ETSY is back for a second straight day, making 11 appearances in 2025. Let the conspiracy theorists have at it.
@Steve L I’m new to this but have already picked up on some of the more annoyingly common entries like ETSY! Others like OSLO and OLEO, and many others I can’t think of right now. Fun puzzle today though
@Steve L I came on here to say I'm dreaming of a puzzle that doesn't have ETSY in it... What ever did constructors do before that site existed? lol
@Steve L, Further proof that the New York Times has sold out to Big Craft.
@Steve L Somebody is getting paid to have ETSY and OREOS in these puzzles.
Etsy Has an E, a T, an S, and Y. At least three oft these letters are pure cruciverbal gold. As are the letters in Oreo. Now Oboe manufacturers are obviously in a payola agreement with those manufacturers.
@Steve L the problem is the premise. You don’t need a conspiracy for the the NYT to plant the puzzle and see a path to additional revenue if they can get it. The issue is one hiding their head in the sand thinking the NYT has any noble cause at all…It’s all about making money and always has been.
I don't know about you, but I've had some pretty deep power naps. It's always a gamble though; will I wake refreshed and bright, or feel like I've been drugged, wondering where I am.
@Dave S I almost never nap anymore. But I remember napping on Saturday afternoons when I was in my 20s. I'd wake up around 7 PM, look at the clock, look at the twilight, and wonder if it was Saturday evening or Sunday morning.
"How'd you pay for that new pool?" "Splash on delivery!" (There are more swimming puns - you just wade and sea!)
@Mike The lifeguard comes over, looking stern. “Can’t you read the sign? ‘NO PUNNING by the pool’.” Seriously though, I deepend on you for a laugh every day. Thanks!
@Mike I'll dive right into it -- today's post was a stroke of genius!
@Mike Whatever you paid...I think you got hosed.
@Mike Water are you talking about? Do you think you have your fin gertips on the pools of the nation?
Hot diggity dog, it's my second Wednesday in a row solving with absolutely no extra clues. And now I fully expect to see a bunch of comments about how it was the easiest Wednesday ever and how they did it in an unsatisfying 53 seconds.
@Dan It was "fast", as in it took me 14 minutes vs my average 25-minute Wednesday. Congrats on the consecutive clueless midweeks.
@Dan Ten minute solve, 14 minutes below average for me. Since it’s 11:29PM, I appreciate the breeze.
I found this very easy despite being trivia-heavy, which usually greatly increases the difficulty for me (can you imagine how surprised I was when crosses revealed Peter Pan transport to be a... BUS??? The column explained to me what that was about after I finished my solve. Also, thankfully, the natickly crossing of J_TS and _SAI could only have been an E). I wasn't rushing yet I solved quicker than yesterday. The grid wasn't very interesting or fun, either, for me. I didn't find the clues or the theme particularly enjoyable. Personally the whole thing felt like a so-so Tuesday puzzle. Almost all sofas in our homes are SOFA BEDS. Most of us live in apartments, and not very big ones, either - a typical Polish flat is some 60 sq.m, with a living room, kitchen, bathroom, toilet, hall, and two bedrooms. For decades flat size was limited by design (the state built and gave them away before 1989, but without any luxury), and now by prohibitive prices (one sq.m. in Warsaw costs 2-3 monthly salaries). For families with children it's not uncommon for the parents to sleep on a sofa bed in the living room, with the bedrooms given over to kids. Even if that is not the case, almost nobody has a guest bedroom, so a sofa bed still makes sense for when you get overnight visitors. I remember how surprised my mother and mother-in-law were when my wife and I got a non-bed sofa for our apartment - we went for form over function (but we have a large place, no kids, and a spare bedroom).
@Andrzej et al. OK folks, turn it down a notch! @Andrzej meant the total cost to *buy* one square meter, not rent, nor the mortgage payment on the loan. @Andrzej, here in the US "apartment" by default will be taken as a rental unit, with "condo(minium)" or "co-op" reserved for purchased units. Although I will refer to our co-op unit as our "apartment." (decades as a renter, I guess.) And condominiums are often rented out from their original owners (however, many buildings, such as ours, prohibit that.) Still, describing a *purchase price* in terms of $/sq. ft. (etc.) would seem weird to most Americans. OTOH, @ Ms. Billie--No need to be rude!
@Bill In New York folks tend to just use apartment whether they rent or own. Feels a bit show-offy to go around talking about your condo.
@Bill Also houses for sale at every often labeled with price per square footage. I rarely see it for rentals, but almost always on properties for sale.
@C "If I could set up a world tour to meet the people I’ve “met” here, you would certainly be one of the first on my wishlist." Thanks! I would like to properly meet people I know from this board, too :). I really hope the plan to visit NYC and go to a baseball game with Steve L will come to fruition in 2029. In real life I think even Ms. Billie M. Spaight and I might have an interesting conversation, and one much more amicable than some of the exchanges we've had here. On a board like this the complex people we are get reduced to personans expressed via posts of no more than 1500 characters, which surely exaggerates some of our traits. @Bill Our terminology related to the places we live is much simpler. A house (as in, a standalone building one might live in) is "dom." A unit in a building of many units is a "mieszkanie." Whether you rent or own it, the terminology does not change. Most Poles aim to buy their own dom or mieszkanie. Usually people will take out a mortgage to manage the cost. A typical term for such a loan is 30 years, and the monthly repayments are a heavy burden on the household's budget for all that time (AFAIK a typical repayment for a typical Warsaw mieszkanie is about the same as a minimum monthly salary, which in turn is about half of a typical Warsaw salary). Renting is only ever considered temporary, tbh. "Dom" also means "home," as in the place you live, be it a mieszkanie, dom (in the narrow sense), an extended residency hotel, etc.
Aaaaand I ran out of room, as usual :D Let me continue here: When a seller lists a mieszkanie, they always provide the total price and the price per square meter. The latter makes it easier to compare prices of mieszkania (that's the plural or mieszkanie) of different sizes. In rental offers, the cost per mieszkanie per month is provided, usually split between what you pay: 1. the owner of the mieszkanie, 2. the owner/administrator of the building (usually a different entity than the owner of the mieszkanie), 3. the utility companies. (BTW, when talking about fuel efficiency, we use different measures than Americans, too. We speak of how many liters a car uses per 100 km. For example, our VW Golf needs ca. 6l of gasoline per 100 km travelled, while our Mustang requires three times that. Eeeek!)
@Mr. Billie M. Spaight Maybe you should call the ICE tip line on Andrzej. I'm sure you have the number.
@Andrzej Your comments, and the replies that they engender, are a pleasure to read. But I didn't come here to say that, but to compliment you on your understanding of the difference between the persona people have on these message boards and their real life identity. I sometimes wonder who on this board I would enjoy meeting in real life. The answer is that you just don't know until you really meet them. Of course, there are some people whose personalities shine through their comments, but even then...who knows???
@Andrzej Hers didn’t seem to come across as an attack, per se. Yours kinda did, and had the feel of an artillery barrage, and probably a bit over the top. I see attacks differently. I’ll definitely welcome a reminder of how I come across IRL and do better next time. I do defend my self, but not every observation warrants a retaliatory assault. I’m far from being a pacifist. Clearly this Wordplay community isn’t for me. I’ve only visited it for about a month or two. I enjoy the observations people make and how certain themes remind them of times past and parallel to other dimensions. Yours included. This isn’t an affront, but I hope you save all your writings seen here and construct a memoir of stories, because they are actually quite profound, educational and very interesting. I’ll join the others on a hiatus from Wordplay and just work the puzzles.
@Andrzej Please don’t leave the comments community! Yours are some that I most enjoy and value. Your perspective from far afield is so needed. And the fact that you can do the NYT crossword in your non-native language is mind boggling to me. I struggle in the language I’ve spoken for 60+ years! I think many of us would like to join you for a baseball game, also. 😊
@Andrzej scrolled for the Billie drama, but it looks like it was deleted! 😫😂 Anyway I think you're nice and am sorry if anyone was rude to you. 🤗
Anyone else notice ETSY is an answer in almost every puzzle lately?
@Chris Sad, considering that they've changed their business model from helping crafters get a leg up in business to cramming in as many unnecessary fees as they can while supporting grifters.
@Chris It's on a roll, lately, isn't it? Always curious to see words get hot like this. I wonder if it's the editor's doing? Seems more likely than several different constructors coincidentally hitting on the same word.
@Chris It's just a useful piece of fill - like OREO and some others. But you're right... it's been in a lot of puzzles. First appearance was just 11 years ago, but since then it's been in... 105 puzzles. Most in one year was.. 16 in 2023. But... 11 times so far this year, so we might break that record. ...
@Chris It's a teensy weensy itsy bitsy Betsy Wetsy Etsy iota irksome. The eon and era of emus' ennui.
@Chris Do me a favor. Open the comments to Reader's Picks, and see what the first one is. (At least as of right now.) Or stay with All and switch to Oldest First, and see what the first one is. (It's not going to change.)
@Chris et al Do y'all think EBAY is similarly untrustworthy? We brought something nice on ETSY over 4 years ago with good results but that's my only experience with either.
A football screen pass isn't typically quick. The quarterback usually waits to throw the ball, so the offensive LINEMEN have enough time to form a screen in front of the receiver.
@Shimmer Exactly. "Short throw in football" would have been better.
@Shimmer I was thinking SHOVEL pass but that didn't work.
@Shimmer It doesn't say "not that QUICK," it says "not that DEEP." Even I know those are not the same thing in football.
If I may opine: Several persons today have commented on NEAP: yes, it's Crosswordese; it's also basic scientific terminology--at least for those of us who, in the 1970's, poured over Rachel Carson's *The Sea Around Us (Adapted for Younger Readers)*. It's also vital terminology for those who live in seaside communities and make their livelihood from fishing; which few of us do, nowadays. Similarly, yesterday evening my Partner and I took a walk our neighborhood park; above us, through the Great Canadian Smaze, the moon--waxing gibbous--was dully shining. "Should be full next week, when we're Up North," said I, "No, this weekend--probably Sunday." My Partner--who is brilliant with finances and figures, and no dummy--replied "How can you tell?" As our civilization becomes increasingly technological, indoor, artificially lit, our perception and understanding of natural phenomena disappears. Nevertheless, even whilst our planet burns, they go on. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYrZjwP2QuE" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYrZjwP2QuE</a> (really, starts at 1:05)
@Bill Around the time you were taking your walk in the park I was watching the tennis matches from Canada. They showed a picture of the moon, which was in the crescent phase. I must have been hallucinating, but I went back and looked again and I will swear it was a crescent moon they were showing. I thought maybe there was some very strange astronomical aberration affecting the moon in your region but here you are telling me you saw a waxing gibbous, which is what I was seeing out my window and I imagine anyone else in the entire world was seeing as well when they looked at the moon. Go figure. One thing to add: it has been a really long time since I was in a place free of light pollution and got to see the night sky in all its splendor. I wonder how many young urban dwellers today have ever seen anything but a few stars and think that's all there is.
@Bill yesterday evening on our way into the gym, I was explaining to MY partner when the moon would be full and how one can tell! (which I had actually just discovered for myself pretty recently 🤭—and I'm no dummy, either!). I am getting such a kick out of the fact that you and I were doing the very same thing around the same time! I also appreciate the larger overall observation—my partner and I have gotten into the History Channel series "Alone" recently and are learning so much about primitive living (that must have been fairly obvious to people not so long ago)!
Loved this one. Great clues. Wonderful long entries. A nice puzzle before bed. And a good time for me - way better than my average. Thanks!
It wan't that deep. But twas fun.
I'm reminded of the most adorable creature I met at a bodega years ago. She had been a cat model for inspirational posters. Oreo was her name. She said the hardest part of her work was hanging on to a bar for an hour-long photo shoot. She was one swole kitten! Meow! Squeeze fans know what this link leads to: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ2cEc_TCH8" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ2cEc_TCH8</a> Welp, time for a catnap.
@ad absurdum Never heard of Squeeze-- but a/ny strong/ i-am/bic, hep/ta-met/ric song// just makes/me want/to dance/a-round,/and loud/ly sing/a-long:-) O @Sam (and Senor Gato), where art thou?
@ad absurdum Whoops! Where's my literary editor when I need them? "but a/ny strong/ i-am/bic, hep/ta-met/ric New/Wave song// just makes/me want/to dance/a-round,/and loud/ly sing/a-long:-)"
@ad absurdum Love them, and especially love that song. Thanks!
@Bill "Never heard of Squeeze" SRSLY, I find that hard to believe. "Black Coffee in Bed" was in heavy rotation for a while.
@ad absurdum Pulling Mussels from a Shell?
@ad absurdum I was always partial to Goodbye Girl <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0HXir5qCM7I" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0HXir5qCM7I</a>
As a regular traveler on NJ and Mass Turnpikes, the answer to 24D Peter Pan transport made me chuckle. Hard clue for those living overseas or even outside Northeast US.
@Heidi Went completely over my head. I just shrugged and went on.
@Heidi Yes I have no idea on that one. Got it from the crosses and thought, "huh" and then moved on. Texan here, but grew up in Michigan.
@Heidi That was so weird! Also, isn't Peter Pan protected by copyright? Could I name my bus company Skywalker Lines? Surely not. Why would anybody name a bus company Peter Pan, and why would anybody use the services of a business with such a random name?
@Heidi I'm from NYC and I never heard of the Peter Pan bus line. Crosses got me through that one.
@Andrzej They pretty well are the only option for getting around much of New York State without a car. For a long time they were partnered with Greyhound, which is the major/only nation-wide bus company, so that even if you went to book through Greyhound you’d end up on a Peter Pan bus if you were taking a trip within the northeast.
How very clever to eliminate one row in the grid. It quite literally provides a visualization of IT’S NOT THAT DEEP. I like the inclusion of SOFA BEDS, which typically aren’t deep either. Kudos to the constructor.
Mr. Huynh writes: "I wanted to have four theme entries to capture the different meanings of DEEP: extending far down, extending far inward, thrown a far distance, profound. And the revealer provides a fifth meaning: difficult to comprehend." These are the kinds of things that leave me in awe of constructors' minds. They are, in fact, THAT DEEP. Tip of the hat to you, Mr. Huynh! I enjoyed the solve and the misdirects. Thank you! My only holdup was a silly one - ape before bat before CAT for "animal on a 'hang in there' inspirational poster." I could totally "see" an ape hanging off a branch or a bat hanging from the ceiling. I guess I'm not up to speed on inspirational posters... And now please excuse me while Chubby Checker teaches me to do the TWIST... <a href="https://youtu.be/-CCgDvUM4TM?si=Xm_ONu3NCFu_QhkJ" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/-CCgDvUM4TM?si=Xm_ONu3NCFu_QhkJ</a>
@sotto voce I had BAT before CAT too. APE was another nice thought, they both make more sense, I guess I’m not up on inspirational posters either.
@sotto voce I don't remember any of the "inspirational" type, but I do remember the head shops, big box stores, and purveyors of weird kitsch in the malls having the posters with the cat holding on to a taut rope with it's front paws and body hanging down.
@sotto voce Funny, my homeroom teacher for 4 years had that poster hanging up in his classroom, so CAT came very naturally to me! Funny those different experiences <a href="https://www.allposters.com/-sp/Famous-Kitten-Hang-In-There-Poster-Posters_i17296363_.htm" target="_blank">https://www.allposters.com/-sp/Famous-Kitten-Hang-In-There-Poster-Posters_i17296363_.htm</a> ☺️
Good crossword today. Do I get a special prize for being able to name all the 1980s BBC Radio 1 DJ s in today’s Wordplay column photo? Steve Wright Bruno Brookes Janice Long Simon Bates
@MBFOS Glad you ID'd that crew. I thought one of them was Jon Bon Jovi. So thanks for that
@MBFOS Thanks! I had no idea, but knew they were vaguely familiar faces.
Ah, the BASTLE. Interesting choice by Disney to feature the classic stone-fortified farmhouse in their logo.
@Daniel to be fair the animal in the poster is a kitten. Hang in there baby!
@Daniel I started with BAT, too, but then I remembered that poster...from waaaay back in the day. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang_in_there,_Baby" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang_in_there,_Baby</a>
I’m not mad about it but I found this puzzle to be much easier than Monday or Tuesday this week.
@Matt I came to the comment section to say exactly this!
@Matt I got pulled into a conversation mid-way through my solve and forgot to pause the puzzle. Came back to the puzzle thinking I had just blown my Wednesday average— but ended up finishing several minutes under. So either this was very easy, or I’m very bad at Wednesdays! 😄
Never heard of the Peter Pan Bus Company. I looked it up and saw it was in the Northeast only. I used to ride the Badger Bus quite a bit. Guess where that is located.
@jennie Yes, I remember the badger bus very well!! Well I was glad that the post we were chatting on the other day was taken down because it was disparaging to Sam, I was bummed that we didn't get to chat more about bubblers and what not. I don't know if you saw me responding this, but I'm originally from East Troy, Wisconsin. ☺️
Wondering if anyone not from the Northeast knows that Peter Pan is a BUS company or if nonfootball (US and overseas) fans know about the (Same Old) JETS? Anyways, let's hear it for the EROICA, my favorite Beethoven Symphony and a fun Wednesday puzzle.
@Vaer I knew of Peter Pan Bus Lines, possibly from my childhood in Vermont. We once took a bus from Boston to somewhere north of Portland, Maine. I thought it might've been a Peter Pan bus, but looking on their website, I see that they don't serve Maine. (But this was 25+ years ago, so maybe the did then.) Me, I'm partial to Beethoven's 7th (especially the second movement).
@SP Sorry to say you are misremembering. Fantasia uses music from Beethoven's Sixth, the Pastoral.
@Vaer I don't recall hearing about it when I was growing up in NJ in the '50s and '60s. I may have read about it when trying to find a replacement for MegaBus, after it dropped a lot of its routes. But after the B dropped, BUS was my guess, and the crosses confirmed it.
@Vaer I knew neither BUS nor JETS (nor ESAI), and got EROICA with ___CA for crosses.
@Vaer I am not a football fan in the slightest but I at least recognize the names of all the NFL teams, and probably could come up with most of them if I thought about it. It’s just so pervasive here in the states
Sam, your dream of constructing a puzzle will come true but until the, I read your notes, hints after solving the puzzle because I so enjoy them.
Thoroughly enjoyed this theme. Smooth solve, decent for a Wednesday, and a pretty grid. Peter Pan went completely over my head (pun intended). Had aortae before aortas so confidently entered VEEP since VPS was the last answer when “number 2” was in the puzzle (I remember because I fleetingly thought it was something more scatological). Finally I’m not going to rip on the constant use of ISSA Rae and ESAI Morales and ETSY—I build puzzles too, sometimes you do what you gotta do—but I still wonder how constructors ever survived before those actors and that website were popular?
@SP You used to see Asta all the time, but not so much anymore. Crosswordese has always existed, but it does evolve!
Nice puzzle – and the choice of column photo, featuring legendary 1980s Radio 1 DJs, will hopefully tickle other Brits as it did me!
PB 5:04 Great little puzzle!
@Mike Not a PB for me -- I think my Wednesday PB was a glitch -- but faster than my Monday (or any day's) average.
Re, the new "preview" look at the comments section. Thumbs totally down. 1. I replied to my own message, to comment that there is no "edit" button after one hits submit. Then Sotto Voce replied to my comment. What do I see below my OP? "1 reply." When you click on that, you see that it, too, has received "1 reply" and only when you click on that do you see Sotto Voce's comment. How is that, in any universe, an improvement? Bring back the classic Coke style, where it simply says "2 replies." Jeez. The black preview banner at the top says "Replies are easier to follow now." Huh. What is it, opposite day? 2. If you are scrolling down through "All" comments as opposed to "Reader Picks" and get a little bored, and decide to click on "Reader Picks," you used to be returned to the top of the comments, where you'll usually find Mike from Munster hangin'. Not any more. When you click "Reader Picks" it does...something? 3. I've already beefed about no edit button.
@john ezra Pretty underwhelming. Editable comments would be nice.
@john ezra I tested it yesterday. What a mess. There was just no way to display some comments that were simply *there* in the current default view. I kept clicking on all the reveal options yet some stuff never showed up. I have no idea who works on the NYT tech team, but they should really take a breather and reevaluate everything. Just give us: 1. An Edit button, 2. A searchable board with persistent user names, 3. An easily accessible comment archive. Stop messing with how replies are viewed!
@john ezra Argh. My reply got EMUed. The new "system" is horrible. It permanently hides some replies as if they were not there. Just give us an Edit button and a way to search the comment archive.
Very nice theme, must have been fun thinking of very unrelated situations in which the word 'deep' can apply. Well done!
I had LETLIE for 51A, and looked right at ITSNOTTHATLEEP for a good couple of minutes before letting go of that L. Stubborn!
If the puzzle is hard I wreck my brain and my day is ruined. If the puzzle is easy I twirl my thumbs and my day is ruined. Just kidding. I don’t twirl my thumbs.
@Remy, Perfect summary of 50% of the comments. Well done.
@Remy - I prefer my thumbs twiddled, not twirled.
Started off with a gimme, and made steady progress through this one. Needed a few crosses from time to time, but no real sticking points. Had to make a couple of corrections, had LET lIE (that's an el, I dislike this sans serif font) and pAtS AT, but they were caught early. Pleasant and enjoyable, Thanks Hanh!
@JayTee I started with an L in LET _IE, too. I think most of us did?
@JayTee I thought "bringing up" as in rearing children, so LET DIE was a rather gruesome answer.
Nice to see a pic of Steve Wright (L) along with his fellow Radio 1 DJs back in their prime. Wrighty was a comedy genius with the perfect radio presence who oversaw a zoo of characters on his daily show, the soundtrack to my teens and to my 40s (we were reacquainted, with the show moved to Radio 2). Irreplaceable. RIP.
Petrol, Not having a clue, for a moment I wondered if they were pretending to be celebrity look-alikes: Weird Al, Jon Bon Jovi, Carly Simon (ha ha), and Bill Gates. Thanks for the true info.
@Petrol Steven Wright is still living
Anyone else disappointed when the grid didn’t become three dimensional after solving it? Missed opportunity. Other than that, it was perf (which is the first and last time I’ll use that “word”).
John, I've used "perf" for decades ... for perforation. SRSLY!
@JohnWM Hmm...I'd rather it ballooned up and floated away, leaving us to LOOK UP in admiration. Oh well.
@JohnWM Mine became 3-D. Maybe you didn't notice because it wasn't that deep.
I believe that was my personal best for a Wednesday!
TIL I had the definition of NEAP tide exactly wrong, and that a spring tide doesn't mean it happens in March, April, or May. I love it when the crossword teaches me stuff.
Personal best Wednesday which obviously means this puzzle is nothing short of brilliant.
Not too difficult. None of the clues were THAT DEEP. (See what I did there? I'll see myself out again.)
I'm not a great puzzler, but I enjoy the challenge (well, usually!) I'm thrilled when I get through a non-Monday with only one look up -- now it could be there are a hundred comments about how easy this was, but I enjoyed it very much. I tried to be trendy with DaP and went with IsLETS when clearly I needed to IRON out my thinking! Enough YAPing from me -- happy almost hump day!
He says bocci, she says octopods, I say AORTAE (from the plural of αορτή which is αορταί) which would make for AEST which the acronym for the time this time of the year (winter) in Sydney. Absolutely in the “you had one job to do: add an edit after posting function” camp. Very nice puzzle. Many thanks.
IDK what's with this week, but the puzzles get easier and easier each day! This was even easier than yesterday, which was easier than Monday. I wonder if Thursday will continue this delightful cycle.
I've never seen my niece's favorite movie but I've memorized the names of three characters: ANNA, ELSA, OLAF. They seem to appear in a lot of puzzles. It looks like a fun movie, maybe I'll watch it.
PAPER CUT....it might not be so wide as a church door, but it is ridiculously painful and inconvenient. You get that many nerve endings in a small area and it's not so easily dismissed with an unsympathetic "IT'S NOT THAT DEEP." (Hate people like that! Bah!) Quilters will never give up their IRONs, which are absolute necessities! And yes, I have two (one is a steam iron, and the other has a solid sole plate. Parker Bros. made a mistake IMHO. I have no idea what a SCREEN PASS is...and then there are LINEMEN and JETS. I'd like to hear complaints about how many football-related clues there are from the folks that whine about baseball references. (I like baseball.)
@Mean Old Lady Totally agree about paper cuts. They can hurt like #$%^, and make it difficult to do anything. (I also appreciate the Shakespeare quote.) I like baseball too, and can fill in at least some of the baseball-related clues easily. Have no knowledge of football, nor do I wish to. (My Dad and I used to get comfy, turn on the TV to a football game, and go to sleep.) There are too many football-related clues in the NYT puzzles. But, obviously, the football fans like them, so they will probably keep coming.
For those wondering about a NEAP tide, you could always LOOK UP that word in the dictionary. ;^)
Since I played a lost child in Peter Pan in high school and we actually brought in the equipment to fly…. Aah the memories (no, I didn’t get to fly), FLY was my first thought. But that’s not a transportation. So BRR and POSE gave me the info for BUS. I can never spell NEEP Correctly though I knew it was the answer, so my misspelling hung me up a bit. However, still 4 minutes under my average Wednesday time. I can fly, I can fly, I can…
What did I say yesterday about a certain word most often showing up on the edge of the bottom right-hand quadrant? I should preserve that wisdom, embroidered on needlepoint samplers, then sell them on-line. Here are Alex Baker & Stefan Woudenberg, performing a buoyant Chaconne by 17th-18th c. French composer Marin Marais--twelve strings, total: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYYmqrzPFy0&list=RDeYYmqrzPFy0&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYYmqrzPFy0&list=RDeYYmqrzPFy0&start_radio=1</a> Had *no clue* what connected those four theme answers, until I filled out the revealer. Still, felt like a really small Sunday to me, or maybe an oversized mini.
Did anyone else find [Stopped bringing up] / LET DIE kind of macabre and horrifying? I'm trying to think of an instance in which it's not awful. Reminds me of the shortest tragic story: "For sale: baby shoes. Never worn".
@Lpr Right? I didn't like it at all, especially after having to say goodbye to my beloved friend Jorge the Lab three weeks ago. I also winced at PAPER CUT. Ouch.
@Lpr "Because no one else seemed to care, he LET the issue DIE"? But I'm commenting here because Andrzej's reply to your post is not visible unless the new comments software is enabled.
@Lpr agree. The word "die" is overused. "My phone died!" (Tragedy.)
@Lpr, I took it as an issue in conversation that you stop bringing up because it’s always ignored, or the other person says to LET it DIE. But more common (and nicer) to say “Let it go”.
@Lpr I had LET LIE, which then had to correct as my last move when I solved the revealer.... Alas, held me up for a sec.
@Lpr Yes, it struck me the same way. Glad I'm not alone!
Pretty easy for a Wednesday, really enjoyed it though!
Very nice puzzle, with a clever theme. Some tricky clues (like "Lose one's shirt", which had me stumped till the end). As for Peter Pan, I thought, "well, maybe the animated cartoon had a flying bus?" The constructor hit the right level of difficulty to be fun and challenging without being frustrating. Bravo! More from Hanh Huynh, please!
I really wanted the column pic to be the “hang in there” poster 😊. Probably couldn’t do it for copyright reasons. So here it is (if the emus allow a post with a link to a commercial site): This is the version I remember from the 80s/90s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Trends-International-Kitten-Hang-Bundle-Poster/dp/B07MNBQV7X" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/Trends-International-Kitten-Hang-Bundle-Poster/dp/B07MNBQV7X</a> Enjoy 😊
@Jeb Jones The one I remember from the 1970s was in black & white and showed the cat more head-on. And the cat was using both its front paws to hang. Wikipedia concurs: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang_in_there,_Baby" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang_in_there,_Baby</a>
@Jeb Jones I just posted that same link, at least the same picture, on Sotto Voce's comment ☺️
Hah! The BUS really made me wonder if I had perhaps fallen asleep and missed something when I watched Peter Pan as a child! Thanks for the explainer, Sam! And whenever I see whiskey and RYE together I always think of the lyrics to American Pie. I thought that Don McLean had cleared up the meaning (that it was “drinking whiskey _in_ Rye” (the town) vs “whiskey _and_ rye”) in a documentary a few years ago. Or am I remembering this incorrectly? Hope someone here can set this straight!
@Canoe-er that was an extremely regional clue. I filled it from the crosses and I didn’t understand it until coming here. But now that I get it, I think I have heard of the company and have definitely lived in the region where it operates (and may live in it now).
@Canoe-er You peaked my interest because that's where I lived when I was a kid, in Rye. So I went down the rabbit hole and found this: "(Don McLean)was born in New Rochelle, NY. While some speculate that "whiskey in Rye" in "American Pie" refers to Rye, NY, McLean himself has stated that the lyrics are about "whiskey and rye" in general, and that the song is not specifically about Rye, NY, according to Westchester Magazine. He also clarified that he wasn't frequenting bars in Rye during the time the song is set, according to Westchester Magazine." The thing is, New Rochelle is only 8 miles from Rye, so I guess that's why many thought he might be hanging out in Rye, "drinking whiskey in Rye." I also found out that The Levee was a bar in New Rochelle that he indeed did frequent. ("Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry.") What's funny to me is that, in the past week, I've heard the song twice on the radio while driving. I listened intently to the lyrics and concluded that Don McLean was high as a kite when he wrote this fabulous song. :-)
@Canoe-er I don't know, but there's no song that makes me more think of my dad than that one. It brings back an image of him and his overalls working on some old Studebaker or some such in our garage. That song seemed to always be on the radio. It was probably only one time, but in my memory it was every time.
@Canoe-er The clue generated an image of Tinker Bell and her pals looking out the windows of a bus flying through the nighttime sky before being rejected. When the crosses forced me to enter BUS I began to think I might be losing it. I finished high school and went to college in Pittsburgh so the reveal in the column stimulated a real memory of Peter Pan buses that I had somehow forgotten about - quite the mental journey for such a short word! I thought it was well clued and just the right depth for a Wednesday.