"We haven't gotten a cup of tea together in ages!" "I know, it's been oolong!" (Sounds like a brew-tiful friendship.)
@Mike Sencha asked, I've been brown-bagging my lunch lately. Cafeteria prices are too steep. Tired of getting soaked. I'll put a note in my loose-leaf so I won't forget.
@Mike Matcha do about nothing, my darjeeling... ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Mike How can such a murky cup suit me to a tea? It's a major grey area.
@Mike You're quite good at this, ain'tchai?
@Mike I don't know how you avoid being mugged.
@Mike I'm careful not to take a pekoe the comments before doing the puzzle. Maybe you and your friend haven't gotten together because they chamomile to get to you.
I found this puzzle very easy for a Wednesday - I was not rushing at all, yet I completed it in Monday time - but I enjoyed it. In fact, I rarely like a puzzle as much as I did this one 👍🏾. I love the look and sound of BESTIR. Usually seeing unusual words (or at least ones I perceive as that) irks me, but this one made me happy, for some weird reason. I also liked seeing RANT. As you probably suspect, I go off on rants quite often IRL - probably because my Bee esS METER is very sensitive. I do so very passionately and often humorously, putting all my linguistic creativity into twisting Polish into ever new insults. In fact, my wife says my rants were one of the things she fell for when we met almost 20 years ago 🤣. Don't worry though, I keep my rants private, and in relations with other people, also strangers, I'm *much* more likely to be kind rather than brusque 🙂. I appreciate how two years doing these puzzles meant OBS, RENFAIRE, ENO and ENG were gimmes. Jim - I may often be confused by American culture and language, and I don't care about literally all of it, but I *do* enjoy learning about it most of the time. In fact, the depth of my understanding of the US has improved greatly with these puzzles and this board, and I am grateful for it. Us all over the world learning about one another can only make the world a better place 🫂.
@Andrzej I, on the other hand, have never, ever gone off on a rant. Or used profanity. Or swore oaths. I am as pure as the driven snow. If you don't believe me you can just FO.
ANN ARBOR was a gimme with just a few crosses - not because I knew the sport team, but because last year in Stralsund, Germany, in a gothic church turned into an art gallery, we visited an exhibition of photographs by Leni Sinclair, and Ann Arbor featured prominently there. Combined with LOO, the clue "Camper's recreation" made me laugh. In the British car show Top Gear one of the hosts, Jeremy Clarkson, a curmudgeonly hater of the outdoors at the time, went on a camping trip. He understood none of the appeal. At a campsite he asked an elderly couple in a caravan what it was one could actually do there. The lovely lady was momentarily confused and finally said: "Go to the loo." (I used to enjoy camping for decades btw, with a tent. I only grew out of it in my 40s). I liked the theme. It was sort of random, but the revealer was nice, and the theme was well implemented in its individual entries. It actually made me smile, which is rare, and especially unexpected this week. Thank you, Jasin Cekinmez 🙂. I wanted to thank the community again for the support you showed me. Talking with people and knowing they have my back, seeing the good in their hearts, feeling heard and understood - it all helps me deal with my grief at the loss of my best friend, Jorge the Lab ❤️
@Andrzej Sorry about Jorge. Labs are so loving. They make the world a better place. We lost Boris on Friday after nearly 14 wonderful years. The pain of the loss is the price to pay for all the joy, love, and laughter of having a dog in our life. Even though the heartbreak is excruciating, on balance it is a small price to pay.
@Andrzej I'm so sorry to hear about Jorge. My BFF Benny goes for major surgery next week, likely hepatocellular carcinoma. He's ~15 (don't know his age because he was a stray).
I, who love word quirks, did a mental jaw-drop, when I saw the T, as in “tea”, in the middle of OOLONG, all embedded in a larger word. My brain simultaneously exclaimed “Huh!” and “Hah!”. Then, with that larger word, FOOT-LONG, having such an entertaining and original clue – [Sub category] -- well, that’s one of those Crosslandia moments that keeps me coming back for more. All the theme answers have a nice buzz, and TEA BREAK not only ties them together, but throws in bonus wordplay as well. Just a sterling theme all around, and having those four T’s made of black squares in the grid is sweet icing. Give a puzzle bones like that and I’m all in, and nits fly out the window. The rebel in me likes that EAST is west, and the lover of happy coincidences in me loves that the puzzle finishes with ENDS. Thus, a splendid outing, and thank you so much for this, Jasin. Congratulations on your sparkling debut!
Administrative note. I will be away for a few days, back on Monday, when I’ll be grateful to rejoin you all. Wishing you a most lovely weekend.
Don't love the new phone app stat page layout. What was wrong with the old one where you could see average, weekly, and best times all in one chart?
@Eric Agreed. I wouldn't mind it broken up by day -- with the old setup it was hard to see the ATB differences in Monday times because the bars were to scale for Sundays -- but comparing ATB for a day is more useful than comparing averages for the whole week.
@Eric @Megan @Isabeau I agree! May I suggest writing to the Customer Care team, if you haven't already. They can escalate the concern to the Games product team so they can (hopefully) address the issue. (There's a slim-to-none chance they regularly read Wordplay comments.) <a href="mailto:NYTGames@nytimes.com">NYTGames@nytimes.com</a>
Sam found the theme tea-rrifc. I think if this puzzle was a cat, it'd be the pekoe the litter.
I had just done the April bonus puzzle (theme=baseball) so when I saw AT BAT and ON BASE and AL WEST I thought this one was going to be another baseball puzzle. But it was tea! And I'm a tea drinker (ASSAM would be my choice from the ones presented here). Jasin says the T shapes of the black squares were coincidental, but they certainly add to the look of the puzzle. I enjoyed today's Durham-Wordplay lunch, with Wordplayers from Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and Connecticut as well. Great fun catching up on the last year and talking puzzles.
@Liz B And Efland! Yes, it was a wonderful lunch and a great group of people.
Understandably, NYT believes that if I solve enough of their puzzles, I will eventually remember all these rappers' names. Well, going on a few years now, and my retention is still zero.
@J me either! I don’t like it. And what’s up with Tiles?
@J @BST I agree! May I suggest writing to the Customer Care team, if you haven't already. They can escalate the concern to the Games product team so they can (hopefully) address the issue. (There's a slim-to-none chance they regularly read Wordplay comments.) <a href="mailto:NYTGames@nytimes.com">NYTGames@nytimes.com</a>
This is such a beautiful puzzle, I'm verklempt and TEAry-eyed. Okay, so that's stretching it a bit, but I enjoyed the solve and appreciated the theme execution very much. Well done, Jasin. This was a fine debut and I congratulate you! I wasn't familiar with BESTIR, but it will definitely go into my lexicon. Especially when I need motivation for something, I will look into the mirror and theatrically command: "BESTIR thyself!" Thank you for that new mantra, Jasin, and also for a great misdirect with [Sub category.] Loved it!
@sotto voce I think I'll steel "BESTIR thyself!" 😃
I didn't realize until reading the column that the letter T broke up the tea names. Wow! This was an impressive debut, and I look forward to seeing more from Jasin!
Remember how 200 years ago TISN'T was always clued as [Playground retort]? FOOTLONG is a genus of subs, not a category. (Subgenus) The use of teas and T's was fantastic. Great puzzle. There are no BADASSES only bad owners. Please have your BSMETERS calibrated and certified before reading my posts.
As a lifelong tea drinker I enjoyed this tea themed puzzle, and appreciated the cleverness of putting the T in the middle of the teas. I like OOLONG and ASSAM, but am not crazy about BOBA or MATE. I used to always solve the puzzle over my morning cup of tea, a tradition I miss since being converted to night time solving. Maybe I’ll BESTIR myself to go back to morning solving.
@Marshall Walthew OOLONG and ASSAM are varieties of tea; BOBA is a product made with tea, while MATE is a tea-like drink which isn’t actually tea. At least I think this is the case; too early in the morning to do actual research.
Our eight month old must be going through a growth spurt alongside slowly figuring out how to crawl, because this is already the third time he has woken up to nurse tonight. One of the ways I keep myself awake is doing the crossword then reading the column and comments. But tonight I reached a new level: before he woke me this time I was actually dreaming about reading the comments (and, because of some of this puzzle’s clues, about watching baseball). Of course the details have dissolved now that I’m up, but for the brief time before I had to BESTIR myself yet again, I was very much enjoying all the personal anecdotes and wordplay my sleeping brain had invented as well as the unique dream angles from which I was able to observe the pitches during each AT BAT.
@Rachel You don't even need us! Your dreaming mind can simply do it all! I loved dreaming. I don't do it very well anymore, but some of my dreams when I was younger have been unreasonably entertaining--complex old houses, strange geographical structures, cities that are charming beyond all measure, dangerous cityscapes after dark...
@Rachel There is a touch of magical realism to your post. It's awesome, even though it was inspired by what must have been a tough night for you. It feels so weird when your dreams tie in to real life, doesn't it? You're thinking: wow, how can this be happening? But then you start noticing so many details are off, and some of the important stuff, too, and even though it all desperately wants to be real, it isn't, and you snap out of it. @Francis I still remember a dream from when I was 8 or 10, about being some sort of monster hunter, in a gothic mansion and surreal landscape. It was scary but awsome, too! You will not be surprised my most scary recurring nightmare is about math 😂. At the end of high school we take the "matura" test. Back in my day it did not include math - a blessing for me. Yet every few years I dream I'm 18 again, and have to take matura in math. I know I will fail. I won't graduate from high school, I won't go to university, I'll let my parents down... Sweet baby Jesus! That's so much more disturbing than my other recurring nightmare, where I'm 7 and sledding down a hill but something makes the sled launch high into the air and I'm about to fall to my death. That's so much more humane than having to take an advanced math test that determines the rest of your life!
@Rachel I can't remember ever having crossword dreams. Space Invader ones, yes. But not Crosswords or other puzzles.
The newer version of the app on iOS now prompts you to sign into Apple Game Center even if Game Center is turned off in settings. While the prompt disappears if you don’t interact with it it’s still annoying. Who asked for this?
@John Not me! I didn’t like that at all. At first I thought I had been hacked but I couldn’t open NYT Games without signing in to the Game Center thing. And why did they change the stats bar? I want the old one back! It was much easier to see my progress.
@John @Cherry I agree about the stats! (Not on iOS,so I don't have the other issue.) May I suggest writing to the Customer Care team, if you haven't already. They can escalate the concern to the Games product team so they can (hopefully) address the issue. (There's a slim-to-none chance they regularly read Wordplay comments.) <a href="mailto:NYTGames@nytimes.com">NYTGames@nytimes.com</a>
Yes - Aggravating - had to root around to log out !
@John I think the invite to the game centre is an apple problem and not a New York Times problem.
Congratulations on a solid NYT puzzle debut, Mr. Cekinmez! I don’t often drink tea, but I enjoyed finding the different varieties you put in the puzzle. Good luck with your remaining studies and I hope we’ll see you back here sometime.
Thank you for a very enjoyable puzzle. Really had fun. Especially as this was for my 500th solve. Now I can relax!!
My original post seems to have been eaten for the usual inexplicable reasons🤷♀️ I repeat: Any grid that has tea in it gets my vote. *glugs a mug of builders brew* But not BOBA, vile stuff. With excellent debuts like we’ve had this week, the future of the crossword is secure.
@Helen Wright I cannot fathom your imaginative your writings stirring up the beast. I prefaced mine this morning with "A mediocre writeup today, so Emu, do your thing." I guess mine was discarded out of mediocrity. Yeah, boba is deee scusting.
Alas, “Taylor’s of Harrogate Yorkshire” is too long and wouldn’t fit the tea break theme. Hmm, scones on the menu tomorrow?
@Cat Lady Margaret Presciently had a toasted scone with Havarti for lunch. Too blasted hot for tea here, though. (Please don't let this start the hot-drinks-on-hot-days feud.) Had an icy cold seltzer instead.
You had me at OOLONG! It can be hard to find around here, but it's my favorite, so...I hoard it. Have never tried MATE or BOBA; ASSAM ....well, India TEA as a whole: too strong/bitter for enjoyment, IMHO. YMMV (and any other disclaimers.) I chose India TEA at a little place near the Salisbury Cathedral (yes, in the UK...in...hmm...1978?) and it shaped my opinion...and kept me wired for hours! Wanted THE MANX for the breed of cat. Have never heard of BOBTAIL (other than "the nag") as a cat breed. Anyone else try SERENE and SOLEMN before the actual answers? Or HEARTHS for radiating warmth? Synonym City!
@Mean Old Lady Sounds like you were given builders brew in Salisbury. So called because its the drink of choice for workmen; very strong and definitely an acquired taste. Its basically cheap black Indian leaf, left to brew til you can stand a spoon in it. Give ASSAM a go. It’s much more delicate, either with milk, lemon or as it comes.
@Mean Old Lady Yes I had Solemn for SOMBER at first.
@Mean Old Lady- I had serene also -until I did not get the happy music
Clever idea professionally executed. Congrats on the NYT debut. A smart collection of constructors over at The Princetonian. Perhaps we'll see some of them here someday (if we haven't already). <a href="https://crossword.dailyprincetonian.com" target="_blank">https://crossword.dailyprincetonian.com</a>/
That was MY CUPPA TEA!! See you next Thursday!
Love a nice cup of tea in the afternoon. Brings back good memories of my lovely mother and the comfort of a small pot of tea with pretty porcelain cups or mugs (with milk and a little sugar), her delightfully silly sense of humor and a little bit time we spent together sharing a "cuppa". Nice crossword. Thank you.
Entered Bennington College just as the mayhem of BE Ellis’ book Less Than Zero was causing a stir in book stores (and stirring up endless on-campus drama). So the apt crossing of his name with IDLER -which is precisely what I was at Bennington - made me grin. Toss in a bong or some rolling papers and it’d be a hat trick! Thank you Jasin!
@CCNY I was in law school when the novel came out. I much more strongly associate "Less Than Zero" with the Elvis Costello song of that name, which we got to hear live a few weeks ago.
For those of you who may have followed some of my travel adventures, yesterday, my mother-in-law returned home to the Boston area, so last night was the first night of not having to get up in the night for her in the last almost 4 weeks, and thus today is the first day of our more normal routine... which somehow feels weird after all of this time with Ma. All of this to say that it was very difficult to BESTIR meself from mine bed chamber this fair morn. Getting to learn a new to me word in BESTIR made it worth it. ☺️ A TEAriffic puzzle. I always wish I could like tea more because I know many teas have a health benefits, unlike my beloved Diet Coke, but I just can't ever get into it for very long. I don't like hot beverages and I do really like cold and fizzy. I had a tea loving co-worker friend for many years, who knew I wished I could like tea more. She would leave a large cup of tea for me on my desk every morning. I would drink my Diet Coke, and when that was done, around noonish, when the tea was pretty much room temp, I would drink it. I don't know why she did this so faithfully for me, but it was really sweet! Her, not the tea. I don't think I've had any since then, over 5 years ago now. As for my travels, I am very happy to be home, but I also miss being there. Especially my favorite 13-year-old... 13 going on 35, that is. I have known her all of her life but she has definitely entered her teen angst galore and more phase, but I adore that kid!! 😍
@HeathieJ Buon Retour! I admire people who can care for the elderly with patience and grace. In the near future I'm going to do more than care for them, I'm going to depend on them.
BAD ASSES and BS METER in the same puzzle? We're through the looking glass on the use of saucy slang, aren't we.
@UCCF The NYT needs to provide a fainting couch, I guess.
@UCCF There is a little firestorm about those answers here: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/48ta8d?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/48ta8d?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a> What amuses me is how much the rest of the modern world accepts change and is not puritanical, we in the US are far less likely to do so. Personally, Pharisaical Piety makes my skin crawl. Morality Kabuki. Honoring the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law. It seems to me the whole point of the Christ's teaching were to try to get away from legalities, and move to human kindness in all things. An unkind word seems far, far more damaging than a stupid four letter "bad" word that really doesn't do anything at all other than carry some emotion.
Fun! I was breezing through it, but I got very bogged down in the upper right corner.
Great puzzle! Personally it mostly felt like a Tuesday but the NE quarter was like a Friday to me. It was hard to figure out the two related clues with little to go by, and the difficult BESTIR as a crosser clue. Not complaining though, I am new to the game and have more to learn than to grieve. The theme did not help with the dark squares, but the dark squares helped with 52-Across.
@David "...and have more to learn than to grieve. " I love your attitude.
Congratulations on your NYT debut! Nice, balanced puzzle. Monday or Tuesday level difficulty, in my opinion, but that’s no shade on the constructor.
Being from Colorado, I enjoyed seeing Elway, though we need a better team. Had MDT since it’s summer first. Unknowingly the team theme also plays well in Colorado as Boulder is the original home of Celestial Seasonings and the Boulder Dushanbe tea house. I am well acquainted with all the teas listed. Strangely Ann Arbor and Michigan are the same number of letters. Was thinking of the university of Michigan Wolverines not the town. Nice premiere puzzle. I disagree with those who thought it was a Monday. Rian’s, bestir, and bobtail made it a nice Thursday
@Megan Some of my happy days as a kid in Colorado were visiting the Denver area. I lived in the heat and rusty air of Pueblo, but I got to go to Denver once a year on my birthday. When we did, we stayed at a motel my aunt and uncle managed on Colfax Avenue in Aurora. It may still be there. It's called the Riviera.
Great debut, Jasin! Nice theme, crisp clues, no instances of octopi, no rebuseseses... A pleasant Wednesday solve.
Hi, @Francis! Late in the day yesterday, I left a reply in a thread whose biome had become decidedly snarky. And, like burning fossil fuels in a green-house world, my comment only served to increase the snark levels. I just wanted to make sure that you knew that the snark wasn't directed at you, personally.
Went down easy like a nice cuppa. Speaking of “cuppa” - I hadn’t really heard that term used until very recently. I’ve both lived in and frequently visited London over the years but somehow the term never popped up on my “western” radar until the last couple of years when I started noticing it everywhere. Wondering if cuppa recently spiked in popularity or if it’s just my own selective attention?
@Striker. Good ear. Ngram viewer shows a tenfold increase since the mid-1990s
@Striker Tangentially, I just finally used NGram Viewer to look up one of my pet peeves - how everyone uses "back in the day" and pretends it's perfectly normal. NGram shows what I felt to be true - the darn phrase basically didn't exist until 1999 or 2000, upon which it shot up like a rocket. Trendy twits. I don't mind neologisms, but don't gaslight people and pretend you're not engaging in them. Both cuppa and back in the day also have a sneaky air about them in that they sound old timey while being brand new. The insincerity bugs me... (I was fooled by cuppa though - I assumed it was an English nana thing.)
@Striker Cuppa is extremely common in Australia too, for many decades. Although, it's more of a generic term for any hot beverage in a cup/mug. Cuppa tea? Coffee? Hot Chocolate?
I’m not a tea drinker even though I live in a town that is well known for its tea. I did enjoy the clever theme however and look forward to more from Jasin.
@suejeanWhen round your way, I made the obligatory visit to Betty's. I didn't realise until now that they were owned by the people who make Yorkshire Tea.
People must commonly make kites using balsa wood, because I've seen it clued that way a few other times, but it seems like it would make for a very fragile kite that would snap with the first hard gust. Probably I just don't understand how it's done. Mine are made from thin strips of bamboo, with the joints bound with twine, and the twine wrappings subsequently saturated with glue and allowed to harden.
@Bruce Well, they needed a way to clue BALSA, you see. Inferring that they actually had Made Kites or knew anything about Kites (they are found in trees!) would be a mistake. Also, don't take their gardening tips.
@Bruce My very first kite as a kid somewhere in the early 60's was a mail-ordered Jolly Green Giant kite. We saved up enough labels from cans of peas, plus a couple of dollars, and the rest is memories. The sail was made of a thick plastic sheet, and the spars were flexible plastic tubes. We taped the tubes with the enclosed materials. I've owned several as a kid, I do remember buying the balsa kit from the local hardware store. Great memories!
Fantastic debut. It fit to a T. Congratulations, Jasin. Well brewed. 🫖☕️🍵🧋
Great Weds puzzle and a nice debut! I appreciate that even with trivia I didn't know, the crosses eventually helped out so no temptation to look up. I liked the Tea break theme.
I learned that “I wouldn’t” has the same number of letters as DONTEVEN.
Wednesday puzzle done to a T...bravo, Jasin, on your debut! I look forward to more...
As a native Brit, this puzzle was TEA-ming with fun for me. A rare occasion where I got the revealer on the first pass through the clues. But I was quickly humbled by the various sports based clues. Thanks for the fun debut!
@Lucy Me too. I got the theme early on but the sports clues always give me trouble.
Wow! Super clever, and that was before I noticed the shaded boxes were types of teas :)
Fun to solve as I was, fittingly, drinking my chamomile cuppa before bed
Super fun, and as a Denver native this puzzle made me happy. Usually I’m terrible at the sports hints unless they’re about the Broncs!
Jasin's debut was a fine entree to NYT immortality. His self description of what this "rising junior at Princeton" has on his plate leads me to wonder if the phrase refers to his upcoming semester or, instead, to his work ethic. Or, as a now-long-deceased undergrad philosopher once put it: "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wonder what his roommate looks like."
As a tea drinker, I approve of this puzzle. It also helps that it was clever and well-executed.
Suited me to a tea! Didn't worry about the theme until the revealer, then realized the shaded squares were teas, and they were all interrupted by Ts. I'd already noticed that the black squares were all Ts as well. Kind of TEAsed us all through this one, didn't you? Nice debut, Jasin, and Thanks!
Loved the tea theme! Congrats on your debut.
Nitpick: Kilograms are units of mass. Newtons are units of weight.
@BWhit not a nitpick at all. A glaring error by the NYT. A nitpick would note that a newton is a unit of force not weight 😀😀😀
@BWhit In common use they are both. I’m a doctor, we record people’s weight all the time in kg not newton.
@Ιασων Indeed! And in the middle of the night I went down that rabbit hole of units of force and the semantics buried therein. It always boils down to semantics when we pick nits, no? I guess all measures of weights are measures of force, specifically of gravity, even our beloved outdated American pounds and dry ounces. While mass is independent of any force, gravity or otherwise. In any case I will sleep better tonight I hope, with the mass of my mattress exerting a force upwards upon me that is equal to that of my weight, so as to stop me from tumbling further down any dark passages, rabbit or otherwise.
TISNT surely is a negation rather than a contradiction unless you misread (like me) the clue as a contraction … Nice puzzle. Not Mondayesque as the late night tea drinkers would have one think. A worthy early morning Wednesday.
@Ιασων It's not an inherent contradiction, but it is something used to contradict (I.e. assert the falseness of). "That's an error," "Tisn't!"
Great debut, and loved the tea theme! Nicely done!
My last square to fill was where 22D meets 38A. After a while I tried N. I'm not sure why it sounded likely, but it worked. Those, plus 46D which filled in from crosses were the only words in the puzzle that were new to me. Well, the only clue answer words. Two teas don't ring a bell. MATE? BOBA? And I think of ASSAM as a tea-growing region, not as a kind of tea. But I'm only an occasional tea drinker.
@kilaueabart I’ve never heard of MATE tea either, but maybe Cap’n Jack Sparrow has one every now and again? 🏴☠️
@kilaueabart It's maté, also known as yerba maté, and it's a caffeinated infusion made from the leaves of a type of holly. I've had it several times but have been unable to develop a taste for it...in the words of my niece when she was maybe three years old: "I can't like it."
@kilaueabart That's an impressive solve! There were plenty of other proper nouns and trivia that could have tripped you up. BOBA tea is a type of preparation, usually cold: the boba are tapioca "pearls" added at the bottom of the cup, requiring a wide straw to suck them up along with the milky tea!