You can pan left or right. Not in.
@Eric I as coming here to say this! ZOOM in, yes. But panning doesn't get you closer.
@Eric Okay, but please don't pan the puzzle. / / / /
Eric, But you can say or write anything, and people prefer the in and out to the left-right it seems: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/2rrpns3a" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/2rrpns3a</a>
5D “Get a closer shot” is flat out wrong. A pan is a shot where the camera moves horizontally around the axis on which it is mounted - left to right or right to left, but never closer or farther. The cinematic move in which the camera physically gets closer would be a dolly shot. A zoom is a shot in which the focal length of the lens changes dynamically during the shot, resulting in a portion of the image getting larger, which can have the effect of simulating the camera getting closer to the subject without the camera physically moving in relation to the subject. Of course, a dolly and a zoom can be combined in a single shot, which can have the effect of either intensifying the sense of increasing closeness, or counteracting it (the so-called dolly-counter-zoom made famous by Hitchcock in Vertigo, among many others.) TL:dr - A camera shot can appear to get closer to its subject using either a dolly or a zoom, or both. But never a pan (unless, of course, that pan is combined with a dolly or a zoom, a technique that was rather common in films of the Sixties and Seventies, but tends to look awkward and unsophisticated to modern eyes.) This is a rare slip up by the usually spot on NYT crossword editorial team.
@Kvetchy Kvaddle Sorry, didn't mean to chop your liver! Your explanation is a very clear one.
@Kvetchy Kvaddle I'm sure Mufasa Kemal Atatürk PANs IN a lot when he wants to zoom in, in Mr Shortz's world 🤣
@Kvetchy Kvaddle According to The Free Dictionary, pan in means "To use a zoom lens on a video camera to bring someone or something into close-up while recording."
@Kvetchy Kvaddle I have been working with camera crews on motion pictures and TV shows for over 40 years. As a long time member of the cameraman's guild, I can authoritatively say that no professional camera operator has ever used the term "pan in". If you were to do so you would be immediately marked as an inexperiences amateur and the camera would be taken away from you. Anyone publication that says otherwise has made a gross error. Let me know if I need to be any clearer.
Some of us may be TONED and FIT and all those things, but the puzzle also included some others of us, who are ROUND!
@Cat Lady Margaret I'm in this picture and I don't like it.
“Pan in” is wrong and it makes no sense. A camera pans when the shot moves to the left or right. “Zoom in” is what this clue is talking about.
@Dave H As a former map expert, I concur. Pan around, zoom in. You can sort of do both in some software, but they are different actions.
Holy moly I felt I was at a Mr. Universe contest by the end! It's weird...but I've never really equated buffness with strength. Looking at beef-cake I can't think of those guys actually doing anything with their muscles, just striking poses. The offensive line of the Steelers* are a bunch of big palooks with overhanging guts. I'd take them over Arrrnold any day. *Re the Steelers: 20 years ago I heard on TV John Madden in an idle moment calculate the combined weight of the Steelers' offensive line, then convert that figure to what they'd weigh...on Mars! (On Mars, you'd way approximately 38% of your weight here). Madden's boothmate was rendered speechless. Aye, the sepia toned Tulsi really is window trim, isn't she, while the boffoon king, who has nothing to fear from any of HIS pawns, sends out short epistles in all caps, demanding his minions scour every pot and pan for anyone the least bit different, then budget cut after budget cut, cutting the hearts out of everyone from the lowest barista to the CEO of IBM. Like the country's been carjacked...If I were an oracle, I'd say he'll di' alone. And if I were a warlock, I'd fill my used pot with ice beer, eye of newt, rot of rat, stir it round until it boils, yes, and I'd get Andre the Giant to play the fife as I chant the words: Arianna arena dojo asiago woo, Arianna arena dojo asiago woo! BBs CCs Tupac ciao! BBs CCs Tupac ciao. Arianna dojo asiago woo!
@john ezra A wonderfully enjoyable read, as always! As for your Ahhnold quip, up until a few years ago I would have agreed 100% and not thought twice about it. But my perspective changed after seeing video of a most extraordinary incident: he was drop-kicked from behind out of nowhere and yet barely budged! Meaning, he was able to absorb a surprise body blow at age 71 without falling over (and indeed only taking one small step forward). Immediate hashtag-aging-goals! CBS News coverage at the time (2019): <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNAMJ9RyLHU" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNAMJ9RyLHU</a>
The Civilian Conservation Corps was such a cool part of the New Deal. I hate that the American Climate Corps program was cancelled by the new administration. These kind of programs are such a good investment in the future, I dream of a day where conservation isn't politicized and can receive the bipartisan support it did during the 60's and 70's.
@Matt Hallelujah. Per Nixon in his first State of the Union address: "The great question of the Seventies is…shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make reparations for the damage we have done to our air, to our land, and to our water" He is responsible for creating the EPA.
A camera on a dolly, or tripod/bipod, pans from side to side. The motion of getting closer to the object being imaged is zoom, not pan.
@SamBuddy Came here to say the same thing. I used to be a cameraman and directors use very specific language. Saying, "pan in" or "pan out" would be utterly confusing. Only left or right is used with pan. Zoom is the in or out motion.
@SamBuddy just posted the same. This erroneous usage crops up in crossword puzzles once in a while and has unfortunately taken on a life of its own. The last time I saw it (several years ago) I tracked “pan in” to an entry in a style book which completely misread the cited source. It really needs to die.
PAN IN is not a thing! A pan is a left to right or right to left motion. You can zoom in, you can dolly in, you can push in. But you cannot pan in!
@Nathan I'm trying to think about another way that PAN IN as an existing entry could have been clued. [Cue to enter in J.M. Barrie play?], or [Directive from cupboard to cookware?]? 🫣
@Nathan I went bananas when I saw this and sent to multiple peers. Over the years I have cringed through many instances of “Pan up” and “Pan down”… never thought I’d see “pan in” — let alone in the NYT!
My legal background nearly led to my (figurative) DEMISE, which I knew as a noun but not as a verb. In English — and hence Canadian — common law, DEVISE is a verb used to mean transfer by will of an interest in real property (in contrast to BEQUEATH used to refer to a transfer by will of any other kind of property). Otherwise, a TARIFFic lot of fun for a Wednesday puzzle.
@Strudel Dad I haven’t thought about wills and estates (other than my own) since the bar exam. I don’t recall ever seeing DEMISE used that way. That might’ve been the one part of the puzzle that slowed me down.
@Strudel Dad I can't believe that DEVISED has a legal meaning that practically works here as well as the M does. I should have listed it as a Tricky Clue!
I came to ask at what scout camp do they build canoes (13A) -- but nevermind, I get it now. Lanyard didn't fit, which is the only camp craft I remember. Here is a great poem about that by Billy Collins. <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50975/the-lanyard" target="_blank">https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50975/the-lanyard</a>
@Esmerelda Thank you for the link. It has softened my mood this morning after reading the headlines.
@Esmerelda I thought about "lanyard", too. When I came back to it later, having a few crosses, the answer was obvious, and I wondered why I hadn't seen it immediately. And thanks for the poem. One of Billy's best. (It's hard not to like a poet who encourages you to call him by a diminutive of his first name.)
@Esmerelda Lanyards! Now *that* brought me back to summer camp and its attendant "arts" and crafts. My most memorable camp years were spent at overnight camp on a lake in southern NH, where we employed many water craft: canoes certainly, but also Sunfish, rowboats, and kayaks... And thank you for the Billy Collins link! Such a joy amidst the pedantry in the rest of the comments. Love me some Billy Collins!
@Esmerelda Thanks for the link. I’ve long enjoyed Billy Collins’s poems, but I don’t think I had read that one.
@Esmerelda Thank you for this comment! I saw that canoe would fit some of the crosses but it seemed like a crazy thing for campers to be making so I just moved on, and apparently filled in all of the crosses and didn’t go back to it. Thanks for encouraging me to take another look and actually get the meaning of the clue!
Wow! So many comments on PAN IN? Really? Now that the experts have weighed in, we all can say, “Huh. I thought it seemed okay.” And the crosses gave it to us anyway! Such a bummer when a ton of puzzle is overlooked because of one, singular, technically incorrect (though commonly misused) answer! I tried to express my annoyance of the flat-out, growing misuse of the word “literally” to my son. He’s 28. Ish. He said I gotta get over it. It’s *literally* been changed to mean *not literally.” The opposite. I literally flew off the handle at that one. No I didn’t. There’s a point in this comment. Somewhere… I think.
@CCNY So many comments because it is flat out incorrect. What is even the point of these puzzles if the answers are nonsense?
Swole puzzle, Mr. Bodily! Although I had never considered Ice beer before, as soon as I worked it out from the crosses, it seemed obvious: to concentrate the alcohol content by partially freezing the beer, and removing the ice. The ethanol, of course, doesn't freeze, and so is left behind. Per Wikipedia, the process originated in Germany (Eisbock), but really took off in Canada. Probably because it's cold there. Another reason to love my neighbors to the south. (Canada has, in recent decades, become a major producer of Eiswein, or ice wine, as well--but in that case the freezing occurs at a different point in the production, and for a different purpose.) But here's the spin: the process of concentrating the alcohol through partial freezing is known as "jacking"--when done to fermented cider, the result is called "applejack." So ice beer is a brew which could be said to be BEERJACKED! <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jack#Verb" target="_blank">https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jack#Verb</a>
@Bill I thought of ICE wine first, but I remember ICE BEER being a trendy thing. There is also dry beer, in which the sugars are completely fermented out, so as to minimize the sweet aftertaste, but it does not affect alcohol content. Speaking of Canada, I wonder if they're jacking up the price of my Crown Royal today. Research is required.
@Bill Now that the general anaesthetic has worn off, and I'm back home, I can continue my encomium of Ice Beer: While large-scale commercial ice beers--like Molson Ice--are widely available in the US (but not everywhere: apparently they're prohibited in Seattle, for their high alcohol content), craft brewery Eisbocks are quite a rarity. Why? Because the Alcohol and Tobacco TTD considers freeze-distillation to still be a form of distillation, and requires a producer to have both a brewery *and* a distillery license, which few craft breweries do. Curiously, one of the few regular producers of Eisbock is the Kuhnhahn Brewery, which is located near me, in SE Michigan. I will have to check it out.
Maybe it should've been clued as [Anais's father]: PA NIN. I'm sorry to see our Wisconsin friend's post removed from its top billing. While it was off topic, it was clearly popular with the readers here. Or maybe [Italian sandwich with a small bite out of it]: PANIN.
@john ezra Watching from afar, I agree, even if it was off topic.
Despite the fitness theme this puzzle was not a strenuous workout, and didn’t make me feel like a dumbbell, but I had fun with it nonetheless. I liked the clues for BARISTA and USEDPOT. I also like having the revealer at 1D. That was a little bit of a curveball
5D is not an uncommon mistake, but I really hoped it wasn't going to be what it ended up being :(
This comment is referring to PAN IN clued as [Get a closer shot]
@Niklas My undergrad degree is in Radio-TV-Film. It hurt a little to put in PAN IN.
@Niklas This is a case of TCS (Too Close Syndrome). TCS is when an expert is so invested in the “correct” term, and won’t accept that common usage allows something that is not technically correct. In this case, the answer is right simply because enough people say it that it has become a normalized term, and is accepted as such.
@Steve L It's just plain incorrect. It's an extremely common for people to confuse "its" with "it's," too, and you can always figure out what was meant from context, but that doesn't make it acceptable usage.
Hate to be that guy, but moving in for a closer shot is to zoom or push in. Panning is moving horizontally with the camera (from "panorama"). So "pan in" isn't right here and doesn't really exist.
Jairus, Not to worry. You're not that guy. You're one of those guys.
@Jairus Agree. This one really annoyed me. Apparently, “pan in” is in some dictionary of idiomatic uses, but it’s just flat out wrong.
@Jairus Oh, I didn't know that "pan" came from "panorama". Interesting!
@Jairus No; that's a truck. A pan is a rotation.
As someone who played HEARTS on parents' Windows XP computer, that clue thew me because I think of it as a game where you *don't* take tricks. But I suppose it's not inaccurate. WINDOWTRIM was tricky, especially as it was crossed with PANIN, ANDRE, and DEMISED. Learned some new things today! For those interested, I'm heading back to Antarctica-- this time to Palmer Station on the peninsula. Our boat has decent internet so I'm sure I'll be getting my crossword fill as we cross the Drake Passage!
@Michael It's always fun to read your posts. Looking forward to more.
@Michael Just the other day I was wondering about you. So glad to see you back. Stay safe and keep us posted!
Ah, Cinderella. Glass slippers schmippers, if your prince is a sports buff, twenty years later you’ll be turning into a pumpkin at midnight when it’s a ball game that’s in overtime, not a ball. Or so I’ve heard.
@Sam Lyons Cinderella has left the building. The men's final four has all four Regional number 1 seeds. The women's has three number 1s and one number 2 that just happens to be UConn. As March Madness nears its end, most sports buffs looking for upsets are left with brackets that are finished. A victory for computers and new Analytics?
@Al in Pittsburgh Women might have had four "1" seeds if Juju Watkins didn't get injured. USC couldn't overcome her absence.
@Sam Lyons Sam! Hope your trip is a good one. Nice to see your name. (Paul Lyons' friend of yore, different account name here.)
@Sam Lyons - Glass slippers, schmass slippers! It was a confusion of the old French verre for vair that turned what were originally beautiful fur slippers into unimaginably uncomfortable glass slippers.
I found this harder than last Saturday's puzzle. I knew almost none of the trivia, the clueing was not on my wavelength, and things like ICE BEER or DIAL ONE were completely alien to me. I only got the theme once the grid was almost completely filled (with lookups, autocheck and a reveal of FIFE, whatever that is) so it was no help at all. I thought the theme was convoluted - two revealers? So many themed entries? Not my day.
@Andrzej A flautist is a flute player. A fife is a type of flute — generally smaller, made of wood, and without keys.
@Andrzej Somedays you're the windshield, somedays you're the bug. The discovery of ICEBEER was only 350km from Poland...just a HOP, skip and a jump, you're practically in beer heaven. "The practice of freezing beer to concentrate its alcohol and flavor, known as eisbock, is said to have originated in Kulmbach, Upper Franconia, Germany, around 1890, at the Reichelbräu brewery." In 'merica, to this day, some folks still refer to their refrigerators as "eisbocks" Have one for me man. P.S. Who's drinking all the Chartreuse over there?! I can't even get a bottle over here without raffling off my firstborn and the Brothers won't increase production. sighs
The first clue gave me a smile, since the Manet painting is seen frequently in musical environments and especially in flute studios. The clue used the silly English language name of the painting “The Young Flautist”, rather than the painter’s name “Le Fifre” - “The Fifer.” The uniform and instrument both show that this is a military fifer, and not a flutist. The same problem would occur if a painting of a bugler playing a bugle in military uniform were called “The Trumpeter.” The position of the fingers (showing a nominal F natural being played) is so accurate and natural that it proves that the young musician sent to Manet’s studio was really a fifer and that Manet knew how to see as well as how to paint. Archibald Willard’s famous painting “The Spirit of ’76”, aka “Yankee Doodle”, includes two side drummers and a fifer, showing a flag bearer in the background on a battlefield. The military role of bugles, drums, fifes (and bagpipes) along with flags and standards sets them apart from music and art and makes them signalers, coordinators, morale boosters, and, often, vulnerable targets in traditional warfare. So call the kid a fifer, he was (in the Imperial Guard of Napoleon III, according to his uniform).
I have been working in the film and TV industry for 25 years. Pan is left and right movement only. Lots of ways to clue this without getting the meaning of the word wrong. Very disappointing from the NYT crossword. (Next you’ll be asking the camera to tilt left.)
Hmmm... A camera 'Pan' movement isn't getting closer. It's a horizontal movement, specifically one where the camera rotates on a stand, instead of moving the camera on a dolly. It's definitely not 'getting a closer shot' in any definition. Also, these crossword authors really love EBB and SRO. I've lost count of how many times they've shown up lately (though I'm sure someone on the wide web is tracking such stats)
@Tony Yeah, this threw me as well. I’m a director, have been for 35 years, never once has anyone said “pan IN.”
@Tony I'm not a theatergoer, but I can't imagine anyone standing through an entire play. That sounds like torture.
@Grant When I lived two blocks from Wrigley, I looked forward to the $6 SRO tickets for sold out games. I imagine wandering around with a Budweiser tallboy is frowned upon in theaters.
I checked with my film major daughter about pan in. “Dolly in or zoom in. Pan is side to side.” Sloppy edit NYT.
@Mike I came here to note this also. It's frustrating that the word PAN is used as the universal word for ANY camera movement. There are so many good words to use for all the different motions that I don't understand how PAN became the lazy catch all term. Dolly, track, tilt, etc. Anyway, I give up on this one.
@Dan S Not working in the television or movie industry, or ever having taken a film class, I do not have a dog in this fight, but if an object was to the right or left of a camera, wouldn’t swiveling/panning in make it closer?
5-D “PAN IN” is absolutely incorrect. There is no such term in film making or photography. Panning is when you turn or move the camera from side to side to see something different. The term is never used to indicate zooming or moving the camera forward to get a tighter shot of the same subject. Never. This answer crops up in crosswords every now and then. It apparently stems from an erroneous entry in a style book which misunderstood the usage in the source it referenced. Please stop putting it into puzzles, as it only helps amplify this error.
MDR, Of course PAN IN is not used by professionals. But as Steve noted last night in response to the first post on the subject, you have TCS: Too Close Syndrome. PAN IN had been in the language of amateurs for decades. And this is the Crossword, not Film Studies. <a href="https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/pan+in" target="_blank">https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/pan+in</a>
@MDR I know nothing about film techniques and was easily able to fill the correct answer in. Crosswords are games.
@Barry Ancona you have found the original, misinterpreted citation I was referring to. This is not a case of professional myopia in the face of amateur usage in place “for decades”—the amateur usage has never existed, but a mistaken reading of this single source, whenever that first occurred, introduced it into the crossword lexicon and it has stubbornly persisted. If inventing unused, erroneous definitions based on a single dictionary editor of yesteryear compiling idioms on subjects they do not understand can be waved off as “amateur usage” in total contradiction to the actual meaning, then we might as well rip up all the definitions of everything regarding every subject for which there is a verifiable and authoritative definition. Surely there should be some comparison with reality and a standard of logic applied before accepting a new usage blindly. In the original citation, the camera is described as “panning in” from an extreme wide shot of the Grand Canyon into a closeup of a single person. This is logical to people familiar with film language to describe an extreme wide angle view which pans across at the same time it is zooming in. Taking this as an exact synonym for “zoom” is completely false.
I start strong when I work out, because I’m a BUFF OON. Eye of NEWT me, WARLOCK.
Great puzzle! Mr. Bodily certainty embodies the qualities of a fine crossword constructor. So many complaints about PAN IN, ad nauseam. Aren’t we all used to this sort of license by now? Maybe not. I’m pretty sure most of us figured out the answer without too much difficulty.
@Mark Oops, didn’t catch my typo, certainly!
@Mark Well, that's kind of the way I look at it. To me this game is like the old TV game show "Password". It doesn't matter if a clue is dodgy, it only matters if it does or does not get the correct response. On the other hand, I can see how someone would object to a blatantly misused word. So it comes out as a kind of wash for me. Had dozens of people failed to complete the puzzle because of it, I'd find it more concerning.
Am I in the minority or majority that got all jazzed when I saw the *length* of the clue at 1Down? Daniel Bodily is a wizard of words, opting for dense, intelligent themes that push the limits of the day, but *somehow* hit the mark. Bullseye! Remember the rocket ship Sunday last year? C’mon! That was a framer! I think the reason many of us are here, is that - in order to fully enjoy the solve - we must be able to trust the puzzle. NYT has earned that trust. For me, anyway. And Daniel Bodily is consistently, bold, profoundly clever, and fair. This was a tiny, meaty grid with *just* enough fat to make it a Wednesday! How? How does he do it? He’s a word wizard. He wears a tall, sparkly cone hat with golden letters that seem to magically swirl… And he’s got a wand. There’s got to be a wand involved. The only sensible explanation. Happy hump day all!
@CCNY "I think the reason many of us are here, is that - in order to fully enjoy the solve - we must be able to trust the puzzle. NYT has earned that trust. For me, anyway." 100%! I really enjoyed this puzzle, and was getting kinda down about the comments I'd read before encountering your pair, CC. Thanks for buoying me back up! :)
The impact of the CCC really is amazing. So many wonderful, huge forests we have today include somewhere in them a sign or plaque crediting the program.
@Anthony A handsome statue in a Pennsylvania overlook (near the "Grand Canyon of ?the Susquehanna ? of PA?" it was many years ago, but somewhere I have a photo!
@Anthony Dare we call the CCC the ENTs of the New Deal?
@Anthony Not just plaques-at the site of a former CCC camp, a few miles from our place in Northern (Lower) Michigan, the corps had built--as a diversion--a series of five small ponds in the shapes of the Great Lakes. They're still there, as a roadside oddity, although not usually filled with water anymore. By-the-by, that area of Michigan was hit on Sunday with several inches of icerain, with another ice storm expected this evening. The situation sounds quite bad: our governor has declared a state of emergency, and the National Guard has been called in. We are not there, but one of our neighbors advised us: Don't come up--the road is impassable, and power is not expected to be restored for "weeks, perhaps a month." (But she might be exaggerating.) However, another neighbor reported that several of the businesses and churches in town, which do have generators, have opened their doors as informal heating, watering, showering, and cell-phone-charging stations. We wont be able to get up there until the end of next week, at the earliest.
@Anthony I saw my first CCC forest when I was around 9 visiting Michigan and realized that forests off the highways had trees that were all equally apart in rows. My parents taught me about the origins and it’s always stuck with me! We don’t have forests like that here in Kansas!
A solid puzzle with clues that were just far enough off the obvious to cause some stumbles, but with fills that were actually a PERFECT FIT. I especially liked the PAWN menacing the king. No look-ups necessary and a feeling of satisfaction when the FINISH music played. Thank you, Daniel Bodily, and welcome to the 2nd day of the 2nd quarter of 2025. Nice to see you back—what have you been doing with yourSELF? Whatever it was, I'm glad to see that it all worked out.
Well... managed to work this one out, but must confess that I remained somewhat puzzled about the theme even when I was done. I mean I kind of get it, but some of them seemed a bit of a stretch. No big deal. One appropriate answer history search today was for BODILYHARM. Nope - never been in a puzzle and not even in the Xword Info word lists. And... my appropriate puzzle find today - an odd one. A Wednesday from December 3, 2003 by Bruce Adams. Four theme answers in that one: "Summary of Krzysztof's visit west of Warsaw?" HEHADLODZOFFUN "When Krzysztof got up south of Warsaw?" ATTHEKRAKOWDAWN "What Krzysztof was doing northwest of Warsaw?" DANZIGINTHEDARK "Purpose of Krzysztof's travels" POLISHVACATION Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/3/2003&g=5&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/3/2003&g=5&d=D</a> I'll shut up now. ....
@Rich in Atlanta Wow, that'd be a stumper for sure for me! Perhaps our Polish crossword friend would find it overly easy, though. :)
TRIM does seem like a stretch. Decent puzzle though all the same. In-flight magazine theme was a tough act to follow
Boooo to "Pan in". A pan and a zoom are not the same, and this is at best a marginal clue and answer pair.
Another boo for PAN IN. Zoom in or dolly in, but pan left or right. I shake my fist.
My opinion? I'm glad you asked. A kind of mediocre theme, with a harder-than-normal-Wednesday fill. I didn't much like PAN IN, but I thought DEMISED was worse, But, really not worth complaining about. "Then, why are you commenting?" Well, you asked for my opinion, and I didn't want to be rude. Overall, a decent puzzle. CIAO, Bella!
INT. WHITE HOUSE EAST ROOM - EVENING ROBIN (Excitedly) Holy Basil Batman! NEWT and the Wicked WARLOCK have double-crossed TULSI with an E-PISTLE under the WINDOWTRIM in the East Room! BATMAN How do you know this Robin? Have you checked her for any Bodily harm? Are there any BUDGETCUTs? ROBIN (Rolls TULSI over) No, I don't see any BUDGETCUTs, but she's surely DEMISED. I know because Commissioner Gordon set up a secret code in the NYTs Xword puzzle, remember? Who would do such a thing to TULSI?! BATMAN Robin, I strongly suspect Kekius Maximus, he's a PERFECTFIT, the crazed inventor of the E-PISTLE. (sniffing) WOO! Robin...I smell a RAT! ROBIN (Sighs) No, that's probably just the ASIAGO you're smelling, Caped Crusader. BATMAN Oh, ROT. Kekius Maximus is a SPORTSBUFF Robin, we're off to the ARENA!...STAT!
I really enjoyed Mr. Bodily's last puzzle too... has it really been several years? Thanks DB !
Had fun with this one, though I feel like no one who has USED POT would ever phrase it that way. Not to incriminate myself or anything… P.S. I was so proud of myself for blind filling 46A as “litmus tesT” with only the final T to go on. The real answer was better, but I liked mine darn it!
@Stephen I like "litmust tesT" also. Maybe someday.
I know that the answer to 39D is not especially friendly to constructors, but I'm surprised it's only appeared twice previously - in 1952 and 1961 - in the NYT crossword.
This comment refers to BAFFOON clued as [Goofball]
Is it really Wednesday today? This crossword feels more like Thursday or Friday. I can usually do the Wednesday ones but didn't get anywhere with this one.
@Ronald I feel you. I found this puzzle harder than many Fridays, and even some Saturdays. I think it was one of those that definitely favor their most intended, American audience.
The theme was a PERFECT FIT for someone with a name like Bodily. As for 5 D, all of those PANIN complaints could have been eliminated by cluing it as [Half of an Italian sandwich].
@Nancy J. Yeah, but who could eat just half of an Italian, well, anything? (Here’s to my daughter who just landed in Rome last night!)
@Nancy J. LOL!! @Warren Ooh, jealous! Putting "Rome" in the context of "food" equals immediate, Pavlovian mouth-watering to ensue!
Quite crunchy for a Wednesday, as I see others mention. Enjoyed the theme, though it’s been years since any part of me felt TONED. Perhaps my biceps will tighten up a little now I’m humping barrow loads of alpaca poo around every day. I see there have been a few POT references in crosswords recently, the 35D type, not the 24A. I have no problem with that, but feel slightly miffed that the emus took so long debating a comment of mine responding to someone’s mention of the lyrics in White Rabbit, that they delayed letting it through for 4 days! I mentioned another illicit substance, oft clued in the grid, known by three letters. Sigh. There is no logic. A little bit like…
@Helen Wright I'm thin, but with zero arm tone. My granddaughter (lovingly? lol) calls me "squishy grandma"!
@Helen Wright Oh, careful. Don’t criticize the emus, there might be retribution. A little bit like…
I'm always happy to learn new words from doing the crossword...it's a big reason I do them. I'm not so sure about DEMISED...it makes my skin crawl, frankly. Still enjoyed the puzzle!
@Justin I have --at this age and stage--seen a number of Last Wills and the dispersal of goods and chattels, etc., and never has the term DEMISED been employed in any of the legalese.
@Sam Corbin, today's column is 🔥 from top to bottom! As usual, the photo is a PERFECT FIT (though maybe more straightforward than some). Speaks to my (and your?) shoehorning attempts at 62A, but mostly I love the anthropomorphizing nature of the bears' "expressions"! The light, punny touches in your prose hit just the right notes. Especially loved your 10D explanation -- I could feel it picking up speed as it went along. And I'm so with you on 55D! (My first exposure as a new New Yorker to "SRO" was for the term "single room occupancy", much more prevalent in the UWS neighborhood where I lived than tickets to a Broadway show...) Pretty NEAT, if I do say so! I'll stop fan-girling now. :)
@G I couldn't agree more. I can't count the number of times I've watched that scene from The Court Jester and it always makes me smile. Thanks, @Sam Corbin!!!
@G !! What a sweet note to read to round out the day ☺️!
I attended many a scout camp, and we sure never crafted any CANOEs.
@Charles F yes! I even thought it was totally out there.
@Charles F A A CANOE is a watercraft, or a craft used in the water.
@Charles F Boats are often referred to as craft. This clue means a kind of boat ridden at scout camp, not a craft a scout makes.
Nice puzzle! Not sure it was a PERFECTFIT, but I thought it was definitely NEAT. My favorite clue/answer pair was 5D, PANIN. It's the name of my world-renown professional photography studio and having it show up in the New York times crossword puzzle makes me feel very seen. I hope it makes Lewis's top five clues of the year list. 😂😂😂 I actually really did like the clue for APE only because I hate the way it's normally clued. I don't even know why but it really bothers me the way it's so often clued as a verb. And I really liked BONO on top of BONN. I wish it could have gone further, in the vein of those puzzles where you only change one letter and keep making new words. I don't remember what those are called. Actually, I think there was a puzzle last year or so that had that as a theme. Or maybe I'm just too giddy with glee over having such a great clue, for PANIN. For 21A, I briefly thought how everyone in the comments was going to be upset because the plural in SEPIATONEs didn't match the other theme answers. Duh! I'm trying to be better but unfortunately, I didn't catch it until I didn't get the happy music, but I found it pretty quickly when I went back. Now please excuse me, I have to go put a PANIN the oven for dinner...
@HeathieJ They're called word ladders.
If you start strong when you work out, are you a BUFFOON? My workouts usually end with ICE followed by a heating PAD. For newer solvers, Daniel’s debut NYT puzzle, a Thursday collaboration with Jeff Chen, is worth a look. 3/17/22.
Nice one! Congratulations, Daniel Bodily, on lucky 13 for NYT. This prior passenger found a PERFECTFIT today. Much less trying than your Monumental Centennial built up on 5/29/22, with support from Jeff Chen. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/28/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2022-05-29.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/28/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2022-05-29.html</a> Keep 'em coming, O great SUDO!
Judging from other comments here, I suspect that I'm not the only former TV/Film cameraman solving this puzzle. The editors missed one here. Basic camera movement taught in intro classes...Dolly, truck, pan, zoom, etc. "Pan" is a stationary camera position with the direction of the "lens" of the camera moving from left to right or vice versa. :)
Wordle 1,383 1/6 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@retired, with cat CONGRATULTIONS! I did this once. It felt like I had made an ingeniously lucky guess. But it still felt good!
@retired, with cat Wordle 1,383 1/6 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Me too ... with copy and paste.
@Francis Totally luck, but fun!
@retired, with cat Do you use the same opener every day? Not your typical first guess.
@Jamie No, I change every day with a previously unused word to improve the odds. I go for starting words with “r” or “l” as consonants, and “u” and “e” as vowels. But it’s only worked this once, for what it’s worth, hey?😊
@retired, with cat Congrats! And here I was thinking myself so hot for having gotten it in two...
Talk about PANdemics! Wow! you'd think it was the only clue in the puzzle, so many commenters jumped on it. It was fun to solve. Lighten up.
Pots and pans notwithstanding, my beef is "ton" as the approximate weight of the Liberty Bell. Nothing weighs ton. It might weigh about a ton, or one ton, or, heck, even 0.57888493 tons, but not just ton.
@Mike “Sensei’s school” is a DOJO. “Approximate weight of the Liberty Bell” is a TON. Articles are implied.