The SW took me as long as the rest of the puzzle, found that corner to be late-week difficulty.
Throwing the flag on “at a guess”. Otherwise fantastic.
@Jim Amen. What a stinker, after the wonderful puzzle! I put it off as long as possible, but we were FORCED to commit the atrocity. Sigh.
@Jim Totally agree. I got stuck because ‘as a guess’ is the answer for that clue. Yes, otherwise a good one.
WHAT A BOAR that southwest corner was. I had the rest of the puzzle near finished in with under 7 minutes and then I hit that tiny section. I found it to be Fridayish difficulty. Finished around 20 minutes. On a Tuesday! Woo doggy. And, as I always say, I’ll take too tough over too easy *any day of the week*. I love Tuesdays with *a little gristle*. I thought the theme was really great and enjoyed the whole puzzle. Thanks, Justin Werfel!
@Striker To be clear, I don’t mean ‘BOAR’ as in being bored, but ‘BOAR’ as in the beast. I was anything but bored while working on it.
@Striker I was good with all of SW, except the Natick at AEGI and A_HMAN. Didn't know either, so had to ask my friend Mr. Google.
I enjoyed this relatively meaty Tuesday. I wasn’t very far into when I found it had “groan” on me.
@Marshall Walthew That's sinew one. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (I do this instead of emuing)
Tuesday's puzzle was uncharacteristically difficult for a Tuesday, however, that only made it that much more enjoyable to solve. Fantastic job, Justin!
I’m rarely disappointed in the NYT Games universe, but it’s a very special day when the crossword, the Wordplay column, and the constructor notes are all equally satisfying, clever, and delightful. Add a fabulously fun, completely unexpected column photo and the whole program leaves an afterglow that makes me very grateful for all the effort required to put it all together and get it so right. (If anyone thinks this is easy, think again.) Sam, Justin, and the games crew knocked it out of the park today. I was too late to comment yesterday, but the Monday puzzle experience was exceptional, too. What a week so far!
@M. Biggen What a lovely thing to say! Thank you!
Enjoying the puns in the comments as much as the puzzle! Thanks, everyone. I'd try to come up with my own, but I don't want to ham it up.
@Amy For that you have our heartfelt shanks.
@Amy I couldn’t agree more, I’m smiling ear to ear, but am too chicken to compete with the group’s collective brilliance. Mike has his work cut out for him today. Emu we would never…
Chewy, meaty Tuesday! I liked it! And absolutely love that you proposed with a crossword puzzle. Tremendously cool and nerdy move. I like your style.
A smooth solve except for the SW with the, as least to me, awkward AT AGUESS instead of AsAGUESS, a shield name and the TIL, RES. But got it worked out soon enough in this funny (punny?) sojourn. I was going to BBQ during the storm but I did not want to brisket. Many thanks.
@John Carson: Yes. I stared at "SESA good example" for way too long before I realized what it should be.
Medium difficulty but rare cleverness. Well done!
Be a dear and skip the venison. What an amusing theme and revealer. All based on very common phrases, yet amazingly each is a debut entry. That’s impressive. Thanks, Justin. That was fun!
Too funny! MAKE ENDS MEAT made me laugh out loud. All of the themers were excellent, especially ON THE LAMB. [Building with many wings?] for AVIARY is crossword gold. The SW made me think on a Tuesday. Great puzzle, Justin.
@Nancy J. Re 67A - I was proud of myself for immediately filling in "hangar" until it didn't fit with any crosses. (On Tuesdays, I try to do all the across clues without checking the downs.)
This puzzle had a personal touch for me, as my late father worked on both the Mars ROVERS and the AEGIS guided missile system. (High-tech cable connector design, not the rocket science.) Loved the tasty puns. Are there British bacon shows? If not, there should be.
@Grant Ha ha. British bacon indeed.
Much too difficult for a Tuesday! Not fun!
Any puzzle referencing Howard ASHMAN is okay by me. And let's hear it for Toughened Up Tuesdays.
Go over the line? is SUCH a good clue! When it clicked, I nearly applauded in my cubicle
I never sausage a sinewy Tuesday, but I chewed through it thoroughly and only googled ASHMAN to make sure that was right. Audrey II would surely have appreciated such a fleshy puzzle.
The Balaam clue, if you're familiar with your Bible stories, is worth the price of admission here. It's 21A, and I dare not write the answer, lest the 60D's decide to give me a hard time. !!! !!!
@Steve L That one made me laugh, and brought back memories of Sunday School. ............................................. ..............................
Tough one for a Tuesday, but finally tumbled to the trick and worked it all out. Pretty clever idea. Very amusing puzzle find today - a Sunday from May 7, 2007 by Patrick Berry with the title "Dinner theater." Some theme answers in that one: BAREFOOTINTHEPORK THEMERCHANTOFVENISON WUSTSIDESTORY PORGYANDBISQUE ABIESIRISHROAST And some others. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/27/2007&g=59&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/27/2007&g=59&d=A</a> I'm done. ..
@Rich in Atlanta My mom used to get WSJ on Saturdays, and Patrick Berry had some great puzzles, different from x-words. I really liked the Rows Gardens. I wish I could find his puzzles somewhere else - I will not subscribe to WSJ.
I got beef with this one! Poultry clues, pesce answers! Butchered puns! A veal chore to solve! cc: emu handler
I’m admittedly not the best puzzler but this was MUCH harder than any Tuesday crossword I’ve seen before. Felt like a We/Th to me.
I had saunter before SWAGGER and that threw off my SW for a while, until I filled in the WHAT of WHATABOAR. Suddenly, I was able to finish the corner speedily and was rewarded with the happy music. Sometimes it's really hard to let go of the absolutely wrong answer, isn't it?
The fish and the rabbit called: they say they are perfectly ok with having missed the cut. Not the safest of solves, but at least the LAYERS didn’t end up as broilers. Fun and fulfilling.
Holy moly, I only needed two clues! Getting closer to solving more than a Monday puzzle on my own 😄
SASSASSASSET(putting them together so as not to run afoul of you know who) And ASHMAN is almost Kramer's license plate. Loved the revealer! B O W S T ON THE LAMB Is that a meat and greet?
In trying to guess the revealer without reading the revealer clue, I got the whole thing bass-ackwards. Since the original phrase didn't end in a real meat and the meat was a substitute for the real word, I was thinking of one of these ghastly substitutes made with some sort of awful soy product. But what? MEAT SUBSTITUTES? Too long. IMITATION MEAT? SOY-BASED MEAT? ERSATZ MEAT? I gave up. I was on the wrong track -- and I smiled broadly when MAKE ENDS MEAT came in. "That's nice -- that's very, very nice," I thought. I got all the theme answers with no more than two letters -- the clues were both easy and fair -- with the exception of WHAT A BOAR. But while the themed part of the puzzle was easy, there were other clues I found puzzling. I should know that two up quarks and a down quark = a PROTON? Well, actually, probably I should -- but I didn't. And what's a "bouncy castle" that's filled with AIR? A balloon? Oh so that's the derivation of AEGIS (as in under the aegis of). I didn't know that! It's very interesting and I feel more protected already. And there are just about no names!!!!! What a splendid Tuesday puzzle!
@Nancy <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflatable_castle" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflatable_castle</a>
@Nancy The folks who live behind me often get a bouncy castle for their youngest's birthday. She started kindergarten this year, so I'm guessing this year's castle was the last. Whenever I see it there, I think of the news stories where the castle has slipped its moorings and started to fly away, with dangerous results. Like this one: <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-59677855" target="_blank">https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-59677855</a> No thank you. But at least I was able to safely fill it in for the puzzle.
@Nancy No names? There was that Natick at AEGI_ and A_HMAN. My last letter, and I had to look it up.
I had to sleep on this one, I was stuck in the southwest last night, but filled it in in a flash this morning, I shouldn't be surprised but was. What a fun puzzle, lots of clues on the outer periphery of my knowledge. Loved the themers, even the gamy one.
Okay, the Balaam one made me laugh out loud.
@Jesse K As I picked up the sheet from my printer, my eyes fell on 21A and I cracked up. Then DHubby wanted to know what was funny. So I read the clue to him. "Who?" he asked. (DHubs claims to have attended Sunday School in his youth, but this is either a Big Fat Lie or he Never Paid Attention.) But it was a great clue and entry with which t begin the SOLVE.
A difficult Tuesday! Fun puns.
To Justin Werfel: Loved your Constructor notes! Love hearing romantic stories about proposals; DHubby isn't that sort, but oh well....he had other qualities. One thing of note: do men with last names beginning with W realize how much we ladies are impacted when we give up our place in line? I went from being in the H's to being waaaaay down in the W's (with an Americanized Swiss-German name.)
@Mean Old Lady My sister-in-law, whose maiden name was Baldwin, married a guy whose name began with W. After they got divorced, she married a guy named Zions. Try and top that!
@Mean Old Lady 33 years after i didnt change my name, I still don't understand why women chose to change their names.
@Mean Old Lady Sometimes being at the back of the alphabetical line can pay dividends. My (second) wife’s last initial is also W. We met in the fourth grade and were always at the back of the line together and had lockers next to each other in high school. We were never close friends, but because of the curse of the W, we were always aware of each other. After high school we went our separate ways. Fast forward 36 years and we reconnected, ended up marrying, and just celebrated our 13th anniversary two weeks ago.
Fun puzzle, cute theme, even for those who don't eat meat. "Go over the line" was a great clue; original? I was happy to get Aegis right away. The constructor note was charming. Good stuff. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (I do this instead of emuing)
Great job, Justin! Glad the puzzle was finally accepted. Thoroughly enjoyed it, punny humor and all!
This was perfect for a Carnivore like me. STEAK. Yum. LAMB. Yum yum. Good job I’ve eaten today. 45A made me chuckle. I must be feeling a little better (she said, in between coughing bouts).
This is the first NYT crossword that had me laughing out loud at several clues/answers. I certainly hope Justin Werfel will submit more crosswords and that NYT editors will accept them.
Wonderful puns. I also enjoyed seeing BLAME followed by MEA culpa and APIARY followed by POSIES. This was such fun. Special wishes for safety go out to all those in Hurricane Milton's path.
It’s solvable but a tough one for Tuesday. 53A, 57A, 69A, 40D and some others are all tough clues for Tuesday. Cute theme though :)
A good challenge for a Tuesday. I was cruising until I hit the south when I ran into quite a few snags…but I enjoyed it, since I’d rather have a more difficult crossword than an easy one. I also appreciate the puns…FEAR THE WURST actually made me laugh aloud. One small, well, not a nit but a question…did anyone else get stuck briefly by 1A, “Tackle, as a crossword”? I don’t consider attempting the crossword as a SOLVE until, well, I solve it and get the star and the tiny tune of triumph. As I say, this is quite small as I enjoyed this CW quite a bit.
Well that was fun!! A little tougher of a Tuesday, I thought, or maybe I'm just slower today. Either way, really nice puzzle!! The theme was terrific—each one really tickled my ribs! Especially FEARTHEWURST! Still, my favorite has to be a non-theme entry: 21A! Poor Balaam! Too funny! Also, REHEARSE for "Go over the line?" is great! I filled in AsAGUESS at 39D and didn't realize that made SEsA, which made no sense. I corrected it and got the happy music, but ATAGUESS didn't seem right to me.... A very quick Goog seems to agree with what's in the puzzle—AT. Who knew!? Probably a lot of you did... Oh well, an easy fix when I reexamined the cross.
@HeathieJ you and I seem to be on the same wavelength! That was my last to fall today.
Really cute and fun Tuesday puzzle, if a bit harder than average. Being a late commenter, most of my observations have already been made, but I don’t think I saw this: Did anybody else confidently put in “hangar” for 67A? It certainly would have fit in with the theme, coincidentally!
I laughed at the WURST thing - my wife and I often use that wurst/worst play-on-words when mixing German and English into our private language, which is mostly Polish, but possibly would not be recognized as such by anybody else but us. I got the theme, mostly, which is not a given when phonetics are involved. Is "what a bore" a quote from Charlotte's Web? In this clue all I understand is bore and BOAR sounding the same (or was it not bore at all, but some other word?), but everything else is a mystery. The SW corner was very hard for me today, possibly even the WURST. AEGIS was a gimme, RES came to me quickly, even though it is not used in Polish legalese (I may be a lawyer btw, but I am also a huge hater of legalese), and I somehow remembered GAUCHE, with crosses, but I needed to look up GRE and do some mental gymnastics to finish that part of the puzzle. I managed in the end, which I am somewhat proud of. My solve time was closer to Wednesday levels though, which has become quite common on Tuesdays in the past few months. My Tuesday PB is 7ish minutes, and lately I've been doing Tuesday puzzles in 12-14ish minutes. I still don't get "Tee preceder:ESS". Esstee? ST? The only STs I know are: 1. a line of fast-ish Fords, 2. gamer shorthand for single target damage (rather than AoE, area of effect). I would appreciate an explanation :)
@Andrzej Think alphabet. Tee refers to the letter T, so the preceder is the letter S or ESS, if spelled out.
@Andrzej The spider writes "SOME PIG", among other things, to save Wilbur. A boar is similar to a pig..... ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (I do this instead of emuing)
@Andrzej In E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web," Charlotte the spider weaves a web reading "Some pig!" in order to save the pig from slaughter. (It's viewed as something of a miracle.) It's a lovely book, well known in the US. I won't tell you any more, in case you wish to have the pleasure of reading it.
@Andrzej E.M.U. filter is on a tear lately. I was one of those who tried to address your boar question. :( Hasn't shown up yet. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (I do this instead of emuing)
@Andrzej Most of us in the United States are in awe of people who can casually use three languages to make plays on words... not to mention knowing the difference between a play on words and a pun. When I was in Spain I saw a woman finish a brief exchange with someone in German, then effortlessly switch to English when she turned to me. I asked her how many languages she spoke; she looked embarrased, then said "five." Then she brightened, and added: "But I'm learning more!"
I loved this puzzle! Loved it! What a perfect way to start a Tuesday. Thank you, Justin. More please.
Clever puns! Great clues! Lots of laughs! EMUS! Today's SOLVE was quite a TREAT.
A bit tough for a Tuesday, but I absolutely loved those long entries with the delightful puns. I was so pleased to finally get to the comments, and am still worried that I might have messed things up trying.
@suejean Here's how I get to the comments when there's no link. Open up a Wordplay column by Sam or Deb and scroll all the way to the end and look for this. Trying to get back to the main Gameplay page? You can find it here. There will be a link after the here and that will take you to all the blogs and just look for the one for the day's puzzle. It should be very near the top.
I loved it!!! Made me laugh. Excellent.
Who doesn't love a good pun? Fear the wurst is by far the best, but the whole puzzle had me smiling and chuckling. This is definitely one of my favourites in a while!
I genuinely hate puns, and genuinely hated this puzzle. Way to hard for a Tuesday.
I can’t wait to see a bunch of GAUCHE 21As DIS the answer to 20A because they don’t understand that part of the purpose of moderated comments is to provide AEGIS for all those who SOLVE and who would, AT A GUESS, prefer to STOOP to commenting on what has become of Twitter.
This was a tough Tuesday puzzle! I needed the hints to solve.