1. Nice puzzle! 2. The fact that people young enough to have done anything on Discord in elementary school are now also old enough to construct NYT crossword puzzles is...something alright. Excuse me while I turn to dust.
@Josh, I had never heard of contronyms, mentioned in the article for RAVEL, so I looked it up, and one of the examples is "to dust", which can mean either to remove dust, such as while cleaning the bookshelf, or to add dust, for example while looking for fingerprints. Primed with that, I initially had a surely mistaken but also ambiguous and hilarious reading of your comment. :-)
@Josh This was my reaction to realizing, via the crossword, that the Thong Song was 25 years old. At what point does it become an oldie?
Great puzzle from someone who is younger than most of my dental crowns.
@Francis - funny you should mention this. I am having a crown replaced this afternoon. It's been with me for over 40 years.
Congratulations on a great Tuesday puzzle. I tend to solve NW to SE. The reveal at the end that the constructor was a TEEN, made my day. A big tip of the hat from a septuagenarian.
@Bitter Vetch Agreed. I think that was the puzzle’s best reveal, and I’m glad it stayed in. Placement at the end was perfect.
@Bitter Vetch, Love your user name! It seems like that was a common clue when I started doing crosswords long ago, but I can’t remember the answer.
I've fallen behind about a week or so on my crossword solving as my mother passed away on June 4th. She lived a good, long life and had a wonderful memorial. Her love of crosswords (and all word games) inspired me to enjoy them as well. Doing the puzzle and being a part of the crossword community are a couple of the few things that give me joy lately, so I'm grateful for that. This was a fun puzzle to restart my (not so important) streak. I found it fresh and a little sassy.
@Janine many condolences on your loss. It sounds like your mother’s legacy will truly live on as you stay mentally engaged via puzzles at the same time you mourn. Hang in there 💚
@Janine my condolences and I am glad you have those memories, her inspiration and this wonderful community. ♥️
@Janine Thank you for sharing your sad news and sweet memory.
@Janine I’m sorry about the loss of your mother. That’s hard.
@Janine My condolences on your loss! I'm glad you were able to celebrate her long and good life at the memorial. I'm glad the puzzles are bringing you joy and it's lovely that you have that connection with your mom. ❤️
@Janine My condolences. May your sorrow over you mother's death quickly turn to happiness of her memories.
@Janine Losing Mom is hard! But so good to have memories. My mother also started me on crossword puzzles when I was a teen. In later years when I visited her we'd 'fight' over who got to do the paper-only puzzles. Then she got a printer/copier and we could each do our own copy! The miracles of modern technology. She never did move to tablet/computer/phone solving. She did it every day in the newspaper. Good memories, for sure.
@Janine I’m so sorry to hear about your mother’s passing. May her memory be a blessing.
Minutes after raving on Facebook about how fantastic students at the University I work for are, three in particular that I had the great pleasure to recently interview for a student job in my office, and the great sadness to have to choose only one, then I come out here and solve a very fine puzzle created by a high schooler! It wasn't the first time I've raved about how terrific our students are, I'm certain it won't be the last. This proud GenXer genuinely wishes to never hear another negative thing about the younger generations. Especially because it's often so unimportant whatever the differences are, trendy things and what not. No one ever paid GenX any mind, which I'd say we're all pretty cool with, so I guess I don't have gripes with anyone. Ha! Anyhow, learned a new fact about PELE! I'll have to impress my husband, a huge PELE fan, with that one. SPaRRELED and AgERTO! Heaven's to Betsy, the NYT has made a grievous error! Har!! My only hang up was putting agE instead of ILE at 48 down, so that was the last little bit I needed to clean up. Fun puzzle with a very sweet theme!! Congrats on your debut Mr. Krishnamurthy and best of luck in college! Your generation is giving me great hope for the future in a time that feels otherwise grim and perilous. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be part of it in my own limited way. Hope you can find the time to make more puzzles as your college workload revs up. ☺️ Thank you!
@HeathieJ I had agE before ILE too. Nice to know you're GenX too, and you're right, our generation really didn't get the criticism that Millennials and Zoomers have gotten. I'm going to think about what that might mean in terms of how we relate to the world.
@Beth in Greenbelt I just realized the generation classification thing poorly applies over here, especially to people older than me (born in 1980). Our world changed completely, and anything that happened before 1989 can't really be evaluated under "Western" standards. Thus, we don't really have a Boomer generation - of course, Poland changed greatly after 1945, and generally living standards improved immeasurably, especially in the country, but under totally different conditions than in the "West". There was no wealth accumulation, for example, since it was basically impossible to become wealthy in the ultra-egalitarian, pre-1989 world. Only once Poland opened up in 1989 did it re-enter the world's mainstream, and that included social transformations that shaped (younger) Gen Xers, Millennials, and the later generations. Looking at the definitions and characteristics, I am a blend of Gen X and Millennial, and I find it impossible to identify more closely with either of the two classifications.
I think there's usefulness in having the generation categories. I tend to look at it for ways to understand people better and not separate, and it helps me do that. To me, understanding what generation someone is helps me understand the world in which they grow up in as pertains to major events, trends, and the social and political norms of the time. Those things can say something about how they view the world and interact within it. As Gen X, I was afraid of quicksand, it always seemed like a threat and I'm amazed that I haven't encountered it yet. But I never once thought that we would be attacked like 9/11 on American soil. That's just one of many examples but I think that those experiences in your developing years can make a difference and understanding and appreciating differences can bring us together. It's a general guide as long as no one thinks of it as hard and fast. There's all sorts of ways that it won't strictly apply to everyone.
Clever theme, though I think at least one clue should have referred at least tangentially to the movie "E.T.", as Reese's Pieces figure into an early scene where Elliott tries to lure the alien back to his home. I didn't know until checking Wikipedia that Steven Spielberg originally intended to use M&M's, but Mars (the giant candy maker) refused to grant permission.
@RichardZ Yes! I kept waiting for the clue about the “alien space crew”, but it never happened.
A fine Tuesday puzzle, with thoughtful clues. Descartes would have been proud of you, Tarun, and delighted to appear in your puzzle. Thank you, and good for us that you got on early start on constructing puzzles. I hope this means that you'll be with us for a good long time.
Nothing from Munster Mike yet, so here's something in the meantime: Rene Descartes walks into a bar and orders a shot. After he slugs it down, the bartender says, "Would you like another?" "I think not," Descartes replies. And poof! He vanishes! Be sure to tip your server...
@Pezhead Very funny! Thanks for the chuckle!
Congrats on the puzzle! Loved the theme. Hope to see more from you in the future!
A theme whose answers cover a lot of realms – music, philosophy, and politics, all tied together with candy. Outside the theme, words I love – BASH, TEMPEST, SPIRALLED (spelled either way), HONE, SPUR, RAVEL, and especially the terrific FIRM BELIEF (which, by the way, is a Times answer debut). Then a moment of love for our quirky language when I looked at the answer ADMIT and saw that it can mean both to let in and to let out. “Ride or die” is new to me, but its meaning was immediately clear, and the answer BFF came out with a double aha – one for cracking the riddle, and the other for learning a new and beautiful/perfect phrase. Suddenly this simple but charming theme wasn’t alone in the box. No, it was nested among things that made me happy. And thus, today’s jaunt was more than just a fill-in, but rather something richer – the box as balm, the box as beauty. What a lovely outing – thank you, Tarun!
@Lewis Ride or die has been an answer three times (6/19/21, 11/26/22 and 7/7/23). I learned it from one of those puzzles.
@eric -- Well, then surely I've seen it before ... but it was new to me today!
@Lewis Actually, the "ride or die" thing disturbs me. First of all, it's not in the least obvious what it actually means. I don't know how you decided the meaning was "immediately clear". Secondly, it's violent. Coming from hip hop that attitude doesn't surprise me, but I do find it disturbing. And exactly the opposite of what we could really use right now. Finally, while a crossword can be a "learning experience" what value comes from knowing what a phrase like "ride or die" means? There is such a thing as useless knowledge, and recent idioms coming from massively problematic music genre is absolute one of them.
@Lewis I liked SPIRALED too.
Kids these days! Next you'll see at grade school (r)(e)c(e)(s)s p(e)(s)ky six year olds constructing puzzles in the sandbox! Many an I.R.S. employee...I was thinking, hmmm, three letters: RTD ? ILL ? OUT ? NOT ? SAD ? CUT ? I love Descartes, the great doubter. In fact, his fuller statement was "Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum" -- I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am. He also wrote, I have made a point of doubting all my previously held beliefs. To begin with doubt, yet be hopeful, optimistic even, can there be a better method of cogitation? You can see it in Frans Hals' portrait of him: the doubt, the questioning, the sharpness and insight, and there's tiredness there too, a sallow complexion reflecting his inner struggles. "<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Frans_Hals_-_Portret_van_Ren%C3%A9_Descartes.jpg" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Frans_Hals_-_Portret_van_Ren%C3%A9_Descartes.jpg</a>
@john ezra Kind of funny having it cross with FIRMBELIEF as something one would probably not change their mind on. We should never be afraid of doubt. I love the quote you included in there: To begin with doubt, yet be hopeful, optimistic even, can there be a better method of cogitation?
@john ezra he dissected live dogs and cats, claiming their screams of pain were mechanical responses.
@john ezra Thank you so much! It's been surreal.... And so much else. And yes, Mike Lee, 47, and former WI governor Scott Walker always keepin' it classy. 🙄
@Beth I consider myself an optimist with experience. I've been burned, of course, but I always seek hope and I seek the goodness. There are times it's hard for me to find either but the seeking keeps me going. I trust that goodness is out there. It does help working at the college I do, as I was saying in my main post. I am also a person of Christian faith. Yet I am so completely heartbreakingly aggrieved at what that looks like to so many in this country because of the religious right and how they've politicized and high jccked Christianity and make it look like a hate filled cult. It's not how it's supposed to be. It breaks my heart and fills me with grief. And these are the people I come from. All that to say that though I stand firmly against what so much of the church here in America has become, I still believe in God and it does give me hope. I am also of the Andy Dufresne of Shawshank Redemption School. 😉 "Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."
@Francis, this pretty much sums it up for me. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/share/v/15c3CGgZ1u/?mibextid=D5vuiz" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/share/v/15c3CGgZ1u/?mibextid=D5vuiz</a>
Fantastic work, Tarun! Even more impressive that you are a mere one year younger than my middle child. Congratulations on your debut and your acceptance into SDSU’s Honor College in Neuroscience - both notable achievements! I also have a degree in neuroscience from UCR - a fascinating field of study that I’m sure you will enjoy. I hope to see more of your construction in future grids as your studies allow. I loved this one to PIECES.
What a fun and lively puzzle, Tarun! Can’t wait to solve your next one. Best of luck in your studies!
A really fun puzzle! Also as a geriatric millennial I’m proud for knowing both the Beatles song (I walked down the aisle to this classic) and the modern lingo for shady.
@Kate J I was literally just discussing the word SUS with my kids over dinner tonight and wondering aloud if was common enough yet to be used in crosswords. And here it is, in the puzzle same day! I can’t wait to tell them in the morning. (A quick Google search shows me it is not a debut and it has been in other recent puzzles, but I guess those instances didn’t stand out to me.)
Great puzzle, Tarun! Congrats on acceptance into the Honors College at SDSU. My granddaughter was just recruited there to play basketball. Go Aztecs!
@Valerie I always remember that SDSU teams have an unusual name when they appear in crosswords, and I never can remember that it’s AZTECS.
The kids are alright, says this geriatric millennial.
The solve took me 4 minutes less than this Monday, even though I've never heard of REESES PIECES and despite the fact in this part of the world footballs are rarely thrown, and when they are (on throw-ins and by the goalkeeper) they don't spiral - that generally only happens on kicks. Also, RENE DESCARTES was the only spanner I knew instantly. I needed loads of crosses for the song, and I didn't know the campaigning expression. Still, I enjoyed most of the fill. RAVEL was new to me, much like "licit" in previous puzzles. Interesting. The theme... Well, like I said, I'm unfamiliar with the product, and there was something unsatisfying about the fact there was no real connection between the "themed" entries and candy, as such. Oh, and, I just realized Polish Santa doesn't have helpers, ELFIN or otherwise, or at least he didn't in my childhood in the 1980s. He has his flying sled and reindeer (unnamed, for us), but that's it. He puts presents under the Christmas tree on Xmas Eve (when we have an evening feast), and nobody leaves milk and cookies for him. My parents agreed to tell me the truth as soon as I first asked if Santa was real. I was six or so. My father knew a guy in the 1960s who still believed in Santa in his teens, and was mocked mercilessly for it. My parents wanted to spare me similar humiliation, and they weren't big on the supernatural, anyway.
@Andrzej This is my favorite Christmas tune. A little number called "The Night Santa Went Crazy". <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FJU4GrXztE" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FJU4GrXztE</a>
@Andrzej You may not like it still, but I think the connection is that the candy Reese's Pieces are little round candies, kind of like an M&M shape and size If you have M&M's. They come from the original Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, which which are larger maybe a standard cookie size in diameter. They are peanut butter coated in chocolate. The Reese's pieces are also peanut butter and covered in chocolate but with a coating, sort of like an M&M coating, and like I said above small round pieces. I wonder if you'd have gotten more presents if you had left cookies and milk or even Reese's pieces for Santa.. 😉
@Andrzej you've probably heard David Sedaris talk about the Dutch version of Santa. <a href="https://youtu.be/hPfg20k5TE8?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/hPfg20k5TE8?feature=shared</a> He also talks about the times he worked at Macy's as one of Santa's elves. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/12/25/nx-s1-5214456/a-morning-edition-tradition-david-sedaris-santaland-diaries" target="_blank">https://www.npr.org/2024/12/25/nx-s1-5214456/a-morning-edition-tradition-david-sedaris-santaland-diaries</a> Now arentcha glad for the simple flying sled of your childhood? Lol!
@Andrzej I still believed in Santa when most of my friends didn't, and I also got teased mercilessly. I don't remember how old I was, but much older than six. My mom pulled me into the kitchen on Christmas Eve and broke the news to me. My next question was, "What about the Easter Bunny?" No, that's not real either. "The tooth fairy?" Nope. Interestingly, I didn't even think to ask the big question, "What about God?" That didn't happen until I was 17 and realized for myself that none of the religion stuff I'd been taught made sense either. The way she softened the blow about Santa was to emphasize that she was letting me in on a secret that my brothers and sisters didn't know, and said I could help put out the presents from Santa after they went to bed. Is this why my sibs resent me to this day? 🤣
@Beth in Greenbelt My parents (atheist mother, agnostic father) let me make my own choice as to religion. My best friend was religious, so I thought I might want to be, too. He was selling it quite well. We were 10, and at the time the regime changed in Poland. Religion was introduced as a (non-obligatory) subject in school. After two or three years of those classes - basically, a course in Catholicism - I was cured 🤣. None of the stuff the nun and the priest talked about made the tiniest bit of sense to me. The fact the guy was a sad bully who stepped on our toes when we laughed at him didn't help. I will forever be grateful to him for making me realize and appreciate the power of reason, critical thinking and skepticism, as opposed to blind faith, following dogma and bowing to authority. Also, I received death threats once in my life - in high school, from a cute, petite blonde girl and her two thuggish, mouthbreathing friends, who did not appreciate my atheism. I'm sure Jesus would be very proud of them.
@Andrzej Useless trivia cluttering my brain: Reese's Pieces shot to candy fame because they were featured in the hit movie ET. Elliot uses them to lure ET into a trap. The movie folks offered the "role" to M&Ms, but Mars turned them down. I'm not sure the candy would have succeeded otherwise. It's pretty dull, IMHO.
@Nora Thanks. I don't think I've ever seen ET BTW. Bits of it, maybe, but never the whole thing.
Fresh and fun, Tarun! Good luck in college.
Bruce’s Philosopher’s Song popped into mind instantly (I drink therefore I am) one of Monty Python’s finest but would probably not pass the modern censors.
@Spmm Or National Lampoon's "Coito ergo sum"
Big props to you, Tarun. I've been doing the NYT puzzles for many years, and couldn't begin to construct one, so I especially admire someone as young as you who can do that. I enjoyed the fresh cluing. I hope you can take time from your studies to make more puzzles for us.
I don't imagine this puzzle will take many solvers 23:01, but it gets me to bed on time. Linguist though I've been I didn't know anything about Urdu until I saw 51D when I suddenly learned it was Indo-European. So much like Hindi.
@kilaueabart They say that a language is a dialect with an army and a navy. URDU, spoken in Pakistan, and Hindi, spoken in India, are basically the same language, but URDU is written in Roman letters, while Hindi is written in Devanagari script. The two are mutually intelligible, in other words.
@kilaueabart The pronunciation (hence transliteration) of numbers is the same in Hindi and Urdu, though they are written differently in their native scripts.
@kilaueabart I am reading *Proto*, by Laura Spinney, a study of research Indo-European in these days of DNA testing. I would recommend it. Yeah, it was that 2-3-4 which gave it away: "d-o," cognate to "d-u-o" or "t-w-o"; "ch-a-r," cognate to "t-e-(t)-ra," with the first "t" becoming a "ch" (but where'd that second "t" go?); "t-i-n" cognate to "t-(r)-i" or "th-(r)-ee" (but where'd that "r" go?). I knew "eka" was Sanskrit for "one," but I've read there isn't a solid IE root for "one." (But I'm guessing that you knew all this.)
@kilaueabart I took me 47 minutes....
@kilaueabart With _RDU I for some reason immediately thought eRDU. I think my mind was somehow fogged by the last name of the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős.
I was just listening to Here Comes The Sun a few days ago, trying desperately to believe. Fantastic puzzle, constructor!! gotTA RUN!
@ad absurdum Flashing back to yesterday's puzzle, I performed that song at KARAOKE night, the day after George Harrison passed away. Not a dry eye in the house.
Thank you, Tarun Krishnamurthy, for an excellent puzzle that was also lots of fun. Hope your time at SDSU is happy and productive. I’m betting you will graduate with honors.
Congrats on the debut! And thanks for the pointer to the Crossword Discord. The link to it needs to be fixed, however. It has a trailing paren that breaks it. The correct link is: <a href="https://discord.gg/uahCdxA3GZ" target="_blank">https://discord.gg/uahCdxA3GZ</a>
Excellent conception and execution! I only wish I had your talent...especially at your young age! WOW
As a Canadian solver, I did a little eye roll at first and dutifully typed in THEATER. Then I realized the builder had spelled it the right way (😉) … a small joy in a busy day. Thanks!
@JQ As a child, I had a friend whose mother pronounced it "thee-ay-tree." I asked my mother why she said it that way and my mom said, "Ignorance. She is trying to say it the British way to sound sophisticated, and instead she is just showing what she doesn't know."
@JQ from the US, and I've always spelt it "RE". Not sure why!
@JQ I started with the British spelling since the clue was for a very British theatre…
This was a very sophisticated puzzle for such a young constructor. Bravo, Tarun! Descartes' famous "I think, therefore I am" graced my bedroom wall in my parent's home, with my own drawing of a human figure sitting against the trunk of a tree. I did a lot of thinking (and writing) as a teenager... It was wonderful to be reminded of that, but the magical touch of this puzzle, for me, was seeing the concealed Maurice RAVEL of Bolero fame. It took me straight to YouTube to revisit Maurice Béjart's masterpiece choreography for it, one that requires of a dancer nothing less than precision and stamina as it perfectly interprets the crescendo of the musical piece. <a href="https://youtu.be/m5CFJlzlGKM?si=xBLH1OmJsrsxvl_B" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/m5CFJlzlGKM?si=xBLH1OmJsrsxvl_B</a> Tarun, congratulations on your debut as a NYT xword constructor, and best wishes for successful college years ahead!
Such a fun puzzle. Thanks, Tarun!
Lots of fun! Good luck with all your future undertakings!
Thanks for a great puzzle, many congratulations on your graduation, and best wishes for your next chapter!
Delightful! Who ever would have imagined that a teenager could make such a puzzle? I enjoyed solving it. Did the constructor originally come from India? I ask because of the British spellings of theater and spiraled. Neuroscience. I love it! Despite the fact that the puzzle was made by a teenager, there is nothing childish or teenage about it. It's sophisticated.
When there isn't a Munster-Mike pun. The Comments just aren't as much fun Is he off on vacation? Or wants more stimulation? Today's like a day without sun!
@dutchiris It's possible he was emu-ed. It does happen every so often.
Bravo, Tarun! A fun puzzle to solve and I enjoyed the theme and its conceit!
And just when I was getting tired of Oreos, this lovely puzzle comes and offers a breath of fresh air!
Never have I ever heard the phrase PRESSES THE FLESH. Although I will admit to a little flesh-pressing from time to time, it was not in a way which would help me achieve elected office. Although, in these times, not prohibit it, either. Reeses Pieces--yuck!
Bill, I concur, but I never, no, na, never aspired to run for anything; dog catcher not withstanding. Ya want it, ya got it Toyota. The handshake has lost clout. I hope pressing the flesh recuperates the currency that has gone the way of the bull.
@Bill I heard it a lot during Presidential campaigns--meaning shaking hands ad nauseum. ....Nothing licentious or inappropriate, just politics and the lingo of running for office.
As someone who worked in professional theatre (and yes, in the US, most theatre professionals use the British/Canadian spelling), I was very happy that my first instinct to spell THEATRE correctly was spot on.
@Mardee do you think all theater professionals are so pretentious that they feel a need to use the British spelling?
@Mardee In elementary school, I was disqualified from a spelling bee for T-H-E-A-T-R-E. 30 years later, I still feel I was robbed! (I’ve never commented before, but I figured there was no better crowd than you fine folks to bear witness to my injustice.)
@Mardee I remember being eliminated from my regional spelling bee in Ontario, Canada after misspelling the Scottish sporting term CABER (I spelled it -RE). A U.K.-based sport, cited at a Canadian bee, with a deceptively U.S. English-like spelling... oh, the betrayal.
@Mardee That was my experience when I was in theatre as well. Just as we tended to say "actor" for both male and female performers. Didn't mean we never said "actress," but tended not to when talking to another actor.
really delightful Tarun! such a fun puzzle!
Yum! Reeses. Oh wait. Pieces. To me, Reeses Pieces are the raisins of candy. They're great when you're expecting them. Not so great when you thought you were getting M&Ms or chocolate chip cookies. At least they're not Skittles! You know what's better than all of them? Tr[es] Lech[es] Cak[es]! Thanks for including it in the constructor's notes, Tarun! Great job on a fun puzzle! And thanks for the link to the Discord server. I removed Discord from my phone a while back because it was too addictive. I'm very tempted to reinstall it and check out the Crossword community there.
@Beth in Greenbelt I wrote about this before but I just can't help doing it again - what is it about Americans and raisins? I love raisins - along with nuts they are my favorite snack, and have been for ages. I don't know any Polish people in my generation or older who do not like them. I also enjoy them in cakes and cookies. In fact, they are the most common, traditional ingredient in sweet Polish bakes, added, for example, to the festive Easter babka, and to keks, the most casual of Polish cakes. Chocolate chips on the other hand I don't much like. Oh, look, cheap chocolate-like product has been added to dough, yaaaay... 🤷
@Elizabeth Connors Hard pellets 😮 That does not sound like any raisins sold over here, under any brand. The raisins in Polish shops usually come from Turkey and Iran, and even the cheap, non-organic ones are often free from additives (except a tiny bit of oil, to preserve moisture I suppose; we're talking 0,5g of oil per 99,5g of raisins) and preservatives.
@Beth in Greenbelt For me it's the other way around 🤣
@Beth in Greenbelt Raisins that I thought were going to be chocolate chips are the cause of all of my trust issues as an adult. ☺️
@Beth in Greenbelt One of the best Mother's Day cards I've ever seen thanked her for never putting raisins where chocolate chips should be. For me, they're like cilantro: required in very few applications but otherwise a turn off.
Congratulations, Tarun. What a lovely puzzle. Best wishes for your next adventure. Hope there's time for constructing puzzles.
Lovely puzzle. My first question is; how else would you spell SPIRALLED Sam?? Yes! A language I know. We had two terms in secondary (high) school learning URDU. It was specific to our area as there was a high number of students from the large Urdu speaking community in our city. I’ve forgotten most of it, but do remember how to count to ten. Sadly it was halted due to a very vocal minority who resented such inter community encouragement. Sine things don’t change.
@Helen Wright In the orthography of American English, if the emphasis is on the first syllable of a word, then the final consonant is not doubled if one is adding -ed or -ing, Think of rebut....rebutted, rebutting; (or caper or major) Now, how would you spell the past or present participle or the past tense of the verbs combat, permit, or upset? Thus SPIral would not require doubling the L.
@Helen Wright In American English, two-syllable verbs only take a doubled final consonant before -ed and -ing when that's the stressed syllable, so "controlled," "averred," "repelled," etc. Also, this only happens when the next-to-last letter is a vowel, so "discarded," "reported," "avoided," etc. Otherwise, you don't double that final consonant, so "traveled," "simmered," "happened," etc. I think this agrees with British usage. Some words, like "canceled," are also seen with the doubled letter, "cancelled." W, X and Y are exceptions, so "yellowed," "faxed," and "obeyed."
@Steve L I honestly didn't know there were guidelines! One of my first jobs after college was processing overpaid property taxes, proof of which could include a canceled check. Seeing cancelled still induces a twinge, but I know they're both accepted. As long as we understand the meaning, right? Language is fascinating.
What a great puzzle without all of the usual suspects. Looking forward to more from this young talent!
Congratulations on your puzzle and graduation! This was a fun one that felt perfect for a Tuesday; just the right difficulty, and I especially loved seeing PELE & Jackie CHAN together!
@Dave I got a kick out of this comment. 😉
I enjoyed this, no matter the age of the constructor.
Impressive debut! Especially from someone so young! You've given me impetus to try my own hand at puzzle construction, something I've been considering for a while now!
New Tuesday PB! Thanks Tarun - I loved the clueing for URDU, MEALS, and of course, TEEN :)
Great puzzle, Tarun. Congratulations!
Great puzzle Tarun! Keep at it and you will undoubtedly end up on a Crossword Listicle in the future. Bravo!
First time commenting… How often do solvers use or look at the theme on a Monday/Tuesday puzzle to help solve the crossword? I am usually trying to finish it as quickly as I can and rarely look or think about the theme. Some themes are clever and jump at you during or after you finish the puzzle and bring a smile to your face.
@Ranga I don't solve for time and I like when I can see the theme unfold, and I especially like when it helps with the solve. It's another layer that makes it fun for me. Sometimes the salvage just so smooth that I miss it, or the theme so subtle, but I do try to catch it.
@Ranga my suspicion is that solvers will use the same system for each solve. I’d also suspect that print solvers use vastly different technique than online solvers. Print you see all of the clues… so solving a corner is easier. With the app it’s probably easier to run through the clues in order. With the web its easiest to tab through the puzzle as well…maybe out in some downs…but do the across mostly first. I’d suspect that methodical solving doesn’t lead to filling in the theme and/or longer clues until they are pretty obvious later on.
@Ranga Usually the Monday and Tuesday themes aren't necessary for solving the puzzle. They are more like an added bonus for me. For this puzzle, I ignored the circles while solving and went back when I was finished to figure out what was up with them before looking at the column.
@Ranga I stopped trying to beat my solve times last year and I enjoy myself more now. When solving Monday and Tuesday (esp. Monday) I try to figure out the theme without the revealer and will actually go to great lengths to avoid seeing the revealer so I can puzzle it out myself. Adds a fun layer of challenge.
@Ranga I don't really care about my solve time - I notice the timer at the top, and I use it as a measure of a puzzle's difficulty, to some extent, but I don't try to beat my averages or bests. Monday and Tuesday puzzles are usually so easy I don't pay attention to the theme, at all. Often, the theme will be something completely unfamiliar to me, anyway (like today), so it wouldn't help even if I wanted it to. Then there is the fact I'm allergic to cuteness, awwness, and groaners - which blows, since most NYT puzzle themes seem to involve exactly that. Grumpy and testy me will usually sigh or shrug rather than smile once the theme emerges from the fill.
@Ranga Virtually never. It’s not worth spending time to figure it out. That’s true on most days for me except the occasional Thursday and Sunday, where there are enough to make it worthwhile. I think M and T themes are a waste of the maker’s time.
@Ranga With themed puzzles, if there is a "revealer," I will usually work around it and leave it blank until the very end; sometimes I can't guess what the connection between the themed entries are, and the revealer will be a revealer in fact. Today's was pretty obvious, though. (If there is no revealer, I will leave the last themed entry blank.) Today's theme let me be certain of at least six squares, which helped in the otherwise unknown PRESSES THE FLESH. Welcome to the comments, and make yourself at home:-)
Am I the only person who has never heard the phrase PRESSES THE FLESH in their life?
@Shrike You're not, but I'm Polish so who knows what my ignorance means 🤷
@Shrike I have - but not in quite some time. It basically refers to a candidate having to shake a lot of hands on the campaign trail.
@Shrike I’m 64, and have volunteered for political causes occasionally over the years, and to me it was as nearly as accessible as HERE COMES THE SUN and RENE DESCARTES.
@Shrike in a NYT political column is probably the only place.
@Shrike it's more commonly used to describe shaking a lot of hands at a fundraiser or gala as opposed to going door to door.
@Shrike Seemed like a pretty common phrase to me, often heard during election time.