I'm giving this debut puzzle a high five, and many kudos to you for your persistence, Brian! Keep on puzzling and crafting!
@Mike I come here for puns, and it seems that this puzzle is LOW-hanging fruit for a HI-flying punster. I may have to ask for my money back.
@Mike Where’s our pun? Don’t let one pompous fool get you down! We love you, Mike! I need your pun to start the day!
@Mike Don't hide your light under a bushel.
@Mike I understand how Deb's bad pun may have stifled your creativity today, but I think she's trying to draw you out by inferring... "either Mike's puns, or mine. Your choice."
@Mike Forget that guy. There’s always gonna be a killjoy. Don’t let him throw you off your game. We love and appreciate your puns.
Fun one, but a bit tough for a Monday. Almost doubled my normal Monday time
@Andy W. I’m with you there except I’d change “but” to “and”. The occasional tough Monday is the spice of life!
@Andy W. It felt tough, but I got a new Monday record and finally went under 8 minutes!
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Didn't get broken (4)(5) 2. Takes in the trash? (7)(6) 3. In need of an evening out? (7) 4. They go from season to season (5)(4) 5. Clown around with food? (8) HELD SERVE DELETED SCENES CREASED STORY ARCS MCDONALD
Thought this was tougher than a typical Monday, but maybe my THINKINGCAP was too tight
Wonderfully sweet theme – I thought of a very young kid looking at cards and saying hello to them. I also thought of a card player looking at the hand they're holding, seeing desired cards, and, happily surprised, inwardly saying hi to them one by one. So, I was totally charmed. Quirky and lovely theme, and, given that this is a debut NYT puzzle, I’m excited to see more from the mind that came up with it! Myself, a palindrome fan, I didn’t actually say hi to the four in the grid – two 3s, a four, and a five (ONO, ALA, ATTA, REFER) – but it was the same hello feeling, increasingly happily surprised as each new one turned up. Brian, I admire your persistence at continuing to submit puzzles even after 13 NYT rejections (Hi, @Mike!), and am very happy to hear that there are more to come. I loved this puzzle – thank you!
@Lewis CHICKEN A LA KING left a bad taste in my mouth. (It was the worst MRE of the bunch.)
Only gripe is that Aveda is not a skin care brand, but a hair care brand. And on that note… take it from a makeup-wearer, “eye kit” is not a thing.
@Chloe My favorite bath soap ever is made by AVEDA. I don’t usually care too much about personal care products (as long as they don’t smell nasty), but I really like this soap. <a href="https://www.influenster.com/reviews/aveda-refreshing-bath-soap" target="_blank">https://www.influenster.com/reviews/aveda-refreshing-bath-soap</a>
Chloe, <a href="https://www.aveda.com/skin-care" target="_blank">https://www.aveda.com/skin-care</a>
@Chloe I’ve always thought of them as hair first too. Especially since they have salons.
@Chloe there is an eye kit… could be a regionalism or specific to some industry or group… <a href="https://www.gloskinbeauty.com/products/point-of-view-cool-perspective-eye-kit" target="_blank">https://www.gloskinbeauty.com/products/point-of-view-cool-perspective-eye-kit</a>
@Chloe I have Aveda hand lotion, so it most definitely is a skin care brand.
The theme... Just, no. Was it supposed to be funny? Was the revealer so awesome as to justify the inane concept of greeting playing cards, of all things? I shudder to think what the unaccepted submissions of this constructor must have been like. The trivia-heavy fill annoyed me, especially in the NW corner. FDIC... Really? Some letter salad on a Monday? Barry Ancona will tell me I should have relied on crosses, but those were not Andrzej-friendly, either. All I know about bowling is that it exists, I've never heard of an EYE KIT, and don't get me started on beverage brands... I'm not familiar with most Polish ones, even. Elsewhere I was confused by the clue for GANG, but the column explained it to me. The solve took me as long as a Wednesday usually does, and I enjoyed nothing about it. I was way past a MEH reaction. The possiblity to WAIVE rights is very limited in most European countries, including Poland. Basic rights, workers' rights, consumer rights - none of those may ever be waived under Polish law. I was surprised and actually kinda freaked out by some of the disclaimers and waivers I encountered on our American vacations in 2011 and 2013.
@Andrzej Just about every "Terms and Conditions" we typically sign (or click) waives our right to a judicial trial in case of a dispute. In all that word salad, it is stated that all disputes go to an arbitrator, and almost all arbitrators are friendly to the companies.
@Andrzej In law school, I learned that those kinds of waivers and disclaimers were called "contracts of adhesion" because the consumer/user has no opportunity to negotiate the terms. Thus, courts will not always enforce them. I've been lucky in that I've never had to test whether that's true.
@Andrzej I always have both black and blue mascara on hand, as well as eyeshadows that I rarely wear, but I've never heard the term EYEKIT. 🤷♀️
@Francis Waiving the right to go to trial is considered an abusive clause in consumer contracts over here. Arbitration is always optional for consumers. @Eric Hougland Over here, if a right granted by a statute is infringed upon by a contract of adhesion, the offending clause is considered null and void under the law. Of course, few people know that and those who do rarely go to court with any disputes, so enforcement suffers. @HeathieJ Thank you for vindicating me 🙂
@Andrzej I dont know who you are Andrzej, but while I doing this one I thought "I dont think Andrzej is going to like this one. Too many sports and americanisms!"
@Andrzej U.S. banks generally must include an FDIC advertising statement (often just “Member FDIC”) in ads for deposit products, so we've all heard the "FDIC" mentioned countless times in bank ads before we're old enough to have any idea of what it is.
@Andrzej Criticize the puzzles all you want; I like to hear your complaints. But be nice to the puzzle makers; they work very hard for very little compensation.
@Andrzej I've been reducing my Monday average solve time steadily, but today I went over it. I can see how you spent a Wednesday time. The crosser of POI and MPAA was a Natick for me and HIC and FDIC were equally obscure for a Brit. At least the theme allowed me to work out that the coach's surname was Jackson.
@Andrzej You seem even crabbier than usual today. Did you have a bad weekend? Are you feeling okay?
@Andrzej While I can understand your point, I feel your comment goes a bit far, though. It is a bit unnecessary to attack the constructor this way. Furthermore, of course you can waive your rights, even in Poland. You could, e.g., waive your right to speak during an interrogation or at trial if you might incriminate yourself. I personally didn't think the theme was as bad as you described it. I filled it with only looking up two words and I am also neither American nor do I live there. So, maybe it was just a very Monday Monday for you. I hope you'll enjoy the rest of the week's puzzles :)
@Andrzej I agree that you seem grumpier than usual today. Yes, this was a tougher puzzle than a typical Monday, and I was 2 minutes over my average, but I relished the spice. As you pointed out, everything was gettable from the crosses. No lookups needed. And the theme was very cute and fun; it made me smile. This was infinitely better than yesterday's Friends theme (which was an absolute slog).
Having IGOR on top of CELLO today made my eyes widen, as my flatmate - a cellist - is currently practising for a performance of The Firebird. Bizarre and synchronous!
@RJ I wonder if he insisted that it's pronounced... eye-gore?
HI Brian! Thanks for a fun puzzle. I like it when Mondays have a little something extra, in this case the circled letters and theme. It spices up what might otherwise be a routine easy solve.
HI FIVE to the constructor. It's been said that puns are the highest intelligent form of humor. I hope so, because I just love them. I enjoyed today's puzzle. HI HI HI!!!
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight That's funny because, though I'm a fan of the occasional pun, or maybe more than occasional, I have heard them to be said the lowest form of humor. Interesting! I guess it's all about perspective in the end.
Word-nerd post alert – re NECTAR. Looks like it should end with an AR-as-in-TAR sound, but actually ends with ER as in HER. I wondered if there were more examples, came up with a couple (MORTAR, SOLAR), went online and found a ton more – ALTAR, TARTAR, SIMILAR, VULGAR, REGULAR, PECULIAR, CIRCULAR, POPULAR, PARTICULAR, FAMILIAR, SINGULAR, CELLULAR, ANGULAR, SECULAR, and LUNAR. But why, I wondered? ChatGPT said that many of these words had the “ahr” sound in Latin, and English kept the spelling, even as the pronunciation shifted over the centuries. Why did the pronunciation shift? Because in English, unstressed syllables often get reduced to the schwa sound, and thus that “ahr” sound became “er”. You’re welcome.
@Lewis It's interesting that when I pronounce these words, in my head I hear the "ahr" sound with just about every one of them. I'll have to check to see if that is actually what others hear.
@Lewis Interesting. Doing my own research it appears the suffix -aris was Latin for pertaining to which might relate to these words’ origins (circular—pertaining to circles, etc). I’m didn’t study Latin but I would guess from what I know the accent originally was on the ar in aris —like how we would say Polaris today (except with more of an ahr sound instead of an air sound). My guess is once the accent shifted so did the vowel, because as you say it gets harder to pronounce the longer vowel if there’s no accent there.
I have nothing to share about the Monday puzzle (although I thought it was a pretty good one). I write to note the passing of constructor Mel Taub whose obituary appears in today’s NYT. Mel provided me many hours of pleasure over the years and I am saddened to learn of his death. The paper version of the NYT (for any fellow dinosaurs) has a sprightly PandA by Mel as a bonus to lessen the sting.
@Marshall Walthew Really, not until today in the print version? It was online last week and included a puzzle to play and then there was an additional article with more puzzles to solve. Both were posted in these comments last week.
Am still on Mon. & Tues., though Mon. offers me the most success. So, just got on a little while ago, and am already finding that I can't answer most of the clues. What's going on? I would conjecture that this isn't a Mon. puzzle at all. Would like to politely ask, why, then, do you have to put a puzzle of this level of difficulty on Mon.? I don't think that's very fair & a poor start to a new week. Maybe you should rethink the order that you post the puzzles. This new puzzle-maker would probably have a better reception later in the week. [[Even Tues-Wed].
@Margot It’s not a perfect science, don’t get frustrated. Just keep plugging away, learn from the clues you missed, I promise you, you will be breezing through before you know it.
@Margot This was a little meatier than the average Monday in my opinion. I too, looked for a while before I found a gimme, and I can generally do late week puzzles as well. If you haven't already, there are a lot of archived puzzles that you can hone your skills on. But SP's promise is real. Just keep cranking.
@Margot xwstats.com agrees with your sentiment, so far it's rated as "hard" for a Monday.
@Margot - Now I am curious as to what was so hard. I only looked up the correct spelling of the end of OSIRIS, making sure there wasn't a "u" in there. Perhaps it's a generational thing, with Hi-C and Phil Jackson. MERCH is a newer thing. The key may be to read widely.
@Margot IDK. Maybe the constructor was more on my wavelength because it worked for me.
@Margot The best solve is going through each block like a grid on a map comparing across and down answers. Set it down and take breaks. Your brain is still mulling and trying to find the answer. When you come back it will get easier. Except Thursday. Because you never know what trick the editors will want on any particular Thursday.
@Margot This former technical writer would kindly suggest you think of your audience when posting comments: it is rare that a member of the Games staff would see your comment and pass it along. So requesting they "rethink the order" likely won't reach anyone who could affect that. However as you see, the fellow commenters will absolutely support and try to help out! My suggestion on that count – in addition to @Red Carpet's very solid one – is maybe antithetical. Try and move quickly: if an answer doesn't come immediately to mind, move to the next. Try not to let the blank squares distract, because on the next round you'll have a few crosses – and it acts almost as if you had walked away and returned! This puzzle had quite a number of "crossword glue" answers. I had NO idea for [Opening stake]... But it sounds like poker to me (never played!), so I plopped in ANTE. I only know this from crosswords, and wasn't sure I had it right – but sure enough, it worked! Look for a little book called Crosswordese. (I got it as a Christmas present last year.) As it says on the back cover, "Crossword puzzles have a language all their own." And it explains, in detail! Good luck!
@Margot I've been doing these puzzles for over two years now, and I often ace Fridays, and sometimes Saturdays, too. I struggled with this one and found an utterly unenjoyable slog. An inane theme, trivia-heavy fill... I'm not surprised you're struggling. Most of the puzzles around here are better though.
@Margot I've solved over 10,000 crossword puzzles. My time on this one was a little bit longer than my average for Monday, but certainly within my Monday–Tuesday range. I wholeheartedly second G's suggestion to move on if an answer doesn't come quickly. At least for me, a good part of solving is recognizing letter patterns and filling in what makes a common word. Making multiple trips through the grid is usually more productive than staring at a single clue for several minutes trying to understand whatever it is you're missing. Crossword solving is a skill that takes time to develop. But like SP said, if you keep at it, you'll get better quicker than you might expect. Good luck, and have fun!
@Margot it’s more of a Tuesday than a Monday. Possibly early evening Monday. Certainly solving these is an acquired skill and not an IQ test. Keep at it and you’ll get the hang of it. It can become great fun and this little community here is kind.
@Margot I found it a little difficult for a Monday too. For me, the level of difficulty would have been a better Tuesday fit. Sometimes the editors evaluate a puzzle as harder or easier than most solvers find it to be. Other times, a puzzle ends up being harder or easier for me than for most people. No harm done either way, it seems to happen in both directions (hard puzzles too early and easy puzzles too late in the week), neither very frequently. Difficulty is hard to evaluate because one person’s gimmes are another person’s stumpers. Unless this becomes a pattern of misplaced puzzles, I don’t think the editors are doing something wrong. Definitely a frustrating solve for both me and you today though!
@Margot One thing I’d add to the other responses you’ve gotten is that crossword difficulty is a *highly* personalized quality. To use myself as an example: I do the puzzle every day of the week, without any external assistance (that is, on the rare occasions that I cheat, I do so in the app so that my streak reflects it), and usually finish pretty quickly…but I got stumped HARD on the final two squares last Wednesday, which required inputting non-alphabetic characters (specifically, the numbers 2 and 4). After spinning for nearly half an hour, I caved and cheated…and came to the Wordplay comments to find that the gimmick hadn’t given anyone else much trouble 🤷♂️ Anyway, the above anecdote is representative of my solving experiences: I have often raced through puzzles that tormented much of the commentariat, and just as often I have struggled mightily with a puzzle that the community deemed fun and easy.
@Margot I solve the puzzles top the bottom and left to right. Normally, I can finish a Monday almost by the across entries alone. Today, I had almost no fill after going through the across clues. However, for me, the downs were more forgiving. I finished right between my Monday and Tuesday times My advice: 1. Practice, practice, practice 2. Use the crosses. Flip back and forth between down and across to gradually fill in the board. 3. Either you know an answer or you don't. I spend 1 second per clue or less. If I know it, I fill it in, if not, I'll come back to it once I have some crosses. See point 2. 4. When you're just starting out don't be afraid to look things up. That's how you learn.
Congrats on your debut Brian. Since much angst has been expressed thus far, I thought I’d add another data point in the “this was a normal Monday” column. My solve came in under 10 mins without any lookups, which is almost 5 minutes under my Monday average. For context, I’ve been doing the puzzle for about six months now (the app says 298 puzzles, that must include the archive). Sure, I’m immersed in American pop culture, and I was a huge NBA fan in the Michael Jordan era; helpful. I’m sympathetic to the plight of folks without those frames of reference, but aren’t bits of trivia expected in clues? I often watch BBC quiz and/or comedy shows (such as Countdown) that are filled with British humor and trivia. Personally, I connect much better with the former, but don’t let my lack of knowledge of the latter ruin the fun. Maybe I’m just chill since it went my way today. I’ve definitely come here with a proverbial pitchfork on other occasions 😅 I still really struggle at times, and I’m, admittedly, not a purist when it comes down to looking up an obscure trivia clue when I’m really stuck (usually Saturday). I lean into the “I’m learning something new” attitude with regard to those obscure (to me) clues. Historical actors, authors, poets, and musicians are a particularly weak area for me. Thanks to you all for the banter, it’s appreciated, usually silently. ☺️ HIGH FIVE to the Polish people for pierogi. 🇵🇱🥟 HIGH FIVE to the punsters everywhere. 🤓
Congratulations on your debut, Brian. You definitely had me going more than a typical Monday. Several times I feel for the bait. For example, THINKINGhAt rather than THINKINGCAP, made me wonder what kind of instrument a hELLO was. Likewise, I had AVEnA for 69A (I know absolutely nothing about skin products) which made me wonder why a Bro was a DUnE. And just to make sure I had all the answers wrong initially, I confidently but in CHICKENfiNgERS. You managed to hit all my incorrect instincts! Good thing I don't solve on stone tablets.
@Francis Ditto on the 'thinking hat' / 'hello' situation
Clever and fun debut. Looking forward to #2, and more.
I can't help wondering what my life would have been like if my mommy had dressed me in a thinking cap instead of a dunce cap. I guess I could stop wearing it, but it goes with everything!
@ad absurdum Would you have been ad astra then?
I was a college student when streaking was, I hesitate to say, popular. I never really understood why. But I do recall having to make room for the latest streaker running through the student union, out where we were sitting with our legs dangling in the cement "bowl," so he could get through in a straight line. We didn't even pause our conversation, or look up to see who it was. I do recall it was never a woman, always a man, and nobody seemed to care much. And yet, here we are, 50+ years later, with the term still popping up in our puzzles.
@Marlene I also had to chuckle at the STREAK reference today as it reminded me of an infamous (for Portland, Maine) 1974 photo originally published in our local Portland Press Herald of a teenage STREAKer running through an all-girls Catholic high school with a student clad in her plaid school skirt holding the door open for him while covering her eyes with the other hand! The photo ended up making a little sensation nationally during the STREAKing phenomenon, including winning an award, as well as being published in Time magazine. I tried to find the photo to link it here, but only found this apropos quote from a March 1974 Time article, "In Maine, the Portland Press Herald chided streakers for wearing shoes during one of the mildest Maine winters on record. 'We are not opposed to streaking provided it is correctly undertaken and executed with some grace,' the paper editorialized. 'If you streak, have the common decency to do it in your bare feet.'" 😉😂
@Marlene Remember the streaker at the Academy Awards in the early 1970s? I’ve never been able to verify my suspicion that he was plant, as it were. Evidence supporting my theory: 1) The camera catching the guy from just the waist up. 2) David Niven’s clever quip about the guy’s “shortcomings.” 3) The improbability, even in those days long before 9/11, of a naked man hanging around backstage at the Oscars and going unnoticed.
Now look, I’m post ‘flu plus post heavy wedding weekend (those Scousers know how to party), so that’s my excuse for struggling with large sections of today’s grid. I was AWASH with blank spaces for an embarrassingly long time and couldn’t see the theme at all, despite the circles. I finished at a snails pace, read Wordplay and finally realised that I’d misplaced my THINKING CAP. I’m getting too old to party all night. Didn’t stop me trying though, as my sore feet/head/back can attest, Good grid.
@Helen Wright You made me look up 'Scousers' and I'm better educated now. Was there a hen do? Sounds like you live large.
Congratulations on your debut, Brian. This was AOK in my book. Perfect Monday level of difficulty with a theme easy enough to discern. I did have my HIGH and FIVE reversed as I assumed (which one should never do) that HIGH would be on top. Silly me 😆 I completely forgot that PHIL JACKSON took over coaching the Lakers after Pat Riley 🤦🏼♀️ That was a complete d’oh moment for this LA native. I only remembered him as the Bulls coach. Anyway, once I put my THINKING CAP on, the clouds disappeared and everything was clear. Do people still send GREETING CARDS anymore? I think Hallmark was smart to branch out into the lucrative movie industry or they would probably be out of business by this point. Who knows 🤷🏼♀️ Happy Monday Crosslandia!
@Jacqui J It could only be Jackson as coach for both Michael Jordan (Bulls) and Kobe Bryant (Lakers). And um, there were a lot of Lakers coaches between Riley and Jackson – apparently even Magic Johnson was a coach in LA for a minute! During that era (all of the 90's!) Pat Riley was with the Knicks and then the Miami Heat, where he stillbis but not as coach. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Los_Angeles_Lakers_head_coaches?wprov=sfla1" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Los_Angeles_Lakers_head_coaches?wprov=sfla1</a> Yesterday you my fellow Gen-Xer were reminiscing about Friends. Well now you can tell what kind of TV I was watching back then! But now we have the WNBA. Go Liberty! 🗽
@Jacqui J The clueing of 10A and 70A tells us that HIGH will be in 70A. Look at clues for answers that are spread across multiple slots in the grid and you'll see that the first part of the answer is always (in my experience, anyway) the one that says [With X-Across, . . .]
@Jacqui J Yes, there are still greeting cards. I still get cards for Rosh HaShanah (by snail mail!), my birthday, and for thanks. (I send them too.) When I bring a bottle to a dinner party, I'll enclose a card. After my sister's death a few years ago (bless her memory), I was inundated by condolence cards. And not just those 'a donation has been made, etc.' cards, but actual notes written by human hands on dried wood pulp. The old order dieth not!
Congrats on the debut puzzle! Fun theme, well done!
Gotta love a puzzle constructor who credits his mom! This was a fun Monday puzzle. I had HIGH and FIVE in the reverse locations at first, but once I fixed that, the solving was a smooth as silk.
Congratulations on your NYT puzzle debut, Mr. Keller! Nicely done! The revealer was a bit more of a groaner than I like, but the clueing was overall pretty fun. Thanks! I hope we'll see you back here soon!
p.s. I commented before reading Sam Corbin's column and the constructor notes. Thanks, Mr. Keller, for bringing up crosserville. I've used it myself several times and highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in giving construction a shot but doesn't want to pay for a crossword construction program.
@Eric Hougland I put this theme in the category of "So bad, it's good".
Wonderful start to the week and congratulations to the constructor! Loved the word play within the crossword format. Whenever I solve a puzzle I feel like all those that taught me how are invisibly but palpably sitting in the room with me. This puzzle felt like one I would have solved with Aunt Ruth at the old line kitchen table in the pink kitchen. Thanks again!
Congratulations on a fine debut, Brian, and thanks for sharing your inspiring submission perseverance. Your ability to stay the course offers us all hope on so many levels!
Fun puzzle, congratulations on the debut, Brian, and looking forward to seconds! Slightly under average time for a Monday for me so I think I was near Brian's wavelength, based on some of the other feedback in the comments. After last week's doozies, I felt I was due!
Ive been thinking that Mondays have been getting more difficult for quite a while and said so in my comments. Today’s puzzle definitely was continuing that pattern in my opinion. Doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it though.
@suejean My gut thinks you are right.
Toughie of a Monday! But great!
I've been doing Monday jigsaws without any help recently, but this was quite obscure for me, and not so enjoyable. I know 'obscure' is completely subjective, but a business owners magazine? HIC? People actually say, "Feel me?" and "Ya dig?" I expect they must do. MERCH. SWAG. Today I feel I'm the wrong generation! I've learnt about GPAS and PSATS and A LA mode so at least I got them. small sigh
@Jane Wheelaghan Just curious—was Monday “jigsaw” just a brain fart, or do they use “jigsaw” to refer to other puzzles across the pond besides the ones you put together from a box?
@Jane Wheelaghan I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that, yes, "Feel me?" and "Ya dig?" have been expressions over the years in the U.S., but the two seem to be a couple of generations apart (with "Ya dig?" being more from the 60's, I believe?) I don't hear either comment very often and I don't recall ever including them in my own personal lexicon, but no offense to those who do employ them! Comparatively, whenever I've traveled in the UK I have enjoyed hearing (and using) some of your fabulous British expressions -- I also think they sound more fancy with your more brilliant accents.😊
Loved the misdirection in the cluing! I LOL at 40D!!
@Call Me Al I did too. Especially since I had just read something about the soldiers who guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, so my mind dwelt there for a long minute... but snapped out when I recalled what day it was. What a contrast!
Good puzzle...though the level was a little tough for a Monday. Thinking cap was cute, and I was just telling my husband how much I prefer a high five to a fist bump!!
Isn't the id's counterpart the superego, with the ego serving as mediator? It's been a while since I've touched up on Freud, so to speak.
@Erik 🤷♂️ I more of less lost the thread of that argument ca 1961.
As others have said, tough Monday. 4-down not being KITCH threw me off the NW though I now realized I didn't even spell it right. Maybe it's just me but MPAA was also tricky, turning that and POI into a bit of a natick.
@Jane MPAA was tricky!! I knew it was something along those lines but couldn't remember exactly. But POI is crosswordese, so it's good to remember in relation to Hawaiian food. (A luau is in part a feast.) ☺️
I enjoyed this puzzle a lot… somehow hit a positive spot. The grid layout looks like a face card to me.
Nice puzzle, 8D worthy of any day of the week and no thank you to Deb for planting the thought of a streaks of NYT editors. 😀 Re solving times: Unless you’ve been playing the crossword for absolutely ever your average is significantly higher than the mode (the most probable) of the distribution of your solving times. Unless the puzzle stumps you you should be doing better than average.
Oh, what the heck - one more puzzle. A Sunday from July 1, 1984 by Robert H. Wolfe with the title: "Letter Carrier." Some theme clues and answers: "Was obsessed with a single idea" HADABINONESBONNET "A certain tax revolt" THEBOSTONTPARTY "Line in a patriotic song" FROMCTOSHININGC "Is watchful" KEEPSONESISPEELED "Astaire film: 1941" ULLNEVERGETRICH Here's that Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=7/1/1984&g=26&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=7/1/1984&g=26&d=A</a> ...
Not a fan of both the mini and regular crossword on the same day having the same clue with same answer. Walgreens competitor... CVS
@Janis. But for me it made a gimme out of what otherwise would have been a complete unknown, I wouldn’t even know in what area Walgreens works, let alone a competitor.
It's looking very much like IGOTTAJET is going to cost me a month of gold this month. Oh, well. I probably cheated and forgot about it.
Several really delightful clues in this one!
Cute little groaner of a theme with more going on than the typical Monday.
it happened again today. A word that appeared as the answer in the mini-puzzle appeared in the main crossword (CVS). I've noticed this happening before where the same word that aoppears in one puzzle appears in another--including Strands and Connections. Is this intentional or just coincidence? Thoughts?
@Francis DeBernardo The Mini is always constructed by a NYT crossword editor. I expect the identical answers are mainly a coincidence, though it’s possible that the editors chose a Mini with CVS as an answer to help solvers get the answer in the big crossword.
Not much really spoke to me in today's puzzle except: - 70A (HIGH),then zip on across to 72A (REFER). But he redeemed himself with 60D (REEF). The rest, as they say, is all in your head. - And another one of my favorite Old English “a” words… AWASH. - Oh, and YADIG? How I miss slappin, dappin and rappin with my black brothers in the 70s. “Ya feel me” doesn't even compare, sorry.
Congrats on the debut! I thought this was a perfectly breezy Monday with a fun, punny twist. I loved CAT TOY and STREAK. Looking forward to your second puzzle!
So, AVEDA must be a skin care product regularly used at Hogwarts, right?
It seems odd to have HI in 23-across that’s not part of the theme, doesn’t it? Found this on the tougher side for a Monday, but figured out the theme from 56-across, which helped!
@Kristin You’ve never played a hand of poker with ÀL As wild?
Keep those submissions coming!
Fine Monday. I couldn't find a blog post for the Sunday puzzle. Am I alone in that??
Chris, Don't know if you are alone, but here it is: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/27/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2025-09-28.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/27/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2025-09-28.html</a>
good stuff! i find mondays to be a nice treat after the weekend puzzles.