I enjoyed it. I like a theme. I like a themeless. I like a rebus. I like no rebus. I like elegant. I like corny. Mainly, I like words. I'm glad constructors are willing to puzzle us - seems like something of a thankless task. I imagine it is a lot of work for not much glory. If that makes me easy to please, then guilty as charged. Since in life I am hard to please - just ask my family - it makes a nice break from reality.
@MExpat My sentiments exactly. Being open to all sorts of crosswords, music, books and experiences in general makes life a constant joy (or as near constant as it’s likely to get). Some might say I lack discrimination, but I do have preferences, I just don’t indulge them to the exclusion of other experiences.
@MExpat As one is supposed to ask during Festivus: Are we too easily made glad? I do not think it's ever a bad thing.
@MExpat Except that I'm fairly easy to please in life too, I really agree with you about puzzles. I like all the types!! It's just that when you expect a theme (or whatever), it can be disappointing to not get one. Not the end of the world, but a bit of a letdown.
Found this good fun :) Of course everyone is free to express their opinion, but I’m always a bit disappointed when a large number of the comments here are negative. I’m thankful we have clever people like Mr. Musa to provide puzzles for this fun little hobby of ours.
@Evan Would you rather critics kept silent? I grew up in a country that did not tolerate dissent. It was not pretty. I know this is a different situation, but still... I find overly enthusiastic posts proffessig love for the ever so delightful puzzle much more annoying than the (well argued) critical ones.
REEM crossing ROSAMUND is wild and I will freely use the word Natick to describe that intersection.
Gregg, That is indeed one of two examples of names crossing names in this puzzle, but which letter(s) other than M did you consider for the cross?
@Gregg That corner was loco. So much trivia in one place! And that in a puzzle that otherwise featured few proper names. I handled it but didn't like it, at all.
@Gregg I came to the comments to say exactly that, but you beat me to it!
Always a letdown to see that the Sunday puzzle you've started unexpectedly has no theme. Why bother with a title then? Why not just "Unthemed #(whatever)"? A lot of proper names are going to give people problems, and several of them cross: LARTER/DELANEY, REEM/ROSAMUND, and SAEED crossing a TYPE O which is difficult to guess if you go with the usual term for the 38A instrument, POTTER's WHEEL. I figured it all out eventually, but I can see how others would have had trouble with any of those. And I didn't get much enjoyment out of it. An oversized themeless is a slog. Rafael Musa said that although he wasn't a stunt constructor, this was a stunt puzzle (fewest entries in a Sunday grid). It wasn't worth it. I almost agree with George, much to my horror.
@Steve L Seriously, it's a good thing I didn't know that POTTERsWHEEL was the usual term... I plopped POTTERYWHEEL in right away. Helpful bit of ignorance on my part, I guess. ☺️ As far as agreeing with George, don't worry, you know what they say about blind squirrels and broken clocks. Har!!
@Steve L Open Face refers to the shape of the grid, no? It looks like a face
@Steve L I’m right there with you. This puzzle wasn’t terrible by any means, but I do very much look forward to a cozy themed Sunday. ROSAMUND/REEM is a straight-up Natick, as Rosalund/Reel are perfectly reasonable single-letter swaps away. Just a bit of a bummer that we didn’t really get any kind of Halloween-adjacent punnery in the crossword at all this week. While I appreciate the technical feat achieved by Rafael’s construction, it remains true that what is fun for the constructor is not always fun for the solver.
@Steve L Yes, I had to look to column and answer key to get Rosamund/Reem and TypeO and PotteryWheel. The latter was the hardest because nothing looked wrong except TsPEO. I'd been talking to someone this afternoon about charitable donations from our IRA RMD, so had that kind of donation on the brain. [If you're old and don't do that, look into it!] But, now this reminds me I need to make an appt for my last blood donation of the year. I usually do at least 4 so I get a "Four Seasons" T-shirt from Stanford Blood Bank.
Unusual to have a themeless for Sunday, but a fun challenge. Anyone else think the face looks like the rabbit from Trix?
@Phil C. Now that you mention it, absolutely!
@Phil C. I saw the rabbit from Donnie Darko.
68D brought back memories. I've been enchanted by Richard Feynman for a long time, and he became a scientific hero of mine when James Gleick's "Genius" came out. A decade or so ago, I got a chance of a lifetime, at least for a community theater amateur--to play Feynman in the Peter Parnell play "QED". Feynman was a genius in every sense of the word: he invented new ways to do certain types of integrals, he self-taught himself out how to pick combination locks, he did experiments with convoys of ants, he tried to train himself to keep perfect time, the tried to analyze what happens when he fell asleep. And he developed a way of describing sub-atomic particle interactions that was brilliantly useful and intuitive (to people smarter than me). Quantum Electro Dynamics. QED. He was curious about everything. Everything. How a rotating dinner plate wobbles. How train wheels work. How to tell what's in a food can without the label. He entertained kids by asking questions like "Do you know there are more numbers than there are numbers?" As a lucky man, I've been able to ask my grandkids that question. I was a quantum chemist in a happier time, and I often stumbled when asked the question "But what is it good for? Hmm? Mr. College Boy? What can yo do with it?" Feynman courageously answered, "Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it." A brilliant, flawed, wonderful, creative and, most of all, curious man.
@Francis Could he indeed tell what was in a food can w/o the label? That would be pret-ty cool.
@Francis It would be so awesome if all the above turned out to be a complete fiction, all made up by you to pull our collective leg 🤣 I once pranked a friend like that. I wrote a newspaper-style article about an artist I had made up, using all that pompous lingo cultural columnists love so much to describe his oeuvre and legacy. He fell for it 😃
@Francis If you're ever starring anywhere within two hours or three of St Paul, be sure to tell me!!! 😘😘😘😘
@Francis Feynman’s books are a delight and comprehensible to a scientific ignoramus such as myself.
@Francis Thanks for expounding today. He was my one call out today, and now I know even more fun facts about him!
@Francis And he played the bongos! And well! Being interested (purely as a layperson) in quantum physics (have read a smattering of books like "The Quantum Zoo", "In Search of Schrödinger's Cat", etc etc), at one point some years ago I borrowed a set of library audiocassette tapes of some Feynman lectures. The content was kinda beyond me, even with his very clear and colorful descriptions, but I was tickled that this upper-echelon ground-breaking scientist sounded like, I dunno, a New Yawk cab driver or something. Very animated lectures, definitely just sounded like Tony Danza on "Taxi" or something (but at a faster pace). And Andrzej, without my having looked up every datum of Francis' post (and as amusing as your "ha, what if he just made it up" scenario-- and your anecdote-- are 😄), I'm betting his descriptions aren't fictional at all! Feynman was truly unique. Here he is rocking on his bongos at home: <a href="https://youtu.be/qWabhnt91Uc?si=xDQ7mqcTgO0Sfvo9" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/qWabhnt91Uc?si=xDQ7mqcTgO0Sfvo9</a>
@Francis Fenyman's interests were astoundingly varied. I learned about Tuvan throat singing from reading Tuva or Bust, written by his friend about their (ultimately unsuccessful) plans to travel to Tuva.
It’s arguable that TECHNOCRATS are really “Ones skilled in governance.”
@Elizabeth Connors, in fact, one could argue the reverse, especially based on recent evidence.
@Elizabeth Connors but if it’s not the TECHNOCRATS and it’s fairly clear it’s not the TV anchors and the professional politicians are skilled at politicking but not at governing, who are we left with?
This went shockingly quickly for such an initially intimidating grid. Smooth as silk. I didn't love every clue and it wasn't a laugh riot but it was an honest puzzle with almost no filler. PSA and ERs and Sty were about it. Went very quickly for me with basically zero snags. Nicely done. Thanks and congratulations on the record, I guess. :)
@B Same here. Saw the grid and thought uh oh, but ended up with a personal best for a Sunday. It’s fun to be on the same wavelength as the constructor. Thank you, Rafael, for a great puzzle!
@B @cosmicweb PB here, as well! And I wasn’t even going for speed — I was sipping at a cup of coffee, yelling at one of my dogs to stop barking out the front window, and generally just moving along at a natural pace. No complaints, btw. I do enjoy the *occasional* tough Sunday…but I’d actually be happy if most Sundays were just like this one (I’m often bleary-eyed and impatient during Sunday solves, and hate few things more than flyspecking/finishing out a large grid with a handful of iffy crosses).
I've now read all 217 of the previous comments. Yup, still up at 4:50 Pacific Time. Hate it on the nights the clocks change, and Oseem to get to bed even later. But I always must print and finish the puzzle before that can happen. I'm surprised that no one commented on SILICON VALLEY / TECHNOCRATS / THAT’S RICH. Rafa says in his notes that it made him smile. I can't say the same for me. It conjures up the image of that tacky umbrella-clad spot that was the former Rose Garden, and the big, fancy party given for all the rich people yesterday, while so many of the peasants will go without food in order to pay their outrageous sky-high med insurance premiums. The gilded age, indeed. Very poor timing for those three clues all in one puzzle.
So I enjoyed this a lot, I’m also surprised from the negativity—apart from being unhappy about not getting a theme on Sunday, which I do understand. I thought the face was supposed to be a pumpkin, and I took one look at the grid and knew it was a themeless (come on, you can’t make a themeless with this few words, or if you do you’re even a bigger genius than I can imagine.) So I wasn’t disappointed trying to find one. I thought this was Friday level for me, or what I might imagine a Thursday themeless to be. It’s not that I didn’t know must of the clues, but it just seemed like I guessed wrong or was misdirected on many of them, or they were on the tip of my tongue and I just couldn’t get there. I had to jump around all over the place. This was exemplified by “Eccentric”—DOTTY? NUTTY? Oh, BATTY. Seems like that was my experience the whole time. Yes, you are right Barry there weren’t a lot of clever punny clues, but they were clever in other ways that they weren’t obvious to me and I had to stretch. I had the same Naticks as everyone but it seemed like at least one of the names was guessable. So I was impressed even if others weren’t and I had a good time for a Sunday themeless. Oh, thanks for the shout out to RICHARD Feynman—I know there are a lot of RICHARD options, but the man was a genius both as a physicist and a teacher, and if you don’t know him please take the opportunity to learn about him.
@SP How would a somewhat still newbie non-constructor such as myself know from looking at the grid that this was a themeless?
@SP I'd like to thank The Big Bang Theory for teaching me who RICHARD Feynman is.
@SP Feynman's GRE scores were so astounding the testers didn't know what to make of the results. Read James Gleick's GENIUS.
For me, this is the Sunday of the year -- the beauty of the construction, the lack of virtually any standard fill, and cute grid art as well? How you pulled this off Rafael is beyond me. I often complain about Sundays -- so much standard small-ball fill to plow though makes them a slog for me. The themes rarely amuse me. I wish every Sunday puzzle was like Rafael's!
all this fuss about themeless vs themed sundays. sometimes i feel like a ripple drinker at a sommelier convention when i read the comments. but to paraphrase duke ellington: if it solves good, it is good.
@Matt No, it's like water is good.... and milk is good... but when you expect milk and it's actually water, it's awful! It's shockingly awful. 😆
@Matt I’m with you, I like both and don’t mind being surprised with a themeless Sunday. But then, I don’t mind proper nouns so I’m clearly a weirdo.
I had to laugh at REMATE. Imagine a scene where two human parents are disappointed and want a redo: We didn’t ask for a FUSSY EATER! REMATE! This kid wants a FORTEPIANO?! REMATE! No child of mine is gonna be a SORE LOSER! REMATE!
Cat Lady Margaret, (1) An emu woke up and released your post. (2) Can't imagine why it was stuck in the filter.
@Cat Lady Margaret I thought of the Octomom. Wanna be a media star? REMATE, REMATE, REMATE (x14)
As someone named Peter, I enjoyed this puzzle. Except for the clue associating my name with “fizzling out.” Us Peters are persevering folk! No more besmirching of the name Peter!
@Peter Look up "peter " in French. I have a friend named Peter, and Google translates it to fart. Stay strong!
@Peter I see Rafael threw in a Peaty, to boot. 😛
@Peter You made me think of Goodfellas! Paulie and his brothers had lots of sons and nephews. And almost all of them were named Peter or Paul. It was unbelievable. There must have been two dozen Peters and Pauls at the wedding. Plus, they were all married to girls named Marie. And they named all their daughters Marie. By the time I finished meeting everybody, I thought I was drunk.
Pinch me, I must be dreaming! For the first time ever, I've finished a Sunday puzzle without having to resort to look-ups. Admittedly some of my answers were guesses, but they were right for once. It will probably never happen again. lol...
@Puzzled Brit Re: Pinch me, I must be dreaming! No, really, Ali Larter does look like that.
@Puzzled Brit Congratulations! That's really the secret goal most of us have worked for at one point or another. It's a great feeling, isn't it?
I remember reading that when he was tired, Mozart would often compose at a SOFA FORTE PIANO. [This paragraph deleted by author, as it got carried away with SORE LOSER, SCARE TACTICs, FALSE IMPRESSIONs, SPIN A WEB, CULT HERO, BADDY, and HOOEY] Adored this one. So many mini-themes and juicy entries. Enough friction to make it a battle, including trying to figure out the theme for the first half (two-thirds) of the puzzle. Beautifully done, Rafael.
Gee, @Puzzlemucker, can't imagine where you were going with that deleted middle paragraph ...
@Puzzlemucker Check the pangram in the spelling bee today for more on the theme of your “deleted paragraph” 🤣
This was possibly the weirdest solve in my well over 2 years of doing these puzzles. There were very few gimmes. The clues were totally not on my wavelength. Many of the guesses I had made turned out to be wrong. And even though the grid was not heavy on trivia, I knew almost nothing of what little there was of it. And yet... I completed the puzzle without lookups, and quickly, too - the solve took me a tad under 40 minutes, which is quite fast for a Sunday that feels hard. I almost broke down in the lower left (SW) corner - the only area with an accumulation of trivia entries, which also crossed. Even the non-trivia entry of PSA was clued "trivially" - why do constructors/editors do that? If a closed-off section of the puzzle already suffers from an overabundance of proper names, brands, etc., why not clue the other stuff there so that it does not require knowing trivia? Anyway, I knew Smokey the Bear so I handled it. But it was close. As I was looking at that SW triangle of death, my finger hovered over the onscreen button that initiates an AI search of whatever it is that I mark. In the end I completed the puzzle without outside help. But did I enjoy the solve? Nah. I had to work too hard for this win to enjoy it. A regular-sized grid of this difficulty would have been fine. But. Sunday one... I found it too tiring. But hey! At least there were no groaners!
@Andrzej At least a couple of groaners would have shown you where they were trying.... 😏 😘😘
Btw, fortepian is the Polish name for a piano.
@Andrzej For whatever it's worth, nothing later to the puzzle but I, myself , almost broke down several times today.... God bless my poor husband 😂😭😂 It was a... day. 😂
@Andrzej Here's a nice little trivia bit for you. It's not Smokey the Bear, it's Smokey Bear. Smokey is his first name, and Bear is his last name. People say Smokey the Bear all the time, and it one of my pet peeves. Along with PIN number, ATM number, and RPMs, to name a few. Oh, and, people who say expresso when they mean espresso.
I’m surprised by the negativity…I enjoyed watching this giant themeless unfurl (didn’t love REMATE and EMEET, which I acknowledge are things but awkward nonetheless). Themes are great but so are themeless acrobatics imho. As for proper nouns, I always figure it’s my fault if I don’t know significant personages.
@Kate Tani Maybe if I'd expected a huge themeless, I wouldn't have minded as much. It's sort of like the opposite of the people who want to be warned about rebus puzzles! Don't warn me about fun tricks, but do warn me when there are no tricks or themes. 😏
@Kate Tani You can be sure that Spelling Bee won't take either of those words.
@HeathieJ Exactly! There was a big smiling bear face and then... nothing!
@Kate Tani I agree with you in everything you said, sentence by sentence.
enoughhhhhh with the names!!!
@cameron There will always be names. The very first answer to the very first puzzle (2/15/42) was a proper name. 1A: Famous one-eyed general: WAVELL. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=2/15/1942" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=2/15/1942</a> Famous?!?!? As I see it, you have three options: 1. Rant every time you find a number of proper names you deem excessive in a puzzle, in which case you're going to get the online analog to a sore throat (sore fingers, perhaps?) 2. Get used to the fact that there are going to be proper nouns in every puzzle you solve, and adapt, or 3. Find a different hobby. Some other names from that puzzle: 11A Middle name of news commentator: GRAM 21A Flier lost in Pacific: 1937 AMELIA 30A Name of 3 successive Pharaohs: USERTESEN (right on the tip of your tongue, right?) 32A Italian poet laureate (1544-1595): TASSO 44A Inhabitants of Jolo, S.W. Philippines: SULUS 66A Man's name: YVON (That's a helpful clue!) and 108A Man's name: IAN And that's just half of the across clues.
The obvious answer to 24 across is "trumpism", but it doesn't fit.
@K Alas--another reminder of the man. Hard to go one day--one puzzle without it. Thanks for souring the otherwise pleasant puzzle with an unpleasant reminder.
Happiness is not having to flyspeck a Sunday puzzle. I was so intent on finishing the puzzle that I forgot to notice there wasn't a theme. So far it seems that I am one of the few who has heard of Ali LARTER. I had never heard of Daikin Park. Any relation to Linkin Park? Kidding. But fie on the ASTROS. I'm so old that I still get confused because they switched leagues. I love MOSAICS and have seen a few Greek ones in my travels and always like to check them out in museums. And there are a few in the NYC subway system. And now I can't unsee the Donnie Darko rabbit.
@Vaer Here's a link to a site that shows a number of NYC subway station mosaics. Andrzej, you might especially like the William Wegman 23rd Street Station mosaics. <a href="https://travelforlifenow.com/nyc-subway-art-tour-manhattan" target="_blank">https://travelforlifenow.com/nyc-subway-art-tour-manhattan</a>/
@Vaer This was at least the third time I’ve seen a clue that mentioned Daikin Park in a crossword — it was in Saturday’s WSJ, too. In my mind, it’s still Minute Maid Park.
@Vaer Daikin reminds me of Daikon, which is a mild, carrot-shaped radish used a lot in Asian cooking. I looked up what Daikin makes and the answer was so boring I've already forgotten it.
@Eric Hougland I've always been fond of Wegman's work with the dogs.
@Vaer And here are all the Wegman mosaics. <a href="https://mymodernmet.com/william-wegman-stationary-figures" target="_blank">https://mymodernmet.com/william-wegman-stationary-figures</a>/
@Vaer I knew Ali Larter from seeing her on “Heroes” on some cable network that runs old shows, and trying to remember where I recognized her from; it was “Legally Blonde.”
@Retired, with cat She was appeared in one season of ABC's The Rookie. And now is in a streaming show that stars Billie Bob Thornton something about something to do with oil. Sorry for lack of details on that.
@Vaer Daikin (apparently a Japanese conglomerate manufacturing company of air conditioning units) is the new name for the baseball field of the Houston Astros, an essential name for crosswordese. I always think of the original name, Enron, also a helpful word for crosswords even if a shameful period in Houston history. In the middle it was Minute Maid Field.
@Retired, with cat Landman! Because I don't get the physical paper I had to guess which post her picture was in and found her and Billie Bob in What to Watch. I don't have Paramount+ (surpisingly pricey, I thought) so will have to forego watching them.
@Retired, with cat That Devon Sawa story was posted on the website October 22. I didn't read it then, but would not have recognized Ali in that picture. So young and with bangs. Anyways, so two pictures on nytimes.com and in the puzzle, too. And also, I mentioned she was in a season of the Rookie before and today one of the episodes she was in was on UPTV, a cable channel.
I usually enjoy Rafa's creations, and while this puzzle was fresh, I'd prefer not to be served a large themeless Tuesday as a Sunday. The only "challenge" for me was realizing the 28A WHEELS were not for POTTERs but for their POTTERY. I found exactly two clever clues: 37A and 31D. Lots of people today, most of whom crossed non-people. I hope most people who don't know people will be able to handle the 62Ax43D people cross and 96Ax87D+68D! I'd hate to see anyone stuck in Natick. Or Lodi. I'm sure it was hard to construct...
@Barry Ancona I guess it was in my DNA that I would end up switching the intersection of 96A and 87D from ‘L’ to ‘M’ to get my gold star; I must have figured a non-standard spelling of “Rosalind” was at least as plausible as a name I’ve previously encountered only in reference to the actress Ms. Pike. Never heard of LARTER or (this) DELANEY before, either, but ‘E’ was the only letter that made sense.
@Barry Ancona At least the people were easy to look up. I wasn't crazy about two of them crossing (96A/87D). I thought all those long answers would be difficult, but I can't argue with "large themeless Tuesday." This took me about 2/3rds of my Sunday average.
@Barry Ancona I'm quick to defend good quality trivia that results in proper names crossing. I'm not sure 96A and 87D were quality trivia. Feynman was OK though. But that's just my opinion.
@Barry Ancona People who know people are the luckiest people in the world! (sang Barbra, sorta)
@Barry Ancona I typically don’t do the Saturday WSJ crossword (which is 21x21), but yesterday, I covered it for the regular Fiend reviewer. It was from an experienced constructor and had a punny theme that did nothing to amuse me. I was very happy to see Rafael Musa’s byline. Despite the paucity of clever clues, I had fun with this puzzle. Sorry if you didn’t.
As a retired technocrat, I would disagree that technocrats are skilled at governance, unless it’s meant in a *very* limited sense.
@Roy W As a scholar of public administration - don't get me started 🤣
@Roy W I had most of the letters for that but refused to fill in the rest because of how wrong the clue was!! (Or at least how wrong it can be—I’m sure some technocrats could be skilled at governance but recent history begs to differ.)
Nice puzzle -- very gentle and restorative after the painful WS loss last night. I can see how COMANECI would be obscure if you don't know the history of women's gymnastics and are younger than 50 yrs old. Around these parts though, COMANECI is the reason there are so many women in their late 40s named Nadia.
@Esmerelda, as a SF Giants fan, I feel your pain over the World Series. There's always next year. Though my husband tells me that the Blue Jays would have won if Carney hadn't apologized to the U.S. Prez.
@Esmereldam it was a heck of a series! A shame anyone had to lose. Hope you guys hang on to Yesavage - he's awesome to watch.
@Esmerelda Of course you would remember Nadia, it was at the '76 games in Montreal that she got her perfect 10. (If you're old enough to remember that, of course.) That Summer, my family drove up from NY for the day, and watched S Korea vs the USSR in soccer. (The Reds won.) I also remember that she was quite upset when the Wall came down, and she learned that the rest of her country had been living in abject poverty under the Ceausescu dictatorship, while she lived in luxury as a sports hero.
Regarding the natick in the SW corner — I feel that the editors should not allow crossed proper names as a general rule. This is the Sunday version of the NYT crossword, the crème de la crème. I feel like the standards should be a bit higher. I respect anyone that can create a crossword, and I do not mean to take a shot at the constructor, but I do feel like, perhaps, the editors should step in at times. I admit that I really don’t know anything about what the editors actually do.
Great puzzle! Needed help with the names (as almost always) but was able to get the rest. Took TOO much time trying to find my typo. Sheesh. Lots of fun. I loved the span entries. It makes me happy when I can get many of them without help. Thanks, Rafael. This was just a joy. All y’all have a great Sunday!
@Terry Put the NYT Games app on your phone. It has a List View that allows you to see each clue and answer side-by-side. It’s saved me a lot of time and frustration when I’ve had an error in a puzzle. I make (and usually fail to notice) a typo about half the time, especially on Sundays.
I demand a REMATE! My post with some funny scenarios involving remates got stuck in the filter. I guess you’ll just have to see if it shows up later. I don’t like putting a thing in twice.
Cat Lady Margaret, SIGH! If it's really in the filter, I wouldn't expect it to appear until late morning at the earliest.
@Cat Lady Margaret Some of my best jokes have been lost to the emu breakfast trough. I feel your frustration. And I will definitely look for your remates in the morning.
Generally fun solve of a well constructed puzzle. But, I would take the comment from the Tricky Clues section on Reem/Rosamund a bit further, and apply it not to this puzzle alone. The increasing trend of the use of obscure first names of various people garnered from searches rather than reasonable knowledge, just to complete a clever pattern, has replaced the old junk filler words that we now scorn in constructing. Bring back the adit, I say!
@Joe I have no issue with adit, etui, etc., but I also don't mind names crossing because they always throw us a bone. Today, it had to be ROSALIND or ROSAMUND. I didn't know the school from the clue, but figured it would likely end in U. I know there are schools that end in I, like RPI, but I think I would recognize one of those. I enjoy reasoning my way through sections like that.
@Joe Surely Rosamund Pike is slightly more famous, and would’ve given me in particular a little bit of an hint? Is that too much to ask?
Hey, puzzlers. Hope you all have food. Great grid, Rafael, thanks. Started out stumped, but the path took shape and i only had to look up a few writers and a model. Particularly enjoyed the clue for the letter-shaped construction material. Caitlin, as at least one other noted below, film stock hasn't been made from nitrate since the 1950s. Since then, it's mostly polyester. Tough and not very dangerous/flammable. In one little neighborhood repertory theater where i worked in the '80s, we were still using carbon arc lamps, which used to be standard in cinemas until the '60s. This arcane technology involved two pencil-like rods of carbon pointed at one another and kept by a motor in (theoretically) ideal proximity to maintain an actual flame between them, the light from which shone the film image onto the screen a hundred feet or so away. The motor of course did not work ideally, so the rods were prone to fusing (getting too close and hot, so film frames burned) or separating (getting too far apart, picture goes dark) if the projectionist wasn't constantly paying attention and jiggering the spacing with a little knob. From the '50s back, film projection (and spectating) was a death-defying act!
Busy day for the Natick Police. I hope they have a well earned donut.
@Mr Dave which makes it a busy day for the “natick police” police, keeping us all safe by enforcing crossword satisfaction. I can make coffee to go with those donuts. It was a tough Sunday. People will groan. It happens.
REEMed by the ROSEMUND nattic. Anyone else PEEPed?
I am newer to puzzles, and generally still pretty intimidated by the latter half of the weeks. This puzzle was absolutely delightful, and I loved that there were so many aha moments that, for me, struck the right balance between head-scratching and accessible. I think this sort of puzzle is very much needed for this reason. It would be very difficult indeed to stick with solving crosswords if beginners like myself could never break into the weekend puzzles. Sure, we don’t want every puzzle to cater to my particular kind of solver, but I wanted to share my appreciation for this one in particular. All that to say, I had a blast!
@bb I can't believe I solved it, been crosswording less than a year. So many names I didn't know. Saeed, Larter, Rosamund, Delaney, Reem. I more or less knew the rest, and even remembered how to spell Comaneci.
I got stuck in the SW. I haven’t heard of REEM Kassis or ROSAMUND Lipton, and as a Canadian I always have trouble with US college sports teams. I had to look up the Nittany Lions. After that it all fell into place.
I really had to work at this one, and found the bottom left corner to be especially annoying due to the crossing of two obscure authors' names. But I'm proud of myself for getting it without googling anything.
No theme. Not worth doing. 0/10. Looks like it's the archive today.
@George George, you’ve really lost all credibility today. This isn’t the first Sunday themeless. If you want to grade it as a themeless, then do so. If you say I hate themeless puzzles and won’t do them, that’s fine too, then say no grade today. But to throw out a zero just because you don’t want to do a themeless on a Sunday, makes me personally want to ignore any of your future grades (which I usually find interesting, though tough and a little arbitrary). Maybe you don’t care what anyone else thinks, but I think you do because otherwise why publish them?
@George So sorry you're missing out. Beautiful puzzle. 10/10
Unfortunately, I've never known George to return to the scene of the crime.
My Diary of a Crossword Fiend review: <a href="https://crosswordfiend.com/2025/11/01/sunday-november-2-2025" target="_blank">https://crosswordfiend.com/2025/11/01/sunday-november-2-2025</a>/
Eric, (1) I like his puzzles for (some of) the same reasons you do, but I really missed the clever clueing in this one. (2) You wrote: 28D [Pride celebration] PARADE Technically, isn’t the big one in NYC a march? The organizers insist on still calling it a march, but it is a parade. I was out of town for the first ones, but in 1973 it was still very much a march. Other smaller groups do march that weekend.
I liked this puzzle. Although I enjoy a really clever theme, I often find even a tricky theme makes solving easier and quicker and then I'm sad it's over so fast. Even themeless, this was a fairly smooth solve for me that wound up being 15 minutes quicker than my Sunday average. I had to leave 55A (Girder whose name assumes a serif font) and 71D (Shell competitor) to the end and play around until I found letters that looked right to me. Despite the high number of proper names, I am proud to say I either knew them or work them out on my own.
Potter’s wheel not pottery wheel. Sometimes knowing the correct term trips you up.
@Ken Burk Hand up for potter’s wheel. POTTERY WHEEL sounds like a TV game show prop. (Still loved the puzzle, though.)
I knew this puzzle and I were going to get along as soon as I saw the puppy dog face in the grid! Reminded me of my sweet Maxine who we said goodbye to around this time last year at 17 years and 5 months. I miss her everyday. This was definitely in my wheelhouse and brought to mind many things I love, in addition to Maxine. My husband and I hiked all 5 Utah NPs in May, hitting most of the major trails. The Narrows at Zion is the one place where we hired guides and rented WADErS, which allowed us to make it to where you can’t go farther without a permit. Every one of the parks is stunning and should not be missed. Sad/angry for the staff who are not getting paid, the public who can’t enjoy these treasures and the local economies suffering during the shutdown. I practice yoga daily so ONELEG was a gimme. At the studio where I took ceramics we just called it the WHEEL, but POTTERYWHEEL also sounds right to me. Cold SAKE is delicious but I favor ice cold beer with sushi. I lived and worked in SILICONVALLEY for 20 years, including San Francisco where Rafa lives and works, so maybe that’s why so much of this resonated with me (even though I am at least twice his age!). Lovely way to enjoy my coffee today. Thanks Rafa!
If we gotta have Sunday themeless puzzles, I hope they're as good as this. I counted only ten 3-letter entries, which I believe would be way below average in a 15 x 15 puzzle, so that might be why I enjoyed it so much. And I never would have believed it possible to so accurately depict "Absurd" Albert Camus with grid art!
This was beautiful and I felt as if I was on the same wavelength. Thanks!
U ppl must be really smart because I cant figure this puzzle out at all. I really just started doing these crosswords recently so I’m a beginner… my excuse. I feel like these involve a lot of previously required knowledge and I am being a made aware of that every day after Monday and Tuesday. 🤣
@KFC it can take a while to be able to do the whole week. Some of it is learning basic crossword puzzle words and knowledge. Some of it is living life and learning things. Some of it is getting a feel for solving a puzzle and developing that skill…such as being able to tell when the answer is meant as a pun or a very broad definition of a word. Keep at it…it gets easier and will be rewarding.
@KFC Honestly, being “smart” has so much less to do with it than just doing a ton of crosswords lol. I promise if you keep at it long enough you’ll be able to do any day of the week without cheats*. * “cheat” all you want if that’s what makes it fun for you.
@KFC Hi KFC, aka me a couple of years ago! Keep at it, you’ll get better and it will get easier. Trust me. In the meantime, just keep having fun with it!
@KFC Keep at it. You're bound to get better. Solving NYT crosswords is more about experience than anything else. Over time you learn the general style of the clues - keeping an open mind about them helps deal with the misdirection. I'm not terribly smart and English isn't even my first language but after almost 2,5 years of doing these puzzles I was able to fill today's grid without outside help. I found it very hard and not particularly enjoyable though.
@KFC It gets easier, but never easy. I've been doing these for just over a year now I think and I've definitely gotten better, as well as learned some new words. :) Thursdays can be super-tricky sometimes, 75%-ish solves on those. I'm up to about a 50% solve rate on Fridays. I don't even bother with Saturdays still. But Sun-Wed....I'm pretty proud of how well I knock those out now. :)
@KFC Well, if you are a beginner and already easily solving Monday and Tuesday, you are better than I was when I began. Keep at it.
@KFC The difficulty is part of the fun, although admittedly it doesn't always feel like that! As others here are saying, if you keep on with solving you will experience (probably slowly) the sense of accomplishment of getting past just Monday and Tuesday and reaching a point where you can regularly get through all or most of the week. I still remember the first time I solved a Sunday puzzle all on my own. I've been working the NYT crossword (on and off) for over 50 years now (God, I'm old!) and enjoy both the fact that Mon and Tue are usually a little too simple and that Wed through Sunday still regularly need a little effort. It's a nice as a regular challenge and a reminder that my brain can still work.
“Tricky to deduce”… is that what we’re calling naticks these days? 😆 I couldn’t decide between ROSAMUND and Rosalind, but went with the latter because at least that could cross with a familiar name, Réal. Oops. This is how we learn. Count me among those who were expecting a bunny theme. Silly rabbits, tricks are for Thursdays!
A pretty nifty Sunday puzzle, I’d say. I was thoroughly entertained, and I say this as someone who isn’t a huge fan of Sundays as a rule. There was an awful dearth of black squares (junky glue fill, where did you go?) which always fills me with such respect for the constructor. All the long entries were so much fun. I’m looking at the grid as I write this so as to say something intelligent about all the excellent entries in this puzzle, despite its being 6am Sunday morning, and on the heels of my husband’s just getting to bed after watching game 7, and Señor Gato’s hour-long insistence that I should have been throwing his cat toy for him this whole time (good grief and congrats to all the Jays fans, looking at you @SBK!). And I’m realizing that I didn’t just like this puzzle—I loved it. And that’s as intelligent as my brain can do at this ungodly hour. Happy Daylight Savings Time to all who celebrate.
@Sam Lyons Sam! The Dodgers won in extra innings.
Difficult to enjoy a puzzle with so many proper nouns. Even without the use of obscure ones, every single proper is an admission of defeat by the constructor that they don’t know a dictionary word that they can make fit. So, poor.
Gotta complain about the two crosses of names: DELANEY/LARTER and REEM/ROSAMUND. Since no theme, much less any tricks, not my favorite Sunday. ⭐️⭐️
Spectacular puzzle and a very satisfying solve. But I’m shocked to learn that FORTEPIANO is a debut.
I've heard of pianoforte but I never heard of fortepiano (but apparently that IS a thing). A filler-inner. Themeless Sunday puzzles are always a let-down. I'm sorry but they are.
@Charlie Fuchs That one I held off on until forced to concede, but I did growl as I printed the letters. A year of Music History/Appreciation as a sophomore... still a gift that keeps on giving... I imagine the prof has long been in the grave...possibly spinning.