My four year old: “what are those circles? They look like ladders.” He caught the Thursday trick before I did. Thanks, kiddo, gold star for you.
@Red Carpet Kids have such different imaginations than us oldies, eh? I would have never seen a ladder in a design with circles in it - I suppose I've seen way too many regular ladders for my mind to be open to the idea of circularity not precluding something being a ladder.
Really enjoyed the circled letter trick
@Adin I was just on the verge of thinking this puzzle was probably more fun to create than to solve when wham! Suddenly I got it. Yep. Fun trick.
@Adin Yes - very clever indeed!
Random thoughts: • Debut answers aren’t automatically good, but two today are gold – SOLDIER OF FORTUNE and CAN’T SEE STRAIGHT. • Speaking of CAN’T SEE STRAIGHT, that phrase nicely echoes the theme, because the theme answers don’t run straight across. • Lovely misdirecting original clue for THEFTS: [They might sound the alarm]. • A host of schwa-enders: GIA, ARETHA, UTA, PANDA, OSHA, MESA, STRATA, and wannabes BETA(s) and CODA(s). • TIL why shaking aspen trees shake, after looking it up. Their leaves, due to their shape, flutter in even the slightest breeze, giving the trees the appearance of shaking. This led to their scientific name “tremuloides”. Cool! So, Joe, your creation brought lots of smiles to spark my day. Thank you so much for making it!
@Lewis Lewis, I rarely post here but lurk daily, and your positivity is always such a delight 😊
@Lewis - Technically, it's the petioles of the leaves -- they're not round, but flattened laterally, so the leaves can wiggle from side to side in the slightest breeze.
I'm in the elevator business. It has its ups and downs. (But it's on the level.)
@Mike I tried to start my own elevator business but I couldn’t get it off the ground. It didn’t help that my business partner kept pushing my buttons
@Mike My first summer job was actually as an elevator operator, and it did, indeed, have its ups and downs. At least I got in on the ground floor.
@Mike You always rise to an occasion! ...
I never comment, but I loved this puzzle as someone who's relatively new to crosswords. Gave me immense satisfaction once I figured out user research as someone who's in the research field myself 😄
@Nida welcome to crossworld! or crosslandia. Glad to have you.
Crossword Revolution D9: DEB AMLEN Any revolution is better with Deb. This is a Crosswords Saved the Day ™ production. All rights reserved, including the right to be simultaneously up, down, lost, found, not to mention feeling the need to binge on TED LASSO.
That was cool :) I caught onto the theme at HEARTTRANSPLANT, then specifically went to work on the rest since they were fun to solve in their own right. I had a little trouble in the North East because I was thinking FORhire before realizing it was FORTUNE. Once I got past that it was smooth sailing. Very very impressive theme, and I don't think the rest of the puzzle suffered for it.
I enjoyed this one top to bottom. Really all just clever and good. Wasn’t too easy. Wasn’t too hard. Just tricky enough without being too tricky for its own good. And, in the end, left me thinking about the creativity and mastery in its conception and construction. Good times. My thanks to Joe Marquez.
Sorry to double post but I neglected to give a shout out to Captain HOLT who, after he'd given up trying to be intellectual, had resorted to playing videos games, namely the NYT crossword app. "It plays a little song when you solve it as if you've just learned to potty". Victory jingle plays: "Yes, yes, play me my dunce's tune!" RIP Andre Braugher, you gave us many laughs!
@Justin I loved Andre Braugher. I think I preferred his dramatic roles, but he was a delight in everything.
@Justin Love Holt’s character and so many others in this show. Laughed aloud when I read your comment.
Firstly, brilliant puzzle. Secondly, the cover photo today reminded me of last summer, when I saw my first ever submarine (it was indeed also yellow.) Unexpectedly. In action. From the outside. Namely, I was scuba diving in Tenerife, near a marina. We were having a regular, peaceful dive, just hanging out with an octopus, when suddenly there was a weird noise. Mind you, we’re at ~30m under but I figured it was a ship, didn’t give it much thought, there was a cute octopus, okay? Imagine my utter shock when a submarine passed us by, so close that I could see its passengers waving at us. I right about drowned then and there, and it took me several days to get The Beatles out of my head.
@Sonja That must have been surreal!
@Sonja Woah! What an experience!! Was anyone able to get a photo? I can’t even imagine…
@Sonja I remember seeing a cute yellow submarine in Monaco parked outside an oceanographic museum. Seems it dates to the 60’s and was used by Jacques Cousteau (I think it actually pre-dates the Beatles song). <a href="https://tinyurl.com/yc7d9nju" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/yc7d9nju</a>
@Sonja That sounds like a scene from a James Bond movie, with 007 pulling up to the pier and ordering a cocktail.
Liked. This was an up, not a down. Thanks!
I am not under any illusion that this comment adds to the discourse, but I’m proud to say that I figured out the theme almost right away, which is a new achievement unlocked for me on a Thursday puzzle!
@Jay Kudos! And just throw your comments out here. Don't worry about "adding to the discourse". I don't.
@Jay good for you, Jay! I will take your cue, and not add to the discourse. Some of the non-theme entries were pretty hard for me, so it was fortunate that most of the theme entries were that the themers were pretty basic and clued straightforwardly.
@Jay Same. I was delighted for myself and am for you as well.
Solved in 23% less time than average. HEARTTRANSPLANT was the first answer to clue me to the theme. [stepping up on my soapbox] A lot of folks point out, as I do, the relative difficulty of the day's puzzle. Some like to phrase that perception as a complaint ("too easy/hard for a [insert day of the week]". I think despite the editors best efforts you will frequently have puzzles that fall out of range of a given day's average. Given the diversity of solvers. It is not surprising that folks relative solving difficulty is all over the place. It is fun to see how one's solving difficulty stacks up against the rest of the solvers, but to complain about it seems like wasted effort. It is the nature of the beast for it to be that way. Even if the NYT suddenly has the resources to increase the number of puzzle testers to help gauge what day of the week a puzzle should fall, I would imagine the results would not be much different. Enjoy the puzzle one is given, and if it seems harder than average, know that it won't be long before an easier than average puzzle comes along.
Jim, In my opinion, varying the puzzle difficulty on a given day of the week and mixing up the difficulty between days of the week is intentional. Clearly having a "trick" weekday puzzle not on a Thursday is intentional. The editors don't want us getting complacent. These are just more ways to keep us on our toes.
@Jim For what it's worth, xwstats.com rates this puzzle Hard, based on their sample of subscribers. 61% of their solvers took longer than usual for a Thursday, and the average solve time was 7% longer than average. Median solve time was 12:01. Because these stats are based on actual solvers' times, they are probably the most accurate, but unfortunately, do not become available until the puzzle has run.
This was quite a feat of construction. Luckily HEARTTRANSPLANT and SOLDIEROFFORTUNE seemed obviously right to me, so I was able to guess that the missing letters must be in the circles. Because 4 letters needed to be added to get the right answers, the up and down nature of the gimmick was the only way to make it work. Seeing that I was off to the races. My biggest problem came at 1D because, seeing To Be Young Gifted And Black in the clue immediately put me in mind of Nina Simone, and Simone fit nicely. Too bad I didn’t immediately notice that that clue said familiarly. The crosses soon apprised me of error, and I replaced one soulful titan with another.
@Marshall Walthew I tried Simone for 1D, too, and likewise couldn’t get anywhere with the crosses.
@Marshall Walthew For a little while at the beginning I had SOLDIER FOR HIRE before crosses wouldn't work an I figured out the real trick
We had bottomless brunch yesterday. But the opportunity to view the finalists for the Griddies, and to cast your vote, is not bottomless: it will close at end of day Friday. So grab your mimosa and head to the link below to read descriptions of the wordplay community’s favorite puzzles. Anyone can vote! <a href="https://form.jotform.com/250186385916162" target="_blank">https://form.jotform.com/250186385916162</a>
@Cat Lady Margaret Thank you for posting this. I voted for the first time because you kept reminding me, lol. It was fun to revisit some of my favorite puzzles from last year. I think picking my favorite Sunday was the hardest, there were so many good ones!
@Cat Lady Margaret Thanks! I’m so glad ai didn’t miss the vote :)
Driving my kids to middle school every morning, I’d say things like- “Middle school is tough. Get through the day. Be kind. That’s it, you nailed it.” Or borrow from the great Milne, “You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” One morning my eldest said, “Yeah Mom, you always say that, but it’s really not bad! And…I dunno… but I think I’m *really* smart.” Oh. Right. Check yourself, CC. Your kids are *not* CC circa 1981. Go figure. Fun puzzle! Thank you Joe!
@CCNY No doubt it was accompanied by the obligatory teen eye roll.
Always a good feeling to figure out the trick without reading the column. Today was a good feeling! Helped that the clues were fairly straightforward. Fun Thursday puzzle!
Partly because I put in PETS instead of PATS for "caresses", until the end of solving I had EGO GAP for 48-down, which may be an even more common "separation in some relationships" than AGE GAPs lol. Impressive and fun. Stellar Thursday puzzle again.
@Justin Same here. I really thought EGOGAP was a legit answer as it described accurately my cousin and her husband who divorced last year. But then the "O" cross didn't make sense.
Masterful work on this crossword. I enjoyed it a lot. Confused at first but figuring out what's going on is always part of the joy of the crossword. Well done!
I completed the puzzle, without a clue of what was supposed to happen in the circles until I came to the column. The trick was cute. I'm not crazy about cute, but this was a sort of tour de force of cuteness, so I conceded that Joe Marquez constructed a tour de force of a rebus puzzle. Fair clues, solid fills, well done. Thank you, Joe, my hat is off to you.
This was fiendishly tricky; I dare say it’s even trickier than a rebus puzzle. I used to think I couldn’t solve Thursday puzzles without Autocheck, but after successfully tacking this unassisted, I think the training wheels are finally coming off! Look, ma, no hands!
@Loopy I felt the same way today. Yay us!
"What goes up must come down..." I'm glad this puzzle didn't take any Blood, Sweat &Tears: <a href="https://youtu.be/SFEewD4EVwU?si=E4B9_v9XaLhUdcjs" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/SFEewD4EVwU?si=E4B9_v9XaLhUdcjs</a> I'm also glad I started in the SW, so the revealer gave me all I needed to know for when I made my way up to CAN'T SEE STRAIGHT. Overall, I found the fill quite gentle, but the theme entries made my heart jump up and down in joy. What an amazing idea for a puzzle, Mr. Marquez. Thank you!
Well done! I certainly enjoyed today’s puzzle especially since it’s my birthday and essentially my new year! I ended up finishing it with the time being 1:38:03 and I turned 38 at exactly 8:27 hours and it’s the 1st month of the year too. Yes, I’m into numerology and it took me longer than usual to do loved ones contacting me lol! Life is certainly full of ups and downs though and I really liked how those 4 answers ended up being off by a letter but the grid and circled letters made it more interesting and fun! Thrilling Thursday and Namaste!!
@Lady Morgan Kelly Diana Happy birthday!!! Sounds like it's off to a good start.
@Lady Morgan Kelly Diana Happy birthday! I love the resonance you found in the numbers. May they bring you good things! Happy Lunar New Year, too. It is the year of the (Wood) Snake, which brings with it transformation. I'm really hoping (and working) for transformation in all good ways! 🙏🧧🎉
Ballad of the green berets is my favorite SOLDIERTUNE
@DH This one is mine: <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=AbfgxznPmZM" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/watch?v=AbfgxznPmZM</a>
@DH Mine is The Minstrel Boy, as done by Joe Strummer <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=8PSTus_5bl8" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/watch?v=8PSTus_5bl8</a>
This was fun. I thought I'd skip over the long ones and the circles for a while, then I filled in trANSPLANT for 23A. Not correct, but enough to get me started on the theme. I also spent some time trying to figure out how to fit Nina Nimone into 1D--a nickname I wasn't aware of, perhaps, until ARETHA came to me. Beat my Thursday average, fun trick. Thanks!
Loved this puzzle. A friendly reminder that though life has downs, it also has ups. Happy Thursday, all.
I knew it had to be HEART TRANSPLANT, and fortunately had the circled letters filled in, so noticed the trick. That made it relatively easy to follow the pattern for the other theme answers, and get those placed properly. Liked the revealer when I got to it (late). Had a few issues along the way, but managed to get them fixed, eventually. A fun solve, thank you, Joe.
My favorite thing! Figuring out the gimmick halfway through and having it help me fill. Versus my usual MO of somehow finishing without getting the theme.
Hmmmm, I wonder if there were no circles how long it would have taken to figure out the trick. In other news, the FAT CATS are in the house. <a href="https://gocomics.com/mattwuerker/2025/01/24" target="_blank">https://gocomics.com/mattwuerker/2025/01/24</a>
@Nancy J. How long before “broligarchy” makes it into a Xword?
@Nancy J. You're kidding, right? The current occupant has been in the office for 9 days.He doesnt take a salary and neither he, nor the objects of derision of this "comic", have any use for more money. Contrast that with the previous occupant's cash guzzling from some of the most corrupt places on earth.
@Hanson There are so many other places you could talk about this. I think you'll find that this is a pretty non political comments section. Not because the commenters have no opinion but because they realize there is a time and a place and this ain't it.
@Hanson Rereading I guess it could be argued you were responding to politics with politics. Fair enough I guess. There is such a thing as tone though and yours was much more vitriolic than Nancy's. Like I said, time and place.
@Francis Just trying to be reasonable and keep the peace when I realized that it wasn't completely out of nowhere. As I mentioned I don't think the escalation of tone was warranted.
@Hanson Odd forum you’ve chosen - isn’t “NYT-woke-elitist-puzzle-solving” a hobby to be frowned upon during this neo-MAGA presidency?
Been an odd CW week so far…might we say UP AND DOWN? My Monday time was a couple minutes slower than my Tuesday time. My Wednesday time was just about at my Thursday average while today was a minute and change under my Wednesday average. Still,I enjoyed today’s puzzle despite how relatively easy I found it. Caught onto the theme with HEART TRANSPLANT, so that helped. Some clever clues: Base for a proposal for KNEE. Work on a sub for EAT. I will say, however, the government-related clues/fills make me cringe lately…FEDERAL GRANTS on Monday; OSHA today. As I often told my students, Context is everything.
I’m always so relieved when I don’t know the first name of a supermodel!
@Tradcarp It's undertsandable. There are more people alive today in the US who were born after her death in 1986. Median age is 38.5 years.
That was a neat trick but the puzzle seemed very easy to me, for a Thursday. I slept really badly last night and there is something not entirely pleasant on my mind, yet I managed to fill the grid in the morning in Tuesday time without any lookups. Btw, I had to get ABE from crosses (and most of the other names, too) but HOLT was a gimme 🤣
The last couple days are starting to make me feel like I can do trickier puzzles. At first I thought it was a similar trick to yesterday because I knew it had to be heart transplant but it didn't fit. I tried HEARTTRANS, which fit and made me think the trick was that there would be a missing word at the end of each theme clue or some such. The crossers disabused me of that idea and I eventually got to the revealer, which opened up the rest. It was a nice aha moment when UPSANDDOWNS clicked and I realized the circles had to be significant. I'm sure more seasoned cruciverbalists saw it a lot sooner though, judging from the significant number of 'easy for a Thursday' comments. NOTES: • Sad to say I originally put STEVIE for 1D, which worked with EST and encouraged me to follow the trail to a dead end before remembering that it was an ARETHA album, which I have listened to many times (sigh). • I truly don't know if I could have completed the puzzle without 26D. It was almost the only longer clue that I knew for certain and it really helped anchor the entire center. I can understand why anyone unfamiliar with Harry Potter would have struggled that section. Although I think we are at a point where—well-deserved authorial controversy notwithstanding—Harry Potter trivia should likely be considered General Knowledge. Peace!
Also FYI for anyone who worries about all these ridiculously fast times being lobbed around. I did this one in 55 minutes, which was the same as yesterday weirdly.
@Scott Further to your comment yesterday about the ambiguity of the clue leading to LAA, today had a similarly ambiguous clue-answer at 30A with the clue, “Level”. Level, of course can have many meanings and my first inclination was to go with the one that means “make even” and therefore confidently entered RAKE thinking of the tool used when grading a gravel driveway. Of course AKKABAN didn’t fly so I made the correction. Anyway, just pointing to another example of an ambiguously clued answer. Adds to the challenge.
@Scott. Another alternate clue, seemingly easier but probably harder: “California baseball team whose scoreboard initials used to be ANA”
@Steve L hmmm. I think I may have been misconstrued which is likely my fault. I'm certainly not saying the clue was invalid. The jeopardy example was just an illustration of why I thought the clue was unsatisfactory. Obviously jeopardy would never do that. I'm not trying to say why I think it was wrong; I'm trying to say why I think it was bad. Which is obviously a matter of personal opinion and can only be backed up with gut feelings, metaphors, and illustrations. I got the clue so obviously it didn't prevent me from finishing the puzzle. I'm not trying to suggest ways of making puzzles easier; just how to make them, from my perspective, better.
@Steve L And I'm not sure about being told something will end the discussion. Might just be me but I kinda like discussions.
@Scott I cannot endorse your final sentence, but I eventually recognized the name because it’s in one title of the series.
This was fun! Always happy when I can figure it out.
Thursday puzzles are fun (in my view) when I can catch onto the trick without consulting the column. Today was fun. Any difficulties I experienced were of my own making. Gone too soon is Andre Braugher, aka Captain Ray HOLT on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. His stern demeanor and eloquent use of language elevated an otherwise silly show. So @Deb, are you a Dr. Who fan? I’m obsessed! The evolution of the series from the original series to today is entertaining to watch. The newest Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, has such a charming and exuberant personality! He shocked everyone, and some people are still angry at his selection (womp, womp!). I hope it’s warm and dry wherever you are!
@Pani Korunova Blink is one of the great episodes, but what you might have forgotten is that the Doctor is delivering the timey-wimey speech to a young Carey Mulligan. Her performance in that episode is extraordinary, a sign of things to come.
@Pani Korunova Very much so! I mostly know the series from the ninth Doctor on, though .
I had "transplant" for 23A, which fit even though it was only half right. I also had "Iams" instead of ALPO, and "eek" instead of RUN. This messed-up my entire NW corner. Thankfully I had ABE right, which helped me get the downs, and ENTRAP showed me the trick. Getting the theme quickly really helped me solve the rest of the puzzle and even the revealer, and I was impressed with the entire construction. How do people think up these things? Looking back, "eek" in a horror movie would be quite laughable. 😆
@Janine It was pretty funny when I figured out it was wrong and deleted it! 🤣
i really enjoyed this thursday puzzle, the themed clues were very fun and satisfying to solve!
An amazing construction and satisfying fill. Thank you!
One of those puzzles that leaves me in awe at its construction. I just love the Pigeon, Hawke or Crowe clue. Not even the presence of both golf and baseball related answers (my kryptonite) made this any less enjoyable for me
@bayonetta I had to dredge pretty deep to come up with Walter Pidgeon, but the other two ACTORs were familiar enough birds. (He played Professor Morbius in "Forbidden Planet."}
outstanding puzzle - the level of effort was incredible but still created a wickedly fun solve. bravo to the creator!!
Solved much of this without the theme and had my "AHA" moment with HEARTTRANSPLANT. Good fill, great theme. Excellent puzzle!
Very fun! As opaque as this could have been, the clueing really helped with recognizing the trick.
Plugged away at this one til I can barely see straight! Actually, I’m proud of myself for figuring this out. Thanks to this blog and community for all the help in the past and future!
Definitely not my day today. I could not see my way through this (for me) impenetrable puzzle. TRANSPLANT fitted 23A perfectly, so couldn’t work out the HEART bit til I read Deb’s column. It all became a SPECK clearer, but not much. I’m still unsure about 52A. I get it; CANT SEE STRAIGHT, but the up section gives us TSE. Where’s the other E? Am I over thinking this? I’m going to chalk this one up in the ‘did not finish’ column. Again and as always wowed by the constructor’s skill. I’m clearly in the minority today, which is a good thing. It really is me, not you. On the upside, it’s not raining or blowing a hoolie. And I’ve been to visit the soon to be mine Alpacas; Primrose, Willow, Calypso and Lacey. Beyond excited.
@Helen Wright Every circled letter gets used twice, so going up would give you TSE and then going back down would give you EST
@Helen Wright I came here to say 52A was wrong too, but thanks to @Peter I get it now. Why was that one so hard to SEE? 👀 I think it was the emus …
@Helen Wright The best way to get through the later week puzzles is to consider the day. Thursday? Look for a gimmick. Feeling a little off? Read the column first. Think you're cheating? There's no such thing. Don't think of it as a competition. You are not competing against me, or Deb, or Sam, or Caitlin, or Barry, or CC, or any other person here...that's all in your head. I see all these word games as a chance to get my head into a way to start my day, get my brain working, and learn something. You get to choose how YOU look at it.
@Barry Ancona Barry! From one smug man to another let's not pretend we don't need our tone policed on occasion. This might've been a good opportunity for something like "Yeah I'm like that sometimes. Don't mind me. Sorry it came across that way." It doesn't need to be abject. And feel free to return the favour and gently remind me to pipe down from time to time.
Great puzzle, except caresses solving to PATS does not seem right. I had PETS at first but that didn’t work with the crossing.
Lorne, PatPet is another KeaLoa. Always wait for the cross.
@Barry Ancona As much as this is true, I don't think it's too much to expect that a clue should connote the answer. A pat is decidedly uncaressy. To coin a term. I loved this puzzle but that wasn't my favorite clue.
Loved this Thursday! A good mix of simpler clues and ones that required more thought. I think that the theme was difficult enough that I didn’t get it right away, but once I figured out the theme entry, it made sense straight away. 38 Across is what made it click as I knew the word USER had to be in there somewhere, but couldn’t see how it would fit using all the across. Loved it!
This was lots of fun, and I was helped by seeing what was going on with the circles fairly early on. I just read a few comments and see that others had that experience too. It was still crunchy enough that I felt good about finishing it. There were a few proper names I didn’t know, but most were taken care of with crosses. Thanks for the challenge and the fun, Joe Marquez, and for the very entertaining column, Deb. Loved the Doctor Who clip 🤣