I’m sure there will be complainers that the cleverness of the constructor doesn’t trump the enjoyment of the solver, but I thought both were true here. Again, think about this accomplishment: symmetrical, great theme entries, no other Ts in the grid—this is a masterpiece and fun to solve as well. Between Sunday and today we got two treats this week.
@SP Oh and one more constraint all the pieces had to be legitimate crossword entries as well.
@SP Eh... folks can "complain" if they want to. I always enjoy folks calling out those that have criticisms. It really helps me to see from their self-centered point of view. :) Admiration vs enjoyment--you can have both, neither, or one or the other. For me, I had neither today--and that can be just as valid.
Kristopher, In my reading of this Comments section over the years, reasoned criticism has always been welcome.
@SP Ignored the gimmick and it solved just fine. So yea, aye, yep, perfection for constructor as well as the non-experienced solvers like me.
I come into a later-week puzzle hoping to have plenty of riddles to crack and to be entertained. After solving, I like to look the puzzle over and hope to be wowed by what it took to pull it together. I got all that today. The art and the science. Riddles? Plenty of no-knows and vague clues to provide my brain with a happy feast of labor. Entertainment? Plenty of wordplay in the cluing; I especially liked the original and devilish [Stage props?] for HAND. Also, spread throughout was beauty in answer, which makes my heart happy: LADYBUG, ENAMOR, VELVET, FULL DIVA, BEAGLE, LUCHADORA. If a puzzle can make my brain sweat as well as my heart smile, it is one of the special ones. Very impressive skill in the build. Getting those T’s where they had to be, making the rows where the T’s are missing consist of bona-fide words, and getting theme answers that fit symmetry requirements – wow! Color me happy, satisfied, and impressed. Standing-O, John, and thank you. This was a beast!
Two side thoughts: • My brain keeps seeing GETSHOT as GET SHOT, and I will think of that version as meaning “be photographed”. • It would have been lovely if ICED TEA was instead HIGH TEA, which could have echoed the theme.
This seems like one of those that was more fun for the constructor than the ones solving it
@Tim I dunno. I had fun solving it. The question is, why didn't you?
@Tim I’m not a fan of AMSCRAY.
@Tim Mr. Kugelman wishes he had as much fun with this as I did. Sorry Kugs. I got you beat. I loved it.
@Tim I can't imagine that the tedious, extended process of creating a good crossword is anything like the kind of "fun" there is in solving one. Satisfying maybe. But I doubt that it's continuous fun. A little like saying "That's a symphony that was probably a whole lot more fun to write than to listen to."
@Tim (to riff on Monty Python) if you enjoyed solving the puzzle just half as much as John Kugelman enjoyed constructing it, then he enjoyed it twice as much as you 😉🤓😊
@Tim It's one thing to say you didn't enjoy a puzzle. But to assume that everyone else had the same experience? Where did that come from? What is it that makes people assume that everyone must think the same way they do?
"Enjoyed this!" "I hate Thursday puzzles." "Elegantly crafted…kudos!" "That ucksayed" "an enjoyable puzzle" "Did not enjoy" I do get a kick out of the Thursday whiplash effect - when consecutive comments are on either end of the "love it or hate it" spectrum. (I'm in the "loved it" camp.)
Quick, fun Thursday solve. Clever construction! Thanks, Mr. Kugelman, for an enjoyable puzzle!
Big points from me for SCALENE. Finally 9th grade geometry pays off. Also there were many, many correct answers that would not fit into the three letters allowed for 58D.
@Jamie Yeah, I had the same thought. My first guess was refuted because there is no such words as CkRINGEY or IkVALID, SCALENE is spelled with a C and not a K.
@Jamie SCALENE was one of the many entries that defeated me in the puzzle. I don't even know how to translate that into my native tongue.
@Mark Smith The last time I would have had the chance to use the term was some 30 years ago. Trójkąt równoboczny (one with all equal sides) rings a bell. Różnoboczny, which I understand as a word ("one with unequal sides," literally), I don't recall, and Google insists on autocorrecting to równoboczny. Then again, math was the class I cared about the least in school, so who am I to comment on this...
@Jamie My geometry teacher used to say it was an ugly name for an ugly triangle 😂
FLAT EARTHER: Holding to an ungrounded belief that has been disproved for over two millennia does not constitute an opinion. It means you are delusional, that's all. Is "2 + 2 = 5" an opinion?
@Steve L Most philophers would disagree with you, but I guess that's just your opinion... <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/iy8kxh/what_exactly_is_an_opinion_can_an_opinion_be" target="_blank">https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/iy8kxh/what_exactly_is_an_opinion_can_an_opinion_be</a>/
@Steve L Next thing you’ll tell me is the Earth isn’t 6000 years old!
@Geoff FLAT EARTHER, meet young earther.
@Steven M. If I were your teacher, I wouldn't allow you to cite Reddit as source material. You do realize, any average Joe can post anything that pops into his head there? (Sorta like here.) There's no editing or fact-checking there. (Sorta like here.) Check any dictionary--an established, accepted source of linguistic information--and you'll find "opinion" described as judgment, belief, view, appraisal, thought--never the same as fact. Collins calls opinion "a belief not based on absolute certainty or positive knowledge but on what seems true, valid, or probable to one's own mind; judgment". <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/opinion" target="_blank">https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/opinion</a> You can see without a doubt the curvature of the earth from a high-flying commercial airline, let alone a spacecraft. You can fly around the world in that aircraft in the same direction until you return to where you started. There's no opinion involved here. But I'm sure you knew that.
@Steve L I was going to go off on this, but given that every time I've let myself get too enthusiastic, I end up insulting people I didn't intend to insult. Like people who both post here and are gamers. But flat earth? I've watched a lot of videos trying to figure whether these people are hucksters or really do not have the imagination to think about what it would feel like to walk on a really *BIG* globe, as opposed to an orange or a beach ball. Apparently, the 24 hours of daylight in Antarctica was the breaking point for a few flat-earthers, who owned up to their mistake. The rest just accused everyone else of tricking them with cameras and such. The standard complaint.
@Francis I'm pretty sure I'm being trolled, and I'm not dealing with a FLAT EARTHER, but someone who doesn't know where facts end and opinions begin. Or who just wants to rankle me because of the DEISM/Deist business last puzzle.
@Steve L It's nothing but a way for jokesters to bait people stupid enough to respond. Maybe they also tease monkeys at the zoo.
@Steve L As a retired philosopher, I can assure you that there are many interesting things that can be said about what constitutes an "opinion" and what constitutes a "fact". (Not to mention "theory" and "knowledge".) For your position to be true, the phrase "delusional opinion" would need to be an oxymoron, which it is not. Sadly, many people hold on to delusional opinions. (In "fact", Nietzsche claims that most people require delusional opinions in order to make life livable.) And, no, I am not a FLA EAR HER.
Steve, Not sure why you don't think a FLAT EARTHER has an opinion. This is the first M-W definition of "opinion." That the view may be preposterous or that the mind may have a problem does not seem to exclude it. 1 a: a view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/opinion" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/opinion</a>
@Steve L Steven M and BA, Regardless of the semantic dispute (and, yes, it’s a wordplay column), I know you both know where Steve L is coming from and why. My gosh, we currently have a Secretary of Health that is an ex (? is there such a thing?) heroin addict and who has a lifetime history of erratic behavior and “opinions.” And that’s just one example in the ruling I’m-entitled-to-treat-my-crazy-“opinions”-as-facts crowd.
Warren, I think Steven M. knows -- and I know I know -- that not every opinion is a reasoned opinion. And we also know what is said about opinions.
@Warren Yes! Finally someone who understands why the comment was made in the first place. (I’ll bet some of the other posters do, too.)
Steve, Saying an absurd and unreasoned opinion is not an opinion does not convince anyone of its absurdity and unreasonableness.
I'm going to the barber, salon as I remember. (I had another pun but I misplaced it. Oh, wait, hair it is.)
@Mike If you miss your appointment, I’m sure the barber will give you an extension. Unless you anger him with some snide burns.
@Mike My friend gets a thrill when she uses a herbal comb-ination to straighten her do and locks her style in place. She loves to see the frisson in thyme.
@Mike Replies being made at a fast clip today. I hope mine will comb over in time.
Ha! First Thursday puzzle in a long time that A. I solved without help amd B. i got the gimmick without tearing my hair out. So thank you, John Kugelman, for a clever and non-frustrating crossword.
I got the theme but the fill defeated me. There was so much I just did not know 1500 characters will not be enough to describe it all so I won't even try - I'll just give examples. Also, I never seem to be on the wavelength of this particular constructor. On my first across pass I solved 4 clues, and one answer was wrong (Enya over BONO). AMSCRAY... That's pig Latin, is it? I have seen that word in NYT puzzles before, I think, but it just looks so random to me I don't believe I will ever be able to remember it. Historically, a bacchanal was so much more than just a BENDER! Sure, bacchanals may have been fueled by wine (wine isn't your typical BENDER drink of choice, is it?), but they were mystical rites, all about freedom from society's rules, especially for women, dancing wildly and making love out of the city, in the domain of nature. There is something depressingly primitive about equating a bacchanal with a bender. Why clue FRAU as "Swiss Ms."? "Fräulein" is considered dated these days, as it defines women by their marital status (married: Frau; unmarried: Fräulein). Can't simply Frau, the currently marital-neutral default for politely addressing a woman, have been clued? Also, I don't think Germans, also Swiss German speakers, shorten words the way Americans do, so "Fräu." for Fräulein is probably not even a thing. I could go on, listing the dozen or more entries I ended up revealing... Not my day, fill-wise. At least I got the trick, so it was a partial success.
@Andrzej I believe Frau is used as equivalent of Mrs. & Ms. I think only English has a marital status neutral title, with others adopting the "married" title to mean adult woman and the unmarried title to know mean child or young person.
@Lauren Yes, but the clue "Swiss Ms." used an abbreviation, so apparently the answer FRAU was meant by the constructor/editor to be an abbreviation of Fräulein. Given Frau is an actual word, and the only currently acceptable polite address to any woman, the clue was weird, to say the least.
@Andrzej AFAIK, “Ms.” is a neutral term to address a woman regardless of marital status while “Mrs.” implies a married status (“Miss” is not very extant either).
@Andrzej Do you know the word SCRAM? It's slang for "Get out of here!" Deb explained pig Latin, so AMSCRAY is not random at all if you understand the construction.
@Nora I appreciate your detailed explanation. It makes sense. Thank you :) I started out with FRLN there :D Yes, it hurt to enter such a weird combo of letters into the grid. I'm glad to understand now the clue was not as bad as I thought it might be. Still, I can't think of Ms. or Mr. (or even Ms/Mr) as anything else than abbreviations. It may be about how I was shaped by my native tongue. If something is not a full word in Polish, it is an abbreviation. As for the dot or lack thereof: in Polish, if an abbreviation ends on the same letter as the full word, there is no dot, so doktor Nowak becomes dr Nowak. If the final letter is different, a dot appears. With declension, "Doctor Nowak's car" becomes "Samochód doktora Nowaka." Using abbreviations, a Polish person would style that as either "Samochód dr. Nowaka" or "Samochód dra Nowaka." BTW, I am somewhat sad nobody responded to my remarks on bacchanalia. I thought that was the most interesting part of my comment :D
"Although again, it's a puzzle, not a dictionary." What she said.
@Barry Ancona Sure, but IMO clueing a BENDER as a bacchanal is more wrong than right. Would you say a drunk sleeping in the gutter has been participating in bacchanals? Were it bacchanals that killed the kidneys of my vodka-loving grandfather, and him along with them? Surely not?
Andrzej, All of what she said.
@Andrzej FWIW I am a lifelong American who has never heard AMSCRAY! Frau was well clued though…the equivalent of Fraulein that you are thinking of is Miss, not Ms.
@Teresa I read up on pig Latin and I sort of understand it, but it just does not come naturally to me to transform words according to its rules. The whole idea is totally alien to me - I will forever remain only a Polish native speaker, and Polish does not feature its own pig Latin.
Maybe it's because I'm not British, but I never would have gotten 1-Across without crosses. The proper noun made me think it was a reference to someone in particular.
@Josh You need to read some Miss Marple stories by Agatha Christie, "Mrs McGinty's Dead" uses the term a few times.
@Josh I know full well what a nosy parker is but to me it’s such a Thing that I wouldn’t capitalise the P, so I had a similar problem in that I thought it was supposed to be a trick clue. Was disappointed when I had to finally give in to the crosses and enter the boringly straight answer SNOOPS
@Josh Brit here. I’ll keep Nosey Parker and you can keep AMSCRAY, deal? (I might even look it up and find out what it means.)
@Josh I'm not British, but I've heard that term before. There's a disturbing scene in the movie "9½ Weeks" (1986) where the Mickey Rourke character grills the Kim Basinger character about whether or not she has been a "nosy parker." It wasn't a common expression in my life, but I'd hear/see it on occasion. I don't have a particular movie to cite, but one would hear "amscray" in old films featuring the Dead End Kids (late 1930s), The Bowery Boys (1940s), and the like (if I remember correctly). We kids of the late 60s/early 70s learned Pig Latin from a popular kids' book (can't remember which one). In a similar vein, the PBS children's show "Zoom" created a language called Ubbi Dubbi, in which the sound "ub" came before every vowel sound of a word ("Hubi frubends" = "Hi friends").
Well, I *knew* I was gonna have fun when I saw it was a Kugelman. He has such high standards, sticks with them no matter how tough they make it for him, and every area of his grids show it. And he gets a kick out of entries like LUCHADORA, cuz, it’s a fun word to learn! Amiright? Yea? Aye? Yep? Such a tight theme. Gorgeous. We know you love Sundays, John, but more of these, please? But…also Sundays. Both? Both. Happy Thursday all! It’s the Friday of Fridays!
I feel like I'm on a roll this week, starting with Sunday's trippy wormhole experience! I clued into the theme pretty quickly, and that really helped me solve some of the non-theme clues. Extra points to the constructor for taking the theme seriously by not including any other Ts in the puzzle, meaning all the Ts were TEASE UP. There were also at least eight clues that made me laugh, so thank you for that.
@Janine I didn’t notice the no other Ts except the theme. That’s doubly impressive!
It’s always a good day when a feat of construction is also fun to solve. Solving from the SE corner up like I always do went pretty quickly as DEATH AND TAXES jumped out at me right away. (We shan’t mention the silly—if momentary—business of the federally mandated eLK DAY or the eid GALA or getting a lip-syncing scandal à la Milli Vanilli getting stuck in my head, and wondering why on flat earth it’d be called a tAYOLA. Because where I come from, it’s always a SKIhAt and not a SKICAP and, since I toddled in one, no one will ever convince me otherwise.) I had to look at LUCHADORA for a bit, too. I get by in Spanish but I’m no Hispanist, so I felt pretty proud of myself when the Latin-to-Spanish phonological changes dawned on me and I saw ‘luctator’—wrestler. I’ll see myself out after this line from Plautus: “[Vinum] pedes captat primum, luctātor dolosus est.” Wine is a tricky wrestler; it grabs you by the feet first. Running out the door without coffee has a similar effect, especially on a continent that just will. Not. Embrace the convenience of a Starbucks drive-thru. Happy Thursday, everyone.
@Sam Lyons I was not a super fan of the SKI CAP, but I do wear a Gebirgsjäger cap (complete with edelweiss pin) on days when I don't need to cover my ears, so I'll allow it.
@Sam Lyons “Because where I come from, it’s always a SKIhAt and not a SKICAP . . . .” Where I come from, it’s always a SKIhelmet. I don’t see many hats or caps on skiers anymore.
Wow, wow, WOW!!! How do these constructors DO it?? Early on I was confronted by CONS for *Mensa (Srsly?) but as is my wont, I just kept on and waited for enlightenment. I not only fell for the trick clues, I created my own stumper by christening Darwin's ship as The BEAVER. Oops! But it did make me laugh. 21D was a big stumper--winkled out letter by letter, really--and of course I know nothing about BONO or the Lennon's son. The Crosses to the rescue! Wonderful beginning to the day. I recall the PAYOLA scandal, but the biggest one was the Fifties TV contest in which Charles Van Doren admitted to cheating. I was in 7th grade; I wrote a skit for a group in science class using the quiz show format. I was the contestant with wildly obvious cheats--answers up my sleeve, written on my palm--read while pinching the bridge of my nose, etc.
@Mean Old Lady I somehow thought the ship was the Snoopy. Close, eh? Rats!!
I finished a bit under average time for me, but then took another few minutes trying to find how to get the rather obvious lower two theme answers. Once I did, I figured out the third one on top and learned something I never knew before. Well done.
Too hard for me, phew! I caved and turned on autocheck. And it’s the first time I can recall not understanding the theme even after finishing the puzzle and having to get it from the column. But once I did, I thought it was brilliant. Bravo to all those who solved it! I’ll get there someday.
Noemi, Great attitude. I'm sure you'll get there before the next time you're called for jury duty!
I thought the Ts were in the black squares and wondered what was up with up. Wow, just wow. That must have made this even more challenging to construct. Very impressive. I'll amscray now.
Okay, fellow solvers, this is a real rough day for me but this puzzle was a joy!! As soon as I saw who the constructor was I had a good association with the name, so I must have solved other of his puzzles and liked them a lot too. Anyhow, I haven't read the comments but I'm sure it's a mixed bag as so many fun Thursdays are. Anyhow, just wanted to show my appreciation for a terrific puzzle that made a yucky day kind of less yuckyish.
@HeathieJ Thoughts and prayers. Hope all is well with you. ...
@HeathieJ I'm beginning to be convinced that the NYT has intentionally crippled this forum, and it's really bothering me that we can't get *anyone* to listen to what I think are very clear, very precise challenges to their thinking on the issue. FROM THEIR PAYING USERS!!!!!!! Every forum struggles with nested replies, but to conclude that "we'll clean things up by disappearing replies to replies" is simple insane. I realize it's somewhat awkward, but certainly not less awkward than not seeing that someone replied to you? What can they be thinking? This is so discouraging, because this was a great place for conversation. Does the NYT know that conversation required replies to replies? Anyway, I've enjoyed e-meeting you. Take care.
Francis, If to reply to anyone in the thread you "click" on Reply on the original post in the thread, everyone should be able to see your reply. It's a pain to have to use a workaround, but it usually works.
That's what I did above, and it showed up right away.
@HeathieJ Whatever’s going wrong today, I hope it gets better tomorrow. Hang in there. You’re definitely one of the good ‘uns.
@Barry Ancona Yeah, thanks for the reminder about the workaround. Still, though, I'll miss a reply if someone replies to *that* post. So it's still badly broken, and they don't even seem to realize it. God forbid they publish something *explaining* their thinking, and asking for comments.
Another Themeless Thursday. I finished the puzzle (faster than average time) and stared at it, and eventually saw that Ts would make the lines with starred entries correct. Didn't even notice the actual Ts above the black squares until I came here, which makes me feel pretty dumb, since that's exactly where the revealer says they are. Impressive construction, but I never saw it until after filling everything in.
If I rewrite my comment and make it reeeeeally short, will the emus allow it? Theme? Tight. Grid? Brilliant. Kugelman? Two thumbs up.
Now that was a great Thursday puzzle! A mind-bendingly clever trick that was fully integrated into the solve, snappy cluing, some really fun entries -- especially liked AMSCRAY, LUCHADORA, and LADYBUG. Well done, John Kugelman!!
I first thought it was just the Ts hiding in the black squares, the sort of thing we've seen before. But then I noticed that there were a few Ts showing up in other answers, and that was a bit confusing/concerning. The revealer got me straightened out. Clever puzzle, and thanks, John!
@JayTee I thought the same about the t’s in the black squares…and didn’t get the t’s above until you mentioned it! Ha
@JayTee Same here! Great puzzle and loved LUCHADORA as I have a friend who sometimes wears women’s wrestling tee shirts.First had LUCHA rosA. Thanks to the constructor and Deb.
Well, the less said about that, the better. Not only did I feel I was on a different wavelength from the constructor, I seemed to be searching for an AM station using an FM radio. Not my favourite. So here's a bit of crossword inspired trivia, instead: The CONSTELLATION Mensa is not a table, as its Latin name suggests, but a mountain. It was originally Mons Mensae, Table Mountain. It was named by Lacaille during his time at the observatory in Cape Town, when he had a good view of both mountain and constellation. He chose the name because the constellation wears the Large Magellanic Cloud like a hat, just as Table Mountain is often capped with orographic cloud.
Truly a very clever and fun Thursday puzzle!
TIL that MENSA is a constellation seen in the Southern Hemisphere. Will it be a familiar to our Australian solvers or our poster in Antarctica, who has not been heard from recently?
@Vaer Constellations usually have different names in Polish and English. I have never heard of either the Mensa constellation or Gwiazdozbiór (our word for constellation, literally: group of stars) Góry Stołowej (góra stołowa, "table mountain", is one of our words for a mesa, and mensa means "table" in Latin).
@Vaer Aussie here, I thought I knew my southern skies but Mensa was new to me as a constellation. Fortunately I still got the answer - and with the added bonus of learning something new ;)
@Andrzej This is the link to the article where I read about Mensa. I just didn't feel like going into the whole story. The guy who "discovered" it was in South Africa on Table Mountain at the time. <a href="https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/mensa-constellation" target="_blank">https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/mensa-constellation</a>/
@Vaer Yes, I saw that, too. Still, in Polish table mountain is a generic name, not only a proper one. Even if the constellation was named for a specific table mountain, any mesa may be called table mountain in Polish.
@Vaer I would guess not. I'm guessing most people only know a few constellations other than the zodiac constellations, "The Big Dipper" Ursa Major, Orion, and maybe "The Little Dipper" Ursa Minor. Also in the northern hemisphere we have some lesser known, less brilliant ones, like Ophiuchus and Scotum, Aquila and Draco.
This puzzle ruined my belief that I was getting good at this.
This is what Thursdays are all about. A beaut!
It happens often that I see a clue and so many different possible answers go through my mind. Some are even silly dark humor (if they [Croaked] then they died and are now hopefully ReStED. Oh, you meant how they sounded?) How many words did I think of for [Captivated]? I only had the N in place. If the answer had also an ED ending, I figured language pattern would give me an E before that N. ENraptured! ENchanted! ENtranced! ENAMORED was the very last one to come to me. But at that moment I knew – any of the above would have translated into words my feelings about this construction. I was only let down by not having more themers. I truly wanted them to go on and on. Thank you for this masterful work, Mr. Kugelman! Yet again, you've left me EN HRALLED by your creativity and skill. P.S. Shout-out to BONO! <a href="https://youtu.be/yLvpZwN9Oko?si=qES7pVLTk9U_b1mq" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/yLvpZwN9Oko?si=qES7pVLTk9U_b1mq</a>
This was probably the first puzzle I ever gave up on 3/4 through. Just became a total slog I couldn’t enjoy. I feel bad now understanding the theme, very clever construction!
I got it, but I didn't get it. But now I get it. Got it?
Et voila! Loved it. Felt fresh, new cluing (CROOK) and fun gimmick. LADYBUG and LUCHADORA and the HMS BEAGLE!
A mistake in the SE corner kept me from getting the revealer until everything else was filled in. So I finished the puzzle, but I didn’t really solve it. Disappointing, but it’s my own fault. The idea was ingenious, and the puzzle was constructed to a T.
Brilliant Thursday construction. Took me more than 30 minutes, but I got it solved without assistance. Definitely hampered me that TEASEUP was unknown to me. But I had enough of that entry to realize that the "raised" letters were all T's, and that did the trick. Definitely helped that I realized Mensa was a constellation (though certainly an obscure one, in more ways than one), and I knew VEGA. Also helped that I remembered Sacco and Vanzetti, though NICOLA I got mostly from the crosses. Almost nothing in this grid was CRINGEY. Even some of the GLUE here was interesting, like the quartet of AYE, YEA, YEP and EYE. "Female in Mexican-style wrestling" still means nothing to me, though I got LUCHADORA easily enough. Liked the "French connection" with ETVOILA crossing MOT. Liked "Stage props?" for HAND, especially since "stagehand" is a also a word, but here "hand" refers to applause. Another sure contender for a puzzle of the year. An outstanding puzzle.
@Xword Junkie A luchador is a male wrestler in the Mexican style, where they wear fantastic masks (from the Spanish "luchar"/"to fight"). Per Spanish grammar, a female wrestler gets an "a" at the end, hence LUCHADORA. For further reference, check out the Jack Black movie Nacho Libre (jk jk)
@ Pythia Thanks. My knowledge of Spanish allowed me to get LUCHADORA easily enough. I am unfamiliar with Mexican-style wrestling, but why wasn't the clue just "Female Mexican-style wrestler"? Or do females play some other role in this activity? Just very strangely worded to me.
@Xword Junkie On first pass I had only VEGA, KIPLING and SCALENE, but had pencilled in LUCHADORA. And that was the high point of the puzzle, for me! I know nothing about wrestling in general, Mexican wrestling doubly so. But I seem to have encountered "luchador" at some time, and retained it because I know that "lucha" means "fight". So I just converted to a feminine ending and whapped it in, speculatively, for the sake of a toehold. The fact I find this so satisfying says much about how excruciating I found progress after that.
@Xword Junkie After voting in last year's POY election for the first time, I told myself I would keep a list of potential nominees. Today I actually started it. 😁 Thanks, Mr. Kugelman!
just an absolutely abysmal puzzle. top L starts with 5 proper nouns all crossing each other. Top R has 3 quotes on top of each other, 2 of which i wouldn't have come up with if given a month, crossed with 'MOT' and another proper noun, then another 15 proper nouns scattered below. impossible to get to the theme when you find yourself unknowingly playing jeopardy!
For me AMSCRAY was one of those ‘Oh no they wouldn’t’ ‘ OMG … they did! And I got it!!’ 🎉🎉🎉 moments. Did I get solve it clean? Not even close. Even more reason to thump my chest for that one. Good, tough Thursday puzzle!
AYE,YEA, YEP, I enjoyed this Thursday, and did not need to RANT or go FULLDIVA. I liked the gimmick, although it’s been done before, perhaps because, for once, I saw it pretty quickly without needing the revealer, and it helped with my solve. It also helped that I recognized the need for pig Latin quickly and came up with AMSCRAY. It was mildly tricky to have ta da lead to ETVOILA without the usual hint that a foreign language was involved, but the crosses made it easy enough to spot. LUCHADORAS was new to me as was ASUS.
@Marshall Walthew Anyone else have CANT instead of RANT? The down clue was no help at all.
Very clever! I happened onto the revealer early on, so that helped a lot. Impressed that all the in-betweeners were also real words. A fun puzzle; thanks John Kugelman!
Whew. Typical tough Thursday for me, and just a lot of working the crosses to get anywhere early on. And was appropriately puzzled for a good long time. But... finally tumbling to the trick was a tremendous 'aha' moment. That made it all worthwhile. And of course my puzzle find today. Don't recall ever seeing another one like this. A Tuesday from October 18, 2011 by Patrick Berry. The theme clues and answers: "Starch: a cross between ___?" STARSKYANDHUTCH "Pimple: a cross between ___?" PUREANDSIMPLE "Hisses: a cross between ___?" HUGSANDKISSES "Beetles: a cross between ___?" BEERANDSKITTLES Pretty clever. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/18/2011&g=5&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/18/2011&g=5&d=D</a> I'm done. ...
This was great. I figured I was on the right wavelength when I filled in AMSCRAY without hesitation, and immediately saw several of the Downs from that starting point. For anyone who hated that clue and answer, consider that they have the perfect pairing of tone and level of colloquial humor that makes it a great late-week clue. It took just a few crosses to come up with KIPLING, which always brings to mind that classic cartoon: Do you like KIPLING? I don't know, you naughty boy, I've never kippled. Just so much to like in this one, but especially the starred clues and answers. I didn't cotton onto the special treatment of the letter T. I just assumed the T's were in the black squares, but imagine how hard it must have been to construct a puzzle and avoid the most frequently used consonant. Also, Deb, thanks for the reminder of Amy's heartbreaking talent. <a href="https://youtu.be/AL-nv-7TIws?si=c9qzaTzq67p3k3Qz" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/AL-nv-7TIws?si=c9qzaTzq67p3k3Qz</a>
@Jack McCullough Although now that I see this again, I'm much more likely to say "Make like an egg and beat it," or even "Let's put an egg in our shoe and beat it".
My solve went just like Deb’s in that I saw the trick with FLA EAR HER and also had GETSmad before HOT. I also had Enya before BONO, but figured it out once I entered SEAN for [Younger Lennon son]. And I also fell victim to the Acer before ASUS error. On a side note, I always find it CRINGEY when I see people misspell VOILA as VioLA or wahLAh when they clearly mean VOILA. Perfect Thursday to me, although I love a good rebus and admit to a little disappointment when it isn’t. But I did enjoy this one and appreciate how difficult it was to construct within the constraints set by John. Let’s give John a HAND 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
First crossword I've done in a while, and really enjoyable. Thanks
“AMSCRAY” is nothing short of terrible.
Solved the puzzle but couldn't figure out the theme for the life of me. Very creative.
Had three empty spots when I got the revealer, so it was a cool 'aha' moment when it clicked. Neat trick. Overall, though, the trend of easy fill on Thursday continues - I think? I went with 'et voila' immediately, but an answer in pig latin was unexpected (and funny). YMMV, at they say.