Sunday, March 23, 2025

Hi everyone, Just wanted to say thank you for all of the kind words about this puzzle and well-wishes for my family’s move. Not every puzzle is for everyone, but I am delighted that so many of you enjoyed it. The crossword community (constructors, editors and solvers alike) is one of the most supportive and wholesome I’ve encountered on the internet, and I hope to have more puzzles for you all soon! Thanks for solving and reading this long comment. Andy PS Sorry about DEGERM. That space was originally occupied by the Toronto Raptors’ Brandon INGRAM but was reworked as part of a proper nouns purge. It was MY LOSS. 😜

Breakup line for an arborist: "It's not yew, it's me." ("But we were going to put down roots together!" "I'm sorry, I just have to branch out.")

For me it was one of the easier Sundays that I've solved in quite some time. Having read the title (Where'd you go), I noticed about half way through that there were no "U"s in the puzzle whatsoever. When I got to the revealer (which had the only U), it was evident what the theme was. This allowed me to start filling in the themers that I had been unable to do up to that point. It was a very creative idea, and a fun solve. Today I learned that SEXILE was a thing. I've been a professor for 40 years and never heard of it. I guess that makes me a lifelong learner. Congratulations to the constructor, and wishing you the best for the future after your sudden loss of livelihood.

Well, 1A was a gimme :D - Alexis in Perth

I thomeght the pmezzle was smeperb. Fomer stars. How abomet yome?

I like how with a dictionary and gumption, rather than a computer and code, Andrew came up with these theme answers. I like seeing reveals like IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S ME, that are so perfect for crosswords, and I love the puzzle-makers that find them and run with them – driven by and wishing to share the delight of wordplay. I find inspiring the backstory of Andrew, whose dream of having a puzzle in the Times met with 10 rejections, yet he forged on. His reward on the 11th is ours as well. It was fun to run across some serendipities in the grid: Two rare-in-crosswords five-letter semordnilaps (LOOPS, ELIOT), and the answer consisting of Andrew’s initials albeit out of order (AKC). All this adding up to a feel-good experience, and feel-good is real good, no? Thank you so much for this, Andrew, and congratulations on your NYT debut!

"Unfortunately, he was laid off recently ... " Is this a euphemism for "Fell victim to Trump's purge"?

Thanks for a fun one, Andrew! And as a DC resident, I’m sorry you lost your job. So many people in this area have been fired and it’s really taking a toll on this community at every level. And when folks say “call your representatives to voice your concerns!” but DC does not have voting representation in Congress, well, it stings. Good luck in Denver and enjoy being able to call your voting representatives!

Not done yet, but I just want to say that "Caesar's addressing" is fantastic

What a de-beaut! Talk about wordplay! Andrew nailed this one. Even knowing the theme, I loved that I had to squinch my nose and peel apart a couple themers to see the missing U. By middle school I had learned I had a knack for putting words together. I needed to break up with a boy (Dave) and did it the classy way- in a note that my friend gave to his friend who then gave it to poor Dave. When my friend needed to do the same to poor Chuck, she asked if I could help. I just re-wrote the note, she copied it, and voila! That ridiculous note broke up with at *least* 30 kids in 2 years. It was called The Note. And I charged one pack of Reese’s Peanut Butter cups. Prolly should have seen my future as a copywriter right then… Loved the puzzle. Happy Sunday all!

This is a charming puzzle. I especially appreciate the fact that the constructor keeps trivia and obscure facts to a minimum.

I really like how the “me” phrases have a completely different sound than the “u” phrases. That made them more fun to figure out than other letter substitutions. (“A losing rattle” or “seize the hay” etc) I can’t resist the MERGE to find some other example - but if I don’t return, you’ll know why.

Wonderful puzzle, perfect for a Sunday. I really enjoyed it.

Definitely more enjoyable than yesterday. Still laughing at MEN SOLVED MYSTERIES, that was fantastic.

[What Babe Ruth meant, when, at bat, in the 1932 World Series, he famously pointed to the center field bleachers] THE HOMER IS NIGH

Wow! Excellent debut, Andrew. I loved the theme, and [Higher in rank?] solving to SMELLIER is one of my all-time favorites clues.

Luckily SEXILE was easily inferred because I hadn't heard that one before. It made me laugh. Actually, the whole puzzle made me laugh. It was a romp! I always wonder what goes into a puzzle so clever, and now I know how many attempts might be needed. Seems the eleventh time is the charm! Thanks for sticking with it, Andrew. Surely more will follow in rapid fashion.

The clever wordplay in the themers gave me an early morning smile today. I was solving fairly smoothly and picked up steam when I got to the revealer, but FINESTHOMER took me some time to work out, especially as I couldn’t immediately come up with ENBY or GOGO boots. MENSOLVEDMYSTERIES particularly tickled my fancy. In the non-theme department. I also liked SMELLIER for higher in rank and SEXILE. Seeing Peter OTOOLE, the king of historical drama, who made Henry II come to life on the big screen twice (among many other titanic roles), reminded me that tonight is the premier of the sequel to Wolf Hall on PBS. Mark Rylance’s portrayal of Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall was positively O’Toole(Ian) and did justice to Hilary Mantel’s brilliant trilogy. Hopefully the sequel is as good.

Now that I understand the new word SEXILE, I'm wondering.... Should I be worried that sometimes when I head to bed my wife has put a tie on our bedroom door. I never really thought about it before, but now....

I keep forgetting to read the title, but the revealer was perfect in telling me what I needed to know. My last to fall was the "X" of SEXILE though I didn't have to run the whole alphabet (phew!) for the penny to drop. [Ambrosia salad ingredient] distracted me, remembering the band Ambrosia and going to YouTube to find them. This is them live: <a href="https://youtu.be/0QIWtY7gzvA?si=S2w1-ruvVqqZ71vM" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/0QIWtY7gzvA?si=S2w1-ruvVqqZ71vM</a> And this is my favorite of theirs: <a href="https://youtu.be/A1jeVdUo1-I?si=r9Yv2C0g37Gc0X9D" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/A1jeVdUo1-I?si=r9Yv2C0g37Gc0X9D</a> Thank you, Andrew, for a very tight, interesting, and creative puzzle that was a joy to solve. The hard work you put into it is very much appreciated! Best of luck to you and your husband on your move to Denver and the new chapter that's beginning in your life. May the door that closed be only a catalyst for a wonderful new door that's opening. All my best to you.

My streak is now 1!!!!! I really thought I was going to flop two days in a row. You'd think, given that I've been sexiled for some time now, I would have figured that one out. But no. Also took me forever to get ANTITAX because when I run the alphabet in my head, I almost always daydream at "X". Good puzzle, and I thought the theme was hilarious. But I'm a little confused around MENDERLINES. I see how it works for the questions in the clue, but I'm not sure "underlines" means anything in relation to the clue. Can anyone shed some light?

"It had to be you It had to be you I wandered around, and I finally found The somebody who Could make me be true And could make me be blue And even be glad Just to be sad - thinking of you Some others I've seen Might never be mean Might never be cross, or try to be boss But they wouldn't do For nobody else gave me a thrill With all your faults, I love you still It had to be you Wonderful you It had to be you" Thanks for the workout and lovely puzzle. Just learned about sextile. - there's always something new to add to my crossword word collection. Be well & enjoy!

Really loved [Crude cavity]. For the emus, it's not emu, it's palindromic em-me

A very enjoyable puzzle. Liked seeing my home province (Newfoundland) make it's way into it. TERRA Nova is a beautiful park and would encourage anyone bitten by the travel bug to take it in.

Straightforward Sunday, crunchy enough to keep me guessing, but not impenetrable. A good workout, with a fun theme. One query; can anyone explain 83D? I’m assuming it’s my county Mr Kirk refers to, but I don’t recognise EDT. It’s BST British Summer Time, before we fall back to GMT Greenwich Mean Time. Or have I got the wrong end of the stick and it’s not about time/Somerset as I understand it? Totes confused, as the young ones say. A couple of days ago I mentioned my son was stuck in Bangkok after the Heathrow fire cancelled all incoming and outgoing flights. He finally arrived back in Blighty literally 15 minutes ago; the original cancelled flight took off 24 hours late, only to turn back 4 hours later after a medical emergency on board. Should have been home Friday night!

Don’t know if Andrew Colin Kirk is a regular reader of Wordplay, but some time last fall I learned from the column the “solving jingle” is called “The San Jose Strut” . Just one of those bits of trivia I have cluttering up the mind. Fun puzzle with a cleverly executed theme.

good crossword puzzle to help me through a breakup... strong fill/cluing and the theme was quite clever

That was fun.

This one was fun. I had the same experience as Caitlin, where I got the revealer before any of the clues, but still had a wild ride figuring them out.

huge fan of MEN SOLVED MYSTERIES, might be top 10 for me. truly tickled. great puzzle!

Thank you for an enjoyable Smenday crossword that I can actually finish.

For me, the photo accompanying the column gives off an odd vibe. The uncomfortable looks suggest a brother and sister who happened to go out for dinner, forgetting it was Valentines Day, only to be sprayed with pheromones. Awkward!!

Clever theme and cute thematic entries. The revealer seems perfect. A gentle Sunday puzzle, and I finished in about 35 minutes. PANOPLY is great *word*. DEGERM isn't. 107A "Turns inside out" signals some confusion between inversion and eversion, but likely only a mathematician would notice. "Crude cavity" for OILWELL was devilish, and paired nicely with the nearby (in the grid) ENID, Oklahoma. Quite a nice debut. Congratulations to the constructor!

Stop trolling botanists: They’re petioles, not stems. :)

What a fun solve, and congratulations to Andrew! The column and comments have me crying over here. Seeing so much support for the constructor inspired my first-ever comment. Denver is a lovely city, my dude! Excited for your future puzzles. Resumed my streak with this one after my KITE got stuck in a tree yesterday ;)

It was an easy one, but I had a smile on my face the whole time I was solving. That does not happen too often. Thanks Andrew for persevering and bringing us this lovely puzzle. Hope that there are more soon.

I unfortunately fell asleep while doing this so my time was about 4 hours 20 minutes. LOL, but I loved the theme, super clever! I am still bad at Sundays though 😬

A great debut showing some genuine talent for this crossword dodge. Well done.

Nice puzzle, plenty of crunch. I stared at 77 ACROSS for the longest time, and had to run through the alphabet to arrive at SEXILE. Oh my Lord I'm dense sometimes.

An enjoyable Sunday puzzle! Some clues made me smile, some made me wince, a few had me confused for a while... but it always kept me entertained. I'm grateful for the distraction from what has become a very painful week.

To our constructor: I’m not aware of who all in the NYTGames staff looked at your first 10 submissions, but was this eleventh one a puzzle Deb met? Fun. “Finest Homer” is going into my vocabulary to confuse people. I liked how “ET TU” as the only U made it clear that really, it was “you” after all.

Took me forever, mostly because of sleepiness. The theme was super fun, though! (Once I woke up.) I automatically love any puzzle that mentions Sailor Moon. I had ATM instead of AIR for way too long, considering how many times I've had to fill my front-left tire this winter. Why is it always that tire? It's one of life's [U]NSOLVED MYSTERIES.

After the “too easy” “too hard” quibbles this week, I found this one just right. As seems to be my wont, I came up with a clever but wrong answer that I stuck with (arm muscle informally, three letters = “gun,” HEH heh…not) despite having to change PERTH to accommodate it. 🙄 OPERA and egypt both have five letters and something to do with AIDA… I astound myself sometimes, and enjoy the denouMEnt when I figure out my error. Thank goodness I gave a dinner party this weekend and a pretty bottle of APEROL caught my eye in the liquor store. I vaguely remembered an association with cough syrup so left it on the shelf, but it open that part of the grid nicely. Very clever, well-executed theme. I’m sure I’ll enjoy more from Andy.

It said I finished in 59:50, with Autocheck on! But everything went much faster when I came back to it this morning. I was only half done when I had to quit last night. There was a lot I didn't know, but I think only five answers were completely unknown to me: 77A, 113A, 119A, 51D, and 94D. Mostly I sort of knew the answers even though it took crosses and surprise guesses to get some of them. I had never associated port wine with any country. A real surprise was 11D. It felt like DEGERM had to be a made-up word for the puzzle, but I know that isn't allowed.

Yesterday's puzzle was such a buzzkill for me that I began to consider if it's time for me to drop the crossword subscription (with print edition -- now about 40 years). But this puzzle was enough fun that I'll hold off for a while. Thanks for the puzzle.

I loved so many of the clues. 20A still has me rolling on the floor.

Fun and faster than average for me. I plugged in the revealer right away when all the theme answers and revealer were highlighted on my phone app. I was tickled that I had the right line, which I suppose was made more famous by George Costanza! Also tickled with the cute theme answers! Favorite was MENSOLVEMYSTERIES. Ha! But they were all good! As many have commented, loved 20 across - SMELLIER, and lots of other smiles throughout, which I'm particularly grateful for as it's been a difficult past week. I'm so appreciative of today's puzzle and this whole last week of puzzles, which I thought to be very fine and lovely diversions! On my personal journey to increase my crossword ABS and TRI muscles, I notice myself increasingly finding little typos or other little errors, like not realizing I'm in the wrong square when I enter a letter meant elsewhere, while I'm solving the puzzle. So, now I'm more consistently getting immediate happy/dunce's music without having to dig through all my answers to find a little silly error. I'm especially pleased when this happens on a Sunday, because I'm typically solving on my phone, and the big grid can be hard in the app. Anyhow, I really enjoyed it and congratulate Andrew on a debut in which he really NAILEDTHEDISMOMENT!

Great debut, Andrew! A very fun and clever puzzle, with a good laugh out loud at 20-Across (SMELLIER). Glad you didn’t give up!

There was nothing wrong with the puzzle, really, but I did not personally enjoy it much. It was OK, but I just don't see what's especially cool about butchering common phrases for the sake of dad-joke-level wordplay. The one positive for me would be the fact for once I was not confused by a phonetic element in the revealer. The revealer itself was a gimme, considering I knew the phrase, and the revealer's clue implied substituting something for something else. Some of the clues were quite nice though: "Higher in rank" solving to SMELLIER made me smile, even if the theme did not. I've never had a roommate so SXEILE (typo for prudish "moderation" which usually does not allow us to use grown up words because... /Shrugs in European) was new and interesting. I needed a lot of lookups today: as per usual I did not know most of the proper nouns, some of the abbreviations, etc.

This was a fun one, an especially good one to work out the theme on my own, and I had a big laugh when I got to FINESTHOMER and realized the wordplay wasn't necessarily at the start of a word. Just good times all around, and a great debut puzzle.