BRITICISM, ironically, is an Americanism. We tend to say Britishism.
@Dru Right? That confused me so much! Especially so as I recently read a review of a book on Britishisms...
@Dru I thought Britishism, too, and I’m an American. I never had heard of BRITICISM until today. I see both in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
@Dru I got stuck here because Britishism didn't fit, Britspeak did though so threw me off for a while
@Dru I confidently typed in Britishism until I ran out of room. Got it from the crosses.
@Dru I'm pretty sure we Americans say "Britishism" too. That one threw me for a while. Although... When I type both words out in my browser, it seems to think BRITICISM is the correct one. It underlines Britishism in red. Good thing I don't use Firefox as a STYLE GUIDE.
@ BRITICISM struck me as having a kinship to WITTICISM.
@Dru I first went for Britspeak, got shot down by the crosses, and thought, Okay, what have we here? BRITICISM? No, but okay. Whatever works.
Bit difficult for a Monday, but I’m not against that. My main criticism is it just wasn’t fun. A couple of pretty obscure clues in here. CUZ is probably my most hated lol. Also happy to be corrected here, but I really dislike seeing NEWB/S keep turning up in these puzzles. For anyone online who actually uses the term, it’s spelled NOOB/S.
@Sam that statement is incorrect. In Merriam-Webster it is spelled both ways: Newbie, Noobie, Newb, and Noob all show up as valid. And, according to MW, Newbie and Newb were the original spellings, coming into use at least a decade prior to the Noob variations.
@Sam Especially on this day in the USA, I just wanted a fun Monday puzzle to take my mind off of our current state of affairs.
@Sam I wholeheartedly agree, NOOB is so much better.
@Sam Some even say Newbz, and zap fits better for the down.
@Sam the google Ngram viewer has "newbie" more than 6x more popular than "noob." Of course that's not restricted to online use, which is what you are talking about.
@Sam the google Ngram viewer has "newbie" more than 6x more popular than "noob." But noob is 4.5x more popular than newb, so I think you are right. Of course that's not restricted to online use, which is what you are talking about.
I suppose this is as good a time as any to make this observation: In all my many and ever increasing years working in veterinary medicine, not once have I ever met a dog named FIDO.
@Shrike That's why it's stereotypical, and not typical. FIDO was the name of Lincoln's dog. That's probably how it got to be used as a placeholder name, the canine equivalent of John Doe. (Or was that Johndo.)
@Steve L Just an observation, not a comment on the clue.
@Shrike Funny you say that, our Border Collie just passed away from spleen cancer. Little fella made it to 12 before he bit the bullet. First and only dog I’ve ever met who was actually named Fido lol.
@Shrike More of an archetype, I'd say. From the Latin for a faithful one? Who could argue? ades·te fi·de·les : come, faithful ones : O come, all ye faithful
@Andrzej I don't know if it's the same, you tell me. I don't know anything about dog names in other countries. I'm glad to hear it's not exclusive to us.
This was a little harder for me than my usual encounters with Monday puzzles.
@Paul. Thanks for your reply. RoseAnn
@RoseAnn Mulford you can say that again.
I agree with the comments that this was unexpectedly difficult for a Monday. ARF - why would this be [High-pitched]? I would think yip or yap would be high pitched, but not ARF. The F on the end of ARF and woof has always suggested to me the sound of expelled air, and that suggests to me the larger lungs of a bigger dog with a lower-pitched bark. Clearly my love of dogs is causing me to overthink this LOL But it struck me as odd.
@Gregg I thought the same. In Polish dogs go "hau hau" btw 🤣. (That sounds a bit like how how and nothing like woof or ARF. When we got a labrador I realized he speaks English rather than Polish - his bark is definitely a woof).
@Gregg My first inclination was yip as well. It seemed to fit the clue much better. But then, ARF fit with the crosses… so oh well!
@Gregg Make an ARF..... Now make a WOOF... Compare. QED
I'm still editing this paper about dogs - it's just my ruff draft. (Don't worry, I won't furget about it.)
Mike, When you're done editing, send it to the typesetter.
@Mike You're Saluki to not have an editor hounding and bullying you. You can do a better job to watch your Pekes and queues. You may have purr-mission to take your time, but don't go catatonic. Well, as so many have said before, Abyssinian you.
@Mike If you’re hinting at getting an extension, you’re barking up the wrong tree!
@Mike Share it with this group, I'm sure you'll get a few pointers
Mike, For such a great pun, all I can do is bow. Wow.
@Mike You are being waggish.
@Mike How canid be that you fetched up this one?
@Mike And.....once again you unleash your formidable wit...just so ARFully Artful!
@Mike I had a splendid pun run for this one, but it never showed up—sometimes they do a day or two later, but pointless then. I always make up comments in this little box as I go along, and when they're gone, they're gone. I try to remember to copy them before leaving the site, but almost always forget to do it. I suspect others have the same experience (and to be honest, I also suspect the comments get more splendid in recollection as time passes when I can't remember them at all).
Surely CUS/SUNTSU is an acceptable spelling for both crossings?
@Steven M. What I had. Took me ages to work out what was wrong.
@Steven M. Well, no. TZU is the correct spelling. It’s never Sun Tsu. The other accepted spelling is Sunzi.
@Steven M. Well, I’ve certainly never seen “cus” as a stand-in for because, nor would I ever think it would be used. In informal settings I am inclined to use CUZ, and it is much more intuitive, IMHO.
@Steven M. I had TSU for the longest time because I’d seen it spelled that way and CUs seemed as likely an answer as CUZ 🤷🏽♀️.
@Pani Korunova Winnie the Pooh says “‘cos” a lot, if I remember correctly. Maybe that’s a BRITICISM though.
I worry that the cutesy BRITICISM just encourages Brits to keep using the wrong words for things. I used to find it endearing, but I'm tyred of it. It's been a hard day's night, and I've been ...
@ad absurdum :-) We should just call it "Proper English" and forget the BRITICISM thing. The sooner you guys in the USA get through this "teenage rebellion" phase, and start spelling things properly again, the happier you'll all be. Honestly.
@ad absurdum You're tyred of it? Has someone put a bee in your bonnet? I'd give them the boot.
Two names and a brand crossing, on a Monday - and a brand like ULTA, which seems like somebody put together some letters at random... Is the constructor from Natick? 🤣 This was a slog for me in general: not the relaxing, easy Monday puzzle I was looking forward to. It took as long as a typical Tuesday, and I needed lookups for the natick...
Oh yeah, and CUZ for 'since'? What on earth was that?? Cuz I don't get it and neither does my cuz.
@Andrzej Since you mention it.... (ha ha, get it?)..... Someone once recommended to us that we purchase stock in ULTA beauty products. I pointed out that it was discretionary spending vs necessity spending, and therefore a poor investment in hard times. Plus Ugh! The name sounds like some body part that is not mentioned in polite society.
OLEARY and ULTA … bleh Can we please have puzzles and not quizzes Thanks Herds don’t have wisdom. They follow leads.
Thought for the day: <a href="https://gocomics.com/mattwuerker/2025/01/17" target="_blank">https://gocomics.com/mattwuerker/2025/01/17</a> Now we have to move on to 3.0. Persist. Resist. Organize.
@Nancy J. That made me chuckle on a cold, grey day. The general ennui with current events in the US of A has cast quite the dark cloud over here as well. Thanks for the laugh…if we dont, he’ll cry.
@Nancy J. Yes indeed. It is after all also MLK day.
@Nancy J. Thanks for this post! The cartoon is so apt! I've started commenting a few times but really, I'm struggling to find the right words on a day that is so heavy. Anyhow, the words I really want to say would probably not pass the emu test. ;-) Tried to focus today more on what Dr. King had to say and appreciate it's continued relevance. I read his whole 1967 speech, "Where do we go from here?" Here's the link if anyone is interested. <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/where-do-we-go-here" target="_blank">https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/where-do-we-go-here</a> Anyhow, thank you!
Fun Monday puzzle. Good to keep one's mind off bad things happening today. I don't want to brag,, but yesterday I got the lipstick company without any crosses. Other people might not think it's obscure, but the only place I've ever heard of it is here. All honor to Martin Luther King today. The work is not done.
@Jack McCullough are you referring to the nail polish brand OPI? I don’t recall a lipstick brand in the puzzle? And for those of us who indulge in pedicures, that one is a gimme. My favorite OPI color is “Linkin Park After Dark”
So, I'm supposed to know a Sephora rival and Kevin of Shark Tank? On a Monday? I don't even really know either Sephora or Shark Tank! I'm not doing anymore Jeff Chen puzzles.
@Tim Carey If it's Cambridge, England, I sympathize. Cambridge, MA, not so much. I can't avoid either of them in the malls or on TV.
@Tim Carey I didn't know either one, but doesn't the L make more sense than any other letter? What else did you think it might be? I hope this doesn't come across as snarky because I'm genuinely curious.
Dear @Tim Carey, Is it Jeff Chen’s fault that this puzzle appeared on a Monday? I should probably look up the process of puzzle day placement, but I’m not.😉 Perhaps it was supposed to be a Wednesday but Monday’s puzzle author asked for a couple of extra days due to the fires or some other unexpected issue, illness, accident, etc. Or maybe there were some last minute edits by someone who was under duress. If so, hopefully Will Shortz is okay.❤️
I wasn’t able to guess the revealer today, maybe because my dog Teddy doesn’t specialize in tracking, guarding, herding, or guiding. He does specialize in being a heartmelter and smileprompter, however. These qualities make him more than simply OF USE; they mark him as a stroke of fortune in my life. Dogs are relatively recent in my life – I’ve had three now in the past decade – and yes, I am enamored of and grateful for them. Life brighteners. Treasured gifts. So, Katie and Jeff, your dog puzzle set my day right. The theme, yes, but also its echoes: • The cross of ARF and FIDO. • The adjacent Boggle-style DOGs in the upper middle, one being part of a Boggle-style UPDOG. • The fact that this has struck some as “Chewy” for a Monday puzzle. Plus, little bonuses like EDGE abutting the border, a semordnilap pair in the grid (NIL, LIN), and the gorgeous symmetrical pair of FRACTALS and CHIGNONS. Congratulations to you, Katie, on your first Times puzzle, and thank you, Jeff, for partnering so often with new constructors; you help keep Crosslandia vibrant. Thank you both for bringing a heap of happy my way today!
@Lewis Dogs as heartmelters and smileprompters. I love that, Lewis. (but emus are sometimes smilemelters)
Another toughish Monday, welcome back Mr Shortz. Like the dog theme; my Shiba doesn’t so much ARF as scream until your ears bleed at any and all perceived ‘attacks’ on property or person. A good guard dog who takes no prisoners. If you ever see a photo of them with that cute foxy face and permanent smile, don’t be fooled. They’re Cane Corsas in disguise. The unknown names caused a few sticky moments, but the crosses helped eventually. BRITICISM a new one in me. I was trying to cram the more familiar Britishism in. Given my mini rant re maths themes yesterday I was both surprised and pleased with myself to get FRACTALS without needing all the crosses. Look at me, learning numbers and stuff. Stick that in your pipe ye legion of hideous 1960’s maths teachers. Mind, I couldn’t have told you what a FRACTAL actually is, but still, progress.
@Helen Wright Edit: a new one ON me. For goodness sake, I’m suffering fat finger syndrome today.
Well, I prefer BRITISHISM to BRiTICISM, but of course it's hard to walk away from a witticism, ism it? CUZ they're so fun. Difficult to know if it's NOOB or NEWB, and apparently I don't know the correct order for LBGT, either. TSK TSK indeed. Clever and interesting theme! Having recently read James Rebanks's three books (he is a shepherd with HERDing DOGs)--I was primed for acton here. In fact, as I look back: An early Scholastic Book was _Follow My Leader_ about a boy who gets a GUIDE DOG after losing his eye-sight. And did anyone else read all the DOG books by Albert Terhune? Not to mention Jack London's _Call of the Wild_ and goodness! Gipson's _Old Yeller_. Is this an unusual background for a Cat Person? Bright sunshine today, allowing the cold to move in without the protection of clouds... and I do believe that h*ll did freeze over!
@Mean Old Lady I'm on the Britishism train as well, probably because I subscribe to "Not One-Off Britishisms" (or NOOBs, which is how I spell "NEWBS") (Ben Yagoda is the author) and "Separated By A Common Language" (American ex-pat and English university professor of linguistics Lynne Murphy).
@Mean Old Lady I'm reading A Dog's Life by Martin Clune of Doc Martin fame. It's full of Britisms.
@Mean Old Lady As a kid I read the Cat Who mysteries by Lillian Jackson Braun, about a middle-aged man who solves mysteries with the help of his two Siamese cats. For the record, my cat does not solve mysteries. She pees on the couch.
@Mean Old Lady The Britishisms had my head thinking FOLLOW THE LEAD...spent way too much time trying to clean that one up.
While normally I love word play, having (very) recently heard someone misuse an oath, right now the idea of taking words lightly seems distasteful to me. Somehow today, remember truth is about reality, so surely it’s got to return before too long.
@JohnWM I wish I was living where you are! I’m very scared for everyone. At this point, I’m honestly preparing for the end of days approaching. Namaste!!
I had SUN TsU, and CUs seemed plausible for a few seconds.
Hi all! Puzzle of the Year voting time! This is the first round of voting for the POY for 2024. Nominees are in four groups: Early Week (Monday–Wednesday), Thursday, Themeless (Friday & Saturday) and Sunday. As in years past, there will be two rounds of voting. In the first round, you may select up to FIVE puzzles in each group. The five puzzles receiving the most votes will move on to the second round of voting. First round voting ends January 24. Here's the link to the ballot: <a href="https://form.jotform.com/243358842724059" target="_blank">https://form.jotform.com/243358842724059</a> The ballots are really easy to use. At the bottom of the first three pages you'll see NEXT: click that to go to the next category. Anyone can vote, but please only submit one set of ballots per person (i.e., don't stuff the ballot box).
john ezra, Thanks to you and the crew for the great job this year. I got my "I voted" sticker yesterday.
@john ezra What Barry said. Also thanks to you, Eric H and CLM for making it so easy to participate. I was able to vote for the first time this year. The hardest part is choosing from the lists, excellent puzzles all. Had to work a little harder than usual today. Loved CHIGNONS and DUDE. Oliver, my fox terrier puppy, is confused by the idea of working dogs.
One thing I can say about this community of commenters is that they drive me to look into things about which I might otherwise never have thought. For example, comments about 36A. (As an aside, I must say firstly that while I have heard of a “herd mentality”, I have never heard of this particular expression.) But on to my point. I think, but am not certain, that someone commented, in the context of this clue, on lemmings. That drove me to explore the web to see if there is known, if not well-known, term for a group of lemmings, which led me to this: The myth that lemmings plunge over a cliff -- or that they commit mass suicide in other ways, like drowning -- is apparently just that, a myth. It was created (one hears) by Walt Disney's brother, who thought it made a cool visual effect. That this is all a myth is apparently well known to biologists (any out there?), but not to the common person (indeed, my Webster's Collegiate makes reference to it). Therefore, I propose "a slander of lemmings."
@Strudel Dad If you told me a slander was the English name for a group of lemmings, I'd believe you 🤣
Strudel Dad, Or a “heard”? No? Maybe a fell-swoop of lemmings?
@Strudel Dad "HERD immunity" is what I was thinking about when I started reading your post, but you went another direction (over a cliff) and really got some mileage out of it. Good to see you! It's been a while!
@Strudel Dad Years ago I saw a poster, old even then, showing a large herd of sheep going over a cliff. One lone sheep was headed the other way, saying, "Pardon moi, pardon moi"
@Strudel Dad A while ago I saw a video of a large group of walruses who (for unknown reasons) made their way up a slope to a small cliff overlooking the sea. One by one they went over the cliff falling on the rocks below. Soon most of them were dead or dying in a pile beneath the cliff. It was very sad and confusing to see. The others could have turned around and went back the way they came after the first few falls, but they all continued to follow the herd. :(
@Strudel Dad An avalanche of lemmings, clearly? ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
What the. No way was that normal Monday difficulty. Is it because of the holiday that the NYT allowed this to be published? It wasn't "hard" per se but it was certainly much "chewier" and with more esoterica than anything I've seen here before. Honestly it just seems like a mistake. It would have been fine for a Wednesday or even a Friday in my estimation. Maybe we shouldn't complain - challenging well made puzzles are fun. But this isn't fair to people who have come to rely on the escalating pattern over the week (not to mention those who for some reason care about completion time stats). ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@B A while back I went through the archives and solved all Mondays, and then all Tuesdays going back to 2017 or so. I was really surprised by the difficulty of some of these. Today's was about 20% slower than my average Monday, so seems within expectations. Here's a few hard ones (as rated by xwstats) from the archive: 2017-05-08 2017-05-01
@B thanks for the 08/28/24 recommendation, a fun and extremely clever nightcap!
@B I dunno. It felt harder but I finished below my Monday average.
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Got on first? (10) 2. Good for nothing (7) 3. Big whoop (4) 4. Exchange letters (3) 5. Chest beating sort (7) PREBOARDED FREEBIE YELL IPO GORILLA
@Lewis Unless you’re a baseball fan, you don’t notice any wordplay with [Got on first?]. To our European contingent, this probably reads like a straight clue.
@Lewis Chest-beating sort wasn't much of a misdirect, IMO.
Yeah this was quite a lot harder than recent Mondays. Chignon/Herd was where I got stuck. I had LEAD and was pretty sure AOIL wasn't a thing but there were one to many variables in that section for me today. Cheers
Fun puzzle! A tough one for a Monday which is nice :)
@Sammy I never understand this attitude. Mondays are supposed to be nice and easy, the day when newcommers can shine, and one for more experienced solvers to relax. What is good about a Monday being hard?
A word about Naticks, for those who complained about ULTA/O'LEARY and for Natick complainers in general. The original "Natick" was NATICK and N.C. WYETH crossing at 1A. The N was the artist's first initial, and as such, completely uninferrable in any way, while in the other direction, it could have been practically any letter. And not knowing either one would lead to being totally stuck. Being at 1A, there was less surrounding context to help out than usual. Having traveled the Mass Pike a few times in my life, I knew NATICK. But I didn't know N.C. WYETH's first initial. If you don't live near one (practically impossible around here, though), I'd forgive you for not knowing ULTA. (I did; there's one less than five miles from here.) And I'd also forgive you for not knowing who stars in Shark Tank. (I didn't.) But at the cross, you're left with the letter missing in U_TA and O_EARY. Overseas solvers, you're excused if you didn't see O'LEARY immediately, but it's a really common name here. But the rest of you should have, really. I grant you that it's not as obvious what goes in the other direction, but the L looks good because it reminds one of "ultimate." I submit that the real reason people got upset about this crossing is that they didn't have most of the surrounding words, most of which seemed pretty easy to me. Sounded like a cat? A girl's name? Assigned a job? Blog POST? Come on, folks. It's EERIE how many people resort to calling "Natick"!
@Steve L I think what often happens is that people see a name they don't know and just assume it is uninferrable. Sometimes they get annoyed and look it up. Other times, they just fill in letters and let the app tell them when they've made a mistake. Then there is always just randomly picking a letter a plopping it in. All three of these methods deprive them of the opportunity to exercise whatever it is that gets exercised when you sit with something for a while and try reason it out. Once you decide to always try to work through an answer, you get better at it, it takes less time, and you don't make mistakes.
@Steve L The other option--looking at your 2nd paragraph--was (and is) Actually Knowing the illustrator's illustrious name! I did... NC WYETH was famed for good reason.... ...and there arose a need to differentiate him from his talented son Andrew (also named WYETH, not surprisingly), making the initials even more important. The next generation came along in the form of Jamie, so one really does need to know one's WYETHs.....
@Steve L Funny, I'm listening to Kevin O'LEARY right now, on Fox Business. He's leading a group of investors that wants to buy TikTok from the Chinese. I suppose most of y'all are watching CNN instead.
@Steve L Just take a deep breath and accept the fact that people are going to call a tough crossing a Natick. It's not that big of a deal.
Wow! I actually completed it in less than an hour. Yes, I’m not nearly as good as the majority of NY Times Crossworders. I definitely feel smart and confident about myself today lol! Best of luck to everyone especially now. One day at a time just like one puzzle at a time! Namaste!!
@Lady Morgan Kelly Diana I think "majority of NY Times Crossworders" and majority of those people who comment here are not necessarily the same... And you definitely should feel smart and confident today! Congratulations on your solve!!
I wish there was a puzzle this much fun for dogs. I have two blueticks, it is 7 degrees outside, and my dogs are bored. They live to smell things, so while we walk a lot, it is often slowly because they are busy reading the news.
I WORKed LIKE A DOG to fill in this grid and already in the NW thought I'd be defeated by a Monday. I had to jump all over the puzzle to make it come together. Were it not for the crosses, I wouldn't have remembered FRACTALS. Also, I've always heard it as BRITIshISM, so that threw me off. Luckily, CHIGNONS are my UPDOs of choice and the ULTA store is right up my alley. FOLLOW THE HERDS reminded me of my observation of how we humans tend to subconsciously move in herds. That's why the lines at a supermarket will be suddenly long. But if you step away for something between five and ten minutes, upon your return all the lines will be gone. Back to the puzzle, I found it intense but ultimately enjoyable as it all came together and assuaged my initial fears that I'm regressing in puzzle-solving abilities. Thank you, Katie and Jeff, for this more challenging Monday puzzle!
Quite difficult and not fun whatsoever.
WOW! *checks calendar* Stickiest Monday in quite some time! I thoroughly enjoyed this very well-crafted puzzle.
Anglicism was my undoing. Briticism? I suppose it must be correct.
@Peter It’s correct (apparently) for Americans. Personally, I’ve only ever used “Britishism” - so this one stumped me until I got the crosses.
Relieved to see I'm not alone in finding this one an unusually tough Monday. Quite a workout for me, but managed to get it all together. Will confess that I wasn't really tumbling to the trick until I was almost done and went back and reviewed. Fun puzzle find today - a Wednesday from November 15, 2017 by Steven E. Atwood. The reveal clue and answer in that one: "Words found in the answers to this puzzle's starred clues" BRITISHISMS And some theme clue and answer examples: "*Monthly charge for a London apartment?" FLATRATE "*French fries on a London card table?" POKERCHIPS "*Part of a London police officer's uniform?" BOBBYSOCKS "*Conveyance in a multilevel London store?" SHOPLIFT Thought that was pretty clever. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/15/2017&g=11&d=D" target="_blank">https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/15/2017&g=11&d=D</a> I'm done. ...
@Rich in Atlanta Oh! And one other puzzle (and author) find. A Monday from November 11, 1996 by Stephanie Spadaccini*. Theme answers in that one: WEEWILLIEWINKIE VENIVIDIVICI MAKEMINEMINK LOVESLABORSLOST Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/11/1996&g=44&d=A" target="_blank">https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/11/1996&g=44&d=A</a> But then... I went and looked at the author's page on Xword Info. She had 44 puzzles in the Times, 36 of them in the Shortz era, and almost all of them were themed puzzles - 16 Mondays and 18 Tuesdays, for example. And a quick scan showed a bunch of fun wordplay. A few example answers from various puzzles: WESTSIDESTORE ANNIEGETYOURGUM CHASECHEVY GORETIPPER BENCHJOHNNY IWITNESSACCOUNT UNDERTHEWHETHER FRANKIEVALET MARTHASTEWARD ALISTAIRCOOK And lots and lots of others. Here's a link to her Xword Info page: <a href="https://xwordinfo.com/Thumbs?author=Stephanie+Spadaccini" target="_blank">https://xwordinfo.com/Thumbs?author=Stephanie+Spadaccini</a> I'm done. ....
@Rich in Atlanta Maybe you stayed up too late watching the football game?
My first fractal was creating Lsystems in 1989 during my master's; on a monitor with 16 colours, using Turbo Pascal! Took about 20 minutes to generate a tree. Now I do this with Arduino Uno and miniature 240 x 240 displays. Now off to solving...
@Raj Love this! My early career was in large part creating user guides for the IT department of a brokerage firm -- using MS Paint (and then CorelDraw) with 16 colors at my disposal. They still hold up as instructional drawings. But the fuchsia and teal combos are cringe-inducing!
@Raj Very similar experience. Created a tree that bloomed in random colors on an Apple IIe, probably in Basic. Each bloom was one pixel.
Monday puzzles can occasionally be a little ho-hum, but this one was a delight to solve. Thanks Katie and Jeff 😊👏🏻
ARF. Monday has gone to the dogs. (Fine with me. Tuesday for cats?) NARC and KILO in one grid was EERIE. I was hoping 43A's clue would acknowledge 45A. Which Grammy year for "It's Raining FRACTALS?" Thanks, Katie and Jeff. SEEYA.
@Barry Ancona ....Schroedinger's cat made it to Philly today.
This was a really clever Monday theme. Four career paths for a dog! Who knew? Thanks, Katie Byl and Jeff Chen.
Lovely, chill Monday. BILLs won, so my head is *cloudy* which is actually pronounced *hung over* and I needed a smooth and creamy solve. Thank you Katie and Jeff!
With FRACTALS, CHIGNONS and SUNTZU, this one seemed Tuesday-ish to me. My solve-time agreed, exceeding my Tuesday average by half-a-minute. ALTA and ULTA appearing together was interesting. NOGOAREAS sounds odd to me; needless to say my initial entry was NOGOZONES. Having PURRED in the grid was clever, though it should have been clued as "Worked like a cat". ;-)
The puzzle seems perfectly Monday easy to me. Filled smoothly, no hangups, zero write-overs. I worked the puzzle last night after it dropped, so perhaps the lack of Monday morning mind malaise made it easier. I liked it, DOGgone it! Thank you, Katie and Jeff. My NO-GO AREAS today are politics and farcebook. Rather like Whamadeddon, a challenge to avoid them.
For those who found it a breezy Monday,... For those who found it a difficult Monday,... There is a phrase: YMMV "Your mileage may vary."
I just have to comment that I loved the Ira Glass clue. This puzzle challenged me a bit for a Monday, but it was a lot of fun. Nice work Professor Byl.
This was a little harder for me than my usual encounters with Monday puzzles.
@RoseAnn Mulford you can say that again.
@RoseAnn Mulford Xwordstats.com has it rated as Very Hard, based on the stats of its members. I agree that it was very hard for a Monday.
@Steve L. Steve, Thanks so much for the stats info. RoseAnn
Well, well - bruh makes another appearance, but this time as a clue. All is forgiven with the appearance of chignon - how very French and how very elegant. I think Monday will be a day to raid the archives as I try to hold on to some positive thinking. Happy solving.
That one cracked along, despite several unknowns that had to be filled on the cross and/or guessed. The crosses between two unknown proper nouns down, O_EARY and S_ACIE, and one unknown proper noun across (clued by another unknown proper noun), U__A, was filled on balance of pretty reasonable probabilities. Then I didn't get my star! Careful scanning revealed a new error for me: UPD0 (with a zero!) instead of UPDO. Was momentarily vexed because LLAMAS come in herds or flocks, not packs. And then, doh, the delayed realization that they're described as pack animals because they carry stuff. Sometimes even packs.
CUZ? Can someone please explain for this Australian? CUZ means your cousin here.
@Paul Just shortened from "because". And yes, it looks and sounds stupid to most of us here too... It's also used for cousin. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Paul I share your confusion. I also think of "cuz" as short for "cousin" and think of " 'cause" as short for "because". To my ears, the words are pronounced differently.
Huh. It’s always interesting to discover how others rate the puzzle in terms of difficulty. Although many found this one tough for a Monday, for me it was below my average Monday time— and might even have been a PB had it not been for an unusual number of fat finger flubs. When I looked it over, though, I would have expected a Monday to be kinder to the international solvers; seemed like quite a few U.S.-centric entries, which I would have thought would be minimized on a Monday. I think the perception of difficulty might also have been influenced by the fact that this puzzle may have favored female solvers. There were two questions on hairstyles (that referred to mostly feminine styles) and one on makeup, as well as a question about a doll. Absolutely NOT saying males don’t/shouldn’t play with dolls or wear makeup— or be familiar with women’s hairstyles (if there is such a distinction!)— just that fewer men are likely to find these topics in their wheelhouse.
@Darcey O’D Btw, I really enjoyed the theme of this puzzle, and found it more fun than the typical Monday. YMMV.
I got through most of it without too many problems, but the SW corner had me hostage for about 15 minutes. Never heard of BRITICISM, despite being a Brit, I was hindered by having angl-ICISM in my mind. Quite a few tricky Americanisms in other parts of the puzzle, but it's the NYT so whaddyagonnadoo? The dog theme was cute. Thanks Katie & Jeff, I always appreciate the effort constructors put in, and the brain workout!
I think my dog is part fractal: every bit of him smells as bad as the whole thing. If this puzzle could speak, it might say “I work like a Tuesday.”
A new low. At least three lookups needed to finish a MONday!
Bart, It's not you. Many people have called this a very tough Monday.
@kilaueabart Absolutely, the longest I ever spent on a Monday puzzle and still had to look something up. Some of it was my fault: I tried to squeeze prenup into a space that turned out to be “brief” because I spelled it as pre-up. I wrote noobs for newbs. But what finished me off was a “Sephora rival.” I have never heard of or seen the word Ulta anywhere. Is this regional?