Of all the crosswords I've ever solved, this was definitely one of them.
@Shrike That about sums it up
@Shrike I have read a ton of comments, and I have to say that yours is right there with the rest of them.
@Shrike Yours is now the top voted "Reader Picks" comment. :) Does this puzzle qualify as Most Average?
petition to holster EPEE for the foreseeable
@Jess After this week, how do you feel about MOOLAH?
@Jess Add that nail polish brand to the list please.
@Jess this honestly just felt like a bad clue, an epee is the weapon itself, not the Olympic event.
@Maverator New one for me, too.
@Maverator New word for me as well. (And thanks to you, I learned what TIL means! 😁)
@Maverator and since the 15th century?! Wow.
@Maverator Same here. So does that mean gnarly = growly?
@Maverator Yeah no. I mean, maybe in theory, but no.
@Maverator, et al. I look forward to @Steve L's response to tell us how often GNAR has been in a NYTimes puzzle. I'm sure I've seen it (many times?) before.
I use the crossword to octopi my time now that I'm retired. (Before that I was really kraken the whip.) (I'm auditioning to be the opening act of the Mike from Munster Show.)
@Francis and a fine opening act it is!
@Francis A few more puns like that and you’ll have ten tickles
@Francis I hope Mike doesn’t give you the ink eye.
@Francis Opening for the Potentate of Puns? Dream on—that's just so much pi in the sky.
@Francis love these new puns and Mike’s, please keep them coming! I don’t think there’s any gatekeeping, would love to see more wordplay in the comments overall (I cod see that the replies below are also in fun)
Lots of trivia, some of it crossing natickly (for me), and a sigh-inducing theme (for me): I did not enjoy this puzzle at all. Inspired by the experience, I'm making "sigh" the theme of my post. When I was learning English, as a child traumatized by math, can you imagine how confused I was trying to wrap my head around the concept of familiar names being applied to *different* numbers than I was used to?! Sigh. The clue and answer for BASEMAN was some of the most confusing stuff I have ever seen in a NYT crossword. I had no idea what the clue might mean - it looked like a word salad - and the answer meant nothing to me, either. The column came to the rescue: so it's a ONE TRILLION year old scene about baseball, of all things... Sigh. I tried to solve this without lookups, I really did, but then I realized I wasn't having any fun, so I just googled the remaining arcana (are we seriously asking about food court chains now? I know none of the Polish ones, either. Sigh...) to be finished with the unpleasant grid. Also, yet again we will have ONE TRILLION posts about OCTOPI being wrong. Yes, we *know*!!! Sigh...
Also... GNAR and MISAIM... Sigh.
@Andrzej The baseball one is definitely a splash of Americana. Abbot and Costello were a comedy team back in the 40s and 50s. They had a famous comedy sketch based the idea that the name of the name playing first base was "Who". It's called "Who's on first". The names of the players defending each base has an absurd name, like "I don't know". It's a brilliant linguistic piece of comedy, one that I occasionally go through to make sure I can identify the correctness of everything being said. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYOUFGfK4bU" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYOUFGfK4bU</a> The real verbal mayhem begins at about the one minute mark.
@Andrzej And once again, I jumped the gun. You already knew about "Who's on First" from wordplay. 🥴
@Andrzej good morning 😀 it was either Latin or Algebra. Both logic puzzles. One with a purpose one without. Trillion is not a mathematical term. It’s language 😀 and in any case it’s arithmetic not mathematics 😀 (he runs away and hides 🤣)
@SBK - I bounced along with just the title!
The theme gave me a laugh, and what more could I ask for these days? Do constructors put OCTOPI in the grid, then rub their hands together and laugh maniacally as they wait for the onslaught? I like to think that they do.
I thought it was easy but some fun clues; I enjoyed it. And can we just dispense with the OCTOPI complaints just this once? Yes I know it’s not etymologically consistent but it seems to be in common enough use that the NYT accepts it, and it’s been used enough that it clearly isn’t going away any time soon.
I have no problem with someone's expressing an opinion that differs from mine. I don't feel good about someone's trying to tell me what I should be posting.
@SP I'm getting so I cringe every time I see certain words. Octopi is definitely one of them.
@SP. please see my just posted, about three higher comment on this.
@SP This discussion always reminds me of the Alan Sherman song: One hippopotumi cannot get on a bus, because one hippopotumi is two hippopotumus."
LALA directly followed by NANANA was fun!
Pleasant enough puzzle. After briefly trying make the top portion of 1,2,3A compute, I wasn’t bothered by the theme, and ignored the directional aspect of the themers. I was happy to see the versatile jazz/R&B/pop singer, DELLA Reese show up in the puzzle. Fun fact, Reese sang the national anthem at the 1960 MLB All Star game — the first African American artist to do so.
@Marshall Walthew Agreed about DELLA Reese, and I loved seeing the Abbott and Costello routine, especially clued that way. It's nice to get some entries understandable to an aging dame who hasn't lived in the US since the previous century. I could pick a nit or two, but what the heck, it was breezy fun. And for the record, I do tend to be picky about the language, but even I am not bothered by OCTOPI. To me it's kind of a humorous plural, like mongeese. Not that I want to open another can of worms ...
Two reasons why I was underwhelmed by this puzzle: 1. The theme is somewhat amusing, but shows more the cleverness of the constructors than provides enjoyment for the solver (at least for this solver). 2. Way too much common 3- and 4-letter crossword fill (especially for a Wednesday). A partial list: STS, LID, ETE, PGA , OTC, EDU, INC, EPEE, IOTA, OPIE, GNAR, SERA, ARAB, ATRIA. Feel free to add others if you wish. (From my perspective, any puzzle that has both ETE and EPEE in it (let alone next to one another) is suspect.)
On the other hand, it's hard to complain about a puzzle that debuts YOU DIRTY RAT!!! That line always reminds me of Micky Dolenz and the Monkees: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unqpPc8_J-I" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unqpPc8_J-I</a>
On the other hand, it's hard to complain about a puzzle that debuts YOU DIRTY RAT!!!. That line always reminds me of Micky Dolenz and the Monkees: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unqpPc8_J-I" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unqpPc8_J-I</a> And thanks, Sam, for the link to the article on Movie Misquotations. Fascinating stuff!
@The X-Phile E tu, ete? Foiled again.
To anyone tempted to post about OCTOPI, please know two things: 1) Your comment will possibly be the millionth one on this exact topic. Truly. 2) At this point, the constructors and editors are 100% trolling you. (See above)
(3) Nobody posting about OCTOPI -- except in jest -- has read this or any other comment on the subject.
@Man and 2 dogs I don't care. I will always complain about this. I'm fond of octopuses and want them to have their proper name. Respect!
Pedants' Corner: 007 is not an AGENT, he is an officer. In British intelligence language, an agent is an outside asset such as an informant or local fixer; that word is never used to refer to a member of the Service.
@Gar: kudos for representing a corner of Pedants’ Corner besides the one occupied by cephalopods!
Gnar? Grrr. Well, I thought it was pretty impressive and presented some tricky areas, particularly around where Pat Riley is coaching. Snakes, toads and rats, man, what with that flood and what's happening in DC, plus that Apostle supping here, I'm getting a real End Times vibe here! Watch out for that bolt at your peril! Did you see that mutt levitate? Unreal. Yeah, octopi with pistols would probably misaim some of the time, but if the octopi had Olympics, epee would definitely be what I'd watch them do! End times. I feel the iciness enter the atria of my heart. Bet those People Against Proper Name Overuse (PAPNO)
@john ezra About those PAPNO people, I was gonna say before I rudely pressed send, that they're gonna have a good time with this one... bring it on!
Octopussy: [Bond sneaks on to the island and makes his way into Octopussy's room] “Good evening. I wondered when you might arrive.” James Bond: “So you are the mysterious Octopussy.” Octopussy: “And you are James Bond, 007, licensed to kill. Am l to be your target for tonight?” James Bond: Oh no, not necessarily. Depends… if there were more than one of you, would you be Octopussies or Octopussi?”
I like to think I have a terrific sense of humor. Have to admit I fail to see how this puzzle could make anyone giggle at all, let alone all the way through.
Bruce, We're all different. You're not Sam.
@Bruce Maclauchlan From "The Wrap": Carrie Fisher delivers a line in “When Harry Met Sally…” that I think about almost every day — almost every time I tell a joke, and definitely every time I buy something for around the house. The film, written by the late Nora Ephron, is full of memorable lines. Some of them are relevant to relationships, or ordering in a deli, or getting older. But only one is relevant to almost every aspect of life. Ephron’s masterful line, delivered by Fisher, comes during an argument with Bruno Kirby’s character about a wagon-wheel coffee table. Here it is: “Everybody thinks they have good taste and a sense of humor but they couldn’t possibly all have good taste.” At this point, she’s cut off by Billy Crystal’s character, Harry. The interruption is for the best, because she doesn’t say the devastating thing we know she would have said: Not everyone can have a sense of humor.
Sorry, not sure why--I found theme today particularly annoying and not cute. Otherwise not bad.
What a relief to breeze through this fun puzzle when we have at least ONETRILLION un-fun things coming at us every day. I wish it had filled a whole page in the paper copy of the NY Times. It would have taken me right up to bedtime and I would have escaped the rest of the day by unraveling myriad, slightly offbeat clues. Just for today, I'm with Blanch DuBois. "I don't want realism. I want magic!" Time enough to get back to the news tomorrow. Desirée and Jeff, I congratulate you on a puzzle that was light and quick without being dopey. Thank you.
@HeathieJ, Let me be the first to wish you a very Happy Birthday!!!🎉🎂🎈🎁🥳 (I know it’s not technically for a couple of hours yet, but the Wednesday puzzle is here, so I think that counts) Will you be having that swim in the sea? 🤗 Have a great time today!
@NYC Traveler So at least two of us celebrate July 9th! Happy Birthday HeathieJ. (I didn't think I was going to make 90, but pretty sure I can hold out another two hours and 10 minutes.)
Happy birthday, HeathieJ and kilaueabart 🥳😘
@NYC Traveler Awww!! Thank you so much!! You are the sweetest!! ❤️ I surely hope I will get that swim in the sea!! It's the plan but things get a bit chaotic here a lot of the time, so I try to stay real loose and flexible. My husband is planning a birthday party for me here at our place at 5:00 p.m. tomorrow.... And just today we found out that at 5:00 p.m. tomorrow, the president of Honduras is coming to the island. I assumed, naturally, it was for my birthday, but I guess it's for some other business involving some sort of groundbreaking at the beach. I'm still pretty sure it's a surprise for me but assuming it isn't, it also might interrupt our plans. 😂😂
@Heathie @kilaeuabart And may there be many more happy and healthy birthdays in the future.
@HeathieJ Happy Birthday! I hope you find ways to experience joy amidst the chaos. And Greetings to the President when he comes to your party. @kilauebart Wow! Happy 90th! I hope I'm still solving NYT puzzles when (or if) I hit that milestone. Many happy returns of the day!
@HeathieJ You're a hoot and I love you! Happy Birthday, friend! 💖 @kilaueabart Happy 90th (wow!)!!! You are an absolute inspiration! 🙌🏻 @koty Wishing you, too, a very Happy Birthday! 🎉
Loved seeing the clue "Top Gun?" and VAL Kilmer right by each other in the puzzle. RIP Iceman!
My only question was, what the heck is “gnar”?? I looked it up afterwards. I thought it was meant as a sound effect, but it is actually a word. See what you learn? :-)
@Suzanne - Me too. My solve was delayed by a couple of minutes because I refused to consider it could be a word. I fiddled around with alternative answers in the SW corner until I relented, and the it was.
Am I the only aging person shocked to find out that Superboy (so straightforward, Clark as a boy hero) was retconned out of existence only to be replaced by a "clone" taking the mantle, and all this happened as far back as 1993? Connor? What the.
@B Scandalous is really the only word for it. Scandalous.
I am starting a new game which I call “Guess What has Outraged Commenters Today!” Today I guessed “octopi”. Ding, ding ding! My prediction for tomorrow is there will be some combination of “I hate gimmicks!” And “that was a bad theme!” I await on tenterhooks to see just how grumpy the comments can get.
Gnar is a word that has 12 zeros in the United States, but 18 basemen in the fifteenth century.
Below the thunders of the upper deep; Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea, His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee About his shadowy sides: above him swell Huge sponges of millennial growth and height; And far away into the sickly light, From many a wondrous grot and secret cell Unnumber’d and enormous *polypi* Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green. There hath he lain for ages and will lie Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep, Until the latter fire shall heat the deep*; Then once by man and angels to be seen, In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die. Tell me, O Octopus, I begs Is those things arms, or is they legs? I marvel at thee, Octopus; If I were thou, I'd call me Us. I miss Oikofuge! *global warming
the "theme" didn't add anything. kinda pointless.
@Cece I totally agree. The wordplay was pretty dull to constitute a theme and once you figure out one entry it's a pretty boring solve.
Well this one was underwhelming to me. I kept thinking there had to be more to the theme that I was missing, but no. Too tired to say much more about it. We're back from seeing Hadestown in NYC (Highly recommended!) For your listening pleasure, here's a mini version via the Tiny Desk. <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XKwDFDDr_VA" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XKwDFDDr_VA</a> Speaking of which, I was tickled to see HERMES in Sunday's puzzle! Loved the theme of that one, although I'm guessing there may have been a few folks who didn't. I got 3 letters of the key from the clues and then filled in the E because what else could it be at that point? Leaving Saturday for a 4-week road trip across the U.S. and have very little time to get everything done beforehand, so I'll probably disappear again for a while. But I will keep my streak alive (since January 8), whether I manage to make it to the comments or not.
@Beth in Greenbelt I agree about the puzzle. Nothing bad, just underwhelmed. Safe and good travels to you!! Sounds like fun!!!
@Beth in Greenbelt Bon voyage! I'd love to do a cross-country roadtrip. But alas, meandering and moseying is not my husband's style. Using GPS is antithetical to meandering.
(Looks like my first attempt was emu food.) Notice: It has come to my attention that humans are using 97% of their brain capacity to argue the plural of octopus. I declare that if this doesn't stop soon, I will eliminate all of them on the planet save one. Then there will be no need for the plural. Signed, The Ultimate Ground of Being
@Francis Smart - the nomenclature war would fizzle out fast if there was only one human left. That’s probably AI’s solution to climate change anyways. 🤷♀️
@Francis Brave and selfless warrior, I fear you’ve overlooked the ready addition of, [ One time…] or [ Now nearly extinct creatures…] It shan’t end. It just…shan’t. (Autocorrect added the apostrophes. And I don’t know if they belong, so I’m leaving them be.)
@Francis I'm curious. Who or what is this "Ultimate Ground of Being" you speak of? (You're not a Heideggerian, are you?) As for the OCTOPI, when there's only one left, will you make it immortal so we don't have to worry about its reproduction?
@Francis oh, I don't know, if we could get everyone busy arguing endlessly about spelling and grammar, perhaps there would be no time for wars
So now I know why the grids have felt so difficult this week; I seem to have a virus of some kind. Feel like death today but at least my brain has a chance of recovery, rather than the rapid descent into dementia that I was fearing. Today’s offering actually felt a little easier. Took me a while to get the meaning of ‘top, bottom, side’, but got there in the end. I was waiting for the OCTOPI/octopus debate to start. You didn’t disappoint me. Personally, I care not, as long as I don’t come face to face with one in the water, or indeed on my plate. Tried the dish in Japan and Greece. Nope. Just, nope. Feel like I’m rambling a bit now, so; good Wednesday offering, chewy but doable even in my delirious state.
@Helen Wright Oh no!! Get some good rest and feel better soon!! Maybe go visit Madam Pomfrey and see if she can fix you up!! ☺️
@Helen Wright So very sorry to hear you’re feeling bad! But it is a relief, when things are off, to learn it’s just a bug, isn’t it? It will pass and - hopefully - very quickly.
@Helen Wright I am so so so sorry to hear about your malaise. I really hope that madam pomfrey can fix you up! maybe she can use her magic
I'm ok with OCTOPI, but not 53A ... Disciples were at the Last Supper. They were still "followers" at that time. Some became Apostles later. A decade of Lutheran school and Catholic college. Fight me.
@Deb M You'll just keep turning the other cheek. I'm not a sadist.
Always hoped that I'd be an apostle. Knew that I would make it if I tried. Then when we retire we can write the gospels, So they'll still talk about us when we've died.
@Beth What did Jesus do, When they sentenced him to die? Did he try to run away? Did he just break down and cry? No, Jesus dug down deep, Knowing what he had to do- When faced with his own death, Jesus knew that he had to... Man up. He had to man up. So he crawled up on that cross, And he stuck it out. And he manned up. Christ, he manned up. And taught us all what real manning Up is about! And now it's up to me And it's time to man up! Jesus had his time ta, Now it's mine ta MAN UP! I'm taking the reins, I'm crossing the bear! Just like Jesus, I'm growing a pair! I've gotta stand up, Can't just clam up, It's time ta- MAN UP!
I can't believe NYT is once again using OCTOPI instead of the correct form, "octopuses." This goes for the hippopotamus as well.
Believe it. It's not some new permissiveness. OCTOPI has appeared in the grid 44 times since Mrs. Farrar first approved it in 1953. P.S. Re: "This goes..." Is a flamingo is speaking for a hippopotamus?
OCTOPI OCTOPI OCTOPI OCTOPI OCTOPI Just trying a little immersion therapy. (Is it working?)
@Heidi I think you may have just surpassed the frequency of the use of "natick."
An unusual theme today, with the entire border of the grid being thematic content. This must have been very challenging to construct! One needs to find good thematic entries for the four EDGES, and then manage to fill the rest of the grid decently. All in all, I'd call this construction quite successful. That said, having the "revealer" EDGES smack dab in the *middle* of the grid somewhat diminished the theme for me. It would have been lovely to see the theme extend to the two central entries as well. For example, 41A Middle age? and 37D Middle child? Giving EPOCH/TOT. Of course, making the center fully thematic might have made the construction impossible to pull off well. Liked that PISTOL was both a "top gun" and adjacent to a "side arm". I expect to see the usual complaints about OCTOPI, but I'll raise a geometric NIT---a RAY is not a line. Not sure what to expect when I read the comments, but, all in all, I appreciated this puzzle. Not an easy one to construct, and a bit different from typical Wednesday fare.
@Xword Junkie I dunno. I like the incongruity of having EDGES in the center. Thanks for flagging that for me. I wouldn’t have caught it otherwise.
@Xword Junkie Sometimes I wonder if we're the same person.
I absolutely loved the Sunday “Escape Room” puzzle. Monday was tricky and I liked it a lot. Yesterday’s puzzle was A+ work to me. Today’s puzzle is bleh, not for me. I gave up on GNAR and hit autocheck, only to find out that snakes are SCALY, not SCArY. The theme was a groaner. The best part was the mention of Who’s on First, possibly the most brilliant comedy routine ever created. When my kids were little we had a routine whenever we went on a car trip to start things off by playing Groucho Marx “Hello, I Must Be Going,” leading into some other classic comedy bits, and Who’s on First was always in the mix. For a while my younger one was trying to memorize it. Wall to wall fun. At least, thanks to @G, I’m starting my day with a lovely e.e. cummings poem. And I get to wish a happy birthday to kiluaebart and HeathieJ.
@Noemi I was thinking it was SnAkY for a while.
@Noemi I also had SCArY and came here specifically to find someone else with the same issue! I know RIrEY is an unlikely last name but basically all sports clues are fully out of my wheelhouse... oh well
@Noemi Thank you so much!! ☺️ And I really agree with you on this week's puzzles. I also love e.e. Cummings but since two of his poems were already shared, I'm going to share an Emily Dickinson one that I just discovered... Or probably rediscovered. I really like it and it feels very fitting for me on my birthday. If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking By Emily Dickinson If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching, Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin Unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain.
Well the NE corner was Natick central
@James The NE was? No proper nouns going across, what was the natick?
@James Agree. Got octopu straight away but I wasn’t around for the 60’s and my knowledge of french country dance is lacking. You could say I had a miscue here.
On OCTOPI. The OED (first ed) has “octopus …,(Pl. octopodes…anglicised octopuses) citing the Greek etymology oktopous);wth a citation from 1758 (“ the Polypus,particularly so called the Octopus…”) then others,which include “octopuses” but not the Greek form. This is almost certainly the basis for all the objections to OCTOPI that we will be getting. But in their third edition they give a different ruling. They now give as plural “Octopuses, octopi, rarely octpodes” giving an expanded etymology: “Summary: a borrowing from Latin”. Etonym octopus” specifying “Scientific Latin octopus (Linnaeus 1758 or earlier”, An 1823 citation of octopi is given. That is, there is a Latin word “octopus” with plural OCTOPI directly borrowed for use in English. See also Collins English Dictionary, and Grammarly who arrive at the same conclusion
@Patrick J. ‘Octopus’ is an 18th c. neologism introduced by Linnaeus in his 1758 Systema Naturae. He took two Greek roots, ὀκτώ (oktṓ, eight) and πούς (poús, foot), and mashed them into a pseudo-Latin singular. This is something Linnaeus did: He Latinized Greek forms without strictly following classical declension patterns. So ‘octopus’ looks like a Latin second-declension masculine noun, but it wasn’t borrowed with declension rules in mind. There is no ‘octopus’ in classical Latin texts. It was known as ‘polypus’ in the ancient world and, yes, it was a second-declension masculine noun, thus taking the plural of ‘polypi.’ (Pliny mentions it in that form.) So, technically—grammatically—as a (somewhat) freshly Latinized Greek word, ‘octopus’ should be pluralized as ‘octopodes,’ which is why when the OED issued its 1st edition, they was the preferred form. Since then, however, most people have used ‘octopi’ taking their cue from ‘polypus’/‘polypi,’ and the new editions take their cue from usage. As fewer people study Latin and Greek now, fewer people are horrified by a Greek borrowing being declined as ‘octopi.’ If you are horrified by ‘octopi’ (I am), stay on the safe side and call them ‘octopuses.’ After its quarter of a millennium in English, ‘octopus’ has earned an English plural.
I love you both. I just can't stand the usual, trite complaints about OCTOPI. To have the word intelligently discussed at length by open-minded, smart people is wonderfully refreshing 👍🏾
Fun, easy Wednesday - on a Tuesday night. . Alternate clues to avoid future lectures and altercations - Plural of octopus,var Tentacled animals, slang 8 octopuses, on the street Octopuses in the 1900’s One spelling of the most discussed marine plural Why I came to the comments today!? Octopuses vs. ______ (How the NYTXWD cage fight started) Our college radio station played the Dr. Demento show late on Sunday nights. This 1980 song pops in my head whenever octopuses come up. Listening to it now, it seems very dated. Or maybe I am. <a href="https://youtu.be/6U7b_9TNHw4?si=6tn6GQeOteLic5HW" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/6U7b_9TNHw4?si=6tn6GQeOteLic5HW</a> Peace to all.
It's not my usual way to enjoy being fooled, but this puzzle was an exception to that rule. The misdirects were boggling my mind, and I was skipping them, until I got to the revealer and the penny dropped. Fake misdirects! How ingenious! Something else I enjoyed about this grid was that whatever I didn't know was easily gettable from the crosses, making this a very light fare kind of solve and much welcome. Thank you, Desirée and Jeff! For a musical accompaniment, of course I was tempted to post U2 (featuring The Edge) but, instead, here's Della Reese for something a bit different: <a href="https://youtu.be/0Kk_TCiWPzU?si=p0jICQi91r-qidUv" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/0Kk_TCiWPzU?si=p0jICQi91r-qidUv</a>
Lots of good misdirection, but IMO, the "?" use in the border clues is top dog. As Foghorn Leghorn might opine, "The question mark, I say, is normally used, I say, to indicate a pun. Not, I say, not today." Of course, that's just one rooster's point of view. Was he missing something?
A squid, two OCTOPI and a miner walk into a bar...
@Steve L The squid says, "Show me your SACS."
Steve L, Clearly it is Pub Crossword Night.
Came to say let the OCTOPods games begin but Andrzej beat me to it. So let’s have it for Rhinoceroses or is it rhinoceroi ? The defenders of all answers that happen to be in the dictionary will go through their colours, the anti-fake-latinisation folks will extend their tentacles, and people who know Greek will spew ink. Here we are. Nice puzzle but are deb balls still a thing in NY ?
@Ιασων Deb balls, the death penalty, book burning - quaint traditions, sadly abandoned my misguided attempts at "modernistation" elsewhere, but happily cultivated in the land of the free.
The correct plural of “octopus” is “octopuses”. People often write “octopi” instead because they assume that the plural noun is formed in the same way as Latin loanwords such as “fungus/fungi”. But “octopus” actually comes from Greek, where its original plural is “octopodes”.
@T I take it you're new in these parts.
@T All three are correct. Look it up. It’s actually pretty cool.
@T The take-away is: BOTH 'squids' and 'octopi' are incorrect pluralizations. They Gotcha! I'm sure you have plenty of company....
MUTTs *are* top dogs. Or as more often phrased these days, Rescue is my favorite breeed.
@Linda Jo I couldn't resolve *mutt*, so thanks for that.
@Linda Jo Agreed. Although "rescue" is so terminally pompous it drives me crazy. If I paid someone or otherwise adopted a dog from another person, I didn't "rescue" anything. Perhaps the agency you worked with really did rescue the dog from a bad situation, but does one really know that? I met someone who found a dog tied alone to a pole in the middle of an urban park. THAT was a rescue.
@Linda Jo I once was reprimanded for calling myself a MUTT when asked "what my background is" -- apparently the self-appelation didn't come across as being proud enough. But I am very proud of my heritage, and it is a mix + some unknowns, like a mutt! A mutt is about pedigree, or more aptly lack thereof. A rescue animal may or may not be a mutt! One of my two cats came from a no-kill animal rescue organization after being found on the street with a broken femur at three months old, most likely from being hit by a car. The other was a straight-up stray, found *under* a car about the same age!
@B Municipal animal shelters are pretty grim places (no disrespect to the wonderful people who work and volunteer there!), and many will euthanize animals that have been there too long. Feels appropriate to say you rescued a dog from one.
Yes, Sam. I've heard teeth referred to as "choppers".
@Wes I too found this puzzle meh, have no opinion on octop---, but feel I must weigh in on 'choppers'. My mother, for whom English was a fourth language, gleefully adopted 'choppers' to refer to her dentures. There may be a slight Anglicism at work here (we lived in Canada) but 'choppers' was well known here. Chompers....uh, no. (The more interesting rabbit hole is the connection to motorbikes.)
Fun puzzle, nice theme which delivered a pleasant 'oh now i get it' early on, then I enjoyed the rest of the ride. I think it was 'lid' that clicked. At the top of a puzzle, the humble lid is indeed a top hat. Nice.
@CB The misdirection theme felt like Thursday trickery. (Thursdays are the best!) I tip my hat to the creators.
What misdirection though? It became apparent very quickly that the "edge" element of the clues was just a red herring.
@Andrzej There are comments indicating that some did not pick up the theme quickly (if at all). Mileage naturally may vary. In any event, I found the theme clever and the puzzle delightful.
@Andrzej Regardless of how quickly or slowly you figure it out, it is in fact a misdirection.
Because the theme was clear after getting MUTT, my first answer, this was essentially for me a themeless mid-week puzzle (Hi, @mark!) – something different, and I like different. [Repeated sounds in “Hey Jude”] can be, finally, a non-rapper clue for NAS! I like the concept presented in row 10, of DAYTIME APOSTLE, one who, as the sun is up, is a strict religious adherent, but who, after the sun goes down, puts that all aside and wallows in iniquity. GOB, STUB, NIT, BOLT (as clued) – little words with verve! Two theme echoes: [Inner city?] and [Inner child?], for POMONA and OPIE. Do you pronounce YANG of YINYANG to rhyme with “thong” or “sang” or something different? Discuss. Been a while, I think, since we’ve had a puzzle where the theme framed the puzzle – welcome back! Fun outing today, Desirée and Jeff, got my mind bouncing all over the place. Thank you!
And GNAR -- I forgot to mention this gorgeous word; one day I'm going to write a paean to it.
@Lewis When I was a mere disciple (not apostle) of TaiChi, our Master pronounced the Yang64 as though it was "yong." Who were we to argue?
@Lewis I say yang like sang.
@Lewis NAs... 'irrelevant choices, abbr. ?' NAS... 'cut off rocket agency management?' NAS... 'Hulk actor Eric ends in insanity?' Maybe not. :(
@Lewis Your comment has me singing: Cheer up Sleepy Jean, oh what can it mean to a DAYTIME APOSTLE and a homecoming queen?
@HeathieJ Whenever I think of Davy Jones of the Monkees, I think of David Bowie, and how he couldn't sing under his given name because some other bloke was using it.
Wow, 258 comments for a Wednesday. Who knew GNAR would be so EDGEy.
I spent so long thinking why wasn't it "QUADRILLION" despite it having 15 zeroes. TRILLION was just too short! So why is it "ONETRILLION" ? Don't two trillion also have 12 zeroes? Six trillion?
I knew ages ago that other countries (like England) had different definitions for billion, trillion, etc. But I thought that the meanings had been uniformized since then. (I believe they have in England, at least.) Is that not the case in 2025? And I always shudder when the plural of octopus is as it tends to be in NYT crosswords, as if it's a Latin word, with the US replaced by an I. I've learned so much about these fascinating and intelligent creatures in the past 10 years that I practically revere them. I found the puzzle to be fine, but distinctly on the easy side for a Wednesday, possibly reaching my PB time. I prefer more of a challenge.
@Dan I want to come back as an octopus.
@Dan I’m curious, what’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned about octopodes?
@Dan The TRILLION clue was one of my rabbitholes today. And you're right, Britain, Australia and English Canada have "uniformized" with US usage. 10 to the 12th is the "short scale" trillion, as used in the US, Canadian English, and modern British. Short scale is based on powers of one thousand. 10 to the 18th is the "long scale" trillion as used in Europe, French Canadian, and older British. Long scale is based on powers of one million. Big number musings --- <a href="https://fairymathmother.com/2017/10/16/the-magic-in-wondering-about-a-million-billion-and-trillion" target="_blank">https://fairymathmother.com/2017/10/16/the-magic-in-wondering-about-a-million-billion-and-trillion</a>/
@Dan I couldn’t agree more. The word is “octopuses”. It’s a Greek root!