Hi everyone, On behalf of Wordplay, I'm just popping in to say that we are thinking about the readers in Florida and those in North Carolina still affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
@Deb Amlen Thank you. It was a long and windy night. (trying to come up with a clever "Wire/Dire" comment, but I'm too tired)
What a stroke of genius! The themers and revealer, yes, but also the intelligent clues, as well as the smart misdirects peppered throughout. I don't remember exactly when the penny dropped for me since my solving m.o. is to always float around the grid, criss-crossing as I go. But when it did, I took myself straight to the revealer, where I had the ORD in place, and excitedly filled in the rest, W-OR-D CHOICE, astonished and gleeful. I can't even imagine what a bear this must have been to construct, Mr. Boroughs, but please know that your gift to us has been received with awe and gratitude.
For those who are really worried whether it is alive or dead, I checked on the cat. Yes. cc: emu handler
@Steven , Ah, but according to Terry Pratchett, a cat in a closed box is Alive, Dead, or Bloody Angry.
Schrödinger puzzles are such a challenge to create, it’s easy to see why they are such rare occurrences. But what a thrill to be treated to one of these construction marvels. They are awe inspiring and provide some of the most satisfying aha moments. This one was no exception. Congratulations, Grant. Great work!
"Should I use a thesaurus for this word or call my writer friend?" "Well, one way or an author." ("Roget that.")
@Mike An author asked his editor what would happen if he chose a word whose meaning was not quite correct, and the editor said it would count as a sin on him. emu bait
Fantastic! Washboard/Dashboard! Wishes/Dishes! The cat in the box is definitely alive after doing this fun puzzle. In other news: I’m giving up changing my location using What3Words - the emus have decided it must mean something nefarious to move around so much; my Sunday post never appeared. In other other news: While hiking yesterday (OK, near fidelity.windpipe.basher), best beloved was up ahead of me. I had got my phone out to look at my GPS app. He turned around and said (accusingly): “are you doing the puzzle?!” I felt so seen.
@Cat Lady Margaret 😀😀😀 Doing a puzzle on a phone on a walk. There's got to be a meme there somewhere.
@Cat Lady Margaret Too bad about the What3words, I was enjoying following you around. Perhaps you could just put the three words somewhere in your comment and just leave Scotland as your loc. safe travels! — — — — — — — —
Impressive construction! Clues were on the easy side. Finished well below average, with no lookups. I started with COW and PAW, but WASHBOARDS and WITHER made less sense to me than DASHBOARDS and DITHER. So switched to D, and thought the theme (on a Thursday?) required a D in every circle. That sped up my solve considerably. Though I had LONGEST for Femur, and only switched to LARGEST when NENEWAL didn’t make sense. Then SAHIB clicked as well. ODD before OFF. RUNS AMOK before RUNS RIOT. But all very gettable. Didn’t get the theme till the end, and had to read the revealer clue a few times to understand how to parse WORD as W OR D. That was a very clever twist!! Went over all theme answers to see how they worked with W and that felt quite satisfactory. Well done, Grant!
@rajeevfromca Exactly my thought pattern, except for where you figured out the theme. 🙄
Well done Mr. Boroughs, well done. I picked up the theme quickly, but stumbled a bit over ODIC. I'd plugged ODES in, and raced through the puzzle, but had to backtrack to find my booboo. Still beat my average tho.
@Dave S Exactly my experience. Had ODes in there from the start. Filled the puzzle with one letter per square. No music. Saw the D or W trick and made them all the same letter. Tried rebus with both D/W and W/D. Still no music. Finally spotted the error, thankfully in Row 2. Could have caught it when I entered FISHTAIL, but I didn't. Cost several minutes but still came in a minute under average..
I first thought “odes”, but thought better about immediately filling that in as the clue seemed to want an adjective for the answer.
Didn't get the theme until after I solved the puzzle and then it gave me an actual laugh. D/WASHBOARD took me a second but when I got it I laughed again. Kudos.
Oh! I had no idea! I just thought “well, yes, those circles are each either W or D”. This is very cool, but didn’t catch it at all.
@Eric TIL there are musical instruments called WASHBOARDS! (Or that old-timey WASHBOARDS are used as musical instruments.) I also figured out the theme only after solving, and had to look up how a W could fit there. Fun puzzle.
Sometimes the solving experience suffers because the cluing is compromised a bit to make the theme work. Not today. This theme served the puzzle instead of the other way around. It was a pleasure to work through this challenging, well constructed gem and the theme was a brilliant sparkle of fairy dust on top.
@momonjava I agree. A first-rate construction.
@momonjava Perfect description for a delightful puzzle. The cluing was artful, even when stretched to cover both W or D choices. Terrific!
Since PAW and COW were some of my first confident entries, I started automatically putting W’s in the circled squares, which meant I didn’t ever consider of any of the “D” answers— I just thought “what would start with a W here that answers the clue?” I had everything in besides the north-central section (Cy Young sounded like a book award to me, ha) and I started to doubt myself when I suspected BOWL for 16D. Why isn’t that W circled?? I still made it to the end without figuring out the theme, which was a bummer for my ego since I just *love* the smug satisfaction of cracking a Thursday. That being said, I’m thoroughly charmed by the clever W-OR-D play, bruised ego and all. 🙃 Thank you for a thoughtful puzzle!! And as always, appreciate the column & comments that help me learn new things, get unstuck, and think about things differently for future puzzles.
And furthermore..... Is it me or has this just been an exceptionally fun week of puzzles!? Inquiring emus want to know!!
@HeathieJ The readings on my wristband happy-o-meter suggest that this week's puzzles, the four so far averaged, have made me 20.7% happier than baseline. So, Yeah! Good catch!
is the femur the longest or the largest? Had a bit of trouble with that.
@Asher That slowed me down a little, too.
@Asher The femur is the longest, heaviest and strongest bone in the body. LARGEST, while an odd way to describe it, is accurate.
Wow. Just - wow. What an incredible feat of construction. Anyway - typical long workout for me, but managed to get it all together, but... never caught on to the trick until I went to Xword Info to review. I probably couldn't even tell you in which squares I used W and which ones D. Just incredibly amazing that the constructor was able to find all those D or W answers of the same length, both of which fit the clue, and then was able to fit them all in the same puzzle the way he did. I can't even imagine what a long struggle that must have been. Puzzle of the week? Month? Year? - I'd say yes to all of those. ..
@Rich in Atlanta I just used D in all of them, though I could see the W would also work. (However, I did think a bit about COW, since one does differentiate between milch COWs and beeves....but not today!)
Now seems to me to be a good time to remind everyone of the Schrödinger puzzle to end all Schrödinger puzzles, which ran on Election Day, Nov. 5, 1996, the year Bill Clinton ran against Bob Dole. You can find it in the Archives. I won't say more about it because saying that it's a Schrödinger puzzle is spoiler enough.
@Steve L My absolutely favorite puzzle! Thanks for mentioning it! And emu appears again.
@Steve L And at least one constructor is no doubt at work now on a KAMALA DONALD one.
@Steve L Just a week or two ago, I went back to solve that one. (I'd heard about it through the video, Wordplay, so its theme didn't catch me by surprise; wanted to see it for myself.)
I recall fondly those years when I was slowly climbing that mountain, when my first correct Monday puzzle sent me over the moon, and the journey toward mastering all the days of the week was a labor of love and enjoyment. Alas, now as I adapt to the effects of Alzheimer's, my Xword journey is moving slowly and steadily in the opposite direction. Today's puzzle lost me entirely. Perhaps I should try some "old timey medicines" (42D)...
The theme largely escaped me - I was as mentally inflexible as ever, despite trying to think outside the box (the box being the irritatingly narrow confines of my intellectual abilities). I never considered Ds for the circled letters. Once I had a few Ws there, I put Ws in the other circles, too, and that helped me complete the puzzle. I mean, I knew there had to be more to theme - the revealer had nothing to do with Ws after all - but I was not smart enough to understand the whole thing. My life so far has proved I am not particularly intellectually challenged, but I *do* miss a certain ability to grasp unusual, abstract concepts. I just can't see anything else there when what I'm seeing is familiar at first glance: WORDCHOICE is just "word choice" to me and my circuits would fry before I parsed that as "w or d choice" - even with an indication to do so. Still, I completed the puzzle without lookups, even though I was tempted to Google some of the trivia. In the end I needed to check one single square at the crossing of S_HIB and the femur clue - I think of bones not as large but rather as long, and LonGEST worked for many entries around there. I knew we spell SAHIB with an A in Polish but I thought maybe English uses an O there? It's happened before. ODIC rather than ODes was so cruel it made me laugh 🤣. I figured it out on my own though. Also, I don't understand WISHES as a thing listed on a wedding registry. It's not a thing in Poland. Could somebody explain please?
@Andrzej I was lucky to have filled some of the theme entries with D and others with W, so that the revealer clicked right away. I can understand how it would be hard to see it if you'd had all Ws (or all Ds) in the circles. I don't know much about wedding registries, but as I understand it, it's a list of things you WISH for (and that you've already picked out at the store), and this often includes DISHES.
@Andrzej In the sense that a registry is a wish list of things the couple desires, one can say that the registry contains WISHES. It is weak, as even the constructor admits, but plausible. I had more difficulty with WASHBOARDS as I did not know them as musical instruments until today!
So clever. Thank you. I only got “W or D” when I read the article, thank goodness for WorDplay. ❤️
@Nina Nice word play on Wordplay! Come to think of it W OR D PLAY might have been a fun revealer, too.
@Tom that would’ve been a fun revealer!
@Nina Yes, me too. I'd miss so much without it.
I picked this up at WRY/DRY HUMOR as I asked myself which one it was? Then I noticed the tiny little circle. Then I went back and noticed that my PAW could have been PAD and my WITHER could have been DITHER; that my COW could have been COD and my WASHBOARDS DASHBOARDS. By then, there was only DAY AHEAD/WAY AHEAD and DISHES/WISHES to go. Very very clever. Very, very smooth. This is one of those rare times when there is a really compelling and interesting reason for employing tiny little circles in a grid. This is -- on a less-grand scale -- similar to the CLINTON/BOB DOLE puzzle of such great fame. The type is described by that word I can never remember: the one that begins with an S and sounds somewhat like the kid piano player in the "Peanuts" cartoon. I liked this puzzle a lot and think that it's very well conceived.
Impressive! I found this to be relatively easy work - likely due to the fact that the themers all had two valid and accessible solutions. The beauty of a puzzle like this is the admiration the solver feels for the constructor, more so than the mental workout. Thanks, Grant Boroughs
Very fine puzzle. I'm expecting a lot of agreement, and a lot of disagreement. Gotta love Thursday.
If we are waxing philosophical, IMHO this puzzle exceeds the Aristotelian definition of wit. It is in the wheelhouse of his definition of genius: « an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars" which « cannot be taught by another ».* Thank you, Grant Boroughs. Not least of all because the emu is so happy to have been included in your puzzle today. It SASHAYS in pride as I write. *See Andrew M. Stewart: <a href="https://digitalcommons.denison.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1074&context=episteme#:~:text=Recall" target="_blank">https://digitalcommons.denison.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1074&context=episteme#:~:text=Recall</a> that Aristotle thinks that,are rightly defined as arts.
Whoa, (so sorry that whoa can't start with a d!), that was fun! I was a little slow to pick up on the actual theme but once I did, what a delight! Fun and surprisingly fast for me! I'm on my phone app, so I'm not sure but I think it was a Thursday best... But more importantly is how lovely it was to complete and to slowly realize what was happening! I do confess to kind of wishing 31A had something to do with Bugs Bunny, with that potentially hidden capital letter.... That said, I actually really liked the clue and answer as presented! Really, very fun and lovely! I've heard out here about Schrödinger's puzzles but how delightful to find myself in one! My compliments to the chef!! 😘
@HeathieJ WABBITY would have fit the space for [Bugs, perhaps]
@HeathieJ If "woah" can be an alternative version of Whoa, why not "dhoa" as an alternate spelling of "D'oh!"? (Then you'd have your pair.) !!!!
Outstanding puzzle. Love the different layers of solving. Thursdays should always be the most esthetically pleasing of the week.
Well, well, aren't YOU the tricky one, Grant B!? SIX Themers PLUS a Reveal--quite the feat! I felt my heart sink when I saw two neighborhoods (in places I've never lived) and (arrgh) Scooby-doo and "Twilight" (never watched) ugh ugh ugh! But then Aristotle, Caesar, honorifics, and cheese! I also fell into the traps with LONGEST, RUNS AMOK, DALES (although I left blanks just in case) and HA HA HA, so I hope this makes you smile. Wonderful puzzle, had a great time, and hope to see you again soon, you rascal!
@Mean Old Lady Actually, 12 themers, since the Schrödinger square works on both the Across and Down answers. !!!! !!!!
@Mean Old Lady I had longest, runs amok, and dales as well. Saw the error of my ways pretty quickly though.
@Mean Old Lady I had pretty nearly exactly the same experience as you. We should never solve a crossword together, as your and my knowledge bases overlap WAY too much.
@Mean Old Lady I had the same three mis-steps as you and Marshall. My sister, Adele, dated a guy in HS whose last name was Farmer. There were some rude jokes made.
A fun distraction from Milton, our temporary neighbor this evening. As I write this, we're on the backside of the eye (we missed being in the eye by about 5 miles as it went by south of us) and are finally (unfortunately) getting some of the higher velocity wind gusts, whereas, before, we mostly had rain. We've had one momentary power glitch, which shut off the TV and the computer, but got those restarted and got at the puzzle afterward. Dawned on me halfway through the puzzle that we had spots where both W and D would work, and the revealer was spot on. Thanks, Grant.
@JayTee I hope you remain safe!
@JayTee Best wishes that you stay safe. I don’t envy the people in hurricane country (this year especially).
I stared at 58A for quite a long time and am really chuffed that I did as it finally came to me and I went back to check all the circles and sure enough, either a W or a D was correct. What a great AHA moment. A fine Thursday puzzle, well done, Grant.
Not tricky, but I appreciate the clever construction. The revealer made it extra fun. And, for those unfamiliar with WASHBOARD as a musical instrument: Buckwheat Zydeco and Washboard Jo: <a href="https://youtu.be/t8GIi6G7ti4?si=gn_PmEOEGOgAyppj" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/t8GIi6G7ti4?si=gn_PmEOEGOgAyppj</a>
@Nancy J. I love Buckwheat Zydeco! They played years ago at my University (UW-Whitewater - Go Warhawks!) a couple of times. They are a fantastic live band!
Ver impressive! I figured it out having to choose between wry humor and dry humor because I never really know the difference either. Love this puzzle.
fun puzzle! Love the hidden theme of ZOOM, black ICE, FISHTAIL, and SCRAP! I wonder if it was intentional or by pure ACCIDENT ;)
Another Thursday puzzle that I solved without really understand ing it. Some of the cluing seemed a little strained. "I'm Flexible" comes out as ANY? "Stopover" is INN? But OK. Was fun when the music played and it showed on (on my computer) the squares with the word choices demonstrated. Happy to solve it without cheating and looking at the wordplay blog. and onward!
@Jim in Forest Hills "What time works for you?" "I'm flexible/Any" I think it works? I also did not get the theme BTW 🤣
"Some of the cluing seemed a little strained. ... 'Stopover' is INN?" Jim in Forest Hills, In Forest Hills I wouldn't think of an INN as a [Stopover] either. Nor would I in Manhattan. But in my travels beyond the focus of the famous cover of The New Yorker, I certainly would.
Loved it! Finally caught on when I realised I might be WINED or DINED. The ingenuity and patience of Mr Boroughs is to be admired!
Such a *choice* puzzle! I dunno, do I go with DISHES or WISHES? PAW or PAD? DASHBOARD or WASHBOARD? My puzzle, my choice! Next level and very forgiving! 👍 👍
I thought this was brilliant. Can't imagine how hard it was to come up with cromulent dual-purpose clues. Did anyone else think of "Into The Woods"? This is from the prologue: [JACK'S MOTHER] Son We've no time to sit and dither While her withers wither with her— BTW Stephen Sondheim was a big cryptic crossword fan. He even composed a handful of them.
@ad absurdum I’ve been obsessed with Into the Woods for the past few days. Especially “While her withers wither with her…” Almost as good as Sweeney Todd. “Me eyelids’ll flutter, I’ll turn into butter, then moment I utter ‘I do’”
I saw COW and DASHBOARDS, but not COD and WASHBOARDS, so I thought it was different for across and down. I had a vague expectation of Washer/Dryer appearing in the revealer. Possibly something about "stacked appliances"? Dunno, just finished laundry for the week, so it was on my mind. Very easy for a Thursday.
This puzzle was so much fun! Just what I needed today. Thank you!
As an ARIES it took me far too long to realize that a ‘bold ambitious type’ referred to my zodiac sign and not as I thought the typeface ‘Arial’ which I think would be a punnier and more fun clue…
I only had 2 "Ds". Dry/wry and Day/way. I changed them to all "W"s before finishing the puzzle. When I saw the majority of "W" starts, I assumed, wrongly, that W was the Way to go. Then I completed 58A, and had to laugh. Of course, rebuses! My puzzle was accepted with all W's. I didn't know about Dr. Shroedinger having anything other than a cat. He also has rebuses. What a fun puzzle. I enjoyed everything about it. I like rebuses and am not put off by seeing them in a Thursday puzzle. This one was delightful. I certainly agree with you Deb, his puzzle is clever and elegant. My favorite fun entry is 60D. 😂. My 2nd most enjoyable was 51A. I've seen it before and it never disappoints. Nice distractions today from all the tension and sadness in the news today. Cheers y'all from Texas. Thinking of all those folks in aftermath of Milton. It's hard to know what to say. I'm one who survived another hurricane and have recovered after moving inland. It was hard giving up the beauty and culture of living on an island, but living to find beauty and peace elsewhere is a gift I wasn't willing to refuse. Stay safe. Grieve, and know you are not alone.
Imagine my surprise when I completed the puzzle with only one letter per square and several rebuses about which I’d had no clue popped up. I guess it was a stealth rebus. I can appreciate the ingenuity of the construction, but I do prefer rebus puzzles that require the solver to actually see the rebus to solve the puzzle.
@Marshall Walthew A Schrödinger puzzle isn't exactly a rebus. In such a puzzle, you can put either letter--a W or a D--in each square and have a correct solve. So your solve was complete regardless of whether you used the W or the D in any of the squares. The xwordinfo.com answer key conveys this a little better, I think: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/10/2024" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/10/2024</a>
Odic? Haven't heard ECHOPARK, so EsHO PARK sounded just as right. FeSHTAIL seemed like it could have been FISHTAIL, but I was more convinced ODes was right than I was that the other answers were wrong
@Steven M. The word "like" in the clue hints at an adjective answer. As for ECHO Park, here's how I know of it: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWodsUoaPVc" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWodsUoaPVc</a>
Absolutely genius. Loved it.
The theme reminded me of the dilemma I faced this morning. what to have for breakfast: W(waffles) or D(donut)? I resolved it by eating Oatmeal instead.
From a premise stand-point, this puzzle was awesome. Perfect use of Thursday trickiness. I was searching for the theme with all of the circled letters filled, and thank goodness I had one of them filled as a "W." Otherwise, I would have been looking for a theme revolving completely around the letter "D." Phenomenal entry today. I had a ton of fun with this one.
A real hum-dinger of a Schrö-dinger. Nicely done! cc: emu handler
Thought I would PLOD and PLOW my WAY AHEAD without giving any thought to my DAY AHEAD, so it took a whopping 78 minutes to solve. I didn’t google anything until the very end when it wouldn’t complete even though it seemed finished. I said ENUF and turned out I had one misspelling! Amazing puzzle!
To the editor who realized this could be a rebus and decided it didn't have to be a rebus, THANK YOU. Fun and challenging without the frustration of realizing I have to go around and figure out how to type in the extra letters.