My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Noted chairman? (5) 2. Whom you might meet with open arms, for short? (3) 3. What a comment might be made in (4) 4. Spirals out of control? (9) 5. Fights back tears? (5} EAMES TSA JEST TORNADOES DARNS
My favorite encore clues from last week: [Easily removed locks] (3) [Canniest, for instance] (7) WIG ANAGRAM
It’s 2025: can we stop with the racist clues about Inuit’s homes (IGLOO). Inuits are normal people who live in houses. The tropes are exhausting.
@EC Perhaps the clue should be: “racist trope about Inuit people” or “ecotourist lodging in the arctic.”
@EC I thought the same thing. Could easily say “domicile made of ice” or something. Or even “structure made from water”
@EC agreed! Also, Inuit is a plural word already referring to a group of people. A singular Inuit person is an Inuk. “Inuits” is not a real word.
@EC isnt te(e)pee still a fairly frequent nyt crossword clue for the domicile of various native american tribes? worked on an apache res for 2 years and never saw a single family living in one... and mightnt the clue be valid if we think of the answer as erstwhile? is the tense here necessarily present?
@EC While I agree that the clue is somewhat inaccurate, I’m not sure the Inuit would take offense as igloo building is still practiced by some Inuit and is seen as an important part of their heritage.
@EC I agree - hints about igloos and teepees (tepee, tipi etc.) could be phrased in ways that don't exoticize Indigenous groups.
@EC Maybe clue it as Adhesive for Apple products
@EC You should look at the bright side; at least they don't sport FACETATS. I'm not sure of where an Inuit Mecca would be, though. 😆 (No harm intended) 😇
This one had some bite to it for a Monday. Liked it.
What a nifty Monday puzzle. ROCK N’ ROLL indeed. A fun fact: The reduction of ‘and’ to ‘n’ English is about 800 years old, both in pronunciation and writing. Prior to that, the ‘d’ in Old English ‘and’ (also found as ond, endi, or und) was always voiced. We know this from OE manuscripts, where it was never shortened to ‘n’ or ‘a/en’ but rather written out (unless replaced by the Tironian et (⁊) symbol, the precursor of our ampersand (&)), as well as from how OE poetry reads, where the ‘d’ in ‘and’ has to be fully voiced with an alveolar stop or it breaks meter. (Additional fun fact, that voiced ‘d’ is about 3 millennia old, with proto-Germanic andi/unda dating back to the Bronze Age.) But then comes Middle English, and ca. the 13th c. scribes start writing ‘and’ as ‘n̄’ or ‘en̄.’ (I’m using apostrophes here to denote italics. The apostrophe as a typographical way of denoting elision in speech only enters English in the 16th c. as printers adopt the Greek ἀπόστροφος or apostrophos or turning away. Before that, a macron over the ‘n’ indicated elision.) So we now see phrases such as ‘ale n wyn’ or the medieval version of SURF N’TURF, ‘fysshe n fleissh.’ Then we have 17th c. ale ’n’ cakes, then19th c. kiss ‘n’ tell and, finally, rock’n’ roll. And then advertisers drop one more apostrophe to make it all more visually pleasing, and now we’ve got our rock n’ roll and cookies n’ cream. But we’re not such a long way from the 13th c. and “Of mete n drynke he had gret nede.”
@Sam Lyons MERCI. Your post is ROCKNROLL.
@Sam Lyons Fascinating information from someone obviously a scholar of language. Thank you! One that drives me nuts is the local grocery chain which styles itself as Pick 'n Save. Aberrant behaviour I say!
@Sam Lyons I was just in Budapest, trying to deal with the strange Magyar language. I was confused for a while that “and” was “in”. But if you drop the d and remember that and is “y” or “i” in several languages, it begins to make sense. (Please don’t view this as an attempt at etymology.) Magyar is hard!!!
This was fun to the Nth degree. Thanks, Adam.
New(ish) crossword solver here 👋 This was a fun Monday with lots of easy clues mixed in with some complete guesses. Like many others it was OASiS that stumped me. Nice to see a few international references as well such as LOO! When I started solving crosswords I saw many of you suggested starting to go through Mondays. Now it’s like a challenge to myself, when I get a moment, to breeze through (hopefully!) a Monday or two. Slowly but surely I find myself understanding the crosswords 😄 Reading the comments here is always joyful and I appreciate the general positivity of the crossword solving community. With that being said, let me know if there’s any tips you have for solving! Happy Monday!
@gen z maddy Great to have you here, Maddy. As you will have seen, we're all very chattable (albeit now and then some snark emerges 🤨). Enjoy the games and feel free to jump in here.
@gen z maddy Just keep doing puzzles. Often the Comments give us hints about ways to tackle tough spots. "Take a break and walk away for a while" is good advice. I should listen to it more often, ha ha.
This theme ain’t half b, in fact, it’s the best thing since sliced bre. I ore it.
I liked this a lot. The 'ad free' was a great way to glue it all together, very impressive to deliver all those '___ n ___' fills + a fun thematic reveal , all within a bright, sunny Monday puzzle
"Promise you'll take me to the ice cream parlor?" "Sure, let's shake on it." (They'll wear their sundae best.)
@Mike And syruptitiously split the banana.
@Mike What's the scoop on "Best Ice Cream in Munster"??
@Mike, ok I'll bite ( lick), but please no Edy's.
I like the way they skirted the whole 'Cookies n Cream' versus 'Cookies n Creme' controversy.
Anyone having trouble with Games app this morning? It won't let me log in.
@M YES…. Thank you for posting this. I thought it was just me…
@M Same. Went to do wordle & keeps asking me to login. Tried to send a bug notice, and it would not work. Looks like a server problem. Hope they don't lose my 330 day streak.
@M AWS (Amazon server) is down and is affecting A LOT of apps and sites. It’s a huge news story this morning but NYT is also down so….
@M Global outage of a lot of platforms.
@M, yes. Spelling Bee tells me that I haven’t yet started yesterday (Sun) when it shows as being at “Amazing” - so the data isn’t flowing properly yet. Thanks for the info re: Amazon servers trouble.
Not only was there a lot of ROCK N ROLL in this fine Monday puzzle, I was reminded of one of one of my favorite groups with the tune Head OVER Heels. My friend from high school has been their drummer for the past 15 years or so. Love me some Tears for Fears 😍 <a href="https://youtu.be/CsHiG-43Fzg?si=CA1YdAB_gVLebxGK" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/CsHiG-43Fzg?si=CA1YdAB_gVLebxGK</a> Enjoy and happy Monday!
@Jacqui J And I just listened to both Elemental and The Tipping Point this week, both of which I'd never heard before. In fact, I had no idea they were still performing. Loved them in the 80s and love them today!
@Jacqui J Now I'm wondering how that chimp wound up in a Red Sox jersey.
@Jacqui J And "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is one of the randomized six songs you might hear when riding Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Revenge at Epcot. It's a great accompaniment for the ride.
@Jacqui J I read that on Wikipedia, too. It doesn't explain why a Red Sox jersey.
Nice Monday puzzle. Took me a bit to catch on to the trick, but that was the big turning point and that's always a nice touch. I might be away for a bit - moving into a VA facility today. Might be able to get back on line soon, but not sure about that. ...;.
@Rich in Atlanta -- Oh, soon please. Your posts are loved, and you are part and parcel of this space. Wishing you well...
@Rich in Atlanta Hope all goes good. Be well.
@Rich in Atlanta Understandable if you need some r 'n' r, but please don't stay away too long.
@Rich in Atlanta Aw, man! Will be thinking of you daily! AND counting on your continued participation.
@Rich in Atlanta I only managed to receive one Article 15 in my 22 year Army career, and that was early on as an 11B10. Sadly, my contribution to what was once referred to as “The Old Soldier’s Home” was only a few hundred dollars. Please spend my portion first, as I wish you the best, brother. Visit with your smiling font here often.
@Rich in Atlanta I join everyone else in wishing you well. I moved last year and, speaking honestly, it was hell. But I hope you'll have an easier time, get settled in nicely, and come back to post soon and in fine fettle!
@Rich in Atlanta Message received. Tell them it's ok to break radio silence. We need updates. Out.
I liked how uncovering the solo N in two theme answers easified getting the other two. I liked uncovering AD FREE after trying hard to guess it, and smiled at how clever it is. Truly, give me a tough smart riddle, and I’m happy if I get it and happy if I don’t (because the sweet effort satisfies my brain’s workout ethic). I liked having my five senses pinged through the theme answers alone, and echoed elsewhere in the grid. I heard a DRUM SOLO, tasted RAVIOLI, took in the aroma of COOKIES N CREAM, even flashed on an image of TRACHEA. I liked that AT BAT is up – Hah! I liked the four U-enders (FLU, ICU, YOU, ZULU, and wannabe IGLOO). I liked the AD in IPAD as a theme echo. Thus, a splendid outing. Thank you so much for making this, Adam!
I don't see a comment from Mike to reply to, but thought I'd say hello a-nihao. (If you laugh quietly at this, it will be aloha-ha.)
Good easy Monday puzzle. A bit funny to see TERSER as an answer after that was the last word I got on Friday. Also not the first time the last word I got right was ELON, referring to the college and not the billionaire. I first put down OASIS not realizing it pluralized to OASES, and it was my one square 'Amiss'.
I love a quick and fun puzzle on a Monday. Caught on easily, which isn’t always true. Thanks, Adam! Y’all have a great day!
It somehow only took me a minute more to solve the full puzzle than the mini today. I got really skunked on the Mini
@Steven M. Me too. I thought there was something wrong with my brain.
Enjoyed solving this Light N Lively Monday puzzle from Adam. Some may recall Light N' Lively cottage cheese, which weirdly has only the one apostrophe in the name after the N. IMO truly one of the most awful things I've ever tasted, and it had a weird sheen to it.
@Vaer Did I ever mention the best cottage cheese I've ever eaten? It was disgusting.
@SBK My intent was to disparage only that particular brand, which was discontinued a few years ago. To your list, I'd add a hot baked potato topped with a good cottage cheese.
As a lover of all things dairy: this thread is super weird!!!
BLAT here is bacon,lettuce, avocado, and tomato.
@Patrick J. … as in sandwiches.
@Patrick J. Interesting. But since I associate the onomatopoeia “BLAT” with an unpleasant noise, that doesn’t make my favorite sandwich sound very appealing! So while your version may be more efficient to say, I’ll stick with the 3-syllable BLT. 😉
@Patrick J. is that the sound your sandwich makes, when you squeeze it?
I enjoy watching scholars debating over the correctness of the American English language. I enjoy watching scholarly debates over any subject, actually. I think I could seriously party with Sam Lyons all night long. I’m not so sure about a few other scholars here, but Jaqcui J can join us, while we debate the Rock N’ Roll-ness of Tears for Fears. I do like that song, though. I’ve been playing Rock ’N Roll for decades now. I am a classically-trained musician from my very early years. I won’t reveal which stringed instrument I was forced to learn. That’s a story for another time. Suffice to say, Isaac Stern was my hero, and I display his autographed photo from 1966 in my music studio. He shakes his head a lot at me. I had to re-learn everything when I picked up the guitar and started playing Eagles, Hendrix, Santana, Vaughan, Bad Company, Skynyrd, ABB, Clapton, etc. When my guitar teacher, way back when, asked me about my musical journey, I told her that I could read sheet music, tablature and knew music theory quite well. Her reply was “I’m so sorry to hear that.” She is a fierce RR/Blues guitarist, a la Lita Ford/Bonnie Raitt. Wow, was she ever right! I learned that Rock ’N Roll has rules, but it doesn't. There are mistakes made while playing Rock ’N Roll songs, but they’re not mistakes. Rock ’N Roll has structure, but it doesn't. -- to be continued --
Chet Atkins is credited with saying, “Do it again on the next verse, and people think you meant it” as well as, ”Once you become predictable, no one's interested anymore.” He has many quotable lessons, as does Les Paul, Elvis, Orbison, and the rest of American icons. Thus, the debate over correct presentation of one of the greatest Genres ever produced in America has no explanation. I'd ask Chuck Berry, but he left us eight years ago… or did he? — there, I’m done —
@Jerry Funny story; my youngest sister had a brief go at the violin. I picked it up one time when I was home on leave, and rook a run at "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik," which I'd figured out on guitar. The parents were quite confused, as she was still working on "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" at the time.
Fun fairly easy but entertaining. Thank you Adam!
A very nice Monday puzzle that managed to be both tricky and easy at the same time with an excellent theme and revealer. How do those clever constructors manage that trick???
For me this fun puzzle continues my theory that Mondays are getting a bit more difficult which suits most solvers, so why not. A nice aha moment for me when it became clear how the N worked.
Straightforward Monday, hampered by my electricity dropping out every half hour or so (the electricians are in). Was thrown by the measure for flour solving to CUP. I forgot that’s the standard American recipe measure, ergo CUt and tOP SONG looked perfectly good to me.
@Chili Sounds like you've been Spirited Away.
For those desiring a bit more crunch on your Monday, Rafael Musa has a more challenging puzzle in the New Yorker: <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/crossword/2025/10/20" target="_blank">https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/crossword/2025/10/20</a>
@Steve L That’s a fun one! A little on the easy side for a Monday, but the fill is generally good and I really enjoyed the theme (in particular, the meta-clueing regarding a certain, ahem, grid feature).
@Steve L That was a very nice puzzle. I solved it in Tuesday NYT time. Some nice clues and a good theme. Thanks for the link! A popup to make me subscribe to the New Yorker partly obscured my keyboard the whole time I was solving though 😢
@Steve L BEQ's was nice too. <a href="https://brendanemmettquigley.com" target="_blank">https://brendanemmettquigley.com</a>/
Just read in the NYT that today's Games outage was due to a widespread outage on Amazon Web Services. Could have been worse - "Many popular services were affected, including WhatsApp, the British government’s website and tax services, the payment app Venmo, the cryptocurrency platform Coinbase and games at The New York Times. Dozens of other companies and retailers — including Amazon, Venmo, Hulu, Snapchat, McDonald’s, Ring doorbells and the game Fortnite — also experienced interruptions." There is so much we take for granted in this digital world...
@Chungclan, education was hard hit. My school had no access to many of our learning platforms and support systems. All was still down when I left work at 4:00.
@Chungclan Media has really downplayed this one for some reason. Amazon itself was still behaving really poorly (lots of 500 errors) as of late this afternoon. Maybe people (and CEOs) will finally face that the "Cloud" (which for most intents and purposes is a bunch of data centers in Virginia) is neither free, infallible, automatically resilient, nor even a particularly good idea. Nah, probably not. Look forward to more of this.
It's always bugged me that Rock and Roll is often stylized as "Rock N' Roll" -- with one apostrophe, not two. And that's how Guns N' Roses spells their name too.
That clue [Super-uptight] has me thinking about the ego-withering powers of Anal Man, who can find fault with anything, and has nary a wrinkle in his Spandex suit. The puzzle was fun and almost ad-free, except for that “sign up your family” spot just before I started.
Unexpected and wonderful revealer! I'll try not to take it personally. SPORTSBALL ALERT. I'm reminded by recent events of one of the most amazing baseball games I've ever seen: Vlimir Guerrero the Elder went 4 for 4, with 2 dingers and 9 ribbies for the Angels against the Red Sox. It was not the best game Pedro Martinez ever pitched. Many of you probably know that Pedro is Vlimir Guerrero Jr.'s godfather. (Although in the game I mentioned, Vl Sr. was Pedro's daddy.)
@bsurum aside from the wonderful 4-days-in-October in 2004, my favorite ballgame ever (on TV) was Mets-Astros NLCS game 6 in 1986. First game in person was Pirates-Mets at Shea in late September '69. What an experience!
@Amy That latter game must've been Amazin'! I'd love to have seen Roberto Clemente play.
@bsurum My favourite shots of Guerrero père are the various and numerous occasions when some hapless pitcher would throw a pitch millimetres above the dirt, only to see VG Sr somehow manage to get his bat on the ball and get a hit. Especially good are the ones where the camera catches the pitcher gaping at the receding ball. VG Sr was the best bad-ball hitter in the history of the game.
Trip to Hong Kong allowed me to know nihao, but there was some crunch. Figured out the theme early on and made for a great solve
@Megan I only knew of it from watching ‘Sagwa’ on PBS kids. That, and ‘Xièxiè’ (thank you)
After I got started, I thought this might be a good puzzle to see how far I could get with only across clues. I actually got pretty far—I had to check a down in ROCKNROLL to see what went in the AND space (thought it might be an ampersand, although that would be pretty odd for a Monday); I didn’t know the filmmaker and misspelled NIHAO; had YIELD before ALERT; and was looking for some tubular pasta instead of RAVIOLI and couldn’t come up with the rather generic POPSONG. But that was it. It was an interesting exercise but a shame really because most of the more interesting entries were down, including the revealer, which I discovered when I scanned the puzzle at the end. Pretty Light n’ Easy.
@SP same for me! I don’t usually get too far before I meet one I don’t know.
@SP I was disappointed that manicotti didn’t fit for the pasta.
Hiccuped on the trick and did not break my record by thirty seconds. Drats. Did find fall colors, peace, and quiet. My inner librarian has been read.
Disclaimer: I’m crabby from a long weekend and a prolonged disdain from the state of the world, but this was tough for a Monday. Some obscure proper nouns, a few naticks (for me) and a revealer clue found late in the down clues, which if it came earlier or in the crosses could have kept me from second guessing English as my first language. No hate to the constructor, I’m just grumpy and this particular Monday puzzle didn’t help set my week off in a good mood. Thanks for entertaining my gripe, fellow NYC crossword solvers!
@Mackenzie Crabbiness is now my subtext.
Personal best to start the week! As a South African I found it easier because of the fewer because of the fewer proper nouns. I was also excited to see Zulu! I had guessed BLAR instead of BLAT, which added a minute. I’m leaning piano so the revision of the G Major scale was welcome.
@James P I'm leaning non-piano so I was completely lost there 🤣 (I just thought the typo was pleasantly funny - they often are, in context)
@James P would have preferred a Michael Caine clue for Zulu but…
@Andrzej Non-piano? So you’re not thrilled about the Chopin competition in your town right now? Sorry to hear because I love piano so much..
Was I the only one who thought “hmmm, they’ve added Rebuses to Mondays now” until one reached 55-down? Changed a lot of “and”s to “n”s. 😊
31/41: Cut/Top was my undoing... Over thinking it, again.
@Call Me Al After I figured it out I felt silly for convincing myself that a CUT of sugar was a real thing.
@Call Me Al same!!! I was staring at the grid trying to find my mistake 😂😂
@Call Me Al I had a story worked up in my head, which is that wheat can be harvested several times in a season (like hay), and thus a CUT of flour is the flour from one harvest. I was even thinking that an early CUT would taste different or have a different texture from a late CUT. Only when I didn't get the gold star did I question this. Also, it turns out wheat is harvested only once in a year.
@Call Me Al et al This is hilarious!! Especially filled with admiration for you, Esmerelda, with the convoluted reasoning in your effort to bring meaning to the CUT! MY hesitation was whether a tablespoon Abbr could somehow be shoe-horned into the space... I do still use CUP measurements, though our son's insistence re weighing in grams is beginning to sway me. (He is our 'domesticated' offspring.) I think I feel a goat cheese pizza coming on....
I decided that the GM SIGNS ON a new member of the team; this made rather a mess of the BRIDE... Is AMBER deep yellow or pale brown? I admit to looking askance at VERY SAME for "aforementioned"... but of course it was fine. You can make quite a few of the brass instruments go "BLAT!" ...the learning process for any band instrument is pretty painful at times. Monday puzzle now checked off. (I had a "well, duh" moment with the Spelling Bee. My excuse is a late night after a taxing day. Worst moment: being reminded by DHubby that company was coming around 5 p.m.... at 3:30. Thank goodness we had planned to go out to dinner. I'd stay longer, but I need to go check the calendar.)
@Mean Old Lady I don’t think I’ve heard “signs on” in that context, just “signs.” Many years ago, we called the (new) middle traffic light AMBER.
@Mean Old Lady it took me forever (well it felt like forever for a Monday puzzle) to parse out VERYSAME. And I side eyed it, but just for a moment. It works for sure, but I don’t know if it Monday works for sure with that crossing.
Nice, normal Monday puzzle. Some of the game offerings appear to be affected by the AWS outage.
I don't remember any significance to Bilbo's AGE being 50 in "The Hobbit," but the birthday he celebrated in LOTR is "eleventy-one." Missed opportunity for whimsy. Wow, it's been a long time since the Atlanta Braves had the best starting pitchers in the league.
Although we can all agree that RED means stop, here is at least one dissenting voice who would say that AMBER is a shade of orange, not yellow.
@IL Orange is not a primary color. It's a mix of red and yellow.
Either BLAT or BRAY fits the unfortunate trumpet sound, but I prefer BLAT. Reminds me of a moment in my college days when I attended a party where too much beer was consumed and the host's [absent] roommate owned a bugle. So we all took turns trying to play it. Definitely BLAT. Pretty close to @Andrzej's pancake hitting the floor. Well, there are far worse things to get into when drunk.
Clever construction, with a little challenge or two. Fortunately, the crosses came through and completed the blank spots. Nice one, Adam, and thanks!
I only rarely encounter unknown words on Mondays at the NYT. Today I was stumped by PAROLE and BLAT. Crosses gave me both entries. Having the B of BLAT I thought the answer might be Bray. An ineptly played trumpet does sound like a donkey, doesn't it? Crosses soon did away with that idea though. I admit to looking up the Japanese name. The surname of the guy I've heard, but his first name was a mystery, and I was a bit lost in that general area. He's the creator of those critically acclaimed animations, isn't he? I saw a trailer of one on Netflix, but I was put off by the frame rate, which resembled a video game played on a way too weak system. I wouldn't be able to watch something so choppy.
@Andrzej Having the first letter, I put in Period and had to change it later to PAROLE. The crossing of the director and VER-SAME was the last letter to be entered. Fortunately I got it on my first guess.
Oh dang, I only now understood the PAROLE clue and why it made sense for its answer. I can be so slow sometimes 🤣 For a few hours there I thought PAROLE might be some punctuation mark 🤪 I guess I just didn't expect a witty clue on Monday.
@Andrzej I've met "bray" more often than "blat" when describing trumpet noises.
@Andrzej I love Hayao Miyazaki's work so my reply will be biased. I think there is something for everyone in his work, I remember my brother (then 17 or 18 years old) being stopped in his tracks when I was watching Spirited Away and joining me, even though he was always more a Fast and Furious kind of guy. (and I hate bad frame rates in video games)
Smooth 'n' smart, perfect Monday.
An unusually stupid, even for me, mistake led me to a long hunt for my at least one error. Early on i had N_UR_ at the end of 48A. I figure that it probably ended in E, and I went ahead and "Penned" it in--should have Penciled it. Later when 51D needed five more letters, I automatically filled in SHARP, quite forgetting that G Major was involved. The one black key in E Sharp major is B Flat.
@kilaueabart Oh no! *Not* the existence of E# and B#.
Quick, fun puzzle. Didn't like VERYSAME as an answer, however, but maybe I've never run into that response/comment.
@97Bravo I was thinking the VERY SAME thing. No, just kidding.