Dying over the fact I had 36D as SLow, so 47A showed up as AwEACODE 🥺👉👈. Also, this is the first time I got a rebus without looking at the wordplay since I started doing the crossword! Yay!!!
Never heard of RAGBAG. Started with RAGtAG, but fortunately the error was obvious from the cross.
@Aaron I considered RAGTAG, but as an adjective, it didn't seem to make sense as the answer here. I'm not familiar with RAGBAGs, either.
@Aaron I had _A_BAG and thought it was gonna be “grab bag” somehow, but figured a rebus was unlikely on a Wednesday 😂
@Aaron RAGBAG brought me back to my childhood, when we certainly had one in our household—but I don’t think I’ve heard the term since those long-ago days. It is not something that would have occurred to me without the MAGNA CARTA and ALBATROSS crosses, which made that answer obvious; still, for me it was a pleasant bit of nostalgia.
@Aaron Yeah, RAGBAG was a bit SUS, but I think I've heard of it.
@Aaron Hi, it literally comes from a bag of rags, meaning a collection of scraps. We certainly use it in the UK. We also use Ragtag.
@Aaron Both terms were widely used by the drill sergeants to point out our often disheveled appearance, and the inability to do ANYTHING correctly.
@Aaron I literally dug into my RAGBAG today to clean up a carpet stain.
The air conditioner repairman is in anger management. He's learning to keep his cool. (I'm a fan of these puns.)
@Mike The repairman has no filters? .... Emu air flow
@Mike The AC repairman works most of the week, but he's freon Sundays!
@Mike He's probably fine, just needs to vent once in awhile. Maybe he feels he's lost his looks. A new hair conditioner could make all the difference.
@Mike And for you, puns are a breeze.
@Mike these puns? They blow!! (Just getting rid of hot air - I'm always a fan!)
Good time to run it in The New York Times.
It's a perfect Thursday puzzle for a Wed.
@Jonathan Yup! Love the distraction and contradiction of a rebus - any ole day.
@Michael B. Right? I just revealed the puzzle, having abandoned the solve when the grid defeated me, and was surprised to see RAG BAG where I had RAG tAG. I don't know English poetry (or Polish poetry, TBH), so the cross was no help there... Meh.
@Michael B. I originally had ragtag but realized with the cross that it didn’t work. Ragbag is acceptable but just barely. I’ve never heard it in common usage.
@Michael B.I wrote RAGTAG but the crosses didn't work.
@Michael B. Maybe the worst of many in this puzzle
@Michael B. In my childhood home, there was a RAGBAG in the hall closet. A literal bag of rags— fabric scraps and old clothing that my mother would save to patch clothing or make quilts or whatever she did with them. (I don’t recall actually seeing any of them used.) That’s the only reference I have for a ragbag. But the clue did stir up a few memories for me, so I didn’t hate it.
@Michael B. I thought it might be "grab bag" with a rebus involved. Any time I encounter a situation where the answer seems to have one fewer letter than a possible solution I just leave it alone and work on the crosses, which in this case helped, even though no rebus was involved. I never encountered "rag bag" before, either. Maybe it's a regional thing.
@Michael B. I thought this was a particularly tough one since not only did the more often-heard RAGTAG fit the initial crossings and clue, but also RAGOUT (when used in its more metaphorical sense like that other "stew also meaning miscellany" word OLIO).
@Michael B. I recommend Googling before complaining.
@Michael B. I thought for sure it had to be grabbag somehow. When I saw it couldn't be, I went with GAGBAG (a bag for random prank items? Another word for "barfbag"?) TAG worked (kind of) for 1A since grafitti could be seen as besmriching a wall.
A cooler rebus puzzle you could not hope for. Nothing for a beginner to sweat, with chill clues that melted into fills. Good job, Ben and Zach! (You have another fan)
Brilliant. Getting the AC rebuses at the exact center of both the down and across entries couldn't have been easy. A very well-constructed puzzle that was satisfying to solve.
For a while I wondered what kind of meat a mAMALE might have.
@Elissa Yes, and I wondered "Is a FLy really a bad bug?" Funny the questions that a crossword puzzle leads you to ponder, love it!
@Elissa that added 10 minutes to my time. I was so sure MAR was right.
@Elissa i got so far as googling it to find out what it was! …and that was how i figured out mAR was incorrect.
i might be in the minority but i love an unexpected rebus :)
Sad to see Mama Cass in another puzzle when she hated this nickname and unfortunately it remains the way she’s known 50 years after her death. Cass Elliot was so quick witted and talented and we lost her way too early.
@Amanda Also sad to see how many people had never heard of her.
@Amanda I never knew she hated the nickname. To me it was an affectionate way of referring to her. It is indeed sad that people don't know who she was.
I knew there was a rebus afoot when I saw only 8 spaces for [Tool for removing a tree stump]. There are 22 letters in ‘good neighbor with an F250.’
@Sam Lyons just to be annoying and slightly condescending: 2, 5, and 0 are not letters
@Sam Lyons Be Stihl my heart. (Emus don't you dare)
Numbers often appear in the grid. Here is a fairly recent example: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/1/2023" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/1/2023</a> The first rebus in The Times Crossword had numbers: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=9/6/1954" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=9/6/1954</a>
6D &49A have an unusual relationship as Vermeer Co. is a leading manufacturer of stump grinders/cutters. <a href="https://vermeerused.com/en-US/browse/all-categories/stump-grinder/vermeer/all-models" target="_blank">https://vermeerused.com/en-US/browse/all-categories/stump-grinder/vermeer/all-models</a> I have never seen a stump uprooter.
@replay <a href="https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/0503C36-tree-uprooting-machine_1601201018390.html?spm=a2700.7724857.0.0.3dec3ef98cokYL" target="_blank">https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/0503C36-tree-uprooting-machine_1601201018390.html?spm=a2700.7724857.0.0.3dec3ef98cokYL</a> neither had i.
@replay That threw me too. I've always known them as stump grinders. I would think uprooting a whole tree would be too difficult. Though one time my mom tried to uproot a bush by tying it to her pickup and driving away. Maybe that's an uprooter?
@all The only proven-effective way of removing a tree stump. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/yeyj4yy7" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/yeyj4yy7</a> Of course, this method depends on how close your neighbors are. 💥
Such a simple, elegant and perfect-for-crosswords theme. Props to the constructors for plucking it out of the ether and so ably executing it. The grid design allows for thirteen longs, and twelve of those were appealing, IMO, giving the box plenty of pop. Twelve of thirteen! Bolstered by beauty in short answers (THUMP, BEADY, PALETTE). I also liked the unintended mini-theme of A TRAIN, with eight answer that have that letter as the caboose. But what I loved most were the answers that warmed my HEART, reminders of two so dear to me. PET CAT and RESCUE brought my Wiley to mind – he is both – who I tremendously love despite being the hairball king of the world. And SOBER immediately had me thinking about one of my children who has been that for many years, who is courageous beyond measure, and who I am so proud of. A puzzle that delighted my mind and melted my heart. That’s a wow. Thank you so much for this, Ben and Zach!
@Lewis: “hairball king of the world”! 😂
MAMA CASS Elliot disliked being called "Mama". In fact, her 1973 album was named "Don't Call Me Mama Anymore".
@Steve L I can’t blame her. It’s so unfortunate she died before she could reestablish herself.
I remember first reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in high school and cheering the spirits tormenting him for killing the albatross, not to mention applauding the crew for hanging the dead bird around his neck. After all, think about it—do you know of any ballads written about sailors with punitive tofurkey collars? Then there’s L’Albatross by Baudelaire, where the allegory is meant to make you feel for the poet’s alienation. Teen angst notwithstanding, I thought Baudelaire was a whiner and I felt for the actual bird instead. (Maybe those PETA and ASPCA memberships were preordained?) After that I didn’t think about albatrosses for 20 years until my husband got me to watch a documentary on them. Enormous, majestic birds who cover millions of miles in their lifetime, mate for life, and lay just one egg a year. I watched an albatross chick being fed. The mother had brought what was meant to be krill and jellyfish. Instead she poured clear plastic into her offspring’s throat. The birds mistake discarded plastic bags floating in the water for jellyfish, then inadvertently feed it to their young. I’ve been bringing my own paper bags to the produce section ever since. Recycling plastic bags in Europe is easier, but back home we’d fill a big box of them in the garage and cart it off twice a year to one of only 2 recycling facilities in Seattle metro that accepts this stuff. They make park benches out of it. Which is much better than feeding it to baby albatrosses.
Quite a sophisticated central AC system puzzle for a Wednesday! Complete with 4 mini-splits! Pretty cool Ben & Zach. You put on quite a CLINIC in AC with LEEDs certification. Unfortunately, I heard a THUMP, then SNAPCRACKLEPOP, but no worry, It's hard to stop ATRAIN.
The guitar effect is a WAH WAH pedal. I own one. Wawa is totally wrong. The clue should have used the food store: theres your wawa.
Son of a gun -- I think ALL of the ACs are dead center in both the Acrosses and the Downs. At least in all the ones I took the trouble to check, they were. What an amazing construction coup that makes this -- though my solve wouldn't have been any different if the ACs hadn't been in the center. A very appropriate puzzle for the weather most of the country is going through right now. I'm Exhibit A for staying home in AC: I had an important post-cataract operation check-up appt scheduled at Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital yesterday when the air quality was very bad, the humidity was off the charts and the temps were over 100. It was a NYC record. I cancelled it the day before. I didn't give them a choice and they didn't give me a hard time. But I couldn't get another appt for two weeks -- condemning me to two MORE weeks of eyedrops before (hopefully) then being tapered off (two more weeks after that?) I've now been on these drops and others since April 22. But emergency situations call for drastic action. My philosophy: The best vision in the world won't do me any good if I'm dead of heat stroke. What's happening to the climate now is shudder-making. I just hope Iran doesn't decide to take down our power grid. I thought this was a pretty easy rebus as rebuses go -- made immediately obvious by MAGN[AC]ARTA. But there was some challenge in the surrounding fill. I enjoyed it and appreciated the timeliness.
@Nancy So glad to see you back! Best wishes for a successful post-op appointment. You never know...maybe an additional two weeks of eye drops is what will make all the difference for a superb outcome. Hang in there! 💕
@Nancy Having been through the operation for each eye, I know the bother. However, I would call the doctor's office and see if they want you to start weaning off the drops even without being seen by the doctors. The steroid is the main problem, and they generally don't like you to be on them too long. Hope the recovery is speedy!
My favorite thing about this puzzle is it raises the possibility of two rebus puzzles in a week. In which case I'll do a happy dance in spite of the heat.
@David Reiffel Not to be rude, but is taking an extra shower today, an option? When I lived in NYC [unconditioned in a walkup in the 1970s] I took multiple showers to help me cool-off.
This was my first Wednesday solve without any hints! I was able to figure out it was a rebus puzzle based on 29D. Crosswords are a new skill for me so this was a big deal in my little world :)
@Sarah Pants Your last name would have played nicely in yesterday's double-talk theme.
@Sarah Pants It is indeed a big day! I certainly remember some of my early solves. Congratulations!
Congratulations, Zach and Ben! Thank you for a clever, accessible and enjoyable puzzle. I laughed out loud at 31A as I’m sitting here sober in California. First time I’ve heard the term “California Sober,” but I love it! More collaborations, please!
Wouldn't it be sweet if we got another rebus tomorrow?!
For us rebus-lovers, a bonus rebus on a Wednesday! Excellent! For the rebus-haters, a (relatively) painless introduction to the joys of rebus puzzling? A win-win? I think so. Thanks, Ben Zimmer and Zach Sherwin, for a refreshing break from the heat wave! For those that think that rebuses are unfair, a violation of the rules of crossword construction, an unethical transgression of the unspoken pact between constructor and solver, I say, "Perhaps you've misunderstood the nature of the NYTimes crossword." Many of us come here for relaxing diversion from the craziness of the world. Perhaps your anger can be turned to something more substantial.
Re the Mini: the Wah-Wah pedal is not and has never been calked the wawa pedal.
@Theo I’m with you. After solving the mini I googled and googled trying to find just one instance of a “wawa” pedal. Nada. The only references I could find were misspelled for sale listings by people reselling Wah pedals. Not a Wawa anywhere - except on signs along the highway.
I don't know why rebuses get so much hate, I like noticing that there's an extra bit of jiggery-pokery going on in a puzzle! I had RAGtAG at first as well, but quickly fixed. Thanks Ben & Zach!
Congratulations on a great NYT debut, Messrs. Zimmer and Sherwin! I didn’t really know RAG BAG and got stuck with RAG tAG, even though I know about that ALBATROSS. Thanks!
The first time through, I thought Vermeer's bit of gear was "MIRRORS"-- maybe someone will use that one day, lol. This was a fun puzzle! When I started these the rebuses annoyed me, but now I like them. So when I got to the 1215 agreement, I said ha, ITSON then!
ACk ! Superb puzzle, and caused me to recall Bill the Cat, who maybe should become my avatar these days.
I abandoned the solve when it turned out (by my revealing two entries) one of the rebuses was at the cross of an American brand and the informal name of a singer from the 60s. How on Earth could I know any of those entries, and well enough to be confident about the rebus square? I know it's what I get for solving an American puzzle as a Polish guy, and one born in 1980 rather than 1950, but I don't have to like it. For me the puzzle was saturated with arcana, and even though I got the trick (or at least I realized I had to put AC into four squares, of which I got two myself before I gave up solving), the grid was largely empty well into my attempt. I did not know so many of the answers I decided to reveal them rather than look them up, and that cross of two trivia entries spoiled the whole thing for me. This was one of the least personally enjoyable puzzles I have ever attempted to solve in the NYT.
I just looked at the other comments. *Of course* everybody loved this clever wonderful and clever if slightly easy Wednesday puzzle 🤣😆🤪 Apparently I'm special 🤣
Argh, I did not proofread that second post after changing the order of the sentence...
@Andrzej I completely agree that was a major fault that should have been solved by the puzzle editor.
@Andrzej This is a puzzle in a USA-based newspaper. It's going to have things that are more likely to resonate with a US audience. While it's great to have solvers from other countries, please stop being a grump. If you want something to complain about, try Connections. It's terrible! I'm thinking of stopping it. And I'm from New York City. I'm only 1/4 Polish. Eat some pierogi and relax--it's just a game.
@Andrzej 100% agree. Not circling the squares where the rebus entries went or providing any indication of their existence was also bad. I can safely say this was my least favourite NYT puzzle, by a lot.
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight Grumpiness is at the core of my being 🤷. Please do appreciate I'm not dissing the constructors or the editors (not this time, anyway) - I'm just truthfully describing my experience, as a middle aged Polish guy. I hope you're not trying to invalidate that experience - as a fully subjective thing it can be neither wrong nor right. It simply is what it is. I used to do Connections last year, but I stopped in December - because I'm a Polish grump, of course. The abundance of American trivia categories made that game unsolvable and unenjoyable for me way too often. I have recently occasionally attempted Connections, and I see little has changed. I would like the game more if there was a "reveal" option. When I'm completely stumped it feels unnecessary to force me to attempt making the connections. Just show me the solution already! Grumpy, testy, *and* impatient.
@Andrzej it seems to me that if that particular cross was what got you, BUT you had figured out that you needed AC in two more crossing boxes, you really just needed to have the confidence to put AC in that particular crossing box and then go off and find the other one.
@abelsey Sure - that might have worked if the cross was the only empty square there. Alas, I had almost nothing in the grid, it being so trivia-heavy. I can't remember when last I had so little in a puzzle that was not a Friday or Saturday. When I revealed the two crossing trivia entries, I had no way of knowing the cross would be a rebus. Since my grid was largely empty in that quadrant, I started doing reveals of trivia, and voila. Confidence is one of the things I have in overabundance. But confidence means nothing when you're faced with near-empty space. My complaint was about crossing two trivia entries on a themed square. It is quite common for solvers to look up trivia. Crossing trivia on a themed square increases the chances of the theme being unwittingly spoiled for many people. My case was not quite as bad as that, as I had already figured out the AC theme in MAGN(AC)ARTA and SANT(AC)CLAUS, but still, I did not like what happened there. Also, I very rarely stumble on a Wednesday puzzle, and in fact, this is my favorite day of the week at NYT games. To have it as unpleasant as it was for me today feels rotten.
@abelsey I appreciate your understanding of my situation 👍🏾 Fairness when it comes to trivia is really in the eye of the beholder. I am a very well educated (with a doctorate to show for it), reasonably well-read and well-travelled person in my 40s. I have a wide range of interests. I have been following international news for some 35 years. I listen to music, sometimes for hours daily. I shop, I cook. Yet I don't know many *Polish* singers from the 1960s, or recognize the ones I do know by their song titles. I am unfamiliar with many *Polish* brands. Crossing an artist from before I was born with a brand would have probably stumped me even in a Polish context. To me, personally, that does not seem fair. And, since there may be no objective measure of fairness when it comes to such matters, I have to leave it at that 🤷.
I think Billie was being humorous. At least that's how I interpret the post 🙂 English is definitely not my first language 🇵🇱
@Andrzej Everyone has their own "rules" for how to solve the crossword, so it depends on how you approach it. For me personally, the trivia questions are more of a fun research side project; I don't use the reveal option or websites that specifically focus on crossword answers, but rather use Wikipedia, or sometimes Google (trying to ignore hits from crossword sites that may pop up). For example, I found the MAMACASS answer by hopping through Wikipedia articles, learning other things along the way. That said, I do agree that crossing this nickname with a relatively obscure American brand was not great. I'm American and eat chips, and still didn't recognize the brand until I saw a photo and realized that the packet design does look vaguely familiar...
@Andrzej I make allowances for mistakes that didn't get edited out before hitting the "submit" button so automatically that they often don't even register.
@Bruce Yeah, but as a thesis supervisor at university, I am especially angry when I miss a typo or editing error of my own - even on an online comment board. I should be better than this. @Bob I get you, but don't enjoy researching stuff I don't really care about, like characters from US kid's stories, or brands (actually, I love not knowing brands - take that, late stage exploitative capitalism!), or even some artists. I used to reserach *everything* as a teen - for example, in the 1990s I knew all major statistical data for every European country, and many non-European ones, too (and for most of the decade found it impossible to get laid - there may have been a connection). Now that I'm a (mostly) fully formed human who knows what he wants and likes, I actually enjoy the freedom of not feeling like I *have* to know everything.
@Hanson I don't have a solution. I'm just describing my experience with the puzzle. It is not representative of the community, and even if it were, I have no influence over the NYT and its game editors. When I review an album, a game or a movie I did not like, I'm just saying I did not like it, and why. I'm not proposing to change anything.
@Andrzej I thought of you and other non-Americans when encountering 10D, 23A, 31A, 36A, maybe also 47A. Sorry from California. Happens to some of us here too, I'd never heard of three of the above, including 31A, vague about the 4th. The Connections game had "HIT SONGS OF 1998" and ''WWR STARS (theatrical wrestlers) recently--I was utterly lost on those, too. We all have different knowledge bases.
I hope those who dislike a rebus don’t get too hot under the collar. My advice? Chill a bit and enjoy the AC… it’s breezy and invigorating! Gelid, even. (Hey, what’s the point of learning new words if you don’t put them to use?) This puzzle was like a popsicle: a cool treat on a sweltering day. Thanks, Ben and Zach. (Cue the ice cream truck music 🎵 )
Wonderful puzzle! Cool cool cool! You guys put the "swell" in sweltering! (What!?) Sam, you've OUTDOne yourself with today's photo. Did anyone else learn Rime of the Ancient Mariner by singing it to the theme of Gilligan's Island? Try it: Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea! And never a saint took pity on My soul in agony.
@ad absurdum Very keen! Better than "the Yellow Rose of Amhearst." But who needs to drink sea water, when you could "buy the World a Coke/ and keep it company."
@ad absurdum You know, I've never read the actual poem, but I do know the Iron Maiden song, which samples liberally from it. Water, water everywhere and all the boards did shrink Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink
I rate this puzzle a happyfACeemoji. Et tu, emu.
I’m so off my game today I never even questioned it isn’t Thursday, I assumed I’d lost a day somewhere! Did this in two halves as I moved the Alpacas to their new field partway through the day. They charged around like Spring lambs, bless ‘em. Caught onto the theme quickly and had fun finding the rest of the ‘units’. Returning to the blanks this afternoon I finally got UBOAT after realising it’s AND SO, not hence as I’d stuck in. Good grid, Wednesday chewy with a Thursday twist. Fun facts; Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born just up the road from here in Ottery St Marys. There’s a great garden centre there that I was mooching around just the other day, though I’m sure that would be just too bourgeois for one of the Romantic Poets. Today’s Wordplay photo is the Punch and Judy booth at Weymouth beach. Again, just a few miles away. We avoid it like the plague in the summer season; the crowds, the mess, the packed beach. But out of season it’s the most glorious beach for dog walking, followed by fish and chips on the sea front.
@Helen Wright You had me at "as I moved the Alpacas," followed secondly by "too bourgeois." Your closeness to Coleridge's birthplace must greatly affect your written word. Nice comments! We have packed beaches, as you know, best visited out of season. Especially our southern coastlines.
@Helen Wright (I'm still behaving) Not only do I admire Coleridge’s work, I'm a great fan of the great Lord Alfred Tennyson’s many works, including that haunting “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” I come close to tears whenever I read it. Perhaps Somersby is close by?
@Helen Wright I love the word pictures that you paint of your daily life, and I always feel like we are kindred spirits of a sort -- for two reasons. First, I am from Ohio, which, turns out, is the US state with the largest number of alpaca farms! <a href="https://www.times-gazette.com/story/news/2017/01/07/ohio-is-home-to-largest/19024508007" target="_blank">https://www.times-gazette.com/story/news/2017/01/07/ohio-is-home-to-largest/19024508007</a>/ I drove the route from Cleveland to Columbus more times that I could count, admiring numerous alpacas along the way. Second, I now live in MA, and you often refer to towns with names that mirror the towns near Boston (since the early settlers of the US were not so fond of the king but were apparently exuberantly fond of the town and city names). Today was Weymouth, a town about 10 miles from Boston. Hope you are having nicer weather on your side of the pond.
Tricky! I know it’s debatable but I don’t consider TAMALES to be Tex-Mex, which to me is more like the kind of food offered at Taco Bell, tacos with lettuce tomato and shredded cheddar. I live in a neighborhood with a large Latino and Mexican community and tamales are ubiquitous here. The mole ones are my weakness. Oaxaquenos are amazing. Appreciated all the music-related clues. Big ups to MAMACASS, the Gertrude Stein of 60s LA.
The entry is TAMALE, not tamales, and -- as pointed out hours earlier -- it is [Tex-Mex] because TAMALE is an English word for the singular; the Spanish word is tamal.
Terra Chips might be "healthful" compared to other chips, healthful implies they are conducive to good health, which is quite a stretch. Oh well; I don't expect constructors to run such clues by me first.
@Jeff Z Right? Can't believe I had to read this far to find this comment. Dear crossword editors-you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
A quick Google search taught me that "907" is the ARE[A C]ODE of Alaska. It's "high" in more ways than one!
Hoo boy! Just now got to the puzzle. I’m shocked, shocked! to see a rebus on a Wednesday. 😀 Cue the outrage.
@NYC Traveler Didn't the Magn(a c)arta have something in it about no rebuses on Wednesdays?
Joining in the chorus of "cool!!!" and thrilled by the surprise of a Wednesday rebus. Thank you, Ben and Zach! The absolute construction skill and finesse of making all ACs perfectly centered in acrosses *and* downs, plus having an AC right in the bull's eye of the grid, makes this puzzle deserving of a standing ovation. My HEART goes out to all of you who've had to endure ungodly and potentially dangerous high temps. I've been there before and narrowly escaped a heat stroke in a top floor apartment with no AC, so please be careful and mind your electrolytes. May cooler temps be "In The Air Tonight" for all of you. Should some distraction be helpful at all, here's Phil Collins and his song's notorious THUMP THUMP THUMP: <a href="https://youtu.be/IeDMnyQzS88?si=4t_O5sb8aIAk7OXm" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/IeDMnyQzS88?si=4t_O5sb8aIAk7OXm</a>
@sotto voce, coincidentally, that particular Phil Collins tune was my ear worm today whilst running errands. I have no idea why; I haven't heard it recently, but there it was!
Tonight I sat down to this puzzle after taking our dogs for a delayed walk -- we wanted to wait until the heat index was below 100. The timing of this puzzle's publication is exquisite and the execution a delight. Today I am very happy to find central ac wherever I can.
Well done NYC! Brave choice and I salud you. Just in Brooklyn yesterday visiting my son. Soon as I got out of the car, heat hit me with a THUMP -- so it's very apt to do an A/C grid on the hottest day of the year. We sallied forth to Greenpoint to lunch at one of those hallowed old Polish restaurants: cool cucumber salad, carrot & horseradish salad, beet salad, cold bright pink borscht, bottle after bottle of Lech... Andrzej, you were in my thoughts...and still it wasn't enough to keep us from wilting in the 100 degree blast. My son's friend said the weatherman has been saying it's a "heat bubble." Opi! It's your year; xwordinfo says you've been used six times so far and we're not even in July, maybe it'll be a ninefold Opi year. I like their clever names. And there are some good possibilities here in this grid. If I were a "brand ambassador" for Opi, these are some of the shades I'd be promoting (based on this puzzle): Egg Salud U-Boat Oar Sober Toad Snap Crack Le-Pop Ragbag Heart Exile's Area Code Analog Tamale Plasma Clinic USA Ban Avian Liu Two IPet Cat) Lovers It's On, Adele Ad Nauseam (which could also be an Opi color) So happy to be out of the heat. Stay icee...
Loved it, knew there would be grumbling in the comments about rebuses on a Wednesday. As far as rebuses go, this was a pretty easy one. Fun puzzle, fair clues.
@Jones Yes I think it was a clever tool to get more people to understand Rebuses! I enjoyed it! Thanks Ben and Zach. Very a propos for days that are sometimes over 100 degrees!
That was ACute one. Unexpected, but cute.
Very cool bonus rebus on a scorching hot day that SNAPCRACKLE and POPped.
Nice puzzle and well timed, based on the comments of those in the Northern Hemisphere. Meanwhile, I'm freezing my arse off, Down Under...so to speak.
@Paul Thank you for your below-the-waist update. I can confirm, it’s getting hot in here
In Grand Marais, on the North Shore of Lake Superior, the temp peaked at 54 Fahrenheit degrees today. We *usually* don't need AC. And hardly anyone up here has it. But...there are some weirdly humid days up here because of the giant humidity source that borders the town. When the sun beats down for 16 straight hours on water, it forces a lot of it into the atmosphere.