Definitely chuckled when I noticed the theme - really enjoyed this one. My kind of Thursday - clever without gimmicks and tricks, just stealthily witty.
@Julia You don't consider what's happening in this puzzle to be a trick or a gimmick?
@Steve L puzzles with pictures as clues, rebuses, answers going in multiple directions- that’s what I meant by gimmicks. I just prefer a straightforward puzzle- I.e. Thursday is reliably my least favorite puzzle of the week. This one broke a rule, but was still straightfoward and a “normal” puzzle for me, while still being fresh and making me think.
As your resident alphadoppeltotter, a role I’ve inexplicably taken in the past eight years, it is my duty to inform you that this puzzle has an unusually low number of double letters, at four, where unusual is any number less than five. This is the first time this year that this has happened. I remain your humble servant, ever on the alert.
@Lewis As I suspected, my comment was stricken from the record! TSK. Version 1.2: I looked for the double letters and newly appreciated that two of the pairs (33D, 37A) interesected in mid-puzzle. I had started with EST for 33D, then had to unravel it, lettery by letter. Finally "got it!"....and I note: People say "smart-*SS" like it is a bad thing!
So fun! I did a TAKE TAKE after finding the first theme answer. Then examined the rest of the puzzle TIME TIME to look for pairs with equal numbers of letters - where would the next one be? Cute that none of the themers had to USE USE the same doubling word, so each one was a fresh find. There was even a CRUST CRUST pizza. A pleasant deja vu experience!
@Cat Lady Margaret So in that case, 15A could act as sort of a revealer! ...I wouldn't have thought of that if it hadn't been for your USE USE. :)
I thought this was a super clever puzzle, and I loved it! Though it was breezy for a Thursday, it did have a fun (and funny) trick, and the vertical spanners to boot. Oh, and nothing triggering; just smiles all around. Thank you, Mr. Pandey!
"My blackjack puns are a hit!" "You stand by that?" "I'll even double down!" (Gotta split!)
@Mike You must be one of those counting Cards. Get outta here. Shoe!
Well, it's not not a Thursday puzzle. What I like best are the supporting words that echo (!) the theme: TWINS, DUBS, REUSE, and BLUR. Enjoyed seeing Aly Raisman here; she anchored both the 2012 and 2016 gold-medal teams; she and Gabby Douglas are the only Americans with back to back team gold medals, so very appropriate to have her in this puzzle.
[Moving to Canada, say] ESCAPE PLAN Maybe that should be [Moving to Canada, eh]
@ad absurdum Go now and avoid the rush. I'm half serious. I have to wonder if they'll be overwhelmed. Maybe they'll have to build their own wall.
@ad absurdum It’s not nearly as easy as you might think to move to any developed foreign country, let alone Canada. In the Vietnam war era, they were getting young men ready to contribute to life. These days, they might have more compassion for other classes of refugees.
My personal theme for this puzzle is THINK THINK. That’s what I had to do after I had filled in the grid, having seen the repeated answers, having been suspicious of the clues to the second answers of the repeated pairs – but still not grokking the theme. “Why?”, I kept asking, “Why are these words doubled?” Think … think … when the conceit hit me, it brought not only a terrific “Hah!”, but a wow at the theme’s elegance, and how beautifully it was hidden in plain sight. Those moments of deep deliberation, well, that is what my brain lives for, even if I don’t crack the riddle. But what a lovely reward when I do. I loved seenig the gorgeous CHIMERA, loved running into some sticky areas (more brain candy), and smiled at seeing CRUST on the edge. You’ve come up with some terrific themes in your six NYT puzzles, Kiran, and I look forward to a PERFORMANCE PERFORMANCE. Thank you for this splendid outing!
@Lewis PERFORMANCE PERFORMANCE is brilliant! I look forward to it as well.
I was guessing guessing what I filled in, I thought I had vision vision then I finally realized what was going on. Clever :)
Weirdly, I didn't notice the duplication of words until I finally sat down to finish the puzzle and got stuck on trying to figure out why there were two DOWNs. DOWN was my last fill, but I already had one. I had been going back and forth to the kitchen while I was cooking dinner, working on a bit of the puzzle at a time, with a lot of time in between. Finally I came to the column and thought, Good grief, there really are two DOWNs, and from what Deb said, there must be more duplicates. Went back to the puzzle, and there they all were! My hair stood on end. How could I not have noticed them? NATURE NATURE??? I mean, really. One thing I did notice was that Kiran had used some very clever twists on some creaky old glue fills, and altogether, the puzzle was a pleasure to work. Thank you, Kiran Pandey, and see you in the twilight zone.
@dutchiris My experience was similar and I think it's simply because as solvers we really don't care about a theme until it makes itself evident and we don't necessarily notice repeated words because we're just going about our business working through the clues. Like many lesser puzzles the theme here ended up irrelevant to solving it, unfortunately. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Brilliant trick, I loved it! Thanks for the fun solve.
As I often repeat, "Say something once, why say it again?"
@mark If you're gonna quote Talking Heads..... <a href="https://youtu.be/dRNh_qdNB5c?si=s1b0N9uWdczoe37v" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/dRNh_qdNB5c?si=s1b0N9uWdczoe37v</a>
@mark Unfortunately I found out in my life that the people who have repeated things a lot are better at mind control.
Several years ago, I bumped into Aly Raisman in Boston, where she lived (lives?). I just happened to randomly be in Boston again today as I'm sitting here solving this puzzle. Coincidence?
@Dave K. I think not! (The coincidence.) I had to get every single letter from crosses, and even then I doubted her name. Sorry, Aly.
My first NYT crossword completed without my doing any googling or checking of Wikipedia. There were relatively few proper names or references to American culture (such as in education) and these had plenty of cross checks for which I could use my general crossword solving skills acquire from the British papers. So, thank, Kiran, for a nicely constructed crossword.
This puzzle had me seeing double. I caught on to the fact that there were duplicate answers fairly quickly and it helped me finish faster than my usual Thursday time, but I didn’t fully grasp the theme until I got to CARBON copies. Any puzzle with a Jimi Hendrix GUTARSOLO reference is okay in my book. His reimagining of Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower is in the running for best cover version ever.
@Marshall Walthew Yes!! Here it is: <a href="https://youtu.be/TLV4_xaYynY?si=QIRU4rSX9bayhoq2" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/TLV4_xaYynY?si=QIRU4rSX9bayhoq2</a>
Great puzzle! My day started earlier than usual due to an early meeting. As per usual, did the crossword with my morning coffee. Part way through “hmm, some of the fill looks wrong”. Check the crosses. “They look right. Wait is today Thursday? Yes, it’s Thursday. OK. Hmm. No obvious revealer. Carry on but be alert. Is that the same word twice? Yes, it is. Hmm.” Penny drops! Puzzle solved! Day starts with a little endorphin rush. Thank you!
@Jill Isn't that "endolphins"? (LOL Meryl Streep in some movie...with Shirley Mclaine?)
A super quick solve but so much fun and a clever conceit. It's put me in the mood for Doublemint gum. Double your pleasure, double your fun.
This puzzle made me smile. If you think you see me complaining, that's not me, it's my evil evil
Well, that was wonderful. The moment something dawns on me is a delight. I asked DHubby for the name of the shampoo he uses, and he said it was "T-SAL"....oh, big help, Dear. At least I did not have to get up and look in his bathroom cabinet. I finished marking one quilt's border--complete with a 7/8ths-inch gap...I've decided to Let It Be. The second quilt might be marked more quickly...or not. I also need to seam 445 inches of bias strips for the bindings. And make two labels. Still finding stray threads on the back that need to be trimmed. Is there an old saying about one's art being a harsh and demanding master? Eh, Kiran Pandey?
@Mean Old Lady I understand very little from the quilting paragraph, but somehow how much you're into it makes me happy :D
@Mean Old Lady I tried T-Sal first in that space. I prefer it to T-Gel. But apparently T-GEL is a recently defunct product, per earlier comments. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/45qsp8?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/45qsp8?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a> It did hold me up a moment or two as I then used the S to try and fit "solo guitar" in, instead of GUITAR SOLO for 10D.
@Mean Old Lady Your hubby may have been no help because T-GEL is sadly discontinued!
I was beginning to think this Thursday puzzle gad no theme. Then I filled in 48A and did a double take. That can't be right.... wait a second.... I laughed so hard when I got it, and started looking for other double answers. I got quite a chuckle from the constructor's notes in the wordplay column as well. Bonus: today's mini contained one of the most horrifying (and hilarious) crossword clues I've ever read. 😂
Well that was fun fun! I was bopping around a lot so it took me a bit to notice the clever theme, and then I was delighted delighted! Smiles all around! And pert near a personal best. My only brief hang-up was spelling it YOlk at 68D for a moment. What can I say, there's a lot of egg talk lately, so I guess the yolk's on me!
@HeathieJ "egg talk" Haha, I like that!
Didn't appreciate/was annoyed by the dupes until I got it and chuckled. Not the toughest Thursday, but fun all the same.
Recognized the [RE]BORN/BORN [AGAIN] for what it was right away, but having done the downs to fill in the NW, it took me a little bit longer to realize that it was the second appearance of the word. Once that happened, I was looking for other duplicates, so the solve sped up as I recognized them. I really liked that the dupes all had different modifiers, which made the puzzle more interesting. A fun Thursday for sure! Thanks, Kiran!
@JayTee I did 16A and 17A one right after the other, and I already had a few letters in 17A, so I cottoned to the trick without a need to pause and think about it. It might have been the fastest I've ever seen a trick, and figured (correctly) that similar shenanigans would ensure two or three more times.
@JayTee Not a coincidence. It's all a part of my evil plan.
The diagram of imperial measurements looks weirdly like The Tree of Life from the Kabalah, I feel like I should be either disturbed, enlightened, or having it printed on a t-shirt. Maybe some or all of those options simultaneously.
I absolutely loved this one! I was convinced that 30A could not be the same answer as 28A based on those darn rules, but then I reread the clue and the light bulb went off 💡So clever. I appreciated that there wasn’t a theme revealer. I also didn’t go looking for matching length words like some others, so the theme slowly crept up on me. It never ceases to amaze me that constructors find new ways to puzzle us puzzlers. Thank you, Kiran.
@Jacqui J there were only 21 comments when I posted mine last night. I just saw this didn’t get approved until 10:30 am today. That was over twelve hours after I submitted it?! So strange…must have angered the emus 🤷🏼♀️
A puzzle that chews its cud twice! And so tight! So perfectly symmetrical! No fluffy fill, just majestic answers, leading to more unexpected, fresh loveliness. Thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you Kiran! 👍 👍
Got up early today to move my car so they could plow. My coffee was a little late. As a result, my first thought on solving 58D was, "Was Treebeard a doctor?!"
Great theme. Lovers gonna love.
Fun Thursday puzzle. Took me a while to catch on to the trick, but that was a huge turning point. That's always a nice touch on a tricky Thursday. One odd answer history search result today. Looked up DOUBLEDOWN. It's appeared in 4 previous puzzles and... every single time it was the 'reveal' of the theme for that puzzle. 'Hint' was part of the clue in three of those clues and 'description' in the earliest one. Some variety of usage in those. e.g. in one puzzle, the implication was to repeat the circled letters. For example a couple of answers for one of them were HEART(MUR) and (BAR)ABUSH. And... in another one the implication was to put a double letter rebus in the down answers, and then those two letters worked with the across answers. One example of a down answer: DD AA TT EE SS So the implied answer was DOUBLEDATES. And a couple of the across answers: A(DD)S N(AA)N D(EE)RE And there were some other variations. I might another puzzle find in a reply. ....
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened. Never seen another puzzle like this one - A Sunday from March 7, 1999 by Randolph Ross with the title "Golly Gee." There were about 70 G's in answers in that puzzle. A number of them just answers containing more than one G, e.g (!): GOODYGOODY GOLDENAGE GILLIGAN DINGALINS etc. etc. But then... there was a string of across answers in the middle of the puzzle, each of them 7 letters and they were stacked with the beginning letter moving one more square to left than the one above. Something like; ____PEGGING ___GIGGLED __BAGGIER _NOGGINS etc. And each of those answers had a double G right as the third and fourth letters. Some others: BAGGIES JUGGLES WIGGLES Over all, I believe there were a total of 120 G's in the answers in that puzzle. That's just.. amazing. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/7/1999&g=24&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/7/1999&g=24&d=A</a> ...
Fun puzzle. Am I the only one who’s never heard the phrase SUNKEN PLACE?
@Jim You should watch Get Out! It's a great movie.
@Jim I'd say it's not a common phrase, outside of the context of the movie, which I didn't see. Similarly, "the upside-down" would be less meaningful to someone who hadn't watched "Stranger Things."
@Jim I read it as SUNKEN PALACE which does sound intriguing. I'd not heard of the film.
To me, this was a perfect puzzle. Quite difficult but fair, with a theme that needed no explanation but also had an "aha" moment. Great job, constructor.
That was interesting. It took me a while to realize there was indeed a Thursday-style trick. I enjoyed the near lack of proper nouns - they usually trip me up. The fill may have been a bit too easy for this time of the week though? I did the puzzle in Wednesday-ish time even though I was solving it in the middle of the night having inexplicably woken up after 3 or 4 hours of sleep.
This is in no way connected to today's puzzle, but The Guardian posted a gallery of Polish posters for famous US films. Some may find it interesting. I grew up in a world with this stuff, which is one way of showing you all how my life has been different from yours 🤪. Only after 1989 did we start using the original, US posters. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/mar/06/give-it-a-polish-classic-film-posters-with-a-twist-in-pictures?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/mar/06/give-it-a-polish-classic-film-posters-with-a-twist-in-pictures?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other</a>
I would describe this one as cute and charming. I quite enjoyed it, even as it was a bit easier than many Thursdays. Nice idea, well executed.
Today I'm Goldilocks. This puzzle was just riiight!
Great puzzle! Knew there was a trick with the 2nd 'born', figured I'd just write in 'born' and figure out where to rebus 'again' or 're'. Then whaaaa .. I noticed the other 'born' to the left and it hit me
Still laughing 😂. [whew] I needed that. Thanks.
Nice link to yesterday’s puzzle, since the red-bellied marsh mouse is also known to fear a fire-breathing chimera. Loved Deb’s helpful table of measures - heh heh. In another call-back to yesterday’s puzzle, this handy guide to the theory of relativity has been a favourite for years: <a href="https://images.app.goo.gl/pRqA1Wc6wcnX2RCcA" target="_blank">https://images.app.goo.gl/pRqA1Wc6wcnX2RCcA</a>
Okay, I just need to celebrate a silly thing. I'm doing an archive Friday puzzle from 2011. The clue is "William ___, 1990s attorney general" Now, I'm sure that's a gimme for so many of you but I gave it just a moment's pause to think (processing, processing) and confidently typed in BARR—without having any crosses! Then I just stared at it. Is that really it? (I did confirm it because I was so shocked.) I couldn't believe I knew it. I didn't think I paid any attention to anything bigger in the 90s! I mean, I was in my 20s and had no shortage of young adult problems to deal with back then. Who knew something bigger like that stuck!? Wonder what else is in my brain that I don't know is there. Well, I guess that's what these puzzles are for and I can't wait to find out! Thanks for entertaining my (sort of sad) victory, but a victory nonetheless and I'll take every victory I can get! Huzzah!!
@HeathieJ Crossword puzzles enable us to discover we know things we didn't know we knew.
@HeathieJ Barr was also AG recently at the end of Trump's first term, so maybe that's how "William Barr = Attorney General" crept into your consciousness. Definitely the case for me - I was a pre-teen wee Scottish tyke in the 90's, so I can confidently say I didn't know who the AG of the USA was at that time.
What a fun idea for a Thursday theme. Possibly a little easier than a typical Thursday, but I’m one of the few who doesn’t mind easy (possibly the only one) Well done Kiran
I enjoyed the process of moving from “I can’t use the same solution twice to, “ I must use the same solution twice.” Unfortunately for my streak-let, only today did I learn how to spell HAStLE. 🙄 But these days, I’m kind of happy to have a simple mistake that is easily rectifiable.
The only thing that held me up was 33D "Intensifying suffix." I thought "As F" like "That dog was big as F." The actual answer is even weaker than that. Of course, if I knew Indian food I'd probably not fallen into the trap.
@professorguy You realize that "as F" is not a suffix? (The correct answer is actually right on the mark.)
@professorguy I had "AS F" for a bit as well, but realized it wasn't really a suffix per se. Plus, I don't think Will would approve.
@professorguy I had ASF at first. Didn't think twice about it until I remembered the DOSAs we had in India 9 years ago...
I gotta hand it to Christina on her mini puzzle creations... She's truly excellent at taking a few squares and making your brain do cartwheels trying to figure out her tricky wordplays.
Was about to have a rant about a stupid puzzle with tenuous clues... Until I got it 🤣.
I guess the theme was clever, but it only really reveals itself after the solve (and for me, this column). It didn’t confound or challenge me to think differently in the process. I look forward to that on Thursdays. This felt like a fun Tuesday or (maybe) a Wednesday puzzle in terms of difficulty to me. A fun, well constructed puzzle for sure, but I question the decision to run it today. Sidebar for those folks who are frustrated by Thursday’s additional challenges… Be patient with yourself and you will learn to love the day. I was also frustrated by Thursday at one point, and would even sit them out. Now Thursdays, alongside Sundays, are my favorite. Concerningly, this is the next in a series of very easy solves this week. I hope this does not reflect a trend.
@Steve K The theme was very useful for me. I saw that CARBON repeated itself, then I was able to fill in the other themed entries, and get along the way towards a solve. I did finish a little faster than average but it was actually only my 8th fastest Thursday of the 23 I've tracked so far on XW Stats.
Why must there be so many know-it-alls spouting snarky nonsense here in the comments? An air of superiority leaves a foul stench.
@Mark Because that is our way. We are a proud people. Wow betide those who disagree. Ok, I’m kidding, but understand that this group is just chock full of pedants (me!) and know-it-alls (not really me) and verifiable experts. Being tolerant of this personality mix makes it fun. At least to me.
@Mark Funny thing is that it is hard to tell who you might be referring to. But anyway, I try to remember that life is hard, and many people have had a hard life, which can lead to some issues with how they communicate with others.
I was starting to think there was no theme on this Thursday puzzle, and thought, well that would be tricky. But then I noticed that an answer occurred twice. Born again. Second nature. Carbon copy. Double down. Have to commend Kiran for coming up with this great theme idea. Some tough clues put this in Thursday time range, and I had to run the alphabet on DO_A, but my time was still 35% less than average.
Well lighting one's guitar on fire did not fit at 10D. Thank you Kiran
@dk But GUITARFIRE does fit, and that was actually my first thought too!
@dk I, too, thought of that first! That, and restringing a right-handed guitar to make it left-handed, are the first things that come to my mind when I think of Jimi Hendrix's performances. (IMO, though, unless you're playing classical guitar, a right-handed guitar is easier for a lefty to play, and vice versa. I'm a lefty, so I should know, right?)
@dk Oooh, I like GUITARFIRE! I was going to put GUITARBURN since ALL of Jimi's concerts were about his GUITARSOLOs. The subsequent lower crosses convinced me I wasn't on the right track. But what a cool theme today! Loved it!