Constructor here, hope everyone has fun with today's puzzle! Glad most here seem to enjoy it. Some other harder (maybe) clues that didn't make the cut 1D One of two in a chest 8D Acronym that omits the word "acid" 24D What cars or genes might do 50A Notable sit-in protester Not sure how to ping but @Deb, my name is misspelled in the first line.
@Ernest Sorry about that, your name has been fixed.
@Deb Amlen (love this inside, behind the curtain stuff)
@Ernest Nice puzzle, thank you, and not only because there were no American sports or college clues 🤣. Is it not great that a Polish guy can solve a Singaporean guy's crossword in an American newspaper? Your original clues seem similar in difficulty to the ones chosen by the editors. The chest one would be harder for me, maybe, but I made a mistake there initially, anyway, entering "abs". I needed crosses to sort it out.
@Ernest Really enjoyed your puzzle, fellow chemist!
@Ernest thanks for lovely puzzle. Your original 24D would have created a discussion here on whether individual genes DRIFT or is it the whole genome. Pedantry rules in this house 😀😀 It would have been fun to watch.
@Ernest ah! I wish they would have kept this one: 1D One of two in a chest
@Ernest excellent debut puzzle ! Look forward to seeing more puzzles from you in the future- from another solver (and hopefully future constructor) from Singapore.
@Ernest I really enjoyed this one! Thank you. As others have said, no US sport, and the art references not too obscure. I only had to look up the car, but I wouldn't have known the equivalent UK car. I would say 'hewn' not HEWED in BrEng. I liked clues like ELOPE and UTERI. Good luck.
@Ernest Congratulations on your debut! I enjoyed solving it. I mentioned in my first post of the year that puzzle construction is on my bucket list. You have really inspired me to get moving on this, so thank you. ☺️
@Ernest congrats on your debut! I found this one very enjoyable and hope to see more from you in the future.
@Ernest Terrific debut, congratulations.
@Ernest Fun and refreshing Friday - Loved the 14 letter answers, esp. the shout out to Magritte. Well done, Mr. Lim!
@Ernest lots of original words we don't see in crosswords every day! A pleasure to solve, thanks!
@Ernest Though I don’t always enjoy the “name the speaker” quote clues, the new ROSA PARKS clue did add more flavor to the puzzle. My ROSA PARKS clue when I include her in my NYTimes submission will be an OutKast one, sorry for another American trivia reference, Ernest
@Ernest Yes it was fun. Thank you! Since it was a "best" time for me, perhaps more puzzling clues would have increased the fun. puzzled 24d Continental or catch?
@Ernest Loved the puzzle, Ernest! Thank you!
@Ernest Enjoyed your puzzle! Great debut!
At first I thought the “nondairy offering” was yet another clue for our ubiquitous cookie, haha. When I found my mistake, I cried “Ceci n’est pas un Oreo!”
"Can't you iron my clothes?" "No, I'm pressed for time." ("Now I'm steamed.")
Mike, Always a fan of your dry, clean sense of humour. Some day you’ll have to tell us what events in your past managed to starch’ya on this punny path.
Overall easy and fast for a Friday, but OPENENDER? With an R? I am closed to that possibility. Harumph.
@Elle That’s actually a common expression from poker, when you can make a straight with either of two cards…say 8765, you have an open ended straight draw, or more simply an ‘open ender’
@Elle Agreed. I never did find my mistake before checking the comments. And why? Hardly anyone knows the given word, and SDS is more common and easy to clue! Nice puzzle, just a lapse in editing.
@Elle I, too, “knew” it had to be SRS, but couldn’t initially live with OPENENDER so waited for the “keep trying” before changing it.
Very sweet that we find DONUT whose shape is a torus, next to TAURUS, with which you can do donuts (if so inclined). Yes, the exit polls told one story, but what I hope makes headlines in this evening's late edition is that we drone bees of the worker castes, who scrum for a living alongside our Latin neighbors, the children of Rosa Parks and the poor women no longer in control of their own uteri lest they end up in the state pen, doing jobs where we're always pressed for time, just found out that we will BEAR THE EXPENSE of all this. To think, the Flinstones were more enlightened than we are. This is not a pipe, it's a pipe dream! OK, John Ezra, rein it in. Back to the cowshed you go. Right. Don't forget to fill out the ballot for the PUZZLE OF THE YEAR FOR 2024 awards, the Griddies. Voting for the first round is over Midnight the 24th (Oceania Time). The Griddies can be accessed here: <a href="https://form.jotform.com/243358842724059" target="_blank">https://form.jotform.com/243358842724059</a>
@john ezra Funny you mention it, as my original clues were TAURUS: [Sign that sounds like a topological shape] DONUTS: [Common examples of the shape in 41D] alas, that wasn't to be either :(
@john ezra I've added my vote to this, but I have to say the inclusion of the Robert Frost and Art Heist puzzles in puzzle of the year is a controversial one
For once I resisted the urge to look up stuff in a late week puzzle - and I managed to fill the grid all on my own! It took 31 minutes but I'm quite proud of the feat. Can you imagine how badly I wanted to Google the Magritte thing? Or the Florida city? The first I got largely from crosses, and the latter I dredged up from some dark recess of my mind with just the _C___ there. A miracle if there ever was one. The last square to fall was RO_/_ELT. For the longest time I just could not parse "mug" as in a mugger's verb, and I'm not sure I knew BELT as a big swig before. Anyway, I enjoyed the puzzle. I found the difficulty just right for a Friday.
@Andrzej Congratulations one again! You and I had the same time! I was highly tempted to look up OCALA. It was a place that I've heard of maybe three or four times, probably the three or four times I've been in the state. But I couldn't quite make it out, until, fortunately, it suddenly appeared. Otherwise I was SOL for this one, because I was totally lost on the French drapes, and it took me quite a while to accept CASTE for [Drone bees, e.g.].
@Andrzej Awesome job! That’s impressive. I had to look up Magritte in Deb’s column. My time was very long (though I nodded off twice). The aha moments were worth it, though.
Ditto Andrzej's and Francis' times
@Andrzej One might take a BELT of whiskey as "liquid courage" before attempting something audacious -- taking a swing at an opponent in and Old West saloon, perhaps, or asking out the girl who might not know you exist. :)
Ernest, who lives in Singapore, says in his notes that he’s not familiar with most of the sports or cultural references “that are oh-so-common in The Times”. I found the lack of these references refreshing in today’s grid. Oh, there were cultural references, but ones that have stood the test of time: FLINTSTONES, ROSA PARKS, LLOSA, the Magritte painting, the Egyptian god – answers that gave the puzzle a solid feel that I found comforting. This is not to disparage the verve that comes from the au courant, which raises my pulse in a lovely way. There are all kinds of good that puzzles can furnish, and today it was “solid” and “comforting”. I liked the international flair in the box, with answers relating to France, Italy, Mexicao, Latin America, and Ireland. I loved uncovering beauty: BEAR THE EXPENSE, PRESSED FOR TIME, MELEE, BOTCH, CANON, STATE PEN, DRIFT, SCRUM. I liked seeing ELOTE sharing the grid with ELOPE, as well as the PuzzPairs© of CELL/STATE PEN and AXE/HEWED. Just a heap of loveliness to start the day, and that is a gift I never take for granted. Congratulations on your NYT debut, Ernest, and thank you!
@MExpat while I agree, “Sing Sing” as a STATE PEN is most definitely a cultural reference, albeit an older one.
Great, really smooth. Enjoyed it. But OPEN ENDER? instead of OPEN ENDED? urmmm
@Margot (@jenesaiswha) agree. I was starting to wonder who SDS are at a commencement.
I searched Google for “open ender.” iPhone autocorrect wanted to change ender to ended, and Google asked “did you mean open ended.” BS answer, IMO, especially since there were perfectly valid clues for SDS on the cross.
I liked seeing TAURUS hanging around the COW SHED. Et tu, emu.
This was a delectable puzzle for a sweet start to the weekend. Very mellow and enjoyable. Ah, CEDARWOOD. How I love the aroma! It had me wishing for a scratch-and-sniff button on my screen. It also delighted me to see both Magritte and Jackson Pollock in the puzzle, as if I were standing in front of their art. Neither of their works are specifically to my liking, but I greatly appreciate their uniqueness and existence. I also greatly appreciated this puzzle which was indeed to my liking. Thank you, Mr. Lim, and congratulations on your debut!
Zipped right through this entertaining maze. Who knew OSIRIS has green skin? “Six-letter god starting with O” is how I got it. No music. Flyspeck. Looked hard at the change I’d made in the southeast to accommodate OPENENDEd. Considered OPENENDER, Figured I must’ve missed something else. Shrugged, checked puzzle. Sigh. There’s more than one reason my streaks are so limited
@Jennifer Very similar experience here. Finished the fill, no music. Combed through every across clue/word, then combed through ever down clue/word. Wouldn’t you know it, the last place i looked: “SDS”. Students? Doesn’t seem like a standard abbreviation. Maybe it *is* Seniors (SRS), that would make more sense. But ‘OPENENDER’? Does anyone say that? Sounds British, maybe. Let’s try it! And boom.
@Jennifer Same here, I could not find my mistake. OPENENDED is the only way I've heard the phrase. Oh well.
Shame about open endeD. SDS is easy enough to clue. Bet it makes a comeback in the near future.
@Lars It's interesting how different my experience with that crossing was, compared to native speakers. OPENENDER looked weird-ish, but the -ER ending made sense, linguistically - to me, anyway. As for SRS, I did not know what commencement was. I alrady had S_S there and I suspected the answer might be SRS - one of the many abbreviations that keep haunting these puzzles, and one of the few of them I managed to understand and remember. I checked what commencement was and the result reassured me my initial guess was correct. Voila, crossing resolved. SDS on the other hand... That looks so alien to me! When I google it, the first few results are all about some tool affixing system, whatever that is. (I have personalised search results, search history, any personalisation features and cookies turned off in my browser and search engine; all Google may use is my general location, from the IP address)
@Andrzej With the regional filter off on my Duck Duck Go browser, SDS got me Students for a Democratic Society first. Which is what I expected. Switch regions to the UK and I got architectural iron mongery. Interesting.
@Lars gah this held me up. I’d have had a PB were it not for that. I think having type leads to the adjectival solution; better if it had just said question. Though I’m still not convinced open ender is a thing (just ask autocorrect!).
@Elizabeth Ross Huh. On the second page for me. Guess the powers that be don't want people getting any ideas!
Okay Ernest you are now my new favorite constructor ... You had me at The Flintstones. I still adore that show, best cartoon ever. I knew it had to be an older show when the opening theme songs were creative and enjoyable. I kept trying to fill the squares with The Brady Bunch. It had to be because it had the "squares' in its song. I wasn't far off and I broke into laughter and sang the Flintstones song. Now they are both swirling in my head. Anyway, I cannot wait for your next puzzle. I hope it's another creation that illustrates your wide interests. Totally refreshing crossword. Almost every clue was unique. I really enjoyed the wordplay and the international flavor. I do hope you will be back soon Ernest you are a great addition to the NYT crossword family. Hands down my favorite solve in 2025.
@Judith Fairview I tried there Brady Bunch twice before I got a cross that tipped me off.
Unlike all of the art students and appreciators out there, I got 9 D from one of my favorite comics where the pipe of ambiguity makes regular appearances. <a href="https://images.app.goo.gl/UwrEVFqykEfwGz1FA" target="_blank">https://images.app.goo.gl/UwrEVFqykEfwGz1FA</a> See? I'm not wasting time reading all of those comics every day.
@Nancy J. I’m elated that someone else made the same connection to the linked comic!
Does it have nine letters? Is it an adjective? Yes. Is it sometimes hyphenated? Yes. Is it sometimes used to describe questions? Yes. Is it the most common form of the word. No. Is it sometimes used by sales-people? Yes. Is it sometimes used by journalists? Yes. Is it used by solvers of NYT crosswords? No. Is it sometimes used in poker. Yes. Does it end in a letter that fits into S_S better than D, to make a 3-letter word describing commencement attendees? Yes. I think I’ve got it. One more question: How do you feel about the word “OPENENDER”?
@JohnWM, Did you botch the first two questions and answers after doing edits on the fly, and have a couple other typos? Yes.
pursuant to johnwm's clever exploration of the 20 (or 10?) question question and others... I finished up in a very decent time for me for a friday (even though I turn the timer off) but the nyt xword ai cop implied I was at least 1 square away from perfect? hmm... so after a complete answer by answer review I couldn't spot my error... so I consulted with my virtual best friend autocheck to see what I missed about what I missed I had used OPENENDED crossed with SDS who needs 20 questions? I only had 1... what could be more correct than that? when I was in college it was not unusual to have SDS members in attendance whether graduating... or protesting I truly LOL @ the correct entry SRS (seniors) does make more sense while OPENENDER perhaps not as much? my inner homer ref waved it off and gave me another perfect solve LOL ps hey john cdn expat from trahna but don't hold that against me eh?
Crossword Revolution D3: ROSA PARKS After we ran into a POTHOLE, we caught a bus and carried on. * A Crosswords Saved the Day ™ production. All rights reserved, including those that are, you know, literally in the Constitution.
@Puzzlemucker Can anyone explain what these comments are about? Can't make sense of this one or the one yesterday.
Reading over the comments this morning I have concluded that my complaint last night that the puzzle was too easy for a Friday was harsh. The puzzle was, as they say, in my wheelhouse. I solved it while I was listening to a Warriors game (they won!!) and still finished the puzzle in less than 30 min. A big help was my second fill, the Magritte pipe, which made so many crosses much easier. The S in the god of the afterlife gave me OSIRIS, even though it was news to me that his skin was green. Pollack's art accessory—at first I thought of brush, then EASEL emerged from a cross. I don't know many three-letter Greek goddesses and the ights went on with EOS. So many long fills that juped out with a few letters made the whole puzzle much easier, but it seems to have been one of those times when the constructor (thank you Mr. Lim) was an old friend and we were talking about the same things. Many puzzles that were a breeze to other solvers have been a trial for me. The whole puzzle may have been a quick solve, but it was rich with good cluing. Thanks again, Ernest, and forgive me if I seemed dismissive. (I many start sobbing when Saturday puzzle arrives. Ya just never know.)
@dutchiris That sounds like my solve almost exactly! I thought maybe my few crosses at 46D were improbably wrong, but couldn't get my brain past "brush" last night, lol. I put in EOS for the goddess because it's the only one I could think of with three letters... and is kind of a regular appearance around these grids! But the Magritte -- my heart. One of a bunch of lovely in this puzzle! (And while I tend not to pipe up 😉 about degree of difficulty, this one like other recent Fridays has given me pause that they might have switched everyone to Easy Mode without our knowledge-! What I've read of the constructor's original clues seemed awfully good... Devious and delicious.)
I really enjoyed this one. It seemed "tight" to me, somehow. As if the pieces fit together especially well. But I'm a neophyte solver. I was really fortunate that the Magritte painting references is one of my favorites. No, of course it's not a pipe--it's a painting. Very playful and fun artwork.
Living in rural Wisconsin all my life I’m pleased to report that never in my life have I heard the words “COW SHED”.
@Arcturus My granddad had a milking shed. But it was really a barn.
@Arcturus Well, I will admit that COWSHED initially seemed a little green-painty to me, but on reflection I see it is a real term. George Orwell’s novella Animal Farm used the “battle of the cowshed” as an historical allegory for the defeat of the White Russians in the Russian Civil War. There are plenty of designs for, and pre-built, cowsheds out there. Who knew.
@Hardroch I live in the UK and ‘cow shed’ is a very common phrase here - was surprised to see it’s not the same everywhere!
@Arcturus Ours is a COWSHED. Common usage in the UK. It held our Hereford calves til they went off to pasture.
Re: 55A x 53D I saw the flap starting last night (link below). It didn't bother me. I was willing to accept -ER as a noun form of the much more common -ED adjective at 55A because I was a 1968 college graduate. There were, to be sure, members of SDS at our commencement, but they were there as individual SRS, not as a group. <a href="https://nytimes.com/shared/comment/44one5?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://nytimes.com/shared/comment/44one5?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
@Barry Ancona born in '59, grew up in the Village. Every time I see SDS in a puzzle, it brings back (fond) memories of SDS graffiti, and seeing protests in Washington Sq. park. But, I digress, I had no problem with accepting the R today.
@Barry Ancona If SDS members attend commencement, do they become GDS?
This was a mix of do-able and very chewy for me; it helped that 9D was a gimme for instance, as was BLEUS, but the crossings of 30 and 35 with 32D was a killer. No clue for city, media group or why a Drone bee answers as CASTE. Overall an enjoyable grid with some pretty chewy entries. My final error, which added about 6 minutes to my time was mis-spelling ROB for Rub. Oops. Our COWSHED is about to be converted to an Alpaca shelter. Going to see my potential new additions next week. Those eyes. Those eyelashes. Sigh, I’m so in love.
@Helen Wright Can you eat those or are they for wool only? 🦙
Didn’t love the single PEC (I’ve never heard anyone refer - with pride, no less - to only one of their pecs!) OPENENDER or EMEND (spare me the smug lectures) but 36D [One paying half for quarters, say] is the clue of the year thus far. Well done, Mr. Lim! I was able to solve this one with just a few lookups! I am learning that I will need to learn a little Spanish, French, Latin, and Greek gods and goddesses if I ever want to regularly solve a late-week puzzle.
@Cherry I suggest the Greek alphabet as well. You also want to know what the capital letters look like! It has been a boon to my solving life!
@Cherry yes! EMEND tripped me up too. I’m actually still a tad confused about 36D though. Perhaps it’s a combination of my Vertigo and the current state of affairs lol! Namaste!! xo
@Lady Morgan Kelly Diana a CO[-]TENANT is one who shares an apartment (or flat), i.e., living quarters. If there are two COTENANTs then they would each pay half the rent. So “paying half for quarters.”
You know how when you get a tricky one right away and feel pretty proud of yourself? Today it was UMP for “Make some calls?”… which of course turned out to be wrong.
@Michael Dawson this made me very angry. hahaha
Judging by the column and the actions of the Puzzles Dept., the goal of the NYT is to have a year with 365 debut puzzles. Meanwhile at the New Yorker, you can regularly find puzzles by veteran favorites like Robyn Weintraub, Paolo Pasco, Barbara Lin, Erik Agard, Andy Kravis, Aimee Lucido, Elizabeth Gorski, Patrick Berry, etc. The most recent Patrick Berry NYT was in 2018! 2018!!! The last Liz Gorski in the NYT? 2016!!! Honestly, which do you think is better? Would you rather go to a concert featuring Paul Simon, Elton John, Beyonce, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, James Taylor and Taylor Swift, or seven artists who have just released their debut single? Think about it. Something to ponder.
@Steve L Caitlin Reid for the January 27 issue, which arrived today. The NY Times Puzzle is still my favorite.
@Steve L I like when it’s a debut puzzle maker because they break the mold. I’m tired of the same old repetitive cluing and I’m sorry to hear you’re not. It’s good to break out of your comfort zone and have to think a little bit differently sometimes. Good for your neural pathways and all that…
@Steve L Veteran favorites have to start somewhere.
@Steve L A mix of both would be best, no? Why ponder this as a dichotomy? If I had to make a choice, I'd go for debuts only. Innovation usually beats stagnation.
@Steve L Interesting question about the concert. "All other things being equal" would have to be part of it, but that makes it unrealistic. Big name musicians mean huge venues (yuck), crowds (yuck), and expensive tickets that are hard to get. There was a club where I used to live that occasionally had up and coming artists who later made it really big. Oh how I would have loved to have been in attendance for some of those shows. I guess I'm in the new artists camp!
@Steve L My crossword habit/hobby began with the NYT during the covid pandemic. It then expanded to The New Yorker. Just this year, I started doing the Los Angeles Times' daily puzzle. So far, I find the LAT puzzles, regardless of day of week or constructor, to be kinda ridiculously easy; wondering if you have any thoughts on the LAT puzzles.
@Steve L Fortunately, we don’t have to make such a choice. It is possible to do both. The tried and true carries no guarantee of being superior to the fresh and new. In any case, I don’t think the concert analogy is that apt. Some of the artists in your star studded concert are primarily reprising past hits, and haven’t produced interesting music in years. The crossword constructors on the other hand must always create anew. While the constructors you name may well be more likely to create a pleasing puzzle than a debutant constructor, the world of puzzling can only be enhanced by the addition of new voices. Parenthetically, I went to see Elton John on one of his many farewell tours a few years ago. His voice was shot, the sound system was awful, and the person sitting next to me insisted on singing along loudly with every song …. Out of tune. It was one of the worst concerts I ever attended. That doesn’t diminish Sir Elton’s body of work, but I’d rather go take a chance on some new talent.
@Steve L As an ancient solver, I am turned off by the plethora of debut constructors. Today's was an exception, specifically because, as Mr. Lim stated, he's not that familiar with sports or cultural references. There's also the absence of modern slang, which to me often borders on the ridiculous. I greatly miss the veteran constructors, but generally do the New Yorker puzzles only on Mondays, when they are more challenging - sometimes too much so! One nit with those, however: it seems that Elizabeth Gorski's puzzles have lost some of the wit they used to have when she was publishing them here. Is it just me?
@Steve L Do you know for sure there are unpublished puzzles from Weintraub et al? The concert analogy is not great.
THIS IS NOT A PIPE. Quirky and surreal, and somehow appropriate these days. I don't pretend to understand Magritte's art, but I like it. Magritte and the Flintstones make a good puzzle. Thank you, Ernest Lim.
@Linda Jo Who said that Art History education would be useless!
@Linda Jo Every time I see Magritte's name I feel a wave of delight. Don't worry about "understanding" his art or the work of any other painter. Paintings just are, and explication may be interesting, but it's not necessary. I had a lot of early art history classes when I was still in high school, a gift from an art teacher (there is nothing like an inspired teacher) who was a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I enjoy reading about art and talking about it, but the experience of looking at it and making it are irreplaceable.
@Linda Jo Yes, I’m with you on Magritte and The Flintstones, a real treat. I’m a bit surprised that Deb didn’t mention the great Sunday puzzle entitled, “The Art of Puzzle-Making” by Andrew Zhou on 9/23/2018. MAGRITTE was an entry as well as the theme. The alternative painting title, theTREACHERY OF IMAGES was a spanner. The French title “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” was spelled out by circled letters which presented the shape of the pipe. A real classic…
Nice puzzle, Ernest! Enjoyed the clever clues, with “run for your honey” being my favorite. Congratulations on your debut.
Came here to PIPE in—proudly so—that I got the line from Magritte without a single cross. Obsessions with art galleries and art history books and museums pay off sometimes over a cup of coffee and the morning crossword puzzle. Well, you guys get it. I let out a whoop followed by an explanation when I filled in the answer and only got a slightly pained look from my husband. He’s spent many hours in museum coffee shops while I sat cross-legged in front of successive paintings. Yes, now you’ve met one of *those* people. (Señor Gato didn’t care either. Also, he’d never heard of ELOTEs but, Texas cat that he is, ALAMO was a gimme for him.) If I may, I’d also like to crow that after a few short months as a temporary European, I filled in CELL for [mobile] thinking of the latter as… a *noun.* On second thought, maybe that’s something to lament, not crow about. Out here, mobile rhymes with exile.
@Sam Lyons I love museums and art - my wife and I have been known to travel internationally just to see a single exposition, and we spend many whole days on almost any vacation in museums and galleries, sometimes admiring a single work for hours. However, I'm one of those primitives who does not enjoy modern art, for the most part. Sure, I like things to be thought-provoking, but when I'm dealing with a painting I also expect it to be, well, beautiful, and not in some deeper sense. It's a bit different with sculpture, for some reason - I don't mind even the weirdest and most modern of those. I wonder why that is?
@Sam Lyons Same here, the Magritte painting broke the grid wide open. I did think of a "mobile" as a sculpture, a la Alexander Calder, but nothing worked. I got the CELL phone eventually, from watching British crime dramas.
Oh, how I love a late-week themeless grid, just waiting to be filled with riddles and factoids and expressions… *contented sigh* Solid and elegant debut! Bravo! Thank you Ernest!
I had no idea how “Sing Sing” could be a STATEPEN until I googled it and found out it’s actually a penitentiary! For a moment I thought that along with a state bird, state tree, state flower, etc. that states were now declaring their favorite pens, haha
@Gabe Reed same !!! When I finished without the happy music I went straight to that clue, before coming here and realising my problem was elsewhere.
Once backstage someone had put a sign on the wall which said "Do NOT put ANYTHING on this table!" However, the table had been moved and replaced by a hamper. I don't speak French, but I was rather chuffed that I found the proper font and made a sign for the hamper which said "Ce n'est pas une table." Fun puzzle, great debut. I was fine with OPENENDER, although I agree it would have been better clued as the poker term. And yes, I do use the word EMEND with some frequency.
Hi Ernest great to know there’s a fellow NYT xword avid here in sg. Was a joy solving your puzzle :)
A “With ‘An’” cluing suffix for OPENENDER, might have saved me several minutes of chasing down the final offending ‘D’. Lovely debut nonetheless and an impressive time to go from newbie solver to published NYT constructor.
@WMY I have never heard of a question labeled openender. Autocorrect had to be overwritten. Bad entry.
this was weirdly hard for me, and i can't quite pin down why. i seemed to be on a totally different wavelength for almost every clue which left me with a LOT of empty squares and not much to build off, but it seems everyone else enjoyed the puzzle just fine, so it must just be me! a fine puzzle regardless though!
@Lea It was not just you. The struggle was real over here and I had almost nothing spring to mind for more than 80% of the across clues in my first pass. It was a grind.
I guess if there's no such thing as an OPENENDER question that would explain why no one ever asks one. Fun puzzle! Fun notes! Haven't seen Wicked yet but I assume OSIRIS is Cynthia Erivo's character.
@ad absurdum Yeah I really have never heard that, just "open-ended"
Beat my average by 37%. Is COWSHED the past tense of COWSH? Scrum is an odd word. Sounds like something one might wash off in the shower. I suppose I should remember 22D. I learned a new French word today. When I looked it up I was surprised to find that it did not refer to curtains. I thought COTENANT was a cross between a colonel and a lieutenant. BOTCH -- is that what you do when you misspell the "B" word? Finding a comfortable way to paint isn't hard -- EASEL does it.
@Jim SCRUM is the huddle that players form when the ball has gone out of play. It’s thrown into the centre, where they ‘scrum’ for possession. There’s a few dirty tactics involved, such as grabbing opposing players by the ears or worse, the unmentionables in order to distract them from grabbing the ball. A fun game!
This one seems like another one of THOSE puzzles that was harder to construct than to solve. A lot of the fills were revealed before I read the clues, and It all was done in under half an hour, before I really got settled into it—unfamiliar territory for me on a Friday. CASTE was my last entry, and I would guess that EXITPOLLS might confirm it was for many others as well. Nevertheless, I did enjoy solving it, and I found the fills fun and imaginative. Thank you, Eric Lim, and I'm sure we will be seeing other puzzles from you.
Congratulations on a fine NYT debut, Mr. Lim! Nicely done!
I heard a story about OSIRIS, that HEWED early, ELOPED with EOS, who, as a godess, didn't know ELOTE bout cooking, and OSIRIS had to BEAR THE EXPENSE when she was continually saying, LETS EAT OUT. But you know the REST, he loved her and wouldn't TRADE her for the world. It's not one of THOSE stories that MAKES HEADLINES, and it might not even be true, but it still makes my TOES curl.
Read "One paying half for quarters, say" and immediately filled in ROOMMATE, feeling very proud of myself ... Like many recently, this puzzle seemed a rather "gentle" Friday offering. Still, some interesting *words* here, like the symmetrically placed COWSHED and SEXTANT. COWSHED reminded me of visits to Fillmore Glen State Park in Moravia, NY (birthplace, more or less, of Pres. Millard Fillmore). Near the entrance to the park is lovely Cowshed Falls, and the adjacent "rock shelter" know as the Cowsheds. <a href="https://nyfalls.com/waterfalls/fillmore-glen-state-park" target="_blank">https://nyfalls.com/waterfalls/fillmore-glen-state-park</a>/ Congrats on the debut!
Like others, did not appreciate OPENENDER. That's not a real thing. Had SRS at first and then changed it to SDS to complete the cross, thinking this was an abbreviation I just didn't know. Nope - you just made up a word to make your puzzle work! Also didn't know about CBC so had CBS for a while. Overall, though, a fun puzzle with fair crosses. Enjoyed the clue for EXITPOLLS.
OPEN ENDER is pitiful. As a poker term, fair enough, but that clue is WEAK SAUCE.
It took me awhile to get into this one, but once I got THISISNOTAPIPE (a gimme for me thanks to my art conservator daughter) the puzzle just fell right into place. Getting CASTE for drone bees, which was my final entry, had me scratching my head for a minute, but it actually makes perfect sense. Although I enjoyed both the Thursday and Friday puzzles, I’m hoping for a tough Saturday.
@Marshall Walthew I scratched my head a bit on CASTE as well, I had males until I didn’t . After the fact I’ve learned this is a standard term in describing “eusocial” bee or ant colonies (there’s a good word!). Now I see it’s been clued multiple times over the years as [Hive division], [Worker bees, e.g.], [Queens or soldiers], and [Bee-hive division]. It won’t give me pause next time….
And now for a word from your friendly neighborhood pedant. Just an FYI. Honey bee drones are not a caste. Per "The Beekeepers Handbook, fifth edition", by Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile on page 26: "Caste in social insects is applied to individuals of the same sex that differ both in behavior and morphology ... Drones, the male bees, are not members of a caste, since all drones exhibit the same morphology and behavior." It's still a fine clue because caste is commonly (mis)used that way.
@Curtis Is this your way of telling us you're beekeeping age? 🤣 <a href="https://dictionary.com/e/slang/beekeeping-age" target="_blank">https://dictionary.com/e/slang/beekeeping-age</a>/
@Curtis Not according to this article : <a href="https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1535947620306873" target="_blank">https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1535947620306873</a>
I do hope Ernest continues to create puzzles, as I found this very enjoyable, something I can’t always say for themeless puzzles. My favorite entry, THIS IS NOT A PIPE.
I thought OPENENDER was a slangy stretch. openendeD would be a descriptor.
@Midwest It was fair. It wasn't great for me, since like a lot of solvers I tend to start flyspecking in the northwest corner, then do first the across, then the downs, which meant that seeing ”SdS" should be SRS was the very last thing to click for me, and it only came after enough time had elapsed to lose me what would have been my fastest time for a Friday ever, combined with no lookups. Still, though, you could reason out SRS.
I was among those who finsied quickly. All the while thinking 5D reminds me of a song..what is it? (Not the FLINTSTONES theme.) And it came to me "K-k-k Katy, beautiful Katy you're the only g-g-g girl that I adore. When the m-m moon shines over the COWSHED I'll be waiting at the k-k-k kitchen door." <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=0PSsXPXhTyM" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/watch?v=0PSsXPXhTyM</a>
@Amy I was wondering if any other KATES would easily hit on COWSHED because of a familiarity with that song. My mother often sang it to me when I was young.
What a fun puzzle. 9D was an old friend, and filling it in gave me the feeling that everything would be OK. I loved the misleading clues (45D took awhile to get right). Was sure I would have to look up 38A but it turned out to be a "doh" moment. It's really refreshing to do a clever puzzle without those current cultural references that, ahem, puzzle some of us. Merci beaucoup for 30A. As for the to-do about 55A -- come on. It's a crossword puzzle. Some (other) constructors play with language as if it were taffy. Congratulations to Ernest Lim. Let's have more from him.
I linked this in a reply below, but allow me to share one of my all time favorite pieces of music: <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=sV5qrp-FUto" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/watch?v=sV5qrp-FUto</a> "Memento, homo, quia pulvis es" . . . especially while you're doing pec day at the gym. ("Remember, man, thou art dust.")
@Bill Yes, dust, but as Bill Nye said, star dust!
@Bill oh when I had a voice, I was part of a schola cantorum that sang beautiful polyphony. I'm also a Latin Mass girl. My parish has a sung Latin Mass every Sunday. Thanks for sharing.
@Bill So beautiful, and you also reminded me of Mr. Bean, which made me laugh, thanks! "Ecce homo qui est faba..."
@Bill I posted the link above because it had that hadny, follow-along score, but this is IMO a much better performance: <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=-WPKE-uUOXc" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/watch?v=-WPKE-uUOXc</a> Less lugubrious, and quite elegant how that insistently repeated "Remember, man, that thou art dust" becomes increasingly prominent, until it is, literally, unforgettable. In case anyone should wonder whether this sarcasm is all theoretical posturing, back in the day I was quite the gym-bunny, and, yes, I used to hum this to myself whilst working out: we may shape ourselves into prettier (richer, more successful, etc.) dust, but in the end we are all still dust.