I'm puzzled by the meh-to-negative response to this puzzle. I thought it was very clever, and I enjoyed working out the theme. My thanks and congrats to the constructors.
@Manhattan I loved it and particularly appreciated like of US-specific or pop culture knowledge!
@Eddie If you say that one more time, I'm gonna scream!
@Laura Stratton I cyberspace, when you scream, no one can hear you.
@Tom Ah, shoot, I blew the joke. In cyberspace, no one can hear you scream.
@Eddie If you say that one more time, I'm gonna scream with delight!
@Eddie It seems that you're getting on someones nerves? But chalk up another win for Eddie. No bragging (or complaining) about times or streaks. Just a simple declaration of success. Go Eddie!
@Eddie never stop sharing with us when u done did the puzz!!
@Eddie For balance, please also share with us every time you didn’t done did it.
@Sue It was great. I love all crosswords by default tho so I'm a terrible judge of crossword character!
@Eddie Here to support Eddie against his detractors.
@Hanson I'm new to the blog and assumed this reference was the point of Eddie's comment. So clever, right? But reading the other replies has clued me in that this comment makes regular appearances, so I'm now thinking I just got lucky by reading it for the first time on such an apt puzzle! Gonna take this as an omen that Eddie, you and I will each have a good day today.
@Eddie this one messed me up real bad (in a bad way)
@Eddie I feel like we should introduce Eddie to Mike.
Just to drill down, flesh out, and put a pin in it: The BALINESE next door has a BASELINE amount of expected cheek rubs per day. I’m gonna have to read you guys the RIOT ACT if I see RICOTTA splats all over the kitchen again. KIMONOS: not recommended attire for MONOSKI. At the cooking store, the customer asked for us to ENGRAVE their new mandoline with “AVENGER”. The comedy club had to have a special DUSTPAN for when the audience threw trash at lousy STANDUP acts. (Thanks, Deb!) For REVILING one’s opponents, there’s really nothing better than an EVIL GRIN.
@Cat Lady Margaret High marks for the DUSTPAN one and extra credit for mandoline! How’s the train ride? A lotta lavs I hope!
This is one of the few times I caught on to a Thursday theme, which I enjoyed. I wish they had left the original clue for LGBT, which was “What I might follow up with a Q and A?” That’s more clever than almost any other clue in the puzzle. Thanks, Aidan and Adam.
One of those ones where I did the whole puzzle and never understood the theme for a single second
@Crab Weren't you uncomfortable with the mismatch between the starred clues and their answers? I don't think RICOTTA as it stands is a reasonable answer to [It's "read" as a stern warning].
@Crab Ditto, and this was my best time for a Thursday ever.
@Crab I figured it out early because I had MONOSKI, but it didn't work with the crosses. Then I got the MONOS on the end, looked at the circles and figured it out. I worked on the other circles that way, but it still took a bit to figure out the revealer of CIRCLESBACK.
First of all, an admiring and LOL shout-out to Deb for the corporate boardroom meeting. Sublime! And now, onto my take of this grid: 'Tis this the stuff of Thursday puzzles that keeps me coming back around for more. Brilliant! I danced around the themers until I cracked the revealer, then I CIRCLEd BACK and figured out the gimmick with KIMONO, and the game was on. Absolutely favorite clue was [Like does.] Mischievously simple and wonderful wordplay. Thank you so much for this fabulous puzzle, Aidan and Adam! (My musical accompaniment is Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around...Comes Around" – <a href="https://youtu.be/IC8qPpnD0uE?si=ho2U4T3M-gKzYtSy" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/IC8qPpnD0uE?si=ho2U4T3M-gKzYtSy</a>)
A reminder about Aiden – he is under 20, has had three published Times puzzles, and still has at least two in the queue. Wow! Also, if you ever need a pick-me-up, look at his picture at XwordInfo: ( <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Thumbs/?author=Aidan+Deshong" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Thumbs/?author=Aidan+Deshong</a> ). You’re welcome. Not to leave Adam out, but he hasn’t revealed much about himself to this point. Aidan’s notes did answer a big question – how the heck did they come up with these theme answers, which to me, a word-quirk lover, were amazing. Aside from those theme answers, the stars of this puzzle to me were: • The four long downs (TRÈS CHIC, LIP RINGS, BLANKIES, KEEPSAKE). • A pair of shorter beauts: (MUFFLE, ÉCLAT). • A squeaky-clean grid despite a high 55 squares devoted to the theme. • [Places to carry out some takeout orders, for short?] and [Like does]. That is, a layer of lovely infusing a fun fill-in. A splendid time in the box. Thank you so much for this, Aidan and Adam!
One of those puzzles you do, and go "huh. Wonder what that theme was?"
@Jack Do you often get read the RICOTTA?
Jack, Did you read the 37A clue, or did you fill that answer from crosses too?
My first Thursday without cheating! Getting the theme helped. Happy May Day to everyone!
@GP Well done you! My Thursday cheat involves a sliver of rhubarb* custard tart, a la J. Oliver *tart cherries, sadly no rhubarb Out West
@GP Woohoo! I came so close. Filled it all in, but did not get my gold star, so I had to do a few lookups to find my two errors. Eventually, I will get a Thursday puzzle with no lookups.
If you can solve the puzzle easily without getting the gimmick, was there any point to the gimmick?
@Tom Yes: it explains the link between clue and answer.
@Tom I might have solved it without figuring out the theme. There’s no way of knowing, but I do know that as soon as I figured it out the rest of the puzzle went much more quickly.
@Isabeau But we have Deb Amlen to explain it!
@Tom I figured out the theme early on, and it helped me get the rest of the theme answers.
@Tom Yes, because it’s fun to figure it out. And isn’t that why we’re here, for fun? None of us is getting paid to do the crossword (except Deb and co., lucky sods 😉)
@Tom Sometimes the theme helps you solve the puzzle and sometimes it doesn’t. But if you finish the puzzle and still don’t get the theme, then you haven’t solved the puzzle, or so I’ve always thought. It is what makes Thursdays fun/maddening/frustrating. Choose one, two, or all the above.
@Tom I actually used the theme to figure out some of the other answers. Plus, sometimes it's just cool to see.
"Like does" threw me for a loop for a minute there 😅! Very much enjoyed today's puzzle. I thought it was clever and moderately challenging .
@Dave That misdirection gets me every time.
The last square to fall was HAGRI_/_ORY, for which I had to pick from likely possibilities. I almost went with a T, then correctly guessed the D. I call a true Natick on the crossing. A sizeable percentage of the population is without kids and thus has little need to imbibe children-related culture. Speaking for myself, I have two nephews who have never read Harry Potter because their hyper-religious parents didn’t let them. My eyebrows had met my hairline at this, but that’s another story; the upshot was, though, that I didn’t read Harry Potter either. I now also have two newly acquired—and, oh man, instantly seriously adored—nieces who are both knee-deep in Harry Potter books, and so I will be, too, in very short order, but not everyone has nephews, religion-squashed ones or otherwise, or seriously adored, brand-new nieces. And on behalf of these cruciverbalists I cry, “J’accuse, puzzle editors! Natick on aisle three!” The pop culture-to-books ratio was definitely higher than 1:1 as per usual, so I insert a mandatory sigh, but I liked the puzzle nonetheless. Happy Thursday, all.
@Sam Lyons Those two do indeed have a definite turn-of-the-millennium aspect (1st HP film 2001, Finding Nemo 2003). I had young kids at the time, advantage me :) Apparently in this same timeframe, Natick opened its (then-) new arts center in the old fire house, and its high school speech team won 2nd place in the Massachusetts state tournament. Let's remember these facts for a puzzle someday! Those would be True Naticks(tm)
@Sam Lyons The I of HAGRID/INES was my last letter. Like you, I have never read any Harry Potter. While one of my nephews is a fan of the series, he was old enough to read them on his own, and in any case, we only saw him once or twice a year when he was at prime Potter age. The character’s name is vaguely familiar (Robbie Coltrane played him in the films), but I had no idea about the “You’re a wizard” line. But I have seen (and enjoyed) “Finding Nemo.” It took me a sec to come up with DORY, mostly because I didn’t remember Marlon’s name. (The character is Nemo’s father, voiced by the wonderful Albert Brooks.) This next part is not directed solely at you, and I hope you don’t take offense. There are a lot of commenters here who are dismissive of animated children’s films but who seem to have not seen one since they were younger than 10. I’d encourage those people to give those movies a try. Sometimes, the animation itself is quite striking. Those films usually have jokes that go over the kids’ heads because they’re written to entertain the adults who accompany the kids. And the voice actors are often brilliant performers having fun in their roles — Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres in “Finding Nemo” and “Finding Dory,” Robin Williams in “Aladdin,” Jeremy Iron in “The Lion King,” et al. There are worse ways to spend a few hours.
@Sam Lyons I don’t disagree with your calling a natick on that crossing as I believe all naticks are personal, revealing what you know or don’t know in certain areas. I am interested, however, when folks connect their unfamiliarity with Harry Potter to be related to their not having children. I have never had children, yet I have read the books, enjoyed the movies and even listened to the audiobooks during my morning walks because I so much enjoyed the writing, hue plot and the character development. On the other hand I tried to read LOTR and couldn’t get past the first hundred pages, and never watched a single episode of GOT. I have no explanation for that, it’s just interesting to me.
@Sam Lyons I’m sorry but nothing with a Harry Potter reference could possibly be considered obscure. Also when does something stop being “pop culture”? The books are almost 30 years old at this point.
@Sam Lyons I have unsuccessfully tried to post a comment on this thread more than five times! I keep getting the "error posting, please copy/paste your comment and try again" message. So this is a test! Fingers crossed!
@Sam Lyons You are free to call "Natick" whenever you wish. As Vislander notes, Naticks are personal. But then it merely designates a crossing at which you don't know either of the answers. However, if you're going to call it a "true" Natick, you need to reference a crossing in which both of the answers are so obscure that a large majority of solvers will know neither of them. I don't think you can fairly state that about the Harry Potter and Finding Nemo/Dory books and movies. Both are big cultural phenomena, and most of us are familiar with one, if not both.
@Sam Lyons Speaking as a solver in their twenties, part of the fun is learning about cultural references from different generations. Embrace it!
@Vislander A couple of days ago I mentioned reading The Hobbit for a book club. Said book club was made up of mostly married, childless women (like me) who read a lot and were looking for an excuse to meet at a bar other than our corner dive. 🤣 We also read the first HP wondering what the fuss was all about. Fast forward to me trying to pace myself by waiting for the sequels to come out on paperback, but later preordering the last couple so I could get snarf them down the day they were released. I thoroughly enjoy the Pixar movies (though I skipped LUCA), and get a kick out of a lot of other content aimed at children. (Looking at you, Bluey. 😁)
Fun fact: If you put a circle around the B of BAHA (answer 28A), it could be a theme answer! Et tu, emu.
44A reminds me of the linguistic example "James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher" ... insert punctuation to make it understandable! "James, while John had had 'had', had had 'had had'; 'had had' had had a better effect on the teacher." It's somewhat contrived, as most buffalo sentences are. (They're called buffalo sentences because one such is "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo", which relies on three meanings of the word buffalo -- Buffalonian bison whom other Buffalonian bison bully also bully Buffalonian bison
@Isabeau In our original submission the clue for HAD was [Any of the blanks in "James, while John ___ ___ '___', ___ ___ '___ ___'; '___ ___' ___ ___ the better effect on the teacher"]. I can understand why they changed it!
@Isabeau Thank you the explanation. Then there's: That that is is that that is not is not that that is not is not that that is.
@Isabeau I said that that 'that' that that man said was incorrect.
This puzzle was fun, but your column, Deb, really sparkled. I think you stole the show. Well done!
I was vary not impressed with this puzzle, until I was. Although I caught the gimmick of final letters moved to earlier in the word, I thought, "asterisked clues *and* circles in the grid? Do they think we're dummies?" But, to amuse myself, I left the circled squares blank until the end, so I missed that the resulting strings were, in fact, "real" words. I also left the revealer blank, skipping those squares in the crosses--my usual habit with revealers--so I completely missed that the circles were integral to the theme. I am a gay man, who happily describes myself as part of the "Queer" community (my Partner, for instance, doesn't). When I was an undergraduate, I was an active participant in the college's Gay Union. At some point , a referendum was held to amend the Union's charter, and name, to reflect the inclusion of lesbians--but whom to give priority? My gal-pal Wendy suggested the "Gay-Lesbian Union" (GLU--Gays and Lesbians sticking together), but in the end we settled on LGU. Later, bi- and transsexuals were appended to the name. Now, the standard has become a veritable mugful of alphanumeric soup, with a flag of such design that would keep Betsy Ross a-stitchin' for ages, and running back to the dry-goods for fresh colors. As a gay male, and thus arguably floating on the surface of said soup, perhaps should I describe myself as "cis-queer"?
@Bill: another commenter, a year or two ago, proposed QUILTBAG as a better, fun, easy to pronounce term. I like it.
Oats, common grain oats, have the Latin name Avena sativa. Aveeno, the trademark anti-itch lotion, gets its name from the generic name for oats, and for the ability of oats to sooth itching and irritability. See also Ribena, the trademark name for the drink made from Ribes nigrum, the blackcurrant. Ribes serves as a host to a fungus destructive of the Eastern White Pine, an important tree in the USA; because of this, blackcurrants are not allowed to be grown here. Though they, and the drink made of them, are very popular in the UK, they are hardly encountered this side of the pond. Forgive our Aveeno and we won’t resent your Ribena.
@David Connell in the words of Kanye West: "Ribena, I know what you're drinking."
Really fast Thursday for me. Themers were rather easy to suss out.
@Steve I confess to being only dimly aware of there being an anagram theme as I was solving bleary-eyed, before the second snooze on my alarm, to the sound of my cat meow-MEOOOWing from downstairs for me to be up because watching the neighbor’s cat’s antics from his kitchen window perch just isn’t the same if your humans aren’t there with you. And may I add that, Good Freyya, did we ever rent an acoustically designed house. And, double Good Freyya, does the May sun rise early on this continent. But I digress. Too mentally lazy that early in the morning to stop and figure out the theme, and so solving only with crosses, I still came in only about a minute or so above my average.
The crossing clues were gentle enough that I didn't worry too much about with the (quite clever) theme until the end. Rather, I used a modified "Wheel of Fortune" solving style where I don't look at the clue but rather, let my brain complete the missing letters. It's rather fun and so cool that our brains do this for us. MY favorite answer was the sweet and lovely movie, BABE, with the wonderful James Cromwell as Farmer Hoggett. To me, the scene where he sings to Babe is one of the most beautiful scenes in Hollywood and makes me cry every time I watch it: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1XEjStkp2LY" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1XEjStkp2LY</a> That'll do pig, that'll do. Happy May Day!
@Niki B Great post! That'll do, Niki, that'll do! ☺️
@Niki B I I loved it so much I immediately bought a Saint-Saens CD and wanted it at my wedding. Sadly, "secular" music was limited, so this young non-BRIDEZILLA went with Mouret's rondeau...AKA the theme from Masterpiece Theater. 😁 (You'll never see me complain about pop culture references, regardless of what era they come from!)
Mayday! Mayday! Where was I. Oh yeah - Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky? Anyway - really amazing puzzle; just above my pay grade. Never did entirely catch on to the trick. That's all on me. See you tomorrow. ...
Circles from circles leaves circles You gotta have circles, if you wanna solve with me I got a grid, and it's ATILT to me I'ma gonna fight it til the end Look at them words, don't make no sense to me Aidan and Adam both gotta EVILGRIN! Will I go 'round in circles? Will I MUFFLE anguished cries like a swatted TSETSE in the sky? Will I go 'round in circles? Will I be ONMEDS before I PRY one clue apart tonight? LEMME solve this grid, it don't seem normal Let the solver win every once in a while ILEFT this grid, FRAILER, but ain't got no quarrel Need an EPSOM bath, I'll STANDUP in a while Will you go 'round in circles? Will you read the RIOTACT and BERATE two constructing guys? Will you go 'round in circles? Will you ABSORB this grid with a MAD CIRCLESBACK disguise?
@Whoa Nellie Well done! Billy Preston would be proud!
@Whoa Nellie love a karaoke comment
You forgot “action item”.
Tucker Smith, She’ll circle back, going forward.
@Tucker Smith Bosses at my old company had a fetish for "tracking on" those action items, as in, "Are you tracking on this?' Drove me crazy. And they called them "deliverables."
@Tucker Smith Onto the back burner I go!
@Tucker Smith Let's spitball this offline.
@Grant Ugh. REVILING "deliverables."
A sweet and smooth Thursday puzzle, but the real joy today was Deb Amlen's laugh-out-loud column. Bonus points for keeping me chuckling right through the tricky clues section. Thanks Deb, I needed that.
Nice one, Aidan and Adam, very clever. Even knowing the theme, still some nice chewy bits.
44-Across reminded me of an old linguistics puzzle. Punctuate the following sentence: James while Joan had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher ....I'll give you a minute... The answer: James, while Joan had had "had", had had "had had"; "had had" had had a better effect on the teacher. If you find this amusing, you're my kind of people.
@The X-Phile I remember that from many years ago, and had to give up, but was very impressed at the time. Fun to be reminded of it.
I did a quick scan of the comments before posting to see if anyone else had "beat me to the punch," but apparently I need to work on my scanning skills. Isabeau posted it late last night (and constructor Aidan Deshong responded). Sorry for the duplication.
@The X-Phile Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.
@The X-Phile Yes, I did see the discussion last evening of this, as well as the reply by constructor AD explaining this was actually in an original clue. I was very familiar with the “buffalo” sentence, but since I had not before seen this “had” sentence I looked it up to find it has its own entry in wiki. That led me to a wiki page on “List of linguistic example sentences” which included a discussion of lexical ambiguity and the following sentence by my favorite puzzler, Martin Gardner:”Wouldn't the sentence 'I want to put a hyphen between the words Fish and And and And and Chips in my Fish-And-Chips sign' have been clearer if quotation marks had been placed before Fish, and between Fish and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and Chips, as well as after Chips?" That’s 21 ands in a row, by my count….
As soon as I figured out the trick to today's puzzle, I knew there would be complaints about it. To be honest, though I now generally enjoy challenging puzzles and rebuses, this particular trick was a bit of a stretch. The other thing I knew there would be complaints about is the prefix CIS (which is short for "cisgender"). As a trans person, I ask those of you who think this term is somehow offensive to reflect on how difficult it is to live authentically as a trans person in the US and many other countries right now.
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen I'm so worried about my trans friends right now. I really thought we were making progress. I guess there will always be backlash, but what's happening now is nightmarish. Thank you for speaking up.
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen Just dropping in a note of support, 'cause I'm sure you can use some! I hope you have a community that lifts you up, and allies that appear when and where you need them.
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen I support all people's right to identify and live as they see fit, as long as they don't hurt others (other than offending others' sensibilities). But just as trans people wish to be referred to (or not referred to) in certain ways, I think it is reasonable when other people also prefer to be referred to (or not referred to) in certain ways. Thus I believe a person who does not wish to be referred to as cisgendered should not be referred to in that manner. But honestly, if I am not around to hear it, people can refer to me in any manner they wish. I do sometimes wonder why my ears burn, but I haven't checked with a doctor.
I, for one, can't wait for Ncuti Gatwa to make it into a puzzle.
So cool to see how those words could be rearranged.
Taught HS art...never heard of Art Lab...perhaps a newer terminology? But, hey...iIt's May! The lusty month of May! That lovely month when ev'ryone goes Blissfully astray. Tra la! It's here! That shocking time of year When tons of wicked little thoughts Merrily appear! It's May! It's May! That gorgeous holiday When ev'ry maiden prays that her lad Will be a cad! It's mad! It's gay! A libelous display! Those dreary vows that ev'ryone takes, Ev'ryone breaks. Ev'ryone makes divine mistakes The lusty month of May!
@Norwood Love it! The late owner of the (also departed) neighborhood tavern in which I spent much of my twenties had a much more succinct version that wouldn't get past the emus. 🤣
@Norwood Ah, that poem reminded me of some of my earlier Mays. The wicked little thoughts are still around, but all that's left of the rest are fond memories and a sly smile.
Set a personal best with this Thursday crossword. Seemed easier to ignore the theme clues and guess from the crosses alone. Thank you to the blog for spelling out what I wasn’t deducing. It was a good complement to the puzzle since I couldn’t see the circles in dark mode.
@Red Carpet As an interesting example of YMMV in crosswords, I found the clues on 7D to 13D to be so easy that I was gifted BASELINE/BALINESE and KIMONOS/MONOSKI, which made the revealer unusually redundant, especially with the clue for 18A mentioning an Indonesian island (you are geographically better off than I if you can name an Indonesian island that is not Bali, Java or Sumatra, so there was only one possibility even though I did not know Balinese was a kid of cat). Yet I still (briefly) used the theme to fill EVIL GRIN and STANDUP, which I found to be kind of redemptive
I made fish tacos once. But they fell apart when I put them in the aquarium.
So crazy clever. Don’t care how they got six perfect themers, because they did, and they worked. Figured it out with RICOTTA, and the theme was a bit of help with a couple of the rest. BEAUT of a Thursday! Thanks guys!
Not surprised to see some disagreement about this puzzle, but I really enjoyed it. Got the revealer and made lots of progress before really understanding what was going on. Lots of fun. Thanks, Aidan and Adam 😊 And thank you, Deb, for your entertaining write up too. 🤣
67A stymied me for a bit because I had tExtED at first. I got there eventually.
@Maverator Seems right for the current administration. Previous administrations didn't seem to have any problems not texting state secrets. Email servers notwithstanding.
I eventually figured it all out for myself, but it was ultimately unsatisfying because of my pet peeve: orphaned answers used for a theme gimmick. BASELINE, RICOTTA, etc. shouldn’t just be left hanging out there with no relation to each other or anything else other than as structural fodder for the theme. Adding that extra level of meaning would have made this a stellar puzzle. Don’t ask me how it could be done, I’m not a constructor!
Bobby, Cat Lady Margaret showed how it could be done in an earlier post (as she usually does with clues and answers of this sort).
P.S. If the "orphaned" answers had also been clued, this would have been a Monday puzzle.
App enhancement request: can the special symbols, like circles, be a different color in “dark mode”? Black is very tough to distinguish from dark grey… I was about to say here (i.e. complain) that the anagrams today were random and not really “circling”, but then saw that Gameplay mentioned the circled letters. Aha.
@Marks agree completely with you and @Torey Adler. Dark Mode needs a re-think for how the gimmicks are displayed. Particularly after you put letters in a square, the circles are just not visible.
@Marks I agree that the circles are barely visible in Dark Mode. And I understand why someone might generally prefer Dark Mode to the Light color theme. But I have to ask: If you’re using Dark Mode and you see that there’s something like the circles that are difficult to see, why not switch to the Light color theme just for that puzzle? I honestly don’t know how they could make Dark Mode better. That grey background is just a color that doesn’t contrast well with much of anything.
@Marks @Emkay Complaining here won't do any good other than feedback from other users. Do please email the Games support team at the address provided -- that's the only way your issue will have potential to get passed to the product team. That said, the Dark Mode UI -- like the Comments UI -- is used across the NYT. Who knows why they make the changes they do, but it may take a lot of feedback for them to adjust things! 🤷♀️
@Marks I also do the puzzle in dark mode every day. I find it easier on the eyes. Maybe they could make the circles white instead of black? I think that would show up better on the gray background.
I've shied away from Thursdays, but Deb's column has me anxious to give today a try. Absolutely loved today's exec-speak intro!! My attempt at sports-talk banter: "The team that shows up ready to play, move the football down the field..." et cetera ad nauseam. (can you tell I'm not much of a fan?) OK, off I go into the breach, spending more time trying to post a witty comment than some spend solving these puzzles. Oh, the synergy of it!!!
Not that I ever LEAKED government secrets or worked for the KGB, but after 20A, I’m just a little more edgy about my upcoming day surgery. Nice puzzle, good cluing.
@JohnWM I’ve spent more time in ORS than I ever wanted to. But without them (and the fine people who work in them), I wouldn’t be here. I hope your upcoming surgery goes smoothly and that you have a full and speedy recovery.
@JohnWM best of luck on your surgery. Hoping for a quick recovery!
@JohnWM Having spent five years working in ORS, I'm embarrassed by how long it took me to get it. Sending good vibes to you and your team!
This puzzle was magnificent! Sometimes with a tricky concept like this, it seems like all the energy goes into the theme answers, and the rest of the puzzle is shoe-horned in around those. Not so today! The cluing was so lively and helpful that, even having to go back and rework all the starred entries, solving was a breeze.
the gimmick didn't gimmick for me. I like when it closes the loop, so to speak and the word you fill in has some sort of meaning. otherwise it's near-impossible to un-stump yourself if you don't know one of the crossing clues. eventually I figured out the trick, though it didn't feel like an aha moment, just relief that it would soon be over. my time was on par, but not super fun.
@Jess "...just relief that it would soon be over." Wow.
How does one come up with words which can become other words with letters transposed? Is there a trick to it? Brute force T and E? Is it a gift? The puzzle pleasant and charming but the trick was amazing. Kinda magical!
@Byron And not simply transposed but transposed in the original order they appear in.
@Byron The constructor note suggests that they ran something like a Python script to find the words. I’ve constructed some puzzles and all that coding stuff is beyond me. But the constructor Adam Aaronson has a website where you can specify rules that it will run on your word list to find answers. I’ve used it to find words that have not-necessarily-consecutive letters that spell another word. There are themes where you wouldn’t be able to program a computer to spit out possible answers. But I don’t think this is one of them.
@Byron We used Qat: <a href="https://www.quinapalus.com/qat.html" target="_blank">https://www.quinapalus.com/qat.html</a> (and like I say, Adam was the one who knew what expression to use)
It seems like the Eddie-question has reached a slow boil. Here's my thoughtful contribution: Some people like to hear what Eddie done did, and some do not. Those who do should tell him so. Those who do not should just keep scrolling. It's important to remember that we can't control the behavior of others, and it only harms oneself to get upset about such small things. On the other hand, if you "really" don't like Eddie's post, you could reply, "And we're all really very impressed." to his post. I wouldn't recommend that, however.
@The X-Phile Agreed. Eddie is a mere portal into your psyche.
@The X-Phile I suppose one measure of proper behavior is whether it would be ok if everyone did it; and clearly if everyone just posted “I done did this puzzle” there would be no point to a comments section. On the other hand, everyone is NOT doing it, Eddie’s clearly found a niche, and I’d prefer his comment over many of the long whiny complaining comments I sometimes see. So I say it’s a free country and more power to him, hit the scroll bar if you don’t like it.
@The X-Phile I missed Eddie's post. I assume it is farther down.
@The X-Phile Could be some are a bit annoyed he is stealing some of their craved attention.
@The X-Phile I have no strong feelings either way about Eddie's posts, though I absolutely support his right to done do post them for as long as it's fun for him. But I am absolutely fascinated by the commotion he seems to have caused in this community. Like, I think it warrants some intensive scientific research. And also, I completely agree with your thoughtful contribution on the subject. It's so easy to just keep scrolling.
I didn't get the theme until after I'd completed the puzzle. I was all ready to be annoyed, but wow! The theme was super-impressive, once my coffee kicked in. I also loved the fill: BERATE, TRES CHIC, BLANKIES. I enjoyed seeing RICOTTA, as I recently made an enormous pan of baked ziti. It is decidedly not PALEO.
It was a quick Thursday, but lemme admit I stared at the IATB I'd filled in for 27D for longer than I'd have liked.
Wow! Another amazing, ingenious, totally clever idea! I'm only halfway through (bottom half done), but had to come here and say wow!!
Oh my goodness, Deb! Your corporate-speak summary is spot-on! I was laughing so hard! Chef's kiss to you!! You win the internet today!! I'm so glad my 20 years in that environment ended with plenty of severance to find my now very sweet spot in academia, where the language is much more pleasant to my ears. Oh yes, the puzzle! I found it rather delightful! The theme was definitely a puzzle to me until I completed the revealer and uncovered the EVILGRIN at 61A. I then CIRCLEDBACK to the other bottom themers with a hearty chuckle. I had them filled but didn't understand yet. Getting the theme actually did help me with the upper themers. Very cute theme and fun to puzzle out. Was delighted to have gotten 63A "Like does" right away. Small huzzah for me!! Also, how on earth did I know SYRIA at 41A right away!? Seriously, I'm not smart enough (or that kind of smart enough) to have know that without crosses. Crazy! Haven't gotten through the comments yet, so apologies if this is already discussed, but 44A's clue really should read, "Harry—yer a wizard!" Well, at least that's how it is in the book. Maybe the movie is different but still would have been a "yer" instead of "you're." No biggie, just wanted to highlight where some of my nerdiness lies. ⚡🧙♀️🪄