A leisurely Sunday puzzle, with enough difficulty to keep me awake and interested. And distracted—I needed some respite from the daily news. Nine times out of ten, people are better off without a top ranking royal. We should cast a really long look at our home near the sun and consider the pacifist's renouncement. Thank you, Mike. It was a great idea. You might say the cat's meow.
For a long while I had cOPs for “Fuzz”.
@Joe P I laughed when I saw popo because my ex, a criminal defense lawyer, calls them that
@Joe P Me too until I figured out there's no such thing as cACIFISTS.
@Joe P Yup. Me, too. Then 63A forced the P, so now I had POPs, which *still* wasn't right.
Well, after I filled in a theme answer for the first time, my jaw happily dropped at seeing what was going on, and I thought, “Oh. VERY clever. This is going to be fun!” And it was. Answer as clue. Answer in answer. Sweet wordplay! Sweetened even more by some lovely serendipities. Rhyming pairs COCO / POPO and HUGO / TOGO. The PuzzPair© of MANTRA and OMS. Then the inspiring backstory. Constructor accidentally falls upon a theme, spends weeks coming up with a set of theme answers – through brainwork alone, rather than computer coding, and while I have nothing against using coding to find theme answers, I feel an inner fist pump when I learn that it was all done manually, as it were. Then, constructor continues the brain-only work, spending SIX MONTHS to come up with the perfect clue to use on all the theme answers. Such patience and persistence! As I said, inspiring. For me, a feel-good Sunday, for which I’m eminently grateful. Thank you, Mike!
@Lewis I agree. I always celebrate the "analog" constructors and find their puzzles more...authentic.
A very clever idea. I wonder if there has ever been a puzzle with one clue duplicated so many times. Perhaps, but I certainly don't recall. Not surprisingly, I needed the fewest crosses for NINE TIMES OUT OF TEN, since that at least is a common phrase. Such dependence on crosses reminded of those puzzles years ago with clues like “First part of the quip”, “Second part of the quip”, etc. They were usually very difficult. A fun and unique clue for CHER, an entry which has appeared dozens of times, nine times out of ten with a boring clue. Nicely done, Mike.
@Anita Sorry, could you help? Why does CHER not sound selfish? I'm still not seeing it.
@Anita Gosh yes! Nothing spoiled settling into a good solving session like, “First part of the quip”, “Second part of the quip”, etc." Like another famous Cher, they leave me "Clueless" 😉 [As if!]
[Apt clue today for the capital letters] THE MElding of clue and answer.
Instinctively started filling in ALEX for 8 Down and thought there was going to be a rebus when it didn't fit.
For some reason the crossing of POE and POPO seemed amusing. So I tried a Raven parody where the author is surprised by the popo rapping on his chamber door. No, too on the nose for our current situation. So then I thought maybe POE could be embedded in a long answer, the way the themers were. Like “Riding the popo express” or “Bringing the popo energy.” I have now moved on to just doing other things with my evening.
@Cat Lady Margaret Your second paragraph. Yeah, a knock on the door late at night is my nightmare these days. I've never felt so insecure in my own country.
@Cat Lady Margaret -- My mantra these days, and my hope for the future, is what the raven quoth.
@Cat Lady Margaret I had to repeat "Lenore" many times over before "Nevermore" finally popped into my head. That, plus 3 letters in the solution, and poof! Current situation solved 😉
@Cat Lady Margaret I was also trying to do a parody, started running into trouble immediately and gave up, thinking "Nevermore. I don't need to descend into that maelstrom again."
I could not solve any of the themers just from the clues.
@Barry Ancona I found them a little awkward too, they took me a fair bit of sussing out.
@Barry Ancona I had to go by the down words, and then when I got 22A, I saw what was going on, so from there on, it was less mysterious.
I understood what was going on from the title of the puzzle and a glance at the themer clues. Nevertheless, I was unable to solve any of the themers without first having a few letters from crosses. This puzzle definitely needed to be a crossword.
@Barry Ancona I got 110A from the circled letters and 3 or 4 other crosses. The clue inside certainly did it there! All the others took most of the crosses.
Sara, I got several of the themers from the letters in the circles. I didn't get any of them just from the clues in the clue list.
@Barry Ancona Agree. Theme may have been thought-provoking for some solvers. I appreciated how circled words morphed within the confines of each answer. OURHOMENearthESUN was the last themer for moi.
@Barry Ancona Hmm, that's puzzling! I got all of the themers on my first round without any crosses. YMMV! 😏
@Barry Ancona Perspective: For Barry it's news if he couldn't solve *any* of the themers from just the clues. For me it's news if I *can* solve *any of the themers just from the clues.
@Barry Ancona "I could not solve any of the themers just from the clues." Is this joke? All the themer clues were essentially clueless without some crosses and especially filling in the circled squares.
Barry Ancona, I cannot tell how late it is just from the irony in your post. And it seems many cannot solve your post just from the clues. :)
I wonder... Has anybody ever actually uttered the word "unshut"? Google autocorrect was so confused by it just now that it "corrected" it to some gibberish, apparently considering even that a less unusual option. Anyway. This was the first Sunday puzzle I felt like completing in many weeks. I needed to look up some trivia (especially the multiple trivia entries crossing the mysterious DRAKE), but I almost enjoyed the whole experience. I was quite proud I had no idea what superstitious people throw over their shoulders - whatever it is, it won't make any difference, anyway. Few things annoy me as much as belief in actual magic or luck.
@Andrzej I groaned out loud on UNSHUT. (And I just got autocorrected writing it in this comment.) Is "actual magic" an oxymoron?
@Andrzej I thought about it and was going to say no, but then I realized. Parents / spouses frequently yell out, "{insert your name here}, you left the door unshut again!" This is important around room air conditioning, refrigerators, and kitchen cabinets owned by generally anal retentive people. :)
@Andrzej I think someone said it once to their buddy and the buddy was like, oh, MAN.... EGADs!! He tried some OMA to relax, but he just couldn't get past the horror that was worse than any POE he'd ever read.He vowed then and there to dedicate the rest of his to coming up with a superior word. Thus, ajar was born.
@Andrzej Grr, that is to say, OMS. ☺️
@Andrzej I guess I might put unshut in the category of words that might be called unpopular. I mean, all the rules of grammar suggest it's perfectly fine. You have a word meaning something, you have a prefix which reverses it, and voila, a word. But it just never became part of the speech patterns, like ungood or unpoor or unsmart, and unlike words like, well, "unlike", and unwise. So I guess the debate begins with this: are the answers only the popular words, or the unpopular ones, too?
@Francis Your point is moot, sort of. Of course any word that's in the dictionary is acceptable in a crossword. However, the practically unused words seem jarring, and I just don't like them. That means very little though, as I don't like a great many things 🤣
@Francis Sure, I understand why the constructor used the word. It does not mean I have to like it though, does it? Understanding why something happens doesn't have to equal one being fine with it. I find it strange how often people do not realize this.
@B the scenario is apt, but the word is "open" not "unshut". 😀
@Andrzej did you figure out DRAKE in the end? It's a male duck. Which apparently Daffy Duck is. What is he called in Polish, I wonder?
@Francis One of the things I like most about middle age is realizing what I really do and don't enjoy. For a few years now I've been acting upon this realization and it's been making my life much more satisfying. I will never let anybody force me into anything any more (to think how close I was 20 years ago to having a fracking *child* with the absolutely wrong woman is so scary! There is an upside though. The plot of land I bought at the time for our family home has increased in value 8 or 10 fold, and I will soon convert it into a 4s 0-60 German auto. I just have to decide whether I prefer a Merc or a Beemer 🤣) @RM Yeah, I realized what it had to mean when Googled crosses revealed it. If there is a Polish name for a male duck, I don't know it, despite having an uncommonly broad vocabulary in my native tongue. Probably only hunters would know it, if it existed, and I despise them, and their lingo, too, by association.
@Andrzej O MY! How about you just liked the puzzle? There truly ARE more things than dreamt of in your philosophy. You would be surprised--pleasantly, i hoped.
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight Aren't you on a little mission to change me, eh? It won't work.
@Andrzej - UNSHUT is more of a clever definition than anything someone actually says. UNSHUT does follow the rules of English "un-" words.
Often times circles in the answers are not pertinent to the clues and just provide a bonus upon completion. This time the circles were integral to the solution and I attacked those clues by shifting my attention to the downs that crossed the circled squares. It was interesting to have my usual solving pattern disrupted. I enjoyed the change of pace. I enjoyed MOUSEERADICATOR for CAT.
Just received an email from the NYT indicating that the yearly rate for GAMES access is going to be raised from $30 to $50, starting Aug 2025. What is disappointing is that last year I got an email from the NYT indicating that the yearly rate for GAMES access was going to be raised from $19.97 to $30. What is even more disappointing is the wording of the current email is almost an exact rehash of the previous email. To be clear the entertainment value is worth the $50 a year. What is concerning is the significant jump from $19.97 to $50 in just one year and the cloned email. What the heck is going on at the NYT?
@Bob What’s going on is that a lot of us cancelled our NYT subscriptions due to 1) normalizing of authoritarianism and 2) sane-washing. Some of us moved to a Games subscription. To make up for the lost revenue, the cost of the Games has to go up.
14A had my wife laughing out loud when she got it. She is currently untressed during chemo, and enjoys things in the puzzle that resonate.
@mark smith Sending good thoughts to you both!
@mark smith Best wishes to you both! Remind her that unlocked is beautiful!! ☺️
I was so entertained doing this puzzle. It wasn't easy for me, as it apparently was for others, Heck, it took me 50% longer than my average. But the concept was so clever, and the misdirects so sly, I couldn't help but enjoy it the entire time that it took to hear the happy music.
Big fan of words within words. Answers within clues within answers is quite a feat indeed. Very neat puzzle.
Cute. Faster than usual. I liked the themed clues! Clever.
I was quite surprised to fill in the grid in a decent time and get the gold star on completion. I’ve gotten used to solving Sunday puzzles on my desktop computer, but we’re away from home, so it was the iPad or nothing. That grid looks pretty small compared to what I’m used to. Toss in circled letters (which are hard for me to see sometimes) and I was sure I would have a typo. But except for PACIFIST’S RENOUNCEMENT, I got the theme answers fairly quickly. That one was slow to come, because I had cOPs instead of POPO. I really enjoyed the theme despite that slowdown. Thanks, Mr. Hobin!
@Eric Hougland I feel really good when the superb solvers make the same mistakes that I make. I had cOPs, too.
I got POPO instantly because I learned it from these puzzles.
@Francis You would be surprised how little of anything I am able to remember any more. Some random, near-useless stuff, like POPO, I remember just fine, but I forget important things.
@Eric Hougland yeah, Sundays can be a bit squinty on an iPad. Despite that and while the theme answers came mostly from the crosses, the rest of the fill was so straightforward I set a personal Sunday best today, even with cOPs instead of POPO for a while.
"Makes amends?" for EDITS was diabolical. That mini-block of squares was the last to fill for me. I not sure if it was the un-clues in the long themers, but this puzzle solved like a second Saturday for me...and I mean that in a good way. Anyone who thinks ICE SKATES "barely scratch the surface" has never played hockey. There's a reason why the Zamboni has to come out after every period. But it was rather clever, so I'll allow it.
Pacifist's denouncement looked good so I fell one square short of success when I convinced myself there might have been an actress named Dita Wilson in The Runaway Bride.
@Ed I really struggled with than across, too. Denouncement and Renouncement looked equally possible. And for 72A I originally had SnaP, like when the old vinyls would crack and hiss. So when I finally realized it should be SKIP, RITA jumped out at me. I was quite relieved when it all fell into place.
Today was really fun! I actually LOL'ed at 14A Unlocked? BALD!!! great clue!
Wow. Just - WOW! Typical tough workout for me, but... hard to imagine what it must have taken to construct a puzzle like this. It would have taken a lot of searching and pondering to come up with any answer that fit the trick, but then... ...one grid-spanning entry and then three pairs of answers with both of the answers in each pair being of the same length, so that they could be fit in the usual top to bottom balanced puzzle. And... all of the theme answers appearing for the first time. That's just... amazing. And.. this is Mr. Hobin's second puzzle. The first one was also a Sunday and was another unique and amazing piece of work. I'll put that in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As promised: His first puzzle - a Sunday from April 16, 2023 with the title: "Bring your A Game." I must have done this one, but of course had completely forgotten it. This one was all in the clues. The theme answers were pretty much all familiar phrases, but was surprised to see that most of them were making their first and only appearance. Anyway - some theme clue and answer examples: "Lottery prize?" AWARDOFTHESTATE "Painted 25% of the house?" BRUSHEDASIDE "Make one's long story overly short?" ABRIDGETOOFAR "Just the refreshments, not the viewing?" HALFAWAKE "One darling percussion instrument?" ACUTETRIANGLE "Where stealth is found in the dictionary?" AHEADOFSTEAM And there were more. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/16/2023" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/16/2023</a> Amazing that all of those fit the clues by just separating the 'A' from a familiar phrase and making it an article. ....
@Rich in Atlanta Thanks for pointing out the grid symmetry with the themers. Makes an impressive puzzle even more so! Like you, I must have played that previous Sunday puzzle of his, too, but I don't remember it offhand. Might be fun for me to clear that grid and give it another go!
PO PO pitiful me All those cOPs wouldn’t let me be. Did I zip through this one? GOD NO. But once I UNSHUT my mind, I had a good time.
@Heidi Ha! Ever thought of Linda Rhondstat when popo came up. Nice! Unbreak My Heart She's Come Undun - OG
hint, hint, this puzzle included a lot of great hints! fun!
i found it more annoying than clever. i did slog thru it though.
No disrespect to KEN Jennings, but was anyone else initially surprised that the Jeopardy! answer at 8-Down had only three letters, and therefore ALEX wouldn't work?
@The X-Phile As a Jeopardy fan since the Art Fleming days in the 60s, no, I happily entered KEN. Mr. Jennings has, in my mind, correctly inherited the role as host. He is eminently qualified and frequently shows his deference and respect towards Alex. As far as the puzzle, it was at times a slog, but the device used (clue within the fill) was a nice gimmick and one I actually used for a few of the answers.
@The X-Phile It's funny you should mention that, as I still default to ALEX. Whenever Johnny Gilbert introduces the show, I instinctively await ALEX's name.
@The X-Phile I wasn't mad it was KEN, but I was sad it wasn't Alex, if that makes sense. I still miss him!
@The X-Phile while I assumed Alex (or is it Alec? I loved him and forgot!), I definitely know that Ken is the host and best of all, he really earned the job! Btw overall great puzzle - I’m still working on half of the north.
@Ken S I find Ken Jennings to be a bit condescending, as in, "I can't believe you didn't know that." Of course, there would be outrage if he ever said, "Oh, sorry..." Big shoes to fill.
It’s the day after the night before. I’m still a little bleary from the inferno that was the barn dance on one of the hottest nights of the year. Spent another two hours cleaning up this morning before I could finally crash out with the Sunday puzzle. Given all that, not surprising that I struggled to work out the clue-in-clue theme. I needed Caitlin’s help to get me started, but once I got 49A in I had fun working out the others. As a LOTR geek my favourite naturally is 29A, what a great way to clue an otherwise so-so entry. It didn’t help that I spelled the name RIcKy. That held me up a tad. I was fascinated to discover which plant we pronounce differently to you on the other side of the pond, then chuckled to find HERB. Back in the 80’s we were addicted to Dallas. I couldn’t understand what Pamela was ordering when she would always ask for ‘urb tea’ Apart from (to my delicate ear) the odd pronunciation, what tea would you like sweetie? There are dozens of Herb teas! I’m drinking a Moroccan mint and gunpowder green as I write. Delicious and refreshing on another heavy, humid day.
@Helen Wright Read my dissertation on herb vs. herb, it is a chuckle. Just out of sheer curiosity, what songs are played at a typical Somerset barn dance? Is it traditional Irish or English Folk tunes? Do they sneak in a Devil Went Down to Georgia or Turkey in the Straw? I'm fascinated by cultural similarities and differences. Stay cool!
@Helen Wright - Sounds like a fun event!
At first, I had PACIFISTS RENOUNCEMENT misspelled as PACIFASTS RENOUNCEMENT, thinking that some pacifists renounce food during FASTS, or hunger strikes. When I didn't get the little jingle after filling in the grid, I started painstakingly going through each entry to see what could be wrong. When I got to CIRRI, which I had misspelled as CIRRA, I knew I wasn't sure of the word, but that I needed a plural that did not end in "s." Luckily trying "i" did the trick! Still quite a jaunty solve, though, even with my backtracking!
@Jim Likewise started with CIRRa. Also had cOPs before working out POPO so that little section was the last to fall into place for me.
The first time I heard "popo" was when Kima said it in The Wire.
@Dave Me too! Then I started hearing it everywhere else.
@Dave The first time I heard "popo" was when I said it in my head five minutes ago, as I finished the puzzle.
@Dave Good night POPOs. Good night fiends. Nice scene.
KEN??!! Too soon, too soon. Anyone else old enough to even consider ART? Nice theme but honestly seemed fairly bland clues. I would have enjoyed it better with some longer/more/interesting inside clues even if it meant the letters weren’t consecutive
@SP Since nobody responded, maybe I should clarify—ART Fleming was the original Jeopardy host in the 60s and 70s. Boy now I am feeling really old.
Did anyone else notice the typo in 110A? Pretty sure the word is spelled ERATICATOR! 🤣 (Sorry. My husband didn't laugh either. He did, however, love having an excuse to recite "CASEY at the Bat") Random thoughts in no particular order: Do you think 10A was inspired by the Wordplay comments section? Clues that made me laugh when I figured out the answers: Ax handlers, perhaps Entertainer who doesn't sound very selfish? Unlocked? Other cool things I noticed: LABORS next to DRONE "Things you hope your dinner guests bring" next to MERLOT. I really wanted 60A to be goat. And finally, my current puzzle-inspired earworm, which is neither "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" nor "Hey Ya," although that one's going through my head right now too. Enjoy! <a href="https://youtu.be/yg8116aeD7E?si=3QV_hCeCB05vAqqE" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/yg8116aeD7E?si=3QV_hCeCB05vAqqE</a>
@Beth in Greenbelt I definitely thought that about 10A and also 69d's clue. ☺️ Love your pairs! Also liked 1 and 2D next to each other... What's ITTO you and MYOB. ERAtICATOR = 😂
@Beth in Greenbelt I liked [“So what’s ____ to you?”] next to MYOB. The only time I ever used 1D, I must have mumbled it (which I do sometimes), because it didn’t have the desired effect of shutting up my overly-inquisitive classmate. In hindsight, MYOB probably would’ve worked better.
A cute one today: Strands #483 “Hue are my sunshine” 🏳️🌈🔵🟣🟢 🟡🟠🔴
@John Carson Strands #483 “Hue are my sunshine” 🏳️🌈🟡🟠🔴 🔵🟣🟢 One of my favorite so far 😍
@John Carson Strands #483 “Hue are my sunshine” 🟡🟠🔴🏳️🌈 🔵🟣🟢 You make me happy when skies are gray. Yes, I had to sing it.
The Strands Sidekick column launched today but for tomorrow's puzzle, #484. Here's a link but it will be a spoiler for tomorrow. I was able to make the first comment (yay me!) <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/crosswords/strands-sidekick-484.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/crosswords/strands-sidekick-484.html</a>
@John Carson Strands #483 “Hue are my sunshine” 🏳️🌈🟡🟣🔵 🟢🟠🔴 I was wondering how they'd handle that three-letter word which is clearly part of the theme. Spangram first (yay, so rare for me!), so that solved that! Loved everything about this one: the spangram, the colors in the grid, the results design, the day it falls on... 🌈🏳️🌈
@John Carson STRANDS was delightful even though the actual colors shown were a bit off from what the real colors look like. STRANDS is the best game. Can we have more colorful ones? It just started off my Sunday so brightly.
@John Carson Strands #483 “Hue are my sunshine” 🏳️🌈🟣🟢🔵 🟡🟠🔴 How lovely!!!
@John Carson Strands #483 “Hue are my sunshine” 🟡🟣🔵🟢 🟠🔴🔴🏳️🌈 If people in this group want to try to keep posting together in the Sidekick space, we could try adding a heading on the first post something like WORDPLAYERS GROUP POST at the top. I don’t believe we to worry about spoilers, since the entire column and other posts will be spoilers.
[Unlocked?] made me laugh out loud. I loved seeing OUTKAST in the puzzle, as well as COCO. LABORS right next to DRONE seems appropriate, but I'm not sure bagpipes DRONE so much as screech. I once heard a writer describe the sound of a bagpipe as "like a goose with its foot caught in an escalator."
@Katie - Bagpipes have a screeching (I mean higher) melody above a low bass droning.
Showed my age on this one: "Fuzz" just had to be COPS! And thought those clouds might be CIRRA (???), so I was stuck on trying to find some kind of "California"-related --FAST--. ("What the heck is in vogue now?") Ridiculous train of thought kept me in dark for a longish time. Sometimes you just have to RENOUNCE those wrong rabbit holes.
Following the completion of the puzzle by our solvers today, please stay tuned for a series of important renouncements. “A crossword puzzle needs clues. I’m cancelling my subscription.” “Too much crosswordese. I’m switching to Connections.” “Too easy. Off to WAPO.” “So many renouncements! I’m quitting the comments.” Those are not my opinions. I thought it was fun.
@JohnWM You forgot, "The word is not RENOUNCEMENT, it's RENunciation!"
@JohnWM WAPO would never accept POPO.
TIL POPO. I couldn't shake the belief that _OP_ had to be COPS until I finally figured out what those blanks were the first letters of. I'll stick with COPS when I'm talking anyway.
@kilaueabart One of these days I'll learn to check how many have commented on the same thing before I click SUBMIT
Was only three minutes off my personal best when I got the dreaded “Not so fast, there!” POPUP. Spent the next eight minutes searching for my mistake. I read 67D as “Princess Bride” actress, and didn’t remember Rita Wilson in that. So I put in her unknown twin sister dITA (sounds like a real person), thinking dENOUNCEMENT was a perfectly cromulent word. Oh well. Still under my average, somehow.
@NYC Traveler Maybe Dita Wilson played the R.O.U.S.? ;)
I loved this puzzle! It was a fun brain tickler to start a leisurely Sunday morning. I was really impressed by the theme!
I really thought that "Did as expected on the links", at 47D, was going to be CLICKED. So clever, so wrong.
@Rachel - Don't follow you. Bracelet? This was a no-brainer for me, as my husband is a caddie.
This was a Sunday to pad the average.
The early precincts are reporting now: 🌎 Global Stats Difficulty Average Median Solve Time 20:24 Median Solver 17% faster ⚡75% of users solved faster than their Sunday average. 25% solved much faster (>20%) than their Sunday average. 🐢25% of users solved slower than their Sunday average. 0% solved much slower (>20%) than their Sunday average.
Isabeau, Of course it is. That's why I wrote: "The early precincts are reporting now:"
[This is only marginally on topic, so, eds., feel free to delete.] Whilst solving this most excellent crossword, I was reminded (at 16D, to be specific, Works, works, works) of Back to the Future: The Musical. There is a song, It Works, sung by Doc Brown, that is absolutely fabulous. In the unlikely event you can't make it to the West End to see it, at least check out the soundtrack, definitely worth repeated listening.
@MP Rogers I'm glad the emus didn't getcha. Posts like this are a big reason why I read the comments. A lot of great suggestions.
@MP Rogers That was fun to listen to. I found a video of a live performance on YouTube: <a href="https://youtu.be/GQN_s5w-aCk?si=3pymMfo6Dh67Q_Zy" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/GQN_s5w-aCk?si=3pymMfo6Dh67Q_Zy</a>
As noted by Fagan and Becker, legal consultants for Fangord Forest Construction: On a Tuesday' you start gunnin' for the SLOUCH who stole your DESSERT. And you'd CASTAREALLYLONGLOOK but you want to leave work unhurt. Your coworkers all sing, "TRYIT" as their APPETITES compete, So you tried to grin and BEHR it as they TORE into your sweet. SKIP lunch my friend, KEN, NINETIMESOUTOFTEN, GUTS growlin' 'round and 'round You hid it when, KEN? they'll eat it EGAN. When your PRINT FELLTO find your LASER then find your ITPRO friend, You're not his TOPRANKINGROYAL, he'll SKIP you to the end. Then you chant a little MANTRA at the ALTAR of your LABORS, All the time, the pro he's thinkin' you're a MOUSEERADICATOR, yeah SLOG to the end, Ken, NINETIMESOUTOFTEN, EDITS waiting, won't be found SLOG to the end, KEN, do it EGAN Now you say you're not an OUTKAST but your SOBS CLOUD your working plans. Then you find the DOOR is UNSHUT, you ASSAIL the HR man. The HRREP is thinking "GODNO!" while you DRONE of POTPIES and ignored labels. In a flash, he calls the POPO, "I NEWT KEN must be unstable!"
@Whoa Nellie Do It Again!! Love it 😍
Fun puzzle. I originally had GAbor before GARBO. Way before my time and my guess with just GA wasn’t too far off, so easy to fix. I finished but still had one error that took me forever to flyspeck. I had DoPE for 36D [Fool] which gave me GoTS for 40A [Takes down to the studs]. For whatever reason, I kept gliding right over that erroneous O and ended up finishing at just over an hour 😬 🤦🏼♀️ Loved [Unlocked?] for BALD 🧑🏼🦲 Congratulations on a solid sophomore endeavor, Mike.
@Jacqui J I had GRETA before I realized it was her last name
@Jacqui J I doubt there are many people solving this puzzle who remember going to a movie theater and seeing Greta GARBO. It’s hard to find an error in a Sunday grid, especially when (as yours did) it spells legitimate (or legitimate-ish) words in both directions. If you have the NYT Games app on your phone, try using the List View display to find errors. It wouldn’t have helped much with [Fool], but you’d have quickly seen that GoTS was wrong. I gots to go to bed now.
Today’s puzzle was an absolute joy! Unless I have suddenly gotten a lot smarter, it was clever, well-constructed, and did not require any knowledge of popular culture since the Beatles. Thank you!
@Betty May I guess OUTKAST, Steely Dan, KEN Jennings, the POPO, COCO, RON from Parks & Rec, the ARI D-Backs, DMs, RITA Wilson, Jennifer EGAN, AUNTs Patty and Selma, and LUIGI all time-traveled to the mid-20th century for this puzzle.
Fun idea and well-constructed, but the clues for the most part were pretty straight-forward and unimaginative so it was a breezy solve. Or maybe I'm just extra sharp this morning because I breezed through the Bee too! Bottom across word of the Mini; um, what? 😂 Beautiful Strands today ☺️
@Adam there was some discussion of that Mini answer earlier: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/48ha57?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/48ha57?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a> Not a word I'd ever heard, either.
@Adam I loved Strands, so pretty and well executed !
So, so 110% positive that it couldn't be anything other than Mr Potato Head's Ear. So very, very wrong.
@Vaer Haha! I was stuck on ear for a while too. Glad I wasn't alone! I mean come out why does ahead have arms!? Guess it's been a while since I played with Mr Potato Head. Hehe
@Vaer I never had a Mr. Potato Head...I never saw the a-peel.
I was SO happy not to have to flyspeck this Sunday. I have the past three or four, and it's really tedious. So, I guess the lesson is, just don't make mistakes.
@Francis Same here! I’m trying — not always successfully — to pay more attention to what I have just typed, in the hope of fixing my mistakes before they get lost in the completely filled grid.
@Francis Since I'm exhausted from our time in Honduras, if I had errors I was going to do a rare puzzle check but I caught them all during the solve. Huzzah!! Sunday is super tedious to fly speck, though list view (thank you, Eric) makes a big difference!
@Francis I was SO lucky today that I caught a fat-fingered typo waaay down at the bottom of the grid before it became an issue!! I had entered AUNT so fast the Y jumped in in place of the T. Between the fact I solve, and flyspeck, top to bottom AND do so on the ridiculously small screen of the phone means I either would have given up or thrown the device down in disgust before ever squinting hard enough to see I had the angled arms of a Y instead of the flat ones of a T! (Now how's that for a run-on sentence, lol.)
It took me a while to find a toehold but once-hold here but once I did…and once I understood how to approach the theme answers…I found this delightful. Even beyond the theme “clues” there were a few clues that tickled me: “Ax handlers, for short.” “Unlocked.” “Hair-raising.” Nicely done.
That was fun. My solve went in waves of sections. Felt like how a puzzle is supposed to feel. There were sections that baffled me at first, and everything came together. Really enjoyed the theme. Made it so I could really enjoy the clues and the answers on our home near the sun.
The editors missed a nice opportunity to clue 116-Across (ONCE) as "At that point" to couple with 118-Across "At this point.