Someday many years from now, a Wordplay column few of us will be here to read will begin, "Today's puzzle is by Bryan Cheong, whose first puzzle was published way back in 2025 when he was just 14."
@DIVAS IVLIVS hopefully in a peaceful world with no wars
I rarely comment on here, but I enjoyed this one enough to feel like I wanted to post something nice about it. This is before learning it was crafted by a 14-year-old. The only two things I have to say about that are (1) wow, (2) I wish you a lifetime of coming up with amazing crosswords, and (3) I’ll be so stoked to get the chance to play the next one. Seriously, great puzzle, and not just “for an X-year-old.” It was bright, witty, dotted with fine trivia, and as engaging as a good Friday should be.
@atm Understanding math and being good at it are three entirely different things 😂
i am totally amazed that a 14 year old student from singapore has published a crossword in the times, i am a 76 year old lady who usually uses all the helps provided just to solve the crossword! and i would do a little dance when i finish solving, if i could! lol! congratulations young man!
All the accolades to Bryan for this incredible themeless! This puzzle was amazing, and I wish for your teenage years to be filled with nothing but good things and lots of lots of crosswords, both solving and constructing. Congratulations!
@Mike What? No pun? We all agree with your sentiments, but surely a STAR-NOSED MOLE is due some sort of attention, eh?
@Mike Part II: Never mind.
@Eve My husband is a retired graphic designer. I have heard a lot about typefaces over the last 40 or so years. That crossing amused me, too.
The book on Swiss cheese had a lot of plot holes. (But it was still pretty grate.)
@Mike No matter how fondu make me of your puns, I’ve comté look forward to them like a rarebit of happiness and every day I find them more agruyèreable
@Mike So, if Bryan Cheong aspires to be The Big Cheese, will he be declared the GOAT?
@Mike Now that you've made me say the word, I'm ready for my closeup. 😬
I especially loved 52A CROW. Some amazing research on crows has been done by Professor Emeritus, John Marzluff, and his team at the University of Washington in Seattle. See his books, including “In the Company of Crows and Ravens” for some fascinating reading. There are a couple of huge crow roosts in the Seattle area. I frequently visit the one at the University of Washington’s satellite campus in Bothell, about 20 miles northeast of Seattle. As many as 14,000 crows commute from surrounding neighborhoods to the roost each night. When I’m home, I watch for what I call the crow commute as daylight is coming to an end. The crows in my neighborhood are winging their way to the Bothell roost, somewhat less than 20 miles as the crow flies. I don’t think many people look overhead and see that the crows are all flying in the same direction. At the roost, they are all crowded together and they make a big racket as they arrive around sunset. Then, in the morning, they return to their own little plot in their own particular neighborhood and are very territorial. City crows, who have abundant food, have pretty small territories. The tales of their intelligence, alluded to in the clue, are wonderful. “Crow Planet” by Lyanda Lynn Haupt, another local author, also provides an interesting look at these intelligent animals with whom we share our home.
@Cindy We have a cluster of crows that hang out on our street, making comments about all comings and goings. One utility line is a favored soapbox, and one or two are always perched up there to scold their pals, or us, or just the neighborhood in general. I talk to them occasionally, and always say hello at least, and they seem to appreciate this. We have to park on the street, and before we all got to know one another, they routinely decorated our car with great white splats, especially effective since our car is dark green. Now that they know me they have knocked it off, and it's rare that one of them is so rude as to include our car in their works of art up and down the street. I thank them for this, and they usually respond with a caw or two. I don't know where they spend their nights.
@Cindy Well I didn’t know until today that they can recognize human faces, and that makes me nervous for some reason.
Re 22A for Andrzej, Jane, Helen, etc., plus any number of Americans: This is baseball, of course. An RBI is a run batted in, a statistical category for batters in which the consequence of their turn at bat brings in a run. This is usually a result of a runner or runners already on base scoring on a hit, but they may also score on an out, or various other ways. A batter also gets an RBI for scoring on his own hit when he hits a home run. With a runner on third base, one possible option is to bunt (i.e. tap, not swing at) the ball, and hit the ball a short distance, forcing the first or third baseman to move in quickly to pick up the ball, by which time the runner on third can score unimpeded. This is called a squeeze play. There are two types. The safety squeeze is when the runner on third base waits for the batter to bunt the ball successfully, and then dashes home. This requires a fast runner on third base. The other type is the suicide squeeze. The runner on third breaks for home as the ball is pitched, and hopes the batter can make contact with the ball. If the batter does, then the runner at third is sure to score, more so than on a safety squeeze. On the other hand, if the batter can’t bunt the ball, the runner is a dead duck; hence the name. Since the runner is likely to be out on the play, squeeze plays normally happen with fewer than two outs. If it’s the bottom of the ninth (last chance up) in a tie game, that RBI could mean victory for the team at bat.
"...hopes the batter can make contact with the ball. If the batter does, then the runner at third is sure to score..." Unless of course the bunt is popped up and caught by catcher or pitcher, and they throw to third for a double play.
@Steve L. And oh yes, 47D is also baseball. A Gold Glove is an annual award for the top fielder at every position. Scott Rolen was a third baseman, so if you were facing a possible squeeze play by your opposition, Scott would have been a good man to have on third base.
@Steve L Very good description of the squeeze plays and when they'd be used. I've always though they were one of the most exciting plays in baseball. Far more interesting than a home run.
@Steve L I love me a bunt precisely because it is so counterintuitive. Instead of hitting a ball hard and far, you choose to hit it soft and short. While you're racing to first, the infield is chasing the wibbling little bouncer down the 3rd base line and perhaps praying it hits a pebble and bounces foul. Or watching it fall into the precisely empty triangle among the infielders while they and the pitcher try to simultaneously make sure someone covers first base or third or home, and someone else catches it and throws out somebody /somewhere/! Hah!
@Steve L Nice write up! Hey, can you do the same for Yogi Berra isms, crypto finance, the game of cricket, and dance floors? Yours, Confused in Crosswordlandia
@Steve L RBI has been in a puzzle 296 times. I suspect most have figured out what it is.
@Steve L This post is an act of highest diplomatic grace. You have turned me from a grump into an ump. Thank you!
@Steve L I was able to follow most of your post, thank you. However, I'm beginning to think I may be too dim to ever fully understand baseball. The complexity is way beyond football (as in, soccer), and even there I feel lost sometimes 😄. @Mr Dave Some of us get RBI but Steve knows what he's doing. If somebody does not know what an RBI is (and there are many more solvers who don't than you think), they won't get the connection between the clue and the answer in today's puzzle, so to make his explanation compete Steve had to comment on RBI, too. As a fellow educator, I applaud that approach.
@Steve L Gracias, mi amigo. I’m not a big baseball fan — I’ve attended a total of two MLB games and one Little League game in my life — but I popped RBI into the grid without hesitation, probably because you’ve explained before how a sacrifice bunt works. Keep educating those of us who aren’t baseball savvy. Your love and knowledge of the game are evident. I’m sorry to see that your Mets are six games behind. I know the regular season is almost over and I hope that doesn’t mean they’re out of the running for the playoffs.
@Steve L Thank you! So not a punt .... I did understand this - one question - if the batter does not manage to hit the ball, and the runner has started to run, is the runner automatically out?
@Steve L Nice explainer. My first answer was sac. Oops - The sacrifice isn’t the goal is it? 🙂
@Steve L I love baseball and it is definitely the most complicated American sport, but I would argue it's still less complicated than cricket. So if the European mind can comprehend that, I'm sure they could come around on baseball too!
@Steve I’m no longer young but I never knew that a batter gets an RBI for scoring on his own hit when he hits a home run. Thanks!
@Andrzej I do believe that ECARTE is old crosswordese. I'm sure that's where I first learned it.
@Andrzej The easy-mode clue was "French relative of whist". I didn't find it a much easier clue than the original, and I'm French.
@Andrzej We play it frequently, great little card game.
@Andrzej I was sure it would be EUCHRE which seemed to fit great at first, but led to trouble later on. After I eventually fixed it and finished I checked and EUCHRE only has 24 cards, but I didn't remember that precise detail.
@Andrzej et al Doesn't it come up in one of the James Bond books? played in Monte Carlo? or false memory.....
When, as with today’s puzzle, a solve becomes a rich event-filled journey: • Stop and thinks. • Headslaps. • Gusts of amazement when it turns out you know something you had no idea you knew. • Nods of respect at seeing a triple-stack with nary a dud in the crosses. • Joybursts when answers to tricky clues hits you. • Joybursts that come that moment your brain fills in those spaces between the crosses in a long answer. • Didn’t-knows your are glad you learned. • Wows at cleverness. • Heartmelt moments when beautiful words emerge in the grid. • Smiles at answers with zing. Plus, the thrill at hearing a new and promising Crosslandia voice. Congratulations on your debut, Bryan, and thank you for a splendid outing!
@Lewis It really is a good puzzle! I think we all agree on that. But I think you might need to calm down. Getting a little concerned...
I came here to praise the puzzle, and now knock me over with a feather to find out who constructed it. The most fun part was realizing that filling in my last blank gave me the name of my old friend SHOJI. Great entries, clever clues. It looked hard at first and then it cracked open, just as a satisfying Friday should do.
Bryan, it is a remarkable achievement to construct a puzzle that appears in the NY Times for a Friday, but to do it at age 14 is amazing. Your clues were fresh and fun, probably because you don't already have a bag full of fillers (era, eon, Isis, Uma, Eno, Ono, etc.) and have to connect it all solidly from what you can find in your own imagination and vocabulary. Clearly, it's an impressive collection! What a dazzling achievement to have such a dream come true. I think I understand why it is easier for you to construct a puzzle than to solve one. When you're writing clues, you're the driver; when we're solving a puzzle, we're the passengers. We board the train and the engineer steers us toward the destination, and along the way we have to figure out what it will be. Thank you, and I hope your success continues to blossom in whatever you choose to do.
A really fun Friday puzzle today, that had me struggling to figure out many different tricky clues, and which felt as if it took much longer than the clock shows. Just the kind of Friday puzzle that is my favorite.
So thrilled to see a constructor from Singapore! And a 14 year old at that! Great job Bryan - this was a really fun solve. Very impressive work.
Came to this page specifically to praise this puzzle’s construction, only to discover the age of the constructor! Just a phenomenal debut. There’s so much thought that went into stacking this together: TYPEFACE crossing SERIF, NEON TETRA crossing STAR FACED MOLE, the pairing of SENORITAS and MUCHACHAS. Everything just felt like it was meant to be there. Well done!
@Stephen NEON TETRA gave me such a nice memory of my dad's fish tank and those beauties swimming around in it. They really do look like NEON.
Great job Bryan! Very impressive, especially considering your age! Maybe you can show it to your teachers and get a little extra credit
I’ll just say every time I go to look at hints, 9/10 times they’re the clues I have answers to. Meanwhile, I’m over here trying to think of a game with a 32 card deck only to find it’s something I’ve never heard of in my life
I am very impressed with the meatiness of the fill, given the constructor’s age. I hope he will continue to eschew OREO, EMU, ENO, and LILNAS.
@Roberta One can only continue to hope! From your post to the ears of ODIN, THOR, LOKI, EROS, ARES, and ISIS.
I learned the [Jewish honorific] REB from "Fiddler on the Roof". From "If I were a Rich Man" The most important men in town would come to fawn on me! They would ask me to advise them, Like a Solomon the Wise. "If you please, Reb Tevye..." "Pardon me, Reb Tevye..." Posing problems that would cross a rabbi's eyes! And it won't make one bit of difference if I answer right or wrong. When you're rich, they think you really know!
@CRTH Ouch! Last line is all too timely.
Color me impressed. I liked TYPEFACE crossing SERIF. We have both DYNAMITE STICK and TNT. SHOJI and TERIYAKI SAUCE. IDIOT TAX had me laughing aloud. This entire puzzle is a TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE of a well constructed themeless Friday. Well done, Bryan. You truly have a gift.
@Jacqui J the missing post! It’s only 13 hours later than when I actually posted it… 🤦🏼♀️
@Jacqui J Okay, my chewed posts had some mild criticism so I could maybe understand the 11 hour emu chow down, but yours here? So innocent. Those flighty (in one sense only) birds, man! Oh wait, you quoted the crossword answer beginning with "i__". That's why. Sigh. Such primitive filters here. ...Second try on this reply, further obscuring the suspect word. You know, the one in the puzzle.
Please remove the ad from the playing area. I need to use large fonts and now can't see the entire puzzle with clue at top.
Hi @Elsie, Thanks for letting us know. Please send a note to our customer care desk at <a href="mailto:nytgames@nytimes.com">nytgames@nytimes.com</a> and they will help you.
@Elsie This! I had to shrink down to 90% on my laptop screen and then had to squint to read the clues. Annoying your existing customers is the opposite of growing subscribership.
@Deb Amlen I can't access your column today Friday Sept 5 ... I've tried all day.
@Elsie WAPO has done even worse with multiple ads and it is now unplayable.
Very impressive puzzle for a 14 year old! Congratulations!
@Sandy Doubly so as it's his first submission to any publication!
Great debut Bryan. I was ready to grumble about what I considered an overly obscure author as the answer to 18A but then I looked up Greg Egan on Wikipedia. His books sound fascinating and his string of awards is impressive. I like a puzzle that teaches me some worthwhile stuff.
Oh my word, I never thought I'd see the day a fellow Singaporean construct the daily NYT crossword, let alone one still in secondary school. Congrats Bryan!
I thought this was an excellent themeless puzzle, and that was before I saw the age of the constructor. Very impressive, Bryan. Not impressive for your age, just plain impressive.
Though they were known as fierce business rivals, as children Dom Perignon and Reb Manischewitz were BFFs.("I dunno. Limeade stands are so 10 minutes ago. Let's come up with something fresh.") Very entertaining puzzle, with some dynamite schtick! TIL two more things crows are better at than I am.
@ad absurdum Kosher champagne!
@Steve L EWWWW!! Is champagne without bacon bits still even champagne?!?!?
STARNOSEDMOLE got me thinking of Star Bellied Sneetches, which got me reading the Wikipedia entry for the book, where I learned it also contains a story "Too Many Daves". That hit kinda close to home, especially since there are three Daves that frequent my local. There's another story "What Was I Scared Of" which is apparently one of a very few Seuss works not written in anapestic tetrameter. And that is the coolest phrase I've heard all week.
@Dave S What about "metonymy"? If we're talking about English tropes, I insist on metonymy (at least, until synecdoche comes along.)
@Dave S The office I worked in had at one point three Daves out of 50 or so employees. It was almost as bad as the Mikes and Marks. We had a workflow tracking system that used people’s initials. So all our Daves, Mikes and Marks were known by their initials or their surnames.
I don’t know why. But I feel like it is easier to create a theme puzzle than a late week one. I’m probably wrong. In any case. One submission. One published puzzle. That is crazy bro. Congrats Bryan. I’m curious to know how many clues were yours. I really really struggled with this. And so many times almost succumbed to check puzzle. But I just kept pulling my hair out in that SW corner. I just couldn’t let go of beer for “cold one”. Until finally did. That said. Zero junk fill. Great cluing. This seems like a Friday from 10 years ago, level of difficulty. At least for me. This is the toughest Friday I’ve done in a while. Anyway. The football is finally restarting soon. So that weather delay was perfect for doing the puzzle. NFL is back!! Go ravens! Go niners!
@Weak Ah, yes. It'a the time of year when football fans desperately hope that the Gambling Interests and the NFL will allow their team to win the Super Bowl this year.
@Weak Two favorite teams is weak sauce indeed. 🤣 Go Hawks!
@Weak No you are right. I’ve had three theme puzzles and a Sunday published but I couldn’t begin to construct a themeless
As your resident alphadoppeltotter, a role I’ve inexplicably taken in the past eight years, it is my duty to inform you that this puzzle has an unusually low number of double letters, at four, where unusual is any number less than five. This is the third time this year that this has happened. I remain your humble servant, ever on the alert.
@Lewis Thank you for your service to crossword-kind.
This was an exceptionally good puzzle. Kudos to the constructor. ... and given his age (14!), I've got yet another reason to question what I've done with my life. Thanks, kid.
@ATOMICPunk I keep thinking of the great Tom Lehrer quote: “It’s a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age…He had been dead for five years.”
Just the right level of challenge for a Friday. Nice to see Greg Egan in the crossword. He's my favourite sci-fi short story author.
Wow. I can't believe the constructor of this puzzle is only 14-years old. Great job! Deb wrote, "1A. A DENTIST is [One who tries to make a good impression] when trying to get a three-dimensional impression of your teeth." Sure, but it could have also been my dad, who didn't work on people's teeth but often came home with mysterious new impressions in the body of his car. He was a prolific DENTIST. My dad was to cars as my cat is to SHOJI screens, which is why mine is consigned to the attic right now. The screen, not the cat! An IDIOT TAX is going up to an ATM, withdrawing $40, and walking away with the cash still in the machine. (I don't think modern ATM machines let you do that anymore.) I wondered why the the clue for 35A specified an Asian Fusion restaurant rather than Japanese. Maybe to add a level of difficulty for a Friday? It took me a bit to figure out because I was looking for a fusion type of condiment like kimchi salsa or wasabi mayo. (I might have said, "FINE, BE MAD," at one point to my sister on our road trip this summer. Not my finest moment.) There were so many fun entries in this puzzle, but my favorite has to be STAR NOSED MOLE. Wowie. Nature is wondrously freaky! <a href="https://share.google/m5Q3SXp2fRyptPF2E" target="_blank">https://share.google/m5Q3SXp2fRyptPF2E</a>
@Beth in Greenbelt Also, what do you get when you cross my cat with a STAR NOSED MOLE? <a href="https://youtu.be/9gmphl5Nar4?si=K9V5UTFVPuHAiiyB" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/9gmphl5Nar4?si=K9V5UTFVPuHAiiyB</a> A flerken!!!
@Beth in Greenbelt If you are beguiled by the star-nosed mole, I suspect that you will love "An immense world : how animal senses reveal the hidden realms around us" by Ed Yong. It's a great book that looks at the world from animals' points of view. Every page has a new revelation. WARNING: Some pieces of animal behaviour are truly nightmarish. I couldn't sleep after reading about some insects' family lives. (Shudder)
@Beth in Greenbelt TERIYAKI SAUCE as such isn’t really a thing here in Japan, other than sometimes at hamburger chains. Teriyaki is a cooking technique in which meat is periodically brushed with soy sauce and sweet rice wine while being grilled to produce a glaze. The sauce mimics the flavor produced by the technique but is really more of a North American thing, so you’d be more likely to find it used—especially as a condiment rather than as a cooking shortcut—at an establishment billing itself as a fusion restaurant than one proclaiming to offer authentic Japanese cuisine.
Thanks , Advertising Department. I had to tape a piece of cardboard over the top of my laptop to block the new ad that doesn't disapper. For God's sake, let me enjoy the game in peace. Over and out.
@Marigold It refuses to go away even after clicking through and viewing. I used uBlock Origin's element picker and made it go bye-bye.
@Marigold I had to resize my screen to get the puzzle to fit in the newly-smaller space. :\
I could see the critter on the page of the World Book, but I couldn't come up with its name until I got a boost from the crosses. (We had an out-dated 1947 set of encyclopedias along with a set of ChildCraft books--one was "Myths and Legends"!!) It competed with the Mandrill for "Least-attractive Animal" in my young opinion. But the Animals were some of the few color plates, so I spent a lot of time with Volume A. Oh, the puzzle. I had EUCHRE for the card game (based on the E) and BEER for "Cold one," so I had to overcome that tangle for the solve. Things I did not know and won't remember include: sci-fi writer EGAN; Baseball player ROLEN; Hawaii 5-0 actor Daniel DAE Kim; the word MIOSIS; and the Silk Road city OSH. I would like to thank The Crosses for being my Solvation. Hah!
@Mean Old Lady Wow. I’ve gotten so used to seeing color photos everywhere that I’d forgotten those old books we had when I was a kid in which the color plates were few and far between. (My childhood set of encyclopedias was probably only 10 or 15 years old when I started looking at it.)
"...a set of ChildCraft books..." Mean Old Lady, This was a quick walk from my childhood home: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1952/07/19/archives/modern-showroom-shuns-tricky-toys-childcraft-company-features.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/1952/07/19/archives/modern-showroom-shuns-tricky-toys-childcraft-company-features.html</a>
@Mean Old Lady - We had an encyclopedia set from 1935! There was only one World War in it. It did have more room for longer articles on things.
[Applause] Congratulations to Bryan Cheong, that was nice. A textbook example of a cheery Friday puzzle you can sink your teeth into! ¡Muchas gracias! from a happy muchachita 😉
Whew. And WOW! Typical tough Friday for me, but ended up being an enjoyable solve working things out from the crosses. And... a 14 year old constructed this? That is just incredible. And then... ...six debut answers and five others that only ever appeared once or twice before, but most of those reasonably familiar terms. That's just... amazing. Have a feeling that Mr. Cheong is going to become quite familiar around here. Two thumbs way up. I'll put my puzzle find today in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As promised - a Thursday from January 24, 2013 by Michael Shteyman. No theme reveal in that one, but... here are some answers: FRANKSINATRA EXTRA NISSANSENTRA COSANOSTRA NEONTETRA IRANCONTRA Don't recall another one quite like that. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/24/2013&g=20&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/24/2013&g=20&d=D</a> ....
14? 14??? You gotta be kidding me. Great puzzle, Bryan Chong! It was a real pleasure solving this one. Thank you!
Don’t know which is more notable. That he can construct it at 14, or that I can’t solve it at 66. Fine job 😅
I wrote a post an hour ago and it’s still not here… 🤔 Can’t figure out what triggered the emus?! Basically I said I was impressed. That this was a TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE of a themeless puzzle. Congratulations on your debut, Bryan. You truly have a gift.
@Jacqui J I liked the crossing of TYPEFACE with SERIF. Also having both DYNAMITE STICK and TNT. And finally TERIYAKI SAUCE and SHOJI. My only misstep was avoid before DODGE.
@Jacqui J The NYT comment system is notoriously wonky at times. Innocuous comments sometimes don’t show up for hours (and sometimes don’t show up at all). There’s nothing we can do about it except accept it or stop commenting. It’s a shame, because the beauty of this forum is the potential for actual conversation with others. That’s impossible when you never know if what you’re saying is ever going to appear here. I agree with your assessment of the puzzle.
What an awesome debut!!! I loved the stacks, but my favorite entry was FINE! BE MAD!
@Joya I started with OKAY (BE that way!) before BE MAD emerged, and of course I was quickly persuaded to change OKAY to FINE (spoken in a very sharp, short manner.)
@Joya I liked FINE BE MAD a lot, too, and I was surprised to see that it had never been in a NYT puzzle before. My husband has many fine qualities, but accepting my apologies is not one of them. I’m often tempted to say FINE BE MAD.
Wowwww Bryan! What an awesome accomplishment and a really sophisticated and fun puzzle. Perfect for a Friday. Congratulations and well done! Keep going - I can’t wait to solve your next one.
How can we make the obnoxious banner about buying a family subscription go away? It's so distracting to have those words shouting at you when you're trying to focus on a game?
@pj Scroll down? Get an ad blocker?
Terrific puzzle. Not too easy nor too obscure. Perfect Friday. More please.
REB and ECARTE got me. Otherwise pretty easy (and fun) fill.
@Steve I'm sorry you were skunked by REB. It is my common honorific when I'm talking to someone Jewish of whose status I'm unsure. (Rabbi? Cantor? Tinker? Tailor? Lawyer? Techie?) Any Jewish male can be safely addressed as Reb Whatnot. No one will take umbrage. Better mazel next time!
@Steve I learned Reb from Fiddler on the Roof, where the main character imagined others addressing him respectfully as Reb Tevye. As a kid from a small town in Wisconsin, I had no idea what was meant by this catchy bit of alliteration. It was one of my first exposures to Jewish culture.
I'm glad this puzzle was easy-ish for others, but it TAXed this IDIOT's antique brain. Bryan, it is a remarkable achievement to construct a puzzle that appears in the NY Times for a Friday, but to do it at age 14 is amazing. What a dazzling achievement to have such a dream come true. I think I understand why it is easier for you to construct a puzzle than to solve one. When you're writing clues, you're the driver; when we're solving a puzzle, we're the passengers. We board the train and the engineer steers us to the destination. You don't already have a bag full of fillers—era, eon, isis, Uma, Eno, etc.—and have to connect it all solidly from what you can find in your own imagination and vocabulary. Clearly, it's an impressive collection! Thank you, and I hope your success continues to blossom in whatever you choose to do.
@dutchiris This is a comment submitted yesterday that is just now appearing. I rewrote it, deleting a word in the puzzle that offended the emus (let's be honest here—the A.I.). Sorry .
@dutchiris from one of your posts yesterday, re settings--- I think Hard Solve relates to Wordle. In hard solve mode, you have to use the clues you've gotten in each succeeding guess, rather than strategically making a guess that cannot be the answer but could help eliminate other letters.
Congratulations on an amusing NYT debut, Mr. Cheong! I enjoyed writing it up for Diary of a Crossword Fiend. <a href="https://crosswordfiend.com/2025/09/04/friday-september-5-2025/#ny" target="_blank">https://crosswordfiend.com/2025/09/04/friday-september-5-2025/#ny</a> I hope we’ll see you back here soon!p. Thanks for the fun!
@Eric Hougland when I learned to drive a car, my uncle told me to “EASE ON the gas as I ease off the clutch”. So it made sense to me.
Kudos to Bryan!! Quite a feat. Challenging. Creative. Head-scratching. Annoying. Sparkling. Fun. Instructive. (TIL ecarte) Arcane. Brain-stretching. More please.....
Noted ring bearer, that was sneaky. I liked it.
@Linda Jo It is a nice clue. So is [Ring bearer of note] (Robert Logan, 8/26/22). There are also three instances of just [Ring bearer]. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder?w=FRODO" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder?w=FRODO</a>
@Linda Jo It stumped me for longer than I'd like to admit. I started by thinking of something like "Saturn". Who knew they meant "ring" like you wear on your finger???
I liked the clue but don't understand how it was sneaky? I think he is the most famous ring bearer by far and an instaget for me. What am I missing for alternate answers?
Very fun puzzle by a very young constructor. The SW was trouble for me because [Cold one] should be Beer, but was BREW. I guess that's ok, too. After all, a 14-year-old constructor shouldn't know much about beer. Also, it's a better answer than mine. That, coupled with TYPEFont instead of TYPEFACE made that little corner quite maddening. But I think I may be getting better at not getting stuck on my first guess. I fairly quickly abandoned IDIOTTAb for IDIOTTAX, something we're all paying right now. (We'll see if the emus and my critics pick up on that.) I thought I was a goner when I read [Condiment at an Asian fusion restaurant] because I don't know what that is. Fortunately TERIYAKISAUCE emerged from the crosses. Also I was able to pivot from REcycled to REUSABLE for
Wow this was DYNAMITE and the fact that it was a debut for a 14 year old is just incredible. Keep them coming!!
@SP It's hard to believe that our Universe can encompass both a paragon such as Bryan and a thing like Skyline chili spaghetti, isn't it?
@Mean Old Lady - Now I am hungry for some Skyline 3-way.