Aw gee I really liked the "CROSSWORDS" crossing at 30D. Nice work Rena !
“Lift tab and pull”, “Press down and twist”, “Remove side edges first”, etc. OPENING STATEMENTS Fun puzzle!
@Anita: Accompanied, of course, by some grunting and swearing. Those “easy tab” doodads that rip off?!
@Anita You left out "Break thumbnail here."
@Mean Old Lady Or "get the scissors/knife/hammer", as my mother did, always, never bothering to check for opening instructions on any box or bag she ever bought. When I visited her, I found the fridge and cupboards full of things that had been brutally forced open. It used to annoy me, now I sort of miss it...
@Anita And for Closing Statements: ". . . . yes I said yes I will Yes" "Good night, sweet prince . . . " "Th-Th... That's all, folks!"
"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep Sea, and music in its roar: I love not Man the less, but Nature more, From these our interviews, in which I steal From all I may be, or have been before, To mingle with the Universe, and feel What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal." Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Very nice to see LORD Byron in the fill. It took me back to when I had the first part of this - up to "I love not man the less, but nature more" - on my cork wall in my teens and early twenties, with a beautiful picture of the sea against the sky at dusk, a soothing panorama of pinks and violets and blues. This puzzle was also very soothing to me. It flowed beautifully, and put a smile on my face in appreciation of the constructor's creativity. It really takes a special kind of mind to take everyday phrases and give them a literal and fun twist. Thank you, Ms. Cohen!
@sotto voce LORD Ada Lovelace had daddy issues.
@sotto voce Her father, Lord Byron, his behavior was incorrigible.
@sotto voce This article describes just some of Byron's behavior and eventual exile. <a href="https://cappuccino.substack.com/p/lord-byron-even-for-the-19th-century" target="_blank">https://cappuccino.substack.com/p/lord-byron-even-for-the-19th-century</a>
@sotto voce And thank you, Mr. Voce
"We have a great deal on baseball gloves!" "Yeah, what's the catch?" (They probably make a mitt off of those.)
@Mike I'll just make a short stop in the comments to say this one touches all the bases. I couldn't have done batter.
The whole puzzle was ON MESSAGE, with not a single clue to WINCE AT. LORD, it was DENSE with clever WORDS and PHRASES—a veritable SHIP load of fun LANGUAGE throughout! (A LEGIT appraisal—I wouldn't LIE*) Thank you, Rena (*and I do remember that Thursday puzzle!).
@Dutchiris @Sam corbin i wish one of would posr the date of that puzzle. don't want to have to look at all 52 2024 Thursdays
@RozzieGrandma Rena only had one puzzle published in 2024. That was on Thursday, Oct. 3. Hope this helps! <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Thumbs/?author=Rena+Cohen" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Thumbs/?author=Rena+Cohen</a>
Four thoughts: 1) Fun puzzle with a great ear for language. 2) This crossword may be the closest ALITO and OMAR ever get on anything. 3) TIL what WEASELWORDS are. Per m-w.com: Some people believe that weasels can suck the insides out of an egg without damaging the shell. An egg thus weasel-treated would look fine on the outside, but it would actually be empty and useless. 4) I am impressed by the m-w writer who turned the phrase “An egg thus weasel-treated” and would now like to read a short story or perhaps a villanelle with that title.
@Josh Great poetic reference to villanelle! Now I'll have to watch Killing Eve again.
I always wanted to see the SIGNLANGUAGE clue be about signage. I like how it fits with the other theme words here. This is a fun puzzle, thanks!
One kind of humor is taking things literally that aren’t meant to be taken literally. Here it is in the box today, where Rena took two-word phrases whose second word means “terms”, and, with a straight face, translated them literally. Hah! Anything that makes me smile, as this theme did, is a gift. Also making me smile were the PuzzPair© of ERASER / HEAD, and a backward TIME crossing NIGH. Rena, you have been prolific, with this your fourth NYT puzzle in less than eight months. All of your themes have made me smile, each in a different way -- thank you, and I’m hoping for more to come!
TIL that a "hexagon" need not be the shape I thought of as a hexagon my entire life to date (that would be a "regular hexagon"). Surprised this wasn't in the tricky-clues list--is it just me? Anyway, while absent the crosses I would never have thought to describe Utah as hexagonal, researching it led me to this post, which uses the term "a utah" to describe a hexagon with two sets of three parallel lines! Crosswords, always a source of unexpected knowledge.... <a href="https://christopherdanielson.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/the-hierarchy-of-hexagons-continued" target="_blank">https://christopherdanielson.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/the-hierarchy-of-hexagons-continued</a>/
I like to try my hand coming up with alternative entries for the themers, but this time I couldn't think of a one as good as any of these, and more amazing, that they were all the right character length for the sake of the almighty God of Symmetry, Squares (rhymes with Ares). Love the particular group of animals in this puzzle, enough to test the mettle of any ASPCA member: weasels, lemurs, swine, and today I learned how to pronounce NENE when I've been saying NEEN, or when I feel particularly plucky, NEENEH. Nae-Nae? You don't say say! Also like some of the resonances surrounding the themers, like ONE HOP under CATCH PHRASES, OSAKA under SIGN LANGUAGE (it's a stretch, but I just watched a match she played in where her coach had to "sign" his advice to her because the crowd was so noisy. Unfortunately she lost, and I blame sign language!), and of course ASPCA making sure those people still wearing minks don't weasel out of it.
Another morning of feity. DENSE, yummy pound cake derives it name from the equal parts (by weight) of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour--nominally one pound each--to make it. Traditionally, those four and nothing else. (In French, the name is "quatre-quarts," or "four quarters." One method is to take your eggs, weigh them in the shells (on a balance scale, of course), and adjust the other ingredients accordingly. My recipe stays pretty true to the original, but I adjust the sugar and flour to reflect the 7:6 ratio more in align with modern American expectations; also, I add a little leavening: BILL'S POUND CAKE 6 oz. A.P. flour 1/2 t baking powder 6.5 oz. butter 7 oz. sugar 1/2 t. salt (any preferred flavorings--vanilla or almond extract, or citrus zest*) 3 eggs + enough yolks to make 6.5 oz--weigh it out! Sift together flour and B.P. Cream together butter, sugar, salt**, and flavorings Add about half the eggs Stir in the flour, then the other half eggs--just until combined. Bake in a parchment lined loaf pan, in a low-medium oven, until a toothpick comes out clean. Serve with strawberries tossed with balsamic vinegar and sugar, or grilled peaches, or just good, strong coffee--anything but Dunkin's--yuk! *try grinding the zest with the sugar in a Cuisinart for a few seconds--releases more of the essential oils. **I always add the salt (but not leavening) with the sugar--less likely to forget it that way. A treat worthy of Alf, Assistant Pastry Chef of Wootton Major!
@Bill love this! Saving and will try with GF flour and pinch of xantham gum.
@Bill You answered my ham fisted attempt to explain it to @Jane Wheelaghan far more eloquently and with the recipe to boot. Too bad I don’t eat cake anymore.
@Bill In general, we are Pie Folk (just as we are all Cat People in this famly), but I made a screen-shot of this recipe and plan to make it when it's my turn to bring refreshments to guild meeting. I will also share it with our son (our domesticated child) who is out there in Seattle making a name for himself with sourdough and cheesecake. (He and his wife get invited to pot-lucks, but always with instructions to bring one or both of his specialties.
@Bill (really @MOL and whomever else) Should have checked my files first--I usually use 1 tsp. baking soda, not 1/2 as I stated--although if you don't see this reply and make it anyway, it will turn out fine, just a little DENSEr. Also, I usually cook with kosher salt--if you're using table salt, 1/4 tsp. might be a better quantity.
“A box of chocolates is what happens while you’re making other plans.” LIFE SENTENCE Fun puzzle.
@JohnWM I hope you don't mind if I steal this one! It's wonderful!
Thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle!! ALOT of fun clues and solves. The amount of times I LOL'd, smiled or chuckled to myself was off the charts A+
Wikipedia has a long and interesting entry on Ada Lovelace and her difficult life. I didn't know that she died at such a young age, 36, and considering the times in which she lived, it's remarkable that she was able to pursue her self-education and explore her genius for mathematics and logic so profoundly. She made a splash when she was introduced at court, and"became a popular belle of the season" in part because of her "brilliant mind" (but I suspect it was also that she loved to dance). She never met Lord Byron, her father—he left England while she was only a month old—but she loved him, despite her mother's hatred of him, and named her sons George and Gordon. She was buried beside him, at her specific request. Byron's reputation has nothing to do with Ada. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace</a>
@Dutchiris Thank you for digging deeper and sharing it here.
@Dutchiris Accomplished as she was, Ada wasn't really the focus of the puzzle--she shows up often enough on her own (and rightfully so!)--but we did get ALAN Turing, another pioneer of Artificial Intelligence, and who also was an outsider of the hetero-male dominated world of science.
This puzzle creator included the joy, playfulness, and fun an crossword puzzle can create in the solver. Thank you!
These don't quite work, but ... [TED talks, e.g.] [ASAP, Stat, PDQ, etc.] WEB ADDRESSES ZIP CODES And that's why I'm not credited as the constructor of this puzzle. Wonderfully executed theme, Rena! (Hoping to see EWW GEE in tomorrow's grid)
@ad absurdum I think ZIP CODES works very well, and WEB ADDRESSES is not too far off. Thanks for the always interesting posts.
What a plum puzzle – accented with the fragrances of lilac, lavender, and periwinkle and the aroma of a fine burgundy. (purple prose)
Another puzzle appearance by Alan Turing! (This is not a complaint.) My impression of today’s puzzle, in SIGN LANGUAGE: 👍👍👍❤️
Fun crossword, with lots of clever wordplay and interesting phrases that kept me coming back. Good job!
On a few occasions I have labeled someone "a WEASEL" but I've never heard/used/seen WEASEL WORDS as a phrase. I was inclined to enter WEASEL FAMILY (too long) or BREED (though that doesn't really work) and was surprised by the actual (accepted) entry. OH WELL. I caught on (get it?) at CATCH PHRASE and what with ONE HOP I was hoping for more baseball-themed jollity. I NEEDed perking up after the gargantuan task of today's Spelling Bee--finally got to Genius Plus after five Pangrams and a long list of long words. They just kept coming! Charlotte the Kitty is staging a sit-in, protesting a change in habits; (it's the DHubby's fault our routine has been altered.) Plus, she sees Something on the ceiling and is staring fixedly at Nothing.
@Mean Old Lady Wouldn't WEASEL WORDS be something you say to weasel out of doing something? The phrase is quite familiar sounding, but I'm still not sure.
@Mean Old Lady Thanks for the heads up about five pangrams. I had only three, went back to the Bee, found the other two and Bingo! got my Genius.
I'm amazed at how young the NYT constructors are. I had visions of… ah, never mind. Great job, Rena and yes, your Oct 2024 puzzle had my undivided attention. Today I finally learned (TIFL) what a TIL is. It took me some time to figure out MOL. Some verse from Ms. Woah, and all’s right with the world. I had to rub my eyes after a few passes to rethink Utah’s geologically to *geometrically* speaking. The only American not “running on Dunkin,” I suppose. But, it did bring me back to our last year’s visit to Moab and surrounding areas. Regardless of the shape of that beautiful state, the parks are spectacular! The alcohol laws are a bit strange, but if that's what it takes, so be it. Even Antelope State Park is an incredible experience, albeit the no-see-ums are a tad too clingy. Four wheeling and off-roading in Ga is a popular pastime, but pales in comparison to Utah. Those folks are serious!
@Jerry The young constructors have been giving us some great puzzles, haven’t they? At 66 (minus a few days), I don’t know all the cultural references in some of the younger constructors’ puzzles, but I have fun with them. We just spent a few days in Moab, an area we’ve visited many times over the last 30 years. My sister-in-law and her husband came from Missouri to visit us, and we wanted to show them some of our favorite places. Scott had never been further west than Kansas City and was quite impressed by the western landscapes. There’s a lot more to southern Utah than just Moab. Hit me up any time for suggestions. My husband’s aunt and uncle have lived in Athens for about 40 years. We’ve visited them once; Athens seems like a great town.
🌺🌸 Aloha from the Big Island! This puzzle happens to fall on our 20th anniversary and I couldn’t help notice some coincidences. NENE is the state bird, we have seen CARGO SHIPs, mongoose could kind of be a WEASEL WORD, we’ve used some SIGN LANGUAGE and seen plenty of SWINE! You could say I went GAGA for this one. Thank you, Rena. You made my day 🤙🏼👏🏼👏🏼🙌🏼
Interesting how "fey" seems to have converged on the meaning of "fay" (yesterday's FAE), despite being etymologically unrelated (Germanic, as opposed to French), and originally meaning "fated to die" or "nearly dead". I'd never encountered the usage clued today. Otherwise, that was full of hilariously obscure cultural fill for me. I needed a couple of reveals in the SW and the E to get anywhere.
@Oikofuge Yes, yes, one came from some Proto-Italic root for "to speak," the other from a Proto-Germanic root meaning . . . ? "hostile"? "colored"? But they've been running, hand-in-hand, with the notion of "fate(d)'' for so long, it's inconceivable they wouldn't have cross-pollinated. But Thank You for yesterday's explanation of "Faa." I never would have connected it with the name McPhee. The only McPhee I know of is the (vastly underrated) early 20th c. Canadian composer Colin McPhee, who was a bit of a Traveler himself; look him up.
I managed to do the puzzle in average Tuesday time, but the area with the moisturizer (seriously? Are we asking about *moisturizer brands* now? What's next? Makes of embalming fluid? Manhole cover manufacturers? Brands really trigger me 🤣), AVEnue, and REESES (&#$@ product names!) was over the top this early in the week. Had I not known OMAR (thank you, Guardian international section), XACTOS and NENE (the latter two I learned over two years of doing these puzzles) I would have needed lookups there. I will never understand why the editors think it OK to bunch up names and trivia like that, especially before Friday. The grid would have defeated me in other places not long ago, too, with EDSEL, ASPCA, IRA, UNO - all words I memorized doing these grids only. I won't say I *learned* all of them, exactly. For example, I still have no idea what a game of Uno involves 🤣. All that being said, overall I liked the puzzle, I suppose. The theme was OK. Hutzpah, as hucpa (which sounds exactly the same to us as your spelling does to you) functions in Polish, too, with the exact same meaning. I learned it in the early 1990s, when it was often used to describe some of the political and business scandals of the time (yes, I followed current affairs as a preteen and teen... No, girls did not find it a turn on 🤣). And there were many scandals in a country only beginning to learn about democracy, market economy, transparency, and the rule of law.
@Andrzej have you ever played a card game called crazy eights? I would call it a kid’s game. Uno is basically a variant of that game, with its own special deck.
@Andrzej A while back, 20 years ago, I spent almost a month in Siberia. I got to be pretty close with my translator. And though I was staying with the group I was there with, she invited me over to spend the night where she was living and introduced me to her boyfriend and another friend couple of hers. While she was very fluent in speaking English, she was not good at reading it and after we ate some delicious home cooking and watched a movie, they asked me to teach them how to play UNO. They had a complete deck that someone had given Anya, my translator, as a gift, but couldn't read the instructions and had no idea how to play.... I didn't have the heart to tell them that it's my least favorite game of all the games I've played... Instead, I gladly taught them how to play and we had a blast!! It redeemed the game for me somewhat, and remains one of my happiest memories. Also, fun fact, I'm the world's foremost expert on embalming fluids and manhole covers, so if you ever have any questions or need help solving a puzzle, just let me know. 😂
@Jeb Jones No, I haven't played crazy eights. The description on Wikipedia does not sound familiar, and there is no Polish version for the entry, which probably means the game is unknown here. @HeathieJ Is Siberia a good place to study embalming fluids and manhole covers then? 🤣 Good story! I'm filling in the blanks with stereotypes, so in my mind's eye I see you and Anya clad in fur coats, playing Uno in a wooden hut in the middle of the taiga, both of you struggling to handle the cards in your fur mittens. There is hoar frost on the panes of the small windows, and meters of snow everywhere - on the roof, too. A lynx is prowling in the firs. Your only drink is vodka, and the only food: slonina. You're stuck there, because the ancient Zil truck you arrived in just won't start in the cold. Btw, I have no idea whether you're being serious about your expertise so there may be a suspicious-looking jar on the shelf in the scene above, and possibly a shape in the snow just outside the hut may hint at a stack of cast iron discs being hidden there.
@Andrzej Hahaha! I was 100% serious minus the embalming fluid and manhole covers!!! 😂 😂 I know nothing about those topics!! Hahaha!! I was there in Siberia in July, so the weather was quite pleasant!! Very Minnesota like, in fact!! No fur coats!! I even soaked for a minute or twenty in Lake Baikal, which was amazing!! That was one of the most amazing experiences of my life!! I mean freaking Lake Baikal!!!! 🤯 Other than that, our main diet was pelmeni and borscht and shashlik. But the Uno thing is 100% accurate and a precious memory!! That was an amazing time and I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to spend time with actual real local people. The whole trip is a precious memory!! What a blessing to get outside of your comfort zone! Having married a man from Honduras, I get that big time, but I'm grateful for my younger experience in Siberian
@Andrzej Uno is a nice game to play with children, as long as they can recognise numbers 0-9 and 4 colours, so many 4 year olds can play, with some help at first. It makes a change from Snakes and Ladders!
@Jane Wheelaghan Thank you for the short description. "Nice" and "playing with children" are incompatible in my world ;). I've been uncomfortable with children all my life. I don't find them cute, I have no idea how to talk to them or what to do around them. When kids in the family insist on drawing me into their games (which happens rarely, as my wife understands me and generally does not insist on my accompanying her to family occassions involving children), I feel drained and annoyed after mere minutes.
@Jane W. Oddly enough, in NYC growing up, we called them "sliding ponds". There's no clear understanding of how this localism developed, just guesses. Since we didn't have actual ponds anywhere nearby, we didn't think twice about it. It took me until my adult years to realize that they didn't call them that anywhere else.
This was such a fun puzzle. Thanks, Rena!
When shakshuka appeared in the May 3 crossword, I commented that I had never heard of it but wanted to try it. Someone (I’m sorry I don’t remember who it was) wanted a report, so here it is: We used the recipe in the NYT cooking app for Shakshuka With Feta by Melissa Clark. Overall, we were happy with the results and will probably make it again. The blend of flavors is very nice. But: It took me twice as long to make as the 50 minutes the recipe said it would take. Some of that is probably my fault and some of that may be cooking at 7,400+ feet (2,255+ meters). Everything seems to take longer to cook up here. With this recipe, you put the eggs in the pan and pop it in the oven to cook the eggs. We had fresh eggs that the receptionist at our dentist’s office gave us, and I failed to pick four that were the same size. Three of the eggs came out perfect cooked, with the runny yolks that we both like. But the fourth, which I think was smaller than the others, was poached medium. The recipe makes four to six servings, so we saved half the sauce for a second meal. That won’t take nearly as long to prepare. If I do it again, I would probably make the sauce ahead of time. (For all I know, it might be tastier reheated. Many things are.)
@Eric Hougland it takes so much longer than the recipe says it should. Every time. I invariably get impatient and use the broiler.
@Eric Hougland I just pop the eggs onto the vegetables/sauce on the stove and put the lid on. In several minutes the eggs are ready. Prep and cooking takes 30 minutes, tops.
@Eric Hougland I make a lot of recipes from the NYT and noticed that the times often seemed way too short. At one point I read a comment that said that the time listed refers to the time beginning at Step 1 through the end of the cooking time. So if the recipe calls for a lot of chopped veggies and doesn’t have you chopping them in one of the steps, the time listed assumes that the veggies are already prepped. I don’t know if that’s the case with the recipe you made or if it’s even accurate. But it kind of makes sense.
@Eric Hougland I guess i wasn't specific enough. I meant cover after the sauce was done and the eggs were in to help set the tops of the eggs.
@Eric Hougland High altitude cooking requires some significant changes. I never got used to it.
Today's Grid was a delightful midweek challenge—cleverly constructed, elegantly clued, and full of satisfying “aha!” moments. One standout clue that brought a smile was "Bird whose name sounds like a hip-hop dance move"—the answer: NENE. It instantly transported me back to a family road trip in Hawaii, where we spotted the endangered Hawaiian goose (the nēnē) and my niece, thinking it was pronounced like the dance, started doing the "Whip/Nae Nae" on the trail. We laughed so hard we nearly scared the poor bird off! The puzzle was rich with wordplay—entries like SIGN LANGUAGE and FINISH LINES were especially elegant, and the grid had a nice balance of pop culture (Trevor NOAH, Naomi OSAKA) and classic crossword fare (ALAN Turing, HERA). It’s the kind of puzzle that reminds you why you fell in love with crosswords in the first place. How did you do with today’s grid? Any clues that tripped you up or made you chuckle?
@Lukas Hmm, not quite so many chuckles as you! I didn't know NENE (bird or dance), NOAH, OSAKA, OMAR or the brand names, like DUNKIN, REESES or XACTOS. But it went quite well anyway, with the crossers to help. Oh, and unknown were LTE and ONE HOP. I just revealed the old car. I still enjoyed the crossword, having to use knowledge of the language to solve, and the occasional one square reveal (C of XACTOS - it's not an intuitive word to solve)
@Lukas we are in Hawaii right now and I laughed at the NENE clue because my husband sang “Now watch me whip…” when one of our kids hollered out NENE as it crossed the road in front of us just yesterday 🤣 I read the clue to them and everyone started laughing at the coincidence! We used to live in the Milwaukee area and the puzzle the other day had a lot of reminders of our time there as well (like HOT ELS).
@Jane Wheelagan <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder?w=NENE" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder?w=NENE</a> Expect to see the endangered Hawaiian goose again (at least in the puzzle).
The theme was great. I would tend to agree with @Andrzej on the moisturiser corner. Thanks
So apparently there were quite a few surveying errors when the borders of Utah were laid out using 19th-century surveying equipment. As you might imagine, the surveyors' chains, telescopes and compasses didn't yield perfectly straight surveyed borders. Indeed if you look at them on an online map you'll see dozens of little jogs and deviations; e.g., the AZ-UT border a bit more than 50 miles east of Page, AZ deviates about half a mile south as you travel towards Four Corners. So Utah is geometrically probably at least a 30-gon. :)
@Gary I have no idea how old I was at the time but I still remember my surprise when I first saw time the borders of the individual states of the USA. All those straight lines! At the time I only knew what the typical borders of a European municipality/county/region looked like - not a straight line in sight, let alone one hundreds of kilometers long. Of course, it all makes sense, European borders having arisen over centuries, if not millenia, of wars, land disputes, etc., and American ones having been laid out over just decades of rapid expansion in the industrial age. In some areas of Europe some borders haven't changed since ancient Roman times. On a micro scale, borders follow edges of fields, and in places these have stayed the same for two thousand years (or at least that's what I learned on Time Team, the archeology show).
@Gary Map lines have been drawn for many reasons. The border between Germany and Poland is a lot straighter now than it was before WW2; a new border was drawn for political reasons. Czechoslovakia was created in 1918, as was Yugoslavia. The Sykes-Picot line was drawn by France and Britain in 1916 which became the border between Iraq, Syria and Jordan.
@Jane Wheelaghan The border between Germany and Poland may be straighther than it was, in a way. However, it is not literally straight in any meaning of the word. It follows two rivers, Odra and Nysa Łużycka, with all their bends. It's not just an arrow-straight line somebody drew on a map.
@Andrzej Take a look at Baarle-Hertog / Baarle Nassau for a particularly elaborate border between Belgium and the Netherlands. International borders run through some of the houses. If ever a community benefited from the Schengen Agreement, it was Baarle!
@Gary @Andrzej There's a park in Memphis focused on the Mississippi River (which is used as a border between many states). It traces the path and has plaques commemorating various historical events. Lots of floods. One thing that particularly struck me when I visited was that sometimes, due to that flooding, the river course would shift - and land would be stuck on the other side. So while a parcel of land was initially in, say, Tennessee because it was east of the river, after a flood it might now be west of the river. Zoom in on the border and you can see lots of crazy outcroppings that no longer follow the river.
Ooooh my, got me again, with the Mini. Nothing makes you more humble than googling 'NOUSE', and having that head slap moment...oh well, it's not the first time and certainly not the last, and only you all will know I did that! And XACTOS, well, they aren't NOUSE, lol, they are in fact very useful little knives, but so sharp, and a little scary to use, just the name, oof, gives me a little shiver. Be careful out there! Have a good one all.
@Lily DOOK, dook, dook, Dook of Earl, earl, earl.... We call those "DOOKs" in PlayLand...
Nice, straightforward Tuesday puzzle with a solid theme, in the opinion of this solver. A small shout-out for the clue ""Give it ___" for A GO. A nice change-up for what is normally standard puzzle fill. A Friday-worthy clue, I thought.
Straightforward but very cute. My younger brother used to breed Polecats and Ferrets as a teen. Remarkably intelligent creatures and very friendly, if you don’t scare them. Devilish teeth though; they hook on and won’t let go. My brother lost the tip of a finger when he tried to separate two fighting males. He never did it again.
Liked this one a lot Lots of fun expressions Really all clicked together Nothing particularly obscure Good clean wordplay
A link to Rena Cohen's debut puzzle: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/3/2024" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/3/2024</a>
Very nicely done, even if I did groan when I caught it
Nice, tight theme. Deduct 1 star for lots of brandname fill and a fair bit of crossword glue. Could we re-up the dictionary with dictionary words? Looking forward to seeing how RC develops on her constructor journey. 👍
@Jimbo less than we've seen in other recent puzzles I thought, but maybe I just knew the brands and therefore wasn't as bothered
Fun puzzle. Good work, Rena!
Not a tough one, but definitely a fun one! Loved some of the clues
Really high quality fill overall in both yesterday's and today's puzzles. As a rectangle-dweller, however, I refuse to consider Utah a hexagon.
@Adin Hexagon- a plane figure with six straight sides and angles.
AWGEE, I’m afraid I found that quite tough for a Tuesday.
@suejean I got stuck there at the very last, I had OHGEE since I didn't know Khan's first name and SOL seemed possible. Not having the hip-hop bird for the cross stymied me for a while.
I am sorry, but I have to protest the “HOGWASH” clue. I am 71 years old and grew up on one of the small farms that made up America in my childhood. In addition to many other animals, we had pigs and I have never heard “HOGWASH” used to describe what they were fed. The only time I ever heard “HOGWASH” used was as a description of nonsense or trash talk.
@Ronell Miller In KY they call it "HAWGSLOP"
Slower than average— a few stumbling blocks, but a lively Tuesday. Thanks!
On the tough side for a Tuesday for me (hi Suejean). Just a lot of working the crosses and it all came together, but... must admit that I wasn't catching on to the theme at all until after I was finished and reviewed and pondered for a bit. Nice 'aha' moment when I finally caught on. Somewhat appropriate puzzle find today. A Monday from November 8, 2010 by John Dunn. Three straightforwardly clued theme answers in that one: 18a. SEIZETHEDAY 28a. GRABABITETOEAT 49a. CAPTURETHEFLAG And then the reveal clue and answer: "Commonplace utterance ... or a description of 18-, 28- and 49-Across?" CATCHPHRASE Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/8/2010&g=64&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/8/2010&g=64&d=A</a> I'm done. ....
What a lovely puzzle. So many clever, funny, misleading clues ("consumers of hogwash" was utterly brilliant). Tuesday puzzles can be great! Without any WEASEL WORDS -- Brava Rena Cohen! Bis, bis! And the Mini was actually doable. Hurray!
Fun puzzle, and as i am not s connoisseur, I have no mimor niggles to share. I thought it was a Tuesday point one two five (Tuesday.125), but i am just using numbers to obscure a subjective impression.
Fast and fun 😀 Thanks Rena Cohen.
Very strange... It's 7:48 p.m. PDT I posted a comment at 7:38 p.m. but it still hasn't shown up. And yet: I received the email, clicked on the link, opened a tab, and there it was, *with already a reco!* Now it has three recos, but still hasn't posted! I've refreshed the Wordplay page a number if times. Still, my post doesn't show up. Am I the only one who can't see it? And are emus giving recos now??? Im mystified.
Sorry about "if" instead of "of" and "Im" instead of "I'm." My auro-correct insists on un-correcting what was right all along. Anyway, the whole thing was bizarre so, when I'd had enough, I rebooted my phone and it got sorted out. Now I can see everyone's posts which I also couldn't before – only 4 were showing up, despite the bubble saying there were already 14 posts. Oy vey.
@sotto voce I am one of your recos.
@sotto voce I saw your comment (poem by Lord Byron plus your teenage bulletin board). I reco-ed it. Right below the comment was the "View all replies" thing. When I click on that the whole comment disappears. Poof! That's been happening to me for a couple of weeks. Not sure if that's a big on my end of the comment section. I use a Kindle tablet browser (Amazon Silk) and play on the NYT website.
@sotto voceI just got here, and see your Byron poem posted "18m ago", and the one I'm replying to says "8m ago". I think you might have to exit completely and go back in? (BTW - YAour first post cureently show 4 recos).
@sotto voce I replied and reco'd your poem. The comments have been acting strange all day. It's like the comments are functioning on an hourly catch-and-release basis. Very unusual.
@sotto voce By the time I've come along, both this and your previous ("Lord Byron") posts are displaying, in the correct chronological order with a few other posters in between. (For the record, the timestamp on both is currently 2h ago.) But that earlier comment says it only has 3 replies, when you say apparently there are at least 10 more! I only see three by @replay. No "View all replies" button -- so I guess I'd have to hit the timestamp to read the full conversation. Smh.