@Steve Yes, PLOTZED. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plotz" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plotz</a>
@Steve I literally got this from "A Mighty Wind". Ed Begley, Jr., plays a very, very Scandinavian person who is Jewish. So the joke is that Yiddish words keep falling out of the mouth of this blonde guy named Lars. Anyway at one point, he ended a sentence with something like "...so, well, I just *plotzed*". Here's a couple of lines: <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310281/characters/nm0000893" target="_blank">https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310281/characters/nm0000893</a>
@Steve Yup. My dad says this all the time. Though we use it differently than what the column suggested. To us, someone who is plotzing is worrying about things.
@Steve Where I come from, it’s about as well known as verklempt — i.e. I don’t imagine either word would get through the family jury if I tried to put it down it in Scrabble! Actually, being British, I wasn’t even sure if the answer wasn’t “Plot Zed” —an evil scheme for world domination?
If you're like me and hastily read 44 Across as "Film-Noir," you might also be wondering what a "speed deron" is.
@James Nichols-Worley Yep, 🙌 I misread the film/flim too.
"I called you after the wedding. You didn't answer!" "Terrible reception." ("That's a phone-y excuse.")
@Mike “You sure were upset when you didn’t catch the flowers “ “I just wanted to boo, kay?”
@Mike I guess you'll garter some praise for today's entry. Are you grooming a replacement?
@Mike "The bride's maid dropped the receiver"? Please don't be flip—I've heard that line before. Didn't ring true then either.
Got a little tripped up with WINEVAT/ARA/PLOTZED/ZILLIONTH, wasn't convinced in any of them, but they all fit, and I got my gold star.
@Steven M.I had a similar experience. Especially as I did the crossword having awakened in the middle of the night. I was expecting to have to resort to the answer after filling every square but instead was told I had completed the crossword correctly
With no crosses, “INTHESHOWER” fit for “Places where non-professionals sing”
@AG That’s such a good answer!
@AG That's exactly what I entered when I was whizzing along filling in acrosses. The downs told me I wasn't as clever as I thought.
plotzed? seriously? what are we doing here
@Alex It's a puzzle... a game... light entertainment. What is your grievance?
@Alex I didn't know it either, but now I do! 🥳🥳🥳
@Alex We're using words that are in actual English dictionaries, that's what we're doing here. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plotz" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plotz</a> The real question is why at least 17 other people don't realize this, either.
@Alex It’s a crossword puzzle. Using words found in dictionaries. Are you lost?
@Alex You mean you've never had chopped liver so good you could PLOTZ?
May I nit? BMI is a ratio of weight to the square of the height, not just weight:height. No plotzing here, just minor nitting.
@Cat Lady Margaret First: of course you can nit! I will defend to the death your right to nit! But: even if it were the cube root of height times Avogadro's number, BMI would still be a ratio of weight to height.
Got it after cycling through millionth, billionth, tillionth (yes lol), and finally zillionth.
@Pcraves, my first stab was KILLIONTH (and PLONKED)
I was unfamiliar with either verklempt or PLOTZED. I thought that would not be a problem, since even though I was missing a letter there (PLOT_ED), the cross had to be ZILLIONTH, right? So I entered the Z and got the dreaded "So close..." pop-up. Argh! I did not want to check the puzzle - on Tuesday?! - so I turned to the column. It turned out the problem was the crossing of BO_BY and _GAUGE. That was beyond cruel for me: BObBY and bGAUGE looked so good! For some reason, in neither foreign language I speak (English and German) can I remember the names of birds, trees, and fish. I also know very little about rail in any language, and virtually nothing about model trains. Otherwise I found this to be an adequate and enjoyable Tuesday puzzle. Two years ago I would have had many more issues with it though, as it contained several entries I learned over time form these grids, like ENOS and TEHEE. Also, there was some pure crosswordese, like ICER (do bakeries employ peeps who only ever put the icing on?)
@Andrzej I rolled my eyes at ICER too. And also ENAMELS. I don't love it when words are pluralized with an S in crossword puzzles that generally aren't in everyday speech, but I understand the S is sometimes needed as glue.
@Andrzej As a Serb, living in Finland and primarily speaking English, my bird/tree/fish vocabulary is a hilarious amalgamation of all three languages, and it is severely lacking regardless. I even stopped trying to translate or connect them, they just come out in one of the languages (or they don't). I think I've made peace with it, it shall remain a hole forevermore, especially with how rarely I use the words anyway.
@Andrzej My Aunt Dorothy was a cake decorator (icer) for Lyons Tea House in London during WW II. She made and decorated the cake for my parents’ wedding. She had to save up rationed eggs and butter to do so. Until 3-D printers take over all such jobs, I imagine we will still have icers. Bruce
@Bruce Thanks! I love to learn about how specialized some professions can be. It makes me appreciate the level of people's skill, and also make me realize how little I know about some aspects of the world I live in. Too bad the icing is my least favorite part of a cake ;) @Sonja Right? Names of trees and such come up so rarely in the real world, especially in any meaningful way, that it is extremey hard to remember them as a foreign speaker. I suppose I know the Polish names because I was purposely taught them as a child, both at kindergarten and school, and at home, where my parents prefered to read to me books about the natural world rather than fables. Especially my mother could not stand kid's lit (she hated kids in general :D. I was the only exception :D) @Francis @Sonja Quoth the Serb: Forevermore!
@Steve L I can talk to you about trees and wood in Polish just fine.
@Andrzej I got BOOBY immediately, as it is one of the birds that always makes me giggle. Also titmouse. I swear I am an adult.
@Andrzej How's your Yiddish? How's your German? Both verklempt and PLOTZ come to English from Yiddish which gets them from German.
My Yiddish is almost non-existent, and my German is basic. It was great 25 years ago but I haven't been using it enough and forgot most I had once known.
When I saw "verklempt" I could have plotzed! For anyone interested there is a wonderful place in Amherst, Massachusetts called The Yiddish Book Center. They have digitized thousands of Yiddish books that survived the Holocaust.
This puzzle proves that there is such a thing as wavelength. The words that were unfamiliar to others (such as BOOBY, PLOTZED, DAS BOOT) were instagets for me. I even got all the theme entries on the first try, with no context other than the clue. But there’s a good chance I’ll be struggling tomorrow while others ZIP through. To Sam’s question on digital dependency, I’m happily non-addicted. I appreciate the convenience of my devices, but I grew up in a time before smartphones, so I never learned to see them as indispensable. And for that I am grateful.
@Heidi I grew up before smartphones too, but I can barely remember what it was like, which is strange because I didn't get my first mobile phone until I was 35 and my first smartphone probably around 42.
Very quick for me today, but I paused at KEEL. We’ve had a lot of all things Norwegian in the puzzles lately, and my half-Viking souk’s been a-stirrin,’ and I wanted to see if I could find a nice kenning in the Eddas using the KEEL. I wasn’t disappointed. Here’s Snorri Sturluson in Kari Ellen Gade’s translation: Hrannir strýkva hlaðinn bekk; haflauðr skeflir; kasta náir KJALAR stíg kalt hlýr sǫltum. Svǫrtum hleypir svana fjǫll snjallmæltr stillir hlunna of Haka veg hríðfeld skíðum. Waves stroke the loaded ship; sea-foam piles up breakers; the cold prow throws aside the salty path of the KEEL The wise-spoken ruler makes the black skis of rollers run along the stormy mountains of swans across the road of Haki. There are several lemmings here. “The salty path of the KEEL” means the sea; “black skis of rollers”—ships, “stormy mountains of swans”—waves, “the road of Haki”—again the sea. Kennings, when you think about it, were the original pig Latin—the ultimate in-group language. If you weren’t part of the Norse clique, you weren’t going to understand that Haki was a sea king, therefore the sea was his road. Or that waves breaking into foam—white horses, the Brits call them—looked like mountains of swans. Gorgeous imagery. KJALAR, by the way, is the genitive of kjǫlr, same root as our KEEL. But why didn’t the Vikings just say what they meant? [you say, exasperated]. The Vikings didn’t do anything they didn’t want to do. [I reply, grinning]
@Sam Lyons I just saw that autocorrect changed kennings to lemmings. And I proofread and *still* didn’t catch that. Argh. I may have to start wearing glasses.
@Sam Lyons Beautiful. "This is the winter of our discontent" - why didn't the playwright just say what he meant? Just because.
@Sam Lyons Kind of insulting that you thought anybody here would need the translation. Seriously, what a fascinating post! Thank you! (Although I wasted a bit of time googling lemmings)
Oh, I’m a sucker for pun-based themes, so having a puzzle based on GOOD CALL filled me with smiles. Other highlights: • Running into verklempt and PLOTZED, two of those Yiddish words – and there are many – that sound exactly like what them mean. • Seeing that ERROL backward is the last name of another film idol from the same era. • The fun of trying to guess the revealer after filling in the theme answers and not reading its clue. Came close, but no cigar. • Serendipities: The quintet of schwa-ending names (NORA, ANNA, TONYA, LEONA, NIA), the contradictory corners of WEPT and TEHEE, and ATE/ETA. • Post-solve, finding out that this puzzle has ten NYT answer debuts, a huge number for any day, including GOOD CALL, ZILLIONTH, PLOTZED, ZOO ANIMAL and YES REALLY. Bravo to Zachary on that! Any nits dissolve when there’s so much to like. Zachary, AMIGO, thank you for creating this!
Over double my average today. Thanks to plotzed and 'wreck' and ruin. Debugging errors is a time killer.
interesting how many of us mis-read FLIM as FILM.
@RozzieGrandma and then hurriedly filled in "NOIR" LOL
@RozzieGrandma there is an interesting branch of science? psychology? medicine? Which looks at how our brains fill in missing data. We're all pretty good at figuring out a word when we see the first letter and the last letter...The middle matters less.
So, 33A crossing 34D bamboozled me. I knew neither verklempt, nor PLOTZED. Or what either might mean. That held me up a tad while I worked out my error. I thought PLOTtED crossing tILLIONTH was reasonable! DAS BOOT. A fine piece of work. DH and I were on the edge of our seats each week. This of course was before the era of the STREAMING SERVICE. Our kids were aghast at the idea of waiting a whole 7 days to watch the next instalment of a serial. I see now that some of the above do limit downloads to ensure viewers are locked in for longer. Greedy. As for all things tech; I keep it to a minimum. Phones are for calls and text. We do not use any form of social media. The following tale I think backs up our stance. Some years back my handbag was stolen, containing my phone amongst other things. A few weeks later mysterious photos appeared on my iPad, which was linked to my iPhone. It took very little effort to identify the thief, as she posted photos showing her workplace and name badge amongst other things. Google gave us everything about her via Facebook. She was arrested and cautioned. The sting in the tail for her? She’d also uploaded a lot of, ahem, intimate pics of herself. It was pointed out to her that said pics were my property on my phone and if I wished to show them to the public at large I was perfectly entitled to do so. She was more upset at that, than at being caught stealing. Nice. Beware what you post. It’s out there forever!
@Helen Wright NOW you tell me!
@Helen Wright A while back, somebody hacked my Facebook account, and promptly got it permanently locked, and I have been unable to re-establish ownership. So many pictures lost forever! Lessons learned: keep backup copies of stuff, and check your e-mail. Nope, I missed that "Did you authorise this change?" message.
Wrack didn’t ruin me but it sure slowed me down. I am the only person in the world who has never seen Frozen, but if I solve enough puzzles I think I will learn the entire cast of characters.
@Jim I haven't seen it either and this one cost me ten minutes. ELSA is the new EMU.
@Jim Hand up for membership in the club of non-viewers of cartoon movies featuring mermaiids, reindeer, fish, snowmen, ice maidens, cars, ants, etc., with the stellar exception of TOY STORY movies. Those are great.
@Jim Never seen Frozen, either 🤷
@Jim I was certain the phrase was "wreck and ruin" so Enna made no sense. I gave up and did the puzzle check. Learned to my delight (and dismay) the phrase is "wrack and ruin."
Das boot, Icer, Plotzed, TeHee, OGuage, Nia Loved the theme, but the rest was a bit filler, not killer
@Anthony I found DAS BOOT to be nice. The rest, not so much. I would like to add CITI, DIANE, ARA, PEREC and WINEVAT to the mix.
I am not a Luddite, having been possessed by gadgets and doodads my whole life, and I spend way too much time on my laptop, but I still prefer holding an actual book or periodical in my hands when I read. I wish I could let go of communicating with friends almost entirely online, but I love the speed with which I can carry on conversations with people all over the country. I want to know that friends are safe from floods, fires and storms, and I want to share funny stories and jokes with people everywhere. With some people there is a tacit agreement that we never talk politics and with others there are passionate exchanges of rage at injustices and the threat of totalitarianism. I read news stories and op eds on the Times site, and news on art and literature sites, but the only games I ever play online are the NY Times Crosswords, Spelling Bee, Connections and Strands. Even so, too much of my day is absorbed in staring at my laptop screen and pecking away on my wireless keyboard—like now, when I should be getting ready to go to bed. Until tomorrow........
@Sam Corbin I make no apology for enjoying every minute of "digital dependency" --which I see as no more harmful than any other of the many technological advances of the past. ANYthing done to excess can be said to be harmful, but... Having a child with chronic illnesses and disability of course changed our lives (MY life, especially) ...and over the decades I have often thought (sometimes out loud) what a boon it would have been to have had CELL PHONES, GPS, and INTERNET.... as I navigated new cities/states where the children's hospitals and clinics were often located in warren of downtown street mazes, or when (for instance) I ran out of gas on the 101 in Palo Alto on the way back from Stanford Univ Medical Center, or when I needed to research the newest disastrous diagnosis. Everything can be seen as a double-edged sword. A very bright child (wonderful)....realizing the implications of her condition at age 7....bad news that could have waited without harm (heart-breaking). People have to work these good thing/bad thing issues for themselves. And yes, I believe we have been blessed in many ways... sometimes by technology, other times by simpler joys.
@Mean Old Lady I had a bit of a moment when my sister was taking pictures of my nephews with her phone, and of course they wanted to see them when she was done. "Oh my, these kids have never had to wait for film to be developed."
@Mean Old Lady This contribution is touching and wonderful. I agree with you 100%.
Mean Old Lady, Thank you, today, for the joy of reading your post. I will think of it often.
Do they serve karaoke bars at wedding receptions? What about streaming service from a wine vat? Yes, really. Nutty! (Tehee)
I'll be honest, my digital dependency has gotten a little bit worse since starting the NYT crossword puzzle and participating in this lovely crossword community. Well, maybe it's just that I've swapped previous digital dependency for this digital dependency. Facebook is increasingly less fun now that I basically never actually see friends but rather a lot of nonsense. Recently, I metely thought about buying some earrings, and all of a sudden earrings ads were all that filled my Facebook feed. It was crazy bananas! So I'd rather be doing puzzles and participating out here. I guess it's a wash! Fun puzzle! I made a lot of silly errors because I am sooooooooo FATIGUEd lately and also can't sleep, so that's fun. The only not just silly transposing two letter type errors that I made today was at the crossing of ZILLIONTH and PLOTZED. I do know verklempt originally from another crossword favorite, SNL, but I didn't know PLOTZED, so I started with bILLIONTH but but that didn't really make sense... Tried a couple other things... Eventually, that had to be a lookup... On a Tuesday! Egads! Ye crossword gods forgive me!! So, not a gold star for me this time, but it's all good. Now I know the term PLOTZED and that is good!
@HeathieJ You had me on the edge of my seat! Awww..... I had a blue Tuesday a couple of weeks ago. It gets better.
@HeathieJ PLOTZED is just one of many colorful words assimilated into English from Yiddish. Since I assume that St. Paul isn't a hotbed of Yiddish, it's not surprising that you haven't heard the word. But now you can kvell (burst with pride) over your new vocabulary.
@Steve L You are correct about that! Other than English and Spanish, the most likely languages I believe I would hear here are Hmong and Somali. Another great reason to do the New York Times crossword puzzle and broaden my horizons!! I don't know why some people get mad about it. I've learned so much just from the crosswords and the comments section, it's great! I'm kvelling as I type! ☺️
Quite fitting that I was undone at PLOTmED/mILLIONTH so I'm the big BOOBY this morning. Just read a piece in The Atlantic on professors banning devices in class and mentioning the Luddite clubs on various campuses. If I remember correctly the original crew in the 19th Century did not just eschew machines but destroyed them. Is that next? Personally I will confess to being Luddite Curious. Nice puzzle.
Just here to say that I found tehee to be bit of a reach (autocorrect does not recognize it) - I have never seen this version used - the usual spelling is teehee. I knew the word ‘verklempt’, thanks to Barbra Streisand’s wonderful memoir, but who knew ‘plotzed’? Talk among yourselves…
Judith Gm We've been talking for hours. Scroll down to hear what's been said.
Back in the early ’90s, long before I ever had a personal cell phone, we carried “bag phones” (early cell phones with massive batteries and antennae) in our work trucks when going to “the field” - our field being the woods. Due to those woods, and the paucity of cell coverage generally but particularly in the woods, if we had to call out it often meant driving to a high piece of land, standing on the roof of the truck, holding the antenna for the phone as high over our heads as possible, until we could get a half-decent signal. (For true wilderness trips, we could sign out a very expensive satellite phone.) All that to say, the REARTIRE on our truck made a land line on the dirt roads. (??? :)
@JohnWM I used to live in a basement apartment a few years back, and I would often have to raise my phone high up above my head to get a signal. I was right next to the parking lot, so the view out my window was always a truck tire. Whenever someone walked past outside, it would interrupt my TV antenna's signal. Happily, I no longer live in a hole.
Plotzed and zillionth was a natick for me...
@Chris Does any letter other than Z make sense there? I was also challenged by that crossing, but decided that Z was the only sensible option.
@Chris ...and a gimme for me, unlike any clue that requires (non-classical) music or computer knowledge. Guess I'm a shoe-in for membership in the Luddite club.
@Chris doesn’t work for the cross both both M and B would be sarcasm so I think work for jokily
Fun puzzle. I pictured the blue footed BOOBY on the Galápagos Islands from some nature documentary I watched (probably a David Attenborough narrated film). I also clearly pictured Coffee Talk with Linda Richman (Mike Myers) and her becoming VERKLEMPT. Topic: Cell Phone Reception. Talk amongst yourselves… 😆 Enjoy this one: <a href="https://youtu.be/58grYzCcfHI?si=_ASM68B7dmk9fMrz" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/58grYzCcfHI?si=_ASM68B7dmk9fMrz</a> Thank you, Zachary, for making my night!
@Jacqui J not sure why I capitalized verklempt since it was the clue and not the answer 🤦🏼♀️
@Jacqui J For me BOOBIE will only ever call to mind the 'Fallen Madonna with the big boobies' of the British comedy series 'Allo Allo', a huge hit on Polish TV in the 90s 🤣 <a href="https://alloallo.fandom.com/wiki/The_Fallen_Madonna_with_the_Big_Boobies" target="_blank">https://alloallo.fandom.com/wiki/The_Fallen_Madonna_with_the_Big_Boobies</a>
@Jacqui J @Andrej Good moaning, I will only say this once.
Where do I stand on digital dependency? I don't generally stand on it. I'm usually sitting in a chair or lying in bed doing puzzles or texting or reading just one more Reddit post (the AITA sub is particularly addictive for an opinionated person like me) while listening to music on Spotify. This year, I'm following the lead of a friend of mine who listened to an entire new album each day of 2024. I'm catching up on music I somehow missed from decades ago and brand new music from bands I'd never heard of until this year. Some are duds, and I'll never have to listen to them again. Some are incredible. Technology makes it possible. Yep. I'm dependent on the digits holding my mobile device in front of my face, and I'm fine with it. Nice Tuesday puzzle. The only area that slowed me down was in the NW because I forgot how to spell TONYA. Otherwise, most of the answers were right in my wheelhouse. KARAOKE anyone?
@Beth For those who skip the Wordplay column and head right to the comments, Sam Corbin asked for our feelings on digital dependency.
@Beth I don't even have an account on FB or other social media (I had an FB one for several years because some friends insisted on only being reachable via Messenger. I deleted it this year, when FB began to illegally coerce me to let my personal data be processed for advertising purposes). Yet I can't imagine life without internet access, especially on my phone. Spotify is just too convenient (but I feel rotten about how my using it deprives artists of adequate payment for their work). I'm also constantly Signal-ing with friends and family. I rely on streaming exclusively for anything I watch. I use Google scholar and Sci-hub for academic work. Etc. KARAOKE... /Shudder Amateur singing gets on my nerves so badly I literally can't stand it 🤣
@Beth If hell were real, mine might involve a wedding reception at a karaoke bar 🤣. And if it were children singing... Ye gods. The horror! The horror! When I was on FB, I logged onto FB itself once every few months. The updates people kept giving on whatever it was they did were so creepy! I value my privacy almost above anything else (recently @dutchiris was surprised nobody at my workplace of 20 years knows my wife, or even her name), and others not caring about theirs makes me uncomfortable.
@Beth I replied to your reply, civilly as always, but the "moderators" withheld it. What's next? Sending the army to keep me quiet?
@Beth If you were a house builder, and you used a hammer for 30 years, and you could frame out a house in a week, but then they invented the nail gun, and now you can frame one out in a day and a half, would you now say you're addicted to the nail gun? Of course not. It's just a tool that makes your work faster and easier. When calculators first came out, people worried that kids would no longer do simple math in their heads. Of course, there were always people who couldn't do simple math in their heads. But the calculator wasn't the end of civilization, and it allowed the teaching of more advanced concepts with less rote learning. The phone in your pocket is similarly a tool; in fact, it's the Swiss army knife of electronics. When I was a kid, who would have imagined you could have in one small pocket-sized device a phone, that calculator, a compass, a tape recorder, a telegraph (texting), mail, maps and directions, a radio, a TV, a newspaper, a pedometer, your credit cards and event tickets, a universal translator like you saw on Star Trek, your banking, a dictionary, books to read, shopping, games, and best of all, that library at Alexandria called the internet...plus so many other functions you couldn't have even predicted back then (word processing, spreadsheets, presentation apps, etc.) And of course, the socials. (I only have LinkedIn, which I don't really even use, anyway) All of these things are tools. What you do with them is up to you.
That was what I alluded, Steve 😢
A perfectly pleasant Tuesday puzzle. Everything obtainable either straight away or using crosses. And another TRIO.
I loved PLOTZED in today's puzzle. Let the Goyim cry Natick. PLOTZ makes Sam think of Linda Richman from SNL long ago. My memory goes even further back to the Woody Allen's satire on spy thrillers, "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" The bad guys steal the secret recipe for egg salad, "a salad so delicious you could PLOTZ." <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f20pv9QBc0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f20pv9QBc0</a>
For the Yiddish mavens: While both verklempt and PLOTZED can mean being "overcome with emotions", I tend to think of them as opposites: verklempt meaning "choked up"; while PLOTZ means "about to explode or bust".
33 Across PLOTZ/VERKLEMPT was my downfall. I didn't know either word. More Yiddish!
@Laura Stratton It should be pointed out that as entries without a foreign language indicator in the clue, these are ENGLISH words that are derived from Yiddish as well as Yiddish words (which technically would be written in the Hebrew alphabet).
"I didn't know either word." Laura, Over the past few days, you seem to have forgotten that these puzzles are crosswords; you don't need to know every answer from the clue to solve them. I hope everything else is okay with you.
@Barry Ancona I don't think you're response is really necessary. It's perfectly fine for Laura to say she didn't know certain words. I doubt very much she forgot what crossword puzzles are. If her comments really bother you, maybe you should skip them
Nice easy one today for me. For once the longer answers were easy which helps. Always though a laugh was Teehee but maybe that’s a US version.
@Ian Hookham I think TEHEE is only crossword glue. It's tee hee in the US, as far as I know. Must say that was my least favorite entry.
@Ian Hookham It's like "tepee." Never in my life have I seen the tent spelled that way. Teepee, yes, Tipi, also yes. "Tepee"? No. But the Spelling Bee says it is real, so it must be.
Unavoidable it seems, but clunky to have plural TARO ROOT and ENAMEL, but only one REARTIRE.
Digital dependency? Of course. I need my fingers to fill in crossword puzzles.
Relatively few vehicles get traction from REAR TIREs any more…
@Patrick Ryan And relatively few rear wheel drives get traction. Ask one who knows.
@Patrick Ryan New Yorkers take perverse pleasure in not driving or knowing anything about cars. Just roll your eyes and move along.
@Patrick Ryan Unless you're drifting around every corner you take, I think you rear tires are providing plenty of traction 😁
@Patrick Ryan and all Agree to all, especially about rear wheel drives getting little traction. I had a 77 Firebird and can attest to that too!
BOOBY / OGAUGE ruined my gold star. I've never heard of that kind of bird, and how would anyone who doesn't play with model trains know what an O gauge track is? I had BOBBY / BGAUGE.
@Dave K. Strange how seemingly innocent crosses can turn into monsters. Yeah, I only guess OGAUGE because when I has a kid I had the smaller HO Gauge. And I could imagine that a single bird might be named Robert, or Bobby for short, but they wouldn't name the entire species like that.
@Dave K. If you play on a device (app or web), and if that was the last place you got stuck, you could "run the alphabet" on that square until you get the message that you finished. I didn't know the gauge either, but thankfully, I knew BOOBY because my sister is a big birder. I can see how one might think it was BObBY if they didn't know that or the gauge.
@Dave K. Every 8-year-old boy in my elementary school knew that a BOOBY was a bird. "Stop saying that," our teacher would say. "I'm talking about the bird," was our innocent reply.
@Dave K. I know O Gauge from watching the Big Bang Theory. Sheldon was obsessed with trains of all types. <a href="https://youtu.be/cCTzWZulcwg?si=TOArG8rw5g3oSXLA" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/cCTzWZulcwg?si=TOArG8rw5g3oSXLA</a> And blue footed booby from learning about Darwin, the Galapogos Islands, and evolution in school and nature documentaries.
@Dave K. Know your BOOBIES! <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-footed_booby" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-footed_booby</a>
Monday easy & fun puzzle! When I saw the clue for 33A I immediately thought of the very funny Mike Myers as Linda Richardson on SNL. One of the funniest of these was when the iconic Barbra Streisand made a cameo … like budder! 💗🥰😂 which also included Madonna & Roseanne Barr. Bravo on a very enjoyable puzzle 👏👏
A not pleasant Tuesday solve. Can’t like them all. Clunky fills. First 10+ min Tuesday solve in several years. Nevertheless, I appreciate the challenge.
Well... unusual Tuesday for me. A whole lot of working the crosses to tumble to answers, and then... there's some element of the theme that I'm just not grasping. Furrowed brow remains. No big deal. Here's my puzzle find today: A Wednesday from September 25, 2019 by Natan Last, Andy Kravis and.. the J.A.S.A crossword class. The reveal clue and answer: "Subject of a 2016 U.K. referendum ... or a hint to 16-, 25-, 41- and 55-Across" BREXIT And then a couple of theme clues and answers: "Results of having ants in one's pants?" BRITCHESITCHES "Casas?" HOMBRESHOMES And the other two theme answers: BREYERSEYERS CEREBRALCEREAL Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/25/2019&g=34&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/25/2019&g=34&d=A</a> I'm outta here. ...
@Rich in Atlanta The end of each themer, BARS, SERVICE, RECEPTION and SIGNAL are all necessary to have a 38A - GOOD (cell phone) CALL.
Other than initially reading [Flim] as film at 44A and [carton] as cartoon at 58D, this was a smooth solve. High debut count today, which I always like to see. Awkward on land, the Blue Footed BOOBY is an excellent diver. <a href="https://youtu.be/rwIM2pWFH5k?si=fJ5Xb_bKdyLzQcuK" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/rwIM2pWFH5k?si=fJ5Xb_bKdyLzQcuK</a> <a href="https://youtu.be/AQC9W9phC44?si=_tC89LfVRW28ttl5" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/AQC9W9phC44?si=_tC89LfVRW28ttl5</a>
Can a puzzle be tricky and easy at the same time? I felt I was stumped repeatedly but still solved it in my usual Tuesday time. (Example: "plotzed" came to me easily enough, despite not knowing what it or "verklempt" means. I think I've heard "plotzed" from Krusty the Klown.)
@Jeff Z "tricky and easy at the same time" --- yes, that's a nice description of how this puzzle seemed to me as well.
@Jeff Z sure...why not...in a world which has jumbo shrimp anything is possible
Good thing I'm familiar with the blue-footed BOOBY, or its intersection with OGAUGE would have been very difficult. Not being a model train aficionado, the letter ahead of GAUGE was unknown to me. Seems like a very tough box to fill, that one---especially for a Tuesday puzzle. Not quite a natick, but pretty close. Verklempt and PLOTZED were also surprising to see on a Tuesday. In the end, the Z was the only sensible choice, and once I entered it, PLOTZED at least made sense as a Yiddish or German word. The theme was simple and solid, but this seemed a very tough Tuesday puzzle ... though I solved it without assistance in just a bit less than my average Tuesday time.
Xword Junkie, As one with considerable experience with model train track -- dating back to frequent visits as a three-year-old to the Lionel and A.C. Gilbert showrooms in Madison Square -- I too needed to know the [Blue-footed] BOOBY. The Lionel trains (of that era) ran on OGAUGE track, but A.C. Gilbert's American Flyer trains used SGAUGE, today NGAUGE and ZGAUGE are available, and the most popular scale today requires a rebus: HO.
@ Barry Thanks. I'll be on the lookout for blue-footed bosbies, bonbies and bozbies on my next visit to the shore. (So that square was even tougher than I realized if one is not ornithologically aware.)
@Barry I give the constructor major props for cluing O GAUGE to the track size, and not the trains. My trains were all HO scale.
Grant, My favorite train scale was 12" = 1'. When I was old enough, I got paid to play with them.
I normally do not have to do lookups on a Tuesday, but today I did due to PLOTZED. Just ugh. This was more than a Tuesday level of difficulty and my time reflected that today.
@Sara O'Bannon -- The extra column may have contributed to your longer time.
The loveliest explanation of 54A—REARTIRE marks and Positraction I have ever heard. "Which, anyone who's been stuck in the mud in Alabama knows..." <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7YoxrKa4f0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7YoxrKa4f0</a>
@replay If I'm flipping around the cable stations and I come across that I will watch until the end. Ms Tomei's Oscar was well-deserved.
@replayAh, yes, "My Cousin Vinny." I know it well. Fun movie. It has a profound problem that's unmistakeable once you recognize it. He's a lawyer, not an auto mechanic. Yet, while sitting in a restaurant looking at some photos, he has an insight, viz. his cousin's car could not have made the tread marks shown in the photo because of all the esoteric reasons (limited slip differential, availability of mint green paint, independent rear-end suspension, etc) that his girlfriend Mona Lisa--the true auto mechanic--explains while on the witness stand. Did he learn all that in law school? or working in an auto shop? I don't think so. So how the blankety-blank could he immediately recognize the truth from a photo when he lacked the experience that Mona Lisa had? Not very probably in my humble opinion.
@Mean Old Lady I love with all of my heart that the comments for this puzzle include Viking poetry and a breakdown of the plot progression of "My Cousin Vinny".
Really enjoyed this one, which seemed fresh and lively. I knew verklempt, but PLOTZED was new to me, so I’ll know it if it pops up again. Thanks, Mr. Levy, for a delightful distraction to what’s going on in the real world. And Happy Anniversary to you and Dr. Levy 💐
@Shari Coats, that was my only stumbling block as well; ran the alphabet to find it, quite literally! It's a great new word to file away! Very enjoyable theme, just right for Tuesday!
@Shari Coats yessss! I did the whole puzzle and had to come back for that one square lol!
I can’t put my finger on it, but this felt oddly difficult for a Tuesday. Only sporadically — a great deal of the fill was par for the course this early in the week. But a few spots had me genuinely stuck for a while.
My review at Diary of a Crossword Fiend: <a href="https://crosswordfiend.com/2025/06/09/tuesday-june-10-2025/#ny" target="_blank">https://crosswordfiend.com/2025/06/09/tuesday-june-10-2025/#ny</a> Happy anniversary, Dr. Levy and Dr. Levy!
@Eric Hougland I paused at MIXED SIGNAL too. It could use the S from ENAMELS.
It's a good sign when your day starts with a BOOBY! I plan to give DAS BOOT to ANY flim FLAM that comes my way today!
@JonathanT I tried to use booby in a scrabble game I was doing with my mother, and she absolutely refused to accept it. Bowing to her advanced age (90s at the time), I acquiesced.
Fast and fun for the most part. I got held up for a second on WRACK and PLOTZ. I did know "verklempt" from SNL. It was nice to see MCA, Adrock, and Mike D make an appearance. Considering how women's rights (and everyone else's, really) are being trampled on, here's an apropos lyric from their more mature era: I want to say a little something that's long overdue The disrespect to women has got to be through To all the mothers and the sisters and the wives and friends I want to offer my love and respect to the end And just because it's fun: I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast But I'm intercontinental when I eat French toast!
Das Boot made it all worthwhile. Superb movie. Danke Zach! Now, back to dealing w our own Fuhrerwannabe....