That was an awesome puzzle. Don’t remember the last time we had a letter hidden in a black square, let alone a rebus. And to have each BACK work for four clues, across and down? That’s a real feat of construction. I’d rather have a “Doner meat dish” than a “Donner meat dish” - Which is how I initially read that clue. Yikes! Thanks for the amazing puzzle, Matthew Faiella!
As I heard it at the time -- I was volunteering at my college radio station in 1980 -- AC/DC was uncertain as to whether they should disband after the death of Bon Scott. Their consensus was, if any of the others had died, Scott would want to continue on. So they kept going. Back in Black was their next album; they were "back" (recording/touring again) "in black" (while mourning).
Frankly I think just “LESSDRESS” is more apropos of what often appears on the red carpet than backless.
WOW. I said out loud when I saw the four-way "back." And I kept saying it, over and over again. WOW. Having my favorite Amy Winehouse song would have made my day on its own. But wow. This was next level. What a debut! I'm rolling out the red carpet for Mr. Faiella. Welcome to the NYT crossworld, with a standing ovation! And thank you! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
@sotto voce AC/DC - we don't get many clues originating from down under, so I'm reclaiming this one
I wish I could correct my mention of Amy Winehouse, but oh well. She was Back *to* Black. Please be kind and just ignore my mistake. Thank you! :-)
@sotto voce FWIW, I had the Amy Winehouse album in there for quite a time as well, but I kept thinking that couldn’t have been as long ago as the 80’s…..duh, like 2006. Oh, well.
Wow - that was a fun Thursday with 12 answers related to the revealer! An impressive feat of construction. Bravo!
You have every right to be proud, Matthew Faiella. This was a brilliant debut and I hope we will see a great deal more of your work. Sometimes Thursday puzzles contain impressive feats of construction that I admire but that don't actually impact the solving experience . . . in fact you can solve the puzzle without ever getting the trick. But yours was the opposite--I couldn't have solved the puzzle without light dawning (oh, I see, SET without BACK). And then dawning again (Ohhhh, it goes in all directions), and one more time with the revealer. I haven't had this much fun on a Thursday in a while. Chef's kiss.
Very clever puzzle. When I realized the ⬛ was omnidirectional, I got the smile on my face that Deb was talking about.
What’s more fun, that “aha” feeling when you’ve figured out the theme, or that “wow” feeling when you see it’s even bigger than you realized? I was deep into the puzzle before I discovered that the “back” words extended in more than two directions. And when I did, my initial sense of cleverness was replaced by deep respect. (Along with a very large grin.) This was like a slow burn reveal, and in the very best way.
Great puzzle! The themer working both vertically and horizontally was truly impressive - very well done!
The Thursday phantom squares are BACK! We’ve had black ops, dark matter, a shot in the dark, and bunches of others. Today’s was a fun twist on the idea. Hope nobody suffers a black mood because of the trick. Or fall into a black hole. Or give in to fear of the dark.
@Cat Lady Margaret -- One I loved was the BLACK ICE puzzle by Loren Muse Smith and Tracy Gray (May 4, 2017). Et tu emu.
This puzzle provided three solving elements that I love, which today’s theme has inspired me to name: • BACKTRACKING. Being on the hunt for the Thursday Trick, that sweet befuddlement of trying to crack what is afoot, that inner feeling that if I keep on, there will be closure, and, perhaps, even a … • FLASHBACK. The big bang when you see it, when you crack the riddle, when all becomes clear, that glorious release of tension, that sometimes leads to a … • BACKSPLASH. The glorious sled ride of a splat fill. The “Wha?”, the “Wow” and the “Whee!” – all in the box today. I like the serendipitous theme echo in the first row as well, with two answers, SLAP and WARD, that can pair with BACK. Matthew, you showed you have the constructing chops, working out a design to cleanly accommodate the dozen BACK answers plus the revealer. But constructing chops are only worthwhile if the solving experience shines, and for me, today, it sparkled. Thank you, sir, congratulations on your debut, and please, don’t be a stranger!
BTW, I’m wondering if Matthew Faiella is related to constructor Steve Faiella (interesting that STEVE is an answer). Matthew or someone else, can you chime in on this?
It was already clever enough to have the "back in black" motif for the puzzle, but for it to work both ways before and after the square? I agree with the rest in hoping Mr. Faiella comes back soon with another puzzle up his sleeves.
You should be proud, Matthew, and I certainly had fun solving your puzzle. Getting my first BACK was a great AHA moment and of course it was fun to get the others. It was almost as good as a rebus, my absolute favorite. Definitely looking forward to more.
@suejean It was a rebus puzzle, except that you had to hold the rebus in your head. I enjoyed the AHA moment when it clicked that each [BLACK] was part of four words.
Unfortunately the only way I know the periodic table is by singing the Tom Lehrer version in my head (I memorized that instead of paying close enough attention in law school two decades ago), and krypton shows up between argon and neon so that was no help at all. Also explains why I’m neither a lawyer nor a scientist.
@Justin the mere mention of tom lehrer brings a big smile. thanks! <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcS3NOQnsQM" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcS3NOQnsQM</a> terrific puzzle, perfect thursday.
Relatively easy to pick up on the theme and to solve, but what a spectacular debut construction feat. Bravo, Matthew Faiella.
A handful of fills were what I thought they would be, and again and again I had to BACK PEDAL, BACK TRACK, BACK OUT and ESCape before I was too committed to a wrong answer to sort it OUT. KEBAB lookup worked, Capt. America didn't, and I realized I would just have to go it alone and hope for the best. There were beautiful clues (19A, 27D, and 49D for a few) and some I could only trust to crosses for help with (what do I know about elements?). A surprisingly workable puzzle, but who knew before the music jumped out and the congratulations appeared. I almost YELLed? Matthew Faiella, you are one devil of a debut constructor, and I trust YEW will brew up more—I'm sure I'll recover soon and actually get a good night's sleep. (Thank you!)
(2nd post) This puzzle reminded of that SPCA fundraiser gala I attended in Erie, PA, back in the summer of 1980. It was an elegant affair, the wealthy donors pulling up in their BMWs, the women showing off their torsos in backless evening dresses. Dinner was an outdoor affair, the tables spread out under a grove of pine, beech, and yew, the quiet of the scene punctuated only by the cries of the jays high up in the trees. The menu was a salad of Asian baby greens, followed by a blanquette de tofu, and, being summer, a dessert of refreshing flavored ice. As I said, and elegant affair; but my cynical self couldn't help but wonder whether some of the funds collected to Save the Lemurs and Lions, weren't being funneled as kickbacks to the organizers.
Just incredible! Twelve themed clues, engaging fill, not much obscure knowledge or crosswordese. Certainly hope for more puzzles like this in the future.
Loved this puzzle! Amazing work, especially for a debut. So, so fun.
What an amazing debut! One of my favorite puzzles for a long time; hopefully everyone else had as much fun with that as I did.
Ok - like Deb, 19A is also my favorite clue and answer, mostly because I do it professionally. Didn’t think that was possible? I teach racetrack driving. The big difference, and what makes it the best job on planet earth is I’m usually working on getting my students to drive as fast as they possibly can. Who gets this lucky? Oh, and great puzzle!
@Melvin Hoagland Race cars have back seats? Who knew?
@Melvin Hoagland Hmm….maybe you work at the Xtreme Xperience place in Sonoma. Looks like fun. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/vmhznsd8" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/vmhznsd8</a>
I found this incredible and incredibly fun! Although I'm still a little bummed they rejected my similar puzzle with the revealer "Rhapsody in Blue". Maybe because I only had one theme answer?
Thank you, Matthew Faiella, for making your theme matter! Usually (almost always?) puzzles' themes/tricks seem to be more about constructors creating challenges for themselves rather than for solvers. This results in grids solvers can fill while remaining completely clueless about the themes. Your puzzle almost requires solvers to figure out the trick, so thanks again, Mr. Faiella, for creating an excellent puzzle with a useful theme!
Twigged to the "back" thing early on, and only thought "wow there are quite a few". Didn't appreciate how well crafted it was, until I finished. Bravo for a debut on a Thursday!
while it was a lot easier once i got the theme (which would've been faster if i'd just moved on from the football/soccer clue once i didn't immediately get it), i thoroughly enjoyed it. but it is more wednesday in ease than anything else. i always found (somehow) thursdays to be the hardest, along with fridays - somehow i always do quite well on saturdays but i'm used to thursdays/fridays being my longest. had to leave the puzz to make sure i was doing the right one part way through! i've never finished a thursday in under 15 til now. still loved it enough that i'm leaving a comment here for the first time!! i miss meta/themed/whatever-the-word-is puzzles like this. i wonder if there are lists of puzzles for ones that have a trick (one step beyond having a theme, say) but without specifying if it's a rebus, in the black, letter mix-ups etc cause i've seen those but they give too much away based on the category usually. better yet, a puzzle entirely of clues ending in "?" could be fun, no?
@JANE I love the idea... Although I guess you've pretty much just described a cryptic crossword, which as you acknowledged seemed to have been banished from digital NYT Games. :( ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
This was fun fun fun! I like it when I understand a theme early enough for it to help. Fun!
Congratulations on a fun NYT debut, Mr. Faiella! I first figured out that some answers were missing a BACK with [BACK] LESS DRESSES. But it took a minute or two longer to realize that all four answers surrounding the [BACK] square included those letters. Very clever indeed!
This was just great! It was fun, funny, smooth... everything one might want in a crossword. Wonderful job!
There's clever that's annoying and there's clever that's fun. This one was fun!
Shouldn't the clue for 6 Down have been "Cheque for a flat?"? I think so, and only hesitated because it wasn't. But I was right in the first moment.
@Robert Lately I’ve seen one story apartments referred to as flats in US listings, frequently with studio apartments being referred to as studio flats, but also with multi room apartments as well.
@Robert. MW gives for “cheque”: “Chiefly British spelling of ‘check’”. This would seem to imply that the latter, as in the clue, is the preferred North American spelling. Despite my preference for the “q” form, I immediately accepted the latter in this Xword as the appropriate regional form.
No complaints! I like a Thursday. Look forward to it all of Wednesday.
I figured out pretty quickly that the black square hid “BACK”, and my general thought was ‘meh’ as a theme. And then I realized all four clues fed into BACK, and I saw how much more fun and more impressive the theme was! Awesome! Also, I was so, so confident that “Check for a flat?” solved to TUNE, going down the musical path. That tripped me up for a while.
I wonder if Spanish speakers always snicker every time that the language’s word for “year” is the answer, since crosswords ignore accent marks. On another pedantic (and surprisingly gross and gastrointestinal) note, I don’t think the clue for 14A is strictly accurate (though it’s hardly an impediment to solving). While the “TO” certainly does mean “bean,” the “FU” in TOFU is written with a Chinese character that generally means “to rot” (even though that’s not a truly accurate description of how the food in question is made, unless further processed). The Japanese version of Wikipedia cites texts from ancient China (where both the food itself and the word for it originate) that suggest that the usage of “rot” is because dried soybeans themselves are hard both in texture and to digest, but (unpressed, unformed) TOFU is somewhat similar to what happens when stomach acid and enzymes break the hard, dried beans down into a slurry that is like how animal meat breaks down into a sludge when left to rot. This is pretty much the exact opposite meaning of “curd”/“curdle,” which describes a product/process where an additive (an acid or rennet, in the case of cheeses) causes something already fluid to coagulate into something more solid. Thus, although “bean curd” is a perfectly accurate description of what TOFU actually is, it isn’t the literal meaning, either etymologically speaking or how anyone in the greater Sinosphere would perceive the word at a glance.
My initial confusion (are there rebuses?) was cleared by the rock-n-rollin' revealer clue (46A). I was very impressed by the 4-way "backs". A great Thursday puzzle, very enjoyable!
Very fun puzzle! Tricky, but not confounding! Kudos!
This is one of those gimmicks that's so utterly intuitive and fun that it's kind of shocking nobody's done this exact Thursday trick before. I enjoyed every bit of this puzzle: The construction was beautiful, the trick was tough to figure out but simple and fun once you did. The clues themselves were great. The difficulty was just right for a Thursday (I clocked in with a good-but-not-great time). Kudos to Mr. Faiella. 5/5 No-doubter!
@Pete FWIW, if you go to xwordinfo (or look at Steve L’s first comment of the forum) you’ll see that this theme (and exact same revealer) was in fact used on a Sunday more than ten years ago.
I’m fairly new to solving, so I followed all the advice in the article about how to solve the crosswords. I’ve been tackling the archives and I get through at least 5 a day. Turns out, Thursday puzzles are my favorite and I think this one is superb! It was great fun solving it and not just because I love AC/DC!
Again my perfectly civil post got withheld or booted by "moderators". Maybe I should go on strike, and ask all of you to do so, so this gets fixed? Things did not use to be this bad - but only in the past month or two I've had posts delayed or deleted dozens of times. It's beyond annoying, and disrespectful TBH.
@Andrzej I am glad this discussion is moderated. Keeps out trolls and other wildlife, keeps the discussion civil. To me, having an occasional post lost is not a huge price. We're not solving world peace here, although that could used some help.
I hear you, @Andrzej! One time at a restaurant my food was slow in coming, so I went on a hunger strike. The restaurant couldn't do anything, they can't take away your plate if you say you're still working on it! I lost 20 pounds over three weeks.
Really enjoyable puzzle. Not all that easy for me, of course, but finally catching on to the trick was a big turning point and then just had a great time pondering and figuring out where the 'black' squares would be. Just lots of nice 'aha' moments along the way. Pretty amazing feat of construction. Oh - and a long time favorite song as well. And of course had a puzzle find today. I'll put that in a reply. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: a Sunday from April 1 (!), 2012 by Patrick Merrell with the title "Of course!" This one was all in the clues. Here are some clue/answer examples: "Golf club repositioning? :" CHANGEOFADDRESS "Comment after hitting a tee shot out of bounds? :" BYEBYEBIRDIE "Wedge shot from a worn-out practice range platform" ACHIPOFFTHEOLDBLOCK "Woods stowed in the rear of a golf cart? :" BACKSEATDRIVERS Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/1/2012&g=122&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/1/2012&g=122&d=A</a> ...
The previous BACKINBLACK puzzle was mentioned in the first comment today, but no link to it was provided. It was a quite remarkable puzzle. Here are a few of the theme answers (and the 'black' was just a black square as in today's puzzle): THEREANDBACKAGAIN HUMPBACKWHALE PAPERBACKBOOK BROKEBACKMOUNTAIN TURNSBACKTHECLOCK WONTBACKDOWN FEEDBACKLOOP BENDOVERBACKWARDS Pretty amazing. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/1/2013&g=98&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/1/2013&g=98&d=A</a> ...
A clever revealer that leads to 12, count 'em 12!, themed clues. Wow! Hats off to you, Matt Faiella. Come back anytime!
I am so proud of myself that I solved my first Thursday crossword puzzle here today - and such a nice one at that! I needed a hint from Deb though, not being a native speaker sometimes makes me doubt my abilities when faced with any kind of wordplay. But after realizing that my LESSDRESS actually had a meaning, the rest of the clues all fell into place. Very satsfying solve!
Fantastic debut, Matthew! Love the clueing- Those who apply themselves Motor coaches Check for a flat Fun, fun, fun! Happy Thursday all! It’s the Friday of Fridays!
Great Thursday entry! I really enjoyed this one. The best part is that even though I caught on to the theme quickly, I was still both surprised and delighted when I reached the revealer. What a perfect crossword idea! And well executed. How is it even possible that no constructor thought to use this one before? Some really beautiful non-theme cluing too: "Levels in a ring" - great misdirection "Those who apply themselves" - good "Check for a flat" - excellent!! And apparently this is a debut, too. Way to enter the fray, man. Nice job, Mr. Faiella! You really applied yourself. :) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@B I'm only mildly disappointed and not at all surprised to read that the theme title song was used on a different puzzle 11 years ago - very first thread in today's section, below. This does NOT diminish my enjoyment of and admiration toward this puzzle. My earlier praise stands. :) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
One of my favourites in recent memory. So clever and well put together 👏🏾 👏🏾
Matthew sure gets a lot of mileage out of only three rebus squares, doesn't he? I was w-a-a-y ahead of the game today as I saw the well-clued SETBACK immediately. What other answer can there be to "temporary defeat" after all? I first wondered whether SET would be written in upside down as TES -- but the very easy LAS and OMIT disabused me of that notion. so then I looked for a rebus square. And it would have to be black. Black rebus squares don't faze me. My first puzzle -- the one that put me on the map, so to speak -- featured a single black rebus square. Now on to some of the other answers in the puzzle: LESS DRESS is "red carpet attire"? Does that mean that nudity is the dressiest option of all? I first had siNK for the precipitous drop in the stock market price. ALES forced me to change to sANK -- but the verb tense is wrong. How can that be? Oh, I SEE: it's TANK. Lovely clues for BACKSEAT DRIVERS and JOBSEEKERS. For those of us well-versed in rebuses, this puzzle was probably a piece of cake. For other solvers -- practice on this one; it's one of the easier you'll see. I enjoyed it -- and I applaud the theme density.
Congratulations on a terrific debut! Hope to see more of your work.
Great puzzle, Matthew. Fun once I figured out “back” was the missing link. Congratulations on your debut!
Sheesh, if a puzzle's gonna have a song as the revealer, we shouldn't have to hunt it down on the internet. <a href="https://youtu.be/9vWNauaZAgg?si=7vD5xFIkhbQzLc67" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/9vWNauaZAgg?si=7vD5xFIkhbQzLc67</a> And also we had some more Aussie-adjacent content after yesterday. Are we on the Highway to Hell in a motor coach with a BACKSEAT DRIVER? Or on our way to the OUTBACK? Truthfully, to me the cluing in this wasn't even at a Toughened Up Tuesday level, which always makes me wary, because I'm thinking What am I missing? the whole time. Anyway, even though I'm carping an awful lot here, I did have fun solving this one. Thanks, Matt and congats on the debut.
@Vaer Interesting. I'm reading down from the top at about 9 AM and this was the most critical post so far. I thought the difficulty level was about right, for what that's worth. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
The type of theme that requires one to imagine something in certain black squares was first used on Feb. 20, 2011, and has now shown up 30 times. So though it's probably not a stale concept yet, it has become a regular feature of NYT crosswords. Thursday and Sunday solvers should always be on the lookout for them. (Yes, they've been confined to those two days, at least so far.) Hidden PASSAGES, black OPS, DARK MATTER, black sheep, various ECLIPSES, even doors that open up a maze have been some of the conceits.