Here's an extraneous fun fact about this puzzle: Does anyone remember the 2006 documentary from Patrick Creadon, Wordplay. It had cameos of several well known, life long puzzle solvers, one of whom was Ken Burns. I recently saw an extraordinary conversation on grief between Anderson Cooper and Ken Burns. Ken was particularly open about the devastating loss of his mother when he was 11, and how his father barely coped. But he allowed Ken to stay up late and watch movies with him. When Ken was 12, he witnessed his father cry for the first time watching a movie together, and Ken said that's when he decided he would be a filmmaker. The movie they were watching: Carol Reed's Odd Man Out. I imagine Ken is doing this puzzle as usual. I hope the unexpected appearance of that crucial film, out of context, out of nowhere, makes him smile.
@MaPeel, lovely comment and nice tie in to the revealer. I haven't started his Revolution yet, but gonna do it soon.
@MaPeel @Jphn Synchronicity strikes again. I've been impressed with the first three episodes. Even-handed treatment of issues that could have been presented from a single point of view. Not avoiding the horrors of war and atrocities on all sides. Great maps and visuals.
@MaPeel Thanks for the tip! I think I would have entirely missed this otherwise.
@MaPeel - I am thoroughly enjoying Ken Burns' American Revolution on PBS. I do remember the Wordplay documentary. Besides the crossword contest, I remember it highlighted Bill Clinton as a NYT crossword solver. (Hello Mr. Clinton.)
@MaPeel I thought of the James Mason movie "Odd Man Out" when I wrote it in. Mason was a terrific actor, and the film has the quality of Greek tragedy. The end is inevitable. I can understand why, trying to cope with his grief, it made Burns' father weep. A high price, but what a gift to us.
@MaPeel I've seen the first episode of The American Revolution so far. However, my absolute favorite Ken Burns film is THE DUST BOWL. (Two parts: The Great Plow-Up and Reaping the Whirlwind) <a href="https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-dust-bowl" target="_blank">https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-dust-bowl</a>/ Also, the film about the American Buffalo. Both MUST SEE.
Gooood evening! After a somewhat not-great day, it was nice to wind down with this puzzle. Being 13 and all, I didn’t entirely get all the clues and just tried to solve the other direction. Eventually, not in my greatest time, I solved it. My favourite puzzles are the ones that have an element of wordplay or theme like the Defying Gravity one a few weeks ago. Anyways hope you guys have a great night and to people in the morning, have a blessed day.❤️❤️ Ethan :)
@Ethan Ethan, I hope you're in your PJS and will be turning out the light soon. And no fair reading under the covers with a flashlight (although at 13, it is practically impossible not to). Of course, your parents may not be so controlling as mine were ("Turn out that light and go to sleep right now!!"). Lovely to have you on board, and crosswords are a goldmine for learning all kinds of things.
@Ethan Great to hear from you, Ethan! You want to hear a fun fact? I have a toenail infection that's about 47 years older than you. Now, that, ladies and germs, is a classic "Weird Flex, But OK".
@Ethan You know what? I didn't get all the clues because I'm over 70! 🤪 I also like puzzles with a twist in them. As to reading in bed with the flashlight, you teenagers now have the advantage of phones and tablets. No flashlight needed! If those had been around when I was young, I would have never gotten to sleep. I can even borrow books from the library in the middle of the night. And often do. I hope your Thursday is much better than your Wednesday was. 🧡
@Ethan I wish I had discovered these witty, American crossword puzzles as a teenager! I'm happy for you, I really am, and I don't say that often to anybody. Being 45, I also did not get all the clues :D
@Ethan That's great, Ethan. I haven't been 13 in a gazillion years, but I had to look at Wordplay to finally figure this one out. (However, I neglected to take a look at those circles letters before I caved.)
Random thoughts: • Much schwa di vivre in answer endings – ULTRA, SARA, JABBA, DEBRA, EVITA, EUREKA, ANITA, ATTA. • Love UMAMI BOMB, though I’ve never heard it in the wild. • My favorite NYT answer debuts – and there were six – are JOKES ON ME and BITING WIT. I’m amazed that these terrific answers have never appeared before. • For a while, as I was solving, I wondered if the three-letter theme names all belonged to some famous group of stars from the past, like the Rat Pack. • I like the behemoth JABBA sitting atop the revealer, pressing that ODD MAN OUT. • AMBIENT evokes crossword stalwart Eno. • [Place for a castle] stymied me for quite a few beats, and is a lovely original clue for an answer that has appeared nearly 60 times in the major crossword outlets. So, lovely little side trips for me on top of your clever concept, Adam. Thank you for this!
@Lewis So...do you have like some sort of early experimental quantum computer that you're doing all this with?
@Lewis I love your daily takes on our little explorations of Verbiana but today I have a question. How can you call all those terminal A's schwas? To my ear they are all ah's. I can't think of any English word (i.e., excluding loan words from other languages like 'yenta') that ends in a schwa. I am at sea.
I’m trying this again with a spelling change. Sid, Ted, Abe, Sam, and Mel walked into a bar. It was a dive bar called SKIN DIVES. The place had seen BETTER DAYS - not even the STAR MAP covering up the giant stain on the ceiling could make up for the AMBIENT seediness. Mel said to the rest: “You know the owner of this place, that guy Wagner? He tells such DA(R)NED LIES about me, it really makes me feel like the ODD MAN OUT.” To his surprise, the four others felt exactly the same. This paradox (how could all five of them be odd man out) left them…in a puzzle.
@Cat Lady Margaret Oooh... this looks like the kind of puzzle that will ultimately reveal my most profound deficiencies.
CLM, (1) Brava! (2) Amazing what changing one letter can do.
This puzzle felt inelegant and just "off" to me, so coming to find out the constructor used AI is no surprise. Yuck. Please, stop doing that. Also, working on this puzzle on a Pixel phone, it seems really weird to call an IPAD an alternative. It just isn't.
Pretty shocked to learn that the constructor used AI to create this puzzle (though, it definitely confirms my suspicions on some past puzzles). ChatGPT and all AI is a blight, a total wreck on the environment, and a marker of lazy (yes, LAZY) puzzle-making. Yall will defend it, stay mad. I don’t care how much or little someone used AI to create their puzzle. It shouldn’t be allowed and NYT standards should be higher. All for a middling puzzle. Pass.
@D Amid all the chat about the AI-generated puzzle (which it's not), your post seems like a safe place. I could be wrong, but you seem level-headed and not easily swayed by the latest garbage fed to us. Thusly, my opinion follows: AI, per se, has become more of a household term for “software-assisted,” which has been going on for quite some time now. Adam admitted to using ChatGPT solely for the 3-letter names, not for the entire puzzle. Maybe he went beyond, maybe he didn't. I don't care, it's not my point here. We (stupid Americans) get bombarded with so many distractions, it’s becoming hard to know what is real and what isn't. A quick tech-industry example is the term “cloud.” It was used in the tech industry forever until it was sold to the general public as spiffy neato thingy to sell on-line storage (and other crap). Now, it's perfectly acceptable. (Gulp) There are many other exampless, but not enough space for it here. I'm not in support if AI, as it's currently being marketed to the young generation as “the latest thing.” I have no regard for Oprah’s “don’t be skeered,” nonsense, and god knows Oprah knows it all. I mistrust any retail or service industry that mines our online activity for their own profit. And what we now know as, AI, has been doing that all along. Next time you talk to your financial advisor, ask how your portfolio is being managed, and dare to mention AI. Their conditioned response of denial is laughable. Thanks for tolerating my mini-rant.
Really disappointing to see AI being used in any way in the construction of any published puzzle. You couldn't think of 3-letter men's names? Really?
@Mercury Yes, he could think of men’s names, and even added one that ChatGPT missed. What is more time consuming (unless you use an algorithm) is finding possible crossword answers that have one of those names hidden every-other-letter in odd-indexed letter positions. Why on earth would anyone spend hours, days, weeks trying to think up good possibilities when a computer can spit out in a few seconds a more comprehensive list than you could probably think up in a year? You can then cherry pick the best answers, finish making your puzzle, and get on with your life. Objecting to the use of a search function to expedite a project—a just for fun puzzle, no less—seems ridiculous.
[Hesitant guess by Judi Dench when she heard she’d been offered a part in a James Bond movie?] UMAMI(B)(O)M(B) Odd man, out.
EUREKA! in more ways than one happy i got 'er done happy for today to breathe to be for the play is the fun. Good day to you all.
Very disappointed that today’s puzzle was created with AI. All of the environmental impacts aside, it is unbecoming of such a monumental American newspaper to allow the use of this “tool” that plagiarizes and steals from artists with no accountability.
I believe this would be a great first Thursday puzzle for a new solver to attempt. The gimmick requires a little extra thought but the puzzle overall is a relatively easy solve. Enjoyable puzzle. Thanks!
@Sam Corbin Please get the emus to release Cat Lady Margaret's post from last night.
Thought for the day: Crossword puzzles are not just a test of how much you know, but even more a test of how flexible your thinking is to access what you know.
A weird combination of clever word play in the themed answers, and scads of pop culture general knowledge answers everywhere else, including two musicals, which seemed to rub a lot of people the wrong way in the Wicked puzzle. Even though many of the general knowledge questions were unknown to me, they all seemed to fall into place fairly quickly. I liked it, but I imagine there will be tons of complaints. I liked the mini food theme with SEL, SPICERUBS, UMAMIBOMBS and ATTA. Pretty spicy.
I didn't love this one. It felt easier than I expect on Thursdays and the theme seemed too simple. Reading the constructor comments I gain some appreciation for the task (and realized the every-other-letter part of the odd-man theme) but the end result still didn't bowl me over. Ah well. I expect others enjoyed it more.
@B I will never get over the American expectation that everything should be so great that we should instantly *love* it. What's wrong with plain liking things? Surely "like" and "love" are not synonyms, and "like" has to mean something... (We've had this conversation before, haven't we?)
@B I guess it's another cultural difference between us Poles and Americans. We don't overuse the word "love". We have noun "miłość" and the verb "kochać": both mean "love". The old Polish verb for "to love" was "miłować". Another verb became popular with time, while the noun derived from the old verb remained in use. We reserve both terms for truly special relationships with people and animals. One may "kochać" one's spouse, child, puppy, or one's closest, dearest friend. But we don't "kochać" puzzles, cars, casual friends, etc. I suppose our verb "uwielbiać" ("to adore" would be the closest equivalent) may serve as your "love" when used regarding things one likes very much. "Lubić" is our "to like" but we use it differently than you do. A single instance of something is not something to "lubić". "Lubię pływać" ("I like to swim") is fine, but I would never say "Lubiłem moją wczorajszą wycieczkę nad jezioro" ("I liked yesterday's trip to the lake"). Generally, when describing individual instances of stuff I like, I'd say something like: "Podobało mi się" ("I enjoyed [it]"), "To było fajne" ("That was neat"), or "Spoko" ("Cool").
Mr. Wagner, it's really wonderful that you continue to dedicate yourself to the art part of construction. At first I thought that the ODD of ODD MAN OUT referred to the names having three letters. The elegance of having it be the placement of the names' letters is truly laudable. I also appreciate that the theme did in fact help with the solve. Once I figured one out, the others fell like dominoes. The musical accompaniment for this puzzle was, of course, ANITA Baker. Here are two songs of hers: <a href="https://youtu.be/WrfcbNCqH40?si=8taEWgPgb3EBGxM6" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/WrfcbNCqH40?si=8taEWgPgb3EBGxM6</a> <a href="https://youtu.be/8lbJgOJIS_8?si=XlQGVVKDneYQnnNA" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/8lbJgOJIS_8?si=XlQGVVKDneYQnnNA</a> Thank you, Mr. Wagner, for always bringing us great puzzles!
I solved the puzzle by letting the crosses do it for me. I'm not up to puzzling out a theme, so just let the fills get odd and it was done. Two pop look-ups, but the rest just fell into place. I'm currently under the care of 5 different doctors, so not up to any heavy duty thinking. (I'll just have to RIDE it out and hope for BETTERDAYS.)
@dutchiris Luck the puppy offers you his positive energy: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/SCGbgQl" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/SCGbgQl</a>
@dutchiris I remember your story about your poodle supporting you when you were sad. Lucek does the same thing. My sister-in-law has been staying with us this week. She's feeling blue for personal reasons. Our puppy keeps her company all the time. I think he's making a real difference for her. It's so very hearwarming to see :)
@dutchiris I missed your comment about your poodle. Wonderful breed. Yes, some are very intuitive. 🐩 My first poodle was a sweet sensitive very athletic guy who stayed extra close when I was sad or not feeling well. I especially loved how he could furrow his brows as he watched me. Hopeful you feel stronger very soon. 🌻
@dutchiris Best wishes for those better days! This community is a better place because you are in it. I remember the post about your poodle. I felt an immediate kinship. My wire-haired fox terrier has helped me through many a dark moment. (He has also become the greeter at our very public-facing business. I watch him create positive energy every day. He now has a fan club of admirers who come just to see him.) Please take care. I hope those 5 doctors are as good as one poodle!
@dutchiris Here's to BETTERDAYS! 🍻
@dutchiris Thinking of you and crossing my fingers for BETTER DAYS soon!
@dutchiris Wishing you loads of BETTERDAYS!! Hope the puzzles bring you some joy and distraction along the way. 💐
Little known fact about AARONBURR: he was once invited by ANITA and EVITA to a SHINDIG in an ULTRA AMBIENT BARN. On arrival he headed for the SALADBARS and tried some kind of BUDS served in JARS. He looked for something to SOP up his sauce and ALIT upon some bread made from ATTA flour and SPICERUBS. “EUREKA!”, he cried. However this set off an UMAMIBOMB. “EGADS! HEY, JOKESONME”, quoth he! (True story! - or DAMNEDLIES - told to me by EVAGREEN)
In no world is an IPAD an alternative for the Pixel. One is a phone. The other is a tablet. Other than that, a fun romp.
@Aaron I stand corrected. Just Googled it. I did not know that they weren’t creative enough to name the tablet something different than the phone. The more you know.
@Aaron There's a Pixel tablet, not surprisingly. <a href="https://store.google.com/us/product/pixel_tablet?hl=en-US" target="_blank">https://store.google.com/us/product/pixel_tablet?hl=en-US</a>
@Aaron The Pixel tablet was discontinued in 2023. I didn't like the clue.
@Aaron I wondered if it could be the Pixel Fold?
@Aaron Google before commenting is a good rule. I'm glad I did it before posting what you said.
Thursday is my favorite puzzle day, but not today. The tedious trivia and fill that seemed to mug for the hipness camera was both boring and exhausting and the theme while cute seemed pedestrian. It was such a bad puzzle that mid-solve I checked to see who constructed the clunker and was shocked to its was Adam Wagner whose work I greatly admire. I started to worry about his personal life and physical health... then I read his comment about using AI in his construction process. Please Mr. Wagner, step away from the bot!
I solved without lookups but did not like it particularly. I feel themes like this is cheating. I get the ODDMANOUT; so by removing the name the answer makes sense: cubing need = SkInDives (SID removed) makes KNIVES. But what is SKINDIVES or STARMAP, etc? That requires getting the crosses and when they used crosses like AVRIL, MĀORI and BITINGWIT it makes for a slog. This constructor is not the first or (unfortunately) the last to do this. I will say A well constructed puzzle will trace the clue make sense with both the complete set of letters AND the trick. 3 out of 10
Another big sign that I am almost done here. When a KILAUEAbart gets Lāna'i and Ni'ihau mixed up, wow! Fortunately, Maui was too short for 32A. I must have seen 54A JA__A in a movie. I can't imagine missing one of the Star Wars batch, but it would have been decades ago. I had the fairly obvious UMAMI coming down over the first "_" but the idea they could make a BOMB out of it was one of many things new to this old man in this puzzle. If I hadn't at long last caught on to 35D I probably would have had to give up.
On a Thursday puzzle, I neither clench my jaw nor approach it like any other day. Instead I take a special delight!
I really enjoyed this! Was looking forward to a meaty AHA when I hit the purpose of the circled letters, and the puzzle delivered. TBH I finished quickly, but no worries, Friday and Saturday are when I expect knucklebusters. This is a great Thursday, well done.
This was good! The theme deftly concealed itself for quite a while, which deprived me of precious theme letters and seriously slowed down the solve. Once I caught on, my repeatedly forgetting that I knew the theme gimmick did not apply to Down answers seriously slowed down the solve. Which made it all the more fun. And I appreciate that the theme entries all form words or phrases. I confess to not knowing who SID, TED, ABE, SAM, and MEL are.
Great puzzle, great theme, but I think this one could have benefited from trickier cluing.
Sigh, it seems I am odd man out again at Maison des Emus. Look for my maybe kind of funny comment sometime tomorrow…
@Cat Lady Margaret I can relate. I’ve almost given up commenting because of the hungry, hungry emus. I just tell myself that they select only the tastiest morsels, and I should feel honored. Maybe around 10 am?
@Cat Lady Margaret, About 2/3 of my pithy missives are routinely considered bird feed. And I scan them for offensive words, but I guess my threshold is more lenient than theirs. Will have to result to Victorian euphemisms...
Emus or a technical glitch ate my comment, which for once I forgot to copy before posting. Anyway, short version: the brutal natick of KAUAI/SARA/AARON forced me to Google my way out of it. And interestingly, us Poles never salted our butter. Salted butter arrived from the West quite a few years after 1989, and it's not popular, at all.
@Andrzej Yeah, i needed to Google my way out of the KAUAI/AARON natick as well! And I needed to run the alphabet for the L on the SE_/NH_ crossing. AND I had ODDoneOUT in the revealer and took a while work my way out of that mess too. Not one of my better days all around lol.
Too many proper nouns. And three-letter ones, at that. Lazy construction. /sarcasm JOKE'S ON ME!
Long workout for me and must confess that I didn't tumble to the trick until after I was done and went back and reviewed (and pondered) for a bit. No big deal. Puzzle find today - appropriate for a number of my puzzle solving experiences. A Wednesday from July 10, 2013 by Ed Sessa. Three theme answers in that one, all with the same word in the clue, though punctuated differently. "Really?!" THATCANTBERIGHT "Really" EVERYWORDISTRUE "Really!" WELLILLBEDAMNED Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/10/2013&g=55&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/10/2013&g=55&d=A</a> ....
An enjoyable Thursday! Now, there's something I rarely say! Yes, I'm a "clenched," but that doesn't stop me from jumping in. Glad I stuck with it, but today's calendar is free, so it was worthwhile. I like to learn something new every day, and the puzzle usually is where that starts. Today was no exception. The task at hand, now is to retain what I've learned. If, in my grandchildren's presence, I mention that I learned "6 or 7 new things today," do you know what they will say? In unison? "Six, sevennnnnn!" I was glad to be able to do it with them the first time, thanks to an article in the NYT telling me what it was all about. No slacking grandma here! (It means nothing. Just this year's kids being kids.) Just tucking it away for a puzzle in a year or two about adolescent slang.
I was a little disappointed that "Mars follower, in Marseille" wasn't EILLE. What a piece of misdirection that would've been. Great puzzle, tough SW corner...
I loved this puzzle. The kind of puzzle where you stare at a clue for ten minutes, finally it clicks, then the letters it fills in answer five other clues in succession. Cool theme that works well, lots of figure-outables, not so many obscure proper nouns.
Been going through the archives and enjoying how challenging Thursdays-Sundays used to be pre-2020. Tricky, clever clues and fill that assumed solvers were familiar with literally anything other than A-list celebrities and the most current possible events/vocabulary. Sad to see what it's turned into
@a I know, right? Nowadays it’s all a bunch of Gen Z internet-speak like ETERNE, REUNE, and NEONATE, with the occasional BWANA/NEMEA crossing thrown in there as a sop to the aging millennial crowd. (Jokes aside, I actually agree with you 100% that the puzzle has gotten far too easy these last few years, presumably for the sake of mass appeal.)
@a Yeah! They should only include facts and references from your heyday or earlier! New stuff bad!
I really enjoyed today. The moment when the penny dropped on the theme is a big part of why I love the NYT crosswords. Thought the difficulty was right on for a Thursday as well!
This definitely gave me a workOUT...the 'interstices' and the clues that fit only parts of the entries, the general lack of gimmes (what's across the street from Rockefeller Center???) and the misleading fact that I quickly got 1A and 2D had me thinking it would be a walk in the park... (I was also slow to find stuff I did know for sure, such as KAUAI, EVITA, PSAT/TESTS...) Several entries remain mysteries--EVA GREEN, RIRI, SARA of Spanx, KATEY, ANITA, NHC... actually, that's more than "several." The biggest mystery of all: how on Earth did Adam Wagner get words/phrases that fit with this theme??!! TIKI is MAORI? I would have thought the origin was Tahitian...
@Mean Old Lady I wonder: A) what would Thor Heyerdahl say about my final query? B) where is Mike with his puns?? I didn't have the oomph to read all of the Comments. Alas, I just didn't get the thrill I usually experience at the end of a solve. This construction IS a feat! But I didn't feel like swooning. It's not you; it's me.
@Mean Old Lady. Thanks for the additional clue help.You are nice lady.
@Mean Old Lady The language spoken on Tahiti is an offshoot of MAORI, which spread from New Zealand across Polynesia. I recently learned that those cool jade pendants are called hei-tiki (I was watching an episode of "Brokenwood" where an antique one is stolen) and that tiki translates to "human figure."
And... one more puzzle find. A Sunday from June 11, 2000 by Nelson Hardy with the title: "OH NO!" Some theme clues and answers: "Instructions for a bottle cap?" TWISTANDSHUT "Where many allowances come from?" FUNDINGFATHERS "Silver-tongued TV newsman?" BULLETINBARD "Exoneration for a group of actors?" THECASTISCLEAR And some other theme answers: FREEZINGPINT QUIETASAMUSE MISSTHEBAT Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/11/2000&g=118&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/11/2000&g=118&d=A</a> ....
I tried to guess who these men were. Maybe the 1919 white Sox? Odd man out maybe a baseball clue? (No, they aren't) Are they just random names? I tried to connect the names we removed from the across words but they seem to have no connection. What does ambient have to do with Mint. What does Abe have to do with Mint? So I'm disappointed in that, unless I'm really missing something. The wordplay article doesn't say.
@Chris I'm afraid they're just short men's names and that's all. One of the reasons I too was underwhelmed. One could make a case that Abe Lincoln is (or was) on minted currency I suppose.
Same here. Random short male names create random-ish phrases when added to some words - ok, I guess that's a theme, but not a very tight one 🤷🏽
@Chris The Black Sox were “Eight Men Out” in the Eliot Asinof book and corresponding John Sayles film. Odd Man Out was a Carol Reed film about a wounded IRA leader on the run from the police. Well worth watching.
@Chris et al I trust that you all did see that they are ODD MEN because their names were removed from the odd spaces of the larger word or phrase to form the clue's answer? And that the larger answers were actual words or phrases? I think it's a decent and clever theme, if somewhat easy to suss out especially after getting the revealer.
There is a fine line between clever and too cute. Ambient and better days crossed it.
@Dan I mean, my puppy is clever *and* too cute. I come close to being both, as well, or so my mother claimed.
@Dan OY! The trick here is to accept the answers that seem totally unexplainable when the crosses are done.
Dan, But you were fine with SKINDIVES?
49D Mars follower, in Marseille got the better of me. I kept thinking it must be TERRE, as the planets are in order. Of course, it's the month AVRIL!!
Reminder that AI data centers are the reason your electricity bill is so high.
@Katie I don't think so. They're mostly being funded by venture capital and debt.
@Katie On second thought, you are probably right as far as electricity demand. I was thinking the cost of building them. I would ask AI if it's true but... 😁
@Katie AI and DataMining DCs are almost never located in a suburban setting. Zoning ordinances dictate tha. Your electric bill is determined by real-time consumption predictions, based on past trends, weather, etc. Much the same way as your airline ticket costs, hotel fees and AirBnB rates are determined. All this uses... uh, software-driven algorithms. AI? Maybe? We don't stand a chance.
My usual late puzzle find. A Wednesday from February 21, 2007 by the great Elizabeth C. Gorski. Three theme answers in that one, each straightforwardly clued. WHOSYOURDADDY DOWAHDIDDYDIDDY OLDFUDDYDUDDY Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=2/21/2007&g=20&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=2/21/2007&g=20&d=A</a> Oh.. and that first answer led me to think of an old joke and a possible clue answer combination (never been in a puzzle). "Father from Indiana?" HOOSIERDADDY I'm done. ....
I don't have Thursday tension - I have Thursday anticipation, Thursday excitement! I look forward to whatever challenge may be waiting. This one was easy for me - the only thing I didn't know was RIRI. And as for 15A, I resemble that remark!!
@Amy I'm with you! I look forward to the quirkiness and cleverness of Thursday puzzles. I hope "...being fine today, and in all the Thursdays to come" doesn't mean they'll be toned down!
I liked this quite a bit until I hit the SW. A lot of names/factoids in the puzzle, but they were manageable until the SW. Had to use check puzzle for the last few entries. Never had an incorrect entry, but it dampened my enthusiasm. But of course, what's trivia to me is a gimme to someone else.
Wanted to do the crossword, but found a trivia quiz in its place. Please go back to wordplay, not pop culture.
@John Agreed. At least 8 pop culture names I'd never heard of. But, then, I'm older than dirt.
I'm surprised by the disgruntlement over the minuscule role AI played in constructing this puzzle. It was used to generate a list, NOT to generate a puzzle. I'm sure many constructors do this without mentioning it in their notes. Constructors have been using software to assist in construction for years. Would you say they also shouldn't use thesauruses or dictionaries? All of these things are tools; the constructor uses the tools to arrive at the finished product. Can you think of anything that is made without the use of tools?
Genuinely how are you supposed to gold some of these puzzles. I can just never seem to reason out the last bit. Even with the theme and 90% filled it’s always that last bit of trivia that I can never get. It is excruciatingly painful to be so close but so far.
@J Been there, felt that. Good advice you'll hear a lot: when you're stuck, walk away. For an hour or a day or overnight. Just give your brain a chance to work without being prodded. It will surprise you with more than you knew you knew.
@J Yeah, I feel ya'. I couldn't wrap this one up cleanly. I don't know how long you've been at it, but it has taken me nearly two years to even get to the point that I'd have the hope of a clean win. There's always a niggling little detail, always something. Until one day there's not. That day makes it all worthwhile.
@J Yeah the bottom left with the proper name and French word crossing was rough. There’s always one corner like that. There’s a sort of weird thing that happens in your brain the more you do these though where you can somehow stumble into golding it when you’ve done enough. It’s like how I didn’t know about “epee” before but now it’s in my back pocket. Whatever that phenomenon is seems to happen all over the place now. I still find myself searching trivia for the Friday/Saturday puzzles though. There’s a lot of knowledge way before my time that I could never hope to have in my brain.
I couldn't work out the theme, my lateral thinking must be turned off. All down the right-hand side the clues were obscure to me and so many that crossers didn't help: SAKS KATEY ELITE NEB KAUAI AARON BURR SARA MOD JABBA MRT and NINER And DEBRA is 'messing around on TV'? So I got the rest (well, not AVE GREEN). I thought SPICE RUBS and AVRIL were clever clues. I know constructing a theme is very difficult, and I couldn't do it, but my preference is for interesting, thought-provoking clues.
@Jane Wheelaghan Apparently there is an actress named Debra Messing. I just looked her up - she was in the TV show "Will and Grace."
@Jane Wheelaghan Even though I am a gamer and I know the concept of S-tier very well, I was confused by ELITE being the answer. Most commonly, "tiers" in gaming refer to the in-game power of particular character "builds". In many games, the character you control gets a choice of many skills, but you can't pick them all - you have to make a choice, because you usually have less "skill points" to distribute" than there are skills to choose from. Also, characters receive equipment from defeating in-game challenges - weapons, armor, and the like. An S-tier character is one with the build and equipment providing the best in-game performance. The progressions is as follows: S-tier, A-tier, B-tier, C-tier, D-tier, E-tier, F-tier. I suppose it's related to the American grading system, for the most part. Effectively, S-tier characters are likely to make the best progress in a game, but the characters themselves are not the game's "elite". If anything, some *players* may be considered a game's elite, yet not necessarily for playing S-tier characters. The most respected gamers manage to outperform others even though they do *not* in fact play S-tier characters. In one of the games I used to enjoy, a person played a character who had no gear equipped, at all, and yet me managed to beat all the content. He truly was among the elite. There was another person who defeated challengers designed for groups of 10 or 25 people - solo. But it was about personal skill, not S-tier characters.
Sorry for the several typos. Also, in many games I opt to play an S-tier character build exactly because I am *not* and elite gamer - with a powerful character, the game becomes easy, even though I don't really know what I'm doing, exactly, most of the time. In fact, many gamers look down upon "newbs" playing S-tier characters - it is said they are "cheesing" their way through the content.
@M. Biggen @Francis I love it (I'm not exaggerating here) when people are passionate about something (as long as it's not literally socially objectionable, like jeering at people working at a health clinic, and worse). Our passions bring meaning and happiness to our lives, and so it's good to know people have them. Of course, if I encountered an in-depth analysis of musical theater, however passionate, I'd just skip it. I may be happy about another person having a passion, but its subject may remain completely uninteresting to me, or even personally repulsive, like musicals. The figure skating season continues. Following the sport has been a passion of mine for decades. The athleticism and the artistry of it provide me with an almost s3xual enjoyment. And yet... Each time somebody skates to a number from musical theater, my ears bleed. The worst thing is when the musical song is a cover of proper music, but sung and enunciated in that simplistic, musical theater manner. Argh. Make it stop...
Loved the Constructor's Notes. Totally AGREE! There is still hope for humanity.
A puzzle that struck me as expertly crafted and yet not much fun to solve. More of a Wednesday puzzle thematically, and jam-packed with names. Solved it unaided, but took more than 20 minutes, most of it spent in the E and NE. Of course, the 3-letter male names were thematic, but quite the collection of additional proper names in the grid. Interestingly, and perhaps by design, almost all the non-thematic names were female names---with AARONBURR, MRT and (perhaps) JABBA being the exceptions. Other than BRA appearing both in the SW corner (in DEBRA) and also in the SE, the grid seems outstanding. Just wish I had enjoyed solving the puzzle a bit more than I did, but perhaps that's on me.
Well actually, George Lucas originally originally tried to cast an authentic Hutt to play Jabba but unsurprisingly they were all too danged sexy for what he was going for. Given the near impossibility of the task, I think he did a decent job toning down the ineluctable desirability of the Hutts. Honestly, who amongst us has never said or thought "Egads, Jabba is ultra creepy and slimy, but in a good way"?
@ad absurdum I gotta say, Jabba the Hutt provided some amazing possibilities for elastodynamics. One good slap here and watch the wave propagation!
@ad absurdum, I heard that he’s eelier than most Hutts.
@aa I, for one, have missed you, and am glad you're back.
@ad absurdum I can definitively say: "Me." Never. Not even close. Ick.