Thursday, July 11, 2024

Road bumps is a fitting theme from one with a degree in civil engineering, as today’s constructor has, according to his notes. I’ve done puzzles before with theme answers that require the bumpy gyration that today’s have, but what makes today’s stand out to me is that the bumps are over a particular word (ROAD). That’s a variation I don’t remember seeing before. Furthermore, each of the bumps is directly centered over ROAD, that is, over the letters OA, which had to make the construction even tougher. This is also a tight theme; I don’t think we’re going to see many alternative theme answers in the comments today. It’s also original – there’s never been a bump-in-the-road theme in any of the major crossword venues. In fact, BUMP IN THE ROAD is a debut answer not only in the Times, but in any of the major crossword venues. So, tight theme, lovely execution, and original. But, most importantly, how was the solve? I found it to be a lovely mix of footholds and resistance. Satisfied my brain’s work ethic in some places, brought the delight of quick figure-outs in others. So, a splendid outing, for which I’m grateful. Bravo, and high congratulations on your debut, Mat!

Very confidently wrote THE FE LADY for 16A as my first fill, and was certain I’d blindly guessed the theme. Took a while to correct that one!

Fun puzzle...ALOP doesn't even get a mention in the column?!

My money is on ALOP for the word that causes the most anguish for this one. ALOP is yesterday's VIAND.

Today was my first 200-day streak. (ITWASME!) Such a moment to express my gratitude for this group of PEERs! Some of us are more team players, some more SOLOISTS, regardless it's great to know where to turn for puns and other humor, support, stories, songs, movie quotes, a sympathetic EAR... "Oh, BEHAVE!"

Get. This. My dear nephew and his wife zoomed to the hospital late last night when her water broke. Baby girl is just a few hours away, at most. I don’t do the Mini, but her name is *in* the Mini. As she’s coming into the world!! Wowza!

Lovely debut, congratulations to Mr. Shelden for a clever theme, well executed. In my city we are more likely to encounter potholes, but there's really no phrase, lore, maxim, etc., in which potholes figure. They have yet to find their Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the silence of Bartlett's Book of Quotations on the subject of potholes speaks volumes. Extra points for Peeta and Pitas! And a farewell to Rishi Sunak, he proved to be no Iron Lady, no William PITT, no Robert PEEL: the memory of him is already fading, and so, short will be this ode for Rishi Sunak was a mere BUMP IN THE ROAD. "What was THAT?" clucked the Peer from the rear of his Rolls Royce. "Do not FRET, sir" replied his driver, "I really had no choice -- just one of those goofy troubadours, but all's within code: I shall report it, sir, as a mere BUMP IN THE ROAD." The Peer was caught on tape with Ivy, a braider in a Sussex spa doing something with her FISTS that made Inspector shout "Got ya!" Her avowal to the stenog in court that day is that "Uh, something...showed, and I simply treated it as if it were a BUMP IN THE ROAD."

In my ongoing encounter with Alzheimer's disease, Thursday puzzles are becoming an increasing challenge. Today, the shaded squares were a great big BUMP IN THE ROAD, and the north-central area left me OUT TO SEA. But ROPE-A-DOPE brought a smile, and although I did not finish the entire puzzle, I did enjoy it. As I once told my old friend Mick Jagger, "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need."

I wanted to study navigation online, but then my interest e-roaded. (I just don't have the drive.)

I found no potholes en route to solving this one, but I did hit a couple of speed bumps. The worst of them was minstrels for medieval musicians instead of TROUBADOURS before sussing out how the gray squares worked. I also briefly tried to put in Leningrad before PETROGRAD. I like the occasional Wednesday trick.

I've only been doing the crosswords for 6 months or so, my bf is a more dedicated solver. I am an avid comment section reader though, some of you are much more entertaining than the puzles. This puzzle is the first I feel the need to comment on. It was so much fun!! Really well designed puzzle. Especially coming off a Wednesday that, as a non tour de France guy, felt like quite the slog. I got the theme almost immediately (not typical) and I think it was a very clever choice - not only was it fun and kind of intuitive to read, I think it gave the designer a lot of flexibility. Good job!

Also, that snuggly lamb might be too busy to raise it's but also is way, way, way too cute!! What a great photo!!

I just saw a reply to a comment I made on yesterday's puzzle in defense of a puzzle a lot of people were trashing because the clues were not about something they already knew: ___________ " . . this comment is exactly how I imagine smug crossword nuts patting themselves on the back when they know ridiculously obscure references in unenjoyable crossword puzzles. "I'm glad you enjoyed it and I hope the lift it gave your ego serves you well. "I thought it was a dreadful puzzle, though, and I don't have an ounce of regret for not having the slightest idea who these proper nouns are." ________ Do the people who know rappers and sports stars, math equations, or scientific or music clues I don't know feel smug and pat themselves on the back when they write in an answer? I don't think so. When I don't know an answer, I don't call the puzzle terrible and unenjoyable. I assume I may learn something I don't much care about, but I sure don't feel the solvers who do know the answers are preening snobs who are trying to insult me for not knowing. No one was trying to insult you. Why were you insulting the constructor of the puzzle and people who happened to know answers you didn't? If you only enjoy puzzles where you know all the answers you are missing out on a lot.

Congratulations on your debut, Mat. Finding 4 fairly long entries with ROAD embedded must have been a challenge. This was a gentle Thursday trick, but it shows you have the knack. I don't know if the clue for ATOMS was yours, but it made me laugh.

Although ALOP didn't give me a problem, I sympathize with those recent solvers who have never seen it before. It's definitely classic crosswordese, having appeared 240 times. But only 33 of those times has been in the so-called Modern Era (SS, or Since Shortz). And its previous appearance was in 2018!! For longtime solvers, though, it's a well-known word. For deniers, though, just consider that you know the words ATILT and LOPSIDED. ALOP is just those two words combined.

Well… ALOP certainly spilled my coffee. cc: emu handler

I’ve been solving for 7 months and this was my first Thursday with no hints! Okay, well, I technically solved an earlier Thursday with no hints, but then I came to this column and realized it was Pi Day and the puzzle was just way easier than most Thursdays. So today I felt a certain trepidation coming to the column today… but luckily no bumps in the road! Maybe in another 7 months I’ll know enough to know when a puzzle is particularly easy or hard!

So....I discovered I was not sure of the last syllable of TROUBA-(dores? -dours?). I was also inclined to attempt potholes instead of BUMPS. I did put off ALOP until positively forced to enter the A, but I believe it's defensible (if a bit cringe-worthy)... so for the sake of the otherwise clever and fun puzzle, we should all tiptoe past and pretend we didn't notice the faux pas. The portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in "The Crown" was sufficiently horrifying (even if one hadn't witnessed the crushing economic disaster she engendered) that I don't need to see the movie. The scene of the distressed Queen attempting to plead for the citizens of the United Kingdom in the face of Thatcher's intransigence... heart-breaking. I've just decided to unsew most of a complicated quilt block because it just isn't 'working'....a task that is in no wise a mood-enhancer--so I appreciate Mat Shelden's attempt to cheer me up. Oh, and the groundhogs that bedeviled my gardening in Ohio had burrows, not DENs. They're really big on digging, as in 'under the fence and into the garden plot.' Too bad I believe in the death sentence for high crimes....

Great debut, Mat! I assumed The Iron Lady answer required a rebus and didn’t understand the shaded squares, but figured it out when I got the revealing “bump in the road.” A fun and clever journey.

This puzzle is the last straw! Our small city is having its own mini-“Big Dig” (was that term specific to Boston?), with this being year three (or so) of limit-to-limit road construction. And now, in what should be a diversionary haven of smooth sailing and straight-ahead intersections, we instead get this maze of un-even surfaces and detours. I really wish the New York Times would develop some summer-time standards to avoid these kinds of tie-ups, and out of sensitivity to the urban realities of the season, publish such puzzles only in the winter. (a fun one today ;)

Poor RISHI Sunak. He finally makes it into the NYT crossword puzzle, a week after losing the job in the clue. Hey all, just back from two weeks off the grid in the North Country, streak reset at one. Probably a thousand e-mails in my inbox, as well. Not ready for that, just yet. A funny thing happened while listening to Canadian FM radio:"Why do they keep saying 'dossier' in the commercials?" "Umm, that's 'dot CA' in a website, like 'dot com' in the US." Also, the Kia SUV is pronounced, 'Sportazh.'

I too like to keep my STY TIDY! What a fun puzzle! Really enjoyed the theme today!! It took me a little too long to get the revealer because of hanging out with ALee too long and never having heard, at least my recollection, of ALOP. But I knew something was very tricky off the bat at the Margaret Thatcher clue for THE IRON LADY, so I kept ALert but ALas, ALOP eluded me longer than I'd have liked. Favorite was the sciencists not trusting ATOMS because they make everything up! Oh, I had a good little chuckle about that one! Very fun and lively debut!

I found this puzzle a bit more challenging than many of the previous commenters. Just right for a Thursday in my opinion. A good balance of gimmes and challenges plus a clever Thursday trick. Very satisfying!

Fun! Solving ROPEADOPE was my personal aha moment— I had enough letters to know that must be the answer, but it just didn’t fit…until my eyes drifted to the PE above and everything became clear. (The PE actually belonged to a wrong fill-in of “PETER”, but hey, it all worked out.) And now I’m kicking myself because I didn’t even notice the various ROADs just below the bumps. What a clever construct, and great job driving it home!

Ha, my old brain somehow knew there was a thing called ROPE A DOPE. Now that I’ve read up on it, it seems quite an apt entry for a crossword: You, the puzzler, are pummeling away at the puzzle. It’s leaning back on the ropes, confident that you will not… figure out that you need a rebus working two ways down and across; have ever heard of VIAND, BELLINI, or COW TIPPER; remember what little you once knew of the French language; have the endurance to get over the BUMP IN THE ROAD. Who will prevail: you or the puzzle?!

It had its ups and downs, but I loved it! Hope you did, too. 😉 ...emu alop a be bop..

I had FUR and IN OIL, so when I got to THE IRON LADY, Iknew that somehow, the trick was that the answer took a jag northward for the two shaded boxes. Since the first two shaded boxes were NL, I wondered if this was a puzzle about country codes. Then when I wanted ROPE-A-DOPE, it jogged my memory of PEETA (with its odd spelling), at which point I thought the theme might be about Canadian provincial codes. Good thing for me the revealer came in the center, not all the way at the end, as it usually does. A faster than usual Thursday solve.

My first Thursday without lookups! Though I thought this was a lot easier than yesterday’s puzzle because I know nothing about cycling. Today’s gluing was very much up my alley. Got the theme pretty much right away based on the relatively straightforward 16A clue. I enjoyed 7D and 8D juxtaposed next to each other and mentions of two British Prime Ministers.

Even though I confidently entered ABS at 1A (about the only thing I entered confidently, at least at first pass), It reminded me of all the excruciating conversations I've had with my friend Vera (who, TG, doesn't read Wordplay), as she discussed, ad nauseam, her current weight loss diet. "Yes, Vera," I'd think, but not say, "but if you don't get off your . . ., and get some exercise.you're never going to achieve anything, and all your self-denial will be for nought." While it may be true that those competetive-bodybuilder shredded abs are only made on a diet of shredded chicken breast on a bed of shredded lettuce, it amazes me how far people will go to deny themselves all the good, tasty things in life, but view any form of physical exertion with complete odium. Back in the day, Our Hunting (and Farming) Fathers didn't have to worry about such things--their lives were filled with physical exertion, and often, not enough food. But in our sedentary, work-from-home, lifestyles, exercise needs to be consciously sought out. Abs, or at least a toned physique, *are* made in the gym, or, more properly, in the stairwell to the third floor workout room of the gym (It also amazes me, at the YMCA I work out at, how many persons, of all ages and "fitness" levels, will take the elevator to the workout room just to run on a treadmill!), or the bike ride, as opposed to the car ride, *to* the gym. *** *** ***

Pretty amazing feat of construction - I just never worked out enough to completely tumble to the trick and didn't finish this one successfully. Actually surprised to see that most everyone else found this one unusually easy. No big deal. That's all on me. 21 letter answer dawned on me and wondered if it could possibly be used for some similar type of trick puzzle: ANOTHERBRICKINTHEWALL Never been in a puzzle. A couple of intriguing puzzle finds today that I'll put in replies. ..

What a great puzzle!!!!

Never heard of the word ALOP before. I am still not convinced. I am not conspiratorially minded, but it does seem at least plausible that all the confirmatory definitions of ALOP that I found after a Google search, were planted post hoc by the constructor. Otherwise a great puzzle! THEIRO[NL]ADY got me onto the theme early on, but did anyone else get hung up on LENIN[GR]AD instead of PETRO[GR]AD? And did the constructor have that potential confounder in mind? Whatever. Thanks for the challenge.

Fun one today, very cute theme. I'm surprised ALOP wasn't brought up in the column, it's a new word for me as far as I can remember. I finished the puzzle with its A, fully expecting to get the "almost complete" popup, only to find out it was correct. Something related to "lopsided", I'm guessing.

There must be a lot of people new to playing NYT puzzles, which is, of course, good, but-- they should know some basics: 1. Thursday puzzles are meant to be the tricky ones. Mondays are the easiest; Saturdays the hardest; Sundays the longest. 2. On Thursdays, learn to think outside the box. You will have puzzles where you have to put more than one letter inside one square -- these are called rebuses. They are so much a part of crossword culture, that the NYT online version actually has a "Rebus" option right above the puzzle. you press that and then you can type in more than one letter into one square (sometimes as many as five or even more!). And this week we had a puzzle in which you had to stretch one letter across two squares. Looking above or below for the missing letter is par for the course. 3. People who want straight-forward puzzles, with one letter per box and no tricks can buy a booklet of them at the checkout line at the grocery store for $0.99. Oops, I mean $5.99 now--or more. Tricky puzzles give you an extra challenge that makes them fun.

Good puzzle. THEIRONLADY was an early gimme, so that helped with the theme. Got mixed up with the central Western box, perhaps because TIP was so obvious that I didn't even think of it

a tour de force. Bravo! I couldn't make leningrad work and then realized there was no road under the bump. Aha moment! great puzzle.

Good puzzle. My proudest moment? One square left. Don’t know British politics. Reeeeally don’t know boxing. gO-PADOPE? dO-PADOPE? …Can’t be R because ROPE-A-DOPE is something else… What is it, CC? That’s right, you don’t know. But you’re *certain* it ain’t this. So, alphabet game for the win! I gotta switch to coffee. Fun, smooth theme. Really enjoyed the thought that went into clues like, [When a right may be made] and [Bad thing to be caught on]… Happy Thursday all! It’s the Friday of Fridays!

Congratulations on a fun NYT debut, Mr. Shelden! I made sense of the BUMP part of the theme answers pretty quickly (with THE IRO(NL)ADY), but I was so sleepy when I solved last night that I missed the ROADs. I was also too sleepy to be annoyed by the gobbledegook answers like 16A, but since the shading makes it clear how we’re supposed to read them, it doesn’t bother me too much. It’s a clever theme with solid theme answers. I might have zoomed through it to if I had been more awake.

One of the finer executed themes in recent memory. Congrats to the constructor.

I’m conflicted. That was a good Thursday puzzle, though I worked out the trick at 16A, unfortunately knowing who it referred to. I suspect my thoughts on the two British personalities in this grid would not pass the emu test, so I will say no more ( though I did in reply to @mean old lady, it may not get through). I held my nose while filling those squares and moved to more enjoyable fill. Knew PEETA from my daughter’s obsession with the books/films, plus THAT name (bye bye), so that corner filled quickly. Oil before FUR, realised it wouldn’t be repeated if the latkes are cooked in it. Lenin before PETRO and yes, I also was unsure of the correct spelling of the end of TROUBADore/OURS. Good puzzle, not impossibly tricky but chewy enough to pass.

Thursday is my crossword "hump day", as in pretty much always getting the Wednesday puzzle, but seldom getting the Friday one. My success rate on Thursdays is 50/50. So solving today's puzzle, which wasn't easy for me, was hugely satisfying. Now, onto Friday.........

Liked the theme, but some of the fill was less than stellar - alop? Stenog?

I’m torn. Finding 4 entries that fit the specification *RO??AD* (with matching length for each set of 2) can’t be easy. I mean, it’s easy to search for them with a computer, but I’m surprised there were enough reasonable sounding results for a puzzle. Definite kudos on actually finding a nice set of themers for this concept, which is pretty neat. The problem with this clever construction is that there are surely so few good choices that meet this criterion, that there’s no way the letters in the “bump” are going to be meaningful (though like others that was my first hope). The other unfortunate problem is that when read without the bump letters, the results are meaningless. In some other constructions where the answer deviates from the normal direction, reading the letters just in proper direction will give an un-clued but valid word/phrase. I feel this is the way such puzzles should be to be aesthetically pleasing. But, again, with the very tight constraints on the theme, there would likely be no results that also produced a valid entry with the bump removed. I’m left feeling slightly ALOP

Very original idea for a theme and good execution. I understand the difficulty of balancing such specific theme entries and placement against finding good fill. I tried to remember this as I groaned through entries like ALOP, SCH, ODIUMS, and RISHI. I did really enjoy the cluster of PEETA, PITT, PITAS in the middle. Really nice debut—congratulations, Mat!

Almost afraid to read the comments today. ALOP? Got the theme very early, since I knew THEIRO^NL^ADY. That immediately gave me BUMPINTHEROAD, as well as three other ROADs. These made the other thematic entries easy to get. Struggled briefly with CLUCK, CLEAT, PEETA and PITT. Interesting that we have ABACI but not ODIA. If we TIP a GNU, does that leave it ALOP?

Congratulations to Mat on a fun debut! I figured out the bumps pretty quickly, but only after reading Deb's column did I realize that they were all 'in the road'...a terrific twist.

"Stenog"? Never seen that abbreviation. Live and learn.

I caught on the theme pretty quickly, but I did not notice the ROAD in each entry until I read the column! What a brilliant top-off!

My hat’ s off to mini puzzle constructor, Myna Liu, for the “head lock” clue.

My least favorite puzzle of all time. Excruciating. And I'm on a 1098 streak...