I don’t usually have much to say about Monday puzzles but I think this was about as interesting and entertaining a Monday in recent memory. I enjoyed it a lot.
EOS has been putting in a lot of work lately.
@Mike ipas/oreo/erie all are used all the time. I like them. They can give you a toe hold into tricky puzzles.
@Mike the name was mentioned in a game Hades 2 ive been playing and since then ive seen it at least 3 time in the crossword
@Mike Eos Eats an Oreo and loves her Oboe. There's a theme in the somewhere.
There was a very brief moment when I thought a FREEWIFE was offered by hotels and libraries.
@DD Yes, you can borrow a FREE WIFe at our local library, but the late fees are a bear! I think it's called something else when you get one at a hotel.
@DD To borrow a phrase, ain’t no such thing as a FREE WIFE.
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Where the Magi journeyed from (4) 2. Follow to the letter? (5)(4) 3. Rabbit food? (6)(5) 4. You might get one in a row (6) 5. Mega-store? (5) AFAR WRITE BACK EASTER CANDY SHINER HOARD
@Lewis I miss your optimistic entries you post on a daily basis and look forward to your return.
@Lewis, love your weekly round up! When especially smart clues during the week, they are Lewis-possibles in my mind 😊
Just a note about the planned change to the way your comment is displayed when it's a reply to another post: Currently, you see the original post plus ALL the subsequent replies. Now, though, all you're going to see is the original post, followed only by your reply and nobody else's. This is spoken of as an "improvement." It sure doesn't seem like an improvement to me! I want to see the whole thread! I already know what MY reply was. I'm not so egocentric that it's the only one I want to see. If I get to the point where that's all that matters to me I might as well just hang it up and retire from human contact altogether. PLEASE DON'T MAKE THIS CHANGE.
@Bruce Yes, the existing format mimics natural, real-life human conversation with people just organically joining in. It’s a big reason to participate in the forum in the first place.
@Bruce Is there a toggle for it at least? I agree what’s the point if you can’t see everyone’s post. I would like a quick way to find and scroll down to my own posts, but I certainly don’t want to miss everyone else’s.
@Bruce If I understand your post and the new display system correctly(and I very well might not, seeing as I still have trouble saying "mama"), I think you got it slightly wrong. I believe in the new format you will see the original post and ALL replies that specifically replied to the OP. Then you will have the option to click to see all replies to each reply individually. (This is not an endorsement of the new system at all.)
@Bruce All we've been wanting, for years now, is (1) an edit button and (2) to return to the same comment we were reading when we click "back to all comments" instead of being thrown back to the top. Whatever they think they're improving with these other changes is just someone's flight of fancy and has nothing to do with User Experience (UX). I had high hopes for the changes but, alas, they make nothing better; indeed just more complicated. Thumbs down.
@Bruce I generally read the clues in Reader's Picks order. The change that really needs to be made is when I click on a reply to a previous post I see the whole thread. Sometimes (often?) the reply has more Recommends than the original post -- so what was the original post? I used to get the whole thread, but then that stopped happening. I'm on iPad app. I think it works differently on my Android phone, but not sure....
I once had a NETI POT. I tried it, felt like I was drowning, and never used it again. In the 90s, I listened a lot to Pearl JAM, despite not being able to make out half of the words coming out of Eddie Vedder's mouth. Imitating him is easy when you have a mouthful of CHEESE fondue sticking in your palate. (Case in point: <a href="https://youtu.be/vE26dVkCvpw?si=77xLzSmcOlElO8yv" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/vE26dVkCvpw?si=77xLzSmcOlElO8yv</a>) I l o v e d the misdirect for REST! [It's not working!] is brilliant – and when I saw Rebecca's byline, I thought, "Aha, that explains it!" Rebecca's puzzles and cluing are always chef's kiss. Thank you for offering up a spirited romp!
@sotto voce I thought about using a NETI POT at one time, but it looks like self-inflicted water-boarding. Your comment confirms that suspicion.
@sotto voce You are so right. You may have already seen this man's attempt to help us through Yellow Ledbetter: <a href="https://youtu.be/xLd22ha_-VU" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/xLd22ha_-VU</a> Cleared things right up for me.
Message for the “it’s all getting easier” club: This was not easy, in my view! Nice puzzle though.
Petrol, xwdstats data for the first 90 minutes agrees that it was not a easy Monday. Global Stats Difficulty Average Median Solve Time 5:14 Median Solver 13% faster ⚡70% of users solved faster than their Monday average. 26% solved much faster (>20%) than their Monday average. 🐢30% of users solved slower than their Monday average. 4% solved much slower (>20%) than their Monday average.
Clever clues are always welcome, but an OREO is still an OREO.
@dutchiris But this is not a pipe.
As I was solving, I knew this felt special. Interesting clues, great fill, a little extra chew. Rebecca Goldstein! Of course! I should have known.
@Nancy J. Perhaps you meant "a little extra cheese"?
This was an impressive crossword. I enjoyed the theme, revealer and general wordplay Must be difficult to strike the right balance between easy and challenging for a Monday, but I think it was perfect today
I did half of the puzzle this morning, and then had to take my old girl to the vet. She was 14 and time to go,. So I came home and finished the puzzle, very cute. Just a hard day in other ways.
@Margaret Sympathies. It's never easy even if obviously time.
@Margaret I'm so very sorry to hear about that.
@Margaret Oh jeez. Even though we know what we're getting into, it never gets any easier. The only consolation is all the fond memories. Give it time...
@Margaret My deepest condolences.
@Margaret I’m really sorry, Margaret. It’s such a difficult decision.
"Should I use a neti pot?" "Who nose?" (" 'S not funny!") (We need you, Mike!)
You don't need to be a Lego aficionado to know MINIFIGs: you just need to have kids. At least that was my experience! 🙂
A rare incident of what I think is a typo, and a formatting error in the column. Maybe I’m just parsing it incorrectly, but I can’t make any sense out of the sentence, “ What I do miss ease I once felt at food-filled events.” should it be “ What I do miss IS THE ease I once felt at food-filled events?” The formatting error is that the below quote is all bold, and should not be: “Minifig, and” This may be fixed by the time you read it, fellow crossword puzzle solver.
A little less breezy than recent Mondays. An enjoyable puzzle.
A bit on the tough side for a Monday puzzle but that just made for an enjoyable workout. Five debut answers on a Monday and more than a couple of them that I only worked out from the crosses. No complaints - that's just me. Kind of cute puzzle find today. A Monday from August 22, 2016 by Emily Carroll. Theme answers in that one, straightforwardly clued: BITTERENEMY SALTYLANGUAGE SWEETHEARTDEALS SOURPATCHKIDS and... TASTEMAKERS Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/22/2016&g=6&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/22/2016&g=6&d=D</a> I'm done....
Anyone else think this was a bit challenging for a Monday? Nevertheless quite enjoyable, and educational, thank you Rebecca!
@David Gropper More like a challenging Tuesday to me, but enjoyable and educational, as you wrote.
The comments surprised me, didn't realise people had found today tricky - I'm realising that my current comfort is almost entirely a result of learning from past struggles over the years, recognising a lot of the fill. I definitely picked up NETIPOTS from earlier in this year itself! But even so, loved the cluing and fill of this Monday in particular, would've been a PB if I hadn't made a typo somewhere and couldn't find it for a minute! This blog has been so excellent though - I'd love to recommend that everyone try the puzzles from later in the week too with a little nudge from the blog! Everything becomes easier after more and more puzzles, and there's so many fun grids :)
@Nik I breezed through this one, too! The cluing was definitely fun today.
@Nik everyone has their days. Sometimes literally single word is the linchpin of a whole section of a puzzle…Know that word a corner is easy. Can’t suss out that word it feels like the hardest puzzle ever.
Now I wish that I had some cheese to nibble on. Interesting to read the constructor notes to appreciate how long and hard Rebecca worked to come up with the lovely Monday puzzle.
Delighted by this puzzle by a female who doesn't rely on arcane sports trivia! The mention of oreo reminded me of my childhood preference for Hydrox cookies, basically the same as oreos, but less sweet, and, interestingly, Hydrox came first. A google search shows Hydrox basically impossible to find now, although supposedly available from Walmart online, they show them as not available.
@Vernon Hydrox=Ersatz Oreo :)
This is a perfect Monday puzzle for me, Ms. Goldstein. Thanks for returning back to it to complete it.
18D: Reason #43,560 why I hate imperial/customary units (easily guessable in this puzzle, but I’m definitely not going to remember the exact number of square feet tomorrow). At least the air temperature here in Tokyo has cooled down to relatively tolerable 27°C; it was sweltering a couple of days ago when I was traveling around a total of about 100 km throughout the day because the Taiwanese art house flick I wanted to see was only showing in Yokohama, and there’s no point in watching the new brainless but fun dinosaurs-eating-people movie unless it’s at the IMAX theater that’s just about as far away from my apartment in the opposite direction. I was able to cool down a bit between the two showings with a 500 ml carafe of (relatively low alcohol) white wine at the cheap Italian place near the latter.
@Nick Jack & Betty, perchance? Cinemarine?
@Nick so you certainly won’t remember that there are 640 acres in a square mile. It’s helpful when they tell us 10,000 acres have burned in a wildfire.
@Nick We yanks don't know the number of square feet in an acre either. We just know that it's a pretty big measure of area, and has four letters. ACRE is one of those words--like oreo --that us solvers just have to know. Fyi, building lots and farm fields are measured in acres.
@Nick Lol! 4046.86 square meters in an acre is so easy to remember!
Minifig had me stumped. What does this have to do with a Lego? I mean I eat them occasionally so what’s the big deal. Then I brooded over it for a minute. The lightbulb went off Mini Figure. My kids are 34 & 36 and haven’t had Legos in the house for years. Mildly challenging puzzle today.
I was too lazy to get out of the recliner, so I did this on the iPad, resulting in a slower pace, since it's one finger at a time. Had the most trouble in the NW, so it was a bit of a slow start, but things got faster after that. Do not have Netflix, so 55A was filled by crosses, but they were quite fair. Nice puzzle, thanks, Rebecca.
Very fun Monday to cap off my Sunday. I was stuck a short while on 20A because I missed the musical connection, and figured surely they must taken notes at Eton College. Maybe if they are music majors they make e-ton of notes on tone at Eton. Who’s really to say.
Yummy fill today. But CHarcuterie has the same amount of letters as CHEESE BOARD (ask me how I know) 😉 In addition to those items in the puzzle, personally like prosciutto on mine and salami made into cute little roses 🌹 I’m fancy like that. Add some goat cheese, grapes and nuts and I’m in heaven. Thank you for this tasty treat, Rebecca! Happy Monday Crosslandia! 🧀
@Jacqui J Turns out so does SIMPLESYRUP.
@Jacqui J huh - I must have missed a letter as I was typing in charcuterie because it came up short, so I deleted it and waited for crosses!
@Jacqui J Cheese plate fit too, but of course it made everything else confusing and wrong, so BOARD it had to be. ALISONBRIE was my entre into the solve and it was smooth going from there.
This puzzle could be titled "The Mystery of the Inaptly and Ineptly Named Lego Piece". Because why on earth would "a piece in the shape of a person or animal" be called a MINIFIG? A fig is neither a person nor an animal, mini or otherwise. Beats me. My other comment on this delightful Monday puzzle, which has interesting fill and almost no names other than ALISON BRIE, is the most peculiar OREO clue: When did this happen? I have lived in Manhattan my entire life -- though admittedly not in lower Manhattan -- and I have never heard of an OREO WAY block. I don't mind so much that OREO has completely taken over crossword puzzles, but I do mind it taking over an entire block of my city. What colossal nerve! Other than that, a colorful and crunchier than usual Monday puzzle that I found enjoyable to solve.
@Nancy MINIFIG is short for MINIFIGure. Does that help?
Nancy, Re: OREO In case you don't scroll down into yesterday... <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/49g000?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/49g000?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
@Barry I was actually hoping for an OREO Way street sign in the column picture, but I don't think they have those for whatever a skybridge is. Pedestrian walkway?
Loved all the Fs! A+ for this delightful fromage homage!
A great Monday puzzle, fresh and just a little bit chewy. Thanks, Rebecca. Shout out to Heathie and Violet(?) who'd alerted me to the Star Trek puzzle from Sunday 3 August. I'd missed it while traveling. That is definitely a POY contender.
@Linda Jo Yayyyy!!! I've been wondering if you had a chance to do it yet. Totally agree about POY!! 🖖
Making CHARCUTERIE fit in the CHEESEBOARD spot was just cruel.... :P
MINIFIG crossing NETI POTS? Not a Natick by definition but had me running the alphabet.
@Richard Ah, NETI POTS; that was a gimme for me. My Silent Generation, hippyish dad owns and uses one, though I never have myself. Back at uni in Vancouver, BC, I was once in a large drugstore with my best friend and housemate, another international student (from Hong Kong). The neighborhood we were living in was predominantly South Asian, and the store had a fairly large display of the nasal irrigation devices on sale. He asked me what they were for, and I replied, a bit too loudly, “Oh, people from India use those to wash out their noses and sinuses.” As soon as I finished speaking, I smiled awkwardly at the Indian-Canadian family I just then noticed standing right next to us. They just shrugged and nodded, “Yep, that’s accurate.”
@Richard I concur, never heard of either, and Alison Brie didn't help. The N in MINIFIG and the I in ALISON were my last two squares.
OMG - There is an OREO Way?!! Plus I just read there is going to be a combination OREO and Reese cup snack product coming out this fall.
@Canoe-er I am waiting for OREO to finally be clued “The twins in ‘The Parent Trap’ both eat it with peanut butter”.
Interesting how the crossword reflects my life. It's as off the NYT is spying on me. Today, I actually completed the puzzle while munching on a CHEESE BOARD. The other day, I was literally crosswording while setting up an INFLATABLE POOL. And the puzzles are getting too easy. Every day this last week, I've set a new PB.
@DocP, why assume the puzzles are getting easy? Perhaps you're becoming a better solver!
@Susan E Others have proven this by going back in the archives and struggling with the exact same day of the week. My Saturday and Sunday times were much less than half my average
Yes, a lot easier for me today, unknowns solved with crossers, including HORA, AHI and DAN. I've never heard of a cheeseboard with jam and honey. Just cheeses and savoury biscuits, maybe a couple of grapes. I see it as an alternative to a 'sweet' course. Nice and doable.
@Jane Wheelaghan, very common here in the States. The honey is in a small dish with a tiny spoon, and you drizzle it over the soft, creamy cheeses, like aged Camembert or brie. Often, it is a pice of raw honeycomb. The jam is usually fig, raspberry or blackberry jam, equally good with those same cheeses. Try it, you will love it!
@Jane Wheelaghan If it's anything related to tuna or poke, and it's three letters, it's bound to be AHI. It's already been in the puzzle six times this year; you've probably filled it in with crosses every time. 🙂 HORA was one of those things I immediately knew that I knew but just couldn't drudge it out of my brain without a couple of crossers. I even had the song running through my head as soon as I read the clue, but I couldn't place the name. Hate when that happens!! Silly ole brain!
CHEESE BOARD? Not in vogue as described hereabout... a CHEESE ball and crackers or bagel chips gets lots of attention, as do hummus and spinach dip...but my lovely veggies usually go unnoticed. (I try and I try, but nobody wants that healthy stuff!) Someone once gave me a Ritz cracker with orange marmalade on it...which turned out to have horseradish mixed in. It is still the most horrible thing I've ever tasted. Trust NOone! Horror story: when we children had colds, our mom turned to an old "home remedy"--having you sniff whilst forcing your face down into a basin of very warm salt-water. "Snook it up!" A crude forebearer of the NETI POT? (No thanks. I still won't put my face down into water.)
"CHEESE BOARD? Not in vogue as described hereabout..." MOL, You are by choice "Now in Mississippi." What did you expect?
@Mean Old Lady I always opt for veggies as dippers when they are available!
@Mean Old Lady At least your spinach dip has SOME veggie. But maybe only as healthy as the Swiss chard in "Fried Green Tomatoes" with the pound of butter?
@Mean Old Lady I'm sure Barry only meant that the cheese slices start to sweat faster in hotter climes, and the brie goes all runny. NYC cocktail parties all occur indoors, as opposed to in screen porches or on boat docks. And then there are tailgate parties.
@Mean Old Lady More water board than cheese board vignette? :)
Since I complained last week at what I felt was an unfair Monday I will applaud today's perfect Monday. This one felt wonderfully fair and stimulating. Maybe I am a glutton and just enjoy food themes more. I did have to laugh at yet another Oreo sighting tho lol. Its certainly proving to be the clue of the summer
Oooh! and one more puzzle find. Thought this one was quite amazing. Anyway - found this one when it dawned on me that... ITSRAININGCATSANDDOGS is 21 letters. And... it was the 'reveal' in a Sunday puzzle from January 15, 2012 by Finn Vigeland with the title: "Weather report." And the clue for that was: "Weather comment represented visually by this puzzle's circled letters" And then all the theme answers were down answers with some letters circled. Here's some examples with the circled letters in parentheses. (P)H(O)N(O)GRAPHNEE(DLE) (MA)SO(N)DI(X)ONLINE ANTI(PERS)P(I)R(AN)T (B)R(O)N(X)BOMB(ER)S (B)R(EA)KIN(G)THERU(LE)S (CA)B(L)ES(I)T(CO)M So those circled letters spelled: POODLE, MANX, PERSIAN, BOXER, BEAGLE and CALICO. Here's that Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/15/2012&g=66&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/15/2012&g=66&d=A</a> ....
A very nice Monday puzzle with a cute theme. Bonus points for highlighting ALISONBRIE who was great as Trudy Campbell in Mad Men, one of the few consistently sympathetic characters.
@Barry Ancona, To continue our discussion from Sunday, regarding what should be included in the tricky clues section of the Wordplay column. I did not have to look very far to find inclusion in the tricky clues section answers that were straightforward, but hard: Column date Puzzle Date Straightforward clues 8/9/2025 8/10/2025 4D 8/8/2025 8/9/2025 8/7/2025 8/8/2025 14A, 23D 8/6/2025 8/7/2025 1D 8/5/2025 8/6/2025 46A, 48D That is six examples in the last six days. Now the only argument you have to fall back on is that knowing the context that LAY is a ballad is not hard, which is a purely subjective.
@Jim I couldn't figure out how LAY related to ballads for the life of me and because it was crossing a most unfamiliar piece of laboratory equipment when I didn't get the completion music I was sure my mistake was in there somewhere. In the end I had UfO as a source of base humor (plausible!) instead of USO.
Not much to say about a Monday puzzle, so here's a Fun Fact: In 2007, Lego held a mail-in drawing, and five lucky winners received a solid gold C-3P0 MINIFIG.
Today took me much longer than recent Monday puzzles have done. I enjoyed the theme. 72 across baffled me. I think it was the exclamation point. I filled 10A with MDS my first time through. DRS is certainly valid, but RN is the degree nurses have, so MD made more sense.
My only gripe with this is, IIRC from my studies in phonetics (I have degrees in linguistics), MAMA is easier to say than “dada,” not the other way around. This is why a) mama is much more common a word across languages and language families for “mother” than “dada” is for “dad,” and b) mama is more commonly a baby’s first word rather that “dada.” I think it’s so fun that these words came from babies just making sounds and the adults assigning meaning to them!
@Danny Have to disagree with what is harder to say…I have two new mom friends who send me videos of trying (in vain) to get baby to say MAMA. Baby will scream back DADA! As if to say NO, that is not a word. Its DADA!!!
@Danny ‘Mama’ is most likely more common as the baby’s first word because, statistically, more languages (at least among countries that publish research on developmental milestones) have their word for ‘mom’ begin with ‘m’ than there are languages whose word for ‘dad’ begin with a ‘d’ (there’s a lot of competition from tatas, papas, babas, etc. out there). Also, since in most cultures the majority of babies still likely spend more time with mom than dad, they see ‘mama’ modeled for them much more often. Plus it’s likely easier for a baby to notice and try to mimic the mechanics of ‘mama’ vs. ‘dada’ since the lip movement the adult is demonstrating is more overt than their tongue position. As for whether ‘m’ or ‘d’ is more difficult to produce by a mouth starting ab ovo, some speech pathologists say that ‘d’ comes more naturally to infants because it mimics the tongue position they produce when self-soothing with a sucking sound/motion, whereas ‘m’ requires more lip control that’s not acquired by them early on for other reasons. This only holds true for babies, of course. If an adult is relearning speech, for example after a stroke, ‘m’ may be easier to learn than ‘d’ as you posited.
@Danny My father was a speech pathologist who wrote a book on phonetics. He taught me that “dada” was easier to say than “mama”. He’s been gone for many years now, so perhaps more recent research aligns with your statement.
@Danny My kids all said DADA first, but it was simply because I'm way more awesome than their MAMA.
@Danny In reviewing what I could on the internet, it seems at least to be an open question. As a pediatrician, I’ve heard it said that dada comes first for linguistic reasons, and my empirical observations in clinic and with my kids (except one who said “dis” and “dat” for everything for a long time) is that is true. But I don’t see any firm studies on it. So it could be an old wive’s tale that’s perpetuated by confirmation bias. One interesting article I read suggested that babies may say dada first because they see them as a separate entity sooner than moms, that’s an interesting suggestion…so not to knock your expertise, you could be right.
@Danny I’m curious how many children you have (if any) and what their first word was? From my limited experience of myself, my siblings and my friends, all of our children’s first word was “dada”. Again, my experience is limited to my small circle, but I’m curious about other experiences.
10:49 Difficult for a Monday, imo! I unfortunately had CHEESE PLATE for a while (doubly annoying because it still fit with CROAK) which I had to burn some time on. Fun puzzle and a great way to start the week.
My usual late puzzle find. A Tuesday from July 29, 2008 by David Kwong and Emily Halpern. Four fifteen letter theme answers, all of them with "Mediocre" at the beginning of the clue. First example: "Mediocre F. Scott Fitzgerald novel?" THEDECENTGATSBY And the other three theme answers: GOODBARRIERREEF THENOTBADESCAPE OKAYBALLSOFFIRE Don't recall another one quite like that. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/29/2008&g=65&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/29/2008&g=65&d=A</a> ...
A. 11.25 TW 9.51 B 5.19 6011 puzzles solved 100% solved rate 753 current streak 753 longest streak No look up
The exclamation point in the clue for 72 across [This is not working!] doesn't seem right. I get the misdirection, but doesn't it rule out the answer? Or am I missing something?
@Bob REST means literally not working. I think the exclamation point is to call out something that is very literal (when the phrase itself might not be), plus the quote itself is something you would say with an explanation point. It’s almost the opposite of a question mark—the question mark means the clue might be a little punny or not literal, while the exclamation point says treat this phrase as literal even though it might not be. Another example, a clue for STRAW could be “Suck on this!”
@Bob I had to read several times. I finally decided that a dramatic pause is needed between Rest pause for punch line is NOT working. I once had a plaque up at work that stated: Sleep 8 hours Work 8 hours But not same 8 hours The head of the division came to my office and looked around briefly and told me to remove that. I assume my militarized boss requested he visit my office and have me remove it.
@Bob A simple answer is it’s a phrase that you could say with an exclamation point. More subtly, it means to take what could be a figurative phrase more literally. “This is not working!” could mean a relationship or a plan, but the exclamation point means take it literally: This (the clue answer) is (means) “not working”. Another example might be “Beat it!” (DRUM). Interestingly British Crosswords use this convention for “&lit” clues. Usually the clues have two parts, wordplay and a definition; &lit clues serve both. For example “Terribly vile!” might be EVIL because EVIL means “terribly vile” and is also an anagram of “vile”, signaled by the word “terribly”.