Gonna guess that most of NYT readers are NOT OKAY today.
Outstanding. Ingenious. *Fun*. A great Thursday. And most importantly a balm and a distraction from… events. For those of you Stateside doing it tough today, warmest wishes from the South Pacific. We feel for you.
I'm heartsick and lonely. Forgive me, Strikers, but the puzzles are one of the few bright spots, living as we do in Deep Red, and wondering if we have years enough left in our lives to see our country emerge from darkness. Delightful and challenging puzzle! It also exposes more "cultural" blanks in my life...Raves, Dungeons and Dragons, The Simpsons, Mario Bros, Miami, rock hits and rockers, ....whew. BUT! Jane EYRE to the rescue, wonderful memories of AMSTERDAM, Texas geography, Route 66, and things I say all the time. Thank you, Joe Deeney.
@Mean Old Lady That's where I get my kicks. I mean - you reminded me of an old favorite song and I stumbled across a puzzle with ROUTESIXTYSIX as the theme. That was the last theme answer and all the other theme answers referenced it. e.g. "Colorful natural attraction along 114 across." PAINTEDDESERT Some other theme answers: THEMOTHERROAD GATEWAYARCH CADILLACRANCH But the most amazing thing was the clue for ROUTESIXTYSIX, which was: "Theme of this puzzle, which winds its way nearly 2,500 miles through all the shaded squares herein :" And the shaded squares (all parts of a longer answer), in an angular line from the lower left to the upper right were: CA, AZ, NM, TX, OK, KS, MO, IL. Just amazing. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/15/2022&g=114&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/15/2022&g=114&d=A</a> ..
@Mean Old Lady Sending you an internet hug.
@Mean Old Lady Heartsick describes it perfectly. Hugs.
@Mean Old Lady Living in a deep blue area and trust me, we are also devastated and although not lonely, I've noticed many of us are keeping more to ourselves this week. It's a difficult time. Just trying to enjoy the little things in life, like today's puzzle and comments, and taking courage from all those who came before us and endured worse.
@Rich in Atlanta I remember that one well! Love anything Route 66. Used to live near Cadillac Ranch. Wasn’t that long ago that I stayed in an awesome Rte66 themed motel in Santa Rosa with a giant Clyde the camel out front. Tried to find it again but sadly Clyde disappeared.
@Mean Old Lady also heartsick, but at least not too lonely, living in a blue spot surrounded by deepest red. Although many people who work here live in a red area, so we still have to be careful about what we say sometimes.
When I cracked the theme maybe two-thirds the way through, it brought a big smile, a big “Hah!”, and a big “Great idea!” That’s a very good theme, in my book. But the good didn’t stop there: • Every theme answer was solid, packed a punch. • Loveliness showed up in the fill: ERSATZ, TROPE, CONDIMENT, and even the mood-lifting TOADETTE. • Double-E fest, with eight. SUHWEET! • Lovely not-thought-about-in-ages memories jogged: MR BILL (do you remember the names of his two nemeses?*), and the lyric from “Me and Bobby McGee”, which has always stuck with me. That lyric also triggered other lying-dormant-in-my-memory Kris Kristofferson songs that I’ve loved. • A pair of sweet serendipities: EDGES touching two borders, and a Boggle-style ROSS next to SUPREME. Your clever puzzles always light me up, Joe, and once again, you delivered. Thank you so much for this! *Mr. Hands and Sluggo
@Lewis My father’s name is Bill, and when I lived in London in the ‘70s my parents came to visit me and Dad rented a car. As we navigated the (then unknown in the US) FIFO roundabouts in the left lane and Dad was swearing a blue streak, I began yelling, “Oh no, Mr. Bill!” We were all laughing so hard I’m still amazed that we lived to tell the tale.
I know that the clue for 3D is technically correct, but really, it's per the actual songwriter, who we just lost in September, Kris Kristofferson. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahpIirW0svY" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahpIirW0svY</a> I will admit, though, that Janis's version delivered a great royalty paycheck to Kris for the rest of his natural life.
@Steve L @Steve L All credit to the mega-talented Kris Kristofferson, who wrote those memorable words. Still, I think it is undeniable that Janis made that song her own. It seems unutterably sad that she never saw her rendition become a #1 hit, as it was not released until after her death. May both these legends RIP!
@Steve L I have always enjoyed your posts. I have learned a lot from them, and I've found you to be an engaging and interesting writer, one of my three or four favorites, in fact. I would like to make one last attempt to heal the breach from yesterday. I did not call you a liar. I simply said that I found the evidence you produced in the emu experiments to not be compelling. Nothing personal, I just think there are a lot of possibilities that weren't being tested for. What could possibly more dispassionate than that? Again, it's not personal. Linus Pauling is my personal hero, a towering figure in 20th Century science. But his later theories on Vitamin C and cancer were not convincing. I did not believe them to be true, and I think time has backed that up. And yet I still idolize Linus Pauling. I don't want to die on any hill. I really don't care if I'm right and you're wrong, or you're right and I'm wrong. It doesn't matter to me, since we'll probably never really have definitive proof, anyway. And finally, with all due respect, I think your implication that because I don't believe your emu evidence, that I don't believe the earth-is-not-flat theory is just a tad ridiculous don't you think? What do you say? Bury the hatchet, or never talk again?
Crossnerd note… This was a skilled build. The four theme entries had to be inserted so the down answer pairs and the across answer pairs each had an equal letter count (to fulfill symmetry requirements). And by the way, those four answers – NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE, COME TO THE WIRE, BRINGS UP TO SPEED, AND GET TO THE POINT – are all NYT debut answers, and worthy ones. Also, the areas around where the gray-lettered TO’s abutted the theme answers were greatly constricted, that is, they severely limited the number of words that could work in those areas. Yet they were, for the most part, smoothly filled. So, deft work here, from an ace constructor!
Anything to get me away from thinking about the country is good. I liked this tricky puzzle. Fun theme and cluing was clever. Especially love the reference to the Velvet Fog TORME. And I remember 15 years ago when Gochujang was impossible to find in Sunset Park Brooklyn. Now they have a bunch of flavors.
Thank goodness for the editor. I couldn't imagine trying this puzzle without the [T][O]s shaded
Whew. And Wow. Typical slow start for me, but a great moment when I finally caught on (thanks to Janis Joplin). Still took a bit of pondering to work out all the other theme answers, but that was just one nice 'aha' moment after another. And... this is just one amazing piece of construction. Had to be quite a challenge to work in those four symmetrically placed theme answers with the added restriction of the adjacent 'TOs.' That just has to add another level of restriction to working out the grid and theme answer placements. And, a roundabout search led to another clever puzzle. That one was all in the clues. I'll put it in a reply. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: Actually there were two puzzles with a varied form of clues. Each of them used just a single letter as the clues for the theme answers, but with a completely different trick. First - a Wednesday from May 5, 1999 by Lois Sidway. Some clue/answer examples: "U." COMMUNITYCENTER "C." CANOPENER "A." THELASTOFSHEILA Here's the Xword Info link for that one: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/5/1999&g=20&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/5/1999&g=20&d=A</a> And then, a Wednesday from July 30, 2003 by Alan Jay Weiss. Four 15 letter theme answers. The theme clues and answers: "W." NICKNAMEFORBUSH "X." ILLITERATESMARK "Y." COMMUNITYCENTER "Z." COSTAGRAVASFILM Here's the Xword Info link for that one: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/30/2003&g=46&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/30/2003&g=46&d=A</a> Thought it was quite amazing that both of those puzzles managed to clue COMMUNITYCENTER with a single letter using a completely different trick. I'm done. ..
@Rich in Atlanta Janis did it for me too! Embarrassing how long it took me to get SOBE, considering I live in the 305!
We like Barry as he is always correct. We dislike puzzles with little tricks as we are bears of little brain. ko demurs as she liked the puzzle and has a big brain. Nothing left to lose is the mantra of the day. I say soldier on just like in the sixties. We ended the war in Vietnam and we can drive the rats out of trumplandia. Thank you Joe, a challenging solve
@dk Thank you for paying proper homage to our brother and keeper, may he forever be exalted. We are ever humble before you. Slight suggestion: I think Trumpsylvania has a nice ring, don't you?
On my first pass though, I was concerned that if (left TO) my own devices, I wouldn’t get anywhere. But once I got (down TO) the theme, it all came together. Let’s get (right TO) it, this was a lot of fun. What’s everyone else (up TO) later?
8A is a great word. Someone called me a "downwardly mobile ersatz intellectual" in an online comment section once. I know what they meant, but it still makes almost no sense.
MR BILL (1996-2014). Cat extraordinaire. My father’s name was Bill and he was a bit put out (why did you name your cat after me?!). I didn’t! I named him after the lesser known brother of my favorite baseball player (Cal Ripken). He started out as Billy, but he was the boy-cat with two girl cats, and over time his name got gendered: Mr. Bill. He was the peacemaker among them. What a cat.
@Clare But, could your Mr. Bill drive a car like Toonces? Also, who can forget the infamous Billy Ripken 1989 Fleer.
The added benefit letting the kids in your life drag you downstairs to watch them play Mario Kart? You get to plop in TOADETTE without a second thought. The main benefit, of course, is that you get to escape from the adults for a while.
Oklahoma is not in the Midwest! It's west of Arkansas and further south than Kentucky.
What a fun and surprising puzzle! It is a delight when a puzzle constructor achieves so much cleverness and creativity in a puzzle. My hat is off to you, Joe Deeney. Thanks for a great puzzle.
Thank you, editors, for the shaded squares. Would have been downright diabolical without them.
I know that the WII and the Switch were both game consoles, but I must've blinked when something called a WIIU existed, because I've never heard of it. But, OK, fine. There are lots of things I've never heard of. However - I strongly protest against SUHWEET! It's not a word; it's not a name; it's not an initialism; nor is it an acronym. It simply doesn't belong in a game with the word "word" in its name. And another thing: Janis' version of the lyric was clearly "nothin' left to lose", not NOTHING(LEFT TO)LOSE. If you're going to clue it using Janis Joplin's name, then the answer shouldn't have that "G" in it.
@Grumpy. Even here in Australia, I’ve heard the expression SUHWEET being used. Maybe not recently.
@Patrick J. Seconded. Maybe it’s just us down here using it!
@Grumpy I was fine with SUHWEET even though it seems like cringey BROSPEAK, but that G on NOTHIN' felt so wrong!
@Grumpy Nothing left to lose: the TO is to the left of the rest of the clue
@Grumpy I agree 100%, especially about Janis! I can say so as a card-carrying Boomer. That's the first thing that bothered me. To those who responded about SUHWEET: sure, I vaguely have heard of it too, but that doesn't make it a word. At best it's an exaggerated pronunciation of a word that relies on a random twisted spelling. And there were a few too many pop culture references for my liking, though I suppose Janis Joplin could be included in there too, she says, slightly abashed.
@Grumpy "Suh-weet" was said a lot in the late 2000s/early 2010s and was spelled the same way online. I'd say it's slang, which we see often in crosswords.
@Grumpy Jesus. You're in Toronto. CANADA. You have a stable government, if you can keep it. What the hell do you have to the Grumpy about? I'm grumpy.
@Grumpy You’re totally correct about “nothin’”. Kids today.
Great mix of easy and tough clues. WiiiU, Toadette, and alii were new to me! As a lifeLONG solver I love learning new words and cultural references from the puzzle every day. I kind of sympathize with folks who don’t know current references to games, music, and whatnot, but then again, what about younger solvers who’ve never heard of The Waltons (Will Geer), Jane Eyre, Janis Joplin, Gulliver’s Travels (Lilliputian), or even old episodes of The Simpsons? I think a good puzzle is a pleasant mix of the old and the new so that we don’t get stuck with predictable clues and answers. I will admit, though, that when I saw “suhweet” I thought, “Oh boy! There will be complaints! Lol!”
@Bibliocat But not long ago, the answer was SWEET and someone protested that it shd have been SUH-WEET... LOL
I got the trick thanks to Bobby Mcgee. And the song fits the mood I'm in today. Thanks Joe Deeney.
@Esmerelda I cracked the code thanks to Bobby, as well. But I have to confess that, when I saw that NOTHING (LEFT TO) LOSE didn't fit, I put in ANOTHER WORD, which *did* fit. Of course, the crosses soon showed me the error of my ways.
VERY clever puzzle . Good distraction from real life. Thank you NYT.
Finally, a puzzle for nerds like me! Also, if you don’t know what WAP means… don’t look it up.
Excellent theme, well executed, with lots of fun clues. But Mr. Bill was not “claymation” — he was only clay. He was static in every shot — only Mr. Hands moved.
@Bill MacDonald Good point! I didn't remember that.
@Bill MacDonald Very fair point! And one of a scant few times I can remember such a criticism being accurate. You're right. Claymation is a thing (animation method) and he was merely (easily damaged) clay. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Supporting the strike. Not playing
@Ιασων My streak would be 200 today! Not playing, and may cancel my subscription depending on the outcome of the strike.
@Ιασων <a href="https://nytimesguild.org/tech/guild-builds/index.html" target="_blank">https://nytimesguild.org/tech/guild-builds/index.html</a>
I find so much of this puzzle, which I did complete, so foreign as to be beyond bizarre. The makers of the NYT puzzles seem to think that people with a very au courant hip knowledge of cultural terms should be the solvers. That’s far from fair to the average capable puzzler. I’ve been completing NYT crosswords for 56 years but feel increasingly discouraged. Unfortunately, I sense that the editorial staff couldn’t care less.
@PR Betz What in this puzzle seems extremely hip and au courant? Certainly not the jazz musician who died in the 90s, the baseball player inducted over 20 years ago into the hall of fame. Was it the gaming console from 2012? The Mario character who has been around for decades?
@PR Betz — Totally agree. Enough with the pop culture and gaming clues. And stop with the cutesy SUHWEET stuff, too. Maybe the editors just figure this is where we’re at, that this is what appeals to the masses. Or maybe it’s just a blind spot on the part of the constructors. I’ve been doing crosswords from the archives from the 1990s, and they are much more balanced with literature and other (what should be) general knowledge clues. There are some current events from that time, but my memory is still good enough to get those. These puzzles can be a bit more difficult with their wordplay, but enjoyably so — I can’t say that for what I see here some of the time. I also agree with those who question the inclusion of the Cardi B song. Would that have flown back in the day? Somehow, I doubt it.
@PR Betz Kids these days and their governesses.
Wow. The NYT allowed WAP?. Kudos. A good Thursday, even if the clues were on the slightly easier side. I enjoyed the theme once I got it. Waiting for my flight to start my holiday. Definitely in need of a break.
Helen, Allowed it again. Sun May 1, 2022 27A 2020 #1 hit for Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion Brandon Koppy Shortz
@Helen Wright I didn't know the song, and now I'm sorry I looked it up. Who's down with OPP?
If anyone else is trying to take a break from the news and would like something to amuse themselves with in their downtime, I highly recommend the Sunday, July 25, 1999 puzzle from Charles M. Deber. It was mentioned last week by @David Connell (I think?). I needed a little extra puzzling this morning and found it incredibly clever. It ranks up there with my all-time favorites.
@Nancy J. (shake fist) Nancyyyyy! Of course I had to go work it. Took a half hour to figure out the theme, then awhile longer to _really_ figure it out. Then another half hour to finish. Now THAT was a crossword puzzle! But I shoulda waited until Saturday. Can you imagine the reaction this one would get today?
Really enjoyed this, and I think the shaded squares were a great choice! They surely made it much easier to spot the trick, but, thinking about it, I don't know how long it would have taken me to get there without the shading.
I loved the gimmick on this one! The directional “to”s were fun and clever. Got it in half my normal Thursday time. :’) That being said, I would have absolutely hated it if those squares weren’t shaded, so good on whoever made that choice.
And here were are again for like the third time in two weeks -- all filled in, but... no music. After cycling through all the answers several times, I settled on WaIU, the answer I had for 21D that was unfamiliar. I'd heard of WII, but not WIIU, and ALIa I thought was right for 23A. What the heck, let's change the "a" to an "I". That was it. This was an inspired theme. I had three of the theme answers filled in before I realized there was more to it than I first realized. The implied words in the answer: left, right, up, down that described the location of the word TO relative to the rest of the theme answer. Much respect and praise to Joe Deeney.
I got the theme right away because of Bobby McGee, one of the best songs and best lines ever IMHO. RIP Kris Kristofferson. All the lyrics in that short song paint such a vivid story with such brevity. Janis, of course, made it her own but recently found a YouTube video of Pink doing it justice. Lots of video game clues today for which I always need crosses to solve. WAP was solved this way too but thanks to a comment below I dove deeper in a Google search to discover that they aren’t referring to a Wireless Access Protocol.
@ New York Times (In hopes the poor souls, Sam, Deb, et. al tasked with us actually read this) Here is your chance. Did you see The Wire Season 3: Hamsterdam? Where the ingenious Bunny Colman (Robert Wisdom) stakes out a deserted part of Baltimore as a place to deal drugs without police interference, thereby cleaning up the street corners? The youngsters misheard and called it "Hamsterdam" rather and Amsterdam. Here's an internet equivalent experiment: Make the Wordplay comment section a Hamsterdam. We're all adults here. Hell, I'm 72 and probably not that far off the median. Turn the emus off. They are driving us all crazy. We're copying and pasting, looking for words that might offend. Trust us to Flag if there is a serious troll other than Barry. (Kidding Barry, come on, now.) Trust us to manage our own community. You'll be happier. We'll be happier. I'll be...well I'm always miserable so I don't count.
@Francis Unfortunately, “Trust us to manage our own community” doesn’t always work so well…based on reading comment sections in other publications. Have you read comments in the WaPo, for example?
@Francis Ideally this could work, but I think from the nyt standpoint they have zero tolerance for anything extremely offensive to appear, hence the filter. It would be interesting to know if they can adjust it. They might view it as very low priority since this forum doesn't make them any money directly. I doubt they would lose that many subscribers if they got rid of it. Good luck, though.
Nice puzzle but I hit a snag at 23A. I have heard of et alia but not alii. Is that the plural? Live and learn.
@Asher I had to look it up when I first started solving puzzles. It’s the masculine form of et alia. They’re both plurals.
@Asher. To expand on the subject. “Et alia” is used for “and other things”. “Et alii”, commonly abbreviated “et. al.” is found in bibliographies and is plural masculine gendered, readable “and others (people)”. The abbreviated form could also encompass “et aliae” the feminine plural.
@Asher That was what slowed me up as well. A real "TIL," which is a good thing.
I was clued in TO the constructor’s wavelength for this one, thanks in part to my soon to be five year old grandson, whose interest in Mario Kart familiarized me with TOADETTE. My only real hiccups were itnerd before ITGURU and gator before EGRET. Rave party for CRITIC and made do for TOUPEE made me smile. I did think the gray squares made the theme pretty easy to spot, and I caught on at 3D’s reference to Me And Bobby McGee.
@Marshall Walthew Yep, hands up for geek. Sorry IT people, you’ve helped me out on more than one occasion.
If I were a serious CRITIC, I might say NOTOKAY and give some of the slangier entries a BADEYE. But instead, like the Everglades, I have no r egret.
@JohnWM You're supposed to give the slangy entries the STINK EYE. Geez Louise.
Any puzzle referencing Gloria GAYNOR is okay by me. The title of one of her best known songs is particularly apropos this week. And any construction by Joe Deeney is sure to be fun.
All due respect to Janis Joplin, the line (3 Down) was written by Kris Kristofferson, who passed away just this past September 28.
Being a big Janis Joplin fan, I dived into the puzzle with 3D right away. But when NOTHING (LEFT TO) LOSE didn't fit, I tried "ANOTHER WORD", which amazingly *did* fit. Of course, the crosses soon showed me the error of my ways, and I soon cracked the clever code of this puzzle. Thanks, Joe Deeney!
Very entertaining puzzle today. I got the theme, but as usual, was vexed by obscure clues: if I'm old enough to know about Mel TORME, am I young enough to know about WIIU? Do I know enough about Greek to know the male plural of et alia is ALII? Spoiler alert: the answer is no. So I had ALIA crossed by WAIU. 😵💫
@Mark That makes two of us! 😄
@Mark I'm old enough to know about TORME. And young enough to know about Wii-U. Even if I didn't, I know (a) enough about Nintendo consoles and controllers to get a general idea, and (b) that WII is regularly an answer in the crossword. Doesn't mean I didn't hesitate, not knowing ET ALII. But *crosses* meant I trusted the former enough to keep the "I"... and found I was correct. Joy!
I have never played "Mario Kart." I've never played many games at all that require hand-to-eye coordination and good reflexes ("Myst" was more my speed). My sons played a ton of games of all types, but "Mario Kart" wasn't one of them, nor were any of the several games related to it. Nevertheless, when required, my brain came right up with TOADETTE. I have no idea where that bit of trivia came from, but there it was.
Oh wow, this was really fun! I love the word ERSATZ, which I first learned from the Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket. Also, congrats for the filthiest crossword answer I've ever seen, at 64D. My hat is off to you, along with the rest of my clothes.
@Katie Agreed, ERSATZ is a fine word. I knew it from reading of Germans drinking ersatz coffee during WWII, made of acorns and such. Of course they were destined to lose!
@Katie wow! I had to scroll down below Wireless Access Protocol in Google to figure that one out!
I'm guessing the pearl clutchers are wondering how Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion 'hit' #1 with a song about Wireless Application Protocol??
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@Hope Thank you!! I will try to print these and play! Emu fodder Emu droppings
Today is Return Day in Delaware, a tradition that dates back to (circa) 1792, whereby folks gather in Georgetown to hear the election results. There is a parade, with candidates from opposing parties riding together in carriages. After that, the party chiefs bury an actual hatchet in the town square. Then the roast ox is butchered, and everybody gets free sandwiches.
@Grant Sounds like a really good tradition. Here’s a piece about today’s event: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/mr2ezunj" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/mr2ezunj</a>
Fun solve today. I liked the theme, but I think I would've been hopelessly lost without the shading, so I'll add another vote in support of having added it in.
At first I was hoping the theme fill words would be strategically positioned around each other. NOTHING to the left of LOSE BRINGS above SPEED COME below THE WIRE GET to right of THE POINT Might have been a bit more difficult and surprising once discovered. But, noodle nuggets are a dime a dozen. I’m always amazed by our constructor’s creations and ability to execute their vision, just the way they are. That goes double on Thursdays. Great puzzle. Thanks, Joe Deeney!
Deb, as typical, you captured the perfect thought for the day: "at least it is not a rebus". #thxurock
Once I switched GERE(s) (toGEER) I really picked up speed.
@Seymour B Moore That is to say, you really got it in GEAR?