I had never heard of "wash on Monday" until today, although apparently it's a thing going back at least until the 1800s. That's my "Today I Learned" for today's crossword!
@Ben Whenever I visit my fave cajun place on a Monday I order red beans and rice because that's what you eat on wash day!
@Ben And all this time I thought it was just my mother.
@Ben Not a fan of Kurt Vonnegut? <a href="https://www.jeffkaplanarts.com/book-blog/breakfast-of-champions-or-goodbye-blue-monday-by-kurt-vonnegut" target="_blank">https://www.jeffkaplanarts.com/book-blog/breakfast-of-champions-or-goodbye-blue-monday-by-kurt-vonnegut</a> (See the third paragraph's explanation of the title and subtitle/alternate title.)
@Ben I remember it well from childhood. Many people didn't have many clothes, maybe 2 changes and 'Sunday best'; they wore them for most of the week, and they all got washed on Monday and ironed on Tuesday. After being hung outside or on a pulley inside. My father, a welder, wore a blue boiler suit all week. My mother always wore an all-covering apron, or pinafore ('pinny' in Scotland). Nappie/diapers were boiled on the stove.
@Ben There was a designated domestic chore for each day of the week. Kitchen towels often were embroidered to illustrate each chore. See Etsy for many examples.
@Ben et alii You never sang, "This is the way we wash the clothes...all of a Monday morning!"? Then there's the ironing... something different for every day of the week! (Kindergarten used to be where you learned colors, numbers, letters, the days of the week, and how to stand in line....)
@Ben This was a gimme -- I guess I learned the song about daily chores as a child. But, now I do laundry on Tuesday -- because it's my day off. :o)
After the baseball player did his laundry, he hit for the cycle. (Must be the clean-up hitter.)
@Mike Basically, I'd say you must be batty.
@Mike I suspect you're all washed up, coming in late --and still wet behind the ears, too.
@Mike He must have ironed out the problems he had with his swing.
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Just saying? (5) 2. Needing more salt, perhaps (5) 3. Musical appreciation? (4)(5) 4. Purchases that come with metal plates (3)(5) 5. Like a column starting a row, perhaps (9) ADAGE ICIER TONY AWARD TAP SHOES LIBELLOUS
My favorite encore clues from last week: [Fictional character with a famous opening line] (3)(4) [Where many gather to form a line?] (5)(6) ALI BABA BINGO PARLOR
@Lewis I absolutely adored [Like a column starting a row, perhaps]. The kind of solve that makes it all worthwhile!
"With the invention of the Robo-Magic washing machine, women could finally say goodbye to their blue Mondays forever. “Off to the bridge club while my Robo-Magic does the wash! GOODBYE BLUE MONDAY!" –Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions
Liked the revealer. It wasn’t immediately obvious how the highlighted answers could be tied together. Well done!
@NYC Traveler As I did the puzzle, I thought, in order: • The theme is phrases with the initial letters L and T. • No, just L, I guess. • No, not even just L. • Aha!
After the first two themers, I thought it was going to be fishing related, with TROUT and TACKLE. Actual theme was better 🤓
Got my brain workout in trying to guess the revealer without reading its clue. Went through the theme answer initials – no luck – then wrenched my brain trying to figure out what the theme answers had in common. Nada. My first concession followed: looked at the revealer’s clue. Scoured my mind for phrases that meant “at stake”. Crickets. Finally started uncovering the revealer’s letters one at a time and after “ON THE”, the answer came, but not just as a simple realization, but more like an eruption, simultaneously getting LINE and seeing its connection with the theme answers. An awesome “Aha!” Lovely serendipities followed as I scanned the grid: • Parts of the body – HIP, EAR, TOE, TRI, and sure, SPARE TIRE. • Rare-in-crosswords five letter semordnilap (EVIAN). • Things people ingest (TROUT, PIE, BEER, EVIAN, OLIVE). • That EAR to the ground. Came to the box in everyday mode and left alive and kicking. A sterling outing. Thank you for this, Ryan!
Maybe it’s just me but aren’t the days of RERUNs—summer or not—over on these days of streaming? I guess I’m just not watching too many network shows or if I am I’m bingeing them, haven’t watched anything in a scheduled time slot but the Super Bowl for a long long time. I remember the days even before home VCRs— you had to be home for your favorite shows—you always knew what night they were on—or wait for reruns, everything had to be episodic or maybe a two parter with “Last week on…” and they had to crank out 24 shows a year week after week. Finally they invented the summer cliffhanger with “Who shot JR” on Dallas and the Borg on Star Trek. Not saying I miss it, although it does bug me when you have complex plot heavy shows that do 8 episodes and you have to wait over a year for the next one and forgot everything that happened. Sorry to drag out my ‘Member Berries (South Park viewers know what I mean) but it brought me back.
@SP It is true that the "season" has become remarkably shorter. I do think, though, that the production values and quality has made up for the diminished quality.
@SP Well, there are streaming channels that specialize in re-running old shows, so if you want to watch them, just find the right stream to watch.
@SP I had the same feeling, now there's no need for reruns because you can just stream it online if you miss it the first time, I had to remember how we used to watch TV 20 years ago.
@SP I don't know, I'm definitely a big fan of streaming but sometimes there's nothing more fun than just surfing and catching a favorite show on rerun just out of the blue... A happy surprise! ☺️
@SP The Summer of "Who shot JR?" I was restricted to bed-rest...and I watched RERUNs of "Dallas." And then after our daughter was born and survived heart surgery, etc., we moved to Dallas! A friend wrote to ask, "Is it really as flat as it looks on the TV show?" And I had to say...."No. It's much flatter." We never did get used to the flat, dry, brown landscape with its sparse, stunted trees...we realized we are defiinitely Easterners, used to the lush green East of the Mississippi River.
@SP I was thinking the same thing and that it was a dated clue.
@SP My pet peeve with series these days is that you sometimes have to wait 2 or 3 yrs between seasons. Then you only get 8 to 10 episodes. I guess they want you to watch each season more than once, but I don't have time for that. I wonder why they don't worry about losing their audience when the wait is so long.
@SP Although it's true that shows can debut in any season, it's also true that, in general, viewing numbers for TV watching are lower in the summer than in other seasons, so the summer program schedule has a lot of RERUNs and very little original programming outside of sports/reality shows/game shows/etc. So I think the clue is a fair one.
@SP I had the same thought (as a 61-year-old): I wondered whether "reruns" were even a thing nowadays (I'm referring to what that word meant in the 70s and 80s). I have the same memories as you with respect to knowing when shows were on etc. I also remember when everyone would watch the same shows and then discuss the latest episode at school or work the next day...
Acabo de hacer ese rompacabeza.
@Eddie 🤣🤣🤣 Branching out, huh?
I've been doing laundry on the wrong day my whole life? I guess back in the days when most women stayed home, it made sense. To me, that's what Saturday morning is for.
@Beth in Greenbelt Mine gets done when I run out of underwear.
@Beth in Greenbelt I made a similar comment above, before seeing yours. And I'm in Greenbelt, too!
Also on the line: Tightrope walker Wrinkle makeup A fair tennis ball Certain staff notes in music A train A word in a poem One in a row of people One in a row of cars Feel free to add to the list!
@Lewis I like that San ANDREAS kind of fits the theme.
Lewis, A pick-up artist’s hopes? (Loved “wrinkle makeup”!)
@Lewis A job that’s at risk. A factory worker.
@Lewis Is Bill from Detroit a line cook or a chef? I'll check back later to see if he weighs in.
Well, this was quite a nice opener for my day! Monday's are not usually filled with fun themers... and I see Ryan M. has bypassed the controversial BICEPS for "TRIS".... Awaiting the protests in 3....2....! I thought it was the Earth, not the heavens, that was burdening ATLAS. What say you, Puzzlers? I'm dressed in my "themed T-shirt." It's a generous XL size, perfect with tights. Quilt guild meeting this morning, followed by volunteer work preparing for the massive indoor yard sale held several times a year by the Village. The take-away is: your kids do not want your stuff when you downsize/move into nursing or memory care/die. For me (as my Tee attests) it's an opportunity to find colorful plaid 100% cotton dress shirts; you'd be surprised at how much quilting fabric can be harvested thusly. I love plaids. Rig-a-jig-jig and away we go!!
@Mean Old Lady - (TIL) a quick Wikipedia search reveals that Classical art shows Atlas holding the celestial spheres or heavens, not the terrestrial earth. Depictions such as the Farnese Atlas shows a marble Atlas holding a sphere which at first glance appears to be the earth but is actually meant to represent the celestial sphere.
@Mean Old Lady Can I ship stuff to your village? We are about to hit 50 years in our same house. We've kept the house contents pretty sane, but the garage is another matter. [No basements here where the water table is only 6 feet down....] Trying to sort through the old stuff so the kids don't have to when I die. But at the rate I'm going that's liable to be another 25 years. 76 and healthy as a horse!
Third puzzle in a row with no happy music. Third puzzle in a row where my mistake was a verb tense. This time it was CAVEs/sENSE rather than CAVED/DENSE. I really need to start paying more attention. Looking for errors is the only unfun part of this.
Francis, As I noted here just yesterday, since I solve with a chisel on a stone tablet, I look twice before cutting once. Part of that routine is reading the Across clues before entering the Down answers. It makes things less tense.
@Francis Yes, yes, and yes. The puzzle made perfect sENSE for five or ten or twenty tENSE rereads, and I felt DENSE for failing to go back and read the clues. Sigh. Finally found it.
@Francis - while tense is a very important thing to pay attention to while solving another thing to keep in mind - at least in this case - is word duplication. SENSE is in the puzzle at 13D so it shouldn’t appear again. The fourth crossword commandment, I believe, is “Thou shalt not have the same word twice in thy crossword puzzle”. I believe this is written on a stone tablet somewhere :)
A kind Monday, doable even through my hangover. Gin is an evil spirit. Hogarth’s portrayal of it as Mothers Ruin had it right, (though i never dropped the baby). I’ll believe this until next Saturday, when there’s a large party celebration at the local cider barn. My liver may have recovered by then.
@Helen Wright Sounds as if you may have the most interesting life of anyone in this community. But yes, watch out for gin.
@Helen Wright TIL about Mother's Ruin & Gin Lane. Thanks for the history lesson.
This might have been a record time for me if I hadn't received a text with a two-part validation code generated by yet another attempt to use my credit card by some unknown person out there. Clever of them to attempt it in the early hours of the morning before my bank opens and when most people are asleep, but I was able to shut down my cards via my phone before any harm was done. All of my personal information has been exposed by so many data breaches that I could put it all up on a billboard by the interstate without making it much worse. My credit will remain frozen for the rest of my life. Anyway, it added about ten minutes to what would have otherwise been a very short solve time.
@Bruce What busy bees those Phishermen are! I got a (fake) return processing notice purporting to be from Amazon....for something I did purchase (and did not return!) It's no real chore to report these, but ye gods!
A very pleasant puzzle with a delightful theme! Great fun!
A very well-constructed puzzle with good clean clues, clever theme entries, and few fillers. Thanks, Ryan, for a fine Monday puzzle to start our week!
Tri as I might, I can't get used to seeing TRIS used like this even though I'm pretty sure I've actually heard it. I'd bet it used to be clued more frequently to Tris Speaker and I say they should start doing that again. I'm sure everyone here will agree that Tris Speaker was a better ballplayer than crossword regular Mel Ott. The only argument against that is that Mel Ott had a lot more dingers, but that's in part due to Tris playing most of his career during the Dead Ball Era. But playa certainly had power, as evidenced by his MLB career-best 792 doubles! You try hitting 792 career doubles! I'll wait.
@ad absurdum Come to think of it, I haven't seen Enos "Country" Slaughter in the puzzle in a while. Third most RBIs, with 1,148 and that was after spending three years in the Pacific with the Army Air Corps. I blame Ken Burns.
@ad absurdum "I'm sure everyone here will agree that Tris Speaker was a better ballplayer than crossword regular Mel Ott." We don't all agree because we don't all speak sportsball! But I do know of the existence of TRIceps and deduced the answer from that.
@ad absurdum And Tris was undoubtedly a better ball player than Bobby Orr
@ad absurdum I am definitely familiar with hearing “bis and tris” when referring to biceps and triceps, but it does look really funny written!
Delighful Monday puzzle
Nice puzzle, and similar to others, it was wait for the revealer to discover the nature of the theme. Thanks, Ryan!
Fun Monday puzzle and a pretty smooth solve. Worked top to bottom and after I filled in LAKETROUT and LEFTTACKLE I was thinking it might be an "L/T" theme. But it didn't take too long to get past that. And - the reveal was one of the last things I filled in. Just made for a nice 'aha' moment when I finally caught on. Puzzle find today - a Sunday from July 29, 1973 by Elmer Toro with the title "Paintbox choices." All of the clues for the theme answers were just one color. Some examples: "White" CLIFFSOFDOVERORWITHFURY "Yellow" ROSEOFTEXASORPAGES "Black" MAGICORKNIGHT "Gold" ILOCKSORSMITH "Pink" ELEPHANTORGIN "Green" MOUNTAINBOYSORCARNATION And there were a few more. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=7/29/1973&g=3&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=7/29/1973&g=3&d=D</a> I'm done. ...
@Rich in Atlanta I also thought briefly of an L/T theme. Great minds, etc. :)
A laundry list: <a href="https://blogs.bl.uk/music/2016/08/wash-on-monday-iron-on-tuesday-mend-on-wednesday-churn-on-thursday-clean-on-friday-bake-on-saturday-rest-on-sunda.html" target="_blank">https://blogs.bl.uk/music/2016/08/wash-on-monday-iron-on-tuesday-mend-on-wednesday-churn-on-thursday-clean-on-friday-bake-on-saturday-rest-on-sunda.html</a>
@redweather Yes! So that makes two of us!
Our cat's name is in the puzzle! Not very original, but named by her first owner after the Disney lion. OLIVE a breezy Monday puzzle.
Who does LAUNDRY on Mondays? That's a weekend chore for me and everybody I know. Why would someone wait until Monday?
@Francis DeBernardo Google it. Old tradition.
@Francis DeBernardo There's a fairly dreadful nursery song from my childhood (over 70 years ago) that starts "Today is Monday, today is Monday. Monday "washday"... etc.
@Francis DeBernardo Right! How else do you have clean clothes to wear to work on Monday?
Enjoyed this Monday puzzle. Had a few pauses but was able to get with crosses easily enough. On the lion king lion was first thinking Scar and simba. Well created puzzle
Fun puzzle. Fun post-dinner solve because dinner happened to be an EAR of delicious sweet-corm with fish! (Cod, not TROUT, so that's where the similarity ends. Pellegrino, not EVIAN, as well.) I never noticed all the leading L's in the theme -- but likely was saved from that because I always instantaneously skip football clues! However, I did notice a connection between this grid and today's (Sunday's) Connections puzzle. Cool!
@G I had sweet corn and copper river salmon while doing the puzzle as my underwear washed.
@G and Laura, Mmmmmm!! Sounds so delicious!! G, today, when we went to the store to buy rolls for a family get together down in Milwaukee, as soon as we walked in the door, they had a lobster roll stand. There were free samples but you could also get a cold lobster roll for $10 with fries. We were so not there for that, but we couldn't resist getting some and sharing them with the family. It was funny cuz the guy kept emphasizing that it was real lobster, not imitation. Hello Midwest!! They were actually quite good, but of course it brought up memories of being at The Cod last year, as we call it, and the amazing lobster roll we had at that place you recommended. Still drool a little to remember that! ☺️ Sweet corn with it would have been amazing!!
@G - We defrosted 2 bottles of broth from our month in Maine - one from steamer clams, the other from shrimp shells. We invited friends over for seafood risotto, adding shrimp, mussels, and squid to the rice cooked in the broth. Served with 3 kinds of tomatoes from the farmers market, dressed with basil from my husband's garden. One of the friends brought a peach-ricotta cake. Yay summer bounty!
A fun one with not one but two TIL's (PEDS and NALA) spurring this morning's read. Off to tend the LAUNDRY.
Not too difficult for me today, but still needing thought, which is nice. Sometimes I do Mondays with no help, but today one letter revealed - I didn't know BUSTS or BOBCAT or LEFT TACKLE, and the revealing the 2nd B opened it up. A few unknowns came with the crossers, but SSNS is now what you all call a 'gimme'.
I rarely have to flyspeck on a Monday, but I had an error I couldn't find at 29D. I had filled in OOo, which left me with "olla" for 42 across. It wasn't until I realized that BIL wasn't a science class that I got the happy music. I always get olla and hola mixed up. Fun puzzle, but I have to get back to work... I got laundry to do!
Even though I've never heard of Monday being laundry day, this was still my 5th fastest solve. I know some people like to complain about easy crosswords, but I think Monday is a good place for them.
Once again we had ORB, SSN, ANI (love her music!) and EMT, but at least no OREO. And quite a nice refreshing Monday puzzle.
It's still Sunday in California. But I guess I now know what I am supposed to do tomorrow.... And the cow isn't as fun as doing the crossword. :)
@Daily-Solver That is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most engrossing post I've ever seen. All apologies to others of you who have written wonderful posts, but this one makes me sense the fourth spatial dimension. I think.
I love Monday crosswords. Thanks Ryan.
Umm, I think someone missed something on the Midi. The clue and the answer to 25D are both the same, except one is all uppercase and the other is combined uppercase-lowercase. Editors might want to fix that before too many people get into the Midi.
I was wondering if this was an editing error or some sort of intentional joke? If so it went over my head.
@Pezhead Well, you got me to do the Midi. It's highly unlikely that the editors would see your comment here. You could try emailing <a href="mailto:Crosswordeditors@nytimes.com">Crosswordeditors@nytimes.com</a>, but also highly unlikely that the clue would be fixed.
You all may have heard of, " no mow may." How about a spinoff, " No wash Monday"?
I think I just got off the phone with someone using COLDCALLER PEDS, because despite my better judgment I’ve just bought a year’s worth of OIL LAUNDRY PIE. And I really don’t need it. Such a fine puzzle, with a subtle but satisfying theme. And zero error.
Only 135 comments at the moment. I guess that's good news for you, Ryan. Nice job.
I agree with the scattering of comments I read. It was a delightful Monday puzzle with some twists and turns that made it fun. Thanks Ryan Mathiason.
It would help if I could spell tray....
Thanks Ryan. Fun puzzle and a good way to begin my week. One of my fastest solves (6:48) to date.
Lawrence Taylor called to complain about not being today's theme.
@Grant, It sure looked that way! 😄
Fun Monday jaunt. One typo to search out. Missed the past tense of ushered out, so I entered LEtIN which gave me VItEO as a YouTube medium 🤪 MAMMA MIA! 🤦🏼♀️ Quick fix and off to sleep I go. Happy Monday!
I guess it goes to show that if you're an independent musician who was pseudo famous for a cup of coffee in the 90s and you want to be forever remembered almost daily in the New York Times, just get yourself a name that's 3 letters with 2 vowels.
@Scott Ani, Eno, Ono. the meeny miney moe of crosswords.
@Scott I prefer the reference to Ms. DiFranco to the cuckoos who preceded her, (and I'm not using "cuckoo" metaphorically).
This was a great, fun puzzle! A great way to start the week! Thank you, Ryan! Question: I see some of y’all mention your stats. The only thing I see each day is whether or not I beat my average time and the length of my streak. Where do I find other stats, if any? Thanks!
@Terry Click on the “hamburger” menu at the upper left (at least it is on the website; don’t know about the app) and select “Statistics.”
@Terry Go to xwstats.com and connect your NYT account. Gives you info about the puzzles, the constructors, and how you're doing.
Beautiful puzzle. Finished it in record time and enjoyed it throughout. Thanks Ryan Mathiason!
I knew 24A because my daughter is married to a former Steeler whose father was a Right Tackle for Cleveland and the Steelers in the last century. (I also saw the movie.)
“On toe” is not used by most ballet dancers today. It’s pretty old-fashioned. En pointe is the correct term. Seems like it could be a useful crossword answer.
@Hmmmm Good point but constructors are more interested in it being useful fill rather than that.
My usual late puzzle find - or actually puzzles in this case. For no discernible reason I wondered about LODGEACOMPLAINT as a possible answer - especially because it's 15 letters. Well... it's been an answer in four Shortz era puzzles and they all had the same basic theme (and a lot of common answers). Anyway - first a Tuesday from April 23, 1996 by N. Steinberg. This one had all straightforward clues. The other theme answers were: COTTAGECHEESE SHEDLIGHTUPON And then a Monday from April 14, 1997 by Stephanie Spadaccini. The other theme answers in that one: SHEDAFEWPOUNDS HOMERIGHTINON And then.. a Wednesday from May 28, 2003 by Alan Arbesfeld. The other theme answers in that one: COTTAGEINDUSTRY BUNGALOWBILL CABINCRUISER And finally - a Tuesday from September 28, 2004 by Nancy Kavanaugh. The other themers in that one: COTTAGECHEESE CABINPRESSURE SHACKUPTOGETHER That's it. ....