@Mango evidently is a recognized older variant. I think the emus will eat my comment if I add a link but googling took me to NPSHistory.
@Mango I have seen Navaho used, just as I've seen tipi instead of teepee, and Ojibway or Ojibwa instead of Ojibwe. All these variants are the results of trying to express a Native language in a non-Native tongue, be it English, Spanish, or French. Some variants, such as Navaho and tipi, fade away over time. But that doesn't mean they were never used. If you read older books, you'll encounter more of these variant spellings. My favorite is Esquimaux--it just looks silly. Of course, we no longer say Eskimo either. But then, we call the Navajo Dine now, don't we? Language changes, spellings change, and they'll continue to do so as Native people work to preserve their languages.
Great theme! Here’s another FUN FACT … Did you know?! The oldest public park in the United States is in Boston COMMON KNOWLEDGE
These were fun! Did you know?! Many people mistakenly use “kilowatt” and “kilowatt-hour” interchangeably. POWER POINT I’m sure the other folks on our wordplay pub trivia team will have some more.
@Cat Lady Margaret That is very, very funny!
@Cat Lady Margaret Did you know?! As of mid-May 2025, over 275,000 federal employees have lost their jobs. UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIM
@Cat Lady Margaret Here’s a couple of weak attempts to follow in your mighty footsteps: Did you know?! Nobody can agree on the difference between illegitimate and invalid SPURIOUS ARGUMENT Did you know?! You can only learn after you know the facts BELATED ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Cat Lady Margaret, Did you know? It is estimated that 4-21% of people dislike cilantro. TASTY TIDBIT Did you know? The typical Musca domestica weighs 12 milligrams. FLY SPEC
As a native New Mexican... It's Navajo. Not NavaHo. That deserves an apology
@NG I agree, although it's clued as an alternate spelling, which is a bit of a fudge that used to be more common in the puzzle than it is now, I've always assumed the spelling with an H is just plain incorrect. Thanks for setting things straight.
@NG Well, wait a minute. Below we were told that Dimé was correct? See why there might be honest confusion? See why that kind of stuff makes some people say "you just can't say anything, anymore"? I apologize for what I do that I knew was wrong or illogical at that moment. I do not apologize for using terms I do not know are offensive. Or? Was this satire? In which case, never mind! I think many of us are on a hair trigger.
@NG I did put in the J but the crosses didn't work so I was thinking I was wrong. THANK YOU!!!
@NG It really doesn’t. It’s an accepted spelling. One spelling is anglicized and one is hispanicized. Neither is more correct than the other, although one is more commonly used.
Writing board game questions is a trivial pursuit. (Movie about it: "Postcards from the Wedge")
@Mike I'm high on convivial pursuit. It's how I found my husband (not about bored games).
@Mike These puns always are a little dicey.
@Mike Mike, Mike, you don't have a monopoly on puns! Let someone else make them for a change! It's a hard-scrabble life out there.
@Mike It’s a Jenga out there. But I do not see a Cross word about it here.
Really hard to come up with an alternative definition for banks that isn't geekily awkward (like "money supplier"). A bank is a bank is a bank. I do like "modern aerosol emitter" though, it's wackily accurate; I guess a modern aerosol inhaler is a vaper! But I'm not going to give you NOIRS and I don't care what Barry or Steve say, parroting MW or wikipedia, who gives a flying hoot? No one I know calls them noirs and I'm not about to start. This is where I take my stand, on Mount Woolrich!* What's that psychological mental move where you're upset about one thing, but focus your anger or frustration on something else instead? Like when you're somewhat peeved that the Senate just voted to give billionaires even more of a break while shutting down the country for everyone else, so you pick on NOIRS as a perfectly cromulent substitute for your ire? I'm thinking a "grand work" is more likely a "magnum opus" and not your garden variety opus. No one would mistake Beethoven's Opus 18 quartets for grand works, not like Opus 55, for example (Eroica symphony). So I put in EPIC at first, which gave me a fin fact (I thought "what's more leisurely than putting on your fins and going snorkeling?" but the other guy in my brain who replies to the first guy's dumb thoughts, said, "You've only gone snorkeling once, dummy, and you didn't find it that leisurely. Dope." * after Cornell Woolrich Love CARB crossing with the paleo diet, and that LABOR sits atop WOMB.
@john ezra Is the answer to the question in your third paragraph "transference"? I know that I am almost always angry these days.
@john ezra A bank is a financial institution. That's less clunky than "money supplier". And a bit more accurate, too. (My bank doesn't supply me with money. It holds my money that I've already supplied to it.) In other news: Re NOIRS: What do people you know call them?
@Francis I think psychoanalysts would call it displacement rather than transference.
@john ezra All of the Beethoven string quartets are grand works.
The week is off to a grand start! Today’s puzzle is whimsical and fun. Monday’s quotes puzzle (GEEZ LOUISE, WHOANELLY, etc.) and Tuesday’s animal foods puzzle (HORSERADISH, CRABAPPLE, etc.) were also creative and charming. Excellent diversions, along with the start of Wimbledon and Sunday’s start of the Tour de France. Thanks to all the constructors and editors!
@Sierra My experience this week as well. A much appreciated distraction for the puzzle enjoying minds out there. 😊
[Did you know?! The first electric auger was invented the same year as the opening of the Eiffel Tower] [Did you know?! There are two main types of wrinkles – dynamic ones that appear with facial expressions, and static ones that are visible even when the face is relaxed] DRILL BIT LINE ITEM
@Lewis That last part....did I 'need to know' that? It's particularly painful to see what happened to what used to be dimples that once appeared when I smiled..... You could say, "They made an impression."
Oh, this is a terrific run-with-it theme. Where the constructor finds a lovely language quirk, comes up with further examples, and it is so good that commenters pipe in with more. Today’s brings an extra layer of fun with those interesting facts in the theme clues that whip up further comments. Not to mention that the theme is quick to crack once the first theme answer is uncovered, and it is uber-fun to guess at the ensuing theme answers with as few crosses as possible. Add beauty to the fun, with those two gorgeous long downs SABOTEURS and BABY GRAND. And an accidental beauteous word for me, who originally entered BURLY for [Muscular]. I, who appreciate being successfully misdirected, also liked going through rainbow-ish hues for that Crayola eight-pack, only to learn it was BLACK. And, speaking of quirks – a backward ABUT crossing ABUTS! Absolutely a mood lifter – thank you so much for this, Dan!
Such a fun puzzle! Thank you Sam Corbin for helping with the questioning clues that Mr. Caprera so cleverly conjured. I got the hang of it and they were lots of fun to decode. Wednesday puzzles are my favorite. Like the Bears' Beds, Wednesday's are just right. Not too hard and not too soft. I had to get the Sound of Music locale from the crosses. and even then I tried really hard to squeeze Alps in there somehow. But the crosses spelled it out clearly. My kinda game. Amy a WWE champ? You bet! Can't wait for you to return with another one Mr. Caprera! Y'all have a great second half of the week and enjoy the 4th. We have a democracy to protect so eat lots of potato salad and watermelon. Don't scare the dogs, and be kind to one another. ✌️
@Bonnie Ann I was thinking of another A word, Austria, but it wouldn't fit.
@Bonnie Ann You may have misspelled mourn as protect there 😢
@Bonnie Ann We are working on it in NYC.
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight - Apparently the Orange one doesn't know the difference between democratic socialism and communism. And his hatred of the Islamic community is over the top. He would do well to get to know some typical members.
This puzzle was a delight from start to finish, primarily because the clues gave you a toehold for the theme fills, then you had the teasing challenge of figuring out how it was going to work. And I would say it all worked very well indeed. For fills I didn't know, the crosses showed me that I did. A lovely, fun, midweek breather from so much that isn't. Thank you, Dan Caprera. You came through once again. I'm looking forward to another very soon!
I found this quite fun but very easy for a Wednesday. I got held up in the NE corner for a minute or two (my only gimme there was RISEN - I may be an atheist, but a well educated one 😉) - because of that I solved in Tuesday time rather than Monday. You'd think GRAPHIC DETAIL would be obvious, eh? Well, not when IrINA looks so much plausible than IDINA 🤣. Elsewhere I had to rely on crosses for both "The Sound of Music" entries. YOUR LABOR ABUTS WOMB is an interesting sequence of words 🤣. TOFU OPUS could be a themed entry in some future puzzle 😆 Mildly FUN FACTs: I've never worn a TUX (but I might). I've never been to IBIZA (and given the reputation of the place, that will never change). I've never played a BABY GRAND piano, a TUBA, any CELLI, KENO or a game of PUB TRIVIA, but I've played TETRIS (well, duh) and been on a U-BOAT. I haven't smoked an E-CIG or eaten a BLT, but I love me some CARBs.
@Andrzej I've been to Paradise, but I've never been to me. <a href="https://youtu.be/SZgIk2b68gQ?si=ZUt_8e6Pw722q87q" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/SZgIk2b68gQ?si=ZUt_8e6Pw722q87q</a> (Sorry. A relic from my junior high school years.)
@Andrzej Alternatively: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8zGryHWZE0&list=RDv8zGryHWZE0&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8zGryHWZE0&list=RDv8zGryHWZE0&start_radio=1</a>
I am amazed at how deep this conversation got. I posted that song kind of was a joke because the lyric for the pattern of @Andrzej's third paragraph. Had no idea it would spark so much interesting analysis!
@Amanda S yeah, if you look online, i guess both spellings are considered correct, but all government sites i saw (with a very quick scan) use NavaJo. i think the editors kinda slid on this one
@Amanda S @Greg4734 in Oakland I think I've seen it as Navahoe, as well, but I could be mistaken. It has happened. Once.
@Amanda S. The note in the clue [Var.] is a suggestion that the required entry is non-standard but does exist. Both M.W. and O.E.D. give NAVAHO as variants of NAVAjO. The latter gives citations where the preferred form considerably outnumbers today’s entry. For an essentially monolingual Australian this form was probably more familiar.
This is for all the haters of the spelling NAVAHO: I think most of us can agree that the way we normally spell the name of the Native tribe that actually calls themselves Diné is NAVAJO. However, the spelling NAVAHO does exist, and has for decades. It has never been the most common spelling, but it has been in continuous use from the 1890s onward. It had peaks in the 1900s and the 1950s, when it registered at just above half (1907) and just below half (1954) the frequency of its counterpart with a J. See the Google Ngram for details. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/mr4yc27p" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/mr4yc27p</a> As you can see in the Ngram, usage of NAVAHO has trailed off considerably in the 21st century, but it's still seen occasionally. Note that the Ngram measures usage in books, so these are edited works. For words like NAVA(H/J)O that have unambiguous meanings, Ngrams are highly accurate. Also, please note that among the Diné people, it doesn't seem to cause a big uproar how we non-Natives spell the other word. And they don't seem to take much offense over it, either. Also important, you should note that the [Var.] notation, not freely given these days, is in force, telling you to look for a less common version of the word. So please tread lightly when you have an opinion that you haven't researched a little before stating it.
@Steve L Thank you! It's nice to have some hard data to back up my anecdotal evidence. I read a lot of older books, and I've come across NAVAHO often.
@Steve L Thanks for saving me from having to read all of today's comments.
@Steve L Totally agree. Also, NAVAHO is clearly stated as a variant when you look up NAVAJO on the Merriam-Webster site.
Mr. Caprera, you've rocked yet another cool puzzle, so I don't know what all this self-talk is about you not being cool. I adored it! So satisfying to solve! I, of course, also loved the sprinkling of music and music-adjacency all over the grid: The Sound of Music, TUBA, CELLI, OPUS, BLACK (Pearl Jam), IRA (Gershwin), IDINA, CHER, "at the COPA, COPAcabana..." And, of course, that BABY GRAND, because we wouldn't want to not think of Sir Elton John. Here he is, on his GRAND, singing one of his least well-known gems, chock-full of beautiful progressions: <a href="https://youtu.be/MHylaKT8S08?si=tdueurgytKY9qgh1" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/MHylaKT8S08?si=tdueurgytKY9qgh1</a> Thank you, Mr. Caprera, for a delightful puzzle in more ways than one!
@sotto voce I’ve never heard that great song. Thanks.
@sotto voce I thought of Pete Buttigieg. Didn't he own a baby grand in South Bend?
@sotto voce Thanks for that "Cold as Christmas" link. This is maybe the first time I have seen him performing without wearing glasses.
Did you know? Everything is fine with everything FAKE NEWS
Did you know? In the puzzle today there was CELLI, KAZOO, OPUS, and BABYGRAND. MUSICAL NOTE Fun and factual puzzle.
Did you notice? I forgot the TUBA, which is sad and maybe foreboding. MINOR QUIBBLE
Anyone complaining about the H in NAVAHO would do well to remember we're just making choices about the rendering of Navajo sounds into the Latin alphabet. Of COURSE a Spanish speaker would spell it with a J, but an H is reasonable too. At Wikipedia you can view the "official" orthography that linguists use and in fact they use "h" to represent the H sound in Navajo. It is undoubtedly true that the J is more common today and the H reads as outdated, which is why the clue warranted the "Var." as others have pointed out. (And in fact using that official orthography the word Navajo is rendered "Naabeehó", so we're ALL wrong!) (And if you wonder what the people of the Navajo nation call themselves, it's "Diné".) <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_language" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_language</a>
@Lucas Walker What's happening is that a lot of people are complaining off the top of their heads. They're not doing the least bit of research before complaining. A one-minute search would validate the clue as written. And they're not bothering to notice that no one is asserting that NAVAHO is the most common or the most current spelling.
Given the thematic entries, the grid design, and the constraints of symmetry, 17A had to be either PUBTRIVIA or HARDTRUTH. And 23A had to be either GRAPHICDETAIL or BANKSTATEMENT. As an experience constructor, Mr. Caprera would have considered the various possible placements for these four entries *before* attempting to fill the the non-thematic portions of the grid. I can only assume that his experience (and, perhaps, his software) suggested that PUBTRIVIA at 17A and GRAPHICDETAIL at 23A was the most promising of the four options he had. Given that, our constructor then needs to fill 6D with something fitting the pattern ??V?H?. What would you put there? I don't have professional software and a word list on hand, but I can't imagine there are many (any?) options other than NAVAHO. So what to do? Discard or reject the puzzle simply because it's NAVAHO (Var.) and not NAVAJO? Maybe folks should consider how challenging it is to construct a puzzle as solid as this one. (That said, if we had WOAH in the grid, well in that case ...)
@Xword Junkie MTV Chi, duh! ;-) From Wiki: MTV Chi was a spin-off network from MTV targeted at young Chinese Americans, which ran from 2005 to 2007, as part of its MTV World division.[1][2] The network featured various styles of music such as Mando pop, Canto pop and Chinese American hip hop.[3] It broadcast in English and featured a mix of original programming with the best of MTV's International programming.
@Xword Junkie I loved your analysis and your detailing the challenge the constructor faces to stick with a theme to completion rather than throwing it on the scrap heap.
Sometimes, I know all (or most of) the answers and get stuck because of poor spelling. When will I ever remember that Ms. Menzel is IDINA, not aDINA. I've seen her in "Rent." Heard her on the "Wicked" original cast recording. Belted with her to "Let It Go!" Speaking of "Frozen," I loved seeing IDINA crossed with ICICLE. Hey, maybe that will help me remember the I! Actually, now that I look over the rest of the puzzle, I realize that was really my only spelling error, and the other issues I had were from going too fast and making typos. I don't know why I'm compelled to race through early week puzzles instead of savoring them slowly. I think it's peer pressure. Hey, peers, stop pressuring me! Has anyone else played the board game KAZOO That Tune? My nephew got it for Christmas last year, and we had a lot of laughs with it. The description says you don't have to have any musical talent to succeed at it, but you do at least need to be able to carry a tune. Here a link to the game on the Strathmore Music Center website (because I'm not interested in supporting a particular billionaire), where my brother and I will be performing next week with the InterPLAY Orchestra, opening for Yellow Dubmarine. I'll link to that too for those in the DC area. It's a free concert, and I believe there will be food trucks! <a href="https://shop.strathmore.org/kazoo-that-tune-song-guessing-game" target="_blank">https://shop.strathmore.org/kazoo-that-tune-song-guessing-game</a>/ <a href="https://www.strathmore.org/events-tickets/bloom-community-events/live-from-the-lawn-yellow-dubmarine" target="_blank">https://www.strathmore.org/events-tickets/bloom-community-events/live-from-the-lawn-yellow-dubmarine</a>/
@Beth in Greenbelt How cool! I wish I could make it. ...and... consider yourself unpressed from this peer.
@Beth in Greenbelt Obviously, the correct spelling of her name is “Adele”. Last name Dazeem. Just ask John Travolta.
@Beth in Greenbelt C'mon, Beth! Don't be a n*rd...all the cool kids rush through early week puzzles. Just try it, you'll like it. (For me, it's IDIrA. )
@Beth in Greenbelt Testing The emus are hangry tonight!
@Beth in Greenbelt I've long felt that one of the "annoyances" of solving on-line is our concern with our time and with our streaks. I never thought about these matters when I was solving in the paper. And I think it does detract from the pleasures of a leisurely solve. On the other hand, the (main?) advantage of the on-line solve is the creation of this community, and, although it is only virtual, its pleasures are real.
Thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. I’m a musician and an actress so I loved all those clues. I will take issue with Navaho. While both Navaho and Navajo are used, the j usage is currently more accepted. I would actually like to see instead of Navajo, DIne accent over the e) used more often as that is how they refer to themselves. Navajo is way over used and wouldn’t it be better to be able to use a different clue than formally eating for dine?
@Megan You and Steve L. have taught me something that I really wanted to know. I will try to thing of them as Dine.
Thanks for a great Wednesday puzzle, Dan Caprera. I really enjoyed it and I agree with Sam that it was just the right amount of tricky. It didn’t take me too long to see what was going on with the theme fill, as I got PUB TRIVIA early on, with help from crosses. I did use a J the first time for NAVAHO, but since the clue was labeled a variant, I knew that could change and of course GRAPHIC DETAIL made that necessary. For a time I had cash STATEMENT at 50A and that SW corner was my last challenge for a time because of that mistake. As soon as I saw the KAZOO that K made all the difference. Looking forward to more of your puzzles, Dan. Also looking forward to a nice tricky puzzle to do tomorrow.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. PB for a Wednesday. Had NAVAJO before NAVAHO.
@Steve Didn't know NAVAHO was a correct spelling, I've never seen anything other than Navajo.
@Steve same here! my friend and I also spelled the term NAVAJO at first
@Steve Who didn’t? I’d guess 95% of us didn’t take note of “Var.”.
@Steve NAVAHO was an easy fill for me. Until I saw it questioned here, it seemed like the correct spelling, and one I’m sure I’ve seen before. But since you mention it, NAVAjO seems more like it. Regional differences, maybe?
Growing up in the 1960s I want to say at that time NAVAHO was the more common spelling.
@Steve I noticed the var. and left the J/H square empty, to be revealed by crosses.
The dog in today’s photo is just about to be kicked in the head! Never, ever pull a cow’s tail when they’re walking. Not if you prefer not to be a) battered or b) covered in excrement. Back to the puzzle. A great theme, thoroughly enjoyable. Though I always thought the most common pub name was The Royal Oak. Haven’t checked it, but am willing to visit every pub of both names, purely in the interests of science of course. The heat wave has finally broken. The blessed relief of a cool breeze and grey sky. The alpacas are much happier and will be even more so if the shearer ever turns up.
@Helen Wright I thought the same thing. That poor dog may be biting off more than he can chew.
@Helen Wright @Francis It's an amusing photo, but what does it have to do with today's puzzle?
@X I'm guessing the dog is supposed to be a relative of B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O ...
@ad absurdum The dog's name is KENO. Bingo was his relative=o.
I just can’t resist. That heifer is Bramble and the pooch is trying to warn her of her impending demise.
Geeze Louise, went looking for my typo and it turns out I was chasing Amy.
@Red Carpet I was about to say there's another connection in the puzzle because IDINA Menzel was in "Chasing Amy." But she wasn't. She was in "Kissing Jessica Stein."
@Red Carpet It's astonishing how a movie I saw once, decades ago, and that I didn't really even like all that much, as I think I was about ten year too old for the humor. But all I had to see was "chasing Amy" and my brain stood right up at attention.
What a lovely, fun puzzle. The theme entries were doable, once I got the idea. Some clever, misleading clues (others have mentioned racking their brains for a Crayola colour). Let's have more puzzles like this. Bravo to the constructor! P.S.: To those upset about NAVAHO -- it was clued as a variant spelling. P.P.S.: Happy belated Canada Day to all the Canadians out there. Have a good one, eh?
Fun and breezy puzzle for my morning commute! Love the clueing and the clever wordplay. I even have time to comment how much I like this one!
I don't know how long I stared at ICICLE in disbelief. It just didn't seem right to me. I know it is, but I so wanted something like "ice cycle". But that didn't look right either. In fact I knew it was one word, but I couldn't find a word that looked right. Petrol, Francis is talking to himself again. Might want to peek in on him to make sure he's not doing anything too embarrassing.
@Francis Talking to oneself while doing something embarrassing with an icicle - an inspiration for mental images.
@Francis That happened to me several years ago with the word autism. I have no idea why. I was listening to Terry Gross interview someone on the subject, and I kept thinking, "That's not how you say it." The feeling was so strong, I had to look it up, and even then, it didn't seem right. Brains are... I don't know. I've lost the word for it.
Really clever puzzle - all in the clues. Quite a workout for me, and had to look up a couple of things, but then just a lot of working the crosses. Ended up being an enjoyable solve. Appropriate puzzle find today - another one all in the clues. I don't recall ever seeing another one like this. Anyway - a Sunday from September 26, 2001 by Bill Zais with the title: "Rational numbers." All of the theme clues were just an arrow pointing back at the clue number (and they were all down answers). Some examples: 11: "<-- :" ONEANDTHESAME "20 <-- :" SECONDTONONE "33 <-- :" THREEONAMATCH "53 <-- :" PIECESOFEIGHT "66 <-- :" ANEVENDOZEN And there were more. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/16/2001&g=86&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/16/2001&g=86&d=A</a> I'm done. ...
A wildly original theme! Every time I think it's impossible to come up with something that's never been done before, someone does. And it's so much fun! And the theme answers are so well-chosen and so delightfully clued! I was sorry when it was over -- which was much too soon. I should admit to having a special affection for long, playful clues. Sometimes I feel the longer, the better. And I can imagine Dan -- researching and then finding his BANK STATEMENT or his GRAPHIC DETAIL -- clapping his hands and chortling to himself. I suspect this was as much fun to make as it was to solve. Because I also found it quite easy for a Wednesday, it's a puzzle that I would give to a very smart but inexperienced solver. Even though it's a Wednesday, I think they'd be able to solve it, and if they could, it might hook them on crossword puzzles for life.
@Nancy So glad to see another of your (too infrequent) comments. It's nice to get the perspective of an experienced constructor!
For anyone interested in an entertaining fictional treatment of the Dine’ People, Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn and Chee books do a respectable job. And AMC’s Dark Winds series has a great cast, esp. Zahn McClarnon as Joe Leaphorn. It’s set in the 1970s, one of my top three favorite decades of my life.
@Warren Dark Winds is an incredibly riveting series with a great tapestry of the native tribal customs. I first saw Zahn McClarnon in season 2 of Fargo and I liked his acting chops then. He played quite a different role, but stayed true to the Native American culture. I enjoyed watching him play Leaphorn in Dark Winds. I should read the series. Thanks for mentioning that.
@Warren Also Anne Hillerman's books. There are seven of them and they feature Bernadette Manuelito in addition to Chee and Leaphorn. She's also an executive producer of Dark Winds.
@Jerry and @Kate Yes and yes, agreed on all. And, as Steve L. notes elsewhere, my writing “Dine’ People” may be somewhat redundant.
Fun puzzle, Dan! Hit a few snags, skipped around a bit, muttered a few bad words, but figuring out the theme was worth the struggle. Clever clues! And thank you, Sam Corbin, for the whimsy and delight you bring to your Wordplay column. Not uncool!
Great puzzle! The quibbles and quips about NAVAHO are curious to me for a couple of reasons: In crossword lingo, variant almost always alludes to a different spelling. The Diné wish to be known as such. Whereas Americans use English terminology to identify those from other countries, it is a bit different here, where we have occupied the land that was once another people’s birthright. I live in New Mexico, so I know firsthand about such things. Please use Diné.
Well, this was a true Dunning-Kruger day in the comments! And a perfect example of why I rarely bother posting here any more. Soooooo many people are soooooo wrong about something in the puzzle, and sooooooo certain that they are right. You can show them examples in the dictionary, in a Google ngram, etc. etc. etc. that show they are mistaken, and they STILL think they're right. Dunning-Kruger the extreme. I think it is a perfect example of what's wrong in our society today: people so demonstrably wrong about something yet so certain they're right. I sure hope the NYT doesn't further dumb down the puzzles to accommodate these benighted folks. Back on lurk...
Jay, (1) Don't take it personally; Captain Q did not say all posters were wrong about anything. (2) If you don't know what quite a few posters were wrong about today, read the comments.
NAVAHO is incorrect. I do not need to make any other comment.
@Ken It seems a perfectly correct answer to the clue: Language of W.W. II "code talkers": Var. According to Google's Books Ngram viewer, NAVAJO was only about three times as common as NAVAHO during the W.W. II years: <a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Navajo" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Navajo</a>%2CNavaho&year_start=1941&year_end=1945&corpus=en&smoothing=3&case_insensitive=false
@Ken You’re right. And you didn’t even have to make this comment. Read through the comments. The topic has been beaten to death already.
8:45. Fun, tight theme and lively clues/fill today. Thanks for a great puzzle, Dan!
Ah but this constructor's Rough and Rowdy ways ARE cool. I was breezing along until I hit the southwest corner and BAM! I got snagged. Here I was thinking that this felt like a Monday puzzle. Delighted that I was wrong!
Absolutely enjoyed this. So much fun.
I’m not quibbling with the clue, because it was indeed a fad at one time, but I just wanted to note that TETRIS is still played actively. There are even tournaments!
Oh, boy howdy. Me like this grrriiddd! Things I love, or have loved, or hope to love that buzz: Champagne Kazoos Big bumblebees Doorbells Crickets Bagpipes Motorcycles Purring cats And you?
@Whoa Nellie Champagne in magnums and crickets in trees Doorbells and bagpipes and big bumblebees Yamaha 'cycles, cats covered in fuzz: These are some things which I love and which buzz . . . (but not Rolf--with or without the "e")
Very clever theme. Loved figuring out the theme answers and the trivia the clues provided. A bit easy for a Wednesday, but the theme made it fun.
Very whooshy. The only resistance I met was a couple minutes trying to make a J for NAVAJO work with the cross.
@Shrike "Very whooshy." Love it! I was in the same boat with that J, having skimmed over the clue and missed "Var." This was the first time I've ever seen NAVAjO with an H. Live and learn.
Well, I liked it. But I really thought I was going down early on the cross of 1D and 20A. That was my ultimate entry. I am very much uninformed about both the WWE and Non-American Football. American football causes me some discomfort as well. This was a puzzle that, as I was solving, was thinking "This is killing me, but I bet it's going to be considered easy."
@Francis That was my ultimate entry also. Somehow, I had OVUl and AlY. (That's a lower case L, not a capital I.) Not sure how the L got in there, but it took a while to see it.
Word nerds unite! I wear my badge proudly. And this was a fun, how-have-I-not-noticed-that-phrasing-before? But Dan did. And ran with it. Fun solve, and overall a whimsy romp of a Wednesday. What more could I ask for? And, I hope it’s okay, but when I share something with hubby or a friend about our chats here, I call y’all my Word Nerd World. Which is one of the finest compliments I could bestow on our tiny nook in the inter-web-iverse. Happy hump day all!
@CCNY unite? They can’t even agree on chick pea or garbanzo.
Great puzzle, thanks! Started off slow, but the theme both amused and helped with the solve so I felt it was getting easier and funnier as I went along! Here are some of my humble & silly offerings (with the number of letters in the answers): - Did you know?! Kurdish people make up between 10-20% of the population in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran (8,6) - Did you know?! A hip-hop dancer developed a tumor on his head after repeatedly spinning on it (it was benign and removed) (8,4) - Did you know?! The Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders group has been fighting discrimination since 1978 (4,7) - Did you know?! "Fake Plastic Trees" are used in many places as nicer-looking cell or WiFi towers (10,12)
@Alex MINORITY REPORT BREAKING NEWS I got nothing for the other two. Maybe with some crosses?
Good work Grant and RA! The last one isn't very good, I shoe-horned a Radiohead song title into it that probably distracts more then it helps. Clue: the "trees" aren't real, they're ...
@Alex Ugh, those tree-style cell towers are so blatantly fake. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ?
Should I mention that I watched El Satario movie or is it too inappropriate here? Well, I just mentioned it. For those of you who want a review — it was… an unusual experience 😄 These days it feels more like a bad stupid comedy. But you need to watch it if you think that people in good-old-times were better and more decent than our modern society (they weren’t). Interestingly enough, you can watch it on Wikimedia Commons (I didn’t expect that). And yeah, it was a pretty tough puzzle for me since I’m not a native speaker, so I used Google a lot, but I have to say it was difficult even with cheating today. A bit proud of myself that I didn’t give up😄
Am I the only one who had to know more about the movie in 23 across and found the Wikipedia entry and actually skimmed through the movie? 🫣
@Tom 😵💫 Well, *that* was unexpected. I think it must be a fake, because I'm pretty sure my generation invented almost all of that.
@Tom It was very good of you to do this! I presume it was a task that you undertook single-handed?
@Tom I hadn't before I read this comment. Thanks for assisting in another human's raw corruption down the wide path of moral turpitude.