Sommeliers make pour decisions. (But they don't wine about it.)
@Mike You could be a songwriter. <a href="https://youtu.be/4kSc77E65C0?si=W1uEjvcba-hiyh98" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/4kSc77E65C0?si=W1uEjvcba-hiyh98</a> Currently on the charts. Enjoy!
@Mike That one was a real corker! Don't get bored, oh you emus.
Lab report may be my favorite clue ever!
@Hillary Rettig I liked that one, too.
@Hillary Rettig I had no idea BOW WOW represented a dog's bark! I understood the clue instantly - but I had no idea what to enter as the answer, as woof and arf were obviously the wrong length, and they did not match the crosses I had. The only Bowwow I have heard of is the rapper 🤣. Every Polish person is surprised to learn your "woof", btw. In Polish a dog's sound is exclusively written down as "hau", which sounds like the English "how", more or less. However, me and my wife once did very professional research into whether hau or woof more closely matches a dog's bark. The research involved making our wonderful brown lab bark and then imitating the sound. We were not drunk while doings this. No, really. His barks were definitely woofs. The next time we're sober we will have to look into bowwow.
BTW, I just have to say that Lala the Pomeranian is absolutely adorable! Don't you just wanna eat her up?! Too soon?
@ad absurdum At least it was just water that shot out of my nose.
@ad absurdum I picked up my granddaughter from school today in a town near Las Vegas. Another father was there with a small originally-white dog. The ears and paws were dyed various colors of orange and purple in interesting patterns! And the owner had multiple tattoos. Some people are just into color!
@ad absurdum No, I don't. I'm not Haitian, or a figment of someone's delusions.
Way too easy for aThursday. But the theme was interesting
@Shannon - Yeah, I found yesterday much tougher than this... theme was fun, but if they had just swapped them, I think it would have been a pair of easy for their day puzzles, but well within the norm.
@Shannon I solved it in almost the same time as yesterday, but I would not call it easy, as there were many answers that I didn't know. That wasn't the case on Wednesday. Ease/difficulty, such subjective things.
I finished the puzzle with a few trivia lookups (the mystery writer, the sushi - now I remember ALASKA ROLL from another puzzle, but generally only Japanese names come to mind when I think of sushi. Also, I asked google what an Alaska roll looks like - I've never seen one of those in Poland. The salmon on top of the maki looks so superfluous...). I tried to understand the theme, I really did, but i failed. I saw the second word had something to do with close relationships between people or things, and that helped me a little in getting letters for the down answers, but that's it. Could somebody please explain "Bills might pass in this, for short" solving to NFL? My wife speculates it has to do with the team Buffalo Bills and the action of passing (she actually knows something about American football, the madwoman). Is that it?
@Andrzej Your wife has it exactly right. Nice work on her part! I am always so impressed with your solving. Amazing! Thanks too for sharing your experiences and insights with us here. Mark
@Andrzej I know almost nothing about American football but I’m sure your wife is correct.
@Andrzej I do believe your wife is correct! The Buffalo Bills are an NFL team and even though it's called football, it's mostly done through throwing passes. I wasn't super keen on the theme either, it kind of almost seemed themeless... Usually the things help me but this time it was just superfluous. Speaking of superfluous, salmon on top of any sushi roll is never superfluous! It's always a delight!!
Random thoughts: • Fantastic theme concept. Bravo to Parker for pulling this out of the ether. It’s a two-level theme, first coming up with “A and B” phrases, then finding lively phrases that use the A word. Try coming up with something like this on your own sometime! • Nice to see ELOPE abutting LIFE PARTNER. • For me, lovely mix of areas that splat-filled and others I had to return to. • Fun to try to figure out the theme answers with few or no crosses, after cracking the gimmick. • MAYOR crossing AMORAL elicited the word MAYORAL; and IN BAD crossing EMBED elicited IN BED. • In a past note, Parker said he liked putting in words with unusual letter combinations. Today, I’m thinking it was the BS start of BSIDE. Oh, there are other answers that start this way (i.e., BSHARP, BSTUDENT, BSDEGREE), but not many. • A trove of smile-producing clues; I especially liked [It might cause some unsurprised looks] for BOTOX. • Loved OTAKU because I didn’t know it, thus it was satisfying to correctly fill in, not to mention that it looks cool, and is worth remembering. So, lots of juice in the box today – a rich experience for me. Thumbs up and thank you so much for making this, Parker!
@Lewis “lovely mix of areas that splat-filled and others I had to return to…” That is a perfect way of describing how the solving process often goes 😂
I loved 50-across "It might cause some unsurprised looks" HAH!
@Joseph Shain Deb and I enjoyed the clue as well. However, she seems to have doubts about the efficacy of BOTOX as she says it *supposedly* smooths patients’ foreheads. Sounds like she’s not a fan.
PETS just seems a little odd to me. You can pet your pet, but you don’t really give him a pet. You give him a pat. Maybe literally correct but it’s just not something anyone would say, especially since PAT is an option and there are lots of better clues imho
@SP I had PaTS and lost a few minutes at the end trying to find my mistake. I had thought at the time that 16A looked a little odd — there just aren’t that many valid crossword entries that fit the _IA pattern. (I guess you could say Sia went somewhere via a sketchy route and now she’s MIA . . .)
@SP - Nah... our dog definitely wants some "pets" and as good dog owners, we gives her some "pets."
@SP My stepdaughters always say PETS in that exact context. And the one dog in particular, who I adore, will do pretty much anything in the world for more PETS. And once you start, you have unwittingly signed a lifelong contract to never, ever, evvvveeeerrrrr stop with the PETS!! It came pretty quickly to me for that reason!
Fortunately, I'm not generally put off when an entry seems to bear little resemblance to its clue; so much in Life makes no sense, after all... This was quite a clever, well-constructed, and enjoyable puzzle, even if it did have Rocker album/songs, Japanese anime, and (ARRGH) "Little Mermaid" clues...and more nail polish and injectable poison in with the other stuff. Gotta take the bad with the good. Speaking of bad: who says an IMP must be a "hellion" or badly-behaved youngster? The very word evokes thoughts of a mischievous but entertaining character--not one that is necessarily destructive or awful. So say I. Lone do-over: PIANO STOOL before I was BENCHed. Looking forward to more from Parker Higgins!
@Mean Old Lady Yeah, "imp" does have a connotation of something less noxious, like "rascal", in some circumstances. This is a great example of how the answers aren't supposed to be rock solid, irrefutably exact. I think of it like the old game "Password", where it doesn't matter if the clue is perfect, just good enough to elicit the desired response.
TETE: Did you see all these comments saying they were confused about the theme? Me: Yeah, weird! We thought it was easy, didn’t we? TETE: Most def. We got it quick at 17A and, once we spotted it, the other three went down in a flash. Me: That never happens, does it? TETE: Easy for us, hard for them? With this group of crossword beasts? Not ever. They’re always breezing through themes that teleport and turn corners and jump gaps and flip all around. And we’re always sittin there like, DUHhh? Me: That’s what I’m sayin! Anyway. Weird but we’ll take it, amiright! TETE: Oh fo sho. ME: Nice. Well, you worked hard today, GOOD BUDDY. I’m going to go to sleep now. TETE: Not if I go to sleep FIRST, MATE. TETE / Me (together): ZZZZZZ
Not easy for me (surprise surprise) but a lot of fun. WINE PAIRING was my first theme entry (no surprise). I struggled to get the rest, and again very impressed by the clever clueing. Well done, Parker.
This was an alacritous solve for me. :) I got a kick out of the theme, and I am still in awe of the constructors who come up with such clever wordplay. My favorite clue was the one for BOTOX.
@Janine Yes! That one took me a bit, but I laughed when I got it.
I got four immunizations yesterday and have had a mid-grade headache since I woke up this morning, so I was not functioning at my best. None of the answers crossing the theme answers are particularly hard (I only half-remembered 2D ELIE Mystal), but they slowed me down enough that 61A WINE PAIRING was the first theme answer I got completely. Then, horror of horrors, I had to use the theme to get the rest of the theme answers. 35D BRUNEI reminded me of my good friend Margaret, who died a few days ago. I can remember her telling me that she had looked up Brunei at some point well into adulthood and was surprised that it wasn’t in the Middle East. The clue for 47D BOW-WOW was cute (in a good way). And any puzzle with ETTA James is fine with me. Thanks, Mr. Higgins!
@Eric Hougland Eric, I am so sorry about your good friend, Margaret! May you find comfort in your happy memories with her! And she's right, it does sound like BRUNEI would be in the Middle East. I know only know it isn't because I've been playing a geography game for the last couple of years. Before that I've been clueless! I also hope you feel very better very soon!
Really fun crossword! It was very enjoyable with a unique and clever theme I would have never thought of. And hats off to Parker for stacking two 10 letter entries, something I'm much too scared to do in regular constructing. Very well done!
Hey, finished with half my coffee still in the cup, and it's still hot, too. I've never refered to ice cubes as GLASS BLOCKS, and I've never heard anyone else do that, but it still passed the "did you figure it out anyway" test, so it gets one raised, non-botoxed eyebrow and a pass.
@Bruce I think you’ve got it backwards. The clear glass blocks sometimes used as opaque windows, such as in bathrooms, is referred to as ICE. Just Google “glass blocks ice” and you’ll see.
@Bruce et al., No need to refer to them as such! The clue refers to the [blocks] that appear IN a drinking [glass], i.e. ICE CUBES
Good to learn 'petrichor', love that smell! Funniest clue ever for BOTOX.
@Tamara “Petrichor” is a great word. I love that smell, too. There was an interesting article about it in the NYT a few years back. I posted a link to it in another thread.
A very fast solve for me -- less than half my average solve time for a Thursday puzzle. Even so, I had no idea what the gimmick was until I read the blog.
The term OTAKU has been used in Japan since the early 1980’s and describes people with consuming interests. It may be used as a pejorative, but recently has become less negative.
@Mutsukoh That history is interesting to learn. Thanks. When I read the clue, I immediately knew that I had come across that word in some other crossword puzzle — but as is too often the case, I couldn’t remember the word or where I had seen it.
@Mutsukoh I first heard/learned it from DENSHA OTAKU (train geek), people who are obsessed with trains, taking photos of trains, etc.
As has been said, might have run on a Wednesday. But, I enjoy the ups and downs of perceived puzzle perplexity. What day is it? Will it be in my wheelhouse? How much help will I need from my daughter- in - law? Will she need help from me? And so on. The puzzle is all the more fun for these variables. Also, laugh out loud for “Lab report?” and “It might cause some unsurprised looks.”
Aww c'mon! I wanted rebuses! What a rip off!! Haha, just kidding. Fun puzzle, though a bit quick for Thursday.
@Renegator And I was just thinking that this Thursday I won't have to read dozens of complaints about the dread and unsolvable rebus.
Any puzzle with a Prince reference is okay by me. Whether it would have more suited to a Wednesday is a different question. Would Raspberry BERET make a good name for a nail polish color? Opi yesterday, ESSIE today did amuse me. I almost posted my little nail polish clue reminder, Opi three letters, ESSIE five yesterday, but thought people might be over it. At any rate, here's Prince. <a href="https://youtu.be/l7vRSu_wsNc?si=q3OXcSLopfxY9KHv" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/l7vRSu_wsNc?si=q3OXcSLopfxY9KHv</a>
@Vaer Nothing against Prince, but I’m always happy to see ETTA James in a grid (especially when the clue something other than “Jazzy James”).
A stately OAK grew in the middle of my puzzle and set things awry.
N.E. Body, My current (and long-time) home town has often called itself the City of Stately Elms. Sadly, Dutch elm disease has been decimating the trees for years. Just this week, I paid a crew to remove a 60-70 foot American elm from my yard, which died just after leafing out this spring. The fungus and worms under the bark were impressive. The massive 70 foot red oak and even taller white pines across the street are now the stateliest in sight.
@N.E. Body “Stately” trees in the NYT crossword are almost always ELMs. I saw one “oaks” (clued as “stately florae”), one “beech,” and one “cedars” (whose clue referenced Lebanon).
Just to restate advice that has been given by many here in the past - If you know there’s a theme but don’t get it, and if you do want to try to get it on your own, concentrate on the clues for the answers that don’t seem to work rather than the answers themselves. Most of the times when the comments are full of “didn’t get the theme”, the trick is in the clues.
@David Connell Or just do what I do and treat every puzzle as themeless :-)
I know this is not the space to complain about yesterday's crossword, but today took me literally half the time that did. Am I the only one thinking that Thursdays have been easier than Wednesdays for some weeks now - what gives?! But that's not to say anything bad about *this* puzzle. I had a lot of fun solving, and thought the theme was very clever! There wasn't any annoying nonsense fill, no frustrating cluing... I am deeply satisfied by this one :-)
@IL I agree entirely. My solving time was ridiculously faster than my usual for Thursday. I had more trouble with Strands than with this puzzle!
A fast solve for a Thursday even though I didn't understand the theme at all. You don't need to in order to solve this one. I was very pleased to figure out Lab report.
Fast solve for me. Cute clues but I look for more of a challenge on Thursdays. I’m also in the “what, no rebus?? But it’s Thursday!” camp
Well... not all that easy for me, of course, and must admit I was appropriately puzzled by the theme answers until I was almost done. Actually cheated to get through it but I guess I'll allow it. Appropriate puzzle find today. A Wednesday from January 20, 2021 by Natan Last and Andy Kravis. I must have done this one but had completely forgotten it. This was all in the clues. Some samples: "Sharing thoughts like a Vulcan [Detroit, Fargo] :" MINDMELDING "Classic of daytime TV first aired in 1962 [Atlanta, Bangor] :" MATCHGAME "Arthritis symptom [Altoona, South Bend] :" JOINTPAIN Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/20/2021&g=57&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/20/2021&g=57&d=A</a> ..
So much I didn't know: BERET (in this context), BRAT (ditto), ELIE (Mystal), OTAKU, ALASKA ROLL, IN BAD, ESSIE, Petrichor. But that's what the crosses are for. Overall it was a fairly easy solve, and there were some fun clues, e.g. Lab report?, Track that fans flip for?, Nose-in-the-air type?, Head of France, Org. that tests the waters, and Feet in a meter. I got the theme from 17A, but it took me a while to appreciate FIRST MATE and GOOD BUDDY. Well done, Parker.
@Chuck Herrold “Petrichor” is one of my favorite words — and favorite phenomena that’s quite interesting. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/bddfe6ar" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/bddfe6ar</a>
Parker, you had me at “Fathoms” - the soundtrack to The Little Mermaid was also a soundtrack to my childhood. I can’t count the number of times I listened and sang/danced along to that tape as a kid in my bedroom. Loved all the musical references and the unexpected misdirections. I was also excited to almost match my Thursday best time. Thanks to Deb for explaining the theme and how the clues usually work; as often happens, I sort of got it from doing the puzzle, but I appreciate the wordplay and puzzle design a lot more after reading the column.
There were some really fun clues in this one! And a few not so fun lol. I got stuck in that silly little northwest corner because I don’t know sushi well enough and guessed Osaka for the roll. I had PaT for PET, and the capitalization of Fender Bassman threw me for a loop. I did understand the theme very early on and plugged in LIFEPARTNER easily early on but still had a tough time with them until I got to WINEPAIRING. I think I would have fared better waiting until morning to finish up.
Catching up and did today's and yesterday's back to back. Good fun all around. Many thanks.
Still working backwards and just finished Tuesday's and read the comments. After not seeing anyone questioning Y it was fun to revisit the "sometimes" conditions for that letter.
ETTA James or Prince today? How about both? <a href="https://youtu.be/-cMFqQiQOnw?si=FnTON3hsqKjieeIl" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/-cMFqQiQOnw?si=FnTON3hsqKjieeIl</a> SPEEDY solve with fun themers.
@Nancy J. Thanks! I didn’t know she had covered that.
I almost turned on auto check for this but glad I didn't. Managed to puzzle through even if it took me a long time to get the theme.
How can the smell of fear not be petrichor?
@C Because..a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather. "other than the petrichor emanating from the rapidly drying grass, there was not a trace of evidence that it had rained at all" Thanks for reminding to look up the word!
@C ...and it has ichor in it. Fear of the blood of Olympians?
C, Petrified wood be a natural connection to make. I like the way you link! pjfin, Just looking up some more about the word and its origins now, I learned some interesting stuff. Only coined in the 1960s, if I’m reading the correct things correctly. There’s a link to ichor, the blood of the gods, mentioned in a puzzle earlier this week.
I always like it when 1A -- the answer that most of us approach first and with no crosses -- sparks curiosity, and in my case, this one did. I needed the "Y" of YEs, soon changed to YEP, to come up with MESSY. My Fender Bassman was an ALP -- making it hard to get MILESTONES. My last bit of business was changing ALP to AMP. I can't tell you how long it took me to come up with REDUX when I had REDU-. Don't ask. Once I had LIFE PARTNER, I was able to guess all the FIRST words of the theme answers other than the one that went with "ready". I was thinking of ROUGH, not GOOD. I enjoyed the theme and theme answers a lot. Because of them, I put up with -- albeit through clenched teeth -- the numerous examples today of cluing perfectly ordinary words with pop culture references. BERET. SONS. BELOW. BRAT. Bad choice, I say. Bad, bad choice. To which my dog replies BOWWOW.
@Nancy Prince started making music in the 70s and the referenced work was in the 80s. The Little Mermaid was released in 1989. I struggle to deem either of those "pop culture," and even if they were, pop culture is popularly known.
Easier than the Weds imo, still pretty fresh though the "theme" clues were pretty unsatisfying. Gonna go ask my pup what he thinks
Not quite a PB but a lot quicker than most Thursdays. I got the theme quickly, and made it home after finding the cross of BOTOX and REDUX. Fun one!
So, shouldn't she just call herself Charli One Hundred? . .
@ad absurdum Ninety-Ten? Either way still better than Elon's child naming skills..... ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade
I wasn’t quite as alacritous on this one as I normally am. In fact, I only got SPEEDY via the crosses and then, after the fact, caught the relation to alacrity. I think I’ll start using it. Lots of other interesting clues and a theme that I didn’t pick up on. All in all an interesting Wednesday. I enjoyed seeing Mumford and SONS pop up in the puzzle. Their debut album was a revelation, featuring emotionally intense songs with surprising bluegrassy codas. Subsequently Marcus Mumford has become sort of an English T-Bone Burnett, popping as a producer on lots of other people’s music and acting as music director for tv shows and movies.
@Marshall Walthew Combining math and a little known figure in mythology. ∃ an old joke about Zeus jumping in bed with Alacrity.
@Marshall Walthew SPEEDY was my first entry into the grid. It's amazing how differently things come to us...
Just FYI: The Alt key is on Macs. It’s mainly called the Option key(s) but it is also called Alt. cc: emu handler
@Steven - while some may call it Alt, the keys are named "option" very clearly.
Good puzzle - took me a bit longer than it should have. :) The theme didn't kick in for quite a while and the upper left gave me too much trouble. Theme was great with the exception that I don't think "good and ready" is really all that common a phrase. Cluing for Botox, NFL, and Lab Report was all quite clever. Peek was good too. It was nice to see "redux", though I then for "muffle" had to cycle through dampen to deafen and finally deaden. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade
@B "Theme was great with the exception that I don't think "good and ready" is really all that common a phrase." I know it better as "I'll get to it when I'm gd good and ready", but maybe that was just *my* mother? Even emu mothers get exasperated from time to time.
I really enjoyed this one I didn't have cheat once!
Nice puzzle! Top right corner got to me. Although xxASKAROLL, I should have gotten it! Just picking a nit - SPAYING and NEUTERING are two different things (the former is performed on females, the latter on males). Sometimes it's abbreviated SPEUTERING in the animal rescue community when we're talking about the general practice in the context of reducing births to avoid overpopulation which results in healthy animals being killed in shelters - which by the way is at epidemic levels right now. So if you have room in your home to foster a dog or cat even for a little while, contact a local non-profit rescue groups and volunteer. They will pay all the medical bills, most will pay for food, and you'll be saving a life! Rescue groups usually don't have brick and mortar facilities, so they can't pull animals from shelters without foster homes ready to take them. The rescue group will take back the foster animal if you cannot keep it until it is adopted.
Not hard for a Thursday but I didn't have the pleasure of struggling with the theme, since I just filled everything in without understanding it. Had to go to the column for the explanation. Clever clues, that was fun.
Finished with absolutely no idea what the theme was on about (like everyone else here it seems).
Way faster than most Thursdays, and easier than yesterday. Enjoyable. Got a good time even 'tho I fell asleep partway through. Thankfully, the app pauses when the screen sleeps.
@Phishfinder I had a rule keeping my phone screen awake when charging, and found at least one day where after falling asleep a solve time was shown as over 8 hours. Good thing I don't care about timing and stats! ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade
Interesting one. So most of this was on the crosses and some vague comprehension of a theme and some correlation between the clues / annswers and friendship although had First Lady in for a while as thought the theme was uxorial. This, for me was mostly pattern recognition rather than actual use of clues. Spent a lot of time thinking that must be the answer now got to make the clue work to validate…ANTE and IMP came quickly but with not much assistance from the clue other than eventual oh that’s what hellion means.. Hey ho was quick and completed without any real anguish.