Clever theme well executed. Kudos to the constructor.
Regarding the character alignment of NYT games, I’d put the Bee in chaotic evil. Definitely not lawful, because it’s arbitrary which words are included or excluded from the game. There’s no law or rule governing it - just one man’s whim.
@Sara W I was going to say this too!!! Connections can be evil, but I don't think it's as chaotic as the Bee!
@Sara W I ow longer play Spelling Bee because of that. The annoyance outweighs the fun.
@Sara W Agreed, the Bee is not lawful when the word list is arbitrary. I only played it a few times before giving it up as funless.
@Sara W I still play it (despite being cheated) but TRULL should be included if LAICS is allowed. Pfui!
@Sara W Someone has to edit this game, so there is no way to prevent its being arbitrary. I still like it.
@Sara W for those looking for a less arbitrary version of Spelling Bee, consider the Pangram app on iOS (not sure if it’s available for other platforms). The free version uses a much broader (though still curated) dictionary, while the paid version (something like $3.99 one time) allows you to choose from a few dictionaries. I’ve been using it for a few years now.
@Sara W there does seem to be a bias against medical terminology, in the Bee. Words like otic and tracer are never accepted.
@Sara W thank you!! That game drives me nuts and I almost never play it as a result. Also, the commentariat is … intense. God help you if you break one of their 700 rules.
@Sara W I finally got Genius this morning after entering 51 words. Half a dozen words were rejected as not being on the word list, although they are legitimate words in common usage. Foreign words are not accepted, but words like lobo, toro, and luna are common English words? It's maddening, and I routinely enter words that were rejected in the past to see if they might have been added (never are).
NOIFSANDSORBUTS about it, this was a fun Thursday. I could see that the starred clues were missing letters, but it wasn’t until I got the revealer that the light bulb went on and I fully got the trick. A STandOUT puzzle.
Oh wow, I did great today! Not only did I get the theme, but I also needed no lookups. The solve took me about my Thursday average - 25 minutes. I was completely lost for a long time - I quickly understood the theme was about making words shorter. Then I realized it would not be a rebus, as I saw no way to reconcile acrosses and downs using the rebus mechanic. However, the clueing seemed particularelry not on my wavelength so I had too few crosses to reveal the revealer. I was *this* close to starting Googling unknows when things finally clicked into place. I struggled the most in two places. The first was around SATCH - I recalled Louis Armstrong's nickname as SATCHmo, so I was confused by there being too few squares for the answer. The second was the NE corner. ATRA I must have seen many times in these puzzles but as a brand name it is something I keep forgetting. Laura Ingalls Wilder did not sound familiar, and I just wasn't getting the clue for ARMY. Still, as I got more crosses from other answers, they gave me THE PRAIRIE, and that allowed me to deal with that section. The Little House on the Prairie was on TV here when I was a child but I didn't like it, I seem to recall, because I found it boring and sentimental. I only grew into human interest stories in my 40s. Having ewE for DOE caused some problems, too, but I sorted them out in the end. For me, this was a very enjoyable Thursday puzzle.
@Andrzej SATCH is a nickname of a nickname of a nickname. As a kid, he was called SATCHELMOUTH due to the size of his mouth. It was later shortened to SATCHMO, and sometimes he was just called SATCH.
@Andrzej For this use of ARMY, I think of "Arnie's ARMY", the huge group of fans that used to follow Arnold Palmer around on the golf course. (This is helpful for us crossword solvers because "Arnie" is sometimes clued as "Sportsman with an army.")
@The X-Phile Yes, I got that as soon as crosses revealed it. I just couldn't arrive at the answer myself from the clue alone, for some reason. As for the golfer you mention, I remember encountering him for the first time in NYT puzzles. I grimmaced, probably, and thought: I'm supposed to know *golfers* now? 🤣 Golf is completely alien to me, much more than, say, American football, so clues about golfers and golf itself are my ultimate nemesis.
First time ever (I think) that I actually got the trick and revealer without having to read Deb’s comments. So I loved it! Thanks.
@Laura Congratulations! Can't think of a nicer grid for you to have met with success. 💫
I dig it, and some sly fox cluing. Some will say they caught on as early as VERY, and maybe it would have been more challenging had the revealer clue not been highlighted for each asterixed clue, which gave the game away; I would have been kept guessing a little longer till I meandered my way to the revealer (seasoned players probably hunt for the revealer, usually in the classic area I think of as the Carolinas of the grid, but I prefer to try figuring it out on my own before I get down there). Thinking about it, it's not easy to come up with words or phrases which make sense when any of those three words is removed. An alternative to BANDITS could be BRIG(AND)S. I rather fancy brigands. Companionship?--loved it. A good Monday puzzle could be built around words that end in -ship. Welcomes you aboard? RECEIVERSHIP! Trial at sea for a mutineer? COURTSHIP! A fine debut, no clunkers (I'm a bit sick of Oslo), lots of fresh fill and clever phrasing. And St. Lucia, home of Derek Walcott. MAP OF THE NEW WORLD At the end of this sentence, rain will begin. At the rain's edge, a sail. Slowly the sail will lose sight of islands; into a mist will go the belief in harbours of an entire race. The ten-years war is finished. Helen's hair, a grey cloud. Troy, a white ashpit by the drizzling sea. The drizzle tightens like the strings of a harp. A man with clouded eyes picks up the rain and plucks the first line of the Odyssey. --- Derek Walcott (1986)
@john ezra Nice! Would like to add HMS hardSHIP to your flotilla. There were solving woes asea - like others, my chef was not trained in sausage making, so I butcheted that corner MYSELF!
@john ezra «Sick of Oslo»? What?? ;-) But I have to admit that the clue this time was very esoteric - Oscarshall is nice, but not really one of the greatest sights or attractions in Oslo.
@john ezra Thank you for introducing me to that lovely poem, and the poet! But . . . . . . hopefully Odysseus, Menelaus, et alii don't get any unwanted ingredients in their smoroi!
@john ezra Pittsburgh you rock! Thanks for the poem! And I’m partial to BRIGANDS myself. ❤️
My mutterings right towards the end: CHERBUT? CHERIF? CANDHER? (That was a really entertaining butcher!) (And @NS, the answer for you) A ST(AND)OUT puzzle.
@Cat Lady Margaret Haha, same! Plus CHifER CHandER and a slew of other nonsensery. Makes me feel better that I wasn’t wandering alone down that path. 🤗
@Beth C I still don’t get it that particular entry and I solved the puzzle and have no clue!
@Cat Lady Margaret I really really wanted to make it Chief or Chef somehow, but alas. Super fun puzzle
Wow! D**ficult & elegantly constructed theme.
As a SERB MYSELF, having SERBS as an answer for my birthday made me smile so wide. :) Loved the puzzle overall, too. I figured out the theme relatively early on, but figuring out the rest of the theme entries was still a pleasant challenge. More like this! Have a lovely day everyone!
Oh, I liked seeing TACO for the second time this week, and I'll leave it at that.
There have been debut puzzles recently that were made after many Times rejections of previous puzzles – which I found inspiring. Today we have the opposite, where this is the first puzzle the constructor ever crafted, and it got accepted! That’s inspiring as well. There’s nothing amateur about the build, either. The theme answers, including the revealer are either symmetrical or centered. The grid symmetry is left/right, which is not the standard design. The theme answers minus the IFs, ANDs, or BUTs, make bona fide crossword answers. And ten theme answers! That spanning revealer looks gorgeous in the grid, no? I love when a Thursday puzzle evokes a “What the heck is going on?” My brain revels in cracking the riddle. I love when a world-class clue shows up in the box, like today’s [Companionship?]. Fun, satisfying, and inspiring. You hit the trifecta, Timothy – congratulations on your debut, and thank you for this!
NO IFS ANDS OR BUTS is one of those phrases just begging for a theme, and this theme has been done before, though never as it was done today. An example of how it was done differently is a puzzle last year in Universal Crosswords, where the trick occurred in the clues, so ALTO, for instance, was clued [Butcher’s range].
I enjoyed it and very well executed. It is one of those themes though, that even when you get it, it doesn’t help with the solve. Almost all the theme entries I got from crosses and then had to figure out where the missing words went. For example, I just now figured out SifTING—I was trying to figure out how STandING meant “getting the lumps out”—although sometimes I do feel a little lumpy when I sit too long. But finally I figured they wouldn’t use both STandING and STandOUT. Still I appreciate a clever theme that is this well done.
@SP Disagree that the theme didn’t help. Somewhat stymied until I found the revealer. Theme answers basically revealed themselves after that and the puzzle took just over half my average.
@SP Thanks to your comment I _will_ sleep tonight 🙂
@SP Okay but can someone please explain how [Someone who knows how the sausage is made?] becomes CHER?
@SP Thank you! I was going crazy trying to figure out what to put in STING to make it smoothing the lumps out. I'm an occasional baker so I have no excuse for not recognizing it was SIFTING. Same as you, I kept trying to make it STandING which was obviously wrong.
@SP Disagree thoroughly that the theme didn't help. I'm sure it didn't help you, but I'll bet it helped thousands of solvers. On a Thursday, one expects a trick. When you face this kind of situation, you may see, after getting crosses to the theme answers, that the resulting answers don't make sense. The best strategy is to just leave it as it is, and hope for some help later. My experience was that I realized early on that it was the BUTCHER, not CHER, who knew how the sausage got made. So I looked around for a revealer clue, and found it in 63A, and knew immediately what it was. Now, knowing that I had to insert IFS and ANDS as well as BUTS into the theme answers, I had a leg up on the game. I'll bet many other solvers had similar experiences.
@SP I got the revealer early, and it helped me with most of the themed clues. SifTING and WAifS were the tricky ones for me. I needed crosses to get them.
@SP I split the difference; I got some of them on crosses, and some once I got the revealer. There were some I absolutely couldn't figure out until I stared at them post-solve; they were the same ones others have asked about here.
@SP OK. This is #2 for me. I now know STING and CHER. I hope someone will soon explain BITS
Loved this. And although I completed it under my average time, I don't think it was because it is 'easier', it was just that I didn't have to struggle with US sports clues or geography (although I'm gradually getting better at these...). Took me while to realise it was ASH not ant....
@EnglishRose Yes another Brit here who struggles with the endless abbreviations for the endless number of US agencies and organisations. The rest of the puzzles are fine though
@EnglishRose I didn't recognise Wilder as the author of Little House on the Prairie but there were enough crossers to get the answer. And that allowed me to get the last letter of ATRA which, as a current beard wearer and previous user of electric razors, I didn't know. "li'l; Belly" as a term was new to me and I only know the Hughes poem through doing this crossword. But there were enough crossers to solve these. The key thing with general knowledge clues is the avoidance of difficult crossers.
@EnglishRose I also had Ant at first, but I guess, if there were an ant in my s'more, I probably wouldn't notice, what with all the ASH.
If 57A didn’t make you laugh then why do you even do crosswords?
Louis Armstron was never called Satch. Except by lamebrain hipsters. It is Satchmo.
@Mike I thought it must be a rebus fill because SatchMO didn't fit. SATCH was one of my last fills, because was just plain w-r-o-n-g.
@Mike Nancy J, hours earlier, said: SATCH is a nickname of a nickname of a nickname. As a kid, he was called SATCHELMOUTH due to the size of his mouth. It was later shortened to SATCHMO, and sometimes he was just called SATCH. Which is completely believable. We Americans always shorten words, especially nicknames. The general public may only have heard of him as Satchmo, but I bet people who worked with him or saw him frequently would have called him Satch.
Francis, I'm amused to see people who have likely never met a person to be sure of what that person was never called.
@Mike I believe that was the easy mode clue.
Loved this puzzle! Conjunction Junction what’s your function? Schoolhouse Rock.
I had a couple of cocktails with friends and thought I’d try this one at 10 pm when it dropped. I chose…poorly. OASTS? SATCH (Satchmo was too long back in the day?) Lil’ belly is TUM? Had to cheat to finish this one and still earned cocktail #3. No ifs ands or I don’t cares.
@Dan I got stuck on the Louis Armstrong clue too because when Satchmo didn't fit, I thought maybe he had a different nickname.
@Dan I suppose there are references to SATCH somewhere, but it's thumbs down from me.
@Dan Is your name actually Daniel? Same number syllables as Satchmo, and fewer letters...
"Perhaps my next film will be about a daring cruciverbalist who creates puzzles that reveal the secrets to eternal happiness." Mr. Gaetz, you haven't yet made the film, but it's already a hit in my book. And though your puzzle hasn't revealed the secrets to eternal happiness, it has succeeded in making me very happy for tonight! I adored this puzzle. An inverted rebus. Brilliant. Not wanting to get the themers only from crosses, I grappled with them (except for VERifY, the easiest one) and found it to be more difficult than figuring out the usual rebus. 'Twas a wonderful challenge. I didn't know there was a sandwich debate before seeing it in the puzzle, but my gut reaction was that a TACO is a taco, a wrap is a wrap, and a sandwich is a sandwich. They are not synonyms; the contents of each one are encased very specifically – and that is why a sandwich is also not a taco nor a wrap. :-D Thank you for the fantastic puzzle, Mr. Gaetz, and congratulations on a memorable debut!
@sotto voce Judge John Hodgman agrees with you!
@sotto voce What? No puzzle-related musical coda? FIFY <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2LDPUfbXRLM&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2LDPUfbXRLM&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD</a>
@sotto voce Apparently, that song (written by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks, lyrics by Andy Razaf) has an interesting history. Per Wikipedia: "Black and Blue" debuted in the Broadway musical Hot Chocolates (1929), sung by Edith Wilson. Razaf biographer Barry Singer recounts that the lyricist was coerced into writing the song (with music by Waller) by the show's financier, New York mobster Dutch Schultz, though Razaf subverted Schultz's directive that it be a comedic number:[4] ‘He demanded a comedy song for a lady who says how tough it is to be black...He literally put a gun to Andy's head and told him that if he didn't write it he would never write again. The opening-night response to the song was silence -people were stunned. Then they went crazy. Andy hadn't written the comedy song Schultz wanted, but because it was a hit, Schultz left him alone.’ — Barry Singer, author of "Black and Blue: The Life and Lyrics of Andy Razaf” [5] In the show, Wilson originally sang the song from a bed with white sheets, but the bed was removed after the first show due to the judgement that it was too suggestive.[6] The show also included Waller and Razaf's hit songs "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose".[7]
@sotto voce Oh yeah, you’re right about that. Not sure if you’ll see this, but recently I stumbled upon Mary Spender’s fantastic interpretations of Mark Knopfler’s Sultans of Swing, both in word: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ84bFlwH3U" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ84bFlwH3U</a> and in song: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PcVJrul4sOA&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PcVJrul4sOA&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD</a> Smoky!
@sotto voce Sorry! Meant this one for the first one! <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_g00S-a_0lo&pp=0gcJCY0JAYcqIYzv" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_g00S-a_0lo&pp=0gcJCY0JAYcqIYzv</a>
@sotto voce Actually, I’ve been trying to learn Mark K’s gorgeous song Romeo & Juliet. Not only is the finger style unique and challenging, that first barre chord is a real pain for my peri-arthritic hand. Mary Spender and friend do a great cover of that. I love her videos. <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oe7LD9m-4Hc&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oe7LD9m-4Hc&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD</a>
This is one fine debut! Thank you for a fab grid, Timothy Gaetz. A secret to eternal happiness? Lots of love, music, laughter and sunshine. Here comes the fun, no ifs, ands, or buts Here comes the fun, and I say It's all right! Little solver, it's been a long cold lonely Wednsday Little solver, it feels like Tim's been here for years! Here comes the fun, no ifs, ands, or buts Here comes the fun, and I say It's all right! Little solver, those three words will return to spaces Little solver, it's like a POW from here! Here comes the fun Here comes the fun, and I say It's all right Fun, fun, fun, here it comes Fun, fun, fun, here it comes Fun, fun, fun, here it comes Fun, fun, fun, here it comes Fun, fun, fun, here it comes
22A reminds me of a funny story. Some years ago when my son was 8 or 9, we came up with the idea of roasting some of his Easter peeps in the toaster oven to make s’mores. I advise against trying this. It turns out that the granulated sugar coating results in a relatively low ignition point and the tray of peeps exploded in flames within 5 or 10 seconds of being placed under the broiler. It also turns out that my husband has absolutely no sense of adventure when it comes to food experimentation.
@Cyndie Just be thankful you didn’t try putting the peeps in the microwave. This guy rigged his 1000 Watt MW to produce 100,000 watts and tried it out on a peep. Too funny…. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/fstcc6f6" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/fstcc6f6</a>
@Andrzej If you can get the link Hardroch provided, I think it's an excellent illustration of the level of cultural sophistication involved. And an appropriate usage of that product.
@Hardroch Too funny! But my initial reaction was dismay over his willingness to sacrifice a Corelle Spring Blossom plate. 🤣
Kudos, Timothy! I initially hadn't read your Constructor Notes, but it was pointed out on The Other Blog that was the first puzzle you'd ever constructed and that it was accepted by the NYT -- with no history of past rejections. So you're batting 1,000, and I hope you'll continue in this new venture. That we'll see you represented here often in the future. This is a very strong debut -- beautifully constructed, often quite "puzzling" in the best possible way, and much fun to solve.
Very nice Thursday puzzle. For some reason, I started filling the clues from the bottom and the big theme appeared right away. Starred clue 42D helped me what to look for in the other starred clues. Favorite clue of the night: 57A Companionship?
Wow, what a satisfying puzzle to finish. And very few obscure proper names Outstanding debut
Enjoyed this one lots. Smelled a rat right off with Ver..y - hmm. No if. Then the phrase popped right in my head. Only had trouble with sifting and butcher.
@Chris oh, S(if)TING. I couldn’t figure out how ST(and)ING answered the clue 😂. Thanks.
Haven’t done the crosswords in a while. Actually still solving today’s. But had to stop and write “companionship” is the the greatest clue I’ve seen in a long long time. Didn’t read article or comments yet. But I hope my sentiment was repeated over and over in the comments. Back to solving. Btw. I figured out the revealer on the first starred clue I came across. [pats self on back]
@Weak 20 minutes to solve all but four cells. 10 minutes trying to figure out if a shirt is button.on or button.up The actually answer never occurred to me. Until it finally did. Haven’t done puzzle in about a month. I’ve been cheating myself of fun. Nice puzzle today. Thanks constructor/editors.
Congratulations to our constructor for having DEED* in the NYT. (No BUTs about it.) A very fine Thursday puzzle. I got the theme quite early and immediately filled in the revealer. And then breezed along until I had to provide STING, TONED and WAS. Normally I can visualize such things, but today I needed to write these on paper before I saw the missing IF, BUT, and IF, respectively. Really liked this one, though it took me almost 30 minutes to finish. I enjoyed the challenge!
@Xword Junkie THANK YOU! I came to the comments desperate to find out what 28D was supposed to be. My brain just could not. I really need to sleep...
@Katie SIFTING flour, say. This also was the last special answer that I glommed onto.
This was an amazing construction. Well done!
“Mastery over chaos” is a great way to describe this solve. Until I got the revealer, I was positive this was a rebus puzzle. (I blame SATCH. Is that really a valid nickname? Where is the “mo”??) But it turned out to be the exact opposite— in a deliciously non-evil way. Great de*, Mr. Gaetz. And for the record, I am emphatically Team Taco is Not a Sandwich. (It is a taco.)
I was tempted to ask, "Any relation?"....but this puzzle is SO clever that it isn't possible. What fun! And little tricks to boot! I always have to wait for AVOW/AVER to reveal which is correct, so I went down to the bottom of the puzzle, where I soon had this configuration: -RBU_S.....and I didn't need the clue at all. Sometimes things just come to you! I frittered a couple of minutes trying to think of a name for the musical "FLAT sign" and I waffled a bit at the end about AMFM versus AMPM (memories of my faithful clock-radio awakening me every morning with WGUC --Cincinnati's NPR station--sending me off to teach...) Tricky, tricky! Loved it!
@Mean Old Lady I originally had AMfM in there, too. My husband still uses a clock radio.
@Mean Old Lady I dunno, the other Mr Gaetz was pretty "creative." And my clock radio has an AM/FM toggle, but you gave to scroll past 12:00 to toggle from AM to PM.
Even having figured out the trick, some of the * words were still very difficult.
A taco is not a sandwich, but the real question is whether a hotdog is a sandwich. Judge John Hodgman says neither of them are sandwiches, and here's his reasoning: <a href="https://maximumfun.org/transcripts/judge-john-hodgman/transcript-judge-john-hodgman-a-hot-dog-is-not-a-sandwich" target="_blank">https://maximumfun.org/transcripts/judge-john-hodgman/transcript-judge-john-hodgman-a-hot-dog-is-not-a-sandwich</a>/ Fun theme and impressive that there were so many theme words and they were all real words without the missing letters. I picked up on VER(if)Y immediately. Before getting to the revealer, I thought the missing letters were just conjunctions in general. Having the theme words highlighted helped a lot, but I wonder if it would have been more fun without that help. 5A Leader of brothers stumped me at first because I assumed it was looking for a word that comes before the word "brothers." Just when I think I have crossword cluing figured out, I realize I am Jon Snow. Can someone please explain the two interjections in OMAHA? I see AHA, but OM?
@Beth Is a hot dog a sandwich? I say YES!
@Beth I haven't been to Umaha in quite some time but they have a very nice zoo, I hear.
@Beth it’s “O” and “MAHA”, but the latter is only uttered by RFK Jr. Seriously, I don’t get it either. Anyone?
@Beth hey beth...i thought when the entries arent real words it makes it more fun. you sure?
@Beth Hodgman's argument has a definite "featherless biped with flat nails" vibe. Now I'm imagining Diogenes with a taco, "behold, a sandwich!"
@Beth My interpretation was "oh" and "hah" as sounds. The solution was obvious enough, but the clue was a little suspect, imo. Although Jeb Jones' RFK answer is funnier.
@Al in Pittsburgh @Jeb Jones @Sam Lyons @Nora @Steve L Well, it's a relief to know there wasn't one obvious answer to my OMAHA question that I just wasn't seeing. As you were...
@Sam Lyons I know I need to give meditation more of a chance, but I am lousy at clearing my mind. Since I only vaguely know what "carburetor' means (aside from its shortening to a huge party at a local racetrack around Memorial Day), I may have found a new mantra. Thanks!
I don’t get the two interjections in OMAHA. O! MAHA! or OM! AHA! or OMA! HA! None of these make sense.
Hmm... I wouldn't call Mr. Spock an ALIEN. Earth and Vulcan are both in the United Federation of Planets, and he's half human!
@Mr Dave Yep. I was surprised by that, too. I wanted the answer to be Vulcan, but it didn't fit.
@Mr Dave The only time Mr Spock is an ALIEN was in Star Trek IV, when they travel back in time to Earth to save the whales. (He had to cover his ears.) Other than that, the whole crew are the aliens, as they're visiting other planets. The constructor needs to stop being so Terracentric. Seriously, "The Voyage Home" might be my favorite Star Trek movie, perhaps because I was stationed in Monterey at the time. One of my Chinese instructors was an extra in the aquarium scene.
I loved this. Took quite a while to work out the theme; I was trying various rebi, it being Thursday, but to no avail. Getting the revealer was a big Aha moment. Lots of fun working out which IF, AND OR BUT went where. Last to fall was CHER. I stared and stared. Sausages? Huh? BUTCHER! Eureka! Very well done Mr Gaetz. Reading your notes was an even bigger revelation. You’re one of 14? Good grief. My paternal grandfather was one of 12; most of them, including him, were shipped off to be raised by other relatives and sadly lost the sibling relationship. It sounds like your family managed to stick together. Your Mum and Dad must be TITANS of parenting. Kudos.
@Helen Wright I didn’t get butcher (tho did get cher from crosses) and didn’t deeply question it when I completed the puzzle…even though I didn’t understand. Ha! Thanks!
Outstanding Thursday puzzle! I really enjoy it when I can get some of the themed answers on my own merit, while others require a bit more help from crosses. They weren't obvious, but neither were they impossible without crosses. They were just good. One minor quibble (and this may be with the edit rather than the construction; pardon my ignorance): I felt that 57-across should have been two words. "Companion ship?" I understand the question mark alludes to word play, but usually (I thought) the word play at least still follows basic grammar/spelling rules, but is merely *ordered* in such a way as to throw off the solver. Maybe I'm alone on this one, but it threw me off in the wrong sort of way. Anyway, it was a great puzzle and I've spent too many words on the quibble now.
Pete, A question mark on a clue that is not a question is a signal that "basic grammar/spelling rules" may have been sacrificed for wordplay.
P.S. Having one word that should be read as two words doesn't strike me as much of a "rules violation." Your M obvi V.
@Pete Seemed like pretty classic misdirection to me…doing the xwords I’ve learned to look at words in all their possible permutations when I get stumped 🤔
Only her audio engineers and plastic surgeons know for cher. NOIFSANDSORREBUSES! I like a puzzle with emphatic instructions.
But is cereal a soup? Har! Anyhow, fun puzzle! It was nice that there were so many fun themers to fill out. I'd have felt a little cheated if there were only two or three. The grid itself seemed like it was ripe for trickiness, so as soon as I realized it seemed rebussy, which I am always FOR, I went to work on the revealer and got it with a small handful of crossings. Knowing the revealer helped me in some areas and not as much in others. Count me of those who couldn't figure out ST(and)ING other than maybe in a physical stretching sort of way, but S(IF)TING makes much more sense. It came down to the crossing of TOLE? and OAS?S for me. I was just not getting the flat reference at all. Thought it was a musical thing. I was worried I wasn't going to get the crossing and I'd have to accept defeat on what was otherwise a fairly fast and VERY fun solve, but suddenly the T in OASTS jumped into my brain from some past puzzle because it is absolutely not a word I otherwise known. Huzzah, ole brain of mine!!! Sometimes, I think it works like one of those bingo balls... it's all jumbling around in there but you don't know what's going to pop out at any given time. This time it was for the bingo!
HeathieJ, After getting the T for OASTS, did you also recall that TO LET = FOR RENT? <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrhAC0dFis0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrhAC0dFis0</a>
Alas, Barry, I didn't have the necessary 50 cents. 😞 Actually, it still took an embarrassingly long couple more seconds, but I did have an OMAHA moment with a light slap on my head when I parsed it correctly. Thanks for the song, that was fun to revisit!! And maybe it'll help me make the connection faster next time. ☺️
Harrumph! I replied to my own original comment in answering Barry nut it still seems to only appear behind the timestamp. Wonder what this one will do.
HeathieJ, I see your reply without using the time stamp.
@HeathieJ In Poland a milk soup (zupa mleczna) is a thing. A very thin farina would be considered one, for example, so I could argue cereal may be a soup over here 😆
A fun and fast Thursday. I was sorry when it was over.
Loved the theme -- I got 14A from crosses, realized the VER(if)Y connection, and promptly filled in the revealer plus several theme clues. My brain kept seeing 51D with the wrong fill; when I had O_S_S it fixated on oasis or oases, even though that made zero sense, and getting the A didn't help. Also speaking of seeing wrong.... 12D I kept trying -- and failing -- to find a 4 letter word meaning gamer (as in a person who games). The crossing of AT_A and _EAP was the last to fall; I don't use razors and all the possibilities for the down (leap, heap, REAP) didn't fit the clue. So I ran the alphabet, hoping that was my only error. Only after the solve was complete did I realize it was g a r n e r and not g a m e r. I blame the keming.
I loved this puzzle! A classic and fun Thursday.
This is one of those puzzles where forcing myself to not rely on crosses and actually understand the theme answers before committing to them added to the experience. The lightbulb moment that happens when you do that very unusual exercise (insert one of three sets of letters anywhere in this word and see what you can find) and suddenly find the answer. Very gratifying!
Elegant, satisfying puzzle. I seldom notice grid designs, but, upon completion, I was struck by the reflective symmetry, and the symmetrical placement of the theme entries:-) Two minor annoyances: 1) "Myself" is not redundant, but emphatic. 2) Although clues like it have come up before, it bothers me to describe Mr. Spock as an "alien." I mean, he's a Federation citizen, for Va'al's sake! He just happens to be serving on a ship staffed primarily by Terrans. By that, er, logic, in "Amok Time" (TOS 2:1), wouldn't Kirk be the "alien"? But this got me reading up on the history of the United Federation of Planets, both as a concept within the franchise, as well as "in-universe." (Back in the 90's, when there was talk of selling off the Presidio to private real estate developers, I was horrified: "But they'll just have to buy it all back when they establish Starfleet!")
@Bill. I’d say that myself is both emphatic and redundant, in the literal sense.
@Bill I am not Trekkie but I agree about Spock!
@Bill Not to mention that Spock is half-human, so only half alien, if that even makes sense.
@Bill yes you’re correct about “myself” but I believe the current grammatical trend sees many emphatic uses as redundant. I too (pun intended) felt Spock’s clue was a bit off, but upon reflection, weren’t the Vulcans the first alien race the Federation encountered (because the Vulcans decided the time was right to intervene in Earth’s affairs)? I could be misremembering. And on top of that much story hay was made in TOS of Spock’s alien nature, especially the constant comments by McCoy.
@Bill MYSELF is reflexive, which is the same as redundant.
@Bill I think we should defer the whole "myself" redundancy question to The Department of Redundancy Department.
Wow. Amazing debut puzzle. Deb’s description of the solve was pretty much my experience too. Maybe if I had checked on the revealer a bit sooner I would have had a faster time, but then I usually pay no attention to my time. Figuring this one out was a challenge and a joy, and I’m old and retired so I have plenty of time. Can’t wait to see what you come up with next time, Timothy Gaetz.
@Shari Coats, I agree. I didn't jump to the revealer but meandered there, and it was a pleasant trip.
Yowza. 4x slower than my average for Thursday... neat theme however. Surely the if/and/but thing has been done before but this was pretty cute.
Delightful. Congratulations, Timothy.
Congrats on a terrific debut, Timothy! Looking forward to seeing more from you.
Odd how my brain works. I had no trouble seeing the "real" words when IF, AND, or BUT were removed from the middle, but it took me forever to understand BUTcher and BUTtoned.
@Fritz Yeah, I couldn't figure all the them out, either. Butcher was the toughest of the bunch, IMO.
I have to shout out having OMAHA as a clue! That made me smile!
One of my favourite in a long time. Loved the theme and the cluing. It was just hard enough to make feel clever upon finishing. But easy enough to do it without any hints or googling! Bravo!! :)