Great debut, Anthony. Enjoyable puzzle with a likable theme. Also, kudos for placing TRAVIS and his lady love in the same puzzle without mentioning their relationship. 😎 AGLETS is one of the words I am always amazed that I remember. Have a good Monday, everyone!
@Pani Korunova I don't follow social media so did I miss something? Has Travis Kelce left Taylor Swift for Ariana Grande?
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Items often stored in plastic containers (3) 2. Dropped behind? (3) 3. Dancer’s haul (6) 4. Sign of sluggishness? (5)(5) 5. Creative outlet? (3)(5) IDS SAT SLEIGH SLIME TRAIL ART STORE
Lewis, Thanks ... and welcome back. Hope you had a good time. emus in nc
"You're using barbells on a cruise ship?" "Just weight and sea." (This pun is uplifting.)
@Mike About 20 years ago, my husband and I sailed from Southampton to NYC on the Queen Mary 2. The seas in the North Atlantic in September can be a bit rough. One day, we went to the gym, which was near the bow. It was an interesting physics lesson as the perceived weight of a dumbbell changed as the bow pitched up and down.
@Mike And then there are the barbels on a catfish... ....waiting to see what you make of THAT!
@Mike I wouldn't make Ahab it of it though—if you overdo it, it would be your own vault. 🏋️ 🐳 Emus are ready for anything.
Congratulations on a memorable debut, Mr. Grubb! Great clueing, making for an unexpected challenging puzzle, which even had me thinking I would stall on a Monday. And the theme is definitely one of those that makes me ask, "How do they do that?" Altogether very impressive!
Surprised to see two entries in a Monday puzzle that I needed all the crosses for. Better brush up on my Japanese. 🤓 .:.:.:.:.:. .:.:.:.:.
Wonderful debut! Shindig, what great word, apparently been around since the 1850s - when people dance so wildly they kick one another's shins. I guess you could use KNEEPADS when going to one! I also dig (and my shins dig it, too), in the cluing for sofa, the word "doghouse," since dogs sometimes mean one's feet (as in, "After that long TREK my dogs are really aching!") so DOGHOUSE is kind of a spare themer. Hard to think of others. ELBOW ROOM maybe? BACKSTAGE? Glad they let you get away with UDO on a Monday: I had to use my noodle -- and I'm not talking my udon -- to come up with that one. That and Ikebana, very sleek indeed. Enjoyed RUBIO crossing with FRAUDS, but that's because haters gonna hate! MINI theme alert with those Watergate TAPES, as the initial act was the break-in of the DNC HEADQUARTERS. They could never get Nixon to ADMIT to any BACKROOM plotting, nor was it ever shown how Rose Mary Woods could accidentally SLIP and erase a crucial 18.5 minutes of those tapes. After Nixon delivered his resignation speech he famously gave America a THUMBS up. <a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/richard-nixon-gives-the-thumbs-up-after-his-resignation-as-news-photo/2667927" target="_blank">https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/richard-nixon-gives-the-thumbs-up-after-his-resignation-as-news-photo/2667927</a> Ah well, those were different ERAS, we lived through back then -- to think I could be nostalgic for the early 70s... (Props for having Travis Kelce appear here too, may he never be in the doghouse.)
A fun Monday, with a sprinkling of Japanese! In March 2020, our youngest son was weeks from his undergrad graduation. He finished via Zoom, and we spent the next year like many others- not learning how to knit not cleaning out the basement not planting an herb garden… Except my kid. He had a daily schedule. Set his alarm, showered *daily*(!) applied to 22 medical schools, and learned to speak Japanese. Not gonna lie, it was a *wee* bit annoying to be shown up daily by our boy. But I loved hearing him FaceTiming at the dining room table with strangers in Japan, who would just chat with him for an hour. And now he’s engaged to a lovely… Vietnamese girl.
@CCNY Japanese is a very rewarding language to learn because it’s actually quite simple to speak (learning to read takes more time) but completely different from English. (Also, many Japanese people speak quite standard Japanese without a lot of slang or shortcuts—for example, “prolly” or even “prah-ee” for “probably.”)
@CCNY Congratulations to your son on his many faceted endeavors and congratulations to you for a fine job of child rearing.
Picked up on the BODY---- after HEAD and SHIN. The ----BUILDING areas where one might DWELL only registered after I entered the revealer. No FAULT to be found here, except well-clued at 5A. And no foreign language signal needed for ROMA. A fine Monday and a great debut! Thanks, Anthony. .....
Got the theme early but couldn't guess that great revealer. What a debut. And loved the appearance of America's sweethearts--Ariana Grande and Yoda. (aka "Granda" aka "Yo, G") Wouldn't [Body building?] be a good clue for morgue?
@ad absurdum "Body Building" was the clue for MORGUE in a Sunday puzzle from October 3, 1993 by Warren M. Reich with the title "Tails from literature". Oh... and that was a really weird puzzle. A couple of clues and theme answers from that one: "Baldwin's try :" ANOTHERCOUN "Pushkin's gin :" EUGENEONE "Hardy's cure :" JUDETHEOBS And there were a total of 12 theme answers in that one. Took me a while to figure out how that was supposed to work and I still can't claim to entirely grasp how those clues are working. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=10/3/1993&g=63&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=10/3/1993&g=63&d=A</a> ..
Congratulations on your debut. I always shoot for under ten minutes on Monday puzzles, and did 9:28 on yours. However, more than once I smiled at the greater-than-average challenge you presented to start the week. Bravo!
@Haim Wright I'm never that fast! But I came in at 21 min. My fastest being 14 on a Monday. But then I am a slow poke. Like you, I smiled and really enjoyed this puzzle. it came in fast, but I had to think, and I love it when there are new words and I learn something. Ikebana ( nice off the tongue) and I now know Romas are from Maryland. Wow. Nice debut Mr. Grubb! I hope you make it back soon.
Seemed a bit tougher than most Monday to me. That's not a complaint! I was surprised that the biologists who piped up about ALGAE yesterday are absent re: 29D. Note: I have no problem at all with the clue and answer, but I am hoping some folks here might find these details interesting. If not, scroll on past... Technically, echinoderms are bilateral. However, since most have adopted a sedentary existence, and there is no need for a front end, they have secondarily (over evolutionary history) become radial -- sort of. Many textbooks will describe them as pentaradial, reflecting that most have a five-part symmetry. But wait -- what about Leptasterias, the six-armed sea star (note: most biologists don't call them starfish, since they are not fish. This is similar to most biologists never, ever using the execrable "octopi" as the plural of octopus) or... some species of Luidia, which have seven arms - or more! Or the sunflower star, my favorite Pycnopodia -- you should google this. Up to a couple dozen arms, and large, and lovely. Etc. etc. But most adult echinoderms have a distinct radial symmetry. So the clue and answer are fine. Oh - what about that little button on the top - the madreporite? Off-center.... this makes it actually bilateral. I could continue with a discussion of sea cucumbers and sand dollars, but the clue referred to sea stars, so.. All echinoderm larvae are distinctly bilateral, reflecting the bilateral history of the group as a whole. Time to end...
@CaptainQuahog But please don't stop sharing! I took Biology in HS so long ago that we dissected everything from an earthworm and a starfish (!) to a frog and a perch. It was so interesting! Due to scheduling (only one section of A Band, for instance) I wound up in the standard level instead of advanced class... but... --the clever teacher assigned teams, and he gave me the three boys who (to be blunt) made up The Awkward Squad (plus always sitting in the back of the room, making trouble.) I was a year older and miles smarter; they were so intimidated that we were the best-behaved group in the room and did stellar work. It made me think about teaching and group management in a whole new way... Hmm,, I seem to have strayed from symmetry and got lost on Memory Lane.
@CaptainQuahog "Note: I have no problem at all with the clue and answer, but I am hoping some folks here might find these details interesting."--Oh, very interesting!-- "But wait -- what about Leptasterias, the six-armed sea star or... some species of Luidia, which have seven arms - or more! Or the sunflower star, my favorite Pycnopodia -- you should google this"--trust me, I will!--"This is similar to most biologists never, ever using the execrable "octopi" as the plural of octopus"--they will always be dear little octopodes to me!--"All echinoderm larvae are distinctly bilateral, reflecting the bilateral history of the group as a whole."--Ontogeny recapitulates Phylogeny. Yeah, yeah, I know that hasn't been believed for the past, like, hundred years, but I just wanted to raise your Haeckels:-) But what a wonderful life it would be but for the C-O extinction event:-(
Great fun! I'm impressed that this is Anthony V. Grubb's first submission. I hope to see many more of his puzzles! Great start to the week!
@Joan- it’s so weird how one persons easy can be challenging for others. I thought the puzzle was more challenging by the average Monday as it took me about 4 minutes more! It was great!
My Battlestar Galactica-loving self got a little hung up by putting “so say” for 18A. I was sad to replace it. Other than that, a quick and enjoyable puzzle for me.
@Amy Me, too! I was sorry that wasn't the answer.
Congratulations on your NYT debut, Mr. Grubb! Your theme is perfectly suited to a Monday. It amused me to see HOPS next to IPA. As a fan of nicely-balanced brown ales, I’ve been waiting a long while for the IPA fad to end.
@Eric Hougland IPA is no fad. Now HAZY IPA on the otherhand...
A shoutout to Phineas and Ferb for teaching me the word AGLET all those years ago. For some reason it is committed to my memory still.
That was a really fun puzzle. Took me twice as long as my average Mondays, but that just meant a ton of nice aha moments when something finally dawned on me from the crosses. And of course catching on to the theme was a big turning point as well. Couldn't ask for anything more. Fun puzzle find today - a Thursday from April 23, 1998 by Cathy Allis. Theme answers in that one: AGROOMOFONESOWN JACKTHEGRIPPER THELONEGRANGER AYTHERESTHEGRUB Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/23/1998&g=63&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/23/1998&g=63&d=A</a> I'm done. ..
Great debut, Anthony! Very clever and fun.
Great Monday puzzle. Not too hard but some nice crunchy content for a monday with very little crosswordese.
Chuffed at the HOPS and IPA entries being next to each other.
@Jill from Brooklyn "Chuffed" sounds like a negative thing, but was pleased to learn after I looked it up that it is not. I am chuffed when I see HOPS and IPA in a puzzle even when they are not next to each other.
I can never remember the various studios! I finished the puzzle but it took a while for me to find my error. I'd put BACK door instead of BACK ROOM, which made sense to me. I don't know dKO from RKO and I simply didn't notice that I'd filled in STEAr all from crosses. Alas, I feel like my puzzling is regressing lately after this tough for me weekend. But no need to call the crosswording HEARSE for me yet... I wasn't totally ROUTed. It only WHETS my appetite for more! Anyhow, fun puzzle! I enjoyed doing it! Favorite was FAULT! Also, UDO because I like how it drops down into UDON, and then over to IKEBANA. Sort of meta... maybe, I don't know. I also like that IRON is connected nonchalantly (in my mind) to the theme. I wish it crossed BODY BUILDING though. I also don't know much about these things but based on past constructor notes, it's rather impressive that this was Mr. Grubb's first NYT submission! Nice!! Cheers to a new week!
@HeathieJ In no way am I glad for your feeling of regressing, but you sure made me feel better about the same feeling I've been having! In my case, though, I can't really say that it's just because the puzzles have been challenging. My fuzzy noggin takes at least some of the blame. I've had to resort to much inference, deduction, and language patterns to counteract my staring at the grid. It's frustrating to know IKEBANA yet blank out on AT ONCE, lol.
Nice debut, Anthony. At first I thought the theme was a little weak with just body parts. When I got to the revealer, I made a silent apology to you. Well done!
Got ahead of myself and thought 18 across was a Battlestar Galactica reference for a moment!
Though STEAM is a byproduct a geyser, in geologic terms geysers erupt water. A thermal feature that produces steam is called a fumerole. This is very nit-picky, I know, and I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle, but I’ve spent too long teaching in and about Yellowstone not to say something… :-)
@Ben yes, and most of the time when people say they see steam, they're actually seeing vapor. BTW this is technical - no need to bash me over the head with a dictionary.
Wonderful puzzle, Anthony! A witty pleasure — the first of many to come, I hope!
Whoops — that’s ANDREW, not Anthony!
Congrats on your first NYTXW puzzle, Anthony Grubb. I thought of a few other phrases that fit your theme: LEG JOINT FACE PLANT NOSE DIVE Searched my brain in vain for: REAR ?
Strudel Dad, The constructor's theme is tighter than that. All of the second words in the phrases are (or can be) *places of residence* within a building (quarters, digs, pad, room). #####
Great Monday Puzzle! Today's crossword learning adventure spanned from Japanese crafts to African insects followed by a quick dip in the ocean to brush up on starfish geometry. Cheers, Anthony! I hope to enjoy more of your puzzles in the near future.
So much to love in this debut. Hope to see more of this constructor's BODY of work.
For some reason I invented a new sport for 4D: SKIDIVE. It fits the theme, see, because that would be a good way to injure your BODY and end up in a BUILDING (the hospital).
@Cat Lady Margaret I guess, in your new sport, if you suffered only a mild injury, you'd end up in a SKISCRAPER. I'll take the dive on this one... ...
Fun Monday! I came in seven minutes below average even though I got stuck way too long because I didn't question my 67A tele answer since several of its crosses were eluding me. Two did become an "ooohh"*facepalm* moment once I decided that corner had to be the issue and began to wrack my beleaguered brain, finally "Aha-ing" with MEGA. Kind of embarrassing, but that's me on a good day.
I succeeded in my Monday challenge, yay me! I did the whole thing without looking at any of the down clues. “Can that really be IKEBANA?”, I wondered, and “I hope NETI is right because I’ve no idea what the clue for that could be!” But it all fell into place. Neat puzzle, loved the BODYBUILDING theme - very clever!
I mean I got it done without much trouble but I thought it was a little difficult for a Monday
Even the Mondays are getting tricky for me. FAULT was about my only gimme. However I really enjoyed this debut puzzle, great theme entries, and definitely look forward to more from Anthony.
suejean, The fact that Mr. A V Grubb is a graphic designer by trade probably has furnished him with plenty of the accoutrements of puzz construction. I call said deftness misdirectional maneuverability; nothing less than a good Nothnagling. 😉
Recently, I am not too sure exactly why I’ve caved to speed solving. Perhaps a throwback to my k-6 years of test taking. A FAULT that followed me for quite a while. Me thinks solving on the information speedway also could be (more like is) a co-conspirator. And natch, the Mini, indeed, lends itself to the rush more mind frame. Rarely, if ever, do I hurry when solving ink on paper…Welcome Mr. Grubb, and I’m hoping you’ve submitted follow-up creations for the puzzle’s editorial pipeline. Speed deets today; finished in a flat 17 mins.; 2 mins. 2 secs over my batting average. Here is some too cool doo wop from The Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band, “Death Cab For CUTIE.” <a href="https://youtu.be/qKXsrWrmbAg?si=juAy4xADmBFIrBm3" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/qKXsrWrmbAg?si=juAy4xADmBFIrBm3</a> Under A Sweltering Heat Dome, Bru
@brutus I’ve found that the best cure for this—which I developed long ago and has served me well—is to deliberately leave the puzzle going while getting a cup of coffee, fetching the newspaper, letting the dog out, etc. I’ve racked up a fair number of v-e-r-y slow Mondays that way.
Working backwards through the archives, I arrived at a devilishly trickyThursday (9/11/2014) by Patrick Blindauer. If you haven’t done it and don’t mind a good fight, give it a try. I imagine it was well argued over at the time. As one Wordplay commenter hilariously said “Not my cup of tea. Or I need more whiskey.”
@Tom B !!!!! That is the hardest puzzle I've ever seen in the Times by a country mile. Holy moly. Took me over 2 hours. Perhaps us modern day solvers are wimps. I can't imagine what the comments must have been like...
@Tom B I usually try and punish myself when folks post these challenges but I think today I shall not lol.
@Tom B Funny, I went back to the archive for that one and when I got to the calendar for the month of 9/2014 I saw that whole month I had completed already ( in blue stars as I wasn’t doing them “live” back then). So I thought “that couldn’t have been so hard.” When I opened the puzzle I saw it was almost entirely filled with those little red triangles, indicating I had given up and used “reveal puzzle”. So I cleared it and gave it a try for about an hour with only a little success before giving up once again. It was a rare midweek puzzle where there was a title that you really needed in order to solve. Went over to Rex’s blog to see comments…..probably the most hated reviews I’ve ever seen. Worth a trip over there to see how negative reviews really can be!
Fresh and lively with a terrific theme. What a debut! Is this the first appearance of UDO? (“Do, do that voodoo that UDO so well?”) ( And yes, I know that it’s ooh-doh. But still!)
@kkseattle Not by a long shot. It has been used 62 times, the vast majority of which it has been clued as a Japanese vegetable or herb. !!! !!! !!!!!!
@kkseattle Just to answer your question: UDO - 62 times. That's that. Hi emus. ..
kkseattle, This is the 62nd appearance of UDO in the grid. It was last here in April. Do emus eat UDO?
Very clever, but accessible. I look forward to more of your puzzles in the future!
What incredible timing that TRAVIS Kelce made his ERAS tour debut just yesterday!
Thanks for the puzzle, Andrew!
Another fun one. I appreciated the ROMA trivia and the clever cluing of FAULT. Like others, I picked up on the body parts quickly and the building segments less so. I finished a few seconds over my average because I tripped over the BUMP in the south. My original NOSE didn't work with the obviously correct TAPES, but I was stuck for a minute on specific protuberances versus the generic.
@Eric I tripped over a hump and a lump before hitting that bump 😆
Nifty theme. It took a lot of cleverness to come up with it, but, alas, no special brilliance to solve it. Though I did think the puzzle played a bit harder than most Mondays, what with IKEBANA, which I didn't know and AGLETS, which I did. AGLETS -- a crossword puzzle word that probably no one has used in real life ever. When I see a theme this clever -- but one leaving me with nothing to do but fill it in -- I always wish that there were some way to force me to have to figure it out myself with no help. Maybe a vaguely clued and totally uncrossed BODY BUILDING isolated from the rest of the puzzle. The clue might read: "A goal of certain types of athletes that will explain both halves of the starred clues. Can you figure it out?" The only problem? I could stare at the theme answers until the cows came home and I wouldn't have the slightest idea. Cute idea and great execution, Anthony.
We have TRAVIS and ERAS. I'd would have had to be hiding under a rock to miss those! Learned about Roma tomatoes - did not know that. THUMBS up for a SLEEK Monday puzzle.
As a Swiftie who likes beer, I throughly enjoyed this puzzle.
CaptainQuahog’s excellent writeup below (one of few comments I’ve time to read today) on the symmetry - fearful and otherwise - of some marine body buildings, will travel with me in pleasant hours of beachcombing ahead this week. A sinewy Monday puzzle.
Nice puzzle and debut, Anthony, and nice Monday level as well. Hope to see more from you. Thanks.
A mix, a melange, a melee It's Monday. Great debut, Anthony. Impressively wide range of subject matter covered in this puzzle. SOFA, so good. A kudo for UDO. And, GASP, a cutey qewty CUTIE. And both TREK and YODA for the SF fans. Stay SLEEK, emus.
Late to the party due to Quilt Guild...had to rush off. I did the puzzle in jig time, though I had misread a couple of clues (eye drops! arrgh) and at 47A --seeing BACK with 4 more spaces, and having read only the first line of the clue--entered BACKDROP. Bzzt! Isn't it HEAD, *SHOULDERS*, KNEEs, and *TOES*??? Key Watergate evidence....I thought of the TAPE on the doors! as well as the TAPES that Nixon's secretary bravely lied about.... We're going to a SHINDIG on Wednesday (baseball game at Trustmark Park... I think it's against the Blue Wahoos, not my favorite Trash Pandas, but oh well.)
@Mean Old Lady ...and eyes and ears and mouth and nose. Remember doing that one a lot when I was a kid. Nice to be on the same page. ..
a wonderful start to the week. happy Monday, all 🌼
This puzzle. Clever and fun! Thank you!😊