Honestly, puzzle-makers are so amazing! Endless ingenuity and imagination and then they make it work. A satisfying solve!
This is the comment that i wish were the top Readers’ Pick.
Really, Tesla??! I do the crossword to relax and enjoy, not to be reminded of daily horrors!
@DQ it should have been clued as the inventor 's name
@DQ The face I made upon entering that word. I’ve been working my way back through the archive and I’m really not looking forward to Crosswords from certain years for the same reason.
@DQ To be fair, this puzzle was almost certainly constructed at a time when you would have had a different reaction. But at least take some delight in that it crosses URALS, with SSR not to far away!
@Robco It does seem prudent to stay away from TESLA the company these days. Other clues for it have been about been the unit teslas. Which measures unit of magnetic flux density. Since it would be hard to justify pluralizing Tesla as a name, I would definitely have preferred seeing that. I suppose clueing it about the car makes it easier for the player, but it also bothers a lot of people to see that name.
@Wendy You’re lucky you don’t live here. You’d have to wander around with blinders if you’re triggered so easily.
@DQ good lord, don’t be so sensitive. This is why they call us snowflakes.
A masterpiece. Best Sunday yet of 2025 for my money. Thank you, Paul!
I wouldn’t be angry if playground retort clues were forbidden
@nat LOL, that is one of my least favorite clues, and we sure see it a lot on Sundays. I get so hung up on the clue, I've taken to completely skipping it. Along with an eye roll.
great puzzle... Marks 4 years of gold stars for me!
Excellent misdirect right off the bat, as I imagine many solvers entered DENIM for 1A. Then a smile when it turned out to be the answer for 5D. Very cool how both phrases in each pair are of equal length. “It’s one thing after another” for LIST gave me a chuckle. Clever and fun!
@Anita I had pretty quickly put down "life" at first. :) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Anita Hand up for immediate denim.
@Anita I started with BRAID for 1 down then the fun began! Great puzzle.
Previous clues for TESLAS: Magnetic induction units Webers per square meter 10-kilogauss units Inventor Nikola and family Units in physics Magnetic units Let's bring them back!
@Nancy J. ...and Newtons per ampere-meter
@Nancy J. Can we just avoid that word altogether in the future? It’s an obscenity in this part of the country.
@Nancy J. TESLAS clued as cars was fine with me. Just how "green" they are is debatable, given the extremely toxic nature of EV batteries, and the sourcing of those materials. And what happens if you try to trade one in?
While I found PASSINGN O T E S clever, it was a bit triggering for me. When I was in junior high, passing notes was all the rage. But they were never meant for me. Some girl would hand me a note in class, and I'd be all grateful and excited until she told me to pass it along to "Steve", who was the good-looking guy that all the girls wanted to pass notes to. I don't know how many times I fell for this. And it's made me the bitter, angry man I am today. The last part may have been a bit of TEENDRAMA.
@Francis We all hated Steve. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Francis I wish the emus weren't so emuy so I'll just put a very abridged version of my response here. Junior high girls have notoriously bad taste. Their loss!
@Francis It was interesting to see “Steve” at my 50th reunion: not what one might have expected, remembering those youthful crushes!
@Francis I hope you are being playful about the impact of the school slights. That era is just a stepping stone (good or bad) in a life of learning & development. Best wishes for present-day joy!
Considering all the hate for GOODOH —having grown up in England, I didn’t find this answer strange at all. So add one positive vote to balance out the naysayers. Super puzzle, starting from 1A, where I thought it had to be denim before I bumped into BRAID.
@SusanEM Thank you! I know I've heard it from UK friends. It seems common to add -o to the end of words, not the least of which is boy-o.
I'm BEAMing. This puzzle is a BEAUTY that GLOWS [Exhibits brilliance.] I just can't wrap my head around how Mr. Coulter came up with this magnicent idea and then pulled it off so precisely. Genius! Thank you so much, Mr. Coulter. I've been more than entertained; I've been awed.
What was that play about some guys waiting for a Brit"s approval? Oh yeah... Waiting for Goodoh!
Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed….To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late! Samuel Beckett, Waiting for [GOODOH]
@Justin in other words, they FACED THE DAY. But not with DECAF COFFEE.
I do have some nits, which I shall keep to myself, because… that was delightful! Such fun!
@D P I think I have a nit in almost every puzzle I solve, but I mostly consider them my own pet peeves so rarely share them. Thanks for sharing your delight instead.
Paul’s themes have been fun in every one of his seven Times puzzles. He's had the knack of showcasing cool language quirks, and for wordplay-loving me, they've hit my pleasure zone and buoyed my day. Today, double-duty words, a semordnilap fest. Beautifully built, with horizontal theme answers symmetrical. For me, some areas filled in in a flash, like that NE to SW sash going down the middle, and, appropriately, it filled in going downhill. Other parts had bite through oblique cluing and no-knows, satisfying my brain’s workout ethic. Well, if a puzzle leaves me happy and satisfied, as this one did, it’s more than done its job. Thank you, Paul! I know I will light up when I see your name atop a new puzzle, and I'll be eager to see what you’ve come up with next.
Sandra is a good Oh! I loved this theme once I finally got it. "A vain man made bank on green cars Only to be named one of the czars By a man who ignores what climate facts are (Is he hoping SpaceX will colonize Mars?) And isn't it ironic? Don't you think? A little too ironic Yeah I really do think"
@ad absurdum You’ll have to pay someone an extra 25% for that parody.
Masterful enough to allow room to forgive AAHSAT…
Amazing that the constructor could make the words work both ways. Great puzzle.
Loved it. BLUEDENIM/DATAMINED happened right away, accompanied by a big "AH! This is going to be fun." And it was. Thanks, Paul!
Is everyone's head exploding because the Bad Man's car company got a mention in the puzzle? At least you all can stop pretending that EVs were about climate change lol
@Felicia see comment above. the answer is fine. just clue it as the great inventor's name
@Felicia Well except it has an S at the end. So it would have to be everyone in the family of the inventor? A little weird.
@Felicia You can always tell when someone like Felicia thinks they've made a good point, because they immediately write "lol".
@Felicia You don't ever have anything to say about the puzzle, do you? You just want to t r o o l
@Felicia At least some electricity is generated through renewable sources!
I just took a photo of my completed puzzle and moved it into my 2025 POW folder. Some tricks are fun for the constructor, some are fun for the solver. This one was undoubtedly fun for both.
@Nancy J. What a smart way to remember your favorites! Brilliant!!
Echoing this semordnilap frenzy (Hi, @CLM!) are three palindromes, including one smack in the middle of the grid (TENET). Probably a serendipity, but lovely nonetheless. And an elegant touch – I couldn’t find a single four-letter-or-more semordnilap in the grid, aside from those in the theme. Beauteous!
Waterloo, Amana and Hawkeye - love it as a former Iowan. As we say on St Patty’s - “Kiss me, I’m Iowish!”
Wow, this was great! The dashed clues didn't seem to fit initially, so I just passed them by until I had more information,, but when I realized the bidirectional nature of the theme I was very impressed. Not sure where I first saw it, but I loved the CAMPFIRES/SANSERIF intersection. Immediately got misdirected by denim and sonnet, but LORCA set me straight. Well done!
I was so confused when I was sure 1A had to be DENIM but 1D was obviously BRAID! What to do?? What I did was ignore that entire corner until WASDEADS at 120A rattled my brain a little more— enough to read up the line at 97D and “verbally react to in awe”, as anyone should. These moments are why I do puzzles, and this was the most puzzle-solving fun I’ve had in quite a while. So many kudos!! Now I’m just waiting for a British solver to weigh in on that whole “good oh” thing.
As a Brit who is approaching the end of his seventy-fifth orbit of the sun, I can affirm that I have never uttered that particular jolly cry of approval. However I do approve of this crossword, which actually took me longer than usual, but I loved the ‘both ways’ trick. Very elegant.
I feel like I’m the only one who thought this was so contrived and not a great puzzle. Gimmick was unsatisfying, a ton of Naticks and crossword-ese to make it work, and everyone is saying it’s the best puzzle of 2025 so far. I don’t see it. It’s not a bad puzzle, but honestly, it’s not all that everyone in this comment section is making it out to be. “Brilliant” is a stretch, for sure.
@Cody AAHSAT is truly egregious. AGEE, ICEMILKS, GOODOH, DURAN, AMANA, EMILE, ELROY, GYMBOREE, IDA, NEUER are barely discernible and require such a specific frame of reference that the puzzle is just not enjoyable.
@Cody I guess I am that specific range, as a film and book lover who has bought clothes for a soccer-loving child, does the dishes, and watches calories! BUT, never watched The Jetsons, so had “Enroy” til the bitter end….
@BetsyRayBans Oh, and has British relatives!
Clever and enjoyed it. But "goodoh"?
First the Mini earlier in the week, and now the Sunday— Keep that dangerous person and his cars out of the puzzle, please.
@LB Definitely, they are not wanted, and not needed.
@LB, how many times does it have to be said that puzzles are edited and scheduled well in advance? And honestly, there are often references, clues, and answers that are distasteful to someone for some reason. As long as the clues and answers aren't racist or otherwise derogatory to a group of people or a culture, we all need to ignore our own personal little annoyances and move on. (And no, I don't own one of those cars, nor do I like the person in question, but it doesn't hurt or bother me that it appears in the puzzle.)
@LB and his cars aren’t even that “green”, as the clue asserts
Goodoh? GOODOH?!?!?!? Wow. A new low, Will.
@Ben Blackwell and it crosses adenoidal ??? ugh . what is that?? i couldnt get the third "o" there . i had good?h ... who knew ??
@Ben Blackwell Yes that was probably the worst part of this otherwise fine puzzle (other than Miz which of course isn't his fault at all). Even our intrepid columnist couldn't hide her disdain for that one. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Ben Blackwell AAHSAT was pretty bad too in my book, but a couple of clunkers didn’t spoil a good puzzle.
gagged a little when I finally got 68-down… yuck.
Was positive that 1-across was DENIM .. but was also positive that 1-down was BRAID .. but was *also* positive that 29-across was MINED. Fun when I caught on the trick. A few strange things in the grid like GOODOH(?) and EATOF(?) and AAHSAT(?) but overall fairly clean.
@Joe As in a lot of life, it's not the things you don't know that git ya, it's the things you know for sure that just ain't so. Not sure who I'm quoting here, but it very much applies to crosswords.
RAH!! Smug me. Solved the whole dang puzzle with not a hint!
@Mary Wilson "Smug" is not a good look, but, wow, does it feel good. And I get it just about every time I have a really clean solve--no "Sorry" screen, just the like musical coda when the last square is filled in.
Words going in circles are great for a crossword, not so great for a novel. Sometimes, you can't HAVE IT BOTH WAYS. Nice puzzle, Paul!
I thought this was a very clever theme — Lewis's semiordnilaps! As Caitlin observed, DENIM by itself is a perfectly fine answer for 1A. But I knew that 1D [Cornrow or challah feature] had to be BRAID and 2D was definitely LORCA. Those answers prompted me to move the DENIM to 5D. It wasn’t until later that I saw how DENIM became MINED. Figuring out the trick there helped with the other theme answer groups. I first became aware of Federico García Lorca from the Leonard Cohen song "Take This Waltz," a loose translation of Lorca's poem "Pequeño vals vienés." The DJ who I listened to was smitten with the song and played it at least once a day for weeks. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfNOogGqSLA" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfNOogGqSLA</a> That's Jennifer Warnes coming in around the fourth minute.
@Eric Hougland What a lovely song. Thank you for posting! It's a perfect easy-listening waltz-lullaby for winding down from the day.
@Eric Hougland So beautiful! Thanks— this got me a little choked up— in a good way!
@Eric Hougland That's one of my favorite LC songs. Thanks for posting it. I never knew about the LORCA connection.
@Eric Hougland Thanks for this link, really really nice. TIL there was an earlier release of this Cohen song as the first track on a tribute album, Poets in New York. The whole multi-artist album celebrates Lorca’s Poeta en Nueva York from his visit to NYC in 1929. I really like this later version with Jennifer Warnes.
Wow! Just Wow. Amazing puzzle. Quite a long workout for me, but finally tumbling to the trick was a huge turning point (!) and managed to work it all out. Can't even imagine how much work it must have taken to find those up and down answers that worked both ways, and then putting the whole thing together. Again - Wow. As usual, I'll put my puzzle find in a reply. ....
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: Another truly amazing puzzle. A Sunday from May 27, 2018 by Andrew Chaikin with the title "21." Never seen another one like this. The puzzle had six grid spanning 21 letter answers and the clue for each of them was... "21" Those answers: AGEFORDRINKINGLEGALLY NUMBERONEALBUMBYADELE GUNSINAMILITARYSALUTE SPOTSONALLSIDESOFADIE WINNINGBLACKJACKTOTAL LETTERSINTHESEANSWERS That's just incredible. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/27/2018&g=92&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/27/2018&g=92&d=D</a> ....
Saw 245 comments at 7am (CA time) and thought uh-oh the drama department is busy weighing in with 10 Things We Hate About It. A pleasant surprise to scroll through comment after comment with (almost) nothing but praise for this gem of a puzzle and Paul Coulter’s very clever construction. Paul, if your novels are as engaging as your puzzles maybe you’ll get lucky with #51!
This is one of my favorite puzzles of recent weeks. It's just tricky enough without being devilishly so, and I loved the rich and varied fill. Two 👍🏻👍🏻!
At some point I said, “wow, another semordnilap, Lewis will love this!” And then I realized why they were there. Fun. LENTO: Let Captain Holt do it: <a href="https://youtu.be/7a7ffm1gXhA" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/7a7ffm1gXhA</a>
This puzzle was perfection! Everything in this masterpiece fell into to place steadily and wonderfully, but not without difficulty. Thankfully, never once did I feel a word was shoved in with a shoehorn. Many thanks, Paul! Two days in a row now I have felt such gratitude for puzzles so thoughtfully constructed, so organic, and so so clever. Yes, perfection!
A masterpiece, flawed only by (for me) the clunky AAHS AT, and the mention of the car maker who is destroying America. Clue it as the Serbian genius who dined at Delmonico’s every day. “Campf” on the page was also a bit of a reminder of what we are facing. So yeah, POY material by virtue of the brilliant theme, but I might not vote for it in the final round.
I have been working on getting better at crosswords for close to a month now. I picked them up to pass the time during lulls at work but am becoming convinced that they are nigh unsolvable for a young adult (23) without using a search engine for hints and outright answers at times. Do any experienced solvers have any advice?
Jane, 1. Spend (more of) your solving time doing Monday puzzles from the archive (2000-present). You should get more of the answers from the clues and crosses, and you'll start to learn some "crossword-ese" in the process. When you're comfortable with Mondays, try Tuesdays. Rinse and repeat. 2. In the meantime, feel free to look up anything you want, or read the column and comments for help.
@Jane Nothing wrong with getting help IMO. The more crosswords you complete with some help, the less you will need help in the future. Personally after a 3+ year streak I still get help, and I look at it as an opportunity to learn about new things. TIL what a ‘sweeper kicker’ is.
@Jane Keep at it...I started younger than that and for the first few years it was a slog....Lots of open spaces in the puzzle i had never heard of. THEN at some point you'll just recognize the name of that European river...or that director who was involved in the HUAC...or remember that video game system from 1990. They tend to be harder over the week...Monday to Friday...by Friday or Saturday there tend to be words which take up the whole line....Thursdays tend to have a trick like a rebus or something else buried in them. You'll get good at mondays first...and it'll just grow from there.
@Jane Read a little about stuff that doesn’t generally interest you. I get the Morning newsletter from the NYT and almost always read all of it, including the sports and arts stuff that isn’t relevant to me. I love music and movies, but the odds of me seeing a Broadway show are pretty slim. The more you solve, the better you will get at interpreting the wordplay in the clues. I enjoy American-style crosswords much more than cryptics because every square is checked, which gives me a fighting chance with the answers I can’t easily get. Good luck and have fun!
@Jane, I started crosswording by working them together with my mom. She knew the old stuff and I picked it up from her. It expanded my mind, and it gave us something fun and worthwhile to talk about.
@Jane You are off to a great start by asking for advice! I applaud you! (Plus, anyone who uses nigh so casually seems to be destined for crossword greatness.) I'll second the advice of those who already answered and add that if you come across something you just don't get, ask us. I guarantee someone will be able to explain. I've been at this nigh 18 months and am happy to see my improvements but also know I've a long way to go. Stay humble and open to all there is to be learned... even things like regionalisms and what not. Living in the Midwest all my life, I'd never heard of ACELA before, as one example. Now I plop it right in. I've learned to challenge so many of my assumptions along the way.... and learned that so many answers that might make perfect sense, just aren't right in this puzzle. If the crosses aren't serving you, time to get rid of that seemingly perfect answer. Also, even if you don't know something, it can often be discerned through familiar spelling and name conventions, so you can often rely on your familiarity with language to get an unknown crossing. It takes time to grow an old friend and it takes time to develop strong crossword muscles. Both are worth it! Hope to keep seeing you out here!
@Jane I started a few months ago, nearly 50 years older than you, and no doubt find different things difficult, especially not being from US. It gets easier. Some odd words come up a lot - oreos (!) and eked, for instance and you get to know them. The other solvers here are really helpful if there are clues and/or solutions you don't understand. With some crosswords I have to look up so much (eg yesterday and Friday) but today hardly anything. Look up ancient football/baseball/ice hockey players/singers/film stars. I have to look up the current ones. Have fun!
Thank you so much fro your responses! I was just able to do the Mon Jan 6th 25 puzzle in 15 minutes with only two google searches and a check at the end which caught an errant 'A' ! Onto the 13th!
@Jane, I am rapidly approaching 65, and have been doing these puzzles since I was in my 20s. I started off with only Sunday, as that's the only day I bought the paper in those days! And with the print edition you had to wait until the next week to see the solution, so I often chipped away at it all week. It would never have occurred to me to look anything up; now, with all the knowledge of the world at our fingertips, I do consult my friend Google from time to time! Anyway, fast forward to the computer era. Only when I became a digital subscriber did I start doing the puzzle daily, although I had been gifted some books of NYT puzzles, so I gained more experience that way. If you are enjoying the ride in spite of some bumps in the road, stick with it. Use whatever strategies you need: Google; Wordplay column; dictionary or thesaurus. Your confidence will grow!
A “wow” from me! Knowing LORCA, quickly saw that denim in 1A wouldn’t work, but saw the BLUE DENIM turn soon, filling in that corner. Then saw the DATA MINED turn. Brilliant! Proceeded to enjoy finding more “Both Ways.” Good editing choices prevailed, re constructor comments, I think.
Oh that was good! Very enjoyable! Even if I would prefer fried eggplant with marinara over CALIMARI. (I also briefly toyed with close shaver at 115A but I don't really want to talk about it... haha) Fun and impressive theme! Scratched my head and muttered, "Things that make you go hmmm," when I had to remove DENIM at 1A but I got it at PASSINGNOTES at 94A. Of course, having it both ways in this puzzle makes me wonder if now I can finally have my cake and eat it too!? That would be GOOD OH!!
I congratulate the constructor on the extremely creative up down theme. That said, I found all the trivia/naticks really tough: Lorca, Neuer, Clint, Danica, Duran, Miz instead of Mis. So many of them, I was surprised when I got my gold star on the first try (I was confident I was going to have guessed one of them incorrectly... They were all educated guesses based on the crosses). A little less naticks would've made this Sunday more enjoyable for me personally. Favorite aha moments: when for 21D I crossed out ST_ (thinking it was Sta or Stn) and put SFO. Also figuring out Strap Hangers and Parts Company.
When I was a teenager in high school, my best friend and I learned to write longhand backwards so that when we were passing notes they would be harder to read if they were intercepted. When someone asked if we had to take our notes into the girls bathroom to read them in the mirror, we sneered (15-year-olds sneer a lot), because all you had to do was turn the page over and hold it up to the light. Voila! (a word we learned early and used a lot—fifteen-year-olds have a tendency to run things into the ground, but Voila was much less tiresome than a lot of our verbal Gymborees).
I immediately thought of Lewis Rothlein as I solved this grid knowing of his love for the semordnilap! The theme answers shape resembled brackets which also made me think of March Madness, so count me as a huge fan of this puzzle. This was just so satisfying to complete, so thank you, Paul Coulter, for this and I most certainly look forward to your next one 🤩
@Jacqui J -- Speaking of semordnilaps, an elegant feature of this puzzle is that the only four-letters-or-more semordnilaps in the grid are the ones in the theme answers. You'd expect to see quite a bit more in a Sunday-sized puzzle.
@Lewis I find myself paying way more to the construction of puzzles after reading your insight over the past few years. I especially appreciate that you are able to find something positive to say about every grid, knowing the effort it takes to create them. So thank you!!
Fabulous puzzle with a very neat trick - well done Mr Coulter! Bet I wasn't the only person to confidently enter DENIM for 1A, only to realise very soon that it couldn't be right. Took me a while to get the significance of the blank clues, but a (non-DECAF) COFFEE helped me get started! I often find Sunday puzzles a bit of a slog, but thoroughly enjoyed this one.
Awesome puzzle! Tons of fun, or should I say nuff o’ snot. By the way, speaking in palindromes… did you guys know Mozart wrote a palindromic song? Yeah, a page long melody that plays the same forward and back!
@Byron Not sure who’s speaking of palindromes, but as Lewis has pointed out there are three in the puzzle (TENET, ALLA, LIL) but seem unrelated to the theme. His earlier comment, and that of CLM and perhaps others, reference the semordniilap . I await DC from Weston to comment on the appearance “palindromes” in classical music. Hayden’s 47th Symphony has that nickname. Mozart is however known for a duet called a table or mirror piece in which the music can be read right side up or up side down, as if lying the score on a table with performers reading from two sides. Here is a graphic demonstration of this, “Der Spiegel”: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/3arhxt8h" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/3arhxt8h</a>
I reacted verbally in awe when I got 5 down. Can’t wait to find the rest of the theme. Excellent!
@Sophia Jones i also exclaimed in delight, but for me it was 10 UP. 😉🙃
This was a Goldilocks puzzle for me…just the right level of trickiness. Bravo!