It's always fun for me to see OTT in the grid. This is the 431st OTT; my grandmother entered the first 96. I remember her chortling at them when I was old enough to know what a crossword puzzle was. She had run into Master Melvin in a speakeasy in the late 20s (and her late 20s) when she was between husbands. She was a big Giants fan.
@Barry Ancona I love everything about your story about your grandmother, Barry! Thanks for sharing!
@Barry Ancona My first ever NYTXWORD comment - this must set a record for "length between Ott fills" as i remember him being so regular years ago, rare now, when did Mel last fill Ott clue?
@Barry Ancona Love this story. Thanks Barry!
Over the past weeks, some commenters here, aware that Asheville has been without potable water in its system since the hurricane, have kindly sent well wishes and hopes. My gratitude to you, and here’s an important update, to the tune of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”: The water that flows in our shower The water that lands in our sink Helene took our crystalline water And rendered it unfit to drink Bring back, bring back, oh bring back our water To us, to us Bring back, bring back, oh bring back our water To us For weeks there was naught from our faucets, And when it came back it was soiled So people did not want to drink it Not even when vig’rously boiled Bring back, bring back, oh bring back our water To us, to us Bring back, bring back, oh bring back our water To us It’s been seven weeks since the tempest But all’s well that ends well they say Today we got back through our faucets The water Helene took away It’s back, it’s back, our crystalline wishes At last fulfilled It’s back, it’s back And we here in Asheville are thrilled
@Lewis, happy for your water of course, but I LOVE your cute song!
@Lewis Such a blessing! And thanks for the time to put it in song!
@Lewis our daughter in Asheville is celebrating with you for the same reason. Toasting Ashevilleites with potable water!
@Lewis Great news about Asheville -- and I hope you publish your lovely ditty in the Citizen-Times! I'll drink to that!
@Lewis "Not even when vig'rously boiled," was my favorite part. Thank you, Lewis! Well done!
@Lewis Bravo Lewis. That sounds awful to have gone through!
@Lewis Seven weeks was a long time to wait. We're all so used to turning on a faucet and getting a glassful of potable water and not having even boiled water that was fit to drink sounds like a nightmare. The people of Asheville have been brave in coping with so much while they salvage what they can and strive to bring their city back to normal life again. Congratulations! I'll drink to that.
@Lewis so glad to hear that! Best to you and all your neighbors!
@Lewis Glad to hear you got your water back. When we lived in Austin, there were a couple of times in recent years when the water wasn't fit to drink. I don't think that ever lasted more than about a week. I hate to imagine having to boil water for seven weeks. And nice job on the song!
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Early sign of life, perhaps (4) 2. Motor coaches? (4)(4)(7) 3. Macy's or Wendy's, for instance? (4) 4. Condiment served with rolls (6) 5. Phrase on ID tags (6)(8) KICK BACK SEAT DRIVERS HERS WASABI FAMOUS POTATOES
@Lewis Number 5 is one of the all-time best clues I've seen in the NYT or anywhere else.
@Lewis Number 1 was also one of my favorites from last week, for a very personal reason—just gave birth to my 3rd child after feeling his kicks continuously for nearly 2/3 of the pregnancy. After having had a couple of miscarriages, I interpreted his kicks as gentle reminders from him that he was still alive and thriving. So that clue spoke to me on multiple levels.
I thought Mondays were supposed to be easy? Maybe it’s just me, or a lack of a wavelength, but this was a bit of a struggle. YMMV.
Today I learned about irreversible binomials. I don’t think I ever would have picked up on that aspect of the theme. The only thing I noticed is that they are all _ _ CK AND _ _ LL phrases. A nice Monday offering.
Anita, To me, it doesn’t seem certain that the constructor considered the irreversible nature of the binomials to be part of the theme. But I may be wrong: maybe the theme plan missed neither reason nor rhyme.
@Anita you may have noticed the CK/LL aspect before Sam! She didn't mention it in her column.
I always hoped that "gruntled" might one day turn into a real word. It seems to have such wonderful potential.
@Fredegunde Likewise for “combobulate” or “ept” L
@Fredegunde <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/07/25/how-i-met-my-wife" target="_blank">https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/07/25/how-i-met-my-wife</a>
@Fredegunde I will always treasure this classic usage from P.G. Wodehouse in The Code of the Woosters: “ I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”
True story, I once heard a performance by a new voice student who introduced her song as by "Hammerstein and Rodgers"...
@Cathy Maybe she was just really into lyrics.
Random thoughts: • CAJOLE is a lovely word, IMO, and has such a lovely family of synonyms: WHEEDLE, BEGUILE, INVEIGLE, and even the old-timey BLANDISH. • JACK AND JILL made me smile because here’s this tale of two kids falling down a hill, with at least Jack injuring himself, but, ironically, it’s recited so cheerfully. Same with the tragic tale of HUMPTY DUMPTY. Not to mention the gruesome tale of ROCKABYE BABY, which is sung so sweetly. But to the puzzle itself. I found and appreciated a higher-than-usual number of clues in this Monday puzzle that weren’t slap-down gimmes. I believe this can reasonably done on Mondays, and was today. I also appreciated the tightness of this theme. Aside from ROCK AND ROLL (Hi, @Rich in Atlanta!), which couldn’t be placed in the same puzzle as PICK AND ROLL, can you think of another possible answer? I can tell you that among all the major crossword venues, none aside from ROCK AND ROLL, has ever appeared. Finds like this little English language quirk are very cool to me, and thank you, Rajeswari, for unearthing it. Thank you also for a puzzle that set my mind going in many directions. This was a most enjoyable outing!
@Lewis only cars used to have TUCK AND ROLL upholstery.
@Lewis I share your fondness for CAJOLE. I need to work it into conversation more often.
Wonderful Monday! A little “chewier” than usual, with fewer gimmes. Thank you, Rajeswari!
Struck me as bit more challenging than a typical Monday puzzle. Given that each of the themers contains CK, the intersecting verticals are friendly enough, though LICIT and AOKAY seem beefy for a Monday. ANAP made me go EWW, but some nice *words* in the grid too: AXIOM, PLACARD, CAJOLE. Will have to read the comments to see if there are other examples of the --CKAND--LL theme. Haven't found one yet on my own.
@Xword How about ROCKANDROLL? How did I miss that??
@Xword Junkie Haven't seen it as a theme, but other than ROCKANDROLL the only other answers I could find that have ever been in a puzzle that fit that pattern were: BEDROCKANDBEDROLL and SICKANDTIREDOFITALL ..
Late to the puzzle, Wordplay and the Comments today. I was too busy listening to Garfunkel and Simon, along with Messina and Loggins.
@Times Rita Not Oates and Hall?
I knew that affectionate French parents would call their children "my Little Cabbage," and the Germans theirs "Little Mouse's Leg," but only TIL that the Spanish find Hawaiian sea-ducks so endearing.
@Bill Nene are actually Canadian geese that came to the Islands and forgot their ability to fly so they would never have to leave. A common wish of many present day Canadians!
As is my usual routine, completed today’s puzzle with my sweet little CORGI snoozing on my lap. A nice way to start the week. Cannoli tips his paw to the constructor.
This took me a bit longer than usual for a Monday, but enjoyed it a lot. I like the foreign language entries usually and liked 43A today. Rajeswari can definitely do my Monday puzzle anytime.
That was a fast and fun one, though not as fast as it should have been because I made a couple of bone-headed errors that took me way too long to find. I chalk it up to a pretty stressful and tiring weekend and nothing wrong with the puzzle and hopefully nothing (permanently) wrong with me. 😉 But the best part is that the constructor notes made me look back at his debut puzzle on August 1st, 2024 one, which I adored!! Very fun to revisit that. And now I think I'm done puzzling for the day.
This was a fun Monday puzzle. I especially liked EROTICA, EL CAPITAN and CAJOLE. But what most amused me was misinterpreting 36A [Suspend] and putting HAng in the grid. I agree that’s not particularly funny, but I did like the image of 29D [Subgenre for Lorde and Lana Del Rey] being AnT-POP.
Having a degree in Spanish doesn't make me infallible, and Google Translate is not the final arbiter of all things, but neither one of us has ever heard "nene" used as a synonym for "niño" or "bebe." Is this for real, anyone?
@Jeff Z Very real. As a Spanish and ESL teacher for 40 years in the Bronx, I heard it on a regular basis among the native speakers there, who were mostly Puerto Rican and Dominican, but came from practically all of hispanophone Latin America.
@Jeff Z I am a Spanish teacher and I still put bebe first before nene for that clue. Nene exists, but I think it is a tad obscure for a Monday puzzle.
@Jeff Z FWIW, this entry or its singular have appeared many times before, 49 and 322 respectfully. Of course in the singular NENE , only 17 are clued to the Spanish baby (the rest to the goose). Conversely, the vast majority of NENES have been clued to the baby, usually male. These date bake to 1954. In the “modern” era, this may be the first Monday, although there have been multiple Tuesdays.
23A. I was just an itsy-bitsy off on this clue.
@Call Me Al Me too! I didn’t get the music and couldn’t find the problem. I knew LICES didn’t sound right but I kept telling myself “all the crossings are right!” Nope. 😔
For second consecutive day, the take a peek at answers if stuck reverts back to the prior day. Why? Please fix.
Where would we be without SNL? Lots of guest appearances here - LOL Have a great week and may the puzzle-solving be with you.
Nice Monday puzzle and.. a pretty amazing feat of construction. A bit more on that below. Anyway... had to work the crosses just a bit for most of the theme answers (only JACKANDJILL came just from the clue), but still ended up well below my Monday average. Anyway... four answers with exactly the same letter pattern AND the same total length. That's really something. And... ... thinking about all that - dawned on me that there is actually one more answer that fits the pattern and is the same length: ROCKANDROLL Wonder if our constructor considered fitting that one in as well. And... the only other answers that even fit the _CK_LL pattern, even with a different length, that have ever appeared in a puzzle are... BEDROCKANDBEDROLL and SICKANDTIREDOFITALL That all just seems like an amazing coincidence to me to find those 4 theme answers with that pattern. Have to wonder how the constructor managed to do that. ..
I think I will go through the day trying to come up with more examples. I know it was originally a sailing term, but I use "Back and fill" to describe what I have to do when parallel parking. (Assuming I have made a hash of it!) And as I noted in another comment, "tuck and roll" upholstery. That's all, folks!
@Amy Good additions. There is also forth and back. A neighbor used to say that—you go forth before coming back!
But is Broadway truly an AVE? It's a great debate because, remember, Broadway crosses AVEs.
@Ethan Come and meet those dancing feet, On the avenue I'm taking you to, 42nd Street. Don't get caught up in the NYC conceit that avenues go only north-south and streets east-west. By the following definition, Broadway can be considered an AVE. It's even in its name: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/avenue" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/avenue</a>
Ethan, Since you are in Manhattan, I trust you know AVEs mostly run the length of the island and STS mostly run the width. Since Broadway ran the length of Manhattan (and the Bronx and into what is now Westchester County) long before there was an AVEs/STS grid, I would say there is no debate. (Greenwich AVE crosses both AVEs and STS.)
@G No such ambiguity in Indy! I like to think we had an unimaginative city planner whose brother-in-law had the street sign painting contract. We have Broadway Street and Boulevard Place. I live near Kessler Boulevard West Drive, which intersects with Kessler Boulevard North Drive. There are plenty of "Word for Street" Drives, but my favorites are E/W Pleasant Run Parkway N/S Drives. Though I believe only North has a West. 😉
@Ethan By definition (its own spelling) it's neither street nor avenue. It's a WAY.
@Mr Dave And I thought it might be a "roadway" as in "B Roadway."
This reminded me of two old friends: Gallant and Goofus. (actually, I never liked the piece, but the rest of Highlights was fun) (as for my first post, which riffed everso rudelier on the theme, will just have to wait to see if it ever surfaces…)
@JohnWM Don't you mean the irreversible Goofus and Gallant? Did you know Goofus and Gallant have their own Wikipedia page? (Actually, Goofus wanted his own, but Gallant insisted they share.) And that the strip has been used as a tool in measuring childhood autism, and as a model in philosophical and theological arguments? Even as a child, I found the strip cloying. I was always a Hidden Pictures boy, myself.
@JohnWM ahhh Highlights. A trip down memory lane. Thank yoou!
@JohnWM Yes, this too reminded me of those two characters from my childhood. In the mid-90’s there was a short-lived Marvel comic publication entitled “Beavis and Butt-Head”. In the first issue there is a scene with the two characters sitting in a dentist’s waiting room. Beavis is reading a magazine and says, “Hen-h, hen-h, Goofis is cool!”
@JohnWM I always thought Goofus was cooler.
@JohnWM It’s dunny how people have made fun of Goofus and Gallant throughout the years. I think a feminist friend of my mother’s thought it was patriarchal but it’s very ironic: the gap between how it was meant and how it got received, yes!
Having legal instead of licit and cab instead of car slowed me down, but finally figured out my mistakes. Whew.
I tried to think of a revealer that would produce CK AND LL answers. I couldn't. "Therefore it won't have one," I concluded. It didn't. But a no-revealer puzzle is LICIT, so it's AOKAY.
@Nancy Other than Sam's subtle observation that reversing the irreversible binomials makes her go "ick!" (and possibly feel ill.)
When I had finished, I thought: This was a HARD C-rossword, phonetically speaking, i.e., all the 'c's' and 'ck's' sounded like 'k.' Then I realized the LICIT wasn't illicit. Crud. So much for that theory. Nice Monday puzzle, guys!
Oh no! I had to reveal one square - I had a complete mental block for ITTY meaning wee. I had ITT but ITTY is so unknown to me that I just couldn't get it. The down clue was just as bad - I had AOK but couldn't think of what could come next. You know the song: "She had an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny yellow polka-dot bikini ..."
I love Mondays! Thursday-Sunday are terrific but take me too long, unassisted. Now I pretty much do old Monday-Wednesdays on Thu-Sun. I just rue the time loss over obsessing on Thu-Sun… it does hurt real good but I’ve found those days just leave me on another world sheet. When and if I hit 10 minutes or less on a few Weds I’ll return to Thursdays.
Smooth and pleasant. Many thanks. @JohnWM, don't forget our other good friends, FRACKANDFRICK. (CLACKANDCLICK?)
Can someone explain 43 across?
@Rachel Familiar Spanish (in Spain) for niños.
@Rachel Los niños nuevos son NENES....
Only after I realized I had El Capitab and not ELCAPITAN that I realized it should be NENES and not bebes. Prior to that I was sure this was the rare NYT crossword with a typo.
As has been pointed out, nenes is the Spain Spanish for babies. I encountered the South American word guaguas for babies, but with a little shock, since before that I only knew the Puerto Rican/Cuban meaning of guagua: a bus or minibus.
A slow Monday for me, because I tend to HUNT AND PECK.
Wrong answer key? It's downloading August 15th, 2018. I need to find my error and this is making it difficult...
@AmyP Also, note that there's a treasure trove of information available at xwordinfo.com, but most of it requires a small membership fee. The day's solution is always available to everyone. Good luck finding your error!
@AmyP Apparently, the correct link is up now.
PICKANDROLL is binomial but it isn’t really irreversible, is it? The pick needs to proceed the roll in basketball.
@Cindy Did you mean to say that PICK AND ROLL doesn’t meet Sam Corbin’s description of an “irreversible binomial”? It’s not that ROLL AND PICK just “sounds wrong,” it’s that as you correctly say, the pick has to come first. One of the few compliments I ever got while playing sports was a “Nice pick!” during a pickup game in college. I’d never seen my teammate before and as far as I know never saw him again (it was a big campus).
Cute and quick. Could definitely RELAX with this one. One quibble—EL CAPITAN isn't really in the Yosemite valley, it is one of the peaks that delimits it. Enjoyed it nonetheless. Thanks, Rajeswari.
What a lovely, breezy little Monday puzzle! A palate cleanser, if you will, from my hate-finishing Sunday's puzzle this morning (ongoing frustrating technical issues marring what was also an adorable, lovely puzzle). As someone who actively avoids revealers in early-week puzzles -- happily the highlight is almost always off-screen in my zoomed in mobile view -- it was such a pleasant surprise when I realized there IS no revealer! Thanks, Rajeswari!! I also have to thank Sam C. for providing a terrific phrase for a recurring reaction I have: "gives us the linguistic 'ick'” to me perfectly suits the feeling when a clue and answer don't neatly align in one's brain. Today, that feeling happened for me with the Broadway clue -- as I commented down-thread -- and also with [On which croquet and cornhole are played]. I really loved the parallel of that clue with the subsequent one [On which Ping-Pong and air hockey are played], but it simultaneously reinforced the "linguistic ick" factor for me! In the latter clue, TABLE is the only platform on which those games are played. But 46D is less tight with "cornhole" in the clue. While cornhole can be played on a lawn, it doesn't require one -- unlike badminton! (IMHO a better example for the clue.) ...The Strongbow brewery on the Red Hook waterfront here sets up cornhole boards on a narrow strip of gravel between their picnic tables and the sea!
A fun, clever and straightforward puzzle. Thanks Rajeswari! An especially enjoyable and breezy one that, thankfully, kept obscure trivia to a minimum.
Wasted two minutes trying to figure out the permutations of vowels on LOPE/OTOE/NENES only to realize I had misspelled ANECtOTES and had the other area right all along...
Horse feathers! The answer key is linking to August 2018 again 🥹. Thank goodness for xwordinfo!
Kate, Try refreshing (or whatever it's called). I'm finding the correct key in the link now. <a href="https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/849766555c497795/395a59ed-full.pdf" target="_blank">https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/849766555c497795/395a59ed-full.pdf</a>
Still basking in the glow of the Saint's second win. So much so that our inability to spell just made me chortle. Pleasant Monday outing. Thank you, Rajeswari... hope I spelled it right
CORGIs!!! And David Bowie's Sound and Vision as reimagined by BECK (but no CALL). <a href="https://youtu.be/XyO5MRTbL2s?si=uKdI7BkozMYdxXNd" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/XyO5MRTbL2s?si=uKdI7BkozMYdxXNd</a>
Who else had SLURPEE instead of SNOCONE for far too long?
The clue for ECHOED is in the wrong tense. Should be "Bounced off the walls" IMHO. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
@Ron Bravenec You could say, "The sound was bouncing off the walls." or "The sound echoed.".
The hint “Spanish babies” with the answer nenes, nenes is Portuguese for babies.
Weaved, not wove? Who knew? Not me.
@jp inframan This should help: <a href="https://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_confused/weaved_wove_woven.htm" target="_blank">https://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_confused/weaved_wove_woven.htm</a> Sort of like how you shined your shoes, but the sun shone brightly.
@jp inframan I had "wended" at first.
One of my favortie quotes is "Less is only more where more is no good." - Frank Lloyd Wright
Where is the sneak peak? I have all the words mentioned in comments but my puzzle is not telling me it is right. It does say 100% that I have never noticed before.???????????