I found this one tougher than the average Tuesday, with lots of specific knowledge clues that were outside my ken. I actually used the theme to open up the pesky NE corner (having no clue about Emily OSMENT). Getting ANGELANGLE gave me enough letters to piece it together. I was struck by the plethora of Qs and Xs.
Ditto. And since VAPEPEN and TOPTIER were slow coming, I had to ponder a while.
@Marshall Walthew Ms. OSMENT is currently Mandy in the current cute CBS sitcom, Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage, which is a second-order spinoff of The Big Bang Theory (via Young Sheldon). She plays the considerably older wife of Sheldon's older brother, George Jr., who got her pregnant and married her at age 18 (she's supposed to be in her late 20s.) Not having watched Hannah Montana, I didn't know the answer right off the bat, but with a few letters, I figured it must have been her. And, of course, it was.
@Marshall Walthew The NE corner was the last to fall for me too... it took me just over my average Tuesday time.
@Marshall Walthew All in keeping with the trend of crunchier early week puzzles.
I absolutely love the ends of a loaf of bread. There's nothing better for ripping into chunks and dropping in your soup, or chili.
@Dave S The crunchy heel of a Polish sourdough loaf is one of the simplest and tastiest of my culinary treats.
@Dave S Actually, cornbread or corn muffins are much better for chunking in chili, but bread can be a good substitute if you're out of those.
@Dave My mother used to send me down to the local bakery in the morning for a loaf of Rye sliced with seeds. The ENDS never made it home.
@Dave S I actually love the ends! Funny but I do!
@Dave S ends of potato bread make THE best toast.
TOP TIER Tuesday! A fun theme and some clever wordplay. I like the clues “Puff Piece” for VAPE PEN and “Start to fall” for EQUINOX. I also like that ART and MOMA were both clued to Warhol. I always enjoy reading about what inspired a theme or the seed entry. I say that because BACKFLIPS reminds me of a silly thing that popped into my mind the other while I was enjoying an apple turnover. I wondered if Gwyneth Paltrow ever said to her sunbathing daughter, “Turnover Apple”. OK, I'll never be a constructor.
Wonderful to see Will Shortz's name again as editor of the puzzle. Hope he's been restored to a full measure of good health.
I lit up when I saw Aaron’s name atop the grid, because his puzzles crackle with cleverness, and once again, he delivered. Sure, hearing the phrase QUITE QUIET and thinking there might be a theme there – the genesis of this puzzle, according to Aaron’s notes – that is lovely but standard constructor thinking. Finding four theme answers, each consisting of a pair of five-letter words, that’s a step up. Coming up with BACK FLIP – the perfect revealer – that’s top tier. I don’t know if I’ve ever marked six clues on a Tuesday as candidates for my Clues of the Week list, as I did today. Sparkling wordplay clues. Overall, both the answer set and the cluing are vibrant, humming with energy. And a junk-free grid of answers, the kind I look at and suddenly go calm and zen. The solve? That is, the most important element? Well, for me, this was fun to untangle, capped by that stand-and-cheer revealer. A jewel box today, primo quality abounding. I will light up once again, even brighter, Adam, next time I see your name gracing a grid. Thank you for a splendid outing!
@Lewis This is the first time I sought out the comments section on this daily ritual. It never occurred to me to search for one. But this puzzle was SO good, I went searching for Adam Aaronson's name to commend him. Now I'll get a little thrill whenever I see his name again. Thank you for documenting my exact experience so artfully.
Aargh! I'm so sorry, Adam, for calling you Aaron! Et tu, emu.
Best Tuesday puzzle I've seen in a long time. Good fun.
Many years ago, when I was still a child, when a fresh oven-warm loaf of bread was broken into halves, there were two particularly favoured pieces. The first slice off the outie end and the two crust ends, or heels. The latter particularly cut at least half an inch thick and liberally spread with butter, or even better real beef dripping, complete with chunks, direct from the Sunday roast.
@Patrick J. Ah, you're certainly right that there's nothing better than the heel of a homemade loaf fresh out of the oven. But, as for the industrial-grade bread they foist upon us at the supermarket, I'd have to agree the bread clue in the puzzle was a good one.
The tallest person in the tour group was the one to spot the church steeple. He also kept sneaking sips of whisky, and the tour guide kept hassling him. But when he offered to share with the group, all was forgiven. SPIRE SPIER takes FLASK FLAKS but CURES CURSE.
THE DUDE. Fantastic way to start the day. My kids were quoting the Duderino long before they could watch the movie. Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-yous… Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man. It really tied the room together. You brought the Pomeranian bowling? You’d be surprised how many times they were the perfect response. The Dude abides. Obvs.
Went dieting instead of FASTing (29 Down) which just led me down a frustrating detour. Saw the theme quickly, and I loved it “ANGEL ANGLE” is a cute phrase I hadn’t encountered before.
@Caitríona Shanahan I, too, dieted for far too long. I thought it was absolutely correct 🤦🏾♀️, despite the crossings not really working. Took me forever to get to FASTING.
@Caitríona Shanahan Having FASTing is one of the things that held me up! I grumbled a bit when I realized it was actually ON A FAST. So close.
@Caitríona Shanahan I entered ON A dieT and grumbled to myself that it was a poor clue, because dieters eat *something*. As usual when someone thinks they've found an error in the puzzle, It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me.
For me this took twice as long as a Tuesday puzzle usually does, and longer than most Wednesdays or the occasional Saturday. Lots of names and slang (I came up with CUKE in the end, and I got KNEX from crosses, whatever that is, but those things being next to each other exemplifies my today's troubles). I broke down and looked up the actor in the NE... The theme is fun-ish I suppose, but the revealer is a huge stretch for me. I would never call what's going on in the themed entries BACKFLIPS. Having seen the explanation of the revealer in the column I get it, but I still don't like it. Perhaps my problem is that I like to visualize stuff so when I'm reading about BACKFLIPS I see a gymnast in my mind, and what she's doing is nothing like what the themed entries do. I understand the wordplay, but it leaves me cold. Also, is EPA one of the agencies that will get dissolved by the new "englightened" administration?
@Andrzej Probably. We won't need environmental protection anymore, because our life spans will dwindle to the point that the environment is the least of our worries. All the saved tax money can go into oligarch protection. Just like in Russia.
@Andrzej you’re back on the morning shift :)
@Andrzej A thousand EPA employees have been told to expect possible axing at any moment. Does that count?
@Andrzej From the impression I get from you, you’d have enjoyed building with KNEX sets as a child, and even now. My kids loved them but, after a trip to Legoland, became firmly Team Lego. I’m very sorry that your dog is not doing well. It’s a special love that only fellow pet lovers can truly appreciate. 💕
@Francis They’re so greedy, they’ll eventually cut that protection budget and then experience the FO phase. No need to fret, though, because they can safely enjoy the comforts of their private bunkers!
"Perhaps my problem is that I like to visualize stuff so when I'm reading about BACKFLIPS I see a gymnast in my mind..." Andrzej, That is and will continue to be a problem for you when revealers involve wordplay. REVERSE THE LAST TWO LETTERS wouldn't make for much puzzling.
@Andrzej It will be difficult to “dissolve” the EPA, at least immediately. After the Cuyahoga River caught fire in the late 60s, Nixon had to do something politically, so he created the EPA to consolidate all of the actions (often ineffective) of various agencies trying to stem the poisoning of our air, water, and land. Since then, Congress has passed many laws requiring the EPA to enforce them, making it a regulator as well an analyst and advisor. Since Reagan, the red team has been trying to wrest control away from Congress, centralize it back under the President, and diminish its powers to regulate businesses. For example, back in the 80s, Reagan appointed Anne (Gorsuch) Burford to be its administrator. She slashed the budget and workforce and was credibly accused of intentionally preventing the enforcement of regulations and withholding pollution funds to influence a political campaign. She ended up resigning in disgrace. Her 15 year old son, Neil, reportedly was angry that she resigned and told her she did nothing wrong since she only did what “the President ordered.” Neil went on to become one of the right wing Supreme Court justices of the tainted Robert’s court that recently ruled that the President was above the law when acting in his/her official capacity. So this isn’t just Trump. It’s been going on for 45 years. Four and one half decades over which we could have been gradually and efficiently de-carbonizing our economy. Instead, we continue to do…this.
Nice Tuesday treat. Extra points for [Start to fall] for EQUINOX.
So Aaron, this puzzle took you only 8 hours to construct. I’d be on that train until the next eclipse before the first draft would be completed! Tough Tuesday! Took a long time to solve, but that’s fine by me. This puzzle had the most Qs and Xs I recall seeing. That wasn’t a bug, but a feature. Like others, I got stuck on 29D, ONAFAST. I kept ONAdiet for far too long. At one point I entered ONAdate, and I was prepared to get my dander up when I realized it was incorrect. On a similar note, if someone said we were about to see the EXIT- of the -SEXIST (and his cronies), I’d be doing BACKFLIPS. Since that’s just a VAPEPEN dream, I’m back in my FUNK. One more thought. *They* have access to the US treasury now 😡 but if they gain access to private accounts like VENMO- they would surely experience my (verbal) -VENOM. As suggested yesterday, *bum* dia.
Add me to the 2X club. Twice as long as a typical Tues. Loved every minute. Thanks, Adam Aaronson!
Very enjoyable! I've always though the combination ADOBE ABODE was kind of cool. D and B hopping over O. I'd construct a crossword based on ADOBEABODE, other than that I has no qualifications whatsoever to do so. None.
@Francis My wife and I once stayed at the Adobe Abode B&B in Moab, Utah. It was great. Apparently it still operates!
I enjoyed this more than any other Tuesday I've completed. Well done.
I'll join the "took longer than usual" crowd, although when I looked at my stats I was just a couple of minutes over my average, so it didn't take as long as I thought it did. A lot of it was waiting for crosses to help with some of the answers that were slow in coming. Eventually, though the answers came and I was able to complete the puzzle. Solving the theme came early, though, with QUITE QUIET, and the rest of the theme answers weren't difficult to suss out. As someone who grew up in the Erector Set/Tinker Toy era, I did manage to notice that K'NEX (connects) was a next-generation building toy system and appeared to be pretty good for a variety of projects. Thanks, Adam, may all your train trips be as productive!
Ten minutes over my average today! Didn’t know about a NIQAB. Mistakenly thought it was a HIJAB. Totally different thing. Also had no clue who 10D or 18D were. Had ONADIET for 29D. 😞 Maybe I should’ve got my ☕️ first this morning!
@Cherry Same for me. Well over my average. Top left absolutely stumped me because I had hijab for a long while. The I A and B all fitting both words was tough.
@Cherry At one of PhysicsDaughter's final appts with a children's cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic, there was a Muslim mother with her daughter (clearly from the Middle East)--not uncommon for specialty medical care. She was in the complete outfit, including gloves; only a slit for her eyes exposed any part of her body. And those eyes were darting, communicating such fear... I tried a smile and nod (no help at all, alas.) After a short time, a nurse came out for her, as the doctors had decided having the parent present would be prudent. NiQAB now I know the name for the head-dress...
Outstanding. Most fun puzzle in a while. Loved [start to fall?] and the gobsmacking wordplay.
Every time I see a crossword by Adam Aaronson I think of the classic Simpsons gag where Selma is trying to spread the word about Marge being pregnant so she pulls out the phone book and dials the first number, A AARONSON and starts to tell him. Then there is a fade to show elapsed time and, exhausted, she says, “…just thought you’d like to know, Mr. Zukowski,” hangs up and says, “There! Aaronson and Zukowski are the two biggest gossips in town, soon everyone will know!” A brilliant bit, much like this puzzle. And I enjoyed all the extra”X”s sand “Q”s!
@Adam That in turn reminded me of the episode where Sideshow Bob gets elected mayor with nearly 100% of the vote, which seems fishy, and Bart and Lisa inexplicably get a list of voters and who they chose. While she dutifully goes through the list looking for clues (“Aaron J. Aaronson voted for… Bob”), Bart flips through and finds someone named A. Gorilla.
I loved the clue for MAILMEN and QUITEQUIET and that’s about it. I passionately hate CUKE. Looking forward to Wednesday’s puzzle.
@Joya Why do you hate cuke? I use it all the time in my menu diary.
With a couple of interruptions, that took me over 40 minutes. I'm glad tomorrow is Wednesday and I can start using Autocheck again.
@kilaueabart Haha! Great response. Are you in the "Two yellow, three blue (Weds, Thurs, Sun)" Club, too? Very clever puzzle today.
@kilaueabart Well done! This was no easy Tuesday: plenty of misdirection and a fun, quirky theme. Shall be interesting to see what Wednesday has in store for us!
Fun puzzle. Pretty smooth solve for the most part, but got stuck for a bit around VENMOVENOM. That just wasn't dawning on me and had to work the crosses for a while before I finally got it. Just made for a nice workout. Just really liked all the theme answers. Kind of fun puzzle find today that I'll put in a reply. ....
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Sunday from July 3, 1994 by A.J. Santora with the title - "Overcrowding." A couple of theme clue and answer examples: "Newsman in the Sahara?" SUDANRATHER "Canal Zone film favorites?" PANAMAANDPAKETTLE And some other theme answers: HUNGARYCOOPER ETHIOPIAZADORA ARGENTINATURNER NORMANDYROONEY BOHEMIAFARROW BOLIVIANEWTONJOHN SENEGALGORE And there were more. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/3/1994&g=28&d=A" target="_blank">https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/3/1994&g=28&d=A</a> I'm done. ...
Crossword Revolution D15: FUNK The George Clinton and Pfunk variety: <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=gjKFCYzqq-A" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/watch?v=gjKFCYzqq-A</a> Stevie Wonder too: <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=97hwNY3ni10" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/watch?v=97hwNY3ni10</a> And Chaka: <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=cm_cFzVAoo8" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/watch?v=cm_cFzVAoo8</a> A Crosswords Saved the Day production.
@Puzzlemucker Bring in da Noise, Bring in da Funk <a href="https://youtu.be/B5IEXGFi--0?si=X0K2pWsHg3gFO64V" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/B5IEXGFi--0?si=X0K2pWsHg3gFO64V</a>
@Puzzlemucker The Quincy Jones tribute at the Grammys -- and Stevie's part in it -- was a real highlight of the evening! It began with Cynthia Erivo and finished with Janelle Monae. Well actually it started and flowed throughout with Herbie Hancock. As it should. :)
@Puzzlemucker Make my funk a P Funk, I wants to get funked up.
Isn’t the point of a puzzle to puzzle? I never understand the need to complain. Just enjoy!
Seen from any ANGLE, this puzzle was easy/not easy—QUITE a TOP TIER RAMBLE. (DE POT right over USER?) And the EXIT? RE: DONE, I'm sorry that it is. Thank you Adam. Come back soon.
@dutchiris This seems a good day to tell you that literally every time I read your name, I do a kind of BACKFLIP and read it as “Dutch Chris.” 🤷♀️
This was great. But I felt like I was time travelling into Wednesday. The theme was very Wednesday-ish and this felt a tad tough for Tuesday.
@Jeremy I agree emphatically!! Does anyone, anywhere say, "I'm ON A FAST"??? No. Nobody does. They say, "I'm FASTing."
loved this one!!! was surprised at the amount of unusual letters in this one (q,x,v,j). great theme and likely my favorite one this year so far
Thank God I am retired and had the time to attempt this Tuesday's puzzle. If it wasn't for Autocheck, I would have never finished it. Am I the only one that found this hard for a Tuesday? Let's vote!
Well done, Aaron. Lots of thought went into that. The revealed was necessary towards my final success. Thanks for such a masterful Tuesday puzzle.
I loved this puzzle. A winner of a theme and fun fill to boot. Re the constructor's comments: In a saner world that took climate change seriously a train ride from NYC to Rochester would take a lot less than 8 hr. It should be faster than driving. But I guess in this one case the long ride worked out to our benefit.
@Esmerelda I would say, in a saner country that took train travel (and other mass transit) seriously... Amtrak is so woefully underfunded, underappreciated, under-you-name-it that it's a self-perpetuating scenario. Thus we end up with a train journey that takes longer than driving-! But I am glad in this case it gave us this terrific puzzle. :)
@Esmerelda I've taken that train ride, and mine was even longer - from here to Burlington, Vermont, with a two-hour stop and change in NYC. And then a ferry ride across Lake Champlain. But the scenery is magnificent all the way. Much of the line goes through the mountains, which is probably why it takes so long.
Esmerelda, Sixty years ago, the train ride from NYC to Rochester took 6 hours and 45 minutes. We've come along way.
Really nice puzzle. The fact that the differences between the key word pairs were exact transpositions of the last two letters was really impressive. Congratulations to the constructor!
@BJ It's a perfectly lovely Wednesday puzzle! I needed two cheats, (had 'topgear' for 'TOPTIER', and 'foxes in' for 'BOXES IN', as I didn't know the actress nor TNT's sister channel). But the flipping was cute.
We loved the more modern clues in today’s puzzle! Has anyone solved the extra “backflip” clues in the Constructor Notes? 🧐
Like many, I finished well above my average… in fact I was fairly significantly slower than my Wednesday average. However, I found the puzzle to be appropriate Tuesday difficulty. Even taking into account the “trademarked” name, I was kinda impressed that Adam Aaronson managed to work in 2 Q words that didn’t have a “U”. Anyone else immediately think of the movie “The Sting” when they figured out 32A?
@JPT I'd never heard of JAKE meaning OK, was it quite a common thing to say? In Scotland a jakey is slang for a down-and-out or tramp, so no connection there.
@JPT I somehow thought of the ska band Less Than Jake and that somehow got me this answer. But their Wikipedia page says nope, their name is something else. Huh.
@JPT, My thought was of “Chinatown”: “Forget it , JAKE — it’s Chinatown.”
Some clever turns of phrase in the clues for a Tuesday puzzle. My personal favorite: Start to fall?
A rather VENOMOUS Tuesday. Although it was a clever puzzle it definitely belongs later in the week. Jeez if this is a Tuesday crossword I can hardly wait until Friday or Saturday.
Excellent Wednesday puzzle! Bravo Adam!
Felt a little tough for a tuesday IMO. Was not a fan of CUKE
@Paul Seems like a veggie, but not a vegetable.
I used to depend on the NYT XWD to tell me what day it was. Now, I'm not complaining, just lazy. Several times this morning I double-checked that today is Tuesday, not Wednesday. The puzzle was very un-Tuesday for me, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it; it just means it took me longer. Once I realized what we were doing (QUITEQUIET) I grinned and got down to business. I don't know that the revealer actually meant anything to me; the clues themselves were good enough. My favorite might have been VENMOVENOM. This was a great puzzle for my crazed mind...yesterday in the ER was a toughie. People were coming out of the woodwork, as though busses had dropped them off. (I'm a volunteer, not a professional) It always seems as though people decide to hold onto their problems until Monday ("Let's not ruin the weekend; my appendix will last until Monday") and then it's a real emergency. But today's puzzle was fun, solvable without lookups, and a great way to start my day. Oh, and it's book club day! I'm even wearing my book club socks...piles of books climbing up my shins! Have a great day, friends!
Thank you for getting NIQAB right. I lived in the Arabian Gulf for 7 years and I am tired of people using burqa to refer to all the things. Hijab, niqab, abaya, burqa are all distinctly different items. Though it gets a lot of coverage, I have never seen anyone wearing a burqa. And the niqab is indeed the only one of them that fits the clue.
@K Here’s a short article that illustrates the similarities and differences between the burka, niqab, hijab, chador, and dupatta. It includes a link to an illustrative YouTube video. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/56phtyb4" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/56phtyb4</a>
what an absolutely delightful puzzle. i even laughed out loud a few times, because of some especially clever cluing. this felt extra fun and chewy for a tuesday. thanks, adam aaronson!
Had a lot of fun with this! Enjoyed the theme, and it's always nice to see a collection of Q's, X's and K's. My Tuesday avergage was destroyed a while ago when I accidentally left a crossword open on my laptop for almost 24hrs, but from recollection this one only took me a couple minutes longer than usual. However, I don't know if I have ever found an answer I loathe more than CUKE. I have never heard the word before. Is it more common in the states? Especially with the JFK crossing (a bit of a shot-in-the-dark for me), I sat for almost five minutes at the end of my solve trying to see where I'd went wrong, trying to squeeze every four letter vegetable I knew of into the space. It couldn't be CoKE and it couldn't be CaKE.... God knows why CUKE never entered my head — maybe I should wait until my coffee has had time to actually start working on me. Overall I'm willing to forgive the CUKE clue for all of the fun letters in this one. It was a good solve!
@Lucy Yes, cuke is very commonly used in the US. Cucumber has three syllables -- who's got that kind of time??
@Lucy The tendency in the US to abbreviate words can be confounding, I'm still trying to keep it in mind.
@Lucy What do we do with all the extra time we have by shortening cucumber to CUKE?
@Lucy I'm stunned and amazed by people from other countries who can solve, and enjoy solving, these puzzles. Maybe not so much Monday and Tuesday, but later in the week... the sports teams, the stores/ trade names, the small idiomatic differences, math spelled with four letters... I would think the small snags would be constant, unavoidable, unfair. How do you guys do it??
@Lucy I don’t think I’ve ever used CUKE in conversation, but if I’m making a grocery list, or planning which veggies will be on my crudité tray, I’m definitely writing “cukes”. Gotta save that wrist.
@Jane Wheelaghan as in "Vegas" for Las Vegas. A pet peeve cringe for me.
@Lucy The JFK clue was basically useless to me because those airlines have multiple hubs (as evidenced by the clue's reference to "one"). Thank goodness for the K in FUNK! Definitely a trickier than usual clue... (Now if the clue was [Hub for JetBlue], that would have been a gimme!) Fwiw, we say CUKE pretty much every time. But I write out "cucumber"! 😳
That felt late-week hard for me, but perhaps because of unknown names, as well as some American usage that needed a bit of thought to retrieve. I guessed bEaR for the state animal of Illinois, which didn't help either. Relished the clever cluing, but eventually needed an annoying lookup to resolve one error. So today I learned that SAKi is sometimes transliterated SAKE, and that KNiX makes underwear, not construction sets.
@Oikofuge Interesting: In my experience, SAKE is always spelled this way here in the US, at least on menus (and other points of purchase) that are in the English language. As for the Illinois state animal, bear is as good a guess as DEER! I left that one to the crosses... I have no idea what the state animal of New York might be -- I see an internet rabbit hole in my future!
@Oikofuge I thought of all the solvers outside of the United States as soon as I saw "Crimson Tide" as a clue. The University of Alabama got that nickname for their football team (the type of football where you throw the ball, of course) in 1907 when a sports writer described the team as victoriously sweeping across the field "like a crimson tide." They had (and still have) red jerseys. I've seen the phrase attributed to red mud covering the players, but that seems doubtful. It has nothing to do with algal blooms, though.
Happy Groundhog Day, everybody!! Fun theme. Surprised that so many here think CUKEs belong on a crud platter.
@ad absurdum I got you, Babe. It's estimated that Bill Murray's character, Phil Connors, relives Groundhog Day approximately 12,000 times. So, we may be in for a long haul.
@ad absurdum 50 years ago, my second ... no, third real job out of college (first two really not worth mentioning) I worked on a magazine for the gift and accessories trade. A word that came up frequently was crudite, which, never having come across it before, I pronounced crew-dite (rhyming with unite). Luckily, my editor took me aside and quietly explained it to me before I made a loud faux pas at a press event at the Pierre Hotel in NYC. But I always laugh when I see the word, still, all these years later, and I recently had to correct my son, who prepares crudite platters in his own department at a well-known university. An oops carried down. Anyway, I love CUKES on mine, and I first tasted raw asparagus on them. Delish.
@ad absurdum Oh crud! Well, I had to look up "crudite" afterwards, but it seems legit. I'm more of a charcuterie guy.