I know most commenters are pro 'whatever NYT crossword does' (if not flat out bots/astroturfers meant to generate positive feedback) but for me: this was truly one of the worst puzzles I've ever done. Simply. Not. Fun. Piameter? Naked sun?? Midinette??? Arie, immix, smolt, raki...and quite possible the worst: Tara Road (which I'm seeing as released in 1998, NOT 1999...which adds confusion to an already unknown answer). And the doubling on HANK crossing HANK...I was not a fan. I'm a big fan of BEQ's site, and he can make great puzzles....but this ain't one of them.
@Ben Blackwell agreed. That SW corner should be illegal.
"I know most commenters are pro 'whatever NYT crossword does' (if not flat out bots/astroturfers meant to generate positive feedback)..." Ben, I don't recall. Were you here Thursday?
@Ben BlackwellI I rarely comment, especially with negative feedback since I know how much work goes into creating these puzzles, but this was not a fun solve for me either. So many obscure words - I love expanding my vocabulary, but these are just not ones I'll be tempted to use in a sentence any time soon.
@Ben Blackwell I think you're being a little over-simplistic, not to mention insulting, positing that we always support "whatever the NYT does". I think we're more strategic than that. First of all, I think most of the regulars here either *are* crossword constructors or are constructor-adjacent, and so it's a matter of respect for all the work that goes into them. P. S. The thought that we are bots or whatever is decidedly insulting, actually almost conspiracy-level insulting. Beyond that, however, I think most days you'll find posts on perceived weak spots underlying a mostly favorable opinion.
@Ben Blackwell I would add to what Francis is saying is that a lot of relative newcomers carp on certain things that they just don't understand, but the veterans do (see my recent reply to Charles Engelke about "Semicircular"). As another example, veteran solvers are generally not bothered by things like HANK crossing HANK. Because it's actually HANK SNOW crossing HANKERING. One HANK is a man's name; the other is four-ninths of a word, linguistically unrelated. I found it clever, not problematic, because I know what's acceptable and what's not. Someone complained about SHINNED, saying it should have been "shinnied," but a quick look at a dictionary would have shown that "shin" is just a variant of "shinny." The veterans also usually have strategies that help them get past things they don't know, which newbies may not. So many newbies are complaining simply out of frustration, not because they've really uncovered a grave mistake. (You may be right about the publication date of TARA ROAD; I'd never heard of it, so it didn't matter to me.)
@Ben Blackwell I just googled my way through, then checked letters. I am 50/50 on weekend gold stars, and since I needed to check letters, no gold star. But I didn't have to "request" a letter from the revealer. Yay!
@Ben Blackwell Am I the only one here who liked it? I *want* the Sunday puzzle to take an hour to finish. I *like* literary references and scientific terms and fancy words I might never use. In fact, the Sunday used to be more like this. Themes are of no particular importance to me, though I concede those with a theme are more fun. But challenging my brain is also fun.
@Ben Blackwell Wow, the comments section has been full of Negative Nancys this past week. I, for one, enjoyed every puzzle from Monday to Sunday. Call me a bot if you wish. I'm pretty sure I'm human.
@Ben Blackwell it was my most enjoyable Sunday in a while. Fewer of the usual old fallback words. I guess people click with different puzzles.
@Ben Blackwell I also had issues with this puzzle, many identical to what you listed (although I'll encourage you to become acquainted with RAKI) and adding that "show warmth for" points away from SMILE AT to SMILE ON, PIA MATER would never be pluralized, and WILD OAT would always be pluralized. However, you do not help your argument by saying that positive comments are often bots and astroturf. This is simply not true and I'm sure you have no evidence for it.
@Ben Blackwell I agree, and the Asimov book The Naked Sun is from 1956, not 1957.
What a boring and needlessly difficult slog. A jumbled themeless google flex of archaic pop culture, words, and trivia. Now I need a cold one to rehydrate from all of those dry riddle clues. Immix, pia mater, raki, midinette, etc... Wow, I must not be very smart.
@Michael I guess we got our tush/rump/seat/rears WHIPPED!
@Michael Just don't make it a dry martini.
"Immix, pia mater, raki, midinette, etc... Wow, I must not be very smart." Michael, You did not need to be very smart to fill those answers from crosses if you did not know them from the clues.
@Michael Are we calling Shakespeare "archaic pop culture" now?
What does it have to do with "Power Grid?" I didn't get the title's relationship to the puzzle.
@LadyB Maybe it's analagous to a "power move".
@LadyB Maybe it means we had to power through it.
@LadyB Since it seems to be themeless, I interpreted it to mean, "This grid is going to be hard!" And it sure was!
@LadyB It was just a typo for either "Poor Grid" or "Poorer Grid"....
I don’t know what the point of this puzzle was. A Sunday puzzle is supposed to have an engaging and brain-teasing theme. This puzzle was hard (which is fine) but not entertaining in any way.
@Linda Bernstein Not every Sunday has a theme. Also, there is no rule that Sundays are "supposed to" be themeless. It's a tradition, not a law.
After Saturday's struggle, I was looking forward to a nice themed Sunday puzzle. Instead we got this. Honestly, I was surprised I could finish it unaided. But it was a slog. And at the end, I didn't feel particularly proud of myself. I mean, immix... seriously? I appreciate a clever clue, but this puzzle relies more on obscurity than wit. Do better, NYT.
So many proper nouns and obscure trivia (unless you’re on EQ’s wavelength). More of a slog than a joy today for me, I’m afraid.
@Jimbo NED BEATTY, Joy BEHAR, ROMEO and Juliet, Breaking Bad--these are obscure? I guess I just assumed everyone knew what a MASTODON was.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Themeless Sundays are always a huge disappointment to me. I look forward to the Sunday puzzle all week because it is the perfect mix of challenge and fun. A themeless Sunday misses out the fun bit - just something to, well, power through.
@Rebecca worse than no theme is a hint that there is a theme & then a grid full of obscure trivia and nonsense cluing.
IMMIX. What a disappointment to have to consult with Dr. Google to confirm that it could be correct after coming up with myriad tough fills on my own. I didn't mind the other obscurities, but IMMIX? Desperation glue.
@dutchiris I even tried to rationalize it as a misformed version of 2012 in Roman numerals, or some such.
Saddle up kids, it's going to be a bumpy ride! I was totin' my pad along the dusty solvin' road, When along came a grid totin' a 15 x 15 load. "If you're a fan of Will Shortz, with me you can ride." And so I climbed into that puzz and then I settled down inside. Will asked if I'd seen such clues with so much eclat and elan. And I said, "Listen, I've solved most every grid they got in puzzleland!" I've solved everywhere, man. I've solved everywhere, man. Cussed them bare white squares, man. I've breathed that rebus air, man. Gold stars I've had my share, man. I've solved everywhere. I've been to: Brunei, Cambodia, Abu Dhabi, and where they grow papayas, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Mali, Ames in Iowa, Moldova, Gambia, Singapore, Tanzania, Woodstock, Bedrock, Alcatraz, Namibia, Elba to Etna, Camaroon, Uruguay, Yemen, Vietnam, and Agra for Sahib's sake! I've struggled with those clues, man. I've had them solvin' blues, man. Lost the plot in dispair, man. But most times Will is fair, man. Got sores from my solvin' chair, man. I've solved everywhere! [No matter where you lay your hat, reach out and call someone you love today. Heck, maybe even if you just like 'em!]
@Whoa Nellie That's absolutely stellar!
@Whoa Nellie 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Magnifico! Bravissimo! I could hear Cash's version in my head and read the words seamlessly. That is some mega-level of parody, there. I'm just blown away.
@Whoa Nellie It was worth losing a streak just to get this ! Chapeau !
@Whoa Nellie Very Cool and creative... love it!
On xwordinfo.com... Jim Horne notes: A rare themeless Sunday from a rare full-time constructor. This crossword has only 54 black squares — a new record for a 21x21 grid.
The past tense of "shinny" (to climb up something like a pole or rope) is shinnied. Therefore, the correct phrase is "shinnied up a rope". From the NYTs Help section: •The New York Times Crossword increases in difficulty from Monday to Saturday. •The Sunday puzzle is approximately on the same difficulty level as the Wednesday or Thursday puzzle, and is larger than other daily puzzles. SOMEONEISGETTINGFIRED amazing and fitting long entry.
Oh, and another thing... The standard unit of magnetic flux density, also known as magnetic induction or the B-field, is the tesla (T), which is the SI unit. While gamma (γ) was historically used as a non-SI unit, it is now mostly replaced by the more precise tesla. I hated having to pull tesla out.
@replay It's unfortunate that SOMEONEwillpayforthis fits in that slot and is an appropriate answer, and I stuck with it for too long.
@replay It is true that the past tense of shinny is shinnied. It is also true that the past tense of shin, a verb meaning the same thing as shinny, is shinned. :)
@replay A GAMMA is one nanotesla, but unfortunately it is also equal to 0.00001 GAuss, which has been an entry 17 times, clued either to the German mathematician or the unit of magnetism. Now to me, GAMMA/GAUSS is the new KIA/LOA.
I didn’t hate it, but count me in the less than enthused crowd. It’s not that I’m opposed to the occasional themeless Sunday, but if that’s the case I’d really like to see more clever, interesting fill instead of straight trivia and obscure entries. I don’t even care so much for the marquee entry in the middle. I had Gauss before gamma, and thought there might be a theme because I was trying to fit Johnny Cash in and Dura mater for the outer layer of the brain (even before I got to pia mater, coincidentally—dura mater IS the actual outer layer of the brain). I knew pia mater and Naked Sun but can see why those annoyed people. I also had Erie before Arie, but in retrospect that you might figure out, since Maeve is an Irish name and the Ohara’s who owned Tara in GWTW were Irish. Finally, maybe let’s agree that themeless puzzles on Sunday should just have the title “Themeless puzzle” because I agree Power Grid was an intriguing title but had nothing to do with anything.
I can see why some people object to IMMIX. Maybe you just need to be a Scot of particular temperament and habits: Ye heathy wastes, IMMIX'd with reedy fens; Ye mossy streams, with sedge and rushes stor'd; Ye rugged cliffs, o'erhanging dreary glens, To you I fly, ye with my soul accord. Robert Burns <a href="https://www.public-domain-poetry.com/robert-burns/elegy-on-miss-burnet-of-monboddo-10012" target="_blank">https://www.public-domain-poetry.com/robert-burns/elegy-on-miss-burnet-of-monboddo-10012</a> I've been declaiming those lines on wet days in the Scottish Highlands for nigh on half a century.
@Oikofuge What @Alex B. said above.
@Oikofuge (You'd think this lot were dost to eat a bit of haggis with their neeps and tatties 😉)
Soild, solid Sunday workout. TIL about Marta and her amazing career and shame on me that in my head, I only cycled through the list of male Brazilian soccer players when I read the clue.
@Rahul Agree!! Absolute highlight seeing Marta get her due.
Lots of off-kilter clues, errant answers, backtracking, blank stares, frustration. In other words, the type of Sunday puzzle I would like to see every week.
I look forward to Sunday after the inevitable Fri and Sat slog. Very disappointing to find no theme. Thumbs Down.
Lots of griping about this one! I liked the challenge - had to think and walk away a couple of times to get a fresh view, but the ahas were worth it. This is what a Sunday workout should be IMHO. Happy Mother's Day to everyone who is or has a mother!
I had never heard of midinettes, Brazilian soccer player Marta or the novels The Naked Sun and Tara Road but I was able to get them with the crosses and I know about them now. They were gettable with the crosses. All crosswords contain trivia and today's puzzle had, to me at least, good trivia and very little boring crosswordese. There wasn't an Oreo or epee in sight and thank Hecate for that.
I watched Marta play this evening, but I wasn't reading Tara Road while watching the match.
I decided a few weeks ago to skip Sundays - mostly because spotting errors in them is too much of a chore, and also because I've had enough of the punny, dad joke themes Mr Shortz seems to love. Today I thought maybe I'd try another Sunday after all. Yeah, nah. There may have been no annoying theme, but the fill... Need I say anything else beyond PIAMATERS? So many names, so much trivia, so much obscurity - for me, anyway. I wasn't really getting anything in the grid on my own. Once I used 30 or 40 reveals, I thought enough is enough and abandonned the "solve." Meh.
@Andrzej It was a toughie, no doubt about it. I was crashed at the corner of ARIE and TARAROAD (have gone with erie teraroad). But I gave it a pretty good fight, and like you say there's soooo much land to cover if you finish with a mistake...wadda ya gonna do? Life is full of little disappointments. I'm grateful for them, because they're so better than the other kind, the giant disappointments.
A real knowledge test today! But constructed with great skill. ROMEO and POX IRISH and COLLEEN RAKI, WINE, and VODKA WANDERS, ITINERANT, and HANK SNOW HANK crossing HANK It's a lot to look at.
I have a soft spot for good surprises, and that's why I adore gimmicks and rebuses and themes. This puzzle kept me on my toes, waiting for a gimmick, a rebus, or a theme...and waiting...and waiting...on the edge of the seat, in suspense. When I realized it was a straight-up puzzle, I laughed myself silly. No theme and no rebus – so *that* was the gimmick after all! Totally worth the suspense! There's a lot to unpack in this puzzle, and much to learn. I'm not one to mind entries I don't know – I research and go down rabbit holes and have a wonderful time doing so. Crosswords are not a test in my world, and I solve them as I see fit to bring me enjoyment and hopefully add to my knowledge base. I have to say that [Body building?] for TOMB was worth the price of admission for me. I do well with dark humor and am always a great audience for it. And I thought I was gleefully encountering more of it when I got to [Freezes] and plunked in drOPSDEAD. I guess I was trying really hard to make dark humor a pseudo-theme of the puzzle. Thank you so much for providing me with a super great hour, Mr. Quigley, and good laughs!
@sotto voce For "Body building?" Clue I had wOMB and thought it was a nice tribute for mothers today, but no
I wouldn’t say this puzzle was a 33 across, but for me, a 21x21 grid is too large for a themeless to be enjoyable. Especially one that has so many obscure answers (IMMIX, RAKI, MIDINETTE, ARIE, TARAROAD, SMOLT, etc.). Sure the crosses helped, but when you can’t really guess the missing letters (like in RAKI) you need *ALL* the crosses. With other answers, like NAKEDSUN, at least it’s comprised of two common words and is pretty guessable once you get close. In the end, for me, it came down to flyspecking the “E” I had put at the crossing of TeRAROAD and eRIE. I guess the Tara in Tara Road is a reference to Gone with the Wind? (I’ll look it up later), but TERA is a valid prefix meaning 10^12, and for a place in Chicago, the name of a Great Lake seemed much more likely than a random string of letters. I guess kudos for breaking the record for smallest number of black squares in a 21x21 grid, but sadly, I think the result was a rather uninspiring puzzle.
@Jeb Jones I flyspecked that same fly. And share your sentiments otherwise.
@Jeb Jones it will be a reference to what Gone with the Wind was referencing: the seat of the High Kings of Ireland.
@Jeb Jones I will agree that there were a lot of obscure words (IMMIX, RAKI), but Tara Road was a huge novel for Maeve Binchy. It pushed her to a new level of success. Set in Ireland, nothing to do with Gone With The Wind.
@Jeb Jones If I hadn't been pretty sure of the novel title I might have fallen for eRIE, but fortunately I grew up just south of Lake Erie and I knew Chicago is on Lake Michigan. Good thought though with the Great Lakes. I'd actually never heard of the ARIE. My one lookup and my very last entry.
TARA ROAD was a huge novel for Maeve Binchy. Granted, 26ish years ago. But here's the thing, it was written by a woman for a primarily female market. That, however, does not make it at all obscure. I'm sure the book had its own display at the front of the bookstore. Consider that not knowing something might reflect more on you than on the obscurity of the item. If all the non sports fans griped every single time there was some dopey statistics abréviation that could be anything (RBI, etc) or really old football player (SWANN) who played in a game 49 years ago (I looked that one up), this comments section would be beyond tedious. This puzzle was super crunchy. Lots of words I've never heard (IMMIX, MIDINETTE, par example). Tough for a Sunday! I enjoyed it, and I was pretty surprised that I didn't have to remember the location of all the letters I was unsure of. I was so sure about tesla... then gauss... Laughed at TOMB but considered womb for a while. Thank heavens for homo SAPIENS or I never would have gotten a toe hold in that section.
@Nora I was impressed at my rememberiing Lynn SWANN (off the 2nd N)... ?Bang the Drum Slowly? Was he the buddy? No clue. Do you recommend TARA ROAD? I thought of Binchy as a bit of a 'beach book' writer to avoid...
Well, I don't know what this is about but I found Saturday's puzzle to be hard, when many found it easy. Today I see on X word stats and from a few comments that this was a harder one, yet I solved it unaided 16% faster than my Sunday average. 🤯 And it certainly isn't because I knew words like MIDINETTE or IMMIX, nor did I remember HECATE. Somehow I had very few things I had to pull out and replace today. I dunno, this one flowed. That said, it's not a favorite. I kept hoping I'd find a theme, but it seems there wasn't one. I do love a good Sunday theme! Also, I think they're only two times I had a wee chuckle, TOMB at 83D and USMINT at 77D. I do love a good chuckle! What I did like was HANKERING, which I say all the time so it came fast to me, crossing HANK, though I did not know Hank Snow before. I also liked START crossing SMART. And I guess in this one I did start smart because I knew off the bat that 1A was ATARIGAME. Fun fact that may also be somewhat not legal but pretty sure it is ok to confess at this point... back in the day, my dad's work included developing Atari cartridges. He brought home for us basically the inside board of a cartridge and then would bring us the chips to plug in and out of the board. We always had the earliest and quirkiest (haunted house was my favorite) access to all the Atari games, at no cost, and it was awesome!! And oh so hush hush! Actually, it was the worst kept secret amongst our friends. 😂
@HeathieJ Yeah there was an early form of hacking on the Atari where guys would make bootleg copies of games and trade them. You just had to have a special board to plug a ROM chip into.
I feel compelled to add a fan letter to Brendan Emmitt Quigley. He’s a great constructor, and I found this Sunday challenging and fun. I learned new stuff, which is always a plus. BEQ is incredibly generous to offer 2X weekly puzzles on his site, always fresh and lively. And the Boston Typewriter Orchestra! All great contributions to the (crossword) community.
@Sierra In case you’re collecting signatures for your fan letter: Here’s mine.
The name of the city in Italy in English is Turin, not Torino. It's OK to use the native name for a city when you give the clue in the local language, for example. Otherwise, the clue doesn't match the answer.
I read [Italian] in the clue as a foreign language signal. We all know Juve plays in Serie A, right?
"...give the clue in the local language..." N.B. The entire clue doesn't need to be -- and rarely is -- in the [foreign] language of the answer. One word in the clue is all that is needed.
To be clear, none of the words in the clue need be in the foreign language for a foreign language signal for the entry. There are 24 cases of AMI = [French friend].
Maybe the clue should have been “Italian city that is home to…..’. I think that would have been a better signal.
Can anyone explain the title, or "theme," of this puzzle?
@Murhatroid There is no theme. It's themeless. Themeless Sundays are rare, but they do happen.
@Murhatroid My assumption is that the puzzle grid was more densely populated than on a typical Sunday - like a more powerful Saturday puzzle. Definitely had to power my way through this grid - twice my average time - but the cross clues were (eventually) helpful enough to make this a satisfyingly solvable challenge...after realizing that Psyche's partner was not Soma.
As soon as I saw it was a Quigley puzzle I rolled my eyes and said here comes an annoying mess of obscure proper nouns, naticks and assorted borderline-legit answers. Yep.
IMMIX raised such a stir here that I decided to use it for my Wordle start word, mostly to see if it's in the Wordle dictionary. Spoiler: It is, so you don't need to try it. (It left me with almost 2,000 words to go. 😜) I still managed to get the solve in 4 which tied with the bot.
"Pia maters" "pia maters" "pia maters" Just saying it gives me pain in the larynx, like I just downed a shot of orange vodka immix't with raki and Lysol®. If you must pluralize it--which neither M-W or OED bother to do--at least do so elegantly: "Piæ matres." (I may add both sources list, as primary plurals, "cortices," "larynges," and even "irides," at least when used anatomically.) Speaking of Matres: lovely little Mother's Day mini-theme with PIA MATER, MOTHER EARTH, and HECATE--a goddess often invoked in childbearing. And I suppose we could add H. SAPIENS neanderthalensis to the immixture, since most of us have inherited a few genes in our DNA from our Neanderthal fore-mothers, who were probably *sapientior* than we could ever hope to be. Happy Mother's Day to all out there!
what an absolute SLOG… felt like this puzzle was just trivia, trivia, TRIVIA! St. Paulis, Piameters, Swann, Tara Road, Arie, Marta, Ned Beatty, Smolt… I like a good challenge but this was not fun at all.
This puzzle was in a couple of sections a challenge for me. Looking at blank areas with no footholds, I thought that this is why I keep coming back. There is always more to learn. There is always the chance for me to improve. If it was easy all the time, I would get bored. I appreciate the skill of constructors in creating challenging puzzles, their belief in us that we can find the value in their creations, and their thick skins to continue to do this despite the type of feedback that can arise. Thank you, BEQ, for your puzzle today. I struggled a bit, and enjoyed the challenge.
Was I the only one led astray by Mother’s Day to try “body building?” as WOMB? I mean, we definitely built a body on there.
@Rrose Selavy - YES! I spent a long time trying to swap out the A in YOLANDA to make a different book title that made sense. Between WAR_ROAD and IMMIX, I spent longer finding my error than doing the original fill.
I love sitting down for a Sunday puzzle. Not today. Annoying, obtuse and very stretchy.
Too hard. I really did not like that “A” crossing of ARIE and TARAROAD. Quite a Natick. Never heard of either that novel nor that Chicago theater. I have been a physics professor for 16 years and I’ve never heard of GAMMA as a unit for B-field. I kept going back and forth between TESLA and GAUSS! Some very weird & arcane words today. If I were the NYT editor, I would have tossed this one back to the constructor & not published it. Also - no Mother’s Day themed Sunday?!? We got a themed Connections and a themed Strands! Come on NYT Games!!
@MJ Mother's Day being incredibly painful for me, I'm extremely happy that there was no Mother's Day themed Sunday crossword puzzle. I'm genuinely happy for everyone who celebrates happily, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels the way I do either. That said, I wouldn't have complain about it if it was. I might have stopped doing it once I figured it out but I wouldn't have complained about it.
@MJ with you in the gamma. PhD in physics and professor for 23 years!
@MJ Another physicist (though not a professor) and with you on the GAMMA. There are perfectly fine meaning for this that are not that obscure. Although here the crossings are doable, as for a few other ones that fall into your weird & arcane category. But ARIE and YOLANDA crossing TARA ROAD and BEHAR – that is quite a Natick indeed. Both me and my sometimes co-solver knew neither of the four answers for certain – and guessing all four crossing letters correctly opens up a lot of combinatorial options...
I hated every minute of this crossword. This biggest collection of oddball clues and answers I’ve seen in a long time. Just my two cents.
@Kevin @Mike from New Jersey has you beat. He hated every second of this puzzle.
Best to just avoid puzzles by this Mr. Quigley, as he is evidently the sort who thinks it’s clever or amusing to spend their time ferreting out archaic words that are actually never used in real English writing or speech. IMMIX indeed!
@Kevin Elliott yes but the editor should take the blame here for letting it get published
@Kevin Elliott Hello, Kevin, here’s something to think about: “this Mr. Quigley” is a highly respected crossword constructor who has had 178 puzzles published by the NYT alone, starting in 1996, I believe, and is very popular with long term solvers who recognize his name and relish the challenges he offers. I for one have been doing NYT Sunday crosswords since the 1990s, and I did not know IMMIX either, but it was solvable from the crosses.
@retired, with cat Why is this sentiment so popular on the NYT comments section? “You don’t like this puzzle? Well he is a reputable famous artist so you are not entitled to your opinion!” I thought the readership was intelligent. Appeals to authority or name-dropping don’t make for a very rational argument. I’ve seen good hard puzzles and bad hard puzzles. This isn’t about the puzzle being hard. And I don’t need to know Mr. Quigley or his history to judge his work for myself. Appeals to reputation are nonsense, someone’s work should speak for itself. Though @retired, with cat seems willing to worship whatever comes out of Mr. Quigley’s head without so much as glancing at it because of his reputation, the rest of us will continue to make judgments for ourselves. I may also guess you’re a personal friend (or maybe even the constructor himself), so please say hi to Quigley for me.
Brendan Emmett Quigley is a master puzzler; you know you're going to get a workout, and this one was no exception. It had quite a few obscure entries (at least as I see it), such as MIDINETTE, ARIE Crown Theater, IMMIX, SMOLT and perhaps a few more that I'm not seeing at the moment. I'm sure someone will tell me that MIDINETTE was a gimme for them, but I did say "as I see it", One thing that might be an obscurity for many, but not for me, was HANK SNOW; BEQ's crossing him with HANKERING practically at dead center was brilliant. Many people know that song from a recent commercial where they used Johnny Cash's version, but Snow's version was the major North American hit of the song. Now, for a personal connection: One of the places mentioned in the North American version, in the last verse, around 2:22 of the version linked in the column, is the town the Mrs. and I are going to be moving to sometime this summer: Haverstraw. It's about half an hour north of where we are now, and it's right on the Hudson River. I might not have been everywhere, but I've been to Haverstraw. And surprisingly, quite a few other places in the song.
Steve, I too know HANK SNOW (and liked HANKERING). I thought most "obscure" entries were fairly crossed. If we're going to continue to have themeless Sundays -- and I'm not sure we should -- they might as well be like this one. Are you going into a condo near the water? Watch it crossing the West Shore tracks.
@Barry Ancona Indeed I am. River views from my east-facing windows. The tracks are very close, but the road crosses over them. Not so close that trains will be noticed from the house. (It’s a townhouse condo.) The veterans also usually have strategies that help them get past things they don't know, which newbies may not. So many newbies are complaining simply out of frustration, not because they've really uncovered a grave mistake. (You may be right about the publication date of TARA ROAD; I'd never heard of it, so it didn't matter to me.)
Ignore everything after the first paragraph in the previous comment. Because of trying to get around our current glitch, I managed to cut and paste my answer into a different post, and meant to delete all of that other post. I was clearly unsuccessful...
@Steve L Gee, you'll be diagonally across the river from one of your president's national golf clubs. Maybe you'll be able to get a Sharpie autograph, or even one of those dolls, y'know the voodoo one.
"The tracks are very close, but the road crosses over them." Steve, Down where you will be, but MAINST is a grade crossing (didn't we just see that in the grid?).
Steve, There are all too frequent accidents at grade crossings with gates...
@Steve L, as someone fluent enough in French to dream in it, I had never heard "midinette". I asked my French husband and he confirmed it as a very old usage; he can't remember when he last heard it. (We are both 65.) I'm happy to add a French word to my vocabulary; that doesn't happen very often anymore unless it's new slang!
I guess we had to really power through the grid since there was no theme or gimmick. And was full of esoteric clues/solves. I’m not mad about it, but there’s always next Sunday.
I woke up and knew it was Mother’s Day. I did *not* however, know it was Mother’s Day, 1994. The puzzle told me. I didn’t like it. I loved it. I savored it. I devoured, while savoring. I pushed, it pushed back. Might need to frame it. POY candidate, fo’ sho.
@CCNY Agreed. This harkened back to a time when completing the Sunday NYT puzzle was an achievement. When you took all day to tease it apart, and maybe never finished it. Loved every minute
The SI unit of magnetic flux is the Tesla. A gauss is a common non-SI unit. I have a PhD in physics and have been a professor 20 years and never encountered the “gamma”. Just leave the clue blank if you want to be this obscure.
@Paul your comment helped me finally figured out why I couldn’t complete the puzzle. I had Tesla in there from the start
Well done, Mr. Quigley. Always look forward to your puzzles, as they're quite hard yet thoroughly entertaining with very clever cluing. Thank you!
I hated every second of this puzzle.
Don’t forget to call your pia mater today and tell her you love her.
Lower left corner was unfair. Crossing a 26 year old random novel - Maeve Binchy is well-known, but not quite Dickens or even Connelly - with a wordplay trick that has two reasonable answers and with a Chicago theatre name that most people outside of the Midwest would never have heard of…well, that, my friend, is the very definition of unfair.
@Desert Dweller 100%. This puzzle is chock full of deeply obscure info, and in a bad way.
@Desert Dweller Agree. Novel + theater + TV personality were a double Natick for me.
I found this to be a pretty difficult puzzle, but I enjoyed it. Mostly because it was an actual crossword.