When I first started solving 3 years ago, I would immediately lookup anything that was trivia, such as actors, singers, etc. Anything that you could look up. I didn't consider it cheating. I learned a lot because it was research. I bring this up because I'm listening to Avicii Levels which was an answer a while back (great song one, of my favourites now) . I've also watched Mr. Robot because of the NYT crossword (the answer was Rami Malek) (great show). My point is that I was having a more fun time solving before I visited this comments section. I had no idea what "no lookups" was and that some considered it cheating. Or that people were speed solving for personal bests. So I learned to solve with no lookups as fast as I could go. And it seems more like a chore now to keep my streak alive than , I liked the way I was solving 3 years ago, learning along the way. I don't know if I can go back though.
@DocP I found myself feeling the same way so about a week ago I hit the Check Puzzle button and effectively ended my streak of gold stars at 1,253. I must admit that I’m back to having fun solving and trying to not let my competitive spirit lead me down the “have-to” path. I love learning and solving and I’m so blessed to be able to do both with each puzzle. Cheers!
@DocP I agree that doing puzzles for the reward of a star is compelling, but utterly meaningless on the cosmic scale. Of course, as an friend of mine once said, "On a cosmic scale, the cosmos is unimportant". However, I think the comments section is an actual hoot. You just have to filter out the distractions, and take what you want and leave the rest. Kind of like a smorgasbord.
@DocP My thoughts echo some of yours, especially the one about speed solving. Like many of us, I'm pleased just to have solved the puzzle, and if it was a faster than average time, I was darn proud, and often crowed about it. I no longer think that way, and will never brag about my time. But that's me. I think we each do these for our own reasons, and none of us are any better or any less for ours. I often go deliberately slow just to savour the theme, or a particularly clever clue. Yes, my streak matters too, but that's between me and myself, and how I might achieve it is no one's business but mine. Long live the NYT Crossword!
@DocP I solve these puzzles on my own terms. I don't care about the streak - trying to keep it going introduces an element of stress to what should be a fun, carefree activity. A streak has zero worth - whether you maintain it or not makes no difference to anything beyond the streak itself. I intentionally break my streak in Wordle from time to time by solving a puzzle late - to not let it terrorize me. I do my best to solve puzzles without lookups, but when names, brands or abbreviations come up, especially in end-of-the-week grids, I will often google them. What is the difference between knowing a brand and looking it up? It's equally irrelevant to me either way. I don't pretend I actually *want* to learn about brands of washing up liquid, abbreviations of transit systems in cities 9000 km away, etc. I don't speed solve. I do my puzzles at my own pace - sometimes fast, sometimes slow. I don't care. One of the things that annoy me most in these comments, thankfully rarely encountered, is people setting high standards for their own solves *and* judging others by them. To them I say, you do you, but let me do me. Literally nothing other than self satisfaction depends on how one solves a puzzle: what reason other than spite is there for disparaging comments? I've been on the receiving end of a few of those, and I never understood why somebody chose and bothered to make them. So my advice is: go back to your old style, DocP, I think you'd enjoy it all over again 🙂.
@Susan C Good for you! I'm proud of you (not that the adulations of an internet stranger mean anything), but you have far more fortitude than I for deliberately breaking a 1200+ streak. I know that I could not do it intentionally. My longest streak, 373 days, was broken by a puzzle that took me 3 months to solve (the art heist).
@Andrzej I've made this same complaint before, and you've had the same response before. At least we're both consistent. In the grand scheme of things, the streak is irrelevant, but in my day to day life it makes me feel like I've achieved something. But then I go chasing that something so badly that I need it. Like an Olympic sprinter who needs steroids to win, my streak makes me need to complete each puzzle. And that's on me.
@DocP To me, avoiding lookups is part of the challenge and the fun. I take great pleasure in deriving an answer. I don't know. I'm definitely not a streak chaser. I gave that up early on as it was taking away from the fun. I'm not a speed solver either, but I do note my relative times as a way to compare with others how difficult they found the puzzle.
@DocP Interesting ideas. I often look up references I don't know, but try to make it a "confirmation". For example I searched for "Eugene O'Neill" once I suspected I had the first name right. I never use those answers websites or the official NYT answer grid. I'm not bothered about my streak, but I do find myself quite protective of my solve times for some reason! If a puzzle is taking longer than usual it can get frustrating. Not that I do anything about it, after 400 or so puzzles the times don't change very much.
@DocP Thank you, Doc P, for articulating so clearly what many of us feel. The best thing I did to start enjoying the NY Times crosswords again was to stop paying attention to how much time it took to solve one. I'm not here to compete with anyone, including myself. I solve the puzzles as a way to engage my brain in unexpected ways, to gain that little ping of satisfaction when it all starts to come together. and to pick up odd gems of info along the way. Accusations of "cheating" seem bizarre. I do not even know my fellow solvers except through their comments here, and the Times doesn't care how I do the puzzles, or even if I work them at all, so when I look up a clue, who am I cheating? Presumably, solve times are shown to encourage competition, but in the end, it's a bogus competition. How can it matter, really? I have worked crossword puzzles and played Scrabble (which actually is a competition, of course) from my mid teens 75 years ago because I had already fallen in love with words in my early childhood—stringing them out, crashing them together, lingering over their sounds, and trying to find the very ones that could communicate a thought exactly (an endless, profoundly challenging rabbit hole), and crosswords are another way of spending time reveling in their complexity and beauty. I value the community of the Comments and look forward to reading them every day, but I don't begrudge anyone's methods for solving.
@DocP It's funny how we care about our streaks and our personal bests, but if it's destroying your pleasure and turning what used to be an enjoyable pastime into a chore, you need to take better control of your life. For me, I was able to realize the silliness of the streak by envisioning a solver's tombstone, which read, "Today he ended his 1,748 day streak."
@The X-Phile That epitaph made me chortle.
@DocP I have it both ways --- I do look ups of pop culture trivia I don't know. I get answers from the column. I even look at the solution when I'm really stuck. Like today when I had no idea about the Ryan Gosling film and the girl in it. But, I also keep my 'streak' going, because I always finish the puzzle. I don't ever use the Check word or puzzles options. I just keep plugging away with whatever extra help I need until the puzzle is finished. That said, my streak is only at 127 because now and then I get busy and just forget to do the puzzle, and then don't remember that the next day. I start the new one before I finished the previous one. Oops! But I've done over 2700 puzzles, and that's the fun part.
Not a fan of crossing two words from the title of a work. If you don't know the reference, it's a square that cannot be solved from the crossings, and must be guessed. That's not kosher in general, and particularly on Monday.
@Lou Scheffer thinking about alternative movie titles: I think my favorite alternative movie title is “LASS and the SEAL girl”- a story of two young women: one a Scot and one who recently joined the Navy.
@Lou Scheffer I feel like it can be acceptable sometimes, but certainly not on a Monday with a movie which made "only" $11M on box office almost 20 years ago.
@Lou Scheffer You came dangerously close to summoning The Natick Police. 👮
"Wait, you want me to use toupees to cover your soil?" "Yes! Thank you hairy mulch!" (They're putting down roots.)
@Mike Mower, please. (We love your puns.)
@Mike The neighbors are wigging out. They want the lot as a bald field.
@Mike Manure puns are so good, i feel for lawn. I wanted to try m’own, but I just come up with a hoe-load of crop. I hereby throw in the trowel!
Mike, Sounds like a Clint Eastwood movie set. Can I comb over and have a lock?
@Mike Some of today's replies are rather sickle-y.
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Tales are related about them (9) 2. Cylindrical grain holders (4) 3. Rush to find a mate? (5)(5) 4. Member of a sub-Saharan matriarchal clan (5) 5. Adjunct faculty? (5)(5) CAMPFIRES COBS SPEED CHESS HYENA SIXTH SENSE
My favorite used-before clues from last week: [Alternative to French] (5) [Went from 0 to 60?] (4) RANCH AGED
@Lewis What no love for Jersey boys? CALVES
@SP -- Wow, I missed that one, and you're right, it's a terrific clue!
What a delight to see a Monday column by Deb Amlen, not that Sam isn't terrific, too, but I was "raised" on the column when Deb was every weekday. So a Deb Amlen Monday is like mom's tomato soup. Add to that Christina Iverson's grilled cheese (simple but delicious), and it's close to the perfect day already. Thanks to you both!
Pezhead, Sounds like your mom went to the same gourmet school as mine. Yum :p
Thank you, @Pezhead! I would like "a Deb Amlen Monday is like mom's tomato soup" on my business cards, if they still make them.
I actually solved a puzzle without a mistake that I couldn't find. I'm really on my way now. My streak is a big one.
@Francis Just to be clear "My steak is a big one" doesn't mean it's a large number. I mean the number of my streak is 1. And I expect it'll probably stay that way, except when it goes to zero.
@Francis and Petrol and Sotto All Y'all are killin' me! (Keep up the good work ;0) )
The premise of "LARS and the REAL Girl" makes it sound trashy, but it's really a sweet, charming film. If you haven't seen it, check it out.
@Wes It was very good. Ryan Gosling before he became the hunk.
Just gotta second what others have said here, Deb. I think you just enormously helped anyone who is just starting (or even on the way) who read your column. Excellent advice!
As someone occasionally peeved with proper noun crossings, having a movie title cross with itself was something different.
@Nate Right? That was my last square. Thankfully R was one of my first choices, but the concept of crossing a title with itself makes me angry. I have a terrible premonition it will now become a recurring feature of these grids... Let's take it a step further. 1A. Woman's name that becomes another woman's name (1D) when the first name's second and fourth and the second name's third and sixth letters are switched to the second, fourth, sixths and seventh letters, respectively, of the film title crossing itself at 6A and 6D (var. in Alicante).
@Nate Agree. Also my last fill. Not a big deal, but the clue should not have had “58 Down” within the quotation marks. The first time through I read it as the actual movie name (thought it was some obscure football romance or something) and didn’t realize my mistake until I hit 58 down itself. Mondays are fast, so I don’t waste time overthinking a clue that I don’t immediately get. Again, not a huge deal, but unnecessarily sloppy. C’mon, editors.
@Nate It's amazing how little that bothered me because that was a gimme for me. I guarantee you it would have bothered me had I not. Glaring construction and cluing problems are completely invisible when one knows the answer.
(This is an edited version of a comment that the emus have blocked (twice)) I came away with this thought from Sunday's comments (regarding BOCCI/BOCCe and similar objections): If you think that because you've never heard of it that it does not exist, then you are creating an obstacle for yourself in completing the crosswords and setting yourself up for frustration and disappointment.
Perfect Monday puzzle. Easy, but not dull; fun, but not a brain crusher—just right for a sleepy, sunny, Sunday afternoon. OLDER HUMANs don't just find naps LIKABLE. GOSH, NO. I ADORE them. Thank you, Christina.
Took me two days to complete Saturday's puzzle so can I just say I loved it!
Crossing an obscure movie from 2007 that grossed a total of $6 million in less than 400 theaters on a Monday is certainly something.
Something very easy to fill from the crosses for people like me who had never heard of it. Fine for Monday.
@Steve I came up with "LADS AND THE DEAL GIRL."
@Steve Can’t be that obscure; I knew it and the last time I went to a cinema to see a film that wasn’t for the kids was about 1999.
There is an art to Monday cluing, with the ideal being that while the clues are direct and gettable, there is a layer of fuzziness to the clue that engages the brain, as opposed to the clues being simply embarrassingly easy. Today’s puzzle nailed it. Even as I was splashing in answers, I was never disengaged; there was a freshness to the clues. One example: [Like a kid in a “Sister” T-shirt vis-à-vis one in a “Sister” onesie] for OLDER. Mwah! I caught on to the hairstyle angle in the theme answers, but getting from there to guessing the revealer (which I left blank) was too tall a hill for me. I loved the stabs my brain took, though. When I saw BOB and PONY, for instance, I thought, “Oh, it’s words that precede “tail!” Some gorgeous answers beautified the outing: ROBUST, COWER, BELLY UP, HEWN. Coursing through a high-quality puzzle, whatever the day of the week, lifts my day, and you do it every time, Christina. Thank you!
Never heard of "LASS and the SEAL Girl". (A Scottish maiden and a selkie walk into Ryan Gosling's BAR, speaking ERSE ...) Never heard of "LARS and the REAL Girl" either, though I decided that was the more likely title for the film. Had to mentally run the alphabet to get the R, which shouldn't happen on a Monday. Don't know what the conventions of punctuation demand, but to me the clue should have been something like: "___ and the [58-Down] Girl" (Ryan Gosling film). Interesting pattern for the thematic content, and the puzzle took me more than ten minutes to solve---at least three minutes of which were devoted to getting the film title.
@Xword Junkie Then there was the documentary on illness from tainted meat: LAVS and the VEAL GIRL
Christina Iverson is, IMHO, a Midas powerhouse of the NYT Games outfit; all she puts her touch on turns to gold. Thank you so much for all the joy you bring! I didn't zip through this one, having purposely slowed down to savor. "LARS and the REAL Girl" took a while for me to remember without counting on the crosses, and that Steinbeck title was new to me (my favorite of his is "The Grapes of Wrath.") I got a good laugh out of NUDE for [Painting that might make you blush.] When I was nine, my father started taking live-model oil painting classes, and would bring home nudes and hang them in the guest bedroom to dry. Our housekeeper would then come in and drape sheets over them because they didn't just make her blush – they left her horrified at what she perceived to be disrespectful to me and my mother. It took quite a long conversation and an explanation of art to convince her that it wasn't offensive. In honor of the PONY tail, here are THE STONES with "Wild Horses" (which, had they been the subject of my father's paintings instead of NUDEs, much drama would have been AVOIDed) – <a href="https://youtu.be/EhVLiHPUOIM?si=zY_8EjS3ayaqw-Ah" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/EhVLiHPUOIM?si=zY_8EjS3ayaqw-Ah</a>
@sotto voce I loved "The Grapes of Wrath". It fit and fits completely with my view of the nasty world, full of haves and have nots, with the haves hating the have nots for not having all the things they have. Ironically, most of the time the reason the have nots don't have is because the haves have it all. Not only has that not changed since I read it in 1974, it's gotten exponentially worse. One Steinbeck book which I like even better, though it was not a commercial success (I don't think) was "The Winter of our Discontent". Steinbeck really mined other literature for his titles, didn't he? "The Grapes of Wrath", "Winter of our Discontent", "Of Mice and Men", "East of Eden".
@sotto voce The Red Pony destroyed me when I was a child. Couldn’t finish it
@sotto voce Speaking of The Grapes of Wrath, The Ghost of Tom Joad (he wrote this 30 years ago): <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rF9jQHwRbDk" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rF9jQHwRbDk</a> And because it’s just so endlessly sad: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xiJlAE2sfQc&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD4gcKEghzdWJzdGFjaw" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xiJlAE2sfQc&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD4gcKEghzdWJzdGFjaw</a>%3D%3D
Harry Styles is a smile-worthy theme to start our week. For me, today’s highlight is the Wordplay column’s helpful primer on puzzle-solving. I recently discovered a stack of NYT Monday puzzle books that my Dad used to sharpen his skills. He was always trying to catch up to Mom who solved the NYT crossword each day with enviable ease. By diligently practicing Mondays, Dad eventually found his footing deeper into the puzzle-solving week. Faithful practice does indeed pay off in the puzzle universe. Also, from this point forward I shall always think of our gracious mentors as Greater Corbin and Effectual Amlen.
I giggled at the revealer, which is always appreciated. Thanks, Christina.
Nice related clues for LARS and the REAL Girl
The mini was really my gateway… lots of minis enabled me to do the Monday… then lots of Mondays as Deb recommends, then many Tuesdays and Wednesdays… finally Thu-Sun got doable. But I’m still slow… I marvel at those who usually do Saturdays in 15 minutes or less without help. One helpful thing… if the constructors intentionally could seed less common regular usage words in the Mondays so novices like me learn them by easier crosses… maybe like ERSE and INRE today, or EPEE… would assist in producing the virtuous circle upward. Maybe constructors do that already. I do feel like doing the crossword helps my vocab and connection-type reasoning. Math has always been my strength, but words live in a distinct neural net.
@sonnel Welcome! We need all the math people we can get here. Right, Andrzej? @sonnel Andrzej may respond with some rude comment about math, but he's (mostly) harmless.
@sonnel But not today! I can usually do a regular 5x5 mini in under a minute. My record is 17 seconds! But today took me two minutes! I knew almost nothing -- especially the crosses.
Nice Monday column from Deb. Nice puzzle from Christina. Always a pleasure to see Ms DERN. I'd rather have a Potato BUN, but it didn't fit. Finally, you can check out some of some of Mr Styles's hairy looks here. <a href="https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Bun+Up+and+Down+Harry+Styles&form=IRIBIP&first=1" target="_blank">https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Bun+Up+and+Down+Harry+Styles&form=IRIBIP&first=1</a>
The cross of "Lars" and "Real" was the last thing for me to solve, never having heard of this movie. I had one letter to go on the puzzle, but needed to know the title of the movie to get both the down and the across. I simply typed in every letter of the alphabet until the completion music played. That made it a 6 rather than 5 minute solve, and all for one letter.
@Jonathan Since solve-time seems to matter to you ... why on earth would you type in each letter of the alphabet? Only a few of the letters would even make sense.
Just not finishing up going through Sunday's puzzle comments and have one thought: If you think that because you never heard of it, that it can't possibly be, you will die on that hill.
@Jim Aah, the original unedited comment shows up 9 hours later.
@Jim - Yes, the comments yesterday are a perfect example of why I rarely participate here any more. In my daily life, I see enough of people who have no idea what they're talking about yet believe what THEY know (or believe they know) is the ONLY way something can be. They spell a word one way? The heck with any alternative spellings! Those cannot possibly be right! And now we have a jackmule over there claiming that jacks and jennies are mules, not the answer in the grid. I run into this kind of nonsense too much these days. It is sad that so many people believe that if THEY don't know it, it must be wrong. I think a lot of these people are offended if their first idea of what an entry might be is contradicted by the crosses. Checking a square through a cross is sort of the point of a CROSSword! I jst change the square and move on. Som times I laugh! I never get angry at the constructor. When the new word is new to me, I don't say "That's wrong because **I** didn't know it! (or enter it at first)." I actually enjoy being fooled once in a while. Look at all the comments today praising the puzzle and explicitly or implicitly comparing it to yesterday's. Of course the clueing is easier on a Monday! It's a Monday! That doesn't mean it's necessarily better. Or that more obscure cluing or variant spellings are wrong.
I was so confused by THERE D PONY for quite a while before I saw it Fun Monday! A bit tricky for me.
@Lpr If you want to add depression to your confusion, read the novella. Or just watch the news.
5 minutes is my benchmark for hard/easy on a Monday. My timer read 5:00 when I finished the grid, but no Gold Star. It was 6:40 by the time I found my lone mistake. HUt/REtORTERS. Retorting is an essential part of reporting, no? I actually filled that word entirely from crosses, so I had no opportunity to even think it was wrong until the double check...
@Steven M. I had the exact same error 🤦🏼♀️
@Steven M. The last three days I've had a single error that I could not find, and in every case there was at least a little justification for my (wrong) answer.
Loved this Monday puzzle! I’m a moderate NYT Crossword newbie, so Monday puzzles always give me a little boost as I can generally solve them with few to no lookups. And the run down of crossword clue hints (abbreviations, plurals, etc.) is super helpful. I know zero about Harry S. except for his sartorial adventurousness, which I give him props for.
At sea, and it's only Monday. I mis-read 61A. and came up with Harry Stylus. Now that would be a great alias for a D.J! In the same vein as Dusty Lenscap for photographer. How 'bout a puzzle theme of mis-read clues?
There are SO many hair STYLES that it should not have been necessary to use a mangled (incorrect) name for one of THOSE included in the puzzle. PONY has a lot of meanings, but as a stand-alone, it does not mean PONYTAIL. If that is legit, then: Why not a PAGE? Pageboys are always in vogue. Or CORN? Corn Rows look wonderful (except on Bo DereK.) I give this puzzle a rating of One Mullet.
@Mean Old Lady I did not even think of hairstyles, until I read the column. I pictured someone BOBing and WEAVEing, and it made me think of a STYLE(s) of dancing while singing.... Okay, yes, it's farfetched, but it's what jumped into my mind at the time, and I have no control over that. Clearly, I need some chocolate.
@Mean Old Lady My theater students often refer to a "high PONY" without the tail. I figure it's the common phenomenon of The Young shortening phrases to mark their generational allegiance (as Gen X shortened "parents" to "rents.") It's definitely a thing. It's interesting to consider why a similar thing doesn't happen with pageboy or cornrows.
Pants without pockets are called women's cargo pants. Harry Styles was fantastic in the phenomenal "Dunkirk".
More Tuesday-ish than Monday, IMHO
@Brian Monahan easy Tuesday but slightly tricky Monday. I won't complain.
Hi Deb, I hope many new solvers will appreciate your Amlenish advice today, to include the fine use of the Tricky Clues section on a day without tricky clues. One note on abbreviations. While abbreviations in answers must have a signal in the clue, some common abbreviations in clues are just there to save space and do not signal an abbreviation in the answer. To wit: Thu Mar 28, 2024 48 A Currency once pegged to the U.S. dollar CHINESEYUAN
...or from last week: Wed Jul 9, 2025 20 A Number with 12 zeros in the U.S. but 18 zeros in other parts of the world ONETRILLION
The Red Pony is burned in my childhood memory, the horrible death of the pony. (Oops, Spoiler alert.) A distant second for “childhood book burned in memory” was called The Meanest Squirrel I Ever Met. The people trying to ban books should instead redirect their energy to help kids have the resources to understand difficult themes encountered in books. No one could get me to understand why Mr. M. O. Squirrel was such a conman. You never know where a crossword puzzle is going to lead you!
@Cat Lady Margaret I read The Red Pony as a young teen - up to the point where the pony died. And I stopped reading and was too mad at the book to continue it. I still haven't ever read the whole thing. And forty some-odd years later, I still am kind of mad at the book.
Almost done in by a Monday 😬
I came to the comments expecting to find people complaining about the Razzie/Tomei cross. That was my only blocker from finishing the puzzle
@Ryan I really don't get why obscure pop culture references aren't treated as Naticks. It's random trivia applicable to a very small subset of the population
@Ryan Maybe a generational difference, but "Marisa of 'My Cousin Vinny'" gives TOMEI *instantly*. RAZZIE I knew, but had to actually recall.
You may not know them, but neither answer is "obscure."
@Drew My Cousin Vinny is hardly obscure. And the RAZZIEs have been around for quite a while, handing out "awards" to movies that have rightly faded into true obscurity.
@Ryan Marissa TOMEI got an Oscar, and "My Cousin Vinny" is shown frequently on tv channels, but there were crosses that should have helped with RAZZIE. I wanted Rotten Tomatoes but obviously that was a non-starter. However, going Down PRET-- was a big hint even if The New Testament 'book' was an unknown.
LARS crossing REAL was a total nattick for me. Had to run the alphabet to hear the music.
@Allen Although the title *Lars and the Real Girl* may not be the most obvious, there are only a few letters which could work in the crossing. The plot premise of *Lass and the Seal Girl* has already been discussed, as has *Lads and the Deal Girl*. *Lavs and the Veal Girl* is one script I'd rather not read.
@Allen Yep that was frustrating for me! I hate when complicated clues intersect because I'm a big believer of the one clue easy, one clue hard interesecting norm of crosswords. But I feel like this is happening more and more this year. :(
Sanjana, That might be the norm for Monday NYT crosswords. This was a hard Monday, which is borderline oxymoronic.
@Allen It is one of my very favorite movies - recommend a watch!
On a weekend when I was running around exponentially more than usual (the garage sale took in a good amount, and more importantly, people were paying us to take our junk away), all three puzzles were either Hard or Very Hard on xwstats.com. This puzzle was just Hard, so newcomers, do not despair. Most Mondays are easier. Of course, being tired, the puzzle was a little tougher for me than it should have been. And I thought that the two-part clue at 56A/58D was as close to a Monday Natick as they come, given that both clues refer to the same film, which I'd never heard of. On the other hand, an alphabet run reveals that the crossing R is the most likely letter to go there. But nevertheless, it was still a guess and not a sure bet. Regarding a comment I made in yesterday's section about the rock song that the puzzle featured: I guess I should have fine-tuned my objection by saying that only serious fans of mid-60s hard rock would know that song. I don't care if 15 of you tell me it's a classic song, and 50 of you recommend those people. If you're a serious fan of that genre, you know it. But there were lots of others--even in your age group--that didn't care for that flavor of rock. And they'd know Riders on the Storm, Love Her Madly, Light My Fire...but not that one. So maybe you're right that it's a so-called "classic song", but I still think it's a bit esoteric to build a Sunday puzzletheme around.
@Steve L Agree completely about today's pair. As to the Doors song, I consider that my revenge for clues about rappers.
@Steve L I was not alive in the 60s, am in no way a "serious fan", and I've heard it. So no it's not just for niche fans of a particular era of rock music. I know you're going to say you don't care. I don't care that you don't know it. I care that you're making inaccurate generalized claims.
@Steve L I was born in 1980 and know extremely little about 1960s rock music. I am not a fan of it, either, at all. I heard the song hundreds of times on Warsaw's two FM rock radio stations in the 2000s and 2010s - it was obviously considered one of the biggest classics by then. Why are you so stubborn about this? I appreciate your calling out the title crossing itself 👍🏾
@Steve L Yep, I was born in the late 70s and I’d never heard of it. And I can actually sing along to quite a bit of 60s music, having worked a summer at the Gap when I was 16. They had 3-4 CDs of 60s’ classics that they played on rotation. Over. And over. Again. As we folded and refolded all-American jeans and sweaters. I still have flashbacks.
@Steve L Just checking in to see whether THE STONES are too niche or esoteric for a Monday puzzle. I mean, who calls them that??? Only their rabid fans, right? [insert winking emoji]
@Steve L I was alive at the time The Doors were (was?) active, but I wasn't a rabid fan by any means. I of course knew Light My Fire, but Riders on the Storm rings only a vague bell and Love Her Madly is a complete unknown. I know The End only from "Apocalypse Now." Yet I, not a serious fan of hard rock, nonetheless have BREAK ON THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE in my head—I suspect that might be similarly from placements in films or commercials.
@Steve L Maybe to you, yes, but not to many others.
@Steve L Wow, what would it take to convince you it's a widely known song? I wasn't a rock fan back in the day but I definitely knew that song from hearing it here and there
@Steve L the first song from the first Doors album??? I think you should unbury your head from the sand, it must be thoroughly caked on by now! Did you not own a radio or are you too young to know that is? Just wondering how the first single ever releases by the Doors eludes you to this day. An explanation would be well received.
@Steve L to follow up, I reread your post and now know you are a Millennial. We don't care about how you spent your day. This isn't social media. If you need a friend, get out and meet people. We aren't your huckleberry, fella.
A little hard for a Monday, but very enjoyable. L
Yes, Christina Iverson, I did enjoy the goofiness. I’ll take all you’ve got.
Whew. And wow! (again) Kind of a tough Monday for me. Was not at all familiar with the reveal answer and just had to work that out from the crosses. It was one of the last things I filled in and then I had to go back and review the referenced theme answers and ponder for a moment before it finally dawned on me. Just made for a really nice 'aha' moment when I finally got it. Kind of interesting puzzle find today. I'll put that in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Thursday from September 22, 2011 by Jeff Dubner. No 'reveal' in this one or specific identification of the theme answers. But... five across answers in order from top to bottom: DAILYMAIL DELICOUNTER DILLYDALLYING DOLLYPARTON DULYNOTED And then one down answer: DYNOMITE Don't recall another like that. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/22/2011&g=59&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/22/2011&g=59&d=A</a> ....
I will from now on pronounce his name as Hairy! Never heard a pony tail called simply PONY. Since the other answers were stand-alone this one puzzled me a bit.
@Long walks n sunsets You are correct; NOBODY would call the "do" a PONY. Maybe it is an example of, "Who cares? It's just a Monday puzzle."
@Long walks n sunsets I have heard it from small girls as in "can I get a pony?" [and yes, the hairdo not the horse]
@Long walks n sunsets just going to say my wife (in her 40s) indeed does call it a "pony" at times. Being a dad in a house full of boys, hairdos are not my strong suit, but I was surprised to see the tailless pony backlash.
@Long walks n sunsets I'm not sure if LARS' REAL girl ever had a PONY but it's definitely a REAL thing! "Let me just put my hair in a PONY and I'm ready to go," said I more than a few times when I had longer hair. ☺️
Puzzle was fun, but a bit challenging for Monday! Not sure this is the best place to start for a beginner. It was a bit "hairy" to solve!
Hairy styles are a list of funny-do's.
Just wanted to pile on the praise. We're in professional hands this morning. Young grandson always pronounced the name of the boy wizard as "Hairy" Potter.
So we had the Doors yesterday, and the Stones today: too bad that I'm about half a generation too young to be truly moved by the classic groups of the 60's-early 70's. Same with Harry Styles--I haven't a clue as to his musical, um, style, and if I have heard any of his songs, they haven't registered. And while I like me a little Sturm und Drang now and then, I have never knowingly listened to music that would describe itself as "emo." No, this is more my taste--Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto for two violins in g minor, Op. 3 no. 2, from the collection titled *L'Estro armonico.*: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbu8tGarDFM&list=RDWbu8tGarDFM&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbu8tGarDFM&list=RDWbu8tGarDFM&start_radio=1</a> (Bonus points if you can guess which entry today gave me this earworm.)
Bill, Going for the bonus points: is it because MONOtoneBOBDylan played the armonico?
Excellent Monday puzzle. I agree, Deb, pretzel rolls are not gourmet. They just cost more. Thanks, Ms. Iverson!
Nice palate cleanser after Sunday’s puzzle which was a slog for me. I enjoyed the HARRYSTYLES theme.
Haven't wrestled that hard with a Monday puzzle in a long time. Spent more than twice my average time. Thinking my problem was with the LARS/REAL cross, my lack of Spanish prevented from seeing I had misspelled LIKeBLE.
@Jim Spanish pays attention to gender, so I had ALTO (as in Palo Alto--the tall Palo tree) instead of ALTA (which had to be determined by the crossing, since there was no associated noun--something that would have been fair for a Monday puzzle.)
Jim, I hope you were making a joke about blaming your lack of Spanish for having entered LIKeBLE.
Well, it’s Ms Iverson so of course it was an interesting grid. It filled very quickly for me so I was surprised to read that some found it a little chewy, particularly with my track record of late. Clearly I’m in Ms Iverson’s wheelhouse. I sent a text to DD, re HARRY STYLES theme. She is the uber fan, having followed him since his first audition on that singing show with Simon Cowell (can’t remember the name). We were both a bit ‘but it’s pronounced Harry, not Hairy’ . It’s a heck of a squint to read it as per the theme. Are we being picky? Is it an accent thing? Either way, loved it.
@Helen Wright As Barry pointed out in an earlier post, the clue says nothing about it being a homophone.
@Helen Wright Here on the West Coast, we pronounce both those words the same way. I was surprised to learn from the comments today that they're pronounced slightly differently across the pond.
@Helen Wright Pronouncing "Harry" and "hairy" the same is an example of what linguists call the "Mary-marry-merry" merger. A vast geographical part of the US pronounces the words Mary, marry and merry exactly the same. To those who pronounce them all differently (I'm one of them), this seems bizarre. However, in a heavily populated swath of land running from Philadelphia up to Boston, they're each pronounced differently. In those places that all three sound alike, the words rhyme with "hairy" or "fairy." In the following short video, note that the speaker cannot pronounce the difference in the three words. <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@drewdurnil/video/7166024492584553770" target="_blank">https://www.tiktok.com/@drewdurnil/video/7166024492584553770</a> The map close up: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/yl3po8/mary_vs_merry_vs_marry_pronunciation_differences/#lightbox" target="_blank">https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/yl3po8/mary_vs_merry_vs_marry_pronunciation_differences/#lightbox</a>
A refreshing Monday puzzle doing exactly what got me into this in the first place, a fun puzzle that feels well written. Keep up the good work!
Bring back the previous way of showing crossword stats! I want to be able to compare my average, best, and this week’s scores without having to toggle back and forth. Also go back to showing them in hours and minutes, not just minutes. Thanks!
@Ellen Could not agree more. When I view the stats via the web page instead of the app I can see the original histogram type (a vertical array of days rather than a horizontal one, however). Still, I would rather not have to leave the app to do this.
@Ellen I think some fine tuning is in order on the new ‘Me’ (ex-Stats) page. Apparently I’ve been a subscriber since 2022, yet my streak is 4 1/4 years old. And my overall puzzles finished doesn’t fit in the space alotted
@Ellen I'm not sure if this answers your question, but I can still see the old stats format here: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/puzzles/stats" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/puzzles/stats</a>
@Ellen Agree - seems like change for the sake of change, rather than for betterment!