My dog's hounding me again - he's up to his old beg of tricks. (I had other plans, but I had to scrap them.)
@Mike Another pawsome comment. Really, really up to sniff.
@Mike Oh Mike, don't be a heel. I beg to point out that he's floorishing now, and has a corgious coat.
@Mike And yet again you unleash a pack of petty punch-lines...
@Mike My dog barks up the wrong tree. (Then he fleas)
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Soldier who can stand at attention indefinitely (2)(3) 2. What comes before we go? (4) 3. One skilled at withholding details (3)(6) 4. Service to foster parents? (5)(4) 5. Focus of an airplane battle, maybe (7) GI JOE AWAY TAX LAWYER ELDER CARE ARMREST
I wanted to make a clever comment about this puzzle, but I got my foot stuck in my mouth.
@Puzzlemucker Better than trying to choke down a knuckle sandwich! Which nonetheless I loved seeing in the grid. Such a great spanner for a Monday! Love seeing your handle here, too. :)
Oh no, no, no, no, no: Everyone knows that the 4 sets of adorable things you get to play with on your cat‘s feet are called jelly beans! Well, ok, exclusively the dog person that I had been prior to Señor Gato’s adopting us, I actually never knew that until it was clued in one of the puzzles, but now that I do, I’ll die on that hill. Seriously, though, no, no I won’t. What I stooped by to say is that I loved this puzzle—which isn’t something I say lightly about an early-in-the-week grid. I mean, just look at the SE corner: it reads PEOPLE FOOD; ALSO, BEER [grins widely]. With TOE BEANS and ARM CANDY (hi, HONEY!) the whole family is included today. (PSA: Don’t be a KNUCKLEhead. Please don’t ever give your dog beer. Drink it all yourself.) What a spunky, fantastic treat of a Monday puzzle. If APPLES for puzzle constructors were a thing, Hannah would be getting a bushel from me.
A fine Monday but an odd way to interpret the revealer—I don’t really think of parts of the body as people. Surprised they didn’t go with actual people: Kevin Bacon, Halle Berry, Fiona Apple, etc!
@SP great idea for your next construction 😉 Or maybe I’ll steal it 😆
@SP You're right! Humans are not the only animals with fingers, arms, knuckles, and toes. It didn't occur to me while solving, so I'm glad you pointed it out.
@SP I was going to say TOEBEANS is an outlier since it is a cat thing and not as tidy as the others, which are human-related. But I agree it's a fine puzzle.
Nice Monday solve. Thought Carrel was with an o not an e but easy fix. Big into watching figure skating, prefer to watch ice dancing live but you think ice dancers and my brain automatically goes to the incomparable Torvill and Dean
@Megan Carrol for Carrel was my only errer, er, error.
Halloween came early with this puzzle, but no capes dahling!
@Becky It breathed like Egyptian cotton.
I "solved" this in near-record time only to not get my gold star upon filling the last square. I reviewed the grid twice but saw nothing wrong. In the end I just checked it. I had ISLET for a place to leave marooned sailors, and that crossed with APPLEt. Now, I know an applet is not a fruit, but since it's not a nonsense word, it did not pop at me as I was reviewing the puzzle. Still, it was my mistake. I can appreciate the dark humor behind the theme, but on some level I didn't like the revealer because it supports a stereotype. Dogs only crave human food if humans teach them to do so. We never offered Jorge the Lab any human food (it wouldn't quite be cannibalism if we let the dog in on it, would it?), and he never, ever begged at the table. A lab! A creature who would eat anything! We're teaching Lucek the puppy the same thing, and he's leaving our food alone, too. He's a hunter though - here he is with his prey: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/GPBdvvI" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/GPBdvvI</a> CARREL was new to me. And finally, why would APPLES, specifically, be left on a teacher's desk? Is it some American thing? Or am I not getting something much simpler?
@Andrzej it’s an American thing…Apples are a big time American thing. We have a folk hero in the United States called Johnny Apple Seed…both mythical and real…it was a real person who went around planting apple seeds. What is usually missed in the myth is that the reason you’d grow apple trees in colonial American is to make hard cider and brandy…not apples. It’s a regular trope in older American movies and television that a liked teacher would get an apple placed on their desk by a student who liked them…It’s seen in Indiana Jones…Real Genius…and those are the ones I just remember. Do actual teachers get apples? The did sometimes….Although a teacher these days would be much more suspect about unwrapped fruit left on the desk.
Thank you all for your replies. As a uni professor, so a teacher, of sorts, I am actually rather offended when students offer me gifts - they usually know better though. @Paul Apples (jabłka) are a Polish thing, too. Poland is one of the world's biggest producers of apples, and they are renowned for their quality. There are orchards all over Mazovia, the central region around Warsaw. The fruit from the town of Grójec (jabłka grójeckie) enjoy a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), an EU mark of produce or products specifically linked to a certain location, and better for it.
@Andrzej Yes, an American thing. That's why "yes-men" are called apple polishers. With respect to cannibalism, that would be correct if the clue were SOYLENT GREEN.
@Andrzej <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JEEnCK6P0Ik" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JEEnCK6P0Ik</a>
@Andrzej Back when I was a kid the one thing it was not cool to be was an apple polisher.
@Andrzej I'm a native speaker and I fell for the same trap. For some reason my mind on this Monday morning was not programmed to see plurals. In my defense, I thought "applet" might make sense, if only because we've been conditioned to see so many crazy, questionable, or corny crossword answers that it somehow seemed plausible, a "little apple" no less.
@Andrzej I guess I'll have to come back later to see why @HeathieJ thought @Francis could use a hug, but based on your comment I have my suspicions. 🙄 Way to get that snake, Lucek!!!
A classic seems apt here: The 1990s called... they want their comment board back.
@Paul I heard a good saying this week. "You can count all the seeds in an apple, but your can't count all the apples in a seed." Meaningful to me right now. I've got 5 or 6 apple pies in the freezer and about that many quarts of apple sauce in the pantry. And still about 1/3 of the tree to go! September is apple harvest time -- but I'm behind. I work at a school, so I think I'll take in some and give away. They've already received a lot of the cherry tomatoes. My husband picks about 25 every day. Delicious! But more than we can eat, for sure.
This was one rich theme. Rich in wordplay. Each theme answer had it – body-part/food phrases, a language quirk that was a revelation to me. The revealer landed perfectly and added yet another wordplay layer. Rich in theme answer. Every one of them colorful and lively, including the revealer. And fresh – FINGER ROLL, PEOPLE FOOD, and TOE BEANS are NYT answer debuts. The richness spread to the four non-theme longs, each gleaming – DON’T GET UP, ICE DANCERS, SOLAR FLARE, and HIDEY HOLE. To all this, add cat and dog references, and I, who adore both, was utterly charmed. I liked the theme echoes in answers from which body part/food phrases can be made, albeit in reverse order: BEER belly and EGGhead. And I, who inexplicably get a kick out of such things, loved that the constructor’s name is a six-letter palindrome. Your puzzle, Hannah, shimmered with quality, and gave me a stellar outing. Thank you!
It didn't take much ELBOW GREASE to do this puzzle* Can't wait till PALM SUNDAE** -- we're having pork BUTT ROAST for dinner! * Grease -- can that be considered a food? I've certainly consumed my fair share of it. ** Right. Almost but not quite. Knowing that, I still went for it! Better arm candy than nose candy, right? I don't know about toe beans. Sounds a little icky doo to me.
@john ezra I could only come up with head cheese 😆
@john ezra ICKY DOO? That's a new one on me!
I would think by now we are at least two or three generations beyond children bringing apples for teachers.
@Francis Tell that to Hallmark and the companies that sell cheap plastic tchotchkes for kids to buy and give their teachers. They might not give their teachers actual apples, but the symbol still exists in the culture. My sister, an elementary school teacher, has received many "apple for the teacher"-themed gifts over the years.
@Francis Or... Could be a true, no-strings sign of appreciation! Using an apple or apple symbol in the gift makes it seem to me even LESS like bribery for some reason.
@Francis in case no one has posted this yet... <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI84IkcMgr4" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI84IkcMgr4</a> Bing and Connie!
As a kid, I couldn't figure out for the longest time why people went to the library to study Carol.
@Eric Well..... She was stacked. /one for the books
@Eric I thought that a carrel was the think you turn around to look for cards listing the books.
Fun fact: on the Alaska cruise we took last summer, the Kids Club Director was named EDNA MODE! We thought it was hilarious. She said it became very annoying once The Incredibles came out 😂
Here's just a fascinating fun fact of absolutely no historical importance whatsoever. The favorite ice cream of Dolley Madison, wife of President James Madison was oyster!
@Marcia Fidler And appropriate as a Halloween dish, I'd say. Ewwww!
@Marcia Fidler 🥴🤢🤮 that sound utterly disgusting
@Marcia Fidler A gag worthy concoction by someone who didn't embrace the God-given blessing of ice cream. Oyster? What exactly would you do with that? Obviously not smother it in chocolate syrup, but strawberry topping might help. Lemon sherbet is another possibility, but still, the horror of biding into an oyster when you were trying to cleanse your pallet.... Yick.
PEOPLE FOOD??? Oh, my god! You mean Soylent Green?!? "You've got to tell them! It's people! Soylent Green is people!" <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RTZxkPfxky8" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RTZxkPfxky8</a>
@The X-Phile Nice Here's the clip I remember; <a href="https://clip.cafe/cloud-atlas-2012/soylent-green-people-soylent-green-made-of-people" target="_blank">https://clip.cafe/cloud-atlas-2012/soylent-green-people-soylent-green-made-of-people</a>/
@The X-Phile A great and chilling movie with two titans of the silver screen - Robinson and Heston. Maybe prophetic in other ways - maybe ICE will start using front loaders in their sweeps. Cute puzzle theme. My late and beloved Scottie, MacBeth, looked forward to his only PROPLE FOOD - pizza crusts.
I believe this was my first Monday puzzle solved on Sunday. Promising start to the week?
A lot of people think "Splice Up Your Life" is the best Splice Girls song, but I vote for "2 Become 1". Fess up: how many of you way back when thought "I really, really wannabe a Splice Girl?" I call dibs on the name Genie Splice!
@ad absurdum knocked it out of the park again.
@ad absurdum And who can forget Vanilla Splice's Splice, Splice Baby?
@ad absurdum Can I be Knotty Splice? (I could do rope tricks.)
@ad absurdum dibs on Comma Splice, I don’t know where periods go.
I hunted and hunted for my mistake last night, and was about to click Reveal Puzzle, but at the last second I decided to let a night's sleep and perhaps a trip to Ms. Corbin's Column help me. It turned out that the latter was all it took. I was suspicious of my 17A. Somehow I imagined that I could make sense out of rINGERROLL--aren't baskets made called "ringers"?--even though the internet didn't recognize the word. I'm not sure what a "finger roll" is either, but the F change got me the music, hoorah!
Euros is not the currency. Euro is, and the plural of Euro is also Euro. Slightly annoying this got through fact checking.
Anon, Dollars to donuts the fact checkers found it to be fine.
@Anon You can use all your euro to buy a lot of Lego.
@Anon Have you ever played "Operation"? If so, did you complain that the "funny bone" wasn't really the funny bone? Euros is well-established as a plural. So is Euro.
@Anon came to say the same but apparently the dictionaries disagree with the European Central Bank.
@Anon et all It's so, so annoying! People just WILL bend language to their needs and preferences no matter how one lectures and quotes dictionaries. This is by far the most serious and damaging issue we are facing in today's world!! Thank you for bringing this to our attention...
Would Soylent Green have been a harder revealer clue?
Twizzles are hard. You're doing a one-footed spin while traveling across the ice. Mind you, I'm usually wearing full hockey gear when I try them, so it doesn't hurt so much when I wipe out. My waltz jump, on the other hand, is EPIC.
@Grant That would go under the heading of: Stuff NOT to tell my Canadian Jump School Buddies. 🤣
Nice and smooth start to the week. About nine minutes to solve over lunch, and then an extra three to spot that I'd typed ACORb rather than ACORN. I really should start checking for typos methodically rather than darting my eyes around the grid at random.
@Seb I agree that a serious look for errors requires something systematic. My method is to go through acrosses, making sure I read the clue correctly, especially for very tense. Quite often I just see a typo. If it's a proper name or one where vowels seem interchangeable, (like definite and definate--I know, there are word origins that can help with that) then I quickly check the downs to make sure I'm solid with all the vowels. I also check c's and k's. I still don't know if it's "orca" or "orka", or if it's "arc" or "ark". Usually that flushes it out, unless it's a proper name. "s" and "z" can sometimes we weird, but "z" is uncommon enough that that usually isn't it.
Apropos of nothing, a friend way back when had a cat named Sweet Knuckles. Nice, getting the themed dog thought in at 3D: “Don’t get up. (I got this.)”
If you didn't feel sufficiently challenged by this puzzle, the New Yorker has a tough one with an interesting grid pattern (seven spanners!) by Kameron Austin Collins: <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/crossword/2025/10/06" target="_blank">https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/crossword/2025/10/06</a>
@Steve L That was a good deal more challenging than this one. Thanks for the heads up.
@Steve L I'm getting to really like the Monday New Yorker. The only problem is, once I'm done I want to talk about it with someone, and there's no forum.
Apropos of the wonderful 59A, here's one of my favorite Peanuts clips of all time. You may have to click on it once and then a second time to get it to fully enlarge: <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/193654852711961788" target="_blank">https://www.pinterest.com/pin/193654852711961788</a>/
Fun facts: I solved this puzzle while texting my friend about AARON Judge's disastrous postseason and while wearing TEVAs
Lovely Monday puzzle! Some charming answers in there, and today I learned the word "CARREL".
Enjoyable! Well done Hannah! Carrel is new to me too! As always say any puzzle with NENE is a puzzle for me! Thank you!
Until yesterday, when I finally signed up for the sports package from my cable company so that I could watch the Jays vs Yankees series, I could never have confidently provided an answer to 15 Across. However, having seen the phenomenal performance put on by Trey Yesavage, I know that AARON Judge is one person who will forever remember this incredible young man. 10-1 and 13-7 results? Dare I hope for a first round playoffs sweep?
@Janet I’m frustrated that we can’t simply watch ball. And you’re in Toronto! I use an antenna for TV, so I bought an MLB pass. But it won’t work for postseason unless I pay for television service. Boooo. Oh yeah - super fun puzzle!
Caught on to the theme right away, except that, um, "table scrap" takes up the same space as PEOPLE FOOD. Yeah, that missing final S should have told me something. I didn't waste too much time on it though; the crossings soon told me I was wrong. As usual, I had no idea what the named part of the church was, but the crossings taught me that. There was nothing objectionable in this puzzle at all, that I could see, and a fine way to start my Monday. Did y'all remember to do the Midi? And have you done the Bonus? Puzzle away! Today is my ER volunteering day, but first I go for an injection of Euflexxa in my knee. This stuff is magic, and has helped me put off knee replacements for the last year. Hoping to put it off for a few years. Have a lovely Monday, people!
There is nothing better than TOEBEANS, and EDNA Mode is absolutely FAB. If we’re getting cutesy language and kid stuff, I prefer these entries ATON more than all the DRAMA caused by ICKYPOO. ;) Fun, fast Monday. I think I would’ve PR’d if I’d solved on my laptop instead of the phone.
After ARMCANDY and TOEBEANS, I saw the connection and slowed down to see if I could predict the rest with minimal crosses. Super fun solve with my kind of humor! I love that Sam referenced To Serve Man, but my GenX brain had gone right to the Treehouse of Horror parody: <a href="https://youtu.be/o0QcdgeI5Rs?si=V7WSUzAXKv0IQfmv" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/o0QcdgeI5Rs?si=V7WSUzAXKv0IQfmv</a>
Easy peasy, LEMONSQUEEZY. Sounds like something a dog would eat, as well.
@Dave K. Is there anything a dog won't eat?
An enjoyable Monday, Hannah. Many thanks.
I love the constructor’s comment that this puzzle came together like magic — delightful theme, nice clean clues, nothing extraneous. Great Sunday afternoon diversion.
I worked in a library for years, but didn’t know the word CARREL. Really enjoyed the puzzle though, just right for Monday.
@suejean I only ever heard that term when I was in graduate school at a large university. The CARRELs were assigned by the head librarian, who judged the location by your course of study. I was in the basement, near "Education," but all of the stacks I visited were two floors up, in "Psychology." Trudge, trudge... She actually apologized to me about the location of my desk. That was certainly a First.
@suejean I used the study carrels at my university on a daily basis. It was a quiet place to study and much appreciated. I had several roommates and needed the quiet to focus ☺️
Lots of fun! 5D. I kinda knew it, but thought it was spelled like the woman's name. 8D. Being a shortwave radio nut it was a gimme. A similar phenomena is Coronal Mass Ejections or CME. That term makes me think of what happens when you imbibe too much of that Mexican beer and Nacho chips... ¡No intentes esto en casa!
This gave me a little more resistance than a usual Monday, which was very welcomed because it meant I could spend more time sipping coffee in the morning light without feeling like I was putting off the start of the day. But now, work :( I loved this puzzle. Toe beans.
I just read the clue for 47A aloud to Charlotte the Kitty, whose pristine white PAWS all have tasteful black PADS, known to some Cutesy Constructors as TOE BEANS. (The clue doesn't even read rightly--a PITY, as Charlotte commented before leaving DRAMAtically.) Other than that, thought of HOOK SHOT for the basket, but FINGER ROLL is also fancy. Actually, missed quite a few clues because the grid filled before I got to them... Nice puzzle; very Monday.
@Mean Old Lady White paws with black pads sound very tasteful indeed, but I’m team white-paws-pink-pads all the way. As I type this, Señor Gato is sprawled on his (black) back across my lecture notes for tomorrow, with his hind (white) paws parked on my thigh, pink toes drumming against me to the beat of his kitty dreams. They’re literal bruisers sometimes, these little jelly beans (I occasionally sport a curious pattern of yellowish/greenish marks on my skin), but I wouldn’t trade them for anything. I guess we all love our kitties just the way they are.
I'm enjoying today's comment section as much as I enjoyed the puzzle! Have a great Monday, everyone!
I always try to do Mondays on downs only, so when TOEBEANS filled in, I had to check the clue. I can't decide between TOTES ADORBS or ICKYPOO. Was shocked to find that I couldn't get the DNA answer immediately. I started college in 1963, when discoveries in genetics were hot news, and considered it as a career. I definitely could have rattled off the full name then. Still can but only with a nudge. BTW since I was actually more interested in the socio-political implications of genetics than the science. it was pointed out to me that I should choose a different major. History it was.
@RozzieGrandma At least it wasn't the "Deoxyribonucleic" part of DNA.
Very late to the puzzle. Today I learned that DONOTRISE and DONTGETUP are equal in length. Except for this, I was on just the right wavelength, and solved this puzzle in just shy of 7 minutes. Which, for me, is rather fast.
I could only think of one other theme option: head cheese. Clever, tight theme perfect for a Monday. Thank you, Hannah, for starting off my week with a smile.
Fun Monday puzzle. Pretty smooth solve, but I was almost done when I stopped and pondered and finally caught on to the theme. That's always a nice touch. First puzzle find today - a Saturday from May 15, 1982 by I. Julah Koolyk. Theme answers in that one, all straightforwardly clued (and there was no 'reveal'): THUMBNAILSKETCH RULEOFTHUMB FINGERLINGS KNUCKLESANDWICH PALMTREE RINGWORM Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=5/15/1982&g=48&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=5/15/1982&g=48&d=A</a> I'll put my other puzzle find in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: a Wednesday from May 19, 1993 by June A. Boggs. No reveal in that one, or anything suggesting which answers were theme answers (and all those were just straightforwardly clued. Here are those answers (first one with the clue in parentheses): FINGER (lakes) OUTOFHAND KNUCKLESANDWICH ALLTHUMBS PALMER Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=5/19/1993&g=41&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=5/19/1993&g=41&d=A</a> ...
Nice and fun puzzle to start the week. And I added Carrel to my vocabulary. Thank you Mrs. Corbin for your solving tips and notes, I enjoy them as much as I enjoy the puzzle.
Fun puzzle! So cute... err, ish! Mental imagery swinging wildly between TOE BEANS and ARM CANDY on the one, err, hand, and zombies on the other. It is October, after all! KNUCKLE SANDWICH is pretty cute, too, because it feels like it belongs in comic books of yore. Plenty of other food in this puzzle, too: APPLES and HONEY for the new year; an EGG, and after some BEER you might even enjoy FROG legs or ACORN soup! The AROMA of this meal might strike you as more of an ODOR than a [Welcoming feature] though. A note about TOE BEANS. One of my cats has them and they are truly adorable: I can't resist taking photos of him feet first! My other cat has very cute paw pads, too, but they are black – and definitely not beans. NB: I have heard this term for a few years now, but can't quite bring myself to use it out loud... Just in my head when I take those photos!
The whole "giving the teacher an apple" trope is getting pretty long in the tooth.
@Francis Chris Knight might beg to differ. <a href="https://youtu.be/NdzsjEn1SNM?si=AeE8K0VaCa-n-TLS" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/NdzsjEn1SNM?si=AeE8K0VaCa-n-TLS</a>
@Francis Sorry. This is a duplicate post. I thought the emus had eaten the other one, but apparently they only gnawed on it.
@Francis Maybe the tooth got stuck in the apple.
@Francis, the Oppenheimer movie has a take on it you may find interesting.
I felt like the revealer was a bit of a stretch today but the fill was super fun I entered in TOE BEANS on my first pass and was pleased about it but I immediately knew there would be people complaining about it in it since it's such an online millenial/gen z term
Cute theme; felt like a Tuesday or Wednesday.