That was a difficult Wednesday for me. A lot of backtracking, rethinking, and in many cases, reentering. Something about clearing the squares in a number of sections helped me find the answer, and then I’d notice the original fill I had erased would still work. I think I really liked this puzzle. I didn’t love the theme as much as the out-of-the-ordinary clues and fill. This puzzle felt odd in a good way.
@Striker I agree, odd, but good. After hunting down all my invariable typos, I still didn't hear the music. So I read the Wordplay. I'd wondered in what language is '4' spelled 'fi', was surprised to learn the foreign word is 'FIRE'. My error, which had kept my cheat-free is I had "prapbet" for "PROP BET" (as I had ipad for IPOD). They don't have ipods any more, so it never occurred to me that was it. (Not that 'prop bet' makes any more sense to me than 'prap bet', but at least 'prop' is a word, thought what it has to do with betting is beyond me.)
What was that... I have no idea what the theme was about or how it worked, beyond some numbers in several languages being part of some of the entries. The fill was Saturday-hard for me in places - and not only because of the multiple proper names and trivia (most of which I've never heard of, inckuding OTTO Whatshisname). For example, I had no idea SING IT might mean "You got that right." I broke down and looked up the two short across entries in the NE corner: Cam and RON being short for the same name just does not compute in my head. What name could it possibly be? Or does "nickname" refer to a specific person in this case? I'm very lost. Also, I've become familiar with GPA to some extent from these puzzles, but not as clued today. Off to read the column and maybe see my questions answered. This was one of the least Andrzej-friendly NYT puzzles I have ever seen.
@Andrzej Um, ok... Yeah, I was never getting that theme, as explained in the column. Also... Cameron can be called both Cam and RON? The only Cam I can think of was a Camille, and I've heard of many Rons, but have always thought they were all Ronalds.
@Andrzej sam explains the weakish (my opinion) theme in her column fairly well. you just have to be willing to accept the notion that the numeric series of 2 raised to the successive powers of 1, 2, 3 and 4 (i.e. 2, 4, 8 and 16) and expressed in four different languages somehow might be called a WORLDSERIES. alrighty then...next... look at the name Cameron. you could call such a person Cam, based on the beginning. or you could call such a person Ron, based on the end.
@Andrzej As and Bs -- as grades in the U.S. education system -- are definitively better than Cs, Ds, and Fs when it comes to one's grade point average (GPA).
@Andrzej I agree. Today stumped me too!
@Andrzej This was hard for me too, and I know baseball and a fair amount of science. But Otto Hahn is unknown to me. Let’s face it, he’s in this puzzle only because the constructor needed a relatively famous OTTO for the theme (and getting FISSION in the grid was just icing on the cake). Otherwise he wouldn’t be anywhere near a Wednesday puzzle. As for CameRON, that’s a stretch, even if you know the name ( and I did) I doubt there’s many Camerons who go by RON, it just doesn’t make sense. If there’s a Cameron out there who does go by Ron please comment I’d love to know. I just got a weird vibe about this theme. It just seemed very contrived, WORLD SERIES was just a very marginal revealer for “a pattern of numbers in a lot of languages” and I didn’t get much satisfaction from the theme entries especially FIREOPAL and OTTOHAHN. So, I got my enjoyment from a higher than average challenge for a Wednesday and that’s about it. It just seemed like a puzzle where the constructor had an interesting theme idea but had to jump through too many hoops to barely make it work.
@Andrzej I didn't think the theme worked either and have never met anyone named Cameron who goes by Ron. But Otto Hahn, as the co-discoverer of fission, is not obscure trivia. That was a valid answer.
@Andrzej "I had no idea SING IT might mean "You got that right."" "Cam and RON being short for the same name just does not compute in my head." Me, too.
@Andrzej I'm going to start calling my 4 year old nephew Ron and see if it catches on.
@Andrzej I have a work colleague named Campbell who goes by Cam, so that’s immediately what I thought of. I have known Camerons who went by Cam but never any who went by Ron. Every Ron I’ve known was a Ronald.
"I need you to plot 2 raised to the x power." "On the double!" (Math jokes make me graph out loud.)
Mike, SOLID follow-up to yesterday's puzzle. Math must be your sphere of expertise. (Cup or cone?)
@Mike Oh please, figures always make my brain get numb-er.
@Mike you are an integral factor in this columns progression, i think.
@Mike Stop fission for complements.
@Mike We can always count on you to sum up the puzzle, eh?
@Mike I think, therefore I am, convinced that you give us something to coordinate our comments.
"All I axis, null more math jokes." “But y?” (“More positive, less negative”)
@Mike my math teacher mom used to say "he doesn't know his asymptote from a hole in the graph"-- it was her ultimate insult!
A fun solve today but I was a bit annoyed by the inclusion of "Top o' the mornin'". There are plenty other actual Irishisms to choose from that would avoid perpetuating that outdated stereotype. Here's some of my favourites (obviously some: - "What's the craic": Hello / How are you - "Ah sure, I'm grand": I'm ok - "If there was work in the bed he'd sleep on the floor" - He's lazy - "He'd peel an orange in his pocket": He's miserly - "There’s siúl in his feet": He can't stay still - "There's a wee want in him": He's not the brightest - "The head on you and the price of turnips": You look hungover I know the purpose here in the crossword is to use a widely known phrase to give people the best chance of solving and the above are not well known (nor concise enough!). But thought I'd take this chance to add to the Irishisms vocabulary.
@Dave "There's a wee want in him" That perfectly describes me 🤩 Thanks for this!
@Dave You know, these could have be taken straight out of a How to Speak Texan primer. Of course it’s 19th c. Irish and Scots languages and their accents that explain much of the Texas r’s, so it makes sense that they would also explain the colorful turns of phrase. I’m so stealing, “If there was work in the bed he'd sleep on the floor,” to add to my phrasebook. It’ll be a hoot to explain it’s Irish when folks assume I picked it up during my tenure in Texas.
@Dave also: “I am” for “yes”. Brilliantly done here: <a href="https://youtu.be/lEjEGbAFzJU?si=0UiVTfKkHOTjlkr4" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/lEjEGbAFzJU?si=0UiVTfKkHOTjlkr4</a>
Heavy science theme today. Physics, astronomy, chemistry. ASTEROID MARIE (Curie) OTTOHAHN MAJORTOM FUSION FISSION ISOMER PORTALS (if we're including sci-fi)
@Dave K. As a research chemist (Ret.), this was definitely n my wheelhouse!
@Dave K. I was picking up on the music theme: IDINA WAITRESS RAPDUO SINGIT GROUPIES MAJORTOM And several more that could count if MARIE is counted as a part of a science theme 😄
@WM LES Miz is a stretch, but what about "I DO, I DO" and "AT LAST"?
@Dave K. Which is what makes it so odd that 6A was closed as Slope. In math slope is Rise Over Run..... not Rise by itself.
Nice puzzle, but perhaps 39D could've included "...in dated Australian slang". <a href="https://www.suebutler.com.au/blog/2019/8/20/sheila" target="_blank">https://www.suebutler.com.au/blog/2019/8/20/sheila</a>
@Paul agreed!! I’m a young woman in Australia and never heard anyone use the term Sheila 🤣
@Paul fascinating, thank you! I loved the phrase “unreconstructed males.”
@SP Don’t forget the Scots. @Andrzej, I’m told by my European friends that Canadians out here hate being mistaken for us Americans (which hurts me, somehow, oh dear Canadian Wordplayers).
@Sam Lyons Family Home Evening! Loved that Monday night tradition. ❤️
It was interesting to see both FISSION and FUSION in the same puzzle.
Oh Lord … Enjoyed the crossword, and completed it well under the average. It helps that I’m an Elec Eng who’s been lucky to have worked with colleagues across Europe. “Top o’ the morning” is an expression that has never passed my lips, nor those of my forebears. Don’t know the source, but Hollywood may have created it and just ran with it. It’s as if one suggested that all Americans greet people with a John Wayne “Don’t you worry little lady”. I give the constructor a pass (clever puzzle, no junk fills and he was trying to write a clue for IRISHISM). But I’m genuinely irked that the staff of the NYT continue to propagate this piece of nonsense. I expect better. How’re’uall
@Caitríona Shanahan Blame it on “Finian’s Rainbow” and every Lucky Charms commercial ever made.
@Caitríona Shanahan Thank you for speaking for the rest of us who were peeved seeing that.
@Caitríona Shanahan Yes, an Oirishism or Oirish.
@Caitríona Shanahan Just a coincidence(?), but just now I was listening to my CD of John McCormack singing traditional Irish songs.
@Caitríona Shanahan Your comment made me curious about the origin of the phrase, so I did a little digging. It appears the phrase dates back to the 18th century and was used not only in Ireland, but Scotland and England as well. (The evidence being texts from this period.) But it fell out of favor long before Hollywood resurrected it in the mid 20th century. It’s not clear why filmmakers chose that particular greeting to represent Ireland (and only Ireland), but because it’s become so stereotypical I can see why it ruffles feathers. So it seems this is another place where someone should have appended “archaic” or “stereotypical” to the clue. (The other one being SHEILA.)
@Caitríona Shanahan I had an Irish work colleague based in our Amsterdam office named Rory McLaughlin. I jokingly used “Top o’ the mernin” to him once, and his reaction was the same as yours.
I think it's y'all. And I agree with you.
This puzzle is the Venn diagram of (1) knows particle physics, (2) knows 0-20 numbers in different languages, (3) knows sports betting. I am not part of that diagram. Look ups for me, Earth to Major Tom.
@Red Carpet Right? The puzzle relied way too much on factual and trivial knowledge for my liking. However, strangely, I only had to look up GPA and RON.
I'm so incredibly dense! How did I miss that FUSION and FISSION were in the same puzzle! Especially as I tried to fit FUSION into 26D, despite having already entered in at 3D! Let's face, the development of Cold Fusion is *our only hope* for the future of our energy needs. OTOH, I can't hear "fusion and fission" without thinking: "The Hydrogen Dog and the Cobalt Cat side by side in the armory sat. Nobody thought about fusion or fission, Everyone spoke of their peacetime mission. Till somebody came and opened the door. There they were, in a neutron fog, The Codrogen Cat and the Hybalt Dog; They mushroomed up with a terrible roar– And Nobody Never was there — Nomore." (Frederick Winsor, 1958)
@Bill Great little poem. I’m sharing it with my friend who’s married to a retired physics professor.
I found this difficult to get completely right, but not in a fun way. I paid no attention to the theme while solving. Now that it's solved I began looking at the theme, but it quickly seemed far too obscure for me to waste time figuring it out.
Can’t believe that after all these years, I finally found an error in the puzzle! 32 Down is a great answer, but the clue is inaccurate. “Top of the morning” is as Irish as the Lucky Charms leprechaun. It originated in England, not Ireland, and was used in mid-century Hollywood movies to signal stereotypical Irishness. It doesn’t come from Gaeilge, the native language of Ireland, either, where the typical greeting is Dia Duit, meaning “God to you,” (i.e. God be with you), nor from any authentic Hiberno-English expression.
@JMG It's an expression you would never hear in Ireland. The first time I heard it was in the USA and I've never heard it anywhere else.
@JMG Puzzle didn’t say it was Irish though. Did it?
A lot of baseball this week, as the post-season enters its last phase on Friday. On Monday, we had the Cy Young award, which honors the best pitcher in each league, and is named for an early pitcher who set a seemingly unbreakable record for wins (511) in an era when pitchers routinely made around 45 starts a year (and pitched complete games almost all the time). (He also had 315 losses.) That record is unlikely to ever be broken, because pitchers make, at the most, around 32 starts, assuming no injuries, and rarely pitch complete games, which further reduces win totals (some of the wins go to a relief pitcher). Young also pitched for 22 seasons, which is close to the upper limit for the sport. That same puzzle also had AT BAT, which, as one word, is a noun meaning, more or less, a turn at bat resulting in an out or a hit. Yesterday's puzzle had STEALS HOME, which is a rare play that happens when the runner on third base scores on a stolen base. This is often part of a double steal, when a runner on first base runs and draws the throw, and the runner on third tries to score before the ball can be thrown back home. A straight steal of home--that is, with no other action on the same play--is exceedingly rare and very exciting. Today, we have the WORLD SERIES, which is the championship of...North America. Or more exactly, the US and Toronto. And starting Friday, we'll have it IRL. This public service announcement for all the unsportsed and non-Americans out there.
@Steve L But surely you know why it's called the World Series, right?
@Steve L Used to be the US, Toronto and Montreal. Où sont les Expos d'antan? Speaking of which, there's a new documentary out called "Who Killed the Expos?" that I'm eager to see. It was definitely team-icide with malice aforethought. J'accuse, MLB, along with your stooge Jeffrey Luria.
7D is IDO? What does that have to do with Me! 8D is SINGIT? Do I have that right? She might be a Broadway great but I never heard of Idina Menzel so I had a hard time with the top middle section of the puzzle. Aside from that I can't imagine going beyond 16. I just ran thirty-two through Google translate and the prospects for a puzzle entry are pretty bleak. Well, TIL kanakolukumamālua is thirty-two in Hawaiian.
@Roberto I suppose if someone asked "Who wants some MARMITE on toast today?", the response could either be "ME!" or "I DO!". Still... not a great clue.
@Roberto i figured: Who wants to volunteer? answer: I do! answer: ME! i agree. weak.
@Roberto Sing it, sister!
@Roberto You and John Travolta both, maybe her greatest claim to fame was getting her name mangled by Travolta in the Academy Awards. Nevertheless she is a huge star, not niche at all. Originated the role of Maureen in “Rent” and won a Tony as Elphaba in “Wicked”. And if Broadway isn’t your thing, she was the voice of Elsa on “Frozen” and if you never heard “Let It Go” played a zillion times around then, you must have been stranded on a desert island. No shade if you haven’t heard her name, just pointing out this isn’t some marginal Broadway chanteuse.
@Roberto I'm with you on IDO and SINGIT. The clues are complete clunkers for me. I certainly knew MENZEL and she was an anchor for me in the top centre bloc but I was stuck there right til the end. I also struggled with RISE -- embarrassingly, considering that the actual definition of "slope" /is/ RISE over run. And I didn't click on "key" as relating to keyboard for ENTER until forever. This was 'check grid', try again, 'check grid', try again...
I’m not sure what everyone’s issue with the theme was. I thought it was super fun and I figured it out on the second pass!! Fun puzzle with minimal lookups for me (only been crosswording for 4ish months)!
@Abby I'm equally not sure how you could have found the theme fun, and especially super so 🤣 To me it was mostly random and introduced in an extremely confusing and perfectly un-fun way 🤷🏽 I'm happy you liked it. I wish I had, too!
@Abby Good work, Abby. And congratulations on entering the cross-world. The denizens are pleasant, the climate resembles your home country, and there's no lack of good chat.
Scenes from a first-rate constructor’s mind: • Learning “fire” means four in Danish, and thinking to find other foreign language numbers that mean non-number words in English. • Noting that 2, 4, 8, and 16 are possibilities, and seeing WORLD SERIES as the theme. Wow! This is the second day in a row where the grid had fewer answers than typical for the day. A Wednesday averages 76 words; this grid has 70, allowing for longer lovely answers like COALESCE, MARMITE, and WHY YES. My brain loved the thorny cluing. Also, hello CBD OIL, welcome to the NYT puzzle. You are popular and you were due. Jesse, you have a chance to make crossword history. Only one constructor -- Andrew Ries -- has hit the cycle (a puzzle for every day of the week) in their first seven puzzles. You, with Tuesday through Saturday puzzles in your first five, have a chance to become only the second. Go for it! And thank you for a puzzle that kept me absorbed and delighted!
@Lewis I’m imagining you as a baseball color commentator for crosswords: “And here’s Jesse up at the plate—he has a chance to hit for the cycle, a feat only one constructor, Andrew Riies, with the Las Cruces Cruciverbalists, has ever achieved in his first at bats…and here’s the pitch…”
@Lewis I’m sure you’ve seen Jesse Guzman’s xwordinfo photo. Let’s just say that he appears to have the potential to keep entertaining crossword solvers for quite some time.
Very poorly clued. The first word of the phrase “dos and don’ts” is not pronounced like the Spanish word for two — though it is spelled the same way. And the first word of “fire opal” is not spelled like the Danish word for four — though it is pronounced similarly. You can’t have your cake and eat it too, my friend! Furthermore: “Brute” does not mean a person with poor manners, but rather a violent person. In a video game, a portal may be associated with “swirling visual effects” but that’s not what the word means. Soap is very seldom a “bubbly bar” (go take a look at yours). Would anyone really say “I was ate out of house and home.”? If one were to say if, it would obviously be “eaten.” According to a brief Google search, a “Sheila” is not specifically a “young” woman, but a woman or girl. And it would more accurate to add that it is old-fashioned and faintly derogatory at this point.
@Tom Stalnaker I see what you're getting at, but to most your nits there is a simple answer: crossword clues are not definitions 🤷🏽
@Tom Stalnaker My bad on 4 in Danish or Norwegian, which apparently really is “fire” not “fôr”
@Tom Stalnaker And there are several other clues that are slightly off: “Hot and bothered” has a negative connotation, like being irritated, whereas “arouse” is neutral. Your attention can be aroused, for instance. “Rehab” is more active than “recovery phase.” Like you go to rehab but you can just wait for recovery. “Ply” doesn’t directly mean “thickness,” because you can count ply but you can’t count thickness.
A numerical series in foreign languages, revealed by a baseball clue. Cute. And a little something for our non-American contingent. Overall a fun puzzle with some nice clues, keyed to Wednesday difficulty level, but hard enough to cause a pause. ASTEROID for part of a belt and GPA for what As and Bs are good for were fun. And I was pleased to be able to remember what an ISOMER was, not having taken chemistry since 1970, and to know MARMITE, being a Yank.
Well, I suppose DOS + FIRE + OTTO + SEIZE is indeed a (finite, geometric) series (since the ratio of consecutive terms is constant). So the theme and revealer at least make good sense to this mathematician. Lots of nice fill here, and I found this one ABIT challenging for a Wednesday puzzle. And we have both FUSION and FISSION in the same grid!
Just thought of this— Sign on a nuclear physicist’s door— GONE FISSION (You’ve got to have some fun sometimes, after all, today is the first day of the rest of your half life)
@SP GONE FISSION on a NU-CLEAR DAY!
Found the SW corner very tricky. First off I had EAT out of house and home which threw me off on the downs and seemed 100% right. Of course 38A could be TUXES or LIMOS, so tried each of those for a while. Once I figured out ATE and remebered MARMITE, things came together, but this was a Wednesday with a Saturday SE corner for me. Spent more than half of my time down there.
@Zack This is exactly what happened to me. Tuxes, then limos, and the eat/ate debate. Before I had any crosses, I was wondering if Nutella was an English thing. All sorted in the end. :)
@Zack 🙋🏻♀️ Thank goodness for WAITRESS! (The answer and the musical, though I think I preferred the movie.)
I studied a little Japanese online, so this puzzle got me thinking about their numbers—often pronounced いち, に, さん, or i-chi, ni, sa-n, which would be one, two, three. (I’ve stopped at three, as four and seven have different pronunciations depending on context. But so does three, for that matter. If your native languages are Indo-European, numbering in Japanese may feel wonderfully unfamiliar. If you ever need your brain rewired, I’d encourage studying Japanese.) Above I’ve written those three numbers in hiragana—one of Japan’s two phonetic syllabaries. In real use, numbers are usually written either in the logographic script kanji, 一, 二, 三, or in Hindu–Arabic numerals, 1, 2, 3. Both sidestep the issue of varying pronunciations. (For completeness, in katakana they’d be イチ, ニ, サン.) Then there are small kana, which modify the sound of the kana before them: ひ is hi and や is ya, so ひゃ is hya. (Likewise: ひょ = hyo, ひゅ = hyu.) Which all got me thinking: _does Japan have crosswords? *HOW DO THEY WORK!??*_ So now I’ve spent an hour down a rabbit hole of Japanese crosswords. Maybe one night your fiancée threw a toothbrush at you when you insisted Magic Johnson’s real first name—six letters—was EARWIG; but crosswords contribute to global understanding, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!!
@Daniel Merchán My wife and I follow climbing competitions from all over the world. Japanese ones on YouTube have Japanese commentary. Over the years we have learned some Japanese from them, for example, we know "daichi kadai" means "first problem", as in, the first boulder problem of the competition. We recognize other numbers too, up to three, and also the word for "last". Why? Because there are four boulder problems to a competition 😃
As an Australian woman, I will say that I don’t know a single Australian woman who likes being called a “Sheila”. It’s seen as misogynistic, dismissive and demeaning.
@We Shall Overcomb Sounds like "Karen" over here. I objected to it at the start, but there's no way to hold back the tide.
Ugh. If I have to have the theme explained to me after I finish the puzzle then it's not a good theme. Too much going on here. Baseball metaphor, math, languages. Surprised this got accepted
@Robert Also, the fact the physics guy's name highlighted two entries confused me further. I thought FISSION might somehow be involved in the theme, too 🤷🏽
@Robert Agreed. I still don't get it.
"If I have to have the theme explained to me after I finish the puzzle then it's not a good theme." Robert, That is one way of looking at it...
@Andrzej -- I also wondered about if FISSION was purposely put in. It echoes the theme in that fission is splitting, and when you split 2 items you get 4, splitting 4 gets 8, and so on -- following the theme series.
@Robert “If I have to have the theme explained to me after I finish the puzzle then it's not a good theme.” Just curious: what makes you confident that *you* are a good yardstick for theme intelligibility? I am what you might call an advanced-intermediate solver (I do the puzzle 7 days a week, with no cheating of any kind, but occasionally still get tripped up by things that are gimmes for the long-timers), and a theme will sometimes fly right over my head…
I didn't quite enjoy this one. I still didn't get the revealer after finishing the puzzle. Shouldn't the clues to CBDOIL and PROPBET indicating that the entries are abbreviated/shortened? I struggled with those. JIBES was really out of left field because everyone thinks of it as a negative thing (insult); not a form of agreement. OTTO HAHN got me got me thinking about another prominent South African chemist, Paul Daniel HAHN (I wonder if they're related?) MARMITE is popular in South Africa too! :) I think the best clues were for IPODS (Shuffles and Touches) and SOAP (Bubbly bar).
@James P Everyone? Your comment does not JIBE with my experience. Jibe as an insult is a spelling variant of gibe. I think that jibe meaning agree comes from the sailing term, which means to tack with the wind coming across the stern. As a sailor, I know that you've got to be prepared for a jibe, or it's a potentially dangerous event. But it also indicates a change of course, so maybe that's it. If you're interested: “Jibe.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jibe" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jibe</a>. Accessed 22 Oct. 2025.
@James P You’re mistaking “jibes” for “jives”. It’s a common mistake.
I liked the puzzle a lot, even though the World Series numbers flew right over my head (baseball is where they dribble, right? No, wait: It’s where they use a ball that was accidentally made too small and too round for football…?) I had to work for the solve, which was an unexpected gift from the Wednesday slot for this veteran solver. First, I confidently plugged in ‘ego’ for [“Me!”] when I thought it crossed ‘lark’ for a (hay)RIDE and ‘lean’ for RISE. Not perfect answers, I know, but I hadn’t caffeinated yet at that point. And while I now know IDINA Menzel is a know quantity, I’m didn’t at 6am this morning. Then there was the mess I made of the SW corner, my brain not alighting on anything for _ _ _ MITE (as Men At Work played in my mind on a loop, with its Aussie vegeMITE sandwich), or OTTO HAHN’s first name, or ATE for ‘eat,’ or MAJOR TOM (sorry, Mr. Bowie; it’s been an earworm for hours since I got it, though), or MUTATED for MorphED, or IRISHISM for the clear Britishism, or LIMOS for ‘suits,’ or basic African geography, or MARIE from a show I’ve never seen even though it had been filmed 50 miles from my house… Yikes. All in all, this Wednesday puzzle took me longer than an average Saturday these days, so… Oh, who am I kidding—I didn’t like it; I LOVED it. Jesse Guzman, you never disappoint.
Late to the party. This was mostly a typical Wednesday workout - but... CBDOIL and PROPBET were complete unknowns and even as I worked them out from the crosses my brow remained furrowed as I had some doubts about them. But.. it fell together. One answer history search today was inspired by MAJORTOM. Wondered about... GROUNDCONTROL Nope - never been in a puzzle and not even in the Xword Info word lists. A bit surprised. I'm done. ....
@RiA Let me add to the chorus of your fellow Wordplayers, who wish you well in you new digs, smoke breaks on the patio and all! Hope you stay a regular presence on this forum!
@Rich in Atlanta, So glad you are here with us! I appreciate your thoughts on columns and words, and join the many others who wish you all our best.
With regard to the discussion of the alleged IRISHISM, top o’ the mornin’, a little internet research (for what it’s worth), suggests that the phrase is actually an Englishism. It’s used in Treasure Island and spotted in earlier English literature as well. It’s persistence is America is variously linked to the movie Darby O’Gill And The Little People (although I wonder how many have actually seen it) and the Lucky Charms leprechaun. And with that, I bid top of the morning to all.
@Marshall Walthew I have a vague recollection of the actor Malachy McCourt maybe saying it, playing a bartender on the soap opera “Ryan’s Hope,” also.
@Marshall Walthew Treasure Island was written by a Scot. But I did have Britlish in before Irishism.
This one came more slowly to me than the average Wednesday. And I wasn't tired, there were no distractions (last night, my time was also a little slow because baseball, but not tonight). It played like a Friday if Fridays had themes. However, this theme actually helped. As soon as I saw the [2, Spanish] and the DOS in the answer, I could see where this one was going. I can't say I've ever known that FIRE is four in the Nordic languages, but OTTO and SEIZE I was familiar with. And the Scandinavian one was easy enough to figure out. But why powers of 2? Who knows?
@Steve L Why? Because the constructor probably couldn’t find a convenient entry starting with six; although it’s SEX in Latin which ought to have been doable, but no longer a world language (Vatican City, maybe?)
I didn’t love the theme. How many languages are we expected to know to solve a crossword puzzle? Weird trivia and strange cluing in this one. One bright spot? 15D [Part of a belt] ASTEROID. Clever!
@Cherry, you don’t really need to know the parenthetical part of the clue. You can just solve it with the main clue and the crosses if needed (like FIRE OPAL), and then if you didn’t know FIRE was Danish and Norwegian for four, now you have learned! I figured it out because my grandfather was Swedish (“fyre”). It’s common to know some basic phrases in various languages, like hello, goodbye, thank you, and the first few numbers, especially when traveling. When I took my children to Hong Kong, my mom printed a list of basic Chinese phrases for them (like NI HAO that appeared in the crossword the other day). Of course, we rarely needed it, but it was fun, and people smiled when we made the effort to communicate in their language.
Watching people go in circles tripping over themselves to defend bad cluing is hilarious. This puzzle was garbage.
@D We find your derogatory comments about perfectly acceptable fuzzy logic, which is the only kind of logic that works with day to day language, also quite hilarious.
Maybe the morning coffee kicked harder than usual, but I felt very smart while working this puzzle, and was therefore having lots of fun. Part of a belt? Buckle didn't fit, but I had a few letters from the fill, and then -- Aha! Another puzzle from recent days had taken me to Wikipedia to get schooled on the Kuiper Belt, a more distant cousin of those pesky ASTEROIDs. Carpe Diem and SEIZETHEDAY let me in on the parenthetical "French 16" part of the clue, so I scooted back up and proudly typed in DOSANDDONTS, cashing in at last on high school language classes. So, it was one of those rare mornings when everything clicked. Maybe tomorrow I'll even survive the dreaded Thursday experience; à demain matin.
I've never met a Cameron who goes by RON, that one felt weird. Solvable, just odd.
@Jim I don’t think I’ve met a Cameron. I know it’s a name, but just don’t know anyone with it. I guess if there are Christophers who go by Topher, there might be Camerons who go by Ron. Or even Izzy.
@Jim - I know at least two Camerons -- but neither go by RON -- one goes by Cam and the other by... Skip.
@Jim I knew a Cimarron, in the Army, but I don't remember his having a nickname. No, he was not named after the worst Cadillac ever made.
Only the distraction of the NBA season opener can account for lAPDUO. I breezed by it, thinking Gee, I didn't know there were a lot of pop singers in Lapland. Anyone else have Tuxes?
@dutchiris I thought of tuxes but already had 34D, so knew it had to be something else.
@dutchiris I was distracted by black prom vs. white(?) prom, dismissed that and filled in tuxes.
@dutchiris Limos was one of my first fills, and I was really confused when tuxes didn't work either. (Did Sara Bareilles write ANOTHER 8 letter musical set in a diner? 😂)
I speak Spanish, Italian and some French, and filled in all the theme answers except DOS without realizing that they were numbers in the stated languages. I was really stuck in the NW for a while, but then suddenly DOS as a Spanish number made its way into my foggy brain. Duh. I taught Spanish for 23 years! Got the revealer way before that, and only after I finished the puzzle did I realize what the theme was all about. And I do find that it was a very weak theme. These numbers were not a series of anything. However, contrary to several posts here, I loved seeing SHEILA, even if it's dated and somewhat pejorative, because that's my name. In the decades that I've been doing these puzzles, I only remember it having been used once before, and I took a picture of it back then!
I don't get it. I mean, I get it, but I don't get it. I like the "powers of two" tightness, although it left the poor elf out in the rain. If the theme entries were presented in reverse order, the theme could be linked to bracketology, although I connect that more with college basketball. Back in 1970s* Suburbia, we rented tuxes, and they were anything but black: harvest gold, baby blue, whatever matched one's date's prom dress, and corsage/boutonniere. In separate entries, the OED lists both "jibe" and "jibe" as "of unknown origin," although "jibe"(=mock) is a lot older (16th c.) than "jibe"(=match) (early 19th c., American). One of the first citations for "jibe=mock" is from *The Εκατομπαθἰα • or passionate centurie of loue*, by Thomas Watson (1582). Now doesn't that sound like some wonderful bedtime reading! *Hey, NYT! Note the lack of apostrophe!
@Bill I don't ever recall anyone renting a suit.
@Bill I wondered briefly if "Black Prom" was a thing that happened during the segregation era. And I always wanted the black tux, like James Bond.
@Bill My prom experience: The phone rings. I’m right there so I answer it, even though it’s not likely to be for me. But surprise! It is! Tuxedo rental person: “Have you reserved your tuxedo rental yet?” Me: “I’m not going to the prom.” Tuxedo rental person: “Oh. [pause] Try to have a nice life anyway.”
I was having trouble fitting LISE MEITNER into 44A. You should look into that.
I see quite a few people chiming in to argue (persuasively) that “Top o’ the mornin’” isn’t an Irish expression by origin…but I wonder, does calling an expression an “Irishism” actually imply anything specific about its *origin*, or could it also refer to a stereotypical association? Btw I see this as a *slightly* subtler question than one that could be answered by copy-pasting the definition(s) from a given “dictionary”… Anyway, I’m otherwise in agreement with the group on this puzzle: there was a decidedly “strange” vibe to the fill, which resulted in a surprisingly challenging solve (I’ll take it!), but the theme felt a little half-baked and/or stretched.
I filled 17A and 26A without understanding the bracketed parts of the clues, but after filling the revealer (34A) I understood the brackets, and understanding the theme sped up 44A and 52A. I actually would have preferred it if the four themer clues had not included the numbers in the brackets. (I was not told there would be no math.)
@Barry Ancona Well us non poly-flora probably wouldn’t have understood the theme; at least I didn’t know four in Danish and my French and Italian numbers are rusty.
I enjoyed this one! Solved it before I figured out the theme, so that was like a fun little extra puzzle to figure out.
And here I was hoping that working the puzzle would help me forget the pain of watching the Mariners lose out on the going to World Series.
MUTATE does not mean SHAPE SHIFT
@logical My initial guess there was MORPHED but it didn't work with the crossings.
logical, ...but it's a fine hint for it.
Yeah that theme sailed right over my head and whooshed on by... A bit tricky for a Weds!
A fun one with an ultimately scrutable theme. Busy days so behind on my solving and commenting. Managed eventually to finish Saturday's sometime Monday, otherwise how could I start the week?. Thanks for the diversion. Early voting starts Saturday in NJ and has been underway in VA since 9/19. Get out there and vote.
@John Carson Colorado lets everyone vote by mail. There wasn’t much on our ballot in this off-year election — mostly a few tax issues. But I was still happy to get the “Your vote has been counted” email from the county clerk, given some of the candidates running for school board.
When, pray tell, will the WORLD SERIES finally be played? And does anyone still care after this protracted (endless?) season? For a while I thought maybe 4 was spelled the same as in German (FIER) meaning two squares had switched letters...nope. (I had no clue about the spelling of most French numerals) and given that we were provided the origin of each themer (no phrase/entry actually altered, after all) this whole thing seemed like "a constructor's puzzle" ..... I used crosses for quite a few answers--which I won't remember because--SRSLY? David Bowie, Dora, LENA, IDINA Menzel, HAHN, RON ...yawn. Meh. Fall has suddenly (belatedly) arrived; it has been so hot and dry for so long that I'm caught with only summer clothes out. Oops. Unwelcome task awaits. See youse guys tomorrow.
@Mean Old Lady popping in from Toronto to say, World Series starts HERE on Friday 🎉!! And fall or not, we're really pretty heated up about it 😄 Happy autumn!
@lawrenceb56 sunshine wishes your way too - baseball is a fine respite.
Why can't those of us who play the crossword using the Games app ever read Will Shortz's print introductions? Occasionally, often on Sundays, we're really missing out on something interesting or important to know.
@Terry Caitlin always puts Will's introductory remarks at the top of her Sunday puzzle Wordplay columns. You could also open up the Newspaper PDF of the puzzle and see them.
Somehow I entered "playoff game" in the center and still managed to finish in record time 😅🎉