First things first. Thanks to all on this board who served our country, Barry, Rich and many more I'm not aware of. Especially during unpopular and poorly thought-out wars that were unpopular.
@Steve L Agree. It would be nice if it was at the top of Readers Picks.
@Steve L For anyone with European ancestry in the last century, like me, we owe our existence to tens of thousands of Allied soldiers who decided or were forced to face death rather than yield to the Nazis. I owe them and their descendants everything.
@Steve L Thank you. Will just mention that my father was a B-17 pilot in World War II whose plane was shot down over Germany. He spent the last year of the war in a POW camp. And.. my father-in-law was on a battleship at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed. And... I may have mentioned before that I'm still in touch with several members of my company in Vietnam. It was an unpleasant but bonding experience. ....
@Steve L Agreed and thank you for the reminder. We were just in France and found out that the French also commemorate the end of WW II on 11-November as a national holiday. We probably should have known that but assumed it was just a US thing. I recognize that the US is not always popular in other parts of the world but our French guide in Avignon told us that the French believe the Germans would not have been defeated without US involvement. It was very nice to hear.
@Steve L I find it admirable that you were the first to recognize veterans, so, many thanks until… A better man would have simply not tossed in that last sentence. I would say how typical that is for a lib/left (which it is), but a fellow rep–can once quipped to us, “Yeah, too bad it was all for nothing.” Albeit, pres #44 was in office, but still, a very tasteless and self-serving quip. This was said at a restaurant to a group of us veterans, right after we finished honoring and burying a KIA from the 2nd Iraq war. There were 8 of us, we were all somberly reflecting, over a delicious meal, what service and sacrifice means. My response to him was, “For future reference, that’s probably not something veterans care to hear.” Please take this as a friendly piece of advice.
@Steve L Wholeheartedly agree and do hope your paramount post remains the top Reader Picks today. I had several relatives serve in WW1, WWII and the Vietnam War. They all engaged in combat and, unlike so many others who also bravely served, made it home safely. On this somber day of remembrance, let's send our collective energies toward channeling much-needed world peace. ☮️💜
@Jerry I take your point but I didn’t read it as you did. My read was that Steve was acknowledging that some veterans came home as heroes and others came home to be called horrible names. Nonetheless, a good bit of advice.
@Steve L, I’m honoring my brother today for his service in Vietnam in 1969. Thank you for remembering everyone who has served their country in the military.
@Steve L Thanks for this. My father enlisted and was in basic at Great Lakes when the war ended, but two uncles fought in Europe and survived. Their sister, my mother, was a teenage Rosie-the-riveter, working in a tractor factory converted to making tanks in Racine, WI. She also served in her way, as did many other women in or out of the military, who don't get enough recognition on Veterans Day. Here's to them as well. I know you thanked all, but the women deserve a call-out.
a. Poorly thought-out wars: that statement makes no sense. b. Wars are always unpopular. c. Military commanders do not disobey orders.
Lovely Tuesday solve -- extends my current streak to exactly five years. This subscription was one of the smartest buys of my life. Thanks for all the fun!
@RP congratulations on 5 years!! That’s amazing 🤩
@RP Welcome to the 5 year club! We should get fancy velvet blazers like the 5-timers on SNL....
@RP, Woohoo! Congratulations on five years in a row! 👏🏻🎉🎈🎆
Either this was challenging for a Tuesday or I am slipping. Good puzzle
@George I finished within seconds of my Tuesday average solving time.
@George According to early returns at xwstats.com, the puzzle is rated Very Hard. For a Tuesday, of course. 🌎 Global Stats Difficulty Very Hard Median Solve Time 7:23 Median Solver 14% slower ⚡20% of users solved faster than their Tuesday average. 6% solved much faster (>20%) than their Tuesday average. 🐢80% of users solved slower than their Tuesday average. 41% solved much slower (>20%) than their Tuesday average. It's not you.
@George I thought it was harder than usual. I finished in 23 minutes, my average says 19 but that includes a lot of old solves from before I was better at crosswords.
@Michael Weiland - I finished within seconds of my Tuesday best time. I was on the constructors' wavelengths.
@George Challenging for me. Took 50% more time to solve than average.
@George I solved this in roughly my average Tuesday time, ca. 12 minutes.
I'd like to slightly amend 59A: It's hard to say ... and even harder to spell 😀 But one thing that's not at all difficult to say, this was a terrific Tuesday crossword! Thanks, Christina, Scott (and Will, let's not forget Will).
@MP Rogers In order to spell it, I purposely mispronounce it.
I don’t know about you, but this theme gave me an I’ll-be-darned “Huh!” I’ve just never thought before about the different meanings of “It’s hard to say” – Difficult to know, difficult to admit, difficult to pronounce. The theme is so solid and interesting, it alone would make this puzzle shine. But Christina and Scott went even farther with those gorgeous long downs. Look at them! COAT OF ARMS CULT CLASSIC TEAM PLAYERS A HOT MINUTE Another plus today is spark. All three theme answers are appearing in the Times puzzle for the first time, as is A HOT MINUTE. Tying it all together is perfecto Tuesday cluing, IMO, generally in that zone between unconsciously-slap-down and have-to-work-hard-for. To me, top notch – one splendid outing. Thank you, Christina and Scott!
@Dave Good catch. That’s on the puzzle editor’s.
@Dave 59A: ... for a non-Briton
@Dave Yeah but it passes for a crossword. It's one of those "could be" things.
@Dave The New York Times is NORTH OF THE EQUATOR!! Sign me....Native New Yorker
Great. Now I have the yodeling part of The Lonely Goatherd stuck in my ear, except he’s yodeling “Worcestershire”. Har.
@Cat Lady Margaret And I have Gwen Stefani stuck in my ear. I love her take on that song.
almost a year x-wording and i fear im getting in too deep. im beginning to recognize constructor names. do i need a support group? a 12-step program? i guess thats what you guys are for...
@Matt Yes. And fast. I mean, take a look around...you don't want to end up like we did, do you? Frothing about octopuses and trying to sneak sly little politically incorrect insinuations past the emus? Either praising puzzles to the skies or condemning them as the worst examples of human endeavor? [Shudder] Run. Run fast. And don't look back.
@Matt Don’t listen to Francis. There’s nothing to fear here. It’s safe, and warm. Just relax and dream of Oreos and Issa Rae. Everything will be just fine. Oneofus. Oneofus.
@Matt You’re one of us now. Resistance is futile. Welcome…
@Matt It's a great group. You will love the support, wisdom, and poetry. Recognizing names is part of the fun!
I thought this was a tad harder than the typical Tuesday, and therefore particularly enjoyable. The three variations on “hard to say” were deliciously clever. I especially loved the twist in the last themer, with WORCESTERSHIRE being a word that’s hard to pronounce.
I am on the appreciation bandwagon for WORCESTERSHIRE and I also enjoyed THATWASMYFAULT. A solid Tuesday in my book.
For certain prominent political figures it's hard to say, but most team players, like Aaron Rogers explaining the Steelers' loss, find it easy to say it was their own fault. In this case, it kinda was. As it kinda is for certain prominent political figures. Glad to see WHO REALLY KNOWS crossing with CULT CLASSIC. The answer can be found in the 1940 film adaptation of the radio mystery show: The Shadow knows! Surely that's a cult classic. Not so much the 1994 remake with Alec Baldwin as Lamont Cranston. EWW! (I'm sure other humorists here will remark wittily on WHOREALLYKNOWS as to why such an ally would know). As for me, I'm busy picturing what an EGGPLANT PERM might look like. It's hard to say. Easy for me to say, but I liked this puzzle a lot. Unusual words like STASES and SETTEE, witty clues, and some places that provided welcome toughness. There will be those who say this should be later in the week, but I say it's Will Shortz respecting your skills and counting on you to figure it out. But it's hard to say what he's thinking.
@john ezra True, but 1) athletes don’t have to get elected; and 2) I think they say it a lot but don’t really mean it
@john ezra EGGPLANT PERM? Hard to say? Harder to eat.
@john ezra My guess is that 95% of those athletes, Rodgers included, only utter those lines to stay in the good graces of fandom. The few times they bobbled that ("...there was a misunderstanding of the expected pass route...") and got burned insured they'd never say that again. None of them really mean it.
@john ezra -- Yes, regarding that WHOREALLYKNOWS door, as soon as my brain saw that, well, now I can't unsee it.
Loved it! Thought that all the theme answers -- all so different -- represented "it's hard to say" perfectly. A really, really good and original theme executed beautifully. And it's so playful. I love playful! I also found it quite crunchy for a Tuesday. First of all, I've never heard the term A HOT MINUTE. I only know what a "New York minute" is. And then, I've never seen "antonym" used as a modifier. "Antonymously"??? I had to read it three times to make sure it wasn't "anonymously". And then I had to think: "Now what's the antonym of "quite some time"? A unique, un-Tuesdayish clue for BUYS. A curveball to have EWW as an answer where you'd expect TMI to go -- and I fell into the trap. In short, a bit of difficulty and a lot of playfulness made for a really enjoyable Tuesday.
The Little Mermaid was one of the most depressing things I have ever seen in my life. The sculpture is truly beautiful, exquisitely formed, small and delicate, dreamy and romantic. However, it is besieged by mindless hoards of tourist who arrive by bus and boat, snap a selfie for their Insta and are gone in less than a minute. The air vibrates with the ugly garbage-truck-like notes of diesel engines of dozens of gaudily painted tourist buses, their line at the curb of the narrow port street long like a freight train, waiting to gobble up the thoughtless barbarians. The mob jostles to get the best angle. Many never even look at the mermaid with their own eyes, only seeing her, tiny and insignificant, in the background of their phone screens, and all she ever sees of them are their backs. Art is reduced to a being a prop, the vase of flowers in a Victorian portrait, devoid of all meaning. My wife and I would have loved to sit down and contemplate the beauty of the sculpture but we were denied the chance. We quickky left in di5gu5t, having taken this picture: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/r6IzAof" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/r6IzAof</a> Now, the grid. It was a fine puzzle. I liked the surprise element of the theme, exploring the many ways in which something may be hard to say. It's [woostershare] sauce, isn't it? (@Helen W, @Jane W, @Tim in London?) The fill was challenging for me in places bevause of cultural differences (as usual), but I dealt with it on my own, and in standard Tuesday time, too.
@Andrzej The Curmudgeon is baaaack.
@Andrzej Agree completely. Had a great time in Copenhagen but didn’t even stop at the statue because it was completely overrun, it’s a shame.
@Andrzej No, I don't think it is woostershare. I think that anyway any human has ever pronounced it has been found to be wrong in some way or other. Humans have created a natural wonder. A sound that cannot effectively be make correctly.
@Andrzej you are not wrong! But to you, and all the others who want a more contemplative look at the little mermaid, I urge you to visit the Carlsberg brewery, where you'll find a smaller study - also in bronze - of the statue in a lovely, quiet garden a bit away from the main Visitor's Centre. And calling Worcestershire hard to pronounce and making June 21 the longest day of the year? Peak US-centric puzzle. Not a good thing. Not a bad thing. Not a global thing.
@Andrzej And yet there you were, jostling and photographing. We don't think of ourselves as part of a mob, but sometimes we are. Don't get me wrong, I get frustrated with crowds. I live in a tourist town, overrun every July and August. There are streets I avoid, and I silently curse the people who are in my way, but I also remind myself that I'm a permanent tourist. I'm looking forward to visiting the Louvre when it has a separate building for the Mona Lisa. Ethereal, my rear end.
@Andrzej It’s ‘wuss’ instead of ‘woos’ but you’re most of the way there! Sadly those of us in the UK can’t see your picture as might has geoblocked us :(
@Andrzej Worcestershire is indeed pronounced Woostershire. But Worcestershire Sauce is doubly hard to say, as it's only ever (among sane people) called Wooster Sauce. And delicious to boot. (Also popular in Cantonese dishes due to British influence on Hong Kong cuisine).
@Tim I also realize my spelling isn't helpful if you don't know how I pronounce "woos" or "shire"! But then I don't know how to write phonetics. "Woos" as in "Puss", and "Shire" as in "Sher". Sort of.
@Andrzej I was lucky enough to see the Little Mermaid years before mobile phones were around. I was on a business trip in Copenhagen and went for a look around in the evening after work. It was the middle of winter, freezing cold. No tourists around!! I didn't hang around for long, thought I'd better get moving before hypothermia set in, but I was able to enjoy it in solitude. 🧜🏼♀️
@Andrzej The British have some interesting ways of pronouncing and/or spelling some names and places. One of my favorites is "Cholmondeley" which is pronounced as "Chumley," Some cities or towns in Massachusetts have British names, but they're pronounced slightly differently, i.e. "LEM-ən-stər" in American English and "LEM-stə" in British English.
@Andrzej et alii Nobody recalls that someone beheaded the statue at some point? Grim day.
@Andrzej Apparently the original head was never found! :( "The head was never recovered". (Wikipedia). An entire section of the WP article is on Vandalism to this poor little mermaid. What is wrong with people.
@Andrzej Years ago I discovered a way to visit the Louvre without having to deal with the tour bus mobs, e.g., I stood in front of the Mona Lisa with six or seven other people, no elbows, no one breathing down my neck. I doubt that it would work now, but when they were leaving, I was arriving, an easy walk from my hotel. Another poodle story. My sister's vet told her that she should start brushing her dog's teeth, to avoid cavities. Phipps was happy to cooperate, and very soon all she had to do was say, "Teeth, Phipps" and he accommodated with a big toothy grin.
ENOUGH with the Taylor Swift for "era" clues!!!! Give it a break for a few months, at least. PLEASE!
@DM Amen. You’d think there was no way to clue the word ERA without referring to Taylor Swift.
@DM Yes, lets please put an end to that ERA.
Interesting to see many people finding this one challenging for a Tuesday just as I came here to say I breezed through it and almost set my new PB! Regardless of the difficulty perception though, I'm happy most of us agree that this one was a pleasure!
@Sonja Concur. I was better than a minute off my average. I ended up at the mid left having little knowledge of Pixar movies, popular music, or where cafes might hang art but then oh yeah duh.
@Sonja I think a puzzle can be both challenging AND quick. This one was.
Having grown up in Worcester UK I love the American fascination with the word Worcestershire. Plenty of brits don’t know how to pronounce it either, to be fair. WORCE =“wus” with the vowel sound similar to the “oo” in book STER = “stuh” SHIRE = “sher” Emphasis on the WUS so WUS-stuh-sher Originally the Roman settlement was called Vertis, meaning “little turn on the river”. Once the Romans left, it went through a few permutations - Vigornia, Weogornaceaster (even I won’t attempt to pronounce that one), Wirecester and finally Worcester.
@Vigornia (not to contradict, but to supplement)-- the "cester"element of the name comes from Latin "castrum," or (military) camp. Thus "Vertis castrum"--"Camp on the river bend." (Similarly, Lan-caster and Dor-chester.)
Vigornia, My grandfather, who came from Wales, tended to pronounce it something like “Whoohs-s-ster” (that spelling is alt. and very tricky to get by the autocorrect). My older brother called it “Rooster sauce” in mock-emulation. Then, with the arrival of Sriracha in our area many years later, and its identical moniker due to the rooster on the Huy Fong bottle, we developed lots of false myths about how the British town had been founded by people trying to re-create this amazing sauce brought back by Marco Polo.
@Vigornia I am not a Brit but I learned to pronounce it exactly the way you spelled it out. My British BFF omits the last syllable, just saying Wooster sauce. We’ve debated this and she insists no one says the “sher” part.
@Vigornia Sigh. Why in the world couldn't we have kept the simple two syllables of Vertis. Sounds verdant. :)
Have you seen the Abbott & Costello skit about Worcestershire Sauce? Whenever I pull a bottle from my pantry I can't help saying it out loud. Great puzzle for me today. No look-ups! Thanks <a href="https://youtube.com/shorts/MWwQD5FoJn0?si=9cOgQPj0ZlUlhlLp" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/shorts/MWwQD5FoJn0?si=9cOgQPj0ZlUlhlLp</a>
Enjoyable Tuesday puzzle. Just a bit on the tough side for me and needed to work the crosses for a lot of things but everything fell together pretty smoothly. TET* and SERGEANT were appropriate for this day, as others have mentioned. And I appreciate all the comments that referenced me. *Will note that 'offensive' was in the clue for TET 18 times. Oh, and I happen to be residing in a VA facility at the moment. Memory problems - without going into detail will just note that I still have some tiny pieces of shrapnel in the back of my head. I'll put my puzzle find in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: a Sunday from October 31, 2004 by Patrick Merrell with the title: "Gridiron Glossary." Some theme clues and answers: "What one gets from the hot dog vendor when paying with a $5 bill?" QUARTERBACK "Platinum blonde cheerleaders?" STADIUMBLEACHERS "Home viewers' HDTV's?" WIDERECEIVERS "Most popular beer brands at the concession stands?" NUMBERONEDRAFTPICKS "Trash talk?" OFFENSIVELINE "Rule barring players from dating cheerleaders?" PASSINTERFERENCE Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/31/2004&g=84&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/31/2004&g=84&d=A</a> ...
@Rich in Atlanta Happy V-Day to you and the rest of us veterans and retirees here! A tad of a downside here, but Tet and SGT, to me, is a reach as being the only appropriate crossword solutions for a U.S. Veterans Day. Three days were devoted to a Halloween theme (just sayin). This is coming from the perspective of someone who served 22 years and in two combat zones. But, I'm a non 45/47 rep--can and not a good fit here anyways. But, who cares and hope the VA is taking good care of you. 🇺🇸
@Rich in Atlanta I hope your health situation resolves swiftly and complication-free, so you can get home where you belong.
I am mortified to admit that today was the day I learned how to spell Sergeant What?!? 😲 my apologies to the veterans!
@Lpr it’s a tough word to spell phonetically
@Lpr Colonel is another tough speller.
@Lpr No apology necessary. Just don't call a sergeant "sarge" unless you like doing push-ups.
@Lpr, et al Lieutenant not that easy to spell either, plus the Brits don't pronounce it the same way as people in the States
@Lpr It's okay. I must admit, I stared at the filled-in word, and thought '???' How in the world did I not know the correct spelling? I actually googled it to prove to myself that IS the correct spelling! Oh well, to live, and to do NYT crossword puzzles, is to learn.
As it is Veterans' Day, I note that WASP also stands for Women Airforce Service Pilots, who flew planes in WWII to allow male pilots to focus on combat roles. Locally, WASPs ferried (unarmed) B-17 bombers from the Chrysler factory in Wilmington over to England.
@Grant Theirs is an interesting history. They were not considered military. There was a PBS documentary about them I saw a while back. The Wikipedia article was a good refresher for my memory.
A challenging Tuesday, and ultimately enjoyable fun!
It's easy to say this fun puzzle was considerably better than the average Tuesday and I'd like to thank the constructors for working my birthday into the the grid. From time to time my mother would mention that it was, indeed, a very long day. If you're wondering which June 21 that was, it was three years before Danny went to the hop.
WHO REALLY KNOWS WHY I like the CULT CLASSIC midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show??? It leads to today’s song choice of Time Warp. See if you can stay still when you hear this…I admit I can’t. I find myself acting out the song every time I hear it 😂 <a href="https://youtu.be/u1O2-oFmWXM?si=jMxJoKfbRR9UQqdI" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/u1O2-oFmWXM?si=jMxJoKfbRR9UQqdI</a> Thank you, Christina and Scott. This was an exceptional Tuesday grid in my humble opinion.
NYT seems to be in its ERAS era with how often its shown up recently
Sam's comment about the 10D clue reminded me of a bilingual riddle I came up with a while ago: What's the opposite of flags in Spanish? Antónimo banderas.
BOTS aren't the only blockees of CAPTCHA. CAPTCHA is a great example of how to make a fortune in software by building something that completely does not work, year after year.
@Francis Pick the squares with octopi in them. But... I only see octopodes? The botti will get us in the end, anywAI.
@Francis Indeed. I hate the captchas that have nonsense words in crazy unrecognizable scripts. Reload, reload, reload until there’s one that I can reasonably make out.
@Francis "make a fortune in software by building something that completely does not work, year after year" AI you say? <a href="https://www.wheresyoured.at" target="_blank">https://www.wheresyoured.at</a>/
If I see one more “[blank] for Taylor Swift” clue, I am going to scream.
Enjoyed it! And a little faster than my avg Tuesday even though TMI instead of EWW held me up for a hot minute. Once on a 5 hr drive to ATL from North Alabama, I taught myself to yodel using a CD of "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" The trick is overcoming all that practice smoothing over vocal register breaks and imagine running right at them, like little speed bumps that launch you into the air. It's so much fun! By the time I pulled up to my hotel, I had it down. I can still sing Rambling Bob with all the frills! Any fellow yodelers out there?
@Leontion Not me, but I love your description of what yodeling is like. I have two questions: 1. Why did you do this? 2. Can you yodel notes that you can't sing? I.e., does your range increase?
A nicely Toughened Up Tuesday with a fun theme. Thanks Christina and Scott. When I saw the Forrest Gump clue and fill, I did wonder if we would have a Veteran's Day theme. A salute to all our veterans. The callback to Sunday's puzzle with the clue/fill of You Talkin' TO ME made me laugh. Finally, the transposing of ROSE to EROS immediately gave me this earworm. <a href="https://youtu.be/AaapIPU9mTY?si=IOAil7tf_hOb9fPW" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/AaapIPU9mTY?si=IOAil7tf_hOb9fPW</a>
@Vaer. Great choice, great voice…my favorite singer ever! But in our household, we usually sing “Love is a nose, but you better not pick it…”
Loved, loved, loved this. Tuesday POY contender. Wash your sister.
That was a fun one! And I'm glad it was a tougher one for me because I was in need of a good distraction today while I await an appointment I'm very nervous about! Ha, nervous! (The appointment is with a neurologist about some pretty bad nerve issues.) And yes, I'm quite nervous... to the extent I couldn't focus on work this morning and instead, I threw myself into games—so it was nice this was one of my slowest Tuesdays. I got a kick out of each theme entry—especially the aptness of WORCESTERSHIRE. That one really made me laugh, as it does every time I pull the bottle out of the cupboard. I figured it out well before I could remember how to properly spell the CEST. Ah, c'est la vie! I actually had to do one lookup today. I can't even believe it! It's been AHOTMINUTE since that happened. The funny thing is that the last time was maybe 6 or 8 months ago on another tougher Tuesday. Crazy! The lookup was LUCA, which I just didn't know. I had toyed with COCA, which seemed familiar as a Pixar film. Anyhow, after trying everything in that area and hitting a mental block, perhaps because I'm not a coffee or LATTE drinker, and not knowing the film. I had ASONE and EROS but also THis instead of THAT, which made me think the unicorn was on some sort of COIN. So, LUCA lookup it was! It's all good!! Fun challenge! YODELER made me smile—and think of Sound of Music. The WASP misdirect was fun! And eggplant PARM is one of the few of my favorite things!
@HeathieJ I hope all goes well with your appointment and it gives you some answers or a path to take. Sounds nerve-racking and waiting is part of the hard part. ❤️🩹
@HeathieJ Hoping you have good health and good prognosis going forward
@HeathieJ, Thanks for letting us all of us @HeathieJ fans here know. I think that is pretty brave of you. We’re in your corner. I hope your doctor visit goes well today. Better to know things than to not know them. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
@HeathieJ Oh I feel you! Waiting is tough, a pleasant diversion is so welcome. All the best to you!
@HeathieJ We're all in your corner. Probably kind of a crowded in that corner so if you need some breathing room, let us know.
So late to the board today; it’s been a case of chasing my tail all day. Firstly the Alpacas escaped! Gale force winds blew a field gate off so they had a fine time eating my young orchard saplings. Took an age and a bucket of pellets to get them back. Then the builder’s van got stuck in the mud and had to be towed out by the tractor. It was all pretty downhill from there. Anyway, the grid. An excellent Tuesday; quite crunchy but great fun. Can I be all smugly British and mock the inability of any non Brit to pronounce WORCESTERSHIRE. It’s Wusta, drop the shire. Now, just don’t test me on all those Native American place names.
@Helen Wright Not to minimize the stress of your day, Helen, but can I just say how delightful it was to read the phrase "Firstly the Alpacas escaped!" Made me smile. And glad you got them corralled.
@Helen Wright I'm right there with Jeanne. And any story which starts with "First the alpacas escaped" is all right with me. I'm reading to the end at least once.
59A was my last to fill in and I laughed loud enough to wake hub. I cannot say it so I no longer attempt to pronounce it correctly. In my house we call it worst-er-sister sauce.
I just gotta say, that's a terrible thing to say about ALLY, in ALLYKNOWS. Where are the editors these days?
@Francis True, true. But will she tell?
@Francis I had trouble unseeing that unfortunate construction.
My sista from Wista knows how to pronounce Wistasheer !
I liked this puzzle a lot!! Especially Worcestershire! Admittedly on the challenging side for a Tuesday, but I think it was a fun solve.
Also did anyone else want there to be 9 planets? 🥲
For puzzles like this one I do better when my mind is on something else and I just plod through, writing in answers to clues. Then comes the slowdown, where I have to pry out the clumsy mistakes and figure out what they should have been. But even then, it did not seem to be a truly tough Tuesday. I liked it, especially after jumping around the puzzle, filling in WORCESTERSHIRE before I got to the clues above it and they were on a totally different wavelength. That got my attention. Thank you, Christina and Scott, for a groovy Tuesday.
@dutchiris Groovy indeed. November 11th is a very CORDUROY DAY (11/11).
A no-look-ups solve and a lot faster than my usual Tuesday, so I’m feeling good :) I enjoyed the theme, and found extra delight in mentally recalling Degas’ work for 14A, and his beautiful TUTU-clad dancers. Thank you to the constructors!
The times when I feel that my brain knows the constructor's mind intuitively are all too rare, and this delightful, witty, puzzle with deceptive feints was one--and gave me gold! Thank you!
Wow--two fun puzzles in a row--this is shaping up to be a good week, cruciverbally! Here's a limerick. possibly by Louis Untermeyer, which is only funny to those whose humor is so arcane to not be funny at all, anymore: "There was a young curate of Salisbury Whose manners were quite halisbury-scalisbury He would wander round Hampshire Without any pampshire Till the Vicar compelled him to walisbury." *** Several people have commented on the fact that the formula for worcestershire sauce contains fermented anchovies. It's what gives it that rich taste that is called "umami" is Asian cuisine and American foodiespeak, and "yummi" by everyone else. Worcestershire falls into that category of fish sauces that includes garum*, the ancient Roman condiment that the ancient Romans sprinkled on everything. Recipes for its production have been preserved, and classical scholars would sit over steaming bowls of pho at their local Vietnamese restaurant, discussing how disgusting garum must have been, even whilst dipping their summer rolls into plates of nuoc cham. FWIW, I will regularly add a dash of Chinese dark soy sauce to add umami, even to such European dishes as Beef Stroganoff and Coq au Vin. Also, it's vegan, for those who care. *or perhaps I should write "galisbury," which might offer a clue to deciphering that stupid limerick.
@Bill You sent me to Wikipedia in disbelief with that limerick but OMG it's all true. Made my morning.
Gawt daaaang that was good for a Tuesday. Made me smile.
Maybe more appropriate for a Wednesday than Tuesday puzzle, but very clever. Hats off to the constructor.
@Bitter Vetch Wow, seeing you name brings back crosswordese memories from ancient times. I don't think I've seen it in at least 50 years, but the clue was always Bitter vetch and the answer was ERS. Maybe someone here who has access to the usage statistic can tell me how long since it's made and appearance, and how often it was used.
I had point guards instead of TEAMPLAYERS. Funny considering the puzzle creators last name is Iverson!
@Danny Sprung I had ANTIHERO for (4D) Forrest Gump. It didn't work though.
This had a bit more fiber than the usual Tuesday, that’s for sure. A lot of people seem thrown off by the amount of crunch so early in the week — but to me that means that real sense of reward also arrived earlier than usual. I thought the theme was fresh and clever. A few crosses were sketchy, especially one in the SE to those not terribly acquainted with late-1950s pop culture, but things were deducible from general vocabulary. Also, I believe this is the first time I’ve seen the two crossword frequent guests and natural pairing, EROS and ERAS, on the same grid. It was a fun solve — looking forward to y’all’s next one.
I found this one interesting, but not really much more than a Tuesday level. Noticed that they used a 15 X 14 grid so the spanners would fit. Had to rely on crosses a lot to fill in the theme answers until it got to the point where they were recognized, and that's a good thing—I like being challenged (a little) and these weren't too difficult. I admit I got fooled by "I so did not want to hear that" and had TMI until it became obvious that it didn't work. EWW wasn't hard to come up with, as it and TMI were common comments when "what happened in the ER" was the topic. (As if THAT WAS MY FAULT!) I also mixed up the Pixar feature vs. Pixar short film, putting LUnA before LUCA, but I eventually got that corrected as well. I'm wondering if I'm going to have to turn on the heat tonight or tomorrow. Yesterday we had 80s (all temps °F), today the high was 60ish, and it's currently 49 in my breezeway, with the temp in the closest towns 42 and 43 and expected to hit the mid 30s overnight. I think the natives are trying to find their winter coats, while as a transplanted Wisconsinite, I might grab a wind-resistant jacket. Last year the AC never got turned off, so I'm just going to wait and see. Hope those of you farther north aren't affected too badly by the arctic blast. Christina and Scott, it was a fine and fun puzzle. Thanks!
A little tricky but so enjoyable. I don't understand the Forrest Gump solution at all.... I hadn't heard of the TRON clues, got tricked by 'stingy', got DOOKED by ASONE and actually looked it up! 'Caster' 'chester' or 'cester' in a town name are derived from the Latin castrum meaning fort or castle. So we have Leicester, ('Lester'), Chester, Lancaster, Bicester (Bister), but Cirencester (Siren-sester) there are a great many. So Worcester plus the word for county - shire.
@Jane Wheelaghan The Gump clue/answer is straightforward; he was a sergeant in the army, before getting a bullet in his buttock in Vietnam.
@Jane Wheelaghan "Cholmondelay" (or something like that) used to be the Tricky Brit Name to use on unsuspecting Yanks.
@Jane Wheelaghan Last time I tried to answer a question to a European about and American institution, I ended up insulting SO many people I don't want to insult...so I'm going to be very circumspect here: Forrest Gump was a movie, the major character was a hero in Vietnam. I believe rose to the level of SERGEANT in the U. S. Army. (Army is that right? or was it Marines? do Marines have sergeants? Maybe I'd been better off had I been drafted in 1970.) So Forrest Gump was a SERGEANT in a part of the US military that has sergeants. I hope that's all correct.
This is my favourite Tuesday crossword EVER
I got 59A off the "You talkin'___" clue (where have we seen that one before??) and the W in SWAY. Starting at the bottom so often WOrks for me! But then I went looking for other entries that would fit such a theme, which was barking up the wrong tree. And after I entered 1,2,3, 4, and 17 Down and saw what that spelt....Yikes! So, so tired of Taylor Swift's ERAS. 39D reminded me of "Woodstock"...so, so long ago. Remember Sock HOPs? And then....there wasn't any puzzle left. Waaah. It's 27 degrees out there (bright sun, blue sky--just to fool folks) and my walking buddy has a bad cold, so what am I supposed to do now? And don't say, "Tidy up the studio" unless you want to be declared persona NON grata!
@Mean Old Lady WHOA! That cold in Mississippi? Not that cold up here up North, yet. Stay warm!
Loved it. I actually laughed out loud and startled the hamster.