My farmer's jokes are corny, but my optometrist's are cornea. (But they both have a good field of vision.)
Mike, Not to be myopic, but your puns are farsighted.
@Mike I'm stye-mied as to how to reply to these puns.
@Mike The Bard says Marc Antony wanted to borrow some ears. Shucks. I guess there's a kernel of truth in it.
@Mike what an apundant crop! Quite the hahaharfest!
@Mike There's a kernel of truth in what you say. Hard to cobble another pun, though.
@Mike You're on a tear! These puns are iris-istible.
@Mike I worry that there's a stigma-tism attached to replying to these puns.
@Mike The eyes have it: you win again.
When I was in Chemistry I loved the Erlenmeyer Flask. It was so gorgeous. Not as intimidating as the volumetric flask, with its weird single-marked neck atop a ridiculously big-bottomed bottom. And those glass stoppers that you could never find when you needed them. (I did love that the stopper was designed with a tab to be held between two fingers so you could take the top off and still have mostly two hands to work with.) Much more aesthetic than the beaker, which, though useful, was where I was more likely to toss my trash solutions. I never gave the beaker much respect. Just a glorified kitchen glass. The graduated cylinder was gorgeous, so tall and slender. But they always felt to me like they were going to tip over and spill my solution and break the glassware all in the same once. But the Erlenmeyer--what a flask! The graduation marks didn't do volumes as well as the volumetric or the graduated cylinders, but they were certainly were more accurate than beakers. And there was nothing in the world better made for swirling. The quintessential chemistry cliche is a lab-coated scientist swirling an Erlenmeyer, looking at a beautiful colored solution through a pair of lab glasses. Rarely happened. I always felt confident with the Erlenmeyer: stable, handy, not too expensive, relatively easy to wash (unlike the awful volumetric flask). Just the all-round great piece of lab equipment. Sorry, got carried away.
@Francis The glassware was the best part of chem lab! Although that was the last word to fall for me, because I've always pronounced the word "erluhmyer", so spelling was a bit tough. I didn't take chemistry until senior year, but I loved it. Everything was so neat and tidy, at least 101 and 102. But sophomore year I took geology 101, and the rest was history (heh heh).
@Francis No apology needed. That’s the start of a wonderful Ode to an Erlenmeyer. Thanks for sharing it. I’m not sure if I have actually used such a piece of glassware. My last chemistry class was in high school. But I picked up the name somewhere, and like many unusual names, it got stuck in my brain.
@Francis This ode was huge fun to read. Somebody's gotta work up a crossword puzzle with lab stuff as the theme.
@Francis I have a friend visiting from another state for a few days. She's helping me with the puzzle. She says there's a big controversy in her family, because her grandfather, Irving Cowen Allen, really invented the flask. He was grad student working under Erlen Meyer in Heidelberg Germany (or maybe Strasburg?) So, of course professor got all the credit. But this is just family lore.
Somehow it took me forever to see what was right there before me: Ox eye daisies are a favorite, I myself am a Hawkeye, and the smiley emoji? Maybe because it was a Sunday puzzle, I didn't expect rebuses, but when I finally saw what was happening, I was oohing and aahing over and over. For this one, the ayes have it! (Japanese yen was a stunner.) Adam and Chandi, you constructed a magical puzzle, perfect for a Sunday, and I loved it. Thank you.
@dutchiris Yes, Japanese yen was absolutely brilliant!
@dutchiris I agree. I loved finding the rebus and I loved how they were scattered throughout the puzzle. I also was excited by Japanese yen. That was such a surprise and so beautifully done. The whole puzzle was so coherent and elegant. Such a joy to discover each little jewel. Cheers.
@dutchiris the Pella or Orange City variety of Hawkeye?
Crosswords When everything feels frivolous, decadent, absurd, the oldest rebus in the book - the eye - crops up in a Sunday crossword and you silently scream at your own impuissance but plod ahead and by the end you are once again a creature with a soul, a heart, a mind capable of anything.
@Puzzlemucker Nicely done! Great to see you back here, too.
@Puzzlemucker Recommended for impuissance. Now that’s a word you don’t see every day.
@Puzzlemucker Lovely. And plus one for impuissance. I've been reading Whitman again, and it's inspiring, the occasional flights of pure joy. Here's a little section from Song of Myself (1892 version): The smoke of my own breath, Echoes, ripples, buzz’d whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and vine, My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs, The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and dark-color’d sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn, The sound of the belch’d words of my voice loos’d to the eddies of the wind, A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms, The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag, The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields and hill-sides, The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising from bed and meeting the sun.
@Puzzlemucker Hey! Good to hear from you!
I remember when everyone started playing "I Spy" nearly 20,000 years ago. In case you didn't know, back then people had two differently-sized eyes, for important evolutionary reasons. Our little eye could see objects far away, such as wolves, so we could spot danger. So one would say, "I spy with my "little eye" something that begins with a 'w' sound". (We didn't have alphabets yet, which is whatever, but also no alphabet soup, which was a bummer.) Our big eye on the other hand(not literally) could see nearby objects. I still remember saying, "Look at the wolves surrounding us! They're so cute! Mommy, can we keep them and teach them tricks and let them sleep with us?!" Anywho, I Spy was a very popular car game back then. (It's a popular misconception that we didn't have cars that long ago. Of course we had cars. But we didn't have roads so we just sat in them and played I Spy or looked at our phones.)
@ad absurdum No offense, but you're beginning to scare me a little bit.
@ad absurdum If I were to take offense, would it be because you find me scary or because you find me only a little bit scary?
@ad absurdum But what did our third eye do?
Finished a few seconds over my Sunday average, largely because I spent ten minutes searching for errors. Still, I enjoyed the puzzle, found several clues delightful mis-directs. Mega-store for HOARD. Place with moving exhibits for ZOO. You might get one in a row for SHINER. One general comment about relatively difficult clues: We often see complaints in these comments that such-and-such was too difficult…trivia that’s obscure, terms like MREs that are unfamiliar for us, rebuses. There’s a lot I don’t know and, lord help me but on the days I dare to look at the stats for solve times I pretty much always come away thinking, “Gee, I thought I was getting good at this but clearly not.” Still, it’s a big wide world out there and people of a significant span of ages that do the NYT CW every day, so why does anyone think their knowledge and experience should be the benchmark for everyone else?
@Joe I love your final paragraph. Nicely said. Regarding your error: If you have the NYT Games app on your phone, there is a List View option that makes finding mistakes much easier. You get the clue and answer right next to each other. And you can read Down answers left to right, which I find much easier. It has saved me many minutes of frustration, especially with Sunday puzzles.
@Joe Seconding Eric's reply. Terrific comment.
@Eric Hougland I have been doing NYT crosswords on the app for many years. Amazingly, I've never once thought to do this. I feel like I should be sporting a pair of DONKEYEARS! Thank you a thousand times.
I just love me a good ole Sunday rebus!
About ten clues in .... "Rebus?" Another ten clues .... Rebus suspected About halfway .... Rebus confirmed! It's been awhile. I've been waiting for one. Thanks!
@Jack agree! It was a nice surprise today, especially after some pretty easy ones this week.
Speaking of UMPS, I wouldn't be surprised if JEN PAWOL appeared in a crossword eventually. Yesterday she became the first woman to umpire an MLB baseball game. (I redundanted "baseball" for our foreign, baseball-deprived friends.)
My rule of thumb (nearly literally) is: one is one a couple is two a few is three some is four several is five to nine ten is ten so we're looking at a few ens in nonfiction, and to call it several would be a fiction. But maybe like grade inflation there is amount inflation. I sure was hoping for ARM ARMOR rather than ARM GUARD, but if I went out drinking in Boystown I might bring my ASGARD. Just kidding, y'all, jk!
@john ezra Personal biases will trip you up. Several most definitely means three.
@john ezraWow! How’d you get away with that one?
@john ezra They seem to be relative terms. I looked in some dictionaries, the funniest definition is “ more than two but less than many”. So now I need a definition for “many”. The way I would look at it is based on expectations. If I had a party expecting thirty people and 10 came I might say several people came or only a few. If I expected five and ten came I’d say many came. But for a word that has three letters the same ( when most have only one or two) several might be appropriate for three.
@john ezra I Peter 3:20 categorically states "a few, that is, eight"... you can prove anything using the Bible!
I did this puzzle last night after having a very tiring day. I still managed to beat my Sunday average by a bit shy of a minute. I think it was a perfectly cromulent puzzle, very much an archetypal basic rebus (i.e. the same word is rebused every time). Not too challenging, but good for newbies. And if you don't know: MRE, OXEYES, POPEYES, ERLENMEYER FLASK, etc., that's on you. Keep accumulating knowledge. The puzzle always favors those with a wide knowledge base.
@Steve L This!! Thank you for your comment. It has become frustrating to continue to read certain curmudgeon comments regarding being too old or too young or too non-American for some clues. Change is the only constant, even in the world of word puzzles, and I like to think that I learned something new with every game.
@Steve L I was absolutely amazed at how ERLENMEYER FLASK came back to me from so long ago. Too often, I know I know something immediately, but I can't quite access it as quickly as I'd like. That can be frustrating! Hopefully puzzles are helping me improve on that. ☺️
Nice theme but too many proper nouns, brand names and Disney characters for my liking. Bordering on a Natick city. 🥺
@Jimbo In the words of Obi-Wan: "Luke! Use the crosses!"
I’m a little on the fence on how I feel about this one. On the one hand, it’s a very well constructed grid, I don’t have many nits except EHOW and HOWODD in the same puzzle, and not a fan of topsy turviness as a clue for HAVOC. I think it’s about average difficulty for a Sunday. A few clever clues, I especially liked SHINER and HOARD. And I’m certainly not averse to rebuses, quite the contrary, and this one was done very consistently with a cute revealer, and all the across having the EYE letters hidden and the downs with the EYE more obvious. BUT is anyone else just a little bored of puzzles with a single repeated rebus? I felt similarly with the recent TEN ANTS puzzle. Am I just too jaded? It’s just that you find the rebus, look for it over and over in the other themed clues which were ok but not overly interesting, and you are done and say, ok that’s it? Maybe I’m just going through a crossword ennui crisis (been solving these about 6 years). Someone slap me around if you think I’m just being catty.
SP, If Saturday had been a killer, perhaps you might have appreciated this one a bit more. I don't think you're being catty, but not every Sunday can be an Art Heist. Perhaps if Eugene Maleska or Cat Lady Margaret had worked on the themer clues to tell a story...
@SP not catty at all. Not every puzzle is for every person, and if you're doing them daily for 6 years you're bound to find a few not to your taste. I got a kick out of it, and despite the repeated rebus (which I got early with OXEYES and CHEYENNE) I still had to do some major flyspecking at the end--things I filled in knowing they were probably wrong but that I'd deal with them later. POPES seemed like a legit name for a fast-food joint, and it took me forever to land on ERLENMEYERFLASK.
@SP My nit about EHOW is that it's a terrible site! If you want a bunch of ads and a long, drawn-out explanation that drags you by even more ads of how NOT to do something, then by all means, go to EHOW. Maybe if it were clued as [Poor choice for DIYers] I would feel less peevish.
@SP Definitely not just you. As soon as I hit the second EYE, I felt a little wave of disappointment wash over me. Art Heist set the bar so high. I keep waiting for that adrenaline kick and feel let down when it doesn't come. Maybe I need professional help.
In the wee hours of Saturday morning, I commented about my disappointment in a few recent crossword answers that struck me as slurs against rural people. Thanks to everyone who read my comment and especially to those who replied. I read some of those replies during my pre-dawn insomnia, but I have been too busy today to respond. I hope to get a chance to reply to your comments later this evening or sometime tomorrow. If I do, I’ll try to do so in a way that doesn’t require anyone to go back to yesterday’s comments. I truly value this forum as a place to carry on a dialogue about crosswords. I hope y’all do, too. Thanks.
@Eric Hougland I didn't see your comment but I had that reaction recently too at 42A in Saturday's puzzle. I've noticed similar things a few times before and it always bothers me. I feel similarly about when CUR shows up as a good for nothing dog. I wasn't able to find the comments when I just looked but I'll be interested to read them if you link to them or something.
@Eric Hougland Here in what many would call yokel or hick country, most of my friends don’t take offense at the labels—some even wear them like a badge. But nobody forgets they’re looked down on, and that fuels the urban–rural divide. From a U.S.-centric view, I’m less worried about hurt feelings and more about feeding the “us vs. them” fire for those who already feel unheard. Just my observations.
@Eric Hougland I didn't comment, but it was a comment I could get behind. Anything that bridges the gap between urban and rural is helpful. But it's been going on for a good long time (City Mouse, Country Mouse) and I don't think detente is going to happen any time soon.
@Eric Hougland I respect your perspective, but I disagree. In my view, they are just words that are sometimes useful fill in a puzzle. I do think some words are off limits, for example the N word, but where does it stop? If yokel is banned, what about SNOB from today? And as one, I do not get my panties in a twist every time nerd is in a puzzle (although I do sometimes think "hey, I resemble that comment!") Do we need to ban every word that might be insulting to someone? In the culture wars, one big complaint is the rise of PC police. If our every utterance is run through a filter, it becomes harder and harder to talk and actually connect with people. I would not call someone a yokel, but I might use the word in conversation as an evocative shortcut to a group or a hypothetical person. Plus "local yokel" is a mellifluous phrase.
EYE smelled the need for a rebus at HAWKEYE, but couldn’t immediately see the cross, as EYE was fixated on Pinocchio’s nose and didn’t remember the DONKEYEARS. Once EYE got to EYELET, however, it was clear that the EYEs had it, and I could taste the solve coming my way. A pretty satisfying Sunday. Three cheers for the AIMEE Mann reference. She’s one of my favorite singer/songwriters, especially her Lost In Space disc. Once at one of her concerts, a fan requested a song to which she couldn’t remember the lyrics, so she borrowed the fan’s phone and sang the song. Pretty nimble.
@Marshall Walthew EYELET was what broke open thd rebus for me. But I was thrown by the explanation of the game given in Wordplay. As I recall, what we "spied" was not something starting with a certain letter but something of a certain colour. E.g. "I spy with my little eye something purple." For those who have seen the delightful DeNiro/Hathaway romcom "The Intern", that is how the game is played there.
@Marshall Walthew I was predisposed to like this puzzle, as I’ve enjoyed the previous work of both constructors. But when I came across AIMEE Mann clued to the music that made my husband and I fans of hers, I was completely sold on this puzzle. We’ve been lucky enough to have seen her live five times. That’s as many times as we have seen any performer. We listened to her music over dinner last night, from a variety of her solo albums, and marveled again over her lyrics. She’s a fantastic songwriter.
@Marshall Walthew You inspired me to play some Aimee Mann, thanks! What is it about her voice? Such a unique tone, it's almost like she is harmonizing with herself.
Fun puzzle, interesting puzzle, streak-breaking puzzle (very, very modest streak breaker). For whatever reason, I could not find DOUBL(EYE)ELLOWLINE. I entered DOUBL(EYE)ELLOWLaNE, and never saw the other possibIlity. And I know nothing of Radiohead, so I was hopeless there. When I finally broke down and googled, I found KIDA. And, even when I changed the A to an I, I didn't get the happy music. That really startled me, and I resorted to Check Puzzle. Turns out on one of my rebuses I had accidentally entered a single quote mark, 'EYE. And that was the square that was wrong when I did check puzzle. Can't win 'em all, he tells himself.
@Francis Sorry!! 😞 I had a super hard time finding double yellow line too!! But here, let me give you a little piece of advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice! 😏🍸 I mean, it's Minnesota there might be ice tomorrow! But seriously, I know what a bummer that is! A TOAST the streak you'll start tomorrow!!
@Francis I had the same lane/line problem.
@Francis I should listen to "Kid A" again. I never got into it because the album preceding it, "Ok Computer," is such a masterpiece. Maybe I would appreciate it more these days. (Radiohead is magical to me. I once had a dream that Thom Yorke and I were best friends. I still wonder how it's possible he and I never met. 😭)
I'm fairly new to tackling the Sunday Crosswords, but I think this one might be my new second favorite (second only to last week's Star Trek themed puzzle that I loved so much I printed it out to make my 20 year old daughter solve as well). It's one of the first times I immediately got the revealer and understood what it meant without having figured out any of the themed clues yet. The puzzle, over all, was still challenging for me as a newer solver, but knowing right away I was dealing with an "eye" rebus was so helpful! I haven't read the comments yet so I'm going to assume everyone else found it too easy, but I enjoyed it, at least.
@Violet this was more challenging for a Sunday in my opinion! (I'm sure plenty disagree lol). I think the rebus a bit unexpected for a Sunday, but was nice and approachable, so it was extra fun.
@Violet Congrats!! X word stats website considers this one average difficulty, based on solver times -- of those who have an account with them. The Star Trek puzzle from last week is definitely one of my favorite of all times! I kept it up on a tab on my computer so I can keep looking back at it. 🖖
@Violet Well, dang, so I missed a Star Trek puzzle while I was out of town. Last Sunday? I'll have to go check the archives.
Very proud to say that despite being a Brit, it was the Iowa Hawkeye solution that gave me the key to identifying the rebus answers. All those hours wasted watching College football in the middle of the night has finally paid off!
Thank you Adam and Chandi for a Sunday rebus! If you took a vote of solvers, the "ayes" would out number the nays.
If Eddie posted today, he would sa,y "Eye done did this puzzle!"
The spectre of US v UK spelling strikes again. I had an S instead of Z at 61D. Took me forever to find it. sOO didn’t hit my EYEBALL at all as being odd. Great puzzle. I can confirm I have gone from team meh to team huzzah when I find a rebi puzzle. I stuck with Etsy at 1A for too long, which held that corner up. I knew it had to be MOUNTAIN, but no clue as to its name. Couldn’t remember the flower name; I could only bring up Michealmas daisies which clearly didn’t fit. Overall a lovely crunchy Sunday with a fun theme and some great fill. The Pinocchio clue made me chuckle once I worked it out. Still trying to get some usable Alpaca fibre for knitting, but I think I’m losing. Despite many, many washes there’s just too much dirt embedded in there. I think it’s garden fleece only this year. Fingers crossed for an earlier shear date and no drought next year.
@Helen Wright I think we are all very familiar with the trials and tribulations of the current day alpaca farmer. 😂 I mean, who hasn't experience the wash after wash of alpaca fleece? Honestly, my wife likes goats, and wants some. I consider them like grandchildren--great to visit, hard to raise.
Multiple early comments about the number of (or too many) names or other proper nouns. I certainly don't claim to know more proper nouns than anyone else, but I didn't notice this in my solve. Are you folks saying you couldn't use crosses to figure out the names (as I did), or are you just saying you didn't know them straight off from the clues (as I probably didn't either)?
@Barry Ancona I was surprised too, seemed like a normal number and not many too obscure to me. The only one I had to get completely on crosses was KYRA Phillips. I wonder which others were difficult for others—Brendan FRASER (recent Academy Award winner?) LATOYA Jackson? Alfred E. NEWMAN? Hall and OATES? Seem like pretty accessible cultural references, to me. Perhaps I’m wrong.
@Barry Ancona Accessible should not require niche topics knowledge. Never heard of Fraser but I've no time for award shows. Crossing Popeye's with erlenmeyerflask is impossible to workout if you've never heard of either.
@Barry Ancona I knew few of the proper nouns. I think NEUMAN was my only gimme, as I was just at the right age for Mad Magazine's Golden Era. I was so enchanted with Mad Magazine that when my mother and I first visited New York City, I forced her to walk in July heat to their offices on MADison Avenue. I remember specifically pointing to the building with the address on its side, telling her it was only a "few" more blocks. I assumed that such an august publication like Mad Magazine would have tours. We went to the offices (the time before security) and walked in on the receptionist. It was about lunch time, and everyone was away, but she was kind enough to show us all the rooms where the astonishingly creative artists and writers worked. I was in awe when I saw an office with the name "William Gaines" on it. I always wondered if she told stories to the fabulous people who worked there about the crazy 16-year-old and his long-suffering Mother showing up to be entertained. I really love New York.
Imagine starting off your day with not one, not two, but EIGHT elegant and elegantly placed rebuses! Holy cow, this is gonna be a swell day -- thanks you guys!
Where on earth does the EYE go in CHANNEMOUNTAIN? I have OXAS for the unknown daisies, I worked on that section long, long ago before I had the revealer, and I just can't fig-- Aha!!! The EYE goes after the CH!!! CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN!!! Giving me OXEYE (which I have heard of, after all.) And, finally, now I'm done!!! But so much suffering beforehand. Too much suffering to really be fun. But there's huge pride on finishing. And grudging appreciation for the dense and skillful embedding of EYE. A really good rebus -- just very long and very hard. I didn't understand the italicized clues at first reading any more than you did. So why didn't I go immediately to the revealer -- which would have eliminated so much initial suffering? Beats me. That's absolutely what a sane person should do in such a situation. I knew there was an I SPY game played in a car. It may even go back to my own childhood. I didn't know the full title was I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE. After getting the revealer, the first themer I got was BREYERS ICECREAM/SHUTEYE. Then JAPANESE YEN/EYELET. Then SMILEY EMOJI/EYE OF NEWT. (I remember EYE OF NEWT! Macbeth.) I worked very hard on this challenging but admirable puzzle. So where's my reward? I think my reward is that I'm finally finished!
@Nancy Finally remembered to hunt down your Letter to the Editor on the Times website. Well said.
@Nancy Loved your letter to the editors. Resistance to dignified death is yet another of the horrors inflicted on our country by those who demand Judeo-Christian law be the one and only law of the land. The same people who loathe the idea of Sharia law.
First pass, I knew Cheyenne Mountain (thanks, Stargate!) and Erlenmeyer flask, but second guessed myself when they didn't fit. Also second guessed SEMI because I really wanted "bah" for 102D (which I then put Meh for because I hadn't placed the EYE, and finally got MYEYE which I heard in Bones' voice. Why yes I am a geek :D This was a good and fun puzzl(eye)s indeed! Also I managed to fill without looking anything up. Not that I knew everything, but on the ones I didn't, crosses and a few educated guesses were enough. I like it when I can do that.
And the theme song for this puzzle is brought to you by Hall and OATES. <a href="https://youtu.be/1A6gEuxMAAg?si=4NchLKxh6sj3w4ZQ" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/1A6gEuxMAAg?si=4NchLKxh6sj3w4ZQ</a> (If you were a fan back in the day, I dare you to watch the original video and not cringe.)
@Vaer That really is perfect. And I've got it on my inspirational playlist, right before "Every Breath You Take".
@SBK A lot of people did not understand what that sing was about.
@Vaer You were not kidding! My cringe muscles are burning. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsntlJZ9h1U" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsntlJZ9h1U</a>
Very enjoyable puzzle! It's a testament to my inexperience at this activity that I just swapped the "eye" for "i" in my fill and then spent 10 minutes looking for errors before realizing I had to rebus those squares. DONKIARS for me this morning.
Eye popping construction! I love how the EYE in each across entry is so cleverly hidden. It was fun tracking them all down, and the non-symmetrical placement upped the challenge a bit. ERLENMEYER FLASK and BREYER’S ICE CREAM are my favorites. Fun misdirect listing all the dwarfs (except DOC, of course) for ADJS, and I also like.the clue for SHINER [“You might get one in a row”]. Congratulations, Adam and Chandi. You really scored a bullseye.
@Anita “Fun misdirect listing all the dwarfs (except DOC, of course) for ADJS,”
@Anita Oops. I hit Submit accidentally. The misdirection with the dwarfs’ names would have worked better if the clueing convention allowed for capitalizing “dopey, sneezy” etc.
I rolled my EYEs a bit when I worked out HONEYEATER, thinking it was some kind of... um, green paint (that's the term, right?) but I looked it up later because I have a tendency to assume I'm wrong and not the puzzle. Sure 'nuff! They are a cute family of birds I'd never heard of! I'm enthralled by the top two photos in this link, especially the second one: <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-09/helmeted-honeyeater-endangered-bird-released-cardinia-shire/105003424" target="_blank">https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-09/helmeted-honeyeater-endangered-bird-released-cardinia-shire/105003424</a> Anyhow, I've returned my EYEs to their locked and upright position and am happy to know about HONEYEATERS. Fun puzzle! A few areas of difficulty but I came in well under average. I figured there might be a rebus at SMILEYEMOJI but I hadn't figured out the revealer yet so I waited. At POPEYES, I was almost certain. Honestly, I should have been 100% there but I don't really roll that way confidence-wise. But then I got the revealer with only a few crosses and filled in those rebus squares with fair confidence. I shouldn't doubt myself so much, after all, I also wowed myself by remember ERLENMEYERFLASKS from college days with only a few crossings. And I spelled it right. Huzzah! Also, because why wouldn't you want more about my second home in Utila, Honduras? Our prima (cousin) was going to make us enchiladas, a favorite of mine, some years ago. Imagine my surprise when they turned out to be TOSTADAS, as we would call them here. They were excellent and she graciously makes them for us every year. So good!!
@HeathieJ I've never been anywhere near that far south. I would like to see the southern sky sometime. I know a lot of the northern constellations, but nothing from the south. It would be cool to see Scorpio higher on the horizon. I think the nearest visible star, Alpha Centuri, would be visible from Honduras, but it might be pretty close to the southern horizon.
@HeathieJ You thought a HON[EYE]ATER might be "green paint"??? I assume you're using a euphemism, but I'm not getting it.
Thanks, @Linda Jo, I see what you mean, but I hadn't heard that term before.
I was so disappointed - I was hoping that once solved, each rebus would turn into a little picture of an actual eye! (I apologize if someone already commented this.)
@Anne Butman Like the eye on the dollar bill? Yeah, that would have been great. And spooky.
@Anne Butman As I wrote in my Fiend review, “I almost wish I’d solved on paper so I could have actually drawn eight tiny eyeballs. I’m no artist, but even I can manage a rudimentary eyeball.” But your suggestion for some post-solving animation would have been great, too. <a href="https://crosswordfiend.com/2025/08/09/sunday-august-10-2025/#ny" target="_blank">https://crosswordfiend.com/2025/08/09/sunday-august-10-2025/#ny</a>
@Anne Butman I was wondering if the person responsible for those pictures and animations may have been laid off 😢. Today’s [eye]s and the recent ten [ant]s seem tailor-made for an image or animation upon completion.
I’m so pleased that more and more people are enjoying rebus puzzles. Today’s was especially good, many thanks for brightening my day, Adam and Chandi.
@suejean speak for yourself. Rebus puzzles suck.
That was great fun! My Diary of a Crossword Fiend review: <a href="https://crosswordfiend.com/2025/08/09/sunday-august-10-2025/#ny" target="_blank">https://crosswordfiend.com/2025/08/09/sunday-august-10-2025/#ny</a> Thanks, Mr. Wagner and Ms Deitmer!
@Eric Hougland You do so many puzzles, Eric. I'm curious, do any of the other major crosswords do rebuses, or just the NYT?
@Linda Jo I haven't down the New Yorker puzzles in quite some time, and though it's not a major newspaper, I recall at least one rebus puzzle from them.
Loved this puzzle. It was clever and crunchy, and the theme was perfectly executed. It certainly had lots of proper nouns, many of which I was unfamiliar with, but with some analysis and educated guesses, I was able to 51A them all out with no lookups. Kudos to the creators!
My partner and I do the Sunday together and this was really fun. She's not a rebus fan but I think she enjoyed this one.
@Scott There is an international conspiracy to gradually get everyone on the planet to like rebus crosswords. We've got a ways to go, but I've never heard of a rebus-lover changing to a rebus-hater, so 🤞.
Fun theme, but it did feel like it took some forced clues to make it work. I was initially going to come here and grouse (ha) about HONEYEATER, as I thought it was being used as an adjective, but I see from other comments that it is the proper name for a bird! Good to know. The clue that tipped me off to the theme was POPEYES. I spent a few years in New Orleans, and retain quite an affection for the brand. The service at each location was always punishingly slow, making you wonder why you continued to bother, and then you'd eat and remember why. 😂
@Michael B. Anyone who has been to the Popeyes on St Charles and Erato would definitely hesitate to call it a “fast food” establishment. That said this is where I also kenned the theme today.
@Phil 😂 Our location of choice was Claiborne uptown. I vaguely remember there being a location on Carrollton too, though that doesn't seem right. Either way I have distinct memories of looking at my friends and saying, "how is this happening?!"
Fun puzzle, especially liked 8A. Can't agree with the complaints about the number of names, most of them are pretty commonly known. I'm all for any puzzle doesn't need an Oreo or epee to fill in tight spots. They did, however, slip in ape as a verb, so there's that.
@Ed: way way off topic: I am nearby to you at the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival. Days of great music in a great town! Perhaps you were there behind me singing harmony at the Sunday morning session?
I could never forget those Erlenmeyer flasks after my klutzy hands broke so many in organic chem lab that my physicist father almost cried at the bill 😭.
@Leontion so he finally caved and let you major in French Poetry, and that has made all the difference, right? :)
@Leontion Curious readers want to know how many Erlenmeyer flasks you took out: A couple? A few? Several? Many?
If you read Nancy's posts either yesterday or today about her letter to the editor in response to an op-ed piece about assisted suicide, here is an unlocked link to where it can be found. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/opinion/assisted-suicide.html?unlocked_article_code=1.dE8.bwPm.EIuclNTHwnF5&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/opinion/assisted-suicide.html?unlocked_article_code=1.dE8.bwPm.EIuclNTHwnF5&smid=url-share</a> If further interested, it's on you to find her posts and the original op-ed.
@Vaer Thanks! It was beautifully written.
That was a tough one for me. I also got the revealer clue right away- I played this a lot as a child with my parents while awaiting restaurant orders- and caught on to the rebus, but the surrounding tricky clues and words left me feeling defeated today. Still, love a fun rebus puzzle.
@Paula yep. This was hard. Onward!
Fun puzzle, although I had to brute force the crossing square of GNC and ACELAS.
Quite understandable. I would have to brute force the crossing square of Netherlands express trains and protein powder retailers.
That was my last letter, too. I used to try such letters in alphabetical order until I realised it was much easier to hit them in keyboard order!
That famous ErlenMeyerflask. It only takes one to ruin an entire puzzle
@George Aw, man, you're dissing my home boy, you know what I mean? Erlenmeyers are dope, you feel me? BTW, I lived several years in Tennessee. It may be, overall, the most beautiful state I've ever lived in. The day I left, I went out and took pictures of the hills and woods around Cookeville and the transition of the Cumberland plateau. Just gorgeous scenery.
LAY Lady LAY takes on new meaning. Had no idea.
@LBG Bob Dylan was/is crafty.
@LBG “His clues are dirty, but his fill is clean…”
I have now read through all 174 comments and have not seen a a comment by anyone who solves on paper, as I do, that in the .pdf version there are no italics to be seen. It didn't matter, since I discovered the rebus early with oxEYE. I know that when a puzzle treats solvers to a bit of animation at the completion, I can't expect the same for me. But it would be appreciated if the puzzle says "italics" in the clue, they should be there. Liked this puzzle a lot, much more enjoyable than art heists and escape rooms.
Times Rita, The Newspaper Version PDF has the italics: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/svc/crosswords/v2/puzzle/print/Aug1025.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/svc/crosswords/v2/puzzle/print/Aug1025.pdf</a> The other "online print" versions never have graphic or typographic variation.
@Times Rita My print version theme clues were all preceded by an ellipsis. I didn't notice that the wording in the revealer clue was a mismatch for what I saw.
@Times Rita Yes, no italics in the print PDF. But I noticed as I skimmed through the clues that there were several that started with ye olde 3-dot ellipses, so I assumed those were the "italicized" clues. I couldn't be bothered at that point to go back to the computer and look at the newspaper version.
@Times Rita The italics weren't important. The theme clues going across had the ellipsises in the beginning of each.
"...if the puzzle says "italics" in the clue, they should be there." The puzzle doesn't say anything about italics, in the clue or anywhere else. Caitlin mentioned italics in the column.
I love a Sunday rebus puzzle; it feels like we're getting a bonus (or compensation, when Thursday is less than satisfying). And hopefully this will be seen as an "entry-level" rebus that will convert a few rebus haters into reconsidering. But still eight [EYE]s is impressive! (Google tells me that most spiders have eight EYEs. Wouldn't it have been wonderful if this fact could have been part of the puzzle!) And a great revealer. I SUSSed out the revealer after I put in my first rebus, but I was thinking the whole time I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE has way too many letters to fit, but fit it did! Big thanks to Adam Wagner and Chandi Deitmer for this EYE-full construction. Keep up the good work!
Such a fun puzzle..lots of twisty clues. I had a bit of trouble in the northwest..I didn't know the website or the mountain..but I made it!
For some reason, this puzzle seemed to flow nicely. I caught on to the rebussesses right away and proceeded with caution on many clues. They can be intimidating, but the zen of today's solve was apparent and I my wheelhouse. The Erlenmeyer Flask was my moment of deja vú all over again, having just referred to it in my Friday’s comments about the microscope clue. Could it be the Chandi/Adam tag team was sending me their positive vibe, or the metaphysical world was nudging me. My fascination with the ether, ichor and prisms really does have merit haha. A reminder to all, Walter White’s Science department noticed the disappearance of the round bottom flasks, assorted beakers, Erlenmeyers and infamous 3M respirator mask. I understand those have been controlled items for quite some time now, so get that the super lab built below the laundry facility quickly enough and Gus will buy you the material. The mention of NORAD’s Cheyenne Mt. brings back nice memories. While Barry Ancona was out terrorizing the panhandle beaches, I was navigating the back 40 of Ft. Carson, Colorado, and surrounding high desert. Outside of the 4th ID mountain post, the Colorado Springs area has stunning geography. Rock climbing the highly treacherous Garden of the Gods, rappelling Pinyon and Cheyenne Canyon areas and staring down Royal Gorge made for some fascinating off-duty activities. Hiking up Pikes Peak always proves a very challenging activity. Hint… take the Cog Railway, it's easier.
Jerry, Catching up from a thread yesterday and clarifying the timeline, I was at Mother Rucker (as permanent party) a few years before you: 1969-70. Short!
@Jerry I've never hiked or even driven up Pikes Peak, though I did take the Cog Railway once when I returned with my kids many years after moving away. The impressive thing about the Cog Railway is that it's rarely has a downslope on the way up, or an upslope on the way down. So the operator, when we were leaving the station on top of Pikes Peak, told us not to worry if the brake system failed in our mile and a half vertical descent, because there were two giant springs at the bottom that would break our fall: Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs.
@Jerry I'm a biochemist but I haven't been in a lab since before "Breaking Bad", so I didn't know those prosaic items where controlled. In my hands-on era (late 80s through the early 'OOs), it was scales that were being from stolen labs... Also, I forgot how to spell ERLENMEYER (if I ever knew) and it didn't help that I thought it was RIKKI Heley. The last square I figured out...embarrassing.
@Jerry Speaking of Walter White, one of the businesses we visited this year on our summer road trip was the Breaking Bad Store in Albuquerque. I don't remember seeing Erlenmeyer flasks, but the name popped into my brain from Junior High chemistry class. We considered Garden of the Gods but ran out of time and had already seen and climbed so many rocks in Southern Utah, we were all rocked out!
@Jerry RE: 21A; There was a short story in Omni magazine called "The Last Child Into the Mountain." in which the government finds the best video gamer in the country and has him play an elaborate version of Missile Command. After he wins the "game" it's revealed that the missiles were real. Back in 1983, that seemed all too plausible.
@Justin In my day, the stoners would steal the screens from the faucet aerators in the chem lab. These were paired with assorted devices made in shop class.
I was pretty sure I knew how to spell ERLENMEYER but I suspected there might be an H in there, because German does that, so I dropped in the FLASK and worked my way backwards. Aha, a wild rebus appears! And I do love that chicken from POPEYE'S. That's when I realized that PIE EYED had to come out of 26A. Wow, so many euphemisms for drunk. A quick note about MREs; when they first came out, they weren't very good, and we joked that it stood for Meals Rejected by Ethiopians. The chicken a la king was the worst, but it came with a little bottle of Tabasco sauce, which made it edible. I hear they're much better now.
The other joke was that you could tell you'd been eating too many MREs, because your poo would come out in a plastic bag.
@Grant That was a pretty tasteless joke. I guarantee no small number of people will be offended by it.
@Grant, Hand up for not offended by your joke. Or for finding it tasteless. In fact, pretty funny. When you’re in a desert that is also a war zone and getting new rations, you gotta take humor whenever you can find it. Would be very curious to hear any Ethiopians’ thoughts on the subject.
Civilians... sheesh... they've missed out on terms like "comraderie," "esprit," "big boy britches" and "man up." And those are just the ones apropos for this forum. You should hear the Iraqi and Somali references. 😋
@NYC Traveler I had a friend named Ashenafi in HS who had lots of those jokes. I think he was just happy to be studying abroad, and not living in Mengistu's Marxist hellscape. That guy's still alive, BTW, and living comfortably in Zimbabwe, and Ashey has his own business in Virginia, ...and for the record, the only desert I've ever been to was the Mojave.
The perfect combination of joy and crunch. Got the revealer early on due to crosses so got my eyes in a row which helped. An ideal wind-down, listening to Irish rain after a busy morning catching up with friends. Top stuff!