harder. Since I had a G with "edges", I thought the "remote possibilities" answer ended in ING. Realizing the answer should be plural helped me fix my mistakes and finally clear up that section. I counted 7 Ks (and a few Cs with a K sound), I don't know if this is an unusual number, but it stood out to me.
@Janine I was exclaiming "Another K!" every time! Definitely stood out to me too.
@Janine Abolitionist Massachusetts Senator Sumner is worth remembering . A Southern senator beat him up badly with a cane..on the Senate floor, I think. I've known about him since H.S. history, but it is a nice touch that our granddaughter attends Sumner Elementary School. And Boston Common has a statue of him.
The discussion concerning the relationship between “take” and “hold” reminds me of Seinfeld’s quip at a car rental agency, upon discovering his reservation wasn’t honored: “You know how to TAKE a reservation… you just don’t know how to HOLD a reservation” Iconic episode!
@Michael Lol. Great catch!
SUMNER was a gimme, thanks to history stories learned from the brilliant Heather Cox Richardson. Lest anyone think that nasty behavior in Congress is a recent invention, go read about how Sumner was beat up with a cane by another congressman who disliked a speech Sumner had given. Makes some of the current SMACK TALK seem not so bad. Maybe.
@Cat Lady Margaret Or, is what you describe just another definition of SMACKTALK?
@Cat Lady Margaret A gimme for me, too! Growing up in Massachusetts, we learned about Senator Sumner. And the middle school I attended was named for his namesake, state senator Charles Sumner Smith. Knowing the spelling was no issue: I passed his bronze commemorative plaque almost daily! That said, I thought the crosses were very fair and "in the language". IIRC, Sen. Sumner was one of the Massachusetts abolitionists who went to Kansas to (literally) fight for his beliefs -- which side that state would be on. As you referenced, CLM, much more actual violence in the political arena back then!
@Cat Lady Margaret Plus SUMNER sustained permanent brain damage from the attack... it was shameful in the extreme.
A bit gnarly for Wednesday but some of the clueing was delightfully cruel. Big name in ketchup? I had Heinz.
@Jeremy I, too, need to ketchup on my condiment brands. Same error.
62D is just flat out wrong. Confucianism and Taoism (along with Legalism) were competing ideologies in early China. “TAO” is no more a Confucian philosophy than “CAPITAL” is a Marxist one. It’s not like there aren’t 100 other ways you could have clued that!
@Sean I think this may be the most legitimate complaint I've seen for these puzzles over the last few months. A legitimate black eye for the cluers. But it got past me--I didn't know Taoism and Confucianism were in competition. Yet another way to learn from crosswords.
This is a lovely little gem of a Wednesday. Catchy theme & great fill.
Yet another clever theme that feels fresh and entertaining. PECS or LATS? SPACKLE brings back all those hours of prepping for painting, not to mention the fun with drywall mud and such during our rehabbing years...on houses that needed rather more than mere TLC. "Wounded knee site".... Hhmm, maybe too soon. That was wince-worthy...given the ongoing issues with BIA, the disenfranchised and underserved residents of reservations, life span stats and suicide rates, and more.
@Mean Old Lady "Wounded Knee" had me for a minute, because my family is visiting there as we speak! Cue "Twilight Zone" music.
Congrats to Brad Wiegmann, for quite a clever and fun puzzle. I enjoyed it, even the NE, and finished in 80% of my average time. I also was amused by the rap in Constructors Notes, so thanks for a cheery start to Wednesday, Brad. Oh, and congrats to me for 1601 solved NYT puzzles. While many, or perhaps most, of you are faster and more accomplished, I’ve improved a lot, and I enjoy every grid. Happy solver here.
A few sticky points for me in this Wednesday grid, but I enjoyed it very much! Clever and a lot of fun.
As this puzzle needed SIX cheats, it felt more like a Thursday. Lots of trick clues: "Remote possibilities" (Buttons!) "Entrees" (Ins?!!!!?), for instance. But the clever theme and the poem Wiegmann wrote won me over.
Thank you to the author for mentioning the Artemis Program. I work on this at NASA in Huntsville, and it is an amazing effort. We are returning to the Moon to build a permanent settlement on its South Pole, where liquid water has been discovered. Via electrolysis, the water can be split into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel. We are also in the process of developing and deploying a space station for the Moon. These are exciting times for deep space exploration.
@Alan Parker This is too cool! Thank you for sharing it here. I must have, erm, spaced out, and missed the news about water in the Moon's South Pole. Now I'll keep an eye out for when it's successfully turned into rocket fuel. Exciting indeed!
ACL - why are we making genocide puns? I expect much better editing from NYT and on Juneteenth of all days. Pretty reckless. I think this deserves a formal response and pledge to do better.
@B,J I’m not sure I understand. What does the anterior cruciate ligament have to do with genocide? I don’t think there was any pun intended here—there’s no “?” in the clue hinting at anything like that.
BUTTONS for "Remote possibilities?" was pure gold. Loved it! Brad's no slouch when it comes to rhymes. Maybe we'll see some word nerd battles.
MATCHMAKER MATCHMAKER make me a match...... crossed with RUSSIA.... someone knows their musicals. Cute puzzle except for TINCT as we had tinge. Thank you Brad
A second puzzle in a row based on wordplay, so I'm a happy camper. I really liked the fact that the blank + blank clues are real phrases and that the answers have absolutely nothing to do with those phrases. And the conceit almost worked in the case of every themer -- but alas, it doesn't work at HANDHOLD because HOLD does not = TAKE. It just doesn't. Does it bother me that all themers are single words other than SMACK TALK? Perhaps a little -- but not all that much. And yet it's interesting that the two themers I couldn't get without crosses were HANDHOLD and SMACK TALK. (I had SMACKT, but needed even more crosses.) TINGE/TINCT has always been a kealoa for me. As always, I wrote in TIN...and waited. Loved the clues for MATCHMAKERS (9D) and ACORNS (47A). While not especially hard, this puzzle gave me enough thinking to do to keep me happy.
@Nancy I agree. Take is no synonym for hold. I can hold it only after I take it. Bring back Will!
@Nancy Kealoa!!! I love it! Thanks for the new bit of Crossword lingo to add to ”Natick”. That one (on brand!) I had to look up. But kealoa made sense immediately! 😂
Very easy Wednesday with a NE corner that belongs in a very tough Friday. There are question marks in two clues (ATTIC and BUTTONS) plus one more that needed a question mark (MATCHMAKERS). Add the TINGE/TINCT thing. I knew SUMNER immediately and still I spent half my solve time trying to dig my way letter by letter through that corner. Weirdly edited. Just give ATTIC an easier clue and you still have a challenge there with the other clues.
@Paul Rickter It would have been nice to get a hint that TINCT was obsolete
@Paul Rickter The NE corner was tougher than the rest of the grid. But in my mind, the “of a sort” in the clue for MATCHMAKERS obviates a question mark.
Not bad at all. I'm always impressed with themes whose answers find linguistic relationships with pairs of words. Clever theme and good fill.
Taoism is not a Confucian philosophy! It in fact rejects many Confucian strictures. Let's not lump things together just because they’re Asian
I typically solve the puzzle the night it drops, finishing in one sitting (if laying in bed can be considered sitting). Last night, I had only about a quarter of the grid filled in when I started nodding off. I put my iPad down and turned out the light having not yet figured out the theme. This morning, I found some random letters scattered throughout the grid. Unfortunately, I didn’t then notice my typo of gANDUEL that I eventually spent a few minutes looking for at the end. Once I figured out the theme, I tried to get the theme answers with as few crosses as possible. That was fairly easy, given how common the theme answers are. I’m still not sure how I ended up with a time that’s almost twice my Wednesday average (not that it matters). Was it because I couldn’t come up with SUMNER? Because I had the first part of SEA SERPENTS and dooked it? (SEAS- whats?) Fun puzzle despite a bit more struggle than usual for a Wednesday.
“Confucian philosophy” is literally the antithesis of Taoism. Two diametrically opposed schools of thoughts. This was the author’s confusion.
Goodness, what a great puzzle; chewy enough to make me concentrate, but not impossible. Plenty of TILs in there, including the ketchup (what? not Heinz?), the Senator, the Spanish stroll, betting company, composer, etc etc. But the difficulty added to my enjoyment as the crosses were generally do-able. Love the clue for BUTTONS, LIONESS and SAT. Someone else here has mentioned the RUSSIA/Ukraine issue. I instinctively wanted to enter the latter, felt slightly queasy at the correct answer, though of course historically the clue is correct. I guess some facts just don’t age well.
Took me 6ish minutes to run through every part of the puzzle except the NE. Took me 12 minutes and a Google search to knock that one out. That corner is brutal.
The wounded knee clue was in extremely poor taste to put it lightly
Two thoughts: 1) Wounded knee, even though knee was not capitalized, is just a poor attempt at a misdirection and absolutely in poor taste. Editors and writer all share blame. 2) Hunts is not a big name in Ketchup. It’s what you serve to your neighbors you don’t like. It’s Heinz. Only Heinz. Geez
Going to post this longer comment regarding “Wounded knee site” for ACL as well as this coming out on Juneteenth because it is worth the lengthier discussion. The use of “Wounded knee” as a pun for ACL was so so so poor and disgusting and I can think of 2 reasons. 1. Ignorance on the Wounded Knee Massacre. It is clear that Native American culture and history are not a huge focus of mainstream education, and the victors are the ones whose stories are told. For the writer and editors, upon multiple reviews, to gloss over this clue, is alarming to me because ignorance would mean that Wounded Knee was not taught to any of you that no word associations appeared in your minds upon reading the clue. 2. Know of/heard of Wounded Knee, but not understand the severity of it, or think that it could pass because the demographic of NYT Crossword may not be majorly consisted of people who would dissent. Have similar puns/semantic relations been made about other genocides (I won’t list them, I’m sure you all can think of examples of genocide throughout history)? And if they didn’t pass, why not? What if you had data that more people who identify as Indigenous played the crossword—editors, would you still have double checked? I get this was deemed to be a Thursday puzzle but as a Brown woman who has just discovered the joy of NYT Crosswords to the point I subscribed and play up the archives, having this faux pas published on Freedom Day/Juneteenth felt so, so icky.
@AT Good points. There was a fair amount of discussion of this ill-timed and insensitive clue in the comments earlier, if you scroll down. I admit, I fall into "2. Know of/heard of Wounded Knee, but not understand the severity of it". I'm a late Boomer. It appears that the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee was required reading for later generations, but not in my time. So while I'm aware of the subject matter, I did not know it to be a landmark event in our long history of repressing Native Americans. So, to me the clue was vaguely clever, but not triggering. I'm glad to have been educated about it.
I guess I'm showing my age when I answered "CDs" as "Items stored in plastic protectors". I didn't get the happy song until I checked my downs, and changed "WCI" to "WII".
@Catherine I lived that exact thought process, too. The cross of TINCT/INS was a new one for me. I typed that “I” and suddenly got music. Quite a dramatic end to todays puzzle.
I enjoyed the puzzle and the theme. While the NE was my last area to get, I found it fair and doable with crosses. I didn't know FANDUEL but having all the crosses except TINCT figured out, it was easy to assume the N, which helped me finish off TINCT for some happy music. That section also contained some of my favorites: MATCH MAKERS, BUTTONS, and SUMNER. Super loved the references to two of my favorites: Princess Bride and Star Trek! Only 209 more years until good ole James T. Kirk is born! Can't wait!! Though I'm even more excited for Jean Luc Picard to be born!! 😉 On a different note, I'm not very nitty or pearl clutchy about clues typically, and I really love puns and word play, but I do agree with some others here about the "Wounded knee site" clue for ACL at 40D. Some things will never be funny or cute. I found this to be in very poor taste—as I would jokey references to the sites of more modern mass murders. I'll hope for the best—that perhaps referencing it at all might make more people aware, if they aren't already, but still... To a less disturbing degree, this has also been covered but it took me way too long to accept that TAO was the answer to Confucian philosophy. I know clues aren't, and don't need to be, synonymous but that seems a mighty stretch since I think they're actually almost opposites.
One of my first cars was a Toyota PASEO, which made me giggle as I got it while in my second semester of Spanish. Eventually the fifth gear stopped working and the axel almost made me lose a tire and that made me think the name was not coincidence.
@Noelle Almost as good as the Chevy NOVA.
@Noelle If you took Spanish, you should know that PASEO can mean either a walk or a ride. The latter is why the car was so named. Also, the Chevy Nova had nothing to do with “not going”.
Ooooh, what a bright and shiny puzzle! A bit tricky for me, esp in the NE corner. I must admit the link between 10D and its clue still eludes me. But overall? Love the smack talk - bring it Brad!
25A - HANDHOLD How is the second half of the clue (“take”) equivalent to HOLD? What am I missing?
@One Way Ticket “can you take this while I’m seeing the doctor” and “can you hold this while I’m seeing the doctor” - something a spouse might say in the waiting room about a book.
@DHG In your example, and in the clue, “take” and “hold” are not equivalent. “To take” something is to gain possession of, steal, wrest, remove, dispossess, etc., something from someone or somewhere. “To hold” something is to continue to possess something (that may or may not have been previously taken.) “Taking” and “holding” your wife’s book in the waiting room are two different acts. The only example that I can think of that comes close is “to take a position on some issue” and “to hold a position on some issue.” But, even though these are interchangeable, I think they still suffer from the same lack of equivalency. And I think the difference is great enough that “take” and HOLD don’t work for 25A. In any event, I’ve never encountered (or learned) the HOLD sense of the word “take”.
“Dropped behind” made me laugh, which is no small feat when it’s between 32 and 38 C, say. Stay cool, people.
Russia was my third choice after Shtetl and Poland (never sure where the border was). Also initially had CDs rather than IDs, but the down WCI made no sense. I won’t even talk about a ketchup other than Heinz.
Great puzzle! But TAO is definitely not Confucian philosophy. A better clue would have been Laozi philosophy.
@Not A Philosopher Confucius practiced TAOism in his daily life, just as Jesus practiced Judaism. I'd say the clue is just fine.
Wow! Really clever puzzle that I thoroughly enjoyed, and then a great rap to boot! Well done!
I call foul on Hunts as the answer to a big name in ketchup - it’s not. There’s only one name in ketchup - Heinz!
Taoism was a rival philosophy of Confucianism, not a subset.
I was enjoying the puzzle til the top right—ended up just giving up: hand hold, fanduel, tinct/tinge and matchmakers did me in. I think fixer-uppers are more likely to cause breakups, frankly. They say if you can build or add on to a house without divorcing you have a strong marriage. And hold isn’t taking, i tried palm but that didn't work either. I thought it was unfortunate that this puzzle had a lot of potential but too many slightly sloppy clues. The theme was cute. But Tao? Seriously, Wounded Knee? I’m sorry I hate to gripe because I think the constructors are amazing.
@Crevecoeur Once again someone saves me the trouble of writing a comment and expresses my thoughts better than I could. Thanks, I'm lazy! The northeast corner did me in and I even resorted to looking up SUMNER. For some reason I had him confused with the fort. I (kinda) agree with recent comments about the puzzles being too easy and here I end up stumped by a Wednesday.
@Crevecoeur I second that the NE was a real departure from the otherwise pleasant puzzle. For me, BUTTON was such a stretch I groaned.