Sometimes it’s not what you say, it’s what you leave out. Suff* it to say, we all have a cho*. We can give in to coward* or fight for just*. *, *, baby.
Bartending is whiskey business. (I have mixed feelings about it.)
@Mike Oh no! Hope you're just shaken, not stirred. ...
@Mike your usual rye humor! Cheers!
@Mike Are you serious or is this just a shot in the dark?
@Mike Had a snort... Thanks; now I'm ready for the day! P.S. Yer late!
@Mike I was trying to gin up a reply, but my attempt was scotched.
@Mike Leave it to Mike to distill the heart of the puzzle into a post. Thanks for the Punna Colada.
Reposted: In which ICE disappears. If only...
@Steve L YES, YES, YES!!!! Loved that!
@Steve L ICE disappearing disappeared!
Noice! It’s only missing an inflatable frog somewhere in the grid.
@Cat Lady Margaret What a perfect opportunity to use that accented slang! So chill.
I enjoyed this. I got the properly-Thursday-worthy theme quickly and even though I struggled a bit with the TRIVIA, I solved the puzzle without outside help, and in Wednesday time, too (whereas yesterday's "Wednesday" required Friday/Saturday time). I thought the trick was really cool - the theme entries not being gibberish with ICE taken out was a true testament to the constructor's skill. Cool stuff.
@Andrzej I also loved the lack of americana! I thought you might enjoy that too :)
@Andrzej This time people can legitimately complain about TRIVIA in the puzzle! :-)
@Andrzej Wow, n-icely done then. I'm impressed, since (a) I thought you often do use help and (b) this was a pretty tough puzzle for me, which I much enjoyed.
I was feeling a little salty over the WEND/READE crossing (as surely there’s Charles RiADE somewhere…), but then I heard what I’d been saying in my head, over and over, for the past 20 minutes. Let’s all say it together: No ICE No ICE No ICE No ICE No ICE A DROLL puzzle with NOTABLE timeliness. I am grateful for those themers, and for all the ways we can remove ICE from our grid.
@Josh NO KINGS NO KINGS NO KINGS NO KINGS NO KINGS NO KINGS NO KINGS
I’m almost at two years of zero alcohol. So, this one became a tough one because I was thinking the answers could have been “with a branch”, a zest, on ice, straight up. I totally blanked on neat. 11/8/23
@Red Carpet Congrats on the accomplishment! Best of luck as you keep going.
@Red Carpet I'm almost three weeks, and this puzzle, the photo and comments - makes me wanna fall off the wagon!
@Red Carpet Wow, I was thinking the same thing. Only 5 months for me. I'm losing my balance on that wagon, hope to not fall off.
@Red Carpet et al Well....good for y'all. But what is going on? You really want me to give up wine with dinner? Oh, dear.
@Red Carpet Three and a half years zero alcohol, this puzzle made me reconsider. I will stay strong, though. SETINSTONE is my clue today!
@Red Carpet, Bill, Jerry, Louise . . . Good on ya. It's tough to abstain, no matter your reason.
@Red Carpet Hang in there, to all struggling with temptation. Call your sponsor! Talk to your higher power! Don’t throw away what you’ve accomplished over a crossword puzzle.
@Red Carpet To all on the wagon, whatever other battles you're dealing with in your life, you're winning this one, and good for you!
@Red Carpet, Bill, Jerry, Louise and anyone else making healthy life choices ~ Congratulations on your respective feats - one day at a time. There are so many alternatives to enjoy - like Deb A, I like my black tea served cold, but with no ICE.😉
@Red Carpet Congrats on your sobriety! I celebrate 15 years on Monday. I drank whiskey once and had a bad experience in my teens. The only thing I learned was I never drank whiskey again, so I switched to other poisons!
"It’s your puzzle. Solve it any way you want.” I read that quote in Deb's "How to Solve the New York Times Crossword" primer when I first attempted doing the puzzles, and it was truly liberating advice. Back then I was still struggling with Mondays. Instead of routinely abandoning puzzles because of an actress I didn't know or a currency I'd never heard of, it gave me permission to complete what I'd started, which helped me develop the skill to eventually solve without looking anything up. (Um, usually.) I'm sure I'd have given up crosswords long ago if I'd remained convinced that researching an answer was cheating. So, thanks for that. I'm grateful. Anyway, I enjoyed this puzzle, for the theme, the cluing (e.g., [Make in the end]), and for the answers that still were real words with ICE removed. Thanks for the fun!
@Peter C. Great comment on Deb's great wordplay column today. My experience was much the same--go as far as you can go, then give yourself permission to use Google or use Reveal or anything else you need to do. Repeat again and again, and gradually you'll find the need for the crutches fall away.
@Peter C. Like you, I looked things up so that one day I would no longer need to cheat. But folks do these puzzles for recreation so they can call it whatever they want.
@Peter C. Funny, my experience was kinda the opposite of yours. I started out solving puzzles casually (cheating here and there as needed), and anytime I’d come across a really challenging one and eventually hit a wall, I can distinctly remember feeing outraged when I’d finally cave and hit the “reveal grid” button — specifically, I remember exclaiming to myself, “it’s not even that those entries are hard, they just don’t make sense!!!” At some point, it occurred to me to stop cheating unless I was reeeally stumped. And what do you know: turns out all those clues in the harder puzzles actually *did* make plenty of sense all along, and I just wasn’t good enough at solving to grok them! All that to say, I think that developing crossword solving skills does require being prepared to cheat (rather than walking away from a puzzle)…but if you want to improve quickly, you’ve gotta be willing to torture yourself a fair bit before doing so.
@Peter C. I’ve never thought that looking up an answer is cheating. I think of it as learning. 🙂
I'll have to check my receipt, but I distinctly remember ordering my country neat!
I am registering my strenuous disapproval and disappointment at the removal of the top comment, Steve L’s “if only” comment about ICE. It was anodyne. It didn’t reference any news story. There are other comments still up with the same message. Don’t be such snowflakes about ice, Times!
@john ezra it looks like a specific person flagged all of the comments that he didn’t like because I don’t see his comments anymore either…
This is the first Thursday puzzle I've ever done where I didn't have to look up any of the clues!! (I did still check my answers as I went, but I'm making progress!)
Beautifully constructed puzzle, with all the themers working as valid fill with and without ice. Nice!
@Jeb Jones I'm not sure about 5A being valid fill with or without the ICE for all the clues. Does BENTO make sense for treat with kindness without ICE? I know a BENTO BOX would be nice if I was eating in the school cafeteria again. Does PRY (24A) mean Expensive? Does DROLL (62A) mean Risky endeavor? Is there anything I haven't notICEd?
@lucky13 The answers don't match the clues, but are words and valid crossword fill on their own.
Reaction to Mr. Aya's puzzle - vote below: LOVE __ HATE __ NONE ✓* *N(ICE) ONE I loved the theme. But 3D initially threw me off since the entry fits the clue, with or without the ICE.
@Henry Su Left me a bit cold, but loved the effort!
@Henry Su NOTICEABLE fits the clue; it means [Conspicuous]. Does NOTABLE really mean conspicuous, too?
@Henry Su this was the clue that unlocked the puzzle theme for me with 10D. I felt the same way as you at first but knew the full word was a better fit and then it clicked!
@Henry Su I had to go to the comments to realize where the ice was supposed to be because notable was working so perfectly. Im dumb
@Steve L, good question. In solving crosswords I've learned to accept that there might be a bit more give in how well a clue fits the entry. NOTABLE was okay with me and I moved on to the next clue, even though in composition, I likely would have crossed it out and replaced it with NOTICEABLE.
Given today's political climate, I was happy to have a sanctuary puzzle with no ICE in it. The oreos and emus did get in. The triple trickery was fun. It was tough but I did enjoy myself.
I think I'm ready to start changing my puzzle-solving style. I've been doing the puzzle for several decades (since 1960, when I moved to NYC), and I've made a few changes. So have the powers that be at the NYT puzzle desk. What I mostly have to change, I think, is looking up things that I don't know and have to possible way of figuring out: things like pop music and stars, recent flicks and stars, catch phrases from those movies, catch phrases used by whatever-letter generation is being cited. Stuff like that. Just accept that I am a lot older now, and not interested in being particularly in tune with current culture. And that's okay. If I get used to it. I'll keep reminding myselfthat it's my puzzle. But I did love the no ICE stuff. These games/tricks/whatever you call them, are to me the best part of doing XWPs. (Also, they don't require a lot of walking.) Anyway, back to battling my landlord and cuddling my cat. Thanks all involved for a fun solve.
@Deadline Great to see a post from you. Hang in there.
@Deadline I've learned tons of stuff from looking up things in crosswords, it's good for you!
Deadline, Keep up the solving and the posting as you wish!
@Deadline My sentiments exactly—except I do love going for walks and am thankful I can still do it. I too am old (it’s all relative) and I don’t take mobility for granted at all. One day at a time. I agree about looking things up when solving, which is fine by me when it’s needed—same categories as yours, rap song titles and so on. Today’s puzzle was a challenge for me but so much fun too.
@Deadline, I'm about two decades behind you in solving, but have also made similar adjustments to my solving parameters. Much of pop culture eludes me these days unless I hear it from my third grade students or younger colleagues. When I'm well and truly stumped, I look at the Wordplay column, but I find that most of the "tricky" clues aren't the ones I need help with! Then I don't hesitate to go to Google for a boost. Oftentimes, looking up one strategically placed clue, especially if it's a long one, gives me enough to power on through. Happy solving!
@Deadline I have no hesitation at all in looking up things that I have had no or little exposure to. There are areas I know a fair amount about, but a lot more where I don't, and I'm too old to worry about it.
Magnifnt construction, and fun too! The best adv for becoming proficient at Thursday trickery... Pract, pract, pract. As Dr. Sidney Freedman once said, “Ladies and gentlemen, take my adv. Pull down your pants and slide on the “.
I. LOVE. THIS. PUZZLE. I hereby nominate it for PUZZLE OF THE YEAR. Thank you, Kareem Ayas, for a sparkling, interesting, thought-provoking, lively, wonderful puzzle!
@Tricia109 Seconded. It was quite good. I lavished additional praise somewhere above...
As Moronie from "Johnny Dangerously" once said, "fargin ice holes". Fun puzzle!
Dear Kareem, you had me at ABSCOND. Such a great word, and very Downton Abbey-esque, evoking one of those knavish footmen, who, having gotten a parlour maid in the family way, ABSCONDed with the earl's silver snuffboxes. The foul varlet! Cross that with a Van Halen song, and I was a fan of this puzzle, literally from square one. (My love is rotten to the core.) As for the theme, I knew something was up with BENTO. Sure, it's packed "with kindness," but it's a meal, not a "treat." OFF(ICE) HOURS sealed it for me. And hopefully, everyone who eschews video games remembered yesterday's BOSS LEVEL for 5D.
@Grant Absconder is commonly used to refer to an ER patient who slips away before being discharged!
Re: looking up answers Back in olden days when there was no internet and we looked forward to wading through the Sunday Times till we got the Magazine section. We shared the puzzle back and forth, and we also had no less than 4 puzzle dictionaries, a thesaurus and a regular dictionary. I considered it learning things I did not know. Call it whatever you like and play your game your way. I am glad Will Shortz and predecessor agree!
@Barb K "4 puzzle dictionaries, a thesaurus and a regular dictionary" Plus a compact version of the OED, a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare, and my childhood Bible, which I dug out of my folk's basement for the purpose. (Not sure I ever told them why I was so interested in it all of a sudden.)
@Barb K And…back in the day you likely didn’t time yourselves to see if you broke your personal best, nor kept track of your streak of consecutive puzzles solved, nor boasted to each other about either.
@Barb K Don't forget your world atlas. Rhine or Rhone? Seine or Saone? Eder or Oder? And those Hawaiian volcanoes.
@Barb K i must admit to having occasionally, in utter frustration on a friday or saturday, called the nyt puzzle number and spent $2.49 or whatever it cost to get up to 3 answers. anybody else?
@Barb K And back in the olden days you only got one chance to get it right. No cycling through the alphabet until you reached the right letter.
No ice is neat, huh? On the surface, it's bartender lingo, but could it also be a comment on the nation's current immigration policies?
@Fabio Juliano Read the constructor's comments in the Wordplay column.
Fun and breezy. I love these kinds of themes, and it can’t have been easy to find all these words that you can take ICE out of and still have words (or crossword clues in the case of SLR). And we get two revealers, more or less, and ROCKSOUT is a pretty fun one. I admit I sneaked a peak after the first theme clue I came across at the revealer and got NEAT right away—which gave the theme away once I got BENTO—I might have enjoyed it more if let it simmer a bit. But that’s my problem. The fill was pretty solid. My only nit/observation is that since Lincoln was one of the first Republicans (apparently he didn’t found it as I had heard) it would be hard to imagine that it was the GOP (Grand OLD Party) when he was leading it. I looked it up, and that’s true; although it apparently started being called the GOP as early as the 1870s when it still was not very old. I’m not going to berate anyone about the clue, it just made me smirk a bit. NEAT idea all around, and for me a nice relaxing solve after yesterday’s which was a little more taxing.
Pretty sure I'm not the first to think that this puzzle is "the Kareem of the crop!" (I'll check for Mike's post later....) I saw all the clues that are Unknowns (Neo/Matrix; Van Halen; really old novel;Tonkatsu; Windows malfunction; composer; philosopher; rap hit) and my heart sank a bit. I got up at 6 a.m., walked for 45 minutes, and already I NEEDED A NAP! How could a "risky endeavor" be DROLL? How could I forget "chiromancy?" ETHNObotanist? It was 24A that enabled the light to dawn. Wonderful puzzle!
Re columnist Deb's "fear of not relaxing in the peace and quiet of my own home, or FONRITPAQOMOH" - I too have this. An alternative acronym for it is JOMO, or Joy Of Missing Out. :-)
Even though it took me a little longer than usual, I really loved this theme - here's to No ICE! Thank you, Kareem, for such a brilliant theme - I hope we see more from you!
NYT really just ran a crossword based on the theme of taking out ICE 🙌
This theme absolutely baffled me. I got neat immediately but could not figure the connection. When I hv whisky I enjoy it neat so the thought of ice did not form for me. I considered SETINSTONE as a reference to those stones people chill to cool their whisky, nope nope nope. They tend to flavor the pour, yuck. I finished the entire puzzle on crosses and had to read comments to understand. Clever but sadly lost on me.
@Winston I’m with you! This was too abstruse. I got NEAT easily but couldn’t see what it had to do with BENTO etc.
WiND and RiADE was my natick. Had gar (Grand Army of the Republic, 37d) for a while, then usa, then finally GOP. Don’t think GOP was much used when Lincoln lived, nor was gar. But close enough for a crossword. I saw the trick at SLR. Great fun, thanks!
@sonnel Same Natick for me. Did a vowel run for the gold star.
Can I say, this was a NEAT puzzle?
A nicely themed puzzle with lots of theme answers that made real words by omitting ICE, almost as if it had melted away. I was helped by guessing DRE without any basis, and the fact that a lot of the general knowledge clues were in my wheelhouse. I did spend some time trying to fit in an ICE rebus, but soon saw the non-IOERROR of my ways.
I didn’t manage to solve this without helps, but greatly enjoyed this one. No ice! How timely! Oh, that we could treat people with the dignity and respect they are afforded for being made in the image of God!
@Cherry What an absolutely pleasure to see so many positive responses to the deletion of ICE. Nice crowd here. I'll even drink to that!
a timely, clever, and fun thursday. i only started solving crosswords 2ish months ago, and this is the closest i'm come to completing a thursday with minimal square reveals. and the theme...chef's kiss
Very n. I had a couple wrong fills tripping me up -- vanish for 37A and jusT for 1A (I had ___T and don't know Van Halen) -- but it ended up ok. Got NEAT on first pass, so when I got BENTO with crosses, the theme clicked. I do not personally get FOMO for parties -- which may be why I don't go to many! I'll go out for a good concert (usually symphony), otherwise I prefer quiet evenings at home with my dog and cat and a good book.
@Isabeau Symphony concerts are usually my concerts of choice too!
A capital-P puzzle today. Sunday, we had a puzzle where tiny scissors, on the line between two squares, represented the word ONCE. For example, the scissors appeared between the C and R of the answer TO WHOM IT MAY CRN – you had to imagine the ONCE there. Today’s Puzzle is a layer more difficult. Yes, you have to imagine ICE in the answer, but there is nothing, like Sunday’s scissors, to tell you where it goes. That’s a marvelous riddle to crack! The gimmick hit me with a delectable “Oho!”. The Puzzle battled me on another front – no-knows – of which I ran into more than a few. They created barren white spaces that lingered until I cracked the ICE. Along the way there was beauty: WEND, DROLL, ABSCOND, THRUMS. And lovely touches by Kareem to have the ICE-less words still be actual words, to have the theme answers be symmetrical, and to have two revealers. Potent and Pleasing, a worthy Thursday. Thank you, Kareem!
@Lewis I thought of you when I filled in THRUMS. Such a wonderful word, the way it reverberates in one's brain!
A possible title for today's puzzle: De (ICE)ification.
One of my best friends, Tom, was a preeminent expert on the music of Charles Ives. He passed away in April of 2024. I miss him. In case you're not familiar with Ives' music, here is a youtube of "Central Park in the Dark," (1906), in which someone has made a rather nice "music video" to the recording of it by Michael Tilson Thomas and the SFO, which is one of the best. It's about 7 minutes long, and very pretty. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx25XRrzjRo&list=RDBx25XRrzjRo&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx25XRrzjRo&list=RDBx25XRrzjRo&start_radio=1</a>
@Bill I don't really know much about Charles Ives but I sorry for the loss of your dear friend! I've lost a few best of friends way too early, myself, so I get it. Always grateful to find something that reminds me of them that I can share with others. So thank you for sharing about your friend!
Re: 62A - Marilyn's workplace advice seems curiously dated: There may come a time When a hard-boiled employer Thinks you're awful nice, But get that ice or else no dice. He's your guy When stocks are high, But beware when they start to descend. It's then that those louses Go back to their spouses. Diamonds are a girl's best friend.
Right off the starting block, this puzzle was on fire 🔥 Van Halen’s AIN’T Talkin’ ‘Bout Love performed at the US Festival right before I started high school was epic. <a href="https://youtu.be/rzYPpaPf6eg?si=KXc2vJQlGy9NU1L" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/rzYPpaPf6eg?si=KXc2vJQlGy9NU1L</a>- The theme was on point 👌🏼 Especially given what’s happening in my state in particular. Well done, Kareem, well done.
@Jacqui J Thanks for sharing the link. I was at that US Festival! David Bowie also performed and was the highlight of the weekend for me. Good times. And I agree the theme was on point. Bad times.
@Jacqui J I don’t know the Van Halen song. My head was filled with Led Zeppelin.
@Jacqui J & Valerie 4. U2 3. The Pretenders 2. Stevie Nicks 1. David Bowie I was there too. Wow.
@Jacqui J @Valerie So jealous! I have read about the US Festival; there's some terrific footage of the B-52's, but I guess that was the earlier show... I was never a Van Halen megafan, but have happily had "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" in my head all day!
Another recent example of an anti-rebus. Instead of having multiple letters in one box you have multiple letters in zero boxes. This is even more mind-bending than a rebus. But we can adapt to this anti-pattern. We need to adjust our frequencies, much like the Borg, to combat this threat.
@Francis Resistance is futile!
@Francis "Resistance is Futile!" always struck me as such a blatant ripoff of Douglas Adams.... <a href="https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/114212/is-there-a-link-between-the-vogons-resistance-is-useless-and-the-borgs-resi" target="_blank">https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/114212/is-there-a-link-between-the-vogons-resistance-is-useless-and-the-borgs-resi</a> (responding to Marc really, but the new threading is so awful that I've done it as a main reply)
@Francis Just for you, here is Lucek watching ST:TNG, albeit not a Borg episode: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/rtrOtxj" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/rtrOtxj</a> (He really is looking at the screen)
Wow first time in a long while that I found Thursday easier than Wednesday! I wish I could still drink whiskey NEAT. My esophagus won’t take it anymore, so I have to add lots of ICE to water it down. This puzzle could have easily been political which I would have welcomed. I expect that this Saturday lots of people will be shouting “NO ICE” in the streets!
@Charles Nelson Reilly Saturday will be NO KINGS DAY and it will fall on Zohran Mamdani's birthday.
"...he has removed the word 'ice' from all of the theme entries in his puzzle. There are also no words in the surrounding fill that contain the letter string I-C-E..." If he could do this across the country....
Very neat Puzzle, *To be fair. I have to say that after yesterday's Chromebook CLUE in the Mini and today's IOERROR clue, I am beginning to feel that us Windows users are getting no love around here. I/O errors are not just a PC issue and may have nothing to do with disks. JUST(ICE) for PC users.
@SamG Indeed. I/O is really stuff in and out of the computer, eg USB. I know, I know - good enough for a crossword.
@SamG Never seen an "I/O ERROR" reported in any MacOS. I've seen things that mean the same thing, but never that specific label. As far as I know, You'll only see that error on a PC.
Excellent puzzle! Even with the revealer clue entered I didn't truly "get" the theme until I finally got to SLR. (I was misdirected and stumbling over the letters n, e, a, and t being present in the first theme answer, and a possible stone/rock theme, among other delays.) What a neat little trick, and so well executed. And that clue for the far overused TSA - wow, just terrific. Worthy of the spit-take and more. How in the world was that previously edited out? Unimaginable. I didn't even notice/get the rocks-out connection until I went back to review just now. What a fine piece of work.
@B -- Speaking of SLR, it would have been cool if its clue, instead of being [*deli device], had been [*deli dev].
Sitting on the deck of our ship, after leaving the Virgin Islands, and as my husband snoozes, I'm contemplating how fast the ICE in my rum and diet has disappeared. If only life imitated art, I mean, if you consider a rum and diet coke on the deck of the ship art, which I do. And this really was a very fun puzzle!! But I looked back at it again today I got a whole another kick out of it!! That's always a good puzzle!
I loved this puzzle so much. Thank you for the humor and the challenge, Kareem Ayas. I will definitely keep an eye out for more of yours. It took me longer than it probably should have to see what the trick was. I KNOW I really should read ALL the clues before starting to fill things in, and if I had done that today I would have seen the clever trick much sooner. But I stumbled happily around, thinking it was pretty tough, but finding places I could fill in. I went for my 4 mile walk, up hill and down, listening to my audiobook (“The Winners” by Fredrik Packman—SO good and I highly recommend it). I came home had my lunch and tackled this amazing puzzle again and finally saw the light! Or the absence of ICE! 😊 Thanks to the whole team 👏🏻
@Shari Coats Thank you, Shari! Now I really get it.