Today I have officially hit one full year of perfect puzzles with almost no assists. ( I had surgery last month and my brain wasn’t fantastic for 2-3 days so those days I did use the column for help ) Yay!
"Was that the writer of 'The Canterbury Tales' on a plane?" "Uh, no?" "Oh. Thought I saw a flying Chaucer." (I was author-ized to post this one.)
A goodly Monday offering. Congratulations, Adam, on thy debut. I hope we see thee again anon.
I really liked this puzzle. It was as easy and fast as a Monday should be but it felt fun and fresh, and the theme was interesting and nicely done. Lots of good wordplay and basically no filler. An excellent debut! (I very rarely feel compelled to comment on a Monday puzzle.) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler
@B What positivity! And I share the sentiment 👍🏾
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Virtue signal? (4) 2. Component of many a trial (7) 3. Pride parade participant? (4) 4. Group that works only for a few seconds at a time (3)(4) 5. Opera character whose name might be heard in an opera singer's warmup (4) HALO PLACEBO LION PIT CREW MIMI
@Lewis Interesting, thanks - once again it seems the chronological order somehow corresponds to a decreasing "how much I liked it" order, for me. Personally I would have left off #5 entirely... ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler
@Lewis So glad you included MIMI. I’ve heard a lot of singers warm up, and that one made me laugh out loud.
@Lewis I knew you would pick LION! That was a goodie, as was PIT CREW
My favorite part of this puzzle was the NW corner, my usual starting place, where a staccato of beauteous words popped in – RARITY, ASTRAL, EXUDES, even TRUTHINESS. Clearly, Adam has an ear for beauty, so I like that I HEAR is in the grid. Lovely answers elsewhere, IMO, include LEDGE, DELUGE, and INHERENT. I like how MIDDLE ENGLISH is smack in the center of the grid, and I like the pair of echoes to yesterday’s “I Think Knot” puzzle – LACES UP and [Strings along]. An original theme, ably presented, and flecked with beauty. Just a lovely start to the week. Congratulations on your debut, Adam, and thank you for creating this!
The lyrical beauty of thine, thy, thee and thou in the same puzzle as the modern brodates, hangs, bae and pda - how far we have come! LOL :)
@Min Those words seem lyrical and beautiful to you because to us they are archaic and are found in literature from a much earlier time . Back then, they were just ordinary words that no one gave a second thought to. In 2500, they will look back upon our present language and marvel that we called it “Modern English.”
@Min Be prepared to say good-bye to she/her and he him. They're all they now.
How come there are no notes from the crossword constructor Adam? It is always nice to hear from newbies. Maybe he can reply to my inquiry and tells us a bit about himself.
A breezy Monday. Thanks, Adam! To paraphrase Chaucer, the "'you's (in this puzzle) may outrun the old, but not outwit."
Henry Su, Good to see you!
@Barry Ancona, thank you. Good to be here again. I will try to be back regularly.
@Henry Su I'd like to welcome you back as well. You always help when I am trying to figure out what one of Sam's photos has to do with the puzzle. Today of course it's about defying gravity!
Um, Sam, last century was the 20th, not the 19th century. But of course, it does seem like yesterday.
@Steve L I assumed Sam was pointing out that although in the 19th Century hep may have been shocking, it was already quite not-so by the mid 20th Century.
@Justin Yes, I think she's correct, the non-hep parents would have been born in the 19th century.
@Steve L Um, pretty sure Sam is aware that the previous century was the 20th… but teens at the time HEP first came into usage would have had parents from the 19th.
Just wanted to share another tidbit about the English language that I haven’t seen yet! The clue 28D “Ye OLDE shoppe” not only fits this theme well because of the spelling, but the pronunciation as well. In Old English and into Middle English we had a letter called a thorn (þ) that was pronounced “th.” I can’t remember exactly why (though it may have had something to do with the invention of printing), but eventually the thorn started being written as a Y, so what we all typically pronounce as /yee/ would actually have been pronounced /thee/ as in the /thee/ (The) Olde Shoppe.
@Danny I love you so much for posting this!
@Danny The problem with thorn (þ) in English actually predates the introduction of printing. Instead of the closed loop of the original runic character, scribes began to open the loop, making the thorn look very like a lopsided y. This was so confusing that there are examples of scribes placing a dot over the real letter y to distinguish it from þ. That sort of thing couldn't last so there was a drift towards using the Roman digraph th instead of þ. The open-topped þ then persisted in only a few conventional short words and abbreviations, among them þe (the), þs (this) and þt (that), looking like ye, ys and yt. (The latter two appear on Shakespeare's funerary monument in Stratford.) If anyone's interested, I wrote more about all that (with pictures) here: <a href="https://oikofuge.com/letters-from-abroad-edh-and-thorn" target="_blank">https://oikofuge.com/letters-from-abroad-edh-and-thorn</a>/
@Danny aha! That's why John Carson started off the Strands thread by hooking it on a thorn: "This þe Strands Threod. Plese refrayne from spoylers" (Character Map says one can key it in as Alt + 0254) þe emus are intrigued.
Adam Levav, Sir, I'm Gawain to thank thee, green as thou art, for this Monday Knight's fine puzzle. Nice debut!
@dutchiris Although it’s a Monday puzzle, it’s stille Sonneday knight.
i can see why Mondays are quite difficult to construct and Adam managed to do a fine job with his debut. Hopefully we will hear from him on his next puzzle, or even later today after he reads the comments.
Welcome, Mr. Levav! Always good to see a constructor with a classical education. Next, we'll expect you to move on from reminders of Geoffrey Chaucer to the Bard of Avon. Or, as we used to joke in high school "The Wife of Bath's Tail will be followed by Shakespeare's Leer" (sic, sic).
My Soph yr in HS, my sister was a Freshman at Emory, and Chaucer's _Tales_ were an assignment. Of course (in a home with few books) I read anything that came in the door. Oh My! Quite educational for a 14-year-old...LOL It's possible to DEAGE? Oh..."Digitally." Nevermind. I often hear that I "don't look 77," proving how unobservant people can be not that I encourage a closer look. This sample of MIDDLE ENGLISH is sadly tame; where is "A murrain seize THEE!" Or " I shall see that you measure your length upon the greensward, Varlet!" (Thank you, Howard Pyle.) And then we are thrust into the Modern World with BRO DATES and TRUTHINESS.... etc. Nice puzzle! More, please!
@Mean Old Lady Dear M.O.L.: Now, show a 14-year-old something like that and she will definitely know you're 77! Think of the slime she's already seen on media of every kind. Remember Beowulf? I wonder if any public school English teachers are still allowed to assign that one, and then expect their students to read it?
@Mean Old Lady I can't afford surgery or botox, so I fall back on telling people I'm older than I really am. Then they can exclaim about how marvelous I look!
I recommend checking out the Wikipedia page for Middle English. It predates Shakespeare and is probably a lot different from what you’d imagine if you’ve never studied it. Then check out examples of Old English. It’s amazing how much our language has evolved.
To me this felt like a perfect Monday: fast, easy (but not insultingly so) and enjoyable, with an interesting theme 🤩 I enjoyed seeing 'Rick and MORTY', one of the most awesome shows I have ever watched. Its mix of irreverence and boundless imagination is right up my alley: it has a Monty-Python-esque quality that appeals to me. It's probably the foreigner in me but I don't quite get REPS for 'visibly supports, as a university or sports team.' Is that one of those words that originated as abbreviations? If so, what word was the base for it? (REPresentS? That does not feel quite right though...). And how often is it used by people in real life?
@Andrzej I don't know, I don't get all the abbreviations either but I do think it's probably represents, as you suggested... but your reference to Monty Python reminded me that I forgot to comment in an appreciative manner about the fact that the word NEWTS showed up in yesterday's puzzle!! She turn me into a newt!!
@Andrzej Yes, it is from REPresents. I proudly REP South Carolina (despite its many foibles) when people ask where in America I am from. Yes, it is used in everyday conversation. As for Rick and MORTY, I love the show, too, but I am grossed out by the constant slobber coming from Rick’s mouth. Ewww! I understand why it’s there, and that it’s animated but I am easily disgusted by such secretions 😆. I can go through a couple episodes and then I reach my tolerance threshold. Star Trek fans - Star Trek: Lower Decks is an adult animated series that is really an homage to all the various shows in the Trek universe. Like Rick and MORTY, it’s delightfully irreverent. As a bonus, I can actually snack while watching it.
@Andrzej REPS is a fairly common word! It’s used specifically when referring to clothing, swag, hats, stickers, etc. (essentially anything you can wear). It’s basically like saying “I’m showing others that I’m a part of this group when I wear this, so I’m REPresenting them in public.”
GROUP BRAINSTORM CHALLENGE This is an experiment. Rex said in his blog today that “Ye” – the collective form of “thou” – would have completed the second person pronoun theme set. How many possible theme answers can we come up with that would include YE in the middle? To fit typical puzzle conventions, let’s let the answers fit the following criteria: • 15 letters or less. • Two-word phrases, where the first word ends in Y, and the second starts with E, such as PONY EXPRESS. Looking for legitimate answers, but also wacky ones. This is a brainstorm and there are no wrong answers. Fire away!
@Lewis how about easy entry or mighty effort
@Lewis “Fairy tale resolution” HAPPY ENDING
@Lewis fun! Here are a few with my notes: HARPYEAGLE (I am a birder and would love to travel to Central or South America and see one of these) CANARYEGG (must be tiny!) ROTARYENGINE (I have a wisp of a Monty Python line teasing my memory about this one) EASYELEGANCE (think Lauren Bacall or Gwyneth Paltrow) EMERGENCYEXIT (what I’m using now to keep this activity from consuming my entire morning)
@Lewis extra crossword-y: BABY EEL BABY EMU
@Lewis: The Gray Eminence of the newspaper team, the Copy Editor, used to bring some Barely Edible rum balls to the Holiday Event. Folks could Hardly Ever stand to eat more than one bite.
@Lewis Bunny ears? Happy Easter? Canny emu?
@Lewis A fun challenge! Here’s my list: BODY ENGLISH HAPPY EASTER LAZY EYE MY EYE SNOWY EGRET TOTALLY ENGAGED COPY EDITOR
@Lewis NOBODYELSE MORAYEEL LEGGOMYEGGO I'm done. ....
@Lewis LEGGO MY EGGO MY EYE WHY EVER NOT DRY ERASE MARKER
@Lewis LAZY EYE (two for the price of one) DEADLY ENEMY
@Lewis BABY ELEPHANT CARY ELWES POINTY ELBOW HILLBILLY ELEGY
@Lewis DIRTYEGGS FUNNYEGO MUDDYEARTH BODYENGLISH BROODYEMUS Hope these are useful.
@Lewis A year one would be good: When it really was a Good Friday, or Aoine an Chéasta Ninety-eight Or a number with some other meaning: Inter-war music speed Seventy-eight
With apologies - a couple more late puzzle finds. For no explainable reason I was wondering about SEOUL and possible homophonic joke puzzles. Well... it's been done a lot. A couple of example answers: SEOULFOOD SEOULSEARCH SEOULTRAIN And that led to a couple of rather amazing puzzles. First, a Sunday from April 19, 1998 by Rich Norris with the title: "World Capitalism." Some sample answers: ACCRABATS BEIJINGBEAUTY PRAGUENOSES MINSKSTOLES CAIROPROCTORS SEOULFOOD Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/19/1998&g=104&d=A" target="_blank">https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/19/1998&g=104&d=A</a> And then... a Sunday from April 13, 1975 by Bob Lubbers with the title: "Capital punishment." Some theme answers in that one: FIRECARACAS DELHICACY OSLOBOATTOCHINA CAIROPRACTORS PARISCHUTISTS DUBLINDEMNITY BLOODTAIPEI Here's that Xword Info link: <a href="https://xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/13/1975&g=92&d=A" target="_blank">https://xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/13/1975&g=92&d=A</a> I'm done. ...
@Rich in Atlanta -- Hah! Love these! Thanks for posting them...
Such a lovely debut. We collectively thank thee, Sir Adam, for gracing us with thy gift of this most excellent puzzle. It was totally hep, bro! 😎
Ah, whan that Apreel with its shores soateh, the draught of March is pearsed to the roateh! Or something like that, and excuse the spelling. It's been a while...
Fun Monday. Agree? emu food more emu food
Loved this puzzle! What a debut! I loved the theme and the fill. As someone else said, the juxtaposition of middle English with modern slang was brilliant! I hope we get more puzzles from Adam. I also appreciated the breezy beginning to the week. Last week, I went over my average time on every puzzle except Friday of all days! Here’s to an enjoyable, breezy week! 🍷
What an elegant puzzle. Monday ‘simple’ but so well crafted. Congratulations Mr Levav on your Classical debut.
Congratulations on your NYT debut, Mr. Levav! Nicely done!
@Eric Hougland Hi there! And, "what you said!" emu food more emu food
"I've a secret only THOU mayest know" . . . FOUR THY EARS only! Great debut and many thanks.
Regarding “hep”, I wonder if there was any Anglo and Saxon parental tut-tutting when their GenOlders first started up with “Thou understandest me not!” (Based on only a quick read, it seems maybe the Ides of March reference holds a hint, since the tu in “et tu, Brute” is similar to whatever morphed into “thou” - - I think. And you, language experts??) Fast, fun Monday puzzle.
@JohnWM “Thou understandeth me not!” really cracked me up this morning. Thanks for the laugh! 😆
@JohnWM Tu and thou have a common Indo-European root, but thou comes from a Germanic root, like du in German. Fun fact - before the Great Vowel Shift in England, thou was pronounced thoo, making the connections even more obvious.
My best time for a Monday but it didn't feel "too easy". Just really good flow and engaging clues with a clever little theme. I can't imagine too many people disliking this one. Great work
Excellent debut, Adam. The fill and cluing had a nice fresh feel to it.
Glad to see another new constructor. Nice Monday puzzle - pretty smooth solve for the most part, though I got hung up for a bit in a couple of places. But some pondering and considering alternatives and everything fell together. Looking forward to more from Mr. Levav. A couple of puzzle finds today. Here's one: A Sunday from November 25, 2007 by Trip Payne. A couple of theme clue and answer examples: "Warning about Mel Gibson on a wrestling surface?" MADMAXMANMAYMARMAT "Why horses are attracted to a witch's headgear?" HAGHASHAYHAT "Why guitar-loving Cooke was blue when his gal named her favorite musical instrument?" SADSAMSAWSALSAYSAX And a couple of other theme answers: BIGBICBIZBIO DIPDIDDIGDIN Don't recall seeing another one quite like that. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/25/2007&g=106&d=A" target="_blank">https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/25/2007&g=106&d=A</a> I'll put the other puzzle in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: One of the most amazing puzzles I've ever encountered. A Sunday from May 14, 2017 by Will Nediger with the title: "Places everyone!" Hard to describe this one. There were three sets of triple across theme answers and three sets of triple down theme answers, all of them placed with exact symmetry in both directions. So the across theme answers all had an implied prefix of - Left, Middle and Right, while the down theme answer had an implied prefix of Top, Middle and Bottom. A couple of across lines (with the implied part in parentheses): (left) SCHOOL - (middle) AMERICA - (right) HANDER (left) TACKLE - (middle) ENGLISH - (right) CLICKS And samples of the down theme answers: (top) SIRLOIN - (middle) CLASS - (bottom) - DWELLER (top) BANANAS - (middle) RANGE - (bottom) FEEDING Wow. Just - wow. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/14/2017&g=114&d=A" target="_blank">https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/14/2017&g=114&d=A</a> I'm done. .....
Lovely debut Adam! Hope everyone’s week is as smooth and breezy!
HiP, HEP....hop We liked it klaimed ko, kittenishly. Thank you, Adam
Heh - before I corrected the typo, I had IDEa instead of IDES, which made me wonder why I should "Beware the IDEA of March." To be fair, it is a rough month in the upper midwest. While other places have spring (or its beginnings), we still have two more months of winter to look forward to.
So the way I solve puzzles is the most intuitive way to do it through the web interface. I do all the acrossses, all the downs, acrosses, downs, etc until I either finish the puzzle or hit a wall (and switch to a zone strategy). I do believe this is the first time I ever finished a puzzle on my first run (one across run, one down run), though at 5 minutes it was not a particularly fast solve for me by Monday standards
Nice! Perfect monday. Took me back to my undergraduate lit degree in a wholly pleasurable way.
Top-rate Monday crossword, thanks! Congrats to Adam Levav on the debut, hope to see many more in the future!
Sweet debut! Congratulations Adam.
A fine Monday puzzle, and I would like to dedicate my solving success to my muse, the late Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli. While there are no indications that Rob intentionally took his own life, his death was the consequence of a long downhill spiral stemming from the backlash following the lip-synching scandal. Tragically, he never realized just how silly and meaningless the whole thing was. RIP, Rob.
Nice debut, Adam! "Thou swell. Thou witty, Thou sweet. Thou grand..." <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=Sv273YzMiWs" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/watch?v=Sv273YzMiWs</a>
I just wanted to mention that in light of the several people, myself included, who found Sunday's puzzle to contain some clues that brought to mind the devastation in Southern California, I sent a note to the editors about it. I've been under the belief that puzzles are submitted and prepped and ready to go well in advance, making it really difficult to make changes when something happens, but I thought it might be helpful to at least let them know how people felt about it and the sensitivities around it to see if they could address it in any way, even by way of explanation of the process. I know this isn't the first time and probably won't be the last time that something like this happens, so understanding each other's perspective might help a bit. I don't know. I have no idea of such a thing will help but thought it couldn't hurt. I don't think just talking about it in the comments will probably do much good.
@HeathieJ People are still yapping about "reminders of the fires"? Seriously? What's next, demands to cleanse the puzzle of anything that might cause anyone the least discomfort? Yeah, let's have a totally bland puzzle landscape. Let's have nothing that could ever potentially cause anyone any discomfort. When you're done with that, start calling for participation trophies for all! I don't want to live in that world and I'm disappointed that anyone is lobbying for it.
@HeathieJ Although Pua Iki’s comment is very harsh, I agree with some of the sentiment behind it. I offer as an alternative that when we see something that reminds us of bad current events, we might stop and stop and take a moment to contemplate the current event and wish for an improved outcome. Removing anything that reminds us of something bad could make the world bland. It’s not like the clues said anything specifically about Southern California burning or loss of life or property destruction. No one writes crosswords intending to hurt people’s feelings. They are just words, and sometimes words remind us of other stuff. That’s not always a bad thing, it gives us the opportunity to stop and think about something that hurts. I remember the months after 9/11, everything reminded me of what happened. I would think about the people who died (and who deserved to be thought of!), and eventually it got easier. For me, that was better than trying to live in a world that was scrubbed of those triggers.
@HeathieJ - I saw yesterday's comment and I didn't respond. The problem I had with it is that you referred to the editors as "insensitive" (or words to that effect -- I am not going to dig up the comment to get the exact words). I had possession of the Sunday magazine, including the Sunday puzzle, on Friday January 10. I am sure it was committed to print several days earlier. The fires started only three days earlier - January 7. I cannot imagine that the editors or anyone else would have any way of examining every puzzle for anything that might upset people more than a week or so in advance -- I would be curious to hear when the actual kill date is for the magazine. But in any case, I very much doubt that there was any way anyone could have pulled the puzzle and replaced it. If you had chosen to characterize the presence of those words in the puzzle as "unfortunate" I would not have had a problem. But when you choose to use words that impugn the integrity or morality of the people who produce the puzzles, that's another matter. Not every unfortunate thing you see in life is the result of malice or negligence on somebody's part. Sometimes it is just unfortunate. Yes, I do have family members and friends in the affected areas, so I am not making this comment without that context. Fortunatlely none have lost a home at this point. Just as YOU suggest that others should have more sensitivity when THEY say/print/publish something, so should YOU.
Putting old English in long crosses, THINE in TRUTHINESS was simpley a fun Monday puzzle, Please write more puzzles Mr. Levav.
Breezy indeed. And a great photo and caption, Sam.
For the Mini, to avoid and to evade are different in tax law, although they are similarly meant in the non-technical sense. Al Capone evaded taxes, taxes are avoided by claiming deductions.
@Daniel All tax evasion is tax avoidance, but not all tax avoidance is tax evasion.
Great work on this puzzle Adam! I really enjoyed it, it was fun and satisfying to solve. Microdot was the only thing that tripped me up. Very pleased to have this done and dusted in 15 minutes. I solved the Monday 1/13/2025 New York Times Daily Crossword in 15:29!
@Joe "Microdot was the only thing that tripped me up." They have a way of doing that.
Confidently filled "eats it" for 45D, [Wipes out]. Must have been thinking of my first attempt at a 50/50 on skis this past weekend... also my only attempt
As much as I enjoyed solving this puzzle, I do have a complaint to lodge. As an English teacher, it’s a real bugaboo of mine when people confuse the different englishes. The terms used in this puzzle are more appropriate to Shakespearean English, which is decidedly *not* Middle English, and is in fact for more aligned with modern than middle English. The best example we have of Middle English, as noted in the puzzle itself, comes from Chaucer. True Middle English reads very differently, and I’d encourage curious readers to read the prologue to the Canterbury Tales in the original language for an example. I still fondly remember my college professor who had us memorize and recite the first 18 lines (shoutout Robin Bates!): “When that Aprille with his shoures soote…” <a href="https://poetryfoundation.org/poems/43926/the-canterbury-tales-general-prologue" target="_blank">https://poetryfoundation.org/poems/43926/the-canterbury-tales-general-prologue</a>
@Frank Ummm.. WHAN that Aprille.... Sorry. .....
@Frank This took me down a rabbit hole of the history of English. Admittedly didn’t even know Chaucer…is that too embarrassing to admit in a place like this?
@Rich good catch! You are correct, of course!
as i've mentioned before, my son and i do the puzzle together on most days. his name is aaron, and he dabbles in crossword construction. so imagine our surprise and delight to see that today's constructor's name was ADAM LEVAV! 😁 my wife and i took the name levav when we married, so there's no chance of being related. still, it's a rather uncommon name, (a poetic/liturgical form of the hebrew word for heart, LEV) so it was really fun to see! great debut, mr. levav! we look forward to solving many more of your creations.
Adam - congratulations on your debut and a Monday at that! I appreciate your ability to help me ease into the week.
Seemed like a solid Monday puzzle. Congrats on the debut! Apparently we have Stephen Colbert to thank for TRUTHINESS (as clued). Not a fan, but there aren't too many options for the pattern ???THINE??. Suppose I'd have preferred EARTHINESS or even FILTHINESS. Some nice compound verticals in the grid: LABMICE, BARGRAPH.