This puzzle contains the punchline to my favorite joke… What is the difference between a Vietnamese restaurant and an Indian restaurant? One is Pho profit and one is Naan profit! (Cue the laughter!) and Thank Yoi!
@Ellen Doesn't work if you pronounce "pho" correctly, but there's lots of off-color restaurant names that do.
"Did your jeweler share any pearls of wisdom with you?" "No, I'll have to give him a ring." ("Or just brooch the subject.")
@Mike For the Seiko your de-pendants, stud-y his tips on the market and Chanel some stocks into gold, Omega bet on the Nuggets and Cartier winnings to the bank. Put your trust in those clams.
@Mike Your puns are usually fab-ergé, but today I'd say you've bangled the assignment.
@Mike my (British) mother has some outrageously fancy jewelry. She doesn’t really say anything about it but we’ve got used to her mum-bling. My dad meanwhile is always drinking heartily from a silver bottle of vintage Captain Morgan, which makes a familiar rum-bling. My sister has a bunch of umbilical piercings and I’m always bowled over by so much tum-bling. And if course I’ve got a bunch of gold rings on one digit but I can never pick anything up because of all the thum-bling…
@Mike I didn't carat all for these, but figured I'd make a cameo appearance anyway.
I'm already seeing other commenters had the same problem I did, bottom left corner. GOHAM and ESME. I've never read a Twilight book, but I still know there is a character Edward Cullen. If you did not read the books, there is no way you could possibly know there is another Cullen named ESME. And then 'GO HAM', that might as well be YASSIFY. Combined with IMSODONE and TOGOCUPS, answers that aren't that niche but are awkward enough that nobody is getting them without most of the crossing clues. And thankfully the jewelry theme that helped me get BRODY by figuring out BROOCH or I wouldn't have gotten that either.
@Chris My last square to input was the “M” in the crossing “ES_E” and “GOHA_”, and I was in the same boat as you at that point — that is, I knew only “Edward” among the Cullens and had no clue about the expression “go ham”. And yet, I got that “M” within less than 30 seconds, because…what else could it possibly be? Is there any other letter that seems like an even half-plausible candidate?
@Chris I’ve heard GO HAM before, though I’m pretty sure I’ve never used it myself. I never read the Twilight books, but I have listened to podcasts and read articles where people synopsize them and make snarky comments about all the questionable prose and plot developments. In hindsight, I remember that the protagonist’s eventual baby daughter is named “ReneESME”—remarked upon because it’s an awkward portmanteau of two other characters’ names (allegedly based on practices within parts of the author’s LDS subculture) and because the newborn apparently “imprints” on the series’s lycanthropic secondary love interest and is thus immediately destined to become his bride when she comes of age (!) I personally would have preferred a J.D. Salinger-based clue.
I was mostly charmed by this Tuesday puzzle, ZEBRACOLTS and SOFAFORTS and TOGOCUPS and all. Not a very flashy (jewelry notwithstanding) theme but well executed. I am going to admit here that my integrity is being put to the test today.I have always said that the behavior and political correctness (or lack there of) of a well known celebrity should not reflect on their inclusion in the grid. I’ve also said that acronyms or other allusions to profanity that aren’t overt or inflammatory should be fair game. Now I’m faced with GOHAM which I had never heard of—and looking it up I see it is attributed to one of the most offensive people I can think of and stands for one of the more offensive words I can think of (I’m cool with the F word which can be flippant but the M word is has no place in the vernacular, IMHO.) Nevertheless I am going to stand by my prior statements and say it’s apparently a slang term, it’s not spelled out, and the particular celebrity origin of it does not make it off limits. I would have avoided it like the plague, personally, but I’m not going to rail against the constructor or the editors for including it. There, glad I got that off my chest.
@SP I was today years old when I found out what “Go Ham” truly means. I guess it would be “Go H.A.M.”? My naivety tied it to the pork side. Akin to Hog Wild.
@SP ham is short for mayhem and the phrase “go ham“ was originated in 1977 (though it meant something completely different back, then). The lewd meaning imposed on it as an backronym by the hip-hop world definitely came as a later “innovation.“
@SP I still do not get it. I even googled it and no source is spelling it out either. I was fine today until I hit this natick.
A NAAN is baked in a tandoor, not a tandoori. Tandoori is an adjective.
There are phrases that immediately take you back to being a kid, when fun was worry-free, didn’t involve taking an Uber, cost (you) nothing, and the only polarizing issue was whether or not you did, in fact, throw like the little girl you were. Hello, SOFA FORT.
@Sam Lyons Right? For me it's not phrases though but sights. As kids my friends and I spent a lot of time outside, in the undeveloped no-man's-land between the apartment buildings of Warsaw's government-built Ursynów district. It had been designed as a beautiful and liveable garden city in the boom decade of the 1970s, but the economic crisis of the 1980s meant only the blocks of flats were constructed. The untended land all around, dotted with heaps of earth and mounds of concrete rubble left over from construction work was our playground. We loved it. These days every time I see clumps of weeds it takes me back to my childhood. The pangs of nostalgia are almost too hard to take. Everything was so much simpler and joyous... Our forts were made of twigs, rubbish and construction detritus, but I had some of the best fun of my life in them. Btw. Nowadays Ursynów is one of Warsaw's greenest districts, among the best places to live in the city. The prosperity brought about by democracy and market economy finally allowed the realization of the original vision of its designers. Marek Budzyński, Ursynów's chief urbanist and architect - now in his late 80s - lives here. My wife and I bought a condo in Ursynów, too, and we love it. Everything is very different than it was, but the ghosts of my childhood are everywhere.
51D/66A was kind of a Natick for me... made a guess on the crossing letter that turned out to be correct. Of course I had no idea what that letter stands for until I followed the link in the column...
@Michael Weiland This got me as well, wasted at least a few extra seconds on it. I've never heard of "go ham" before, and I never watched Twilight. That cross definitely required someone to be a Millennial or GenZ.
@Michael Weiland Hand up too. ESME was the only name I could think of. By the way did you look up the origin of the term GO HAM? For the people who don’t like questionable acronyms in the crosswords like BS or SNAFU, they wouldn’t be happy with the M.
@Michael Weiland I brute forced that letter, thankfully I made no other mistakes. Another "Under 20 slang" clue versus an extremely polarizing book series, I think at least 50% of solvers won't know either of those.
@Michael Weiland I didn’t know either of those, but that’s about as gentle as a Natick can be, given that you can easily get all but the “M” from crosses…and there isn’t any other letter in the alphabet that seems even remotely plausible in that position.
@Michael Weiland Now that I see the link I get it. But I hear GOHAF more often in actual use.
GO HAM? Especially since I didn't know ES_E, that entry annoyed me as apparent gibberish, but only before I checked the link in the column 🤣. Nice! I cuss like a sailor, taking after my mother in that respect, so it's my kind of phrase 😂 I almost had to go HAM (shouldn't that be HaaMf?) in the NW corner, where the unknown TAZO crossed with a bobba tea topping, a kind of school, and a kind of bar. I've only had bobba tea once in my life and didn't like it - what does this sickly sweet, bland horror have to do with my favorite, elegantly aromatic, unsweetened brews? It seemed much more akin to soda, which I also dislike (too sweet, offensively artificially flavored, doesn't slake thirst. Eww) I have also seen an OMELET BAR just once - at a huge, soulless hotel in the new port district of Kopenhagen, if I remember correctly - and found it awkward. I get that it lets you have an omelet freshly made to order, rather than, say, the atrocious, dry mess hotels often serve under the label of scrambled eggs. But the queue! The queue! There was a single person making the omelets and a hotel-full of people who wanted one... I appreciate today's puzzle must have been super hard to construct with the themed boxes taking up so much space and requiring very specific entries on two crossing levels. Given that fact, it's quite impressive how little junk fill there was. I rarely take the constructor's mastery into account when rating puzzles, but I'll make an exception today.
@Andrzej Andrzej please give your new puppy an extra hug from me today. Unfortunately my son and daughter-in-law had to say goodbye to their beloved Shar Pei today at only five years of age. Margo was by any measure the most patient, loving, loyal and good natured soul I have ever encountered, human or canine. When she was over at our house with my dog Bella she always sat by and let her eat first and never complained. She will be missed. Tell Luca to say a little doggy prayer for her. Thanks!
@SP That's heartbreaking. I'm so sorry for you and your family.
GOHAM is a term no 71 year old lady would ever know and one I’m sorry I’ve had to learn.
@Christine You would be surprised. My mother only lived to be 70, but she - professor, public servant, published author, recipient of some this country's highest honors, and all-around nice person, loved by all - knew and gleefuly used many terms much more colorful than that. Also, the literature on swearing is extensive, and - perhaps - you would be surprised about the results of this research. For example: <a href="https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/campuspress.yale.edu/dist/a/1215/files/2016/05/YRURP-Spring-2016-Issue-1vzvnl3.pdf#page=16" target="_blank">https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/campuspress.yale.edu/dist/a/1215/files/2016/05/YRURP-Spring-2016-Issue-1vzvnl3.pdf#page=16</a>
Christine, You didn't have to learn it.
@Christine Why are you sorry to have learned that? What makes “go ham” any better or worse than other expressions, such as “go ape” or “flip out”? Or are you just annoyed by the inclusion of new (to you) vernacular in NYT puzzles general?
For Esme with blood and pallor! (JD Salinger meets Twilight) For Estee with Dove and parlor! (JD Salinger meets Estee Lauder) Well I got the Go Ham one (not that I thought it was kosher) but for some reason had to spend a long time fly-specking ... OOPH rather than OOPS as the problem. Oops. I figured HOBBING is some kind of slang for bawling. After all, once you put GO HAM in a puzzle, all bets are off: anything goes. All this time, I thought SIRI stood for something (Speech Interactive Response Interface) but no...that turns out to be a BACKRONYM (an acronym invented after the fact). It just sounds nice, which for some reason I find another sad sign of the decay of modern civilization. Nonsense used to mean something!
@john ezra When I was drafting legislation in Texas, the members (a sometimes apt name) occasionally wanted us to use “short titles” (“This Act may be cited as the [whatever] Act.”) Those titles are virtually useless, especially when contorted to fit some dumb acronym. We resisted, but the members usually got their way.
@john ezra Here in Japan, Apple’s choice to call it SIRI somehow managed to be simultaneously fortuitous and unfortunate at the same time. “Shiri” (Japanese phonology doesn’t really allow for a plain ‘S’ sound before the vowel /i/) is a form of the verb “shiru,” which, appropriately enough, means “to know.” However, it could also be a homophonous noun that means “buttocks,” and grammatically the name is never going to appear anywhere in a sentence where it could be the verb. (The noun isn’t considered vulgar, but it’s still not something a Japanese tech company would have named their assistant.) I think there was some tittering a decade and a half ago when the feature first launched, but Apple products are ubiquitous enough that nobody even bats an eye anymore.
G O H A ESME The guess that's not really a guess. I'll bet that most people (like me) who "guessed", got it right. I have been guessing my way through puzzles for years. The last time I had an incorrect guess was over 2 years ago. Way too good odds, really. It's more a factor of recognizing word patterns, choosing the most likely name, etc. Whatever it is, it's something that improves the more you do it. Being too quick to look things up hampers the development of this skill.
@Nancy J. I've forgotten a few times that comments here can't begin with spaces. So you end up looking sloppy. Grr. Maybe not the most pressing issue in the world right now, but definitely in the top five.
In accepting this award for correctly completing todays puzzle, I'd like to thank BROOCH for giving me BRODY, and I'd especially like to thank my old friend ESME for giving me GO HAM. I couldn't have done it without you.
This is Adrianne’s third NYT puzzle in four months and she’s been making puzzles less than two years. That’s a wow in my book. Already, she’s established that her puzzles will include answers with spark. A grid with compelling answers is so much richer than simply a fill-in-the-blank. It’s an outing with side trips that ping the brain with images, memories, reactions, and beauty. Today I pictured an adorable ZEBRA COLT, a TEAPOT whistling and emitting steam, the striking TAZO logo. I pictured a SNOB’s face with its distinctive eyebrows. I fondly remembered my kids frantically building SOFA FORTs. I tasted NAAN and drank in the aroma of an Indian restaurant. I “Whaaa?”-ed at GO HAM, heard the fizz of an AERATEd drink, experienced soothing hot tub JETs. I melted over the beauty of the word REMNANT. That is, my brain was pinging all over the place. Who needs a virtual reality headset when a puzzle can take you so many places as you’re sitting in a chair? So, Arianne, please keep packing your puzzles with pingers. Thank you for a fabulous outing today!
Administrative note: I will be away for a week and a half (big family event), though I should be able to sneak in Monday’s list of Favorite Clues. Wishing you all well and look forward to rejoining you!
TBH, today my favorite part of solving today's puzzle was the photo and caption Caitlin chose to accompany her post.
Fun! Satisfying and timely theme, ZEBRACOLTS over OMELETBAR was worth the trouble it took to make it work. Thanks!
Anyone else have “Sue” as a [Good name for a chef?]?
@Steve That’s a better name for a lawyer. (I got it, though.)
@Steve Is there something wrong with the food?
@Steve Oh, I’m glad I didn’t think of that!
@Steve I saw your comment hours ago, but just got it now. Excellent!
@Steve Yep, SUE was my first guess there too. (because of the title "sous chef")
As an 18yo I got neither Esme nor go ham but that's probably because I'm not very good at crosswords... Don't see why people are so pressed about one or two pop culture references even when the crossword is still possible to solve with crossing clues Unknown references are inevitable parts of crosswords you'll have to accept especially as younger people start making and solving puzzles + I'm not exactly sure when the phrase "go ham" started being used but I wouldn't say they are exactly "under 20" references as the twilight books were released around the time I was born...
@Yer. As a seventy eight year old I got neither ESME nor GOHAM. But that’s probably because I’m not so young and live in another country.
@Yer 45 and clueless here. I went for the M at the crossing because ESME made most sense as a name but ultimately it was a guess. It could have been EStE/GOHAt just as well - that doesn't look any weirder than ESME/GO HAT.
@Yer The issue everyone is complaining about is that both GO HAM and ESME are generational answers of a similar vintage (around 2010). Crosses help when you know one of them, and constructors are usually good at crossing things that are narrowly known either with things that are widely known, or things that are known to a different demographic. To make things worse, Tuesdays aren't supposed to have such obscure (to most) crossings. I got it because ESME was the most likely name, and HAM was a word. The crossing letter could have been T, since ESTE is a possible name (but is usually clued to Spanish), and HAT is also a word; if you don't know the right one, GO HAM and GO HAT make equal sense (or don't). But I can easily see that it was a brutal cross, and my choice was definitely a guess...an experienced guess, no doubt, but still a guess.
@Yer I’m more than twice your age, but agree 100% with everything you said. The final square in my own solve was the “M” in that crossing, and I was indeed Naticked at that point…for all of a few seconds, until I ran the alphabet in my head and realized that “M” was the only real option. For my money, this was a Tuesday version of the recent SUNRA x SANKA x PANDA crossing, which was also a total Natick for me…and also soluble through reasoning, without direct knowledge of the answers (though the reasoning step took me several minutes in that case, as opposed to a matter of seconds today).
Esme always evokes Salinger
@Norman With love and squalor. ....
GOHAM crossing ESME was a total guess.
By the way, one of the most moving Constructor’s Notes I can recall came with Adrianne’s first puzzle. Here’s the link: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2025-06-20.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2025-06-20.html</a> .
@Lewis Oh god that is so sad about Arjun.
Kudos to the finder of that zebra pin photo! Perfection, and a good back story to boot. And now I want a zebra pin.
I guarantee the big topic of this set of comments will be GO HAM/ESME. Not knowing Twilight beyond Bella, Jacob and the other guy, it seemed that only ESME made sense, but it was 100% a guess. And GO HAM doesn’t make any sense at all unless you’re familiar with the rap song, or you’ve looked up that the pig meat here really stands for “hard a (a) mother.”
@Steve L Well, that took long enough. I submitted it around 10:15 last night.
@Steve L I have no idea what rap song you're referencing, but GO HAM is a common enough slang term
TIL I learned GOHAM (or is it GO HAM?). Guess it had to happen one day.
General Tso has shrimp too? Who knew!?!?
Fun! I love JEWELRY (I pronounce it jool-ree, hope that's right?) of all kinds and this is especially topical after the Louvre heist! Just the idea of a ZEBRA COLT is today's "squee" moment for me 🦓 But didn't we have a whole discussion recently about how ORCAS aren't deep sea predators? I even remember looking it up and AI helpfully explaining to me that they hunt in the "the sunlit epipelagic zone" which is far from "deep sea". I feel like someone (maybe our AI friends) should summarize our daily nits and forward them to the editors so they can be duly noted for future puzzles. Right? Lol
@Lpr - Yes, and when that issue came up I pointed out that ORCAs can be found throughout the world oceans, far from coasts, in regions that would be described as the "deep sea." (The previous criticism made the erroneous claim that ORCAs were found only in coastal waters.) I have gone "deep-sea fishing" but I did not use lines that were several miles long. I was "deep-sea fishing" in very deep water, but my line was in the epipelagic, as were the fish I was angling for. Deep-sea" does not mean "only found in the bathypelagic or hadal waters". It can also mean "regions of the ocean where the bottom is really far below you." The clue and answer are fine, if not necessarily appropriate for a Tuesday.
As one who often works buffet omelet bars, I can safely say that they are not "build-your-own." "Design-your-own," perhaps, but not "build-your-own" Bad clue, NYT. Do better. ;-)
@Bill (Unlike those wonderful self-serve waffle makers, where they put out little dixie cups of batter--FYI, those waffle makers are frequently not owned by the dining establishment, but are provided on loan by the company which markets the batter mix. Their sales person will occasionally drop in, to "check your inventory," and if they see that you're buying mix from another company, will confiscate the machines. Usually the Saturday before Mother's Day.)
@Bill If you were designing an omelet, you would give it a name and repeat it. Build is more apt word because a cook adds the ingredients you specify.
@Bill My complaint--if I had one--is that I've only heard these things referred to as "omelet stations." And I have been to some where you actually spoon up the fillings you want into a bowl and hand them to the omelet maker. That's kinda building the omelet, isn't it? (He who shall not be named is often referred to as a builder, meaning a developer, and I'm sure he never picked up a trowel.)
@Bill One more insight into the world of omelet bars: At the hotel where I work, the kitchen will purchase for, and issue, us non-stick 8" omelet skillets. They then become our property, and we guard them carefully, clean them ourselves (don't use dish soap, wipe out with a microfiber towel only); I usually hide mine in my locker. And woe to the person who touches our pans! One sous-chef in particular, a "pan-burner," covered for me on the line one morning, for about 45 minutes, and managed to completely destroy my pans--how did he do it so fast? But even with the most diligent of care, they will wear out and needs be place every couple months. Mine are about due.
@Bill When I build my own omelet, I always GO HAM.
Esme always makes me think of Salinger.
Miss me? Summer iPad solving does not easily offer the comment page.... so I do not comment. Or, offer bad Tom Swifties. Back in the land of "big mac" till May. HAM, reminds me of Penny from FB. Fun solve. Thank you Adrianne
dk, Welcome back! (Glad your absence was only seasonal.)
@dk “I will throw away my Top Ten reasons I miss dk”…he said, listlessly.
@dk --- Isn't it getting to be about time for the annual Barbie shoot? Maybe with equal time for the recent KENDOLL
@dk I always do puzzle on iPad. Then click on little 'i' at the top of the puzzle and there is a link to the column in the box that opens. From there you can see the little "count" at the bottom of the screen. Click on that and see the comments.
I, too, did not know GOHAM or ESME, but running the alphabet did the trick. With luck, I'll remember it for next time. Good workout for a Tuesday. Finally caught up on puzzles after being away for the weekend.
2nd try. The first one was written before the first comment posted around 10:15. I guarantee the big topic of this set of comments will be GO HAM/ESME. Not knowing Twilight beyond Bella, Jacob and the other guy, it seemed that only ESME made sense, but it was 100% a guess. And GO HAM doesn’t make any sense at all unless you’re familiar with the rap song, or you’ve looked up that the pig meat here really stands for “hard a (a) mother.”
@Steve L You're right.GO HAM is awful.
@Steve L Another victim of the HAM/ESME cross. I only got it because I eliminated ESti and ESsi. Didn't go hunting for the acronym's translation; no interest in finding out which vulgarity in particular was used. (Yes, I was clutching my pearls at the time.) But I loved the jewelry - Charmed by the boxes pun. First one I filled was HOOP and I expected types of earrings as the motif. But no.
@Steve L Lovely. This is why I’ve stopped looking up rap clues I had to get from crosses.
Figured out the Jewelry box theme quickly which helped with Brody because I don’t watch OC but I do know that Brooch doesn’t have an A in it. Don’t like seeing GOHAM on a Tuesday. I consider myself somewhat current on modern 6-7 slang as a 7th grade teacher, but haven’t crossed GO HAM yet. Wanted Lags instead of owes so was off a bit in the NE for a while. I am not a TwiHard but I do enjoy the books and it took me a few 6-7 seconds to remember Esme was also a Cullen besides Emmet, Carlisle and Edward. Had Octave before Octane. Still came in 2 under my average
Fun, charming little puzzle. I'm so often on the wrong side of the generational gap on certain clues*, so I'll take the GO HAM gimme as a rare piece of luck. That said, I might have to disagree with our dear columnist about the term's origin! While the GO HAM acronym was popularized in the 2011 song, the term predates it, and was not associated with "hard as a ************" prior to the song's release. That places this bit of slang firmly in the backronym category. Anyway! Thanks to our constructor for the puzzle, and I'll see you folks on Wednesday. *"Who is that 1970s actress? Who is that 1980s American politician?" Tragically, I never know.
@Kurt Thanks Kurt! That makes me feel better somehow. Except now I’m mad that such a n innocent little phrase got misappropriated so badly.
@Kurt So what did HAM originally stand for?
Another almost victim of the SW corner. No clue on the encouraging phrase, or the actor or the Twilight character (don't believe that any of my kids read it, and certainly didn't see the move). Was debating between BRaDY or BRODY, and luckily went with the O because I figured the phrase started "GO", not "Ga". So I finally ended up with GOHA_ and ran the alphabet to finish the puzzle. Also had lagS before OWES, which cost me a bit of time and consternation. Otherwise, it was a fun puzzle to solve, so thanks, Adrianne.
@JayTee And you might have used B R O O C H in the gray squares.
My 404 day streak literally almost ended on a Tuesday with that ridiculous GOHAM/ESME corner. Not cool! Never heard of these two in my life.
I just followed a Reddit thread for the mysterious (at least to me) phrase “go ham”. Apparently the source is the always sagacious and sensitive Ye, but the range of interpretations, ie guesses, across the thread makes it clear that I (old, white female devoid of hipness, ignorant of rap culture) am not the only one who is confused.
I'm just gonna leave this here: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.A.M" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.A.M</a>.
Just 2014 left to go in the archive.
GOHAM crossing not one but two out of date tween pop culture names was a bridge too far for me, that corner should have been reworked before publication.
Vitruvian Mansplainer, The BROOCH in that corner should have given you one of the crossing "out of date tween pop culture names."
This GenXer didn’t have any issues with the ESME/GO HAM crossing. I did read the Twilight series while on full bed rest during my last pregnancy, so there’s that. Sitting here watching Game 3, top of the 13th inning. Will Klein is the only pitcher left in the bullpen and his mom is going to the game tomorrow night. 🤞🏼 they don’t need to use him tonight. This is a nail biter!! Back to the puzzle, I loved answers like ZEBRA COLTS and SOFA FORTS. I’m really enjoying all of Adrianne’s puzzles and look forward to the next ones ☺️
@Jacqui J Well, he's in and showing some good velocity. Sorry, Will's mom. Unlikely he'll be pitching tomorrow AKA tonight. Still tied 5-5. Each side is running out of personnel. Yet in the bottom of the 14th, the Jays' outfielder Daulton Varshow made a spectacular catch up against the wall. And he just did it again in the bottom of the 15th. On to the 16th we trudge!
@Jacqui J Will Klein was incredible tonight and I’m proud to have played a very tiny part in his rise to the majors. And Freddie Freeman did it again!!
Stuck in Reykjavik during a record-breaking snowstorm and got my best ever Tuesday time!
Not as easy to sing, but it beats being stuck in Lodi.
@Lisa Marshall I can't even count how many times that's happened to me. 🤨
I left the M in ESME and GOHAM blank until I finished the puzzle, intending to run the alphabet on it, but entered M first on a whim, and the music played!
I don't just go ham, I go ham and cheese. Maybe even with mustard if I'm feeling crazy.
Am I the only one who has never heard the term "sofa fort." Isn't the expression pillow fort?
I don’t often comment on Tuesday puzzles, but this one offered a smidge more resistance than usual and had a cute theme to boot. I had a little problem in the SW corner because I tried solocups before TOGOCUPS and imsogone instead of IMSODONE. Adam brogy did look a little suspect, but I didn’t know Adam BRODY (never having watched the OC). And names being what they are Brogy seemed at least as plausible as Walthew. When I couldn’t spot a mistake anywhere else in the puzzle, The D dawned on me
@Marshall Walthew I too noted the "smidge more resistance" also. I feared I would need to cheat, and yes, the 'BRODY' and 'GOHAM' intersection was tough. But I sweated it out, and managed a cheat free result. Whew! What will Wednesday' puzzle bring?
@Marshall Walthew I too had I’M gONE until Mr. BRODY showed up. (The name was vaguely familiar.) Was it you who, about a year ago, said something about the then-new fourth season of Slow Horses being very good?
Loved the zebracolts, and the picture hint that also included the theme! Very easy & fast. Still cringing from GoHAM. While I appreciate the physique of the gentleman who remove 100+ pounds of weights from an exercise machine so I could use it, I'm a bit too "polite" for that.
Such a fun puzzle, Adrianne, with just enough pull to be a Tuesday’s best. I cannot believe [Child’s living room hideaway] SOFA FORT has never been used before. I got it right away. I can’t wait to see more from you again, Adrianne.
This puzzle is a reminder of something driving me crazy lately (past year or two) - I think there has been a marked increase in the number of people pronouncing JEWELRY as jewlery. There have always been some, but I feel I hear it everywhere now - by educated podcast hosts and guests (looking at you, NPR and NYT's The Daily), the nightly news, it seems *everyone* is mispronouncing JEWELRY. It's SO common that I fear it's on the verge of becoming an accepted alternative.
@Bill in Yokohama it's in my Webster's app as "nonstandard" pronunciation already. But why does that seem problematic? We don't speak Old English anymore either. Languages always change!
@Bill in Yokohama Keep in mind that the British spelling is “jewellery.” I’ve heard it pronounced “jewlery” since I was a kid. My grandmother said it that way. It seems totally normal to me. (I say it the normal Way.)
@Bill in Yokohama Or Joory. Nobody much says vuLnerable anymore. I's vunerable now.
@Bill in Yokohama nucular? realator? word and language evolution are largely the result of laziness and inattention.
Tough Tuesday for me. A whole lot of working the crosses and even had to look up a couple of things. Six debut answers and more than a couple of them that were unfamiliar. No big deal. One answer history search today was for SQUALOR, wondering about one specific thing. Only five appearances and 'Esme' was in the clue only once. But also did a search for ESME and... that's been an answer 176 times, and.. 'Salinger' was in the clue -- 107 times. (I can't help but wonder how many will be familiar with that). And, of course I have a puzzle find today. I'll put that in a reply. ....
@Rich in Atlanta Well, thanks for confirming ESME, because that entry (mystery clue), crossing 51D (supposedly slang for "GIve extreme effort") suggests I might have a clean solve. To me, this cross is unfairly demanding, given that it's a mere Tuesday. In the "Old Age" department, got the RSV vaccine yesterday; as with the flu vax, arm is swollen, hot, and sore. Not too bad, considering. Skipping the covid jab, which last year put me down for the count, ruining an entire week.
@Rich in Atlanta As promised - a Sunday from November 1, 2009 by Matt Ginsberg and Pete Muller with the title "Compound fractures." A couple of theme clue and answer examples: Eyewear providing hindsight? : RETROSPECTACLES Peanut-loving ghost? : ELEPHANTOM Give up smuggled goods? : CONTRABANDON And some other theme answers: CATHARTICHOKE PSYCHEDELICACY GUITARISTOCRAT CENTIPEDESTRIAN PERHAPSODY Here's that link: ' <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/1/2009&g=22&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/1/2009&g=22&d=A</a> ....