Hello, I'm not sure if many remember me, but it's been nearly two years since I've worked a puzzle. In Spring of 2023, I was diagnosed and successfully treated for prostate cancer, and I'm afraid I fell into a deep abyss of disinterest regarding hobbies and pastimes. I crawled out of my hole, thanks to my dear wife and immersed myself with activities on campus, where I have been the Director of the University Archives and Ethnic Studies Center since 2007. Life was full and I forgot about the NYT Xword. Today, I received an email with an offer for one year of New York Times games for $20. TWENTY BUCKS? Ok, what the heck. I haven't worked one yet, but just typing this message on this familiar forum makes me feel warm. TL; DR- I'm back.
@Lige Welcome back! I hope you enjoy doing the puzzles. :)
@Lige Welcome back! Here's to years of good solving. I had a similar experience with prostate cancer. Can't say I enjoyed it, but it seems to be gone, and I'm very grateful for that.
@Lige Welcome back, and good health to you!
@Lige I wasn't here back then, but I welcome you back nonetheless! My husband was also diagnosed with prostate cancer around the very same time you were, and has been successfully treated now. Not an easy road for patient or loving spouse. It's part of what drew me into the puzzles, to be honest, as I struggled to stay out of the darkness my brain can sometimes plunge into... and be there for him. The puzzles have stuck. I'm so very happy that you and my husband are both doing better now, and living full lives, and I am very thankful for early detection! Thanks for sharing!
@Lige I'm glad you're back. It's a significant step for you and a confirmation that you and your wife triumphed over one of the worst experiences of anyone's life. Congratulations, and welcome!
@Lige Welcome back! Several years ago my husband was diagnosed and successfully treated for prostrate cancer. Those months were stressful. One thing we learned was the fine art of napping in the afternoons after his radiation treatments. Glad you’re well.
@ging. I’m glad you are back. This is a place where we can all try to concentrate when concentration seems like a place that has left us behind. that has left us behind. It comes back , like spring after winter.
@Lige Welcome back! Congratulations on your recovery, both physical and emotional. I know all too well about the psychological toll of life-threatening illness. Have fun with the puzzles.
@Lige Little things; big things; take soothing where it comes. I just started NYT puzzling during COVID. Welcome and be well.
@Lige My husband was diagnosed last week; good to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. This is a good community, even for those of us who lurk more than post.
@Lige /lurking Thank you for returning and for speaking openly about your cancer. I have also been pretty open about my own cancer journey. If you have not already done so, please check out Man Up to Cancer. It is a support group for men with cancer. There is a Facebook group, although we are working on moving to a new platform. We also have an annual retreat, which moved to the Poconos last year, and it looks like it will be held there for at least the next few years. There is no cost to attend the retreat, and all expenses are covered, including meals and lodging. For those with limited resources, we have limited travel awards. The group was founded a few years ago, here in Maine, but is now international, with members in all 50 states, across Canada, and overseas. I did not discover it until after I had completed treatment. I wish I had heard of it sooner -- but one need not have active cancer for this group to be helpful. I have been NED since December, 2021. (Yes, I underwent diagnosis and treatment during Covid.) MUtC is a great support group. I highly recommend it. <a href="https://manuptocancer.org" target="_blank">https://manuptocancer.org</a>/ begin lurking
WIENIE is not a spelling i’ve ever seen before…
@molly rae Next they’ll be trying to pass off a hot dog as a WEENER. Agreed - this is not how WEENIE is spelled.
@molly rae For us German speakers, it looks right. Wiener is the hot dog, and Wien is the city of Vienna.
@molly rae Do you play spelling bee? this is a common one that Sam picks for inclusion in the Spelling Bee 😊 🐝 there’s some similarity between the bee and the crossword, i find doing them both helps all around!
Ditto on BEGOT rather than BEGAT. Sort of a BEGOTCHA?
I'm solving this puzzle in a hospital bed as I await emergency surgery for appendicitis (of all things!). It's funny how life throws random problems at you when you least expect it... but thank goodness for the Monday crossword puzzle for taking my mind off the discomfort. I was in and out of consciousness (powerful pain meds) so this wasn't a quick solve, but I enjoyed it anyway. I don't think I could have handled a tougher puzzle at the moment. Hoping for some GIRL POWER to get me through surgery in a few hours. 😄
@Janine You poor thing! I hope you feel better soon!!
@Janine Sending you best wishes for a successful procedure and a quick recovery
@Janine, wow what a dedicated solver! Best wishes for getting rid of that darn appendix.
@Janine May the puzzle make you smile! Girl Power!
@Janine Best wishes for a speedy recovery! Cheers to GIRLPOWER!!!
@Janine Thank heaven you're having it out in time! The trip there must have been scary. Puzzles are a godsend while you're waiting for a procedure. I think they engage a part of the brain that makes for a sort of out-of-body experience. I hope you're comfortable now and well on the road to recovery. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
@Janine I'm hoping that you've had the surgery by now, that it was successful, and that you're recovering well! I would say a Monday NYT crossword is a perfect distraction --keeps your mind occupied for a bit and is easy enough that you can do it while drifting in and out of consciousness. Please let us know how surgery went!
@Janine Hope you're sufficiently recovered tomorrow, because that Tuesday puzzle ain't gonna solve itself, Janine! Best wishes for your recovery.
@Janine I hope the medical bills don't sink you.... Oh, wait, I see you're from Canada. Never mind.
@Janine Best of luck for an uneventful surgery and swift recovery.
@Janine I hope that by now you're out of surgery and on the road to recovery. A Facebook friend in Texas — a 30-something I've known since she was a preschooler — also had an emergency appendectomy today. And just a few days ago, I happened on an old email from my aunt (who died almost 20 years ago) relating a horrifying story of my father's appendectomy in the 1940s. Rather a strange bunch of coincidences.
The real question we need to be asking ourselves in these uncertain times is - is a WRAP in fact a sandwich? What defines a sandwich was part of an unnecessarily long but very entertaining debate with my family. It was never resolved. Is a sandwich just something between two bread-like products? How do we define "between" and how do we define a "bread-like" product? Is a hot dog a sandwich? Is a quesadilla a sandwich? Is a pita pocket a sandwich? I would say no. Same with the wrap. How do you all fall on the sandwich/not sandwich spectrum?
@CCed A wrap is not a sandwich. No way, no how.
@CCed Your family discussions were more interesting than a lot of mine.
@CCed From Wikipedia: First, a lengthy discussion of food wrapped in just about anything in ancient times, then: "A sandwich is a dish typically consisting variously of meat, cheese, sauces, and vegetables used as a filling between slices of bread, or placed atop a slice of bread; or, more generally, any dish in which bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type, and allows it to be a finger food." Then, history: "The sandwich is named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, an eighteenth-century English aristocrat.[8][9] It is commonly said that Lord Sandwich, during long sessions of cribbage and other card games at public gambling houses, would order his valet to bring him roast beef between two pieces of toasted bread.[9] He was fond of this form of food because it allowed him to continue gambling while eating, without the need for a fork, and without getting his cards greasy from eating meat with his bare hands." I guess you could call that a wrap.
@CCed Cambridge Dictionary says that a WRAP is a sandwich: <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/wrap" target="_blank">https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/wrap</a> Oxford also unequivocally says it's a sandwich: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y7mfpmtd" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/y7mfpmtd</a> And Colins agrees: <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/wrap" target="_blank">https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/wrap</a> However, Merriam-Webster doesn't include the word sandwich in its definition, and seems to imply that only the flatbread part is the WRAP: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/mnfna4dv" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/mnfna4dv</a> Likewise, Britannica doesn't commit to calling a WRAP a sandwich: <a href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/wrap" target="_blank">https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/wrap</a> However, all of these dictionaries define a sandwich as having two distinct slices of bread: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/mr2me2p6" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/mr2me2p6</a> So how do you justify an ice cream sandwich?
@CCed I'm with dutchchris. The Earl of Sandwich needed a way to eat meat and cheese while playing cards. Hence the sandwich. Any self-contained assemblage that can be easily held by the outer layer counts as a sandwich to be.
@CCed Clearly you do not follow the court of Judge John Hodgman, or you would know that there is case law precedent to establish that hot dogs are definitely not sandwiches. But even if you don’t think comedy podcasts are a good source for legal opinions, there’s a good reason to say that a hot dog isn’t a sandwich. It just isn’t. Would you call a taco a sandwich? A pupusa? How about a gyro? A sandwich consists of a filling between two distinct slices of bread. Everything else is its own thing, with its own tradition and derivation. A wrap is a wrap. A burrito is a burrito. Unless you’re a crazy person who puts the frankfurter between two slices of bread instead of on a bun, you’re not making a sandwich. You’re making a hot dog.
@Heidi What if your bun accidentally splits into two distinct pieces and it's your last bun?
For those who consider a hot dog a sandwich, do you also think a bowl of cereal is soup? Just wondering…
Fun theme. Thanks! I hesitated to answer “ovals” to face shapes at first because I learned in “charm school” back in the 60s (Yup, that was a thing, and I went with my Girl Scout troop! So…much…brainwashing…) that “oval” was the BEST face shape, but there were all sorts of inferior face shapes, and we were to study and measure our faces to find out our own geometry, for which eyebrows could be plucked and makeup applied accordingly. LOL. Pretty much the opposite of girl power.
What's Irish and stays out all night? Pati O'Furniture! ☘️☘️☘️ My work here is done! Happy St. Patrick's Day.
Considering starting a support group for people suffering from emotional damage from today's strands.
@Sonja yeah…I stumbled into the solution and did it quite fast…and still have no idea what I solved.
First, so people don't spoil Strands for others: !!!!! Please no direct spoilers before the 4th post !!!!! @Sonja I got the spangram, because I saw that word one in the NYT crossword and remembered it for some reason, but I can't for the life of me recall what it means, so I abandonned Strands today. A puzzle with a mystery spangram cannot possibly be solveable for me. !!!!! Please no direct spoilers before the 4th post !!!!!
Sonja, I’m not sure if you just mean it was hard/obscure, or are referring to the (hopefully for all, humourous) echo of old-timey corporal punishment terminology.
@Sonja I had to look it up, but the words above and below the spangram are two words phrases with their sounds switched, as the spangram hints at.
@Sonja I wish to join. I know what the spangram means and found the other words, but still don’t see the relation between them.
@N.E. Body If you take the top left and bottom left, it is bedding wells, which is a spoonerism of wedding bells. Same for the middle top and bottom and right top and bottom.
@Paul Took me a hot minute, but if you combine each of the top three answers with each of the bottom three answers, you get a classic [spangram]. I had head of this concept before but that didn’t help me find any of the answers. It’s a clever theme, but definitely out there.
@Sonja I got the Spangram and gave up on the rest. Too troublesome for a Monday brain.
My five favorite clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Close-up shots, of a sort (3)(3) 2. Question to one's best friend, maybe (4)(1)(4)(3) 3. Prez in the '60s (3) 4. Bum wrap? (6) 5. Old-fashioned garnishes (6)(5) TIP-INS WHO'S A GOOD BOY? ABE DIAPER ORANGE PEELS
NOTE – Normally, all five are clues that have never appeared before in the major crossword outlets; last week, for the first time in a long time, there was a paucity of list-worthy original clues – only two, IMO, the first two on this list. The other three are from this week and are wonderful, but have appeared before.
@Lewis And yet, though I’ve seen it before, “Prez in the 60’s” still manages to trip me up until I see the cross
@Lewis If WHO’S A GOOD BOY? had not made your list, I might think you were slipping. What a relief!
This is a splendid follow-up to yesterday’s puzzle by Paul Coulter. Kathy and Paul have fine-tuned radar for quirks that come up in our language, and showcase them in their puzzles. Paul’s semordnilaps yesterday and Kathy’s name finds today both made me go “Huh!”, and “Cool!” Some lovely serendipities today. A down ARROW, ENDS as the last word, BIT echoing BITES INTO. And beauty as well, with GARBLED, KERNEL, SPOOF, and SLAKE. I also liked the abutting ARBOL/OBOE – try saying that five times fast. This is a tight theme, I believe. When I couldn’t come up with names to add to the list, I tried looking online, to no avail. Thus, it’s a terrific theme find, capped by a hits-the-mark wordplay revealer that ties it together. Lots of lovely in the box today. Thank you so much for making this, Kathy!
@Lewis Small quibble; bit's more of a computING than a computER unit, but otherwise, what you said
@Lewis The only one I could come up with was Françoise Hardy. Voilà <a href="https://youtu.be/kBSj7KlUXK0?si=XyMOwsKoQByUGRuE" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/kBSj7KlUXK0?si=XyMOwsKoQByUGRuE</a>
Has anyone here ever spelled it "WIENIE" before? Never thought I'd need my little sister's help for a Monday puzz before.
Far too many proper nouns and US-specific terms, and even spelling & phrases that no one uses, for this to be enjoyable. As a British solver I've done my best to learn a lot of Americanisms, brands, history, etc. and often get stuck, but I rarely fall flat on a Monday crossword.
@Tain totally agree. This one was horrendous for British/international solvers. I always thought there was a quiet agreement that proper nouns/trivia should not cross over one another out of respect to both non-US players and the genre itself (ie one can solve true unknowns by using other words). The Chicago train system/candy one was just awful construction in my eyes.
@Tain I will never, ever understand why people complain that a crossword puzzle in an American newspaper is too American. It's like reading The Brothers Karamazov and complaining that it's too Russian.
I managed to complete the puzzle with one lookup. Having a second Monday in a row trivia- and proper-noun heavy was not what I was looking forward to. On my first across pass I was unable to enter any of the names, but then the down pass gave me crosses and the pretty cool revealer, so things became easier: even though the clues referred to an achievement and a role unknown to me, TAYLOR SWIFT and BLAKE LIVELY were gimmes with crosses. JEAN SMART caused me some trouble. I really liked 'Hacks' and her role there, but my memory being the mess it is I could not for the life of me remember what her name was. In the end I was left with a crossing of JE_N and that organisation I've never heard of. I thought... Maybe JEnN? No, that didn't do it. I suppose I should have realized it would be an A but proper names in puzzles trigger me, TBH, so I looked it up. I've never heard of the SNL person - SNL names seem to be one of NYT's favorite clue categories, but they are cruelly arcane for Polish me. At least this time both the first and second name were easy enough to figure out with crosses, as the spelling seemed standard. Also, there were those weirdly named American brands, and abbreviations. At least I have learned here before about ISMS... As often happens, this was probably an easy enough puzzle for its intended audience, but I found it more of a challenge than I enjoy on Mondays. My solve time was Tuesday-ish.
@Andrzej It is true that Saturday Night Live is something of an institution over here. I haven't watched it regularly since its very early days, but it is true that constructors find it a rich source of names. Sometimes I'll get an SNL name, but most often I need several crosses.
@Andrzej I found today's difficult for the day also. And I'm utterly in awe of any foreigners; Brits, Aussies, Kiwis included, who can do these puzzles. yours in admiration, -ch
Nice! A fairly common first name among women of a certain age in Quebec (like 80+ years old ) is Jeanne d'Arc. I wanted to (but didn't) give that name to one of my girls. Talk about girl power.
A rare critique of an entry in this column… but I do agree with Sam. Profits are eaten into or cut into, but almost never bitten into. I would have gone for a cheeky clue like “Masticates” but that’s just me.
Jamie, I’ve heard “take a bite out of crime”, but crime doesn’t pay (except at the highest executive levels), so yeah, not looking good for the clue.
@Jamie I raised an eyebrow at that, because I went to business school. It was okay, I guess. Just don't dip into your capital. On a related note (41D) the bull's horns point up, so a bear market is one that's going down, which may create buying opportunities. But you may be trying to "catch a falling knife."
@Mick I'm definitely curious about this thread, because I didn't bat an eye at BITESINTO, and I _have_ been known to bat an eye.
another monday, another round of bar trivia disguised as a nytxw. shoving proper nouns into the puzzle everywhere does not make a theme.
@Charles Would you be making the same comment if those proper nouns were the names of male classical composers or playwrights instead of contemporary female actresses and singers?
@Charles Some people know proper names better than they do five-dollar words, and prefer them in their puzzles. Proper names are precisely the theme here, but all the surnames are inferrable common words, And the first names are all common female names. And one name is probably the most famous woman in the world right now. Proper names have existed in the NYT puzzles since Day One, in 1942. In the very first puzzle, 1A was a name crossing with 2D, also a name. Proper names have been a part of the puzzle for the entire time it has existed. You’re expressing an opinion, one you’re totally entitled to, but it’s just that, an opinion. Try not to state it as if it were an immutable rule.
Got it, but pretty rough for a Monday. Too many proper nouns. The intersection of B'nai B'rith and Jean Smart leaves you with a spot you know is either an A for jeAn or an N for jeNn, but if you don't know who Jean Smart is, B'n_i could be any letter. Also it's WEENIE and BEGAT, not WIENIE and BEGOT. Like, for real.
"...either an A for jeAn or an N for jeNn, but if you don't know who Jean Smart is, B'n_i could be any letter." Tony, If I didn't know the answer, I think I'd say BNAI was more likely than BNNI. SRSLY!
@Tony And it’s only BEGAN in the King James Bible. BEGOT is the correct modern form. For real. As for WEENIE, it’s only that when the middle of it has been removed. Then, it’s a hollow WEENIE.
P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day, from one who has 7% Irish DNA! For those who have asked: Today marks six weeks since my heart ablation to fix AFib. It has changed my life! I have regained all the energy I had been losing at a steady rate. Although I keep in mind that it is not considered a success unless one remains free of AFib for a year. If it should return, I would gladly undergo a second ablation. That usually does the trick.
@Mark Thanks, Mark! I was thinking about you this morning when I went into AFib... (very flattering for you, I'm sure! Har!) and then had major dizziness. :-/ My metoprolol helped but it made me think of you and I was wondering if you were still glad you got it, so this is a timely update. I need to start thinking about it more seriously.
@HeathieJ I was on metoprolol for about a year before it’s efficacy began to diminish. I hope you don’t wait too long. The sooner the procedure the better. AFIb of longstanding is often more difficult to treat, although advances in technology have made ablations highly successful for most.
@Mark That's great news. Hope you have an AFib-less year.
@Mark Ooops! I have a typo. I should have used "its."
A smart theme with four strong themers and a lively debut of GIRL POWER. I finished it swiftly but pleasurably. I can’t think of any other options except the fictional Becky Sharp. Nicely done, Kathy. And kudos to your daughter!.
Great theme, but felt a little natick-y, especially for a Monday. Had to skip a lot of the themers on my first go-round, but the revealer helped me figure them out pretty quick!
Monday puzzles are the gateway drug for our hobby. I predict that this offering will entrap many new solvers!
Pretty awkward having Blake Lively on this considering all the drama going on around her and NYTs role in it...
@Lyla Awkward in what way? After hearing her side of the story, I'm convinced that she's a victim, not a perp. When it was known that she was filing a suit, damage control went into full force and her reputation and career took a real hit.
A rare occurence: I went to the Column!.... because I "got the puzzle but didn't get it." Turns out I had entered a second E at the end of 13D instead of a T (distracted by the thought that an ATOLL *is* AN ISLE, not a group....and TAYLOR'S WIFE made a wonky kind of sense,... especially given that I had no clue about J?EAN SMART, (DOJA ?Cat), CECILY STRONG and BLAKE LIVELY. (CECILY didn't even make Sam Corbin's list in the column....so perhaps I am not the only person who's never heard of these persons as named.) They are in only one sort of "art"--entertainment might be the umbrella term. Pitiful list illustrating GIRL POWER. We have female astronauts, woman scientists (read _Lab Girl_!), ladies in government, law, medicine, physics, engineering.... possibly accomplishments of note that will be recognizable for longer than a few months or years. Though I guess they'll still be called GIRLs, eh?
@Mean Old Lady It's really hard to come up with last names that are also positive attributes, such as SMART, SWIFT, STRONG, and LIVELY *and* are somewhat well known.
Where's Sasha Fierce?!?! I suppose you could argue that she's not real, but then I'd argue that you're not real. Hurts, doesn't it? What about Andrea Savage? Would she have fit the theme? You might know her from "I'm Sorry" or "Tulsa King". Or you might know the SPOOF psa she wrote, directed and starred in. It is timely, hilarious and not for those with Victorian values. You have been warned. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erEq2HtrM84" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erEq2HtrM84</a>
@ad absurdum would LOVE to see Sasha Fierce in a puzzle!!!
@ad absurdum - If you get a chance, look up the first Sunday puzzle of April 2000…🌝
On the slow side for a Monday for me, but just made for a nice workout. Really didn't catch on to the trick until I was almost done, but that just made for a nice 'aha' moment. Very unusual puzzle find today. I'll put that in a reply. ....
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Sunday from May 20, 1990 by John Russell with the title "Upward bound." The 'reveal' for that one was: "Arresting expression for this crossword" THEGAMEISUP And then all the theme answers were down answers. Except... they were actually 'up' answers. One example: Emulating Hillary or a solver of this puzzle : PUYAWSENOGNIKROW One way to cook eggs : PUEDISYNNUS A hit tune of 1967 : YAWADNAPUPU And there were more. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=5/20/1990&g=51&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=5/20/1990&g=51&d=D</a> ....
Our profits may soon be so far down, we’ll be biting into things by candlelight, and it won’t be fine dining. It’ll be a wieny (sic) little sandwich.
@JohnWM Well, it sure won't be an EGG sandwich, and you can't have a MOLSON's with your sammich, eiither.
Enjoyed the puzzle. A bit tougher than the usual Monday, for me. Heading north today to see Mom. Will be offline for a week or so. Keep the lights on, eh?
@Linda Jo Safe travels!
mondays are supposed to be chill lol
Was saved from Begat by solving ovals first
Warning: a bit of grumbling ahead. It’s 3am and I wish I weren’t awake. Apropos of yet another editing blunder yesterday (uncharacteristically, there’s been a rash of them lately) clueing Catullus as an odic poet, I made a crack that I’d give my right arm to see hendecasyllabic invective, one of the poetic forms he is actually known for, as a Monday spanner in lieu of the full name of some actor du jour. I think my limb is safe. I got to fill in not one but two full names of actresses I won’t remember tomorrow. Have a good Monday, everyone.
@Sam Lyons "Apropos of yet another editing blunder yesterday (uncharacteristically, there’s been a rash of them lately)" Yes, it seems in the crossword puzzle lately/ New York Times puzzle editors are wienies. (Just kidding, guys.) (First post held up by humor-lacking emus.)
Maybe it was doing this crossword while at work that was putting me in too formal a mindset, and held me up for so long before I realised "Yes" was supposed to be "Yup". Oh well.
@Jack Oh thank you, Jack. I had yep and extra instead of YUP and ULTRA. You saved my 2-day streak!
@Jack I started with Yes, then changed that to YeP, before finally realizing it would be YUP. Quite the journey for such a short word 🤣 It's quite interesting how often American English will have more viable spelling variants of a certain word than Polish. Take "yes". In Polish that's "tak," and in slang we may shorten that to "ta," but that's it. Compare that to yes, yep, yup, yeah. Of course, we have other completely different ways of saying we agree, the most common being "ano," confusingly for English speakers shortened to "no" (and related to the Czech and Slovak "ano"). But it's not a variant of "yes" as such.
I'm a bit fuzzy on the "no spoilers" ettiquette for Strands posts, but I find I'm completely at sea on the theme this morning. I mean, I found all the words, and I know the definition of the spangram, but neither that nor the title connect the rest of the words for me. So I hope that sometime later (after the "no spoilers" embargo) somebody can explain it to me. Thanks in advance. [ My result: Strands #379 “Sound switching” 🔵🔵🔵🟡 🔵🔵🔵 ]
@Grumpy You have to put the other 6 answers into pairs, and then each pair is a (well known?) *spangram*. There's also an article on CNET that explains it.
@Grumpy Strands #379 “Sound switching” 💡🔵💡🔵 🔵💡🔵💡 🔵🔵🟡 Found a lot of words, but rarely the right ones. That said, I really liked the answer. Sam comes up with some of the more interesting Strands puzzles.
@Grumpy, et al... I was dwarfed by it today. Just call me Sleepy or Dopey. Happy to get it done. Strands #379 “Sound switching” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🟡💡 🔵💡🔵🔵
@Grumpy Thanks for starting the Strands thread this morning. I slept in for a change. Strands #379 “Sound switching” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵 I got the spanner right away and then also struggled to put the rest together. This one was very clever and a hat tip to Sam Corbin.
@Grumpy Yeah, I found it 'meh'. Having to guess random words, then figuring out how they might be paired together to make a spoonerism. No coherent theme to it. And having to guess which words were plural, with all the S's in the grid. Strands #379 “Sound switching” 🔵🟡🔵🔵 💡🔵🔵🔵
@Grumpy Strands #379 “Sound switching” 🔵🟡🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵 I got the theme after finding the spangram, but couldn’t put the components together until getting all the words. Brought a smile when finished. I enjoyed this one.
@Grumpy Thanks for the link! I was totally stumped. Strands #379 “Sound switching” 🔵🔵🔵🟡 🔵🔵🔵
@Grumpy Strands #379 “Sound switching” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵 Like you, I couldn't figure out how the theme words fit the theme. Thanks for the link to the CNET article. I played around with pairing the answers as Turing indicated we needed to do, but I didn't hit a combination that sounded familiar. I think BLUSHING CROW is the only of those spoonerisms I'd heard before.
k (GIRLPOWER) o got all the hard ones. I coasted along for the ride. See SLOTH for further reference. Nice one Kathy, thank you
More difficult than the typical Monday. The TWA/ARBOL natick was tough
@Hugh If you have TW_ and are referencing an airline, wouldn't an A seem inferable?
@Hugh I knew that the TWA terminal was designed by our old crossword friend Eero Saarinen, but I didn't know it was now a hotel. Easy enough guess.
New York Times Crosswords are much easier to solve for regular readers of The New York Times (or other credible news media)...
@Barry Ancona I would hit “Recommend” 💯 times for this comment if NYT allowed it‼️‼️
Finished 2 minutes below my average but like others said; sort of a tough Monday. I only heard of two of the women and there were quite few other rarely or obscure words… Could be another brutal week. 😆
Coming here to upvote anyone who squinted and said, "This is a Monday puzzle?" Otherwise I enjoyed it.
I love Sno-Caps! Favorite movie candy! Enjoyed the puzzle too! I'm all in for Girl Power! Struggled with the mini today. Switched the y and i in Libya. I had trouble with the clue mentioning my home state. I think all national parks are bigger than Rhode Island! Oh well, finished with a very slow time.
@SuzyQ The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is the smalled US national park, at 192.83 acres. That's one-hundredth the size of Manhattan Island, much less than Rhode Island. (And the area for Manhattan includes water.) The smallest site under the National Parks jurisdiction is the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at 0.02 acres, but it's a building, not a park per se. Probably larger than the acreage of the Rhode Island State House.
"I think all national parks are bigger than Rhode Island!" SuzyQ, Love it! Not to worry: Acadia National Park and Shenandoah National Park are definitely smaller. Can't say about the others.
@SuzyQ There are 43 national parks of the 63 that are smaller than Rhode Island in acres, actually! (Assuming I counted correctly) I didn't know that until I looked it up. I was surprised by some that are smaller than Rhode Island. Particularly Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
@Wendy @Barry A @Steve L Thanks so much for all that National Park info! I knew there was at least one smaller than the state because we have one of our own: Roger Williams National Park. It’s a long rectangular shape right next to the downtown area of the city of Providence. It’s flat and nicely landscaped. Pleasant to walk in but not a place to vacation! We get kidded about our size (see my location)!
Thanks only to the crosses, I finished this one under average, and about as fast as my dim eyesight, fat fingers and slowing mind permit. But I have to say that the multiple clues to television shows made my old gray matter flash to the crossword puzzles in TV Guide or the entertainment sections of local newspapers, which usually stumped me.
I guess "watching" all the award shows while multitasking has helped me here today. So, I have heard of the women in today's puzzle, but never have I watched anything anyone of them has starred in. It was a fun crossword, nonetheless. I enjoyed it. The puzzle took me 1:23 more than my best time, and 2:32 less than my average for a Monday. I didn't find it difficult for the most part. I felt the crosses were quite helpful. I see many complaints in these comments about WIENIE, but its cross, YIN (and yang), couldn't be anything else. And let's not forget "His only BEGOTten Son," a phrase that I heard every Sunday (until the Sunday my grandmother's nagging no longer had an effect and I decided to forgo the ritual forever and evermore).
So of course in AU Rice-a-Roni is called Rice-a-Riso (it’s a slightly different product, but same basic idea), which I filled in on auto-pilot. Also, SNL is about the only well-known US TV show we don’t get, so Cecily Strong was unknown to me. Took a while flyspeck that crossing.
@spurious Because by the time you'd get it, it would be Sunday afternoon!
No reveals today, although it was close. It was MOCS I found tricky. A bit of solving through crossing words, like the names, and I've learnt new ... concepts ... like RICE-A-RONI. Probably won't try. The only stadium I've heard of is SHEA, from the Beatles-era. And there it was.
@Jane Wheelaghan there's a nearby stadium you should learn, ASHE, where the US open is held. Hey, they're anagrams!
I think maybe the wrong clue is highlighted with clicking on 40A CICELY. I suspect they mean for 41A to highlight, not 63A.
@Francis For me, both 40A and 41A highlight to 63A. Is only 40A highlighting 63A for you? And who's on first, anyhow?
@Francis all the themed entries have to highlight the reveal, that is 63A. But I understand what you mean... it would have been intuitive for 41 to highlight for 40 and vice versa since the two are linked. But the clues make the connection ('with 41-across' and 'see 40 across') so I guess they felt it wasn't necessary.
@Francis After much consideration, I declare myself dead wrong. The puzzle is entirely consistent with its highlighting pattern.
A Monday that took me 23 mins. NYT puzzles are making me dumber and dumber.
Holy hell that was hard for a Monday. I think I said that a week ago, and that would have to make this _really_ hard for a monday. I did mis-read the clue for 52D as present tense "prepare to be knighted" and was certain (for a long time) that KNEel fit wonderfully where KNELT would have worked far better... and that's on me... And I'm well aware that most people know more actresses than I do. (low bar out here). Anyway. I expect tomorrow's puzzle will be easier for one outta-touch west-coaster.
@Charlie I thought this was EXCEPTIONALLY easy for a Monday. I got through it a full 30% faster than my average, even with a typo I had to find and correct.
Well that was a nice pre-bedtime not quite quarter of an hour. I had only heard of one of the women and didn't know that she had had that honour but the cross-checkers were solvable except for 1 down. And in that case the most familiar possibility for the woman's first name proved to be right. One of the crossers would have been more of a challenge if I wasn't Jewish. I dredged the stadium name up from somewhere and some other unknowns were solved by crossers. So a nice straight forward Monday. Thanks, Kathy.
Reading the comments today from so many who can’t place Jean Smart, all I can think is to recommend: Watch season two of the TV series Fargo (spun off from the film of the same name), where she plays a canny, tough, smart head of a family in a real tour-de-force performance. Having seen that series, it would be hard to forget Jean Smart!
@David Connell Yes! I know her long before that, but she was absolutely incredible in that one! That remains my favorite season of Fargo, the TV series.
This was a generally fun puzzle, but the spelling of the dweeb alternative added ten minutes to my time. I hunted and hunted for the error(s), mostly focusing on the upper left and middle left areas. I was about to give up when I noticed the word YEN and thought, hmmm, I filled that with the cross. Sure enough, that was the key. Oh to be so sure of something like the spelling of a word when you can barely spell...
@Renegator That was my exact error and debugging experience too.
After a string of mediocre Monday speeds, today was fast.
I don’t think “wienie” or “begot” were fair answers.
@Whatever I didn't really love WIENIE, myself, but how is it and BEGOT not fair? Maybe it's just me, but I don't really understand when people say a clue/answer isn't fair and I'd love to understand.
Could anybody explain Monday’s Strands theme? How were those words Spoonerisms? I know what those are but couldn’t make sense of the answers, although I got them without any hints. Thanks! I’ll read the comments further down too.
@Convoid-04 Oops sorry! I just saw the answer 4th or 5th under Reader Picks. Thank you!
@Convoid-04 There is always one Strands thread, and it starts by warning not to give away any spoilers until the “Read more replies” message comes on. That allows people who don’t want spoilers to skip over those comments. Your question contains a big spoiler itself. Perhaps most people have already done Strands, but those who haven’t might be annoyed you expoaed the spangram. If you find the Strands thread, you’ll find your answer “below the fold”.
@Steve L Where is the Strands thread? I don't know how to find it. I had the exact same question as Convoid, and still don't know what the answer is. Thanks.