Masterful construction! I was spinning my wheels for a while until I got to the revealer. Discovering the BIO, SCI, PSY, LIT, MUS, and ART classes was a wonderful treat after a fun workout. The trickiest one for me was the spelling of the Chinese fruit. I needed QUINTILLION to get LITCHIS. Well done, Kareem.
@Anita I compartmentalize when I solve, so I often don't see the trick until the puzzle is complete. But this time I assumed I had it because I understood the SPIN aspect. Apparently, though, I forgot all about the CLASSES aspect, because I didn't catch on to the class nicknames until I read your comment! Ha!
Whoo, that was fun! Especially when the wheels started spinning!
I thought I had figured out the gimmick when I nailed the expressions, and thought that was that. Having once again forgotten to read the title of the puzzle, and not taking the time to delve deeper into the revealer, I was far from having it all figured out, as you know. When that dial turned at the end of the solve, I was completely wowed – so maybe it wasn't so bad that I didn't latch on to that part during the solve; I got to be amazed at the end. But wait, there's more to the puzzle. Are you kidding me? Yet another layer that I missed – the amazing shorthand for high-school courses. Wow. <a href="https://youtu.be/T0bU9llGUic?si=k69mXCQ371pqeRKr" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/T0bU9llGUic?si=k69mXCQ371pqeRKr</a> And so, I give myself a "C" and Mr. Ayas an "A+++!!" This was an ingenious construction, and yet another one that makes me wonder how constructors' brains can possibly tick that way. Bravo, Mr. Ayas! Thank you for your brilliant mind.
Holy meatballs. I chewed through 80% of this puzzle without fully comprehending the theme. Once it finally clicked? WOW. Had to stop for a couple of minutes to simply admire the genius it takes to make this work so effortlessly. Truly brilliant puzzle. What a wonderful Sunday.
Ha, wow, my head is spinning! It wasn’t until I was all done that I fully realized the spinners were each part of two answers. Pessimist’s BIOPIC? WHY DO I BOTHER. AUTOPSY of a pessimist: EMPTY SPACES. SCIONS of a COMIC STRIP? Calvin. Also Bart. IMPART a je ne sais quoi to the chocolate mousse? ZAGAT RATED. QUINTILLION LITCHIS? Could happen in a crossword puzzle. BRIEF SUMMARY of a lesser HUMMUS: “not enough lemon”.
@Cat Lady Margaret Does one serve a lesser HUMMUS before a lesser babka?
@Cat Lady Margaret Back in the early 1990s, I took some hummus I'd made to a meeting of an organization I volunteered with. At the next meeting, someone else brought hummus. I was getting a taste of it while standing next to one of the organization's founders, Jay. I made some comment about the copious amount of garlic in the hummus, which prompted Jay to say, "Yeah, it's so much better than that stuff last month!"
When I first opened the puzzle and saw the shaded areas, I let out a groan. The groan turned into an "aha" a minute later. This construction was brilliant and a whole lot of fun to solve. The animation upon completion was a great ending!
Nice to see TREACLE show up. I learned the word many years ago. Perhaps some of you learned in from the same source. Once upon a time there were three little sisters,' the Dormouse began in a great hurry; `and their names were Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie; and they lived at the bottom of a well--' `What did they live on?' said Alice, who always took a great interest in questions of eating and drinking. `They lived on treacle,' said the Dormouse, after thinking a minute or two. `They couldn't have done that, you know,' Alice gently remarked; `they'd have been ill.' `So they were,' said the Dormouse; `very ill.'
@Barry Ancona Crossing it with UTTER ROT was a bonus. All that British TV I’ve watched came in handy.
@Barry Ancona Treacle was top of mind for me because I've been watching Taskmaster recently. In season 11, one of the contestants does a bit where the Taskmaster's house is haunted and it lures Alex Horne in with puppies covered in treacle. I can't say where I'd first heard of treacle before, but I definitely would have struggled with that fill if I didn't have that show reminding me of it!
Rarely is a puzzle so clever, yet so accessible at the same time. Maybe because it was on a Sunday— the abundance of entries provided multiple ways in. All I know is it made my head spin, but in the most delightful way. Bravo! (And encore, please!)
Loved the puzzle except for the spelling of the word "lychees."
@Sammy LITCHIS was new to me as well, but the theme and the crosses made it clear to me.
I hope the constructor reads the comments — because I know I'll never get the chance to personally thank him for this incredible solving experience.
I do admit that when I opened the puzzle I went uh-oh. Then I calmed down and just started solving, and it wasn't so bad. Lots of places to go wrong and I had a few of them. Fish before TUNA TACO. Broom before STONE. Dry before WRY (how the hec-k does LEdD relate to Blue?) And I'm rewarding myself with chocolate because I did figure out how to course correct. I frequently miss the second step in these kinds of puzzles. Well done, Kareem.
@Vaer ‘blue’ as in racy or risqué… LEWD. So that’s WRY humor.
I arrived at the A.C.P.T. just in time to see Kareem Ayas getting kicked out for smearing hummus on literally everything.
@ad absurdum Bean there, done that.
@ad absurdum It was a real PITA.
I think this is the first puzzle I’ve enjoyed enough to leave a comment. Super clever and fun to solve!
For me the best kind of puzzle, a fun twist that revealed itself gradually, a jaunty little animation at the end as a reward, and decent clueing that didn’t require googling some obscure brand name or long-dead TV character/sports broadcaster. Very enjoyable!
@Spacebabe Animations at the finish always make my inner three-year-old happy.
@Spacebabe Exactly. The clear clueing was a relief. Figuring out all those obtuse-angle clues makes my head hurt, of a sort, maybe. ;-) It was a low-fat, low PPP puzzle!
I actually haven’t done today’s puzzle yet — I’m still getting caught up after a busy week at work (I run a climate and energy NGO based in DC, so … yeah, there’s that.) Instead, I came to comment on yesterday’s comments — specifically the thread in which @Andrzej tries, with only limited success, to educate us on the finer points of linguistics (specifically the way declension changes the meaning of a word, such as “prius” to PRIORI.) I just have to say: I *loved* that thread. That sort of thread is why I read this comment section. I loved Andrzej’s erudition, I loved the fierce response and debate his post elicited from other linguaphiles, I loved the bemused curiosity of those who didn’t quite get what Andrzej was arguing but gamely cheered him on anyway, and above all I loved Andrzej’s persistence and determination to make the argument (not for the first time). Thanks to Andrzej for his dedication, perhaps Sisyphean, to making us all slightly more erudite. And to this comment section for providing that kind of respite from everything else going on (which as noted I engage head on in my day job!)
@Nat K 👍 👍👍👍 because I can only recommend once.
@Nat K and @Kevin D and @Andrzej (Do the tags matter? I don't know how any of this works.) Coming back to the Comments to reiterate my appreciation for all of the arguments regarding language. Stay strong, everyone who knows more than I do!
What a beautiful puzzle! LITCHIS and TREACLE were new to me, I had to reveal a few letters, but loved the theme and loved the clues. We should be landing at Palmer Station tonight or tomorrow, it's slow going with all the ice. We parked in one spot for a few hours and watched penguins and seals float by on icebergs. A few whales made some guest appearances, passing just feet from the side of the boat. Neat stuff!
@Michael Any penguins selling US goods?
@Michael Sounds magical! Wishing you a safe landing at Palmer Station.
Kudos to Kareem Ayas for a brilliant first puzzle. This was a delight with a wonderful array of food, culture, ethos, and genres. It went quickly until 91 down. Humor follows, and mangled poetry is sometimes called doggerel. I simply couldn’t spell the word and felt like a word that rhymes with bird, Tried it once, tried twice, forehead slap. Back to keyboard, one more tap. Finally got it, done at last, wish I’d been a bit more fast. Didn’t mope, learned to cope. Hoping for more, Mr. Ayas. Encore! As for doggerel, woof. We still miss our Lab. Enjoy, all.
Kroobey, I agree that it is a brilliant puzzle. It is Kareem's sixth in the NYT (and second Sunday). <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Thumbs?author=Kareem+Ayas" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Thumbs?author=Kareem+Ayas</a>
This is the kind of achievement that makes me proud to be a human.
Great fun! I caught on halfway through, which is to me perfect: soon enough to be fun, late enough that the puzzle doesn’t become too easy. In the end I spent a good while finding it was not sIDED but AIDED, which meant hard-core was about muscles rather than some unknown X-rated acronym.
@Mike I too enjoy it when I don't get the trick too soon. The worst has to be solving the entire puzzle without ever getting the trick.
@Mike Same here! Being so sure my error was at another spot kept me from rethinking this cross for far too long.
Brilliant construction that was simply, purely fun, beginning to end. This here is a Sunday. Wednesday/Thursday difficulty, a fun puzzle within the puzzle, and gentle fill for an elegant and blister-free solve. A+ Kareem! But I’m guessing you already knew that…
The long-awaited moment of “Oh I see what’s going on here!”. And then, “How did he do that?”. A gem.
How do people come up with ideas like this? Well done, Kareem! Post-solve look-up to see what that new term meant: Yes Google, of course I meant AUTOPSY. Only a weirdo would have thought the answer was AUTO PSY. Ahem.....
Nancy J., I think for “smart cars” , “auto psychology” may soon be an important part of the users’ manual. p.126 - Why won’t your car open your trunk for you on Tuesdays? p. 211 - Should you say “hello” back when your car greets you? p. 67 - What to do if your car becomes too timid, and bleeps at you about every lane change and slight swerve. p. 299 - Is you car dreaming when you see that little blinking light on the dash at night?
@Nancy J. Isn’t AUTO PSY a mechanical South Korean rapper who was the first to have one billion views on YouTube?
Excellent theme. Breezy 18 minute solve, and the first time I've gotten 3 straight Sundays I think. 21 days on the streak!
18 minutes!? There are about 350 empty squares to fill. That’s one every 3 seconds for 1080 seconds without a break! I don’t think I could click/type that fast even if I knew every answer instantly.
Thanks for taking us on a spin around the block, Kareem! That was fun and clever. And shout out to the graphics team. Wow!
This was a very enjoyable puzzle. As a relatively new solver, I'm beginning only now to see the tricks without needing to have them pointed out. About half way through this one, I caught on to Mr. Ayas' genius twists. Great fun!
A real tour-de-force. So many elements that each stand alone as great theming. It's difficult to believe that this was even possible to construct, it's so intricate!
Incredible! (Bespoke?)(A Tour de force?) But. Did ... Ai Weiwei design the grid?(I believe @Eric linked to the artist's relevant work the other day) QUINTILLION could have been clued as [Number of NFL owners]
@ad absurdum And here’s Mr. Weiwei’s work again for anyone who hasn’t seen it: <a href="https://publicdelivery.org/ai-weiwei-forever-bicycles" target="_blank">https://publicdelivery.org/ai-weiwei-forever-bicycles</a>/
Brilliant construction, relatively easy solve. Everyone should be happy, right?
Clever. Very good cluing. I look forward to your next puzzle.
Wow! and whew. Really amazing puzzle and a typical tough one for me. One of those reminders of my fading memory. Took me a while to figure out the trick, but even then had to go back and ponder over and over again for each of the theme answers to figure out exactly how to do the turn. No big deal - just made for a good long workout. Puzzle find today I'll put in a reply. ....
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: Another puzzle with an unusual theme trick. A Sunday from April 28, 1985 by Jim Page with the title "Play it by ear." A couple of theme clue/answer examples: "Abdul-Jabbar, to Laker fans?" KAREEMOFTHECROP "Borg: 6/6/56?" BJORNTOSUCCEED And a couple of other theme answers: HAVINGONESPHIL CARYTHEDAY OTTOGRAPHS And there were more. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/28/1985&g=66&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/28/1985&g=66&d=A</a> I'm done. ....
I love it! HUMMUS is one of my favorite foods, too. I'm surprised it's never been in the crossword until now. You can find it in any grocery store--but why would you buy it when it's so easy to make? 1 can chickpeas, drained (save some water) juice of 1 lemon 1/3 cup tahini 1/4 cup olive oil 4 to five cloves of garlic 3/4 tsp. paprika 3/4 tsp. cumin cayenne to taste salt to taste 1. Put them all in a food processor and blend until it's the desired consistency. Add some of the chickpea water to thin it out if needed. 2. Eat it all.
@Katie Thanks for the recipe. I don’t think I’ve tried putting cumin in HUMMUS, but it sounds like it would be good. (Cumin is one of my favorite spices.) We threw away an ancient can of tahini when we moved last summer. It might be time to buy another.
@Katie I made some two nights ago, almost exactly to your recipe (I see you really like garlic) but I haven't thought of cumin before. I'm sure that's a good addition.
@Katie After years of HUCKing it down the drain, I only recently learned about how important chickpea water is and that it’s called acquafaba. My recipe is almost identical to yours but adds toasted sesame oil and lemon zest. Think I’ll make some this afternoon!
@Katie I recently went to a puzzle party which is held at every equinox, in Berkeley (this was the 75th semi-annual party) ... it was potluck and we brought homemade hummus which was delicious! Also sourdough baguettes. Yummy!
@Barry Ancona Same with my father in law, who grew up in Tartous. (Tartus? Litchee? Lychee?) I think he'd boil the canned chickpeas for a while and use the cooking liquid to smooth it out. Just chickpeas, tahini, garlic, and lemon juice with a drizzle of olive oil and maybe a sprinkle of paprika to serve. I miss it...and him.
Oops! I spelled LITCHIS wrong. Or did I?
The trickiness, the animation at the end, the Easter egg of all the "classes," clever clues, on and on. I'll one-up Caitlin:: A++ !! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The trick was neat. Some of the fill confused me though and continues to do that even after reading the column. My tricky clues are rarely the columnist's... ZAGATRATED? How do I parse that? I have no idea what's going on here, other than [something]RATED. I desperately wanted to somehow incorporate Michelin or stars into the answer... LITCHIS? I've only ever seen the fruit spelled LYCHEE. I can see online LITCHI is a valid variant, but I've never encountered it in my 40+ year life. Why is SOLO the answer to *Star turn, often"? I've never heard of a CAMP SHIRT... Or MSN EXPLORER.
Is the star thing about the biggest stars of bands having solos in concerts? So when their turn comes, it's often to do a SOLO?
@Andrzej Yes, that’s it. It could also be a dancer soloing in a dance number in a musical, say.
@Andrzej You are on the right track with these. ZAGAT RATED is the answer. ZAGAT rates restaurants in the US. The LITCHIS spelling was new to me, too, but noticing that the first three letters had to be the abbreviation for a school class helped. Camp shirt is a basic shirt design. A bit like a polo shirt except not made of a knit fabric. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_shirt?wprov=sfti1" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_shirt?wprov=sfti1</a> MSN Explorer was an early browser from Microsoft, so it was on any computer running Windows.
@Andrzej ZAGAT guides were/are long thin books of one-page reviews of restaurants. Instead of Michelin stars, ZAGAT used numbers (to 30) to rate food, service, decor and cost, with recommendations for settings such as a meeting or date. Displaying “ZAGAT rated” at the entry beckoned diners to enter and enjoy. Guides were available for different cities and cuisines. ZAGAT migrated online, predating Yelp and similar sites. Btw, Michelin guides started in 1910 when the tire company wanted to give roadsters a reason to drive distances to star-worthy restaurants.
@Andrzej LITCHI is the declinated version of LYCHEE...
Life offers many opportunities for me to feel like an idiot. Today it was the puzzle theme. Solving last night, I loved the SPIN element and was amazed by Kareem’s brilliant construction. But even after noting the abbreviations and filling in the revealer that literally spelled it out, I still didn’t see it. This morning I read the column and notes. Still missed it. Halfway through the comments my inner Homer thought: D’oh! Spin……CLASSES! NOW I get it! You probably heard the forehead slap.
@M. Biggen 😂 Yes, indeed, life deals us a plethora of opportunities...to fall flat on our faces.
Percy Erhu should be my new alias.
@Paul R Very cool one too. I'm going with Ike Litchi for mine.
Had trouble with a WAMP shirt because my ophthalmologist was interested in selling eyeWARE instead of doing eyeCARE. TIL of a Camp Shirt. Loved the execution of this puzzle. Ingenious!!
Simply an amazing, beautiful puzzle.
I’m so grateful for the column—as Caitlin suspected some of us might, I’d missed the second layer of ingenuity. Not only is the mechanism itself amazing (and even more so once i saw its full complexity), but I love that the revealer shows both layers depending on your emphasis—*SPIN* CLASSES, or SPIN *CLASSES*: adjective or imperative. Puzzles like this remind me of why I love crosswords. Thank you, Mr. Ayas, Caitlin, and editors!
It took me a bit to figure out what was going on, but when I did, I was quite impressed. I have a goal of finishing the Sunday puzzle in X minutes. Today, even though I had incomplete fills for a while, I made my goal with 16 seconds to spare. If you're interested, I reviewed this for Diary of a Crossword Fiend: <a href="https://crosswordfiend.com/2025/04/05/sunday-april-6-2025/#ny" target="_blank">https://crosswordfiend.com/2025/04/05/sunday-april-6-2025/#ny</a> Thanks, Mr. Ayas!
@Eric Hougland Is it a BRIEF SUMMARY? :)
What a lucky break that this puzzle was rejected as a weekday entry! Really good as a Sunday. Lots of fun.
Quite the wow factor! An amazing conceit! I marvel at this sort of ingenuity. Not too difficult but highly entertaining. It was fun to see TREACLE. I like treacle pudding a lot. Something I seek out when in England. It is more a steamed cake than what we call a pudding in the USA. Comfort food. I have never seen lychee spelled LITCHI, so that was puzzling, yet it had to be QUINTILLION. Thanks, Kareem!
I've been constructing puzzles for a while now and sadly remain unpublished. And after doing today's, I don't see any likelihood of that ever changing -- I can't come anywhere near the talent it takes to pull something like this off. My hat's off to Kareem.
@Ken I know that feeling. I’ve had a few puzzles published, but I’ve never had an idea for a theme as clever as this one. Keep at it, though. And good luck! I hope to see your byline someday!
@Ken I am of two minds about things like that. One is that the only way to insure you'll never do one is to stop trying. The other is the brilliant "demotivater" poster which pictures a guy in a track suit, sitting on a bench handing his head, and the poster says "Winners never quit, and quitters never win. But if you never win and you never quit, you're stupid." I guess I would say if you're getting enjoyment out of constructing them, then it's worth it even if not published. Good luck.
This was an incredible puzzle! Fun and clever without being too difficult. I didn't realize the bonus of the "classes" until I read the wordplay column. Bravo! I'm even more impressed by the fact that the creator grew up in Syria and Lebanon attending Arabic schools and is now an English teacher and has such a grasp of language and culture to be able to pull off a superb crossword creation. I'm off to make some hummus in honor of a great Sunday solve!
At 117A I confidently inserted sIDED for [Gave support]. Then rationalised sBS as being an, unknown to me, American building term. That took some time to crack. P.S. loved the animation
@Patrick J. Same! That's where I ended up naticked on this otherwise fun puzzle