I want to say that I am truly grateful that the NYT Crossword has become a staple in my life. Every day, it takes my mind of the horrors of the modern world we live in. And even though it's just twenty minutes out of my day, it does ground me. Additionally, I genuinely enjoy the comment section as well and I come here every day. Of course, sometimes there is a little spite, a little condescension, a little frustration. Which we also probably read too much into as well. But I still do appreciate the intelligent and punny comments that bring a smile to my face. This community is a good place, you are good people, and I am happy to be a part of it.
@Anna Nicely said. And we are glad to have you as part of the community too!
@Anna I rarely comment, but I also do the puzzle and read the comments every day, and am grateful for the flashes of joy and community that begin each one of my days.
@Anna Nice comment. I think many of us would agree that this is usually a nice corner of the internet to hang around in.
@Anna Amen! A highlight of mine and my wife’s day, everyday. And we always check the comments after <3
For those who don’t see the point: First, I thought this was an interesting and pleasant puzzle even if you solved like a themeless (although I did use the Os on the six die). Second, I think there’s fun in gradually figuring out the theme—at first I was trying to rearrange letters or see if they SPELT anything. Finally I get enjoyment from appreciating the creativity and artistry and ingenuity of the constructor—I know not everyone does, but I do.
"Do you want this used board game?" "No dice!" (I'm on a roll with these puns.)
@Mike These puns have me rolling!
@Mike Sorry. It's too late to have a Go. Have to get my Carcasonne the subway. I've got a Ticket to Ride.
Just a note to anyone who might try to make a pun using a word for a certain dice game: Don’t bother. Apparently, the emus will just cr_ _ all over it. 😉
@Mike With all these comments, it's clear you don't have a Monopoly on puns. Sorry, that's Life.
@Mike You threw me, but face it, I'm not one to take sides. I'm just a little on edge.
PIP PIP PIP hooray. Clever crossword construction Published here today That was my weak attempt at a HAIKU 🤨 That doesn’t happen TOO OFTEN. Please don’t BOO me OFF STAGE. Anywho, thank you Victor. This was fun 😊
32 days, that marks my longest streak ever
@Steven M. You are on your way! You must have been sweating out these few days as the Saturday-Monday puzzles were objectively more difficult than what we are used to. Congrats.
Nothing like a well-made grid to make me glad this night, and the pips were a nice touch. Woo-woo!
@Eddie, Yay!!! Welcome back, you’ve been missed!
Anybody else find the crossing of SEITAN and COLON mildly amusing, or is just my adolescent humour?
@Dave S 34A is also a species of wheat; it would have been fun to cross it with SEITAN.
Making sure that all the O's fall out where you need them to, within six symmetrically placed nine-cell squares, and then not to use any O's anywhere else in the puzzle makes for a difficult task for the constructor. But unfortunately, it doesn't make an especially scintillating experience for the solver. But a very fast and easy solve, at least for me.
Hi, @Steve L! Did you see my (after-dinner) reply to your thread yesterday, on Brooke Husic's NYer puzzle? If not, I'll ct-n-paste it below: Well, I would say that it leans heavily towards things Caribbean islanders with a penchant for Asian food might know. That being said, it did take me half again as long as E.A.'s Monday puzzle--I was stuck in the SE corner, mainly because I couldn't remember Moses' sisters name AND REFUSED TO LOOK IT UP*, and was stuck on WHAT DID I . . rather than WHAT'D I BTW, didya know that there is a whole segment of the populace who, through cosplay and digital art, eroticizes ORCS, tusks and all? Or is that TMI? *I guess Old Testament knowledge isn't for the Olds.
@Steve L agree with most but it was actually pretty hard for me... thought the slightly longer fill was pretty challenging and was grateful for the many 3 letter words for the crosses.
So the theme is that there are six dice in the grid (tinted squares on my stone tablet), showing 1,2,3,4,5,6 pips. OK, then.
Or, a single die tumbling through the grid showing each of its six faces.
The idea behind this one was clever enough, but unfortunately the construction of the grid led to too much 3 letter fill, much of which (e.g. SRO, ANI, ONO) was too familiar crossword fare. The non-pip letters in the dice had no significance to the theme and made the visual less appealing. Having said that, I did enjoy the two triple O sequences in BOOOFFSTAGE and TOOOFTEN. MISOSOUP was a welcome addition as well.
Wow, I’m surprised that this one wasn’t more popular, at least according to the comments so far. I really enjoyed it, to the point that I screen-shot it to remember it as a nominee for Wednesday puzzle of the year. I didn’t completely get the theme until the end, but the solve was easy enough, and the revelation was fun for me. I knew of SEITAN but didn’t know how it was SPELT. Now, thanks to the crossings, I do. I give this one a big thumbs up.
@Jennifer Yay for you! I knew that must be coming up soon. A whole year, congratulations!! 🎉🎈🍾🥂
@Jennifer congrats. When you get to 1/4 done of the next one you’ll have a whole year.
@Jennifer Great conjugations to you. Hope you continue to extend that streak. ...
How many of us thought 67A was DAN?
@J. Hakim I automatically plugged in SAN, as I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley. I used to work next door in Pasadena 😉 Dan never even occurred to me 🤦🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️
@J. Hakim 1000% percent. Last thing I had to fix
"Not today, SEITAN!" Didn't Johnny Cash sing "A Trex Named Sue"?
@ad absurdum Okay, you first line made me lol out loud! Glad I wasn't drinking anything, I would have done a spit take!
Capital-P Puzzle for me. Six no-knows. Many answers that needed crosses before confidently slapping in. Believing the puzzle had to do with tic-tac-toe after filling in the first two gray areas (Hi, @John Ezra!). I like having hills to climb, being riddled with riddles, so this hit my happy place. I love the visual mind that envisioned this Pips-Ahoy theme, and the skill behind pulling it off -- making a cogent puzzle out of a dense and extraordinarily constricting theme set, not to mention having no non-pip O's in the grid. I enjoyed the Japanese sub-theme, with SEITAN (a word of Japanese origin), MISO SOUP, HAIKU, and NO TIPS (as clued). Even IMAMORON backward, though it doesn’t mean anything, has a Japanese feel. I love the triple-O look of near-neighbors BOOOFFSTAGE and TOOOFTEN (Hi, @Marshall Walthew!), and the PuzzPair© of LAB and DOGKISS. Just a mass of mwah in the box for me. I’m a fan. Thank you so much for this, Victor!
SEITAN, by the way, is quite tasty in addition to being protein rich. Bill, a recipe?
@Lewis I also briefly considered tic-tac-toe and some version of CAT's GAME for the revealer!! 🐈⬛🐈 (All those X's would have to be somehow extremely cleverly clued!!) 😅🥵
@Lewis Victor, what kind of dice are you playing with? Too many pips on them.
@B -- Tempeh is my favorite soy food. For many, it is an acquired taste. As you are a fan of it yourself, how about a recipe????
@B -- Thank you, I appreciate your cooking tips. Re tempeh, I've gotten to where if I just fry it in olive oil over low to medium heat so it doesn't splatter, then flip it after it nicely browns, and after I flip it put some shoyu or soy sauce over the top -- that by itself tastes great. Anything else, like adding it to a stir fry, or topping it with a sauce or chili crisp, is gravy, so to speak.
Wait, what, no other O's anywhere except the pips?? That's some lovely polish, in a fun puzzle!
The Seneca are one of the Six Nations of the Grand River. It hasn't been the Five Nations since 1722 when the Tuscarora joined the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The Grand River Reserve is about 40 miles west of Toronto. The Six Nations are Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora. It's the largest First Nations reserve in Canada, and a really great place to visit.
@jbesen They are generally refered to in the US as the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Perhaps the emphasis is on the encounters in the 1600s.
What a GEM! Loved all the references, especially the I ROBOT. But, to be honest, I thought we were initially looking at boggle boards. Loved how the designer made the pips!
SEITAN?? What planet am I on? Life is tough enough, trying to decode the Harry Potter chatter in every other puzzle, without the appearance of SEITAN. Mr. Schmitt, I was full of admiration for the freshness of so many of your clues, and I thoroughly enjoyed your puzzle, right up to the end, when I realized that ANI was of course not ANa. SEaTAN was something I just hadn't heard of, but so is SEITAN. I had to make a trip to the key for that one. Nevertheless, my warmest thanks for what was otherwise an imaginative, fun solve, and I await your next appearance.
@dutchiris You live in Berkeley. And you never heard of Seitan. I’m pretty surprised, given how crunchy that college town is. No shade. Just surprised. Also. A veteran like you should have memorized ANI DeFranco. And as popular as our boy Brian ENO. Or our girl Yoko ONO. I know this could read as an ‘attack.’ But it is again, just more surprise. Go Valkeries?
@dutchiris I hadn't heard of SEITAN either. Or SUNOCO. Or SUE. And had forgotten that it was ANI and not ANa from previous appearances in the crossword. So I was rather stuck in that corner. Even ISABEL was a guess, but a fairly easy one from crossings. Needed a rare Wednesday look up to get SEITAN finally. And ran the alphabet for SUE. A few too many proper nouns in that corner in an otherwise fun, straightforward puzzle!
@dutchiris As someone who follows a vegan diet, seitan is in my near daily vocabulary. It’s a great source of protein!
@dutchiris I was fortunate enough to get SEITAN because my daughter is a vegetarian.
Wasn't getting the gimmick until I read the article but I still didn't care....
You cared enough to comment...
@Charlie Fuchs Agreed. A useless gimmick that caused the entire puzzle to suffer
I was a little late noticing the the look of the die because I was distracted trying to figure out if the letters meant anything. It was a nice little surprise when it hit me, and I went back and darkened all of those O's. I always appreciate the extras like not having any other O's in the puzzle. Victor must have gone through some trouble to pull that off, so I just want to say that I noticed.
@Nancy J. Why did this take more than 4 hours to post? Sometimes I can see a "problem" word, but not this time. Another issue I've been having is if I reply to a post, and then try to make a comment of my own, I'm told to try again later. I can try an hour later and it still won't post. My work-around is to use another browser, but I usually don't bother. Strange system we have here.
Whew it's been a challenging week so far (but I'm loving it). I thought I might not finish this one, but after staring at the squares and trying to make words out of the nine letters for far too long, I let my mind relax and managed the solve. Very clever and holy cow that must have been hard to construct!! My daughter has Celiac so when I see wheat anywhere I feel oddly nervous for her 😬 ... as a plus, I know the names of many non-wheat grains but wheat grains like SEITAN are not in my vocab. She's doing awesome with it and I'm so grateful for knowledgeable servers and thoughtful restaurant owners for making eating out so much easier for her and others than for those diagnosed even 10 years earlier. Speaking of which, she's heading to college tomorrow as a first year at UVA (go Hoos!) and while I'm so so excited for her, I'm also feeling many other emotions. Best to all of you who may have kids, nieces, grandkids, etc., especially to first-timers. We got this! (And so do they!) ❤️😭❤️
@Niki B My son has celiac so I know exactly how you feel. He was diagnosed at 11 years old and is 3 years into the journey. Still a challenge, but we’re grateful for the better knowledge and much improved product labeling. I, too, had never heard of seitan.
@Niki B If you go to an Asian restaurant, particularly Thai, and they have mock duck, mock chicken etc. on the menu, that is Seiten. It is very good but of course 100% gluten.
When I saw the theme was related to the faces of a die, I was hoping one of my favorite words would find its way into the puzzle: QUINCUNX, which is the name for the arrangement of 5 pips on a standard die or domino. Alas, no dice!
@DBallard I think that word might qualify for a Friday or Saturday puzzle.
It’s probably just me, but I got a lot of late 60s, early 70s Brit invasion flashbacks from this one: Exile on Main St’s Tumbling Dice: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j9hkUpvUMmE&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j9hkUpvUMmE&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD</a> BEGGAR’s Banquet’s RADICAL Street Fighting Man: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NHugEELD8o8" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NHugEELD8o8</a> The Kinks’ APEMAN and HOLIDAY[S]: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BBVAS8qNZZI" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BBVAS8qNZZI</a> <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao9X3fcLo3k" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao9X3fcLo3k</a> Guess I’m just [T-REX’s] 20th Century Boy: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=atmNLbycafM&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=atmNLbycafM&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD</a>
@Warren Interesting. It would have been clever to make Tumbling Dice one of the answers.
I didn't get the dice theme until the very end when I filled in random vowels in the center square and finished with the I in PIP. Huh. I've only seen dice with dots (aka pips), not letters. Would have been nice if there was some kind of animation or colors at the end to make the pips stand out. Speaking of pips, yes I tried the new game today. Completed all three levels. Didn't find the hard level to be all that hard, just bigger. Maybe I'll try it a few more times, but honestly, I'd rather have Vertex back!!!
@Beth in Greenbelt I miss Vertex so much!! I don’t play Strands because I don’t enjoy it but also because I am still sore at it for booting Vertex. Can we start a campaign to bring vertex back?
This puzzle brought to you by the Letter O.
Wow. The week I decided to jump back into daily crosswords. Tues was tough. And Wed (tonight), I had to solve to figure out the theme. But it was very impressive. No other ‘pips‘ in the rest of the puzzle. And now I’m thinking about craps. I got especially hung up on wetKISS. Then bigKISS. Then finally through the crosses, I got it. I considered check puzzle. Which for a “Friday+” level solver. Seemed humbling. I’m a big sports fan. But I couldn’t crack RESEEDED for the life of me. I’m not joking. These early week puzzles have been harder on me than the Friday and Saturday. But I love it. I may become a daily solver again (minus Sundays). For me, I thought the “start of many emotions” was a clever clue. Thank you Victor
@Weak I went through the same wet kiss > big kiss > dog-from-the-crosses process. It should have been a gimme, because my dog gives me slobbery smooches every day! Sunday puzzles are my favorites, after Thursday. Always a challenge, but always doable thanks to the many crosses.
DOG KISS. Brings back memories of Charles Schulz, Charlie Brown, Snoopy et al. Lucy: 'Ugh. I've been kissed by a dog'
@coloradoz You mean, "My lips have touched the lips of a dog!!!"
Just saw in the news that a certain Congresswoman in New York tried to make a speech in her district yesterday, but was BOOOFFSTAGE by her constituents. I guess they were telling her "no dice".
@Ragland The congresswoman you're referring to was heckled by just one audience member, and then the rest of the audience booed the heckler, not the congresswoman. It was the heckler, not the congresswoman, who was escorted out of the venue. This was as reported by the NY Post, the most right-wing newspaper in NYC. <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/05/02/us-news/aoc-heckled-by-hysterical-protester-shouting-about-gaza-genocide-at-nyc-town-hall-shame-on-you" target="_blank">https://nypost.com/2025/05/02/us-news/aoc-heckled-by-hysterical-protester-shouting-about-gaza-genocide-at-nyc-town-hall-shame-on-you</a>/ You're entitled to you own opinions, but not your own facts. Make sure you get them straight before spreading, as the right is fond of saying, fake news.
Steve L , you have missed that I was referringing to an event that happened yesterday, not on May 2nd. The Congresswoman referenced is Elise Stefanik <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/video/rep-elise-stefanik-repeatedly-booed-during-plattsburgh-event-245277765563" target="_blank">https://www.nbcnews.com/video/rep-elise-stefanik-repeatedly-booed-during-plattsburgh-event-245277765563</a>
@Ragland The placement in your initial post of "yesterday" makes it read as if the event occurred yesterday, not that you saw it yesterday.
So that's what they're called, pips. And I thought it was a tic-tac-toe puzzle! (face palms) As a beggar for REGIME change I guess I'm always in "Demo" mode. If only we beggars could be choosers. Beggar seems a little harsh. Sounds like Victor or some puzz-editor has had it with panhandlers and mendicants. Is there really an art to rolling dice? I ask in all seriousness.
@john ezra Come to think of it, Gladys Knight should have been worked into it. She doesn't even have any Os to worry about...
Anybody else have flashbacks to *that* aunt coming towards you as you wrote in, incorrectly, wet KISS? Yuck!
@Nancy J. Not to that but to my jr prom date... first and last date with him. Poor fellow, hope he figured out how be less drooly 😆
Clever visual theme, which was handled extremely well. Lots of constraints imposed by the many thematic elements, but (to me) the fill didn't seem forced or clunky. Never heard of SEITAN, so the E shared by that and SUE was simply a guess, and also the last letter I entered to finish today. Very nice Wednesday puzzle!
I don’t get the point of the die/pip theme. Sure, I solved the puzzle, but where was the fun? It was a miss for me.
@DQ PIP is a new NYT game about Dominos. If you use the NYT games app it was released yesterday.
@DQ What is the point of any theme? Did you understand what the theme was? That was the point. You could use today's theme to infer where some of the Os were in the shaded cubes.
@DQ Have you ever played a game involving a die or dice? Regular dice have pips (dots) on each face, and the number varies from 1 to 6. The shaded squares in today's puzzle mimic each face of a die, with the Os representing the pips in the positions that they would appear. They're not in any particular order, but they're all there. It would have been really cool if the positions had mimicked the way the faces appear on a die, but that would have been extremely difficult.
@DQ for me, part of the fun was appreciating the mind of a constructor who could arrange words to make those pips pop!
Did not enjoy this theme. Supposed to just tie in with the new NYT game that I'm also not super into? Wow, I try to not be negative on this forum, but I'm going for it today.
After seeing the theme, I had to wonder why the clue for 3D wasn’t tied into it too, as this die is being ROLLED.
So, the Brits also call the device Sat Navs. GPS is the signal. In the same way a joke is not funny if it has to be explained to you, so a puzzle isn’t as good after an explanation. I’ll let you off for the spelling of Honor and Odor - lol Have a great day puzzlers
@Ian Hookham - there’s no joke to explain; you’re reading the clue wrong. Americans don’t say Sat Nav. We say GPS; to Brits, that’s Sat Nav. We get this all the time. Think: Clue: What the Brits call a rubber Answer: can be either “rubber” or “eraser”, because the clue can be interpreted as either What the Brits call [what we call] a rubber or What [we call that] the Brits call a rubber So the clue Sat ___ (GPS, to Brits) is perfectly fine.
@Ian Hookham Here in the US, we call the device a phone.
Eat your Wheaties, folks! SPELT and SEITAN, that is. Such is the predominance of politics these days, that I thought for a moment that the Big Apple had a FDT Drive. :D FDR is not top-of-mind. Pip pip hooray! Thanks for a fun puzzle, Victor.
@Linda Jo SPELT and SEITAN--good catch!
Oh wow. I got slowed down by a PuRITY / PARITY problem, but this is brilliant grid art. Love the way there are no Os anywhere else in the puzzle besides the die faces.
Singer DiFranco crossed with Writer Allende is diabolical - the other crosses aren't much better. Barely limped through the SE corner. The theme here was good fun, though
@Duncan B Diabolically wonderful! Two righteous talented women. I loved seeing them together.
The buzzing around SEITAN today reminded me of the first time I ever had it: Baby Watson's in the Garage in Harvard Square served a breaded, fried seitan that was juicy and delicious. Today I found the theme helpful--it allowed me to watch for the o's and fill in some of the later ones by process of elimination. And, like many others, I loved the longer answers, especially BOO OFFSTAGE.
Kudos to Victor Schmitt!! What an impressive feat of puzzle construction. Constraining all of the O’s in the puzzle to be pips, then creating all six faces of the die in the puzzle is really awesome. Well done! I think if the O’s had been filled in upon completion to become true pips, that would have made for an impressive finish. Missed opportunity for the flashy graphics folks. I had wetKISS before DOGKISS, then it became DOtKISS. I thought, “Is that a thing?”. Similarly, had NOsIPS before NOTIPS for Japanese food service. I certainly didn’t remember the Japanese chugging tea or sake when I was there long ago.
@NYC Traveler I had NO TIES for a while there, and thought that was particularly odd a since Japan's culture has history been pretty formal!
Figured out the Dice/ Pip theme. Took a bit of staring to actually see the Dice. Relatively easy Wednesday solve. That makes my 2,196 day streak. Yes, I agree with Matthew S. This was “rolled out” to coincide with the new game that premiered today
@Megan Amazing streak. Congrats!
I found this a fun puzzle. Even though it took me five minutes than the Tuesday puzzle, somehow it felt easier. It must have been difficult for its creator to get the dice to all be upright. (I did manage the easy version of the new 'Pips' game, but had no clue as to what was wanted for the medium level. Even if all I can ever do is 'easy' level, it's still another new game to enjoy.)
@Joan I enjoyed Pips, too! I managed to do the Medium level, but it took some time and thought. Then I took a look at Hard level and quickly backed out. It would have taken far too long. Nice addition to the collection, though!
Anyone else have to run the alphabet for 50A/54D?
@Jim I started to but then vaguely remembered at TRex called Sue
@Jim Vaguely remember SEITAN (probably here), but lived north of Chicago and have been to see SUE at the Field Museum, so the latter was a gimme.
@Jim I remember the Dino named the same as me! Fun puzzle!
@Jim My alphabet run was 54A/50D but I think we're talking about the same square
@Jim this area was my downfall because I was absolutely 100% positive that the gas station was SoNOCO (I’m not sure why). I was 99% sure of the spelling of SEITAN and ISABEL Allende - though I tried IzABEL because maybe the T-Rex was zoE. In hindsight, the name SUE does ring a bell. Otherwise the puzzle was dead easy, and had way too much 3-letter fill.
I loved this one! I figured out the theme pretty quick (maybe I play too much DnD), and trying to figure out the triple O entries was fun! I’m admittedly a less talented crossword solver (too young for many references, not american, not a sports guy, etc) but seeing SUE in there was a fun easy entry for me!
@Matthew Crossword solvers improve with age and experience. Keep at it and be open to learning all sorts of things from the profound to the trivial.
Super fun puzzle and theme! And very apt given the recent release of Pips! The SE corner was a bit naticky for me, had a hard time with those entries, but really loved the grid overall!
@Gabe R Meh. I don’t like the crossed-game promotion angle myself.
@Gabe R I managed the Wednesday without cheating. I liked the crossed-game promotion; a new fun game is worth celebrating. Thank you to the puzzle and Pips creators!
Shortly after one of the worst Sunday puzzles comes probably the worst Wednesday puzzle I've ever done. The theme adds nothing to the solve, there are by my count 36 3 letter answers (surely a record) and there's still room for junky answers like reseeded, sunoco and others.
@James I leave your overall opinion to yourself (I disagree with you on both days, though) but wondering why SUNOCO and RESEEDED are junkier than any other words? They are not marquee entries certainly but what’s wrong with them?
Tough one for me but managed to work it out. And... must confess I was really not grasping the theme even when I was done. I guess I'm unfamiliar with 'pips' as used in this puzzle. No big deal. Answer history searches today - first did a search for "PIPPI". As I half expected - 'Longstocking' was in the clue for almost every appearance. But.. 'LONGSTOCKING' has never been an answer. And... that did lead me to one of the strangest puzzles I've ever encountered. A Thursday from April 18, 2013 by Stu Ockman. In that one the answers angled up from one part to another with the angled strings being ALP. One example being -- OOL P L A TID (TIDALPOOL) Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/18/2013&g=35&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/18/2013&g=35&d=A</a> I'm done. ...