I predict (or hope, really) that I will not be the only person who parses 36D incorrectly, comes to the comment section wondering what what on earth is happening, and then has a good laugh at themselves when they realize their error. 😂
@Michael B Lol. I saw that too at first. I thought, "No way. It can't be... Oh, nevermind." I will say I figured it out before coming to the comments, though. 🤣
@Michael B. I parsed it correctly while solving but went back to it after finishing to see what you meant. Oh, I had a good laugh. Thanks for that!
@Michael B. I thought "What? What??". And that's why I'm here reading your comment. Whew!
@Michael B. I feel your pain! I have recounted here how, as a newbie NYT crossworder, I actually looked up ATIT, yes, I googled it. Ah well, life is for learning
@Michael B. Said the nursing mother to her baby. :)
@Michael B. I read it the same way at first. Perhaps we were primed by the "36D" to think of a cup size.
@Sonja glad to be of service 🌞
I read “Hallmark of a typical Greek tragedy” a little too fast, and it conjured some possible greeting cards: “Jocasta, Happy Mother’s Day! from Oedipus” “Jason, Happy Anniversary, love Medea” “Feel better soon, Prometheus!”
@Cat Lady Margaret Speaking of liver sliver…
@Cat Lady Margaret "Congratulations on getting that load off your shoulders, Atlas."
@Cat Lady Margaret Hallmark offered to produce Christopher Nolan’s new movie. He disagreed with their vision for the project.
@Cat Lady Margaret Please develop this theme for your crossword debut!!!!! sincerely, everyone here
@Cat Lady Margaret "Sincere condolences on your loss, dear Antigone" from Uncle Creon
Hey y'all, Thanks for checking out our debut! We're pickled at the amazing response and you make us want to keep on constructing. If you want more Harit and Cole, you should check out Strawberry Milk's first single :) <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/18L4xQ4F4Es2tOddCfZFly?si=df98a286c2be47c8" target="_blank">https://open.spotify.com/track/18L4xQ4F4Es2tOddCfZFly?si=df98a286c2be47c8</a>
@Harit R You are most welcome and it is always a pleasure here when the constructor(s) check in. Funny though that your thread from last night has been taken down and your original post put back in. But no matter, well done.
So at first glance I had 36D as HAVE A TRY, then HAVE A SIP. The correct answer is HAVE A wait, what? Oh, HAVE AT IT.
@Dave S This was particularly alarming since I was switching from "have a bit" and, wait, what? Oh....
@Dave S Me too. I was shaking my head saying, “That can’t be right.” When I finally realized what it was I burst out laughing.
My friend makes condiments so quickly, but I'll try to ketchup. (That was kind of a silly pun, in Heinz-sight.)
@Mike Must tardy you always be? ( Well, you are a pun gent.) You must relish these replies. What a pickle. It's just sour lot...
@Mike if I’m not laughing it’s because you’ve hit a sauce pot
@Mike As they say here in Mississippi (where folks have an odd accent): you're the rill dill!
@Mike Ooh. Heinz-sight. Nominate for POY (pun of the year).
@Mike I have a florist friend who's an amateur magician. He walks up to people holding a bouquet and says "Picalilli..."
My mnemonic for the colors of the spectrum has always been just, "Roy G. Biv," as if it were a person's name.
@Michael Weiland Same. I was just going to say this.
@Michael Weiland And mine has always been - just the names of the colors in order, which are no more difficult to remember than some made-up sentence which then has to be interpreted. True: after early childhood I have had to insert indigo, not present (as I recall) in what kids were being taught in the early 50s.
@Michael Weiland Same! I’ve always pictured ROY G. BIV as very colorful person, with a multi-hued wig and bright clown clothes. The only mnemonics I used in grade school were “Every Good Boy Does Fine” (in music class), and “My Very Elegant Mother Just Sat Upon Nine Porcupines” (in science class), which, sadly for Pluto, is not in use anymore.
@Michael Weiland Same here, and just FYI... ROYGBIV has been an answer in 3 puzzles, the last two clues being "Rainbow mnemonic." And... the previous clue being: "Person of color." ....
When it comes to indigo, I am still puzzled why it is included with the other six colors, which make up the primary and secondary colors on the color wheel.
Burglar who prefers wearing blue-green instead of the usual black? TEALERSTEALER What you might need to demolish the facades of certain apartment buildings? LEDGESLEDGE Second hand? TICKSTICK Joseph Edy meets English bakery? CONESCONE Someone getting buzzed around the printer? TONERSTONER Anyway, great puzzle, all mine way inferior to what Cole and Harit came up with. A bit of a fill-in as soon as you got the trick, but rolling with it meant enjoying it. And while the male emus sit around warming the eggs, the females come to New York, do a little shopping and sightseeing, nosh on a few errant Wordplay comments, and come back to their impatient benighted husbands in fine form, ready to raise a new generation of comment-eaters.
When you don't have a runny nose, it's NOTSNOT.
@Dave K. The COWSCOW came by to pick up that new calf. First its mom had to LICKSLICK parts of its coat down. The farmer treated it for pests with a TICKSTICK, right after stopping to clean up after the chickens with the COOPSCOOP....
Another clever theme! However, I will not be eating liver. I will not have just a sliver. I will not serve it on my table. I may just toss it in the stable. I will not eat it on a tray. Perhaps I'll give it to a stray. (Cat)
@Beth in Greenbelt I agree. It's the wurst.
Purrfect p00p? CATSCAT Perfect 10 at skeet? HOTSHOT Ailing aquatic avian? WANSWAN I'll see myself out.
Such a good one! Perfect Wednesday. Also, I’ve got one: Breaking news from the birdhouse? COOPSCOOP
This puzzle was really good, as was yesterday's. An embarrassment of riches so far this week. Certainly the best Tuesday/Wednesday punch ever...? Great funny, clever, consistent theme. Only one truly hoary piece of fill (our fine feathered friend). I would have to nominate both this and yesterday for awards recognition. I found this one more delightful.
The rainbow mnemonic I was taught at my all-girls Catholic school, by a teacher with a twinkle in her eye, was Run Over, You Girls, Boys In View! Fifty years later, I still use it.
@Jean F Was that teacher a nun? That would be even better. And correctly punctuated, with a comma in direct address. You did go to a Catholic school!
If only there were a way to add three people to my subscription. A boy can dream, can't he?
@ad absurdum If you are a NYT subscriber (news access, not just Games) you can increase your subscription for just a few bucks to have a family (up to 4 names) for full access. I just added my two kids and husband, so all have their own games, plus cooking, and I get my "paper" to myself. And putting a plug in for our NY Times Readers Group on Facebook (not attached to The NY Times in anyway), we can always use new voices! We have thousands of members, but most are lurkers. About 75 comment regularly. Join us! <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/NewYorkTimesReaders" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/groups/NewYorkTimesReaders</a>
I guess I have a dirty mind tonight because my brain did not parse HAVEATIT correctly at first.
@John Good one. That CALVE sure did HAVE A TIT.
@John Yep, took me a moment too!
@John I got stuck on that as I originally entered HAVEABIT, which when I worked out my error made the naughty parsing inevitable!
@John THANK YOU! Now I'm laughing that I misread it!
Congratulations on a fun NYT debut, Messrs. Vandenberg and Raghunathan! I'm not sure exactly why, but TATER STATER really amuses me. Good luck in your other endeavors! Thanks.
To crossword/Jeopardy fans. I believe one of tonight's Jeopardy contestants will be Paolo Pasco, winner of two American Crossword Puzzle Tournaments and top-tier constructor. He's smart, fast, and knowledgeable and has terrific potential...
@Lewis oh gosh I’m still tired! I was pleasantly surprised to read that Pedro Pascal had these other talents. Time for more coffee. Good luck to Paolo!
@Lewis I remember Erik Agard being on several years ago.
In addition to the meaning cited by Sam, CALVE is also used to describe the action of an iceberg breaking off a glacier or larger iceberg. Another form of giving birth 😊
@Mark Cousins Thanks, never heard that before! I'll try to drop it into a conversation at the next opportunity. :)
Loved the wordplay, rhyme, and overall silliness. These three things have tickled me since early childhood. Liked the two answers with unlikely first two letters (YKNOW, MLADY). Liked guessing at the theme answers with as few crosses as possible. Liked coming across a pair of non-theme answers that could have yielded theme answers: SPOT (for potSPOT), and SPIKE (for pikeSPIKE). Possible clues -- [Cannabis lounge] and [Certain fish's volleyball shot?]. Loved the obvious camaraderie between the constructors that radiated off their puzzle notes. Congratulations on your debut, Cole and Harit, and thank you for a fun puzzle, which was, WELL, SWELL!
Oh, and loved [FF's opposite], which stymied me for quite a while. I actually love it when an answer is so obvious, right in front of my eyes, and I don't see it. Those are among the best riddles.
Dropped serving dish PLATTER SPLATTER Duck theft TEAL STEAL I need my coffee to come up with any more. Fun puzzle, thanks, Cole and Harit.
WOAH! First to comment? Be still my heart. Liked this puzzle. Not hard.
HAVE A 717? (I'm using code because my first attempt to post was unsuccessful, and the innocent word here is the only reason I could think of. I hate being treated like a child in catholic school but here we are). What a weird expression. I found the clues very straightforward, ditto the theme of rhyming groaners. To me this felt like a Tuesday, and I - the Polish guy - actually solved the puzzle slightly faster than yesterday's, despite never having heard of OSIER and needing lots of crosses for some of the names and trivia. I thought the clue for OVEN was weird. To me it made it sound like one actually gets into the oven - hands, torso, legs and all - while wearing mitts. I was so confused by the clue I had to rely on crosses for the answer. We don't really use verbal MNEMONICs over here. Whenever I see an American one, I wonder how remembering a random sentence is supposed to be easier than whatever it is it represents. Of course Polish people utilize mnemonic devices, but visual ones and rhymes are much more popular than the random sentence kind of stuff.
@Andrzej Have At It. — I thought the same thing at first.
@Andrzej I once put a person all the way in the oven. Hands, torso, legs, and all... Come to think of it, I don't think he admits on but I did.hmm Anyhow, I probably shouldn't disclose anymore information about this situation. Okay, bye
@Andrzej O my, you CALVED. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Chill, dude, chill. Silliness is much needed these days.
@Andrzej I don't think the word (which, as a woman, I never would have even noticed) was rejected, since the very word was used in the puzzle some time last week. It's a kind of bird.
@Andrzej I am scrolling here for the first time looking for a comment on this phrase (have a ___) which I have never heard. I googled it to no avail. I also googled the origin of cakewalk which is fascinating.
@Andrzej I just read John's comment: "have at it"!
@Andrzej Expressions like HAVE A GO, GO AT IT, and HAVE AT IT are more idiomatic than some, but they are not uncommon. Especially in British novels or TV shows, you might hear them. May as well tuck that into your bag of tricks!
We have a stand of OSIER willow, so that was a nice gimme. We have to keep it fenced off or the alpacas (no LLAMAS here) will eat it. A fun and breezy offering today, no major sticking points though I did have to look twice at HAVE AT IT. Took a moment to get the first T in the right place.
@Helen Wright I get exactly what you mean with "Have at it". It still sounds very strange though! (Londoner living in Ireland )
@Helen Wright - I kept thinking it was “have a tit” and had no idea what I was missing!!
The COWSCOW came by to pick up that new calf. First its mom had to LICKSLICK parts of its coat down. The farmer treated it for pests with a TICKSTICK, right after stopping to clean up after the chickens with the COOPSCOOP.... Then she went to unwind with a beer at the HOPSHOP, picking offerings from the chalked list on the LATESLATE. She wanted to treat herself well and avoid a CARESCARE. There are so many of these possibilities you have to fish them out of the water with a POOLSPOOL.
@B Apologies for the semi-dupe. I thought the first one was stuck in emu craw.
Sam, As you may have seen, it’s not just cows that CALVE. Icebergs do, too.
@NYC Traveler. When laptops were put on carts in our hospital, they were called COWS (computers on wheels). When hand held computers were implemented, they were named “calves” - of course!
Our 20th anniversary plans are booked!! I'm so excited and I definitely just can't hide it!! That's what took up my spare time today between working hard for my money! I did, however, do the Tuesday and Wednesday puzzles both today. Fortunately, neither took long but both were very nice. I have to admit though, that while I very much enjoyed Tuesday's vowelingly wowing masterpiece, I had more fun and chuckles doing the Wednesday one. And I do so enjoy funning and chuckling!! Either way, both very fine puzzles in my ever humble estimation. I liked that one of the themers was Harry Potter based—with another nod to good ole HP at 47D! Fun!! But each of the themers gave me goofy little laugh!
@HeathieJ Happy anniversary, from a fellow St Paulite. May you get out of the rain and have a wonderful trip!
@HeathieJ Congrats on your anniversary. May you have many, many more. We hit # 55 yesterday. How can that be? I feel about 30 -- but oldest daughter will be 50 in a couple of weeks.... Most people do a big bash, or trip, or something for their 50th, right? We'll always remember that we did drive-thru In-N-Out. It was Sept 2020.... Ah, COVID. We were supposed to be on a safari in South Africa, but finally got to do it the next February. It was still amazing. As is my wonderful husband!
The Marlow Murder Club is another cozy type British mystery show that has some relation to crossword puzzle setting,, as they say in the show, and solving. It's pretty new to me, so I can't give a very thorough review, but so far so good!!
@HeathieJ I live right by Marlow… it’s a cozy little place for a cozy little mystery. I can forgive them the pain when I need to go into the town and the roads are blocked because they are filming by the church!
Cute. Made me giggle in a fun childlike way.
Spend enough time in farm country and you automatically know Calve. My brain wanted Monologue instead of MNEMONIC but that’s due to being a stage brat (as opposed to army brat) given I spent many late nights in a sleeping bag in the aisles while my parents rehearsed. I’m a teacher who spent many years in small towns in eastern Colorado surrounded by farmers so I have a diverse background. Loved Shakespeare clue, Scene, Potter, Act I and karma all meeting at some point. Oh, also lived in Australia for 5 months so emu was a gimme. No help needed tonight and learned a new word OSIER.
Ohhh. "Have At It". Got it. "You try!" would have to be used in a very different context for the answer to be what I first read.
My mnemonic is roy g biv. Sorry. Fun puzzle!
@Lsm Me too. That's all we said.
I hear "SketchUp" a lot outside this grid. It's a well-known (in certain circles) 3D design application. It pops up all the time in woodworking.
Okay, finally figured out 36D is HAVE AT IT.... World now safe from me trying out new idiom HAVE A TIT 😅
@Sian and here I thought I was the only one wondering how one has a ‘tit’
I would really like to understand the relative placement of yesterday’s and today’s puzzles? Beyond the entries and clues seeming much easier today (realizing that can be a bit subjective), today’s is objectively easier because the theme (which is obvious from the first entry) means that once you’ve solved the first half of a themed entry you’ve automatically solved the second half. Nothing against this puzzle as a Monday or Tuesday but yesterday’s deserved a bump up if only for two double stacks and this didn’t seem worthy of a Wednesday.
@SP They have all been just a tad too simple lately (not counting last Saturday's Obscura-thon in the NW section) and I ran out of puzzle more quickly than I liked --even on Sunday. On top of that, just now the music on NPR (from Classical 24's Minnesota franchise) is a slow rendition of "The Royal Fireworks Music" forced me to take a very sedate pace across the room, which was slightly irritating.
A sprightly delight to solve this puzzle, but I wouldn't say easy peasy, or a CAKEWALK, just fun. Clever to tuck in DEBUT, Cole Vandenberg and Harit Raghunathan, but your cluing didn't show that this was yours. Fresh slants abound around the whole grid. Thank you, and do give us more.
I loved this puzzle! What a fun Wednesday! Such clever, wordplay within reach of my skill!
Contrary to the clue for SETS ("Women's professional tennis matches have three of them"), I've seen many such matches, including just this past week, that did not have three sets.
True dat, Dan. As for SETS, all men's professional tennis matches have three of them.
@Dan So is 18D [Women’s professional tennis matches have three of them] just plainly wrong as a clue for SETS?
@Dan On further reflection, I think the clue stands correct as written. When it is said that a tennis match is three sets, it’s interpreted as a best of three, which of course can end after the second set — similar to saying the major league baseball World Series is seven games. Although usually said as a “best of seven,” describing the Series as a seven game series is in the language.
@Dan there is a potential maximum of 3 sets is woman's tennis. That is if, after 2 sets, it's tied 1-1.
@Dan It's normal for them to have three. It's normal for them to have two. The clue is fine.
Hey–my momentary befuddlement at getting the 6th letter (after I’d gotten all the others) of the 36 down clue "You try!”, when I was sitting there going “hmm, have a what?”, thinking I was looking for a three-letter word that ended in “it”, instead of realizing I was finishing a two-letter word that began with “a”, gave me a great idea for one of those “this-or-that” clues that some crossword makers sometimes use; “Try this” or “Sow’s offer to piglet”. Get it? I’ll never design a crossword puzzle, but maybe someone who does can use this.
@John. I was befuddled for more than a moment… Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery in SNL’s Celebrity Jeopardy would have had fun with 36D. Turned out my final fix was 46D OLLIE. I had 59A DeO and OLLeE.
This was such a great puzzle. Great puns, working in MNEMONIC as an answer made me feel very smart today. Very enjoyable. Would like to see a rebus puzzle from this creator. I think they would knock it out of the park.
It's a small bird. What were y'all thinking? Try to stay abreast of tricky crossword answers.
The comments have me LOLing today... the number of people who parsed HAVEATIT differently 😂 I thought the theme was fun, but that Willow/Rock/Netflix character section was my tough spot. Phew! Loved the MNEMONIC clue. A trip to Costco may yield an AmpleSample? 😅
@Ash, That has become the DOOK of all DOOKS today.
Wonderful debut, Cole and Harit. This Granite Stater loved TATER STATER. A young Taj Mahal with CAKEWALK into Town: <a href="https://youtu.be/tAPqGZNtXTE?si=6qQ1kZm-k6VQt2FP" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/tAPqGZNtXTE?si=6qQ1kZm-k6VQt2FP</a>
OMG this theme!! It made my morning. I had all of the themed answers solved except for one, thought it couldn't get any better, and then I hit "Tater Stater". I'm an eternal fan.
I really enjoyed this one (ie got the theme early, no lookups, fastest Wednesday) :)
The constructors friends will be in for a surprise when they show up for dinner but LSD was used instead of shiitakes
First introduced to WINK-DINKs (rhyming riddle answers) in the sixth grade. We used to get a small literary magazine every Friday, and the back page was always a word game of some sort. My mother (who was a great puzzler) and I would play them all weekend. That was a long time ago.
Purrfect poop? CATSCAT Perfect 10 at skeet? HOTSHOT Ailing aquatic avian? WANSWAN I'll see myself out.
Aaaand another of my original attempts to post has made it by the emus after 8 hours. A censored version has been available below since the morning (CET).
What is the technical term for the clues in italics? Anyway, I got them all very early and they were a great help in solving the other clues. That's a first for me. Usually, I am not enlightened until the very end. Enjoyed it!
@MExpat I would call them "themed clues" but I'm not sure if that is the accepted nomenclature!
@MExpat What italics? See? Printing the puzzle--for no real reason--means those never appear. And today's puzzle demonstrates that italics would be superfluous, as I had no trouble spotting the Themers. (The symmetry helps, too.)