My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Place for grape nuts? (4) 2. "Also also...," for short (3) 3. It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry (7) 4. Masters of bad impersonations? (8)(7) 5. Do-to-do delivery? (6) NAPA PPS DRAMEDY IDENTITY THIEVES OCTAVE
Jack and Jill's last trip pailed in comparison. (These puns are hill areas.)
@Mike I just tumbled to the fact that you wear the pun crown.
I do the crossword as a relief from all the things in life that must be acted on quickly so I’m never in a rush. But many congratulations to all those for whom the time is important! Spoken like someone who doesn’t have a time worth mentioning :)
@Justin wanna compare longest time taken? :)
@Justin and when you speed through you miss the joy of the clever clues. I actually feel cheated if I fill in a whole corner on the across and don’t get to see the down clues. Here’s for slowpokes!
@KLW I've started leaving whole rows blank to make sure I read all the Downs. Two minutes longer than my quickest Monday but I enjoyed every bit of it!
Little known facts… JACK felt down and broke his crown when he tripped over a DOG TOY HUMPTY DUMPTY fell off the wall because he was TIPSY LONDON BRIDGE is falling down because of overaggressive construction DEADLINES Fun theme! And I trust OCTOPUSES will be plurally pleasing.
This was my first-ever crossword puzzle. It took me about 45 minutes, and I had to get quite a few hints towards the end. Still, it was fun!
@Paul Congratulations and welcome to crosswording!! This was a really good one to introduce you to the crosswords. Just by way of warning, they do get more difficult each day of the week except for Sundays. The more you do them, the better you get! ☺️
@Paul Congratulations! You picked a good one to start with. Happy puzzling!
@Paul Good on ya'. Hope it's the first of many. ---Hey Mayor, I mean no disrespect. Please don't misunderstand.---
@Paul Be warned that crosswords are mesmerizing, addictive, distracting, brilliant, dopey, devilish, calming, infuriating, habit forming, and delightful, but most of all, fun. (Trained therapists are standing by, many right here in the comments column.)
@Paul Sounds like you got a PB! Congrats!
@Paul Don't be afraid to try every day, and just look stuff up. And when you are still stuck, there is a link to the solution at the bottom of the column. I can now do early week puzzles, but always need look-ups on Fri and Sat. And I learn so much from the words/phrases/names I didn't know before. I'm old, so pop culture clues are my nemises.
Very nicely crafted puzzle, Mr. Lieberman, and what a great find for a theme! It had never before occured to me that these nursery rhymes all have something in common. I also greatly enjoyed the long down answers which added a certain something special to the grid. Thank you for the puzzle, and for sending me down memory lane with Anita Baker, the perfect listen for a rainy, lazy, Sunday afternoon: <a href="https://youtu.be/GNDuWcLI5fg?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/GNDuWcLI5fg?feature=shared</a>
I tried to figure out the revealer by leaving it blank after filling in the theme answers. First, I tried to get it without seeing its clue – nada after trying hard to come up with angles. Then I looked at the revealer’s clue, and still nada, after more serious digging. Finally, I revealed one letter at a time from the beginning, and when FALL appeared, the answer finally hit me. My immediate reactions: • “Oh, excellent and clever!” (with a smile). • “I should have at least figured out ‘FALL’” (with a “Dang!”). • “Got me good!” (with a nod of respect). • “Great brain workout!” (with an Ahh!”). The rest of the puzzle was a dash, and there is thrill in that. Plus, there was a pair of sweet serendipities: Four palindromes (ELLE, ANNA, EKE, ALA) and two French words that sound like English letters (EAU , ELLE). So, a package of Crosslandia goodness for me, Michael Lieberman -- a most lovely way to start the day. Thank you, sir!
So much puckish humor in the cluing of the theme answers. I loved this! I wondered if I could figure out the revealer ahead of time? MOTHER GOOSES YOU was the closest I could come. That's definitely not it. I also wondered if the theme answers occurred to Michael first or if the revealer did. It can work both ways as I well know, but sometimes you have wonderful theme answer ideas and no revealer that works. That might be the time to have all theme answers and no revealer. Which would this be? FALL CLASSIC blew me away. It's perfect -- and I bet that absolutely no one saw it coming. The double meaning of FALL is the icing on the cake. A delightful and witty Monday!
A fun reminder that a quick solve can be rewarding on several levels. Enjoyed this.
I found this to be one of the easiest and thus most relaxing Monday puzzles ever: I was a few seconds off my personal best time despite not understanding the theme, mostly due to only knowing one themed entry, HUMPTY DUMPTY. I have heard the phrase JACK AND JILL somewhere but never knew it was a title, ditto LONDON BRIDGE. We have our own Polish nursery rhymes, obviously: "Lokomotywa" by Julian Tuwim is the best known one, but I began to learn English when I was starting school, so not at an age for nursery rhymes any more. HUMPTY DUMPTY I learned from TV, and not children's TV, either: lines from it feature often enough in film and series dialogue. Also, to me a FALL CLASSIC would be a STEW 🤣. I've never heard of it in a sporting context, but I'm not into American sports, at all.
@Andrzej I hadn't either. And in fact I made a fall stew this very evening. Mmmm!
I once worked on a farm that had a ferocious pair of goats (really!) that stayed with the cows at night, so when I accidentally read “cattle attacker” instead of “castle attacker” on 4D, I didn’t even hesitate to put a Goose on Maine’s flag instead of a MOOSE.
Nice to see Phylum Mollusca featured so prominently. And with an acceptable plural, too! OK, I'll clam up now.
@CaptainQuahog But after so much previous kerfuffle, I was sure it had to be OCTOPODES after all.
@CaptainQuahog, The first thing I thought of when I saw 2D: “Captain Quahog will be happy!” Finally, they got it right!
Really fun Monday puzzle. Not a record time for me, but it all fell together fairly smoothly. Needed some down crosses for the reveal to dawn on me so that was the last thing I filled in. Just a nice 'aha' moment when I finally got that. Couldn't ask for anything more. A couple of quite interesting puzzle finds today. I'll put those in replies. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: First a Sunday from December 16, 1979 by Michael Priestley with the title "Through the looking-glass." A couple clue/answer theme examples: "Egghead." HTPMUDYTPMUH "Look-alikes." EEDELDEEWTDNAMUDELDEEWT (23 Letter grid-spanner). Some other theme answers: NEEUQDEREHT RETTAHDAMEHT YKCOWREBBAJ And there was no 'reveal' in that one other than the title of the puzzle. Don't recall ever finding another one like that. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=12/16/1979&g=26&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=12/16/1979&g=26&d=D</a> ...
“The hazards of decaying infrastructure” —loved that. Very quick Monday, nice clean clues. Thank you for a good start to the week.
First time I've ever gotten a puzzle in under 10 minutes (even if it is only Monday...) !!
What a lovely grid. Pleasant memories of reciting the rhymes with the kids interspersed with interesting crosses. The only clue I didn’t automatically know was 59A, being a sports thing. Our clocks went back an hour on Sunday so we now have daylight at 7am again. For a while anyway. So much nicer than getting up in the dark, though I tend to miss the SUNRISES.
@Helen Wright I spent a lot of time in Holland over the years and experienced many of these time changes over there. It was always kind of curious that you folks change at a different date than here across the pond. Also, for whatever reason the clocks there all change at the same moment across all three EU time zones. Here each time zone changes at their own 2 AM . Each approach has implications for how the trains deal with the change. If you’ve never given it any thought, check out: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/2t46h7d9" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/2t46h7d9</a>
@Helen Wright I do the puzzle first thing in the morning, and today it was almost dark enough to need a lamp at 7:30. It's a little depressing, but a little cozy as well. We're entering the time when the cat refuses to leave my LAP.
Now this is more like it. Lovely puzzle, with a clever payoff. May the puzzles for the rest of the week be equally fun. Bravo, Mr. Lieberman. Encore!
I am here because news of the Trump love fest at MSG has me absolutely terrified.
@Pat I suspect this will be taken down because we're not supposed to talk politics out here... But I completely agree. I felt increasingly nauseated as I read about it. Terrifying, for sure!
@Pat I basically can barely sleep anymore. And when I do, that transition between a dream state and remembering where we are is excruciating. But no politics, because God forbid we try to understand the nightmare we are enduring.
Well, I've finally recovered from seeing 91A in yesterdays puzzle and was happy to see a more appropriate mention at 4A. It was nice to see my family and I mentioned in a way that gives us the respect we are due.
@Bullwinkle J. Moose You're an imposter! I know the real Bullwinkle J. Moose, and you're no Bullwinkle J. Moose.
Wow big PB for me at sub-3 minutes. Hard to imagine I will ever beat that. I wish when you got a PB it would remind you what your previous PB was? If that exists, please share! I can’t remember exactly what it was.
Stopped doing my daily crossword for the past couple of months because life got in the way, but finished in 5 minutes today, about a minute over my PB...happy to be back!
One of the most fun Monday puzzles that I can remember. Well done, Michael.
At 5:55, five seconds off my PB about a year into solving, I was feeling pretty good until I saw some of the bonkers times being posted here. Sheesh, guys!
@sbs 6:24 for me, 24 seconds off my PB. Realistically, I don't see myself ever going below 6 minutes: I just don't type fast enough, and I don't want to, anyway - going at a natural, unrushed pace is much more relaxing, for me. I use a stylus to type on my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: slower than typing with my fingers but much more accurate. I never make typos this way, and that saves me a lot of grief.
@sbs Like @Andrzej I find it impossible to type that quickly even when I know all the answers, so well done you on your great time. For me it’s maybe an age thing, but also I enjoy the journey, not just the end goal.
fun, easy, and some clever clues--a perfect monday puzzle imo
I'm not saying this was a perfect Monday puzzle, but I'm NOT NOT saying it either. (For anyone who didn't quite get the "double negative" clue.)
Cute theme. Seemed easier than the typical easy Monday.
Woo-hoo I successfully solved it with just the across clues for the first time. The across pass was getting me pretty much everything, at least on the top 3/4. So I decided to go for it. I think I've seriously attempted this feat about 15 times before.
"The Bible has an Old and New one" - The correct clue would be either "Some Bibles have an Old and New one" or "Christian Bibles have an Old and New one".
@JLP60615 Does it matter if the word is capitalized? Merriam-Webster seems to thinks so. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bible" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bible</a>
[Nursery rhyme about a Sisyphean odyssey] Neat find on the theme with a very nicely repurposed revealer. ITSY BITSY SPIDER
I'm guessing that some days the Tricky Clues column is more difficult to write than others... .
Nice Monday puzzle. Definitely did not see that revealer coming. Michael, was the LARGE COKE a CLASSIC?
Fast and fun!! It was a new personal best for me in a time I never thought I could achieve. It probably helped that I did it on my computer instead of my phone app, which is what I usually do early week puzzles on but even so, this one seemed to fly. But not in a boring way. It seemed bright and cheery and breezy! I really enjoyed it and never thought before about those nursery rhymes all having falls in common. My favorite though is the clue for Sunrises. "They brighten everybody's day!" So sweet! Though I pretty quickly plugged in the theme answers, the revealer was not immediately apparent. I didn't know they called the world series that but it was quickly revealed by the crossings. In other news, I'm still scratching my head over what on earth I could have possibly written that the emus objected to yesterday when I tried to post something three different times with minor adjustments in each to try to get them through. It's just funny because I've learned so many facts about emus through the puzzles, but still they are such a mystery. Oh well! There are far greater mysteries to ponder, one supposes. Cheers to a new week, all!! Since it's still Sunday night, I'll toast you with a 🍸 instead of my morning poison of choice, which is a 🥤LARGE diet COKE.
@HeathieJ Well, there's a difference for you. Sunset is when I start to feel better. Doubt this will get by the emus. I think I'm giving up fighting them.
New PB of 5min 24! Not the fastest out there but proud nonetheless. Cute entries and a satisfying solve.
@Kat O That's the exact time I got, too! For arthritic fumbly figured me, that's not bad. I found Monday's puzzle great fun!
Looks like lots of people are setting new PBs today, including me! Finally smashed through the 4 min barrier, which was one of my personal milestones this year. Slowly but surely making my way to a sub 2 min solve, might have to switch to desktop so I can type faster lol.
@Eva H. Sincerely glad you enjoyed it.
@Eva H. Mikey likes it! <a href="https://tinyurl.com/2srww2n4" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/2srww2n4</a> !!! !!! !!!
My best time ever! Happy Monday. (Vote 🗳️.)
Many nursery rhymes have their origins in political, or other, satire, thinly veiled. Might this be the reason why falling is a recurring theme?
@mld I wonder who Humpty Dumpty might be in the modern era.
Actually, there are several brands that have shifted the meaning of their initialisms besides STP. KFC TCBY ESPN YM <a href="https://slate.com/business/2004/05/what-does-kfc-stand-for-now.html" target="_blank">https://slate.com/business/2004/05/what-does-kfc-stand-for-now.html</a> I am also reminded that I learned in a recent Wordplay column that it's an acronym if you pronounce the string of letters as if it's a word, and an initialism if you just say the letters. So for example, a TLA is not one (an acronym, that is).
I got them all, bar the taro dish. Unknown words were solved by the crossers. Almost too easy! Given that sometimes I hardly get any, I'm grateful for small mercies.
@Jane Wheelaghan That taro dish, POI, has appeared 258 times, so it's one you should remember. It's been used four times this year alone, so you'll certainly see it again. Look for words like taro, starch(y), luau, Hawaiian, Polynesian, Samoan, island, mash(ed), and root in the clue. Sometimes, it's clued as a roast pig side dish, as the pig is often the featured main at the luau.
Thank you, Mr. Lieberman, for a very pleasant start to the week! The difficulty was perfect for a Monday, and the theme and revealer were clever (& a lot of fun). Really looking forward to more of your work!
This was my first googleless solve! I don't expect to see much more of that (except maybe other Mondays) but I don't feel like that takes away from crosswords as a way to spend time for me.
Smug report: I managed to complete it without looking at the Down clues! Monday Yay! I hope you all have a wonderful day!
@Petrol Same, but I used only the Down clues! Very straightforward.
@Petrol Ditto. Trying to solve a puzzle without looking at any down clues is something I do now and then. I always go through the Across clues first, and if about half (or more) of the grid is filled in, then I go for it. Usually it only happens on a Monday puzzle, but every once in a while it works on a Tuesday as well. But IMO, today's was *too* easy. After going through the Across clues once quickly, there were only 3 left unfilled (48A, 62A, and 64A), and looking at the crossings made it easy to finish.
Something tumbles poetically (and with that atomic-alarm-clock ring of familiarity, as Yankees and Dodgers face off, like in the days of (my) yore.)
I'd like to be under the sea In an OCTUPUS's garden In the shade We would be warm below the storm In our little hideaway beneath the waves Resting our head on the seabed In an octopus's garden near a cave <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De1LCQvbqV4" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De1LCQvbqV4</a> The puzzle was surely titled Child's Play? a delightful Monday. Thanks, Michael.
A fun puzzle connecting to the World Series. Being a lifelong Yankee fan, I know that the tables will turn now that the Bronx Bombers are home for the next few games. As far as those solvers who consider themselves “above” such an easy puzzle, I ask simply, did you start solving crossword puzzles with only Th-Sat? Let’s let everyone have a win now and then. Concerning STP, it is frequently used in puzzles and clues in ways usually referencing auto racing. The origin of the letters in its name are varied in explanation. Years ago we used to consider it based on “Stop That Ping”.