When the escalator broke, it just staired at me. (These kind of puns are on the rise.)
@Mike Please sir, step away from the puns.
@Mike Don't listen to Reilly, Mike. Your puns floor me and they always elevate the column!
@Mike I’m always moved by your puns but this time you’ve produced something that’s effortlessly uplifting!
@Mike, Next level pun. (Somebody had to do it, so I just stepped up.)
@Mike I tried submitting something, but it came back marked "Return to Ascender". At least I gave it a descend try.
@Mike It would be nice if you just *tried* to elevate the level of discourse here instead of creating an atmosphere that practically guarantees the escalation of hostilities... and a rise in blood pressure for the vulnerable.
"An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an 'Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order' sign, just 'Escalator Temporarily Stairs'. Sorry for the convenience." -MH
@Withnail Until some of the steps are removed to make the repair.
@Withnail Beat me to it.
@Withnail I used to miss Mitch Hedberg. I still do, but I used to too.
@Withnail Except in Boston: <a href="https://youtu.be/Oi6KNWsqM-Q" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Oi6KNWsqM-Q</a>
@Withnail I actually saw a video of a person falling into one. Scares me every time I get on one now.
@Withnail Well except for the 2018 Rome escalator incident, where the failure of a brake caused the escalator to suddenly speed up, hurling people downwards, and causing 24 people to be injured.
Kareem: your desire to land a Tuesday but having to settle for a Wednesday just means that the puzzle itself is OUT OF ORDER 🚫🚫🚫 How’s that for a meta theme!
Roses are red Violets are blue I done did this puzzle Bet Eddie did, too
I cannot solve this grid with ease. The shaded "RERE"s do not please! So how should I decipher these? Oh, now I see: a pair of "RE"s!!
Tupac + Ru Paul + Tori Amos + Neo ... I think I dozed off and woke up in 1999! You might ask what the difference is between a nature preserve and a nature reserve. As far as I know, and I may be spitballing here, just a thought, but a PRESERVE is a protected area that allows public access and even some recreational activities, whereas a RESERVE usually has stricter protections, much less public access, with the emphasis on controlling ecosystems and allowing scientific research. Both focus on conservation, but you are more likely to be able to hunt, for example, in a nature preserve (it depends on who's running the preserve) than in a nature reserve.The two terms are used fairly loosely these days, and interchangeably, but apparently "nature reserve" is used more frequently to describe such areas in the UK and Commonwealths (we'll have to ask the "ZED/ZEE" crew from yesterday's teapot tempest about Canadian nature preserves/reserves). You'll be pleased to know that there are quite a number of protected wetland nature preserves/reserves, mainly in Asia, that include rice paddies, including the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces in China, a UNESCO world heritage site. And one or two natural reserves right in the middle of Italy's rice producing epicenter, the Po Valley. That concludes today's discussion. Tomorrow I will focus on the difference between raspberry conserves and raspberry preserves. Under Re-Pair is a first class groaner. I loved it.
@john ezra I started with pRESERVE but was forced to fall back to RESERVE by spaces. No idea how typical or a- I am, or whether we observe the distinction you draw. Thanks for the footnotes. ZEDder is better!
@john ezra There's only one thing to do then, party like it's ..... <a href="https://youtu.be/rblt2EtFfC4?si=PgkyGCZfeQ_2Tca9" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/rblt2EtFfC4?si=PgkyGCZfeQ_2Tca9</a>
@je "we'll have to ask the "ZED/ZEE" crew from yesterday's teapot tempest about Canadian nature preserves/reserves" Can't speak for all of Canada, but the usual term in Ontario seems to "Conservation Areas."
@john ezra I get what you mean re: 1999, too bad Prince wasn't there too. Though FWIW Ru Paul seems to be at peak cultural influence right now, Tori Amos has a new album coming out in the Spring, and yet another unnecessary Matrix movie will be out sometime in 2026. Maybe our puzzle creator knows something we don't... could the "Tupac is alive" conspiracy theorists be on to something?
@John Ezra for what it's worth, I see what you did there with "As far as I know, and I may be spitballing here, just a thought!" 😉
All the elements of figuring out the punch line to this puzzle were there. Three defective items below RERE’s. A first-rate riddle that, believe me, I tried hard to crack before uncovering the revealer. I didn’t come close. After filling in that punch line I sat in amazement – it seemed so obvious. It was right in front of my eyes and I just didn’t see it. I love when that happens. I want to shake the hand of the riddle-maker, who got me good. Two more things. First, the difficulty of this grid-build, with its soaring 69 theme squares, compounded by three pairs of stacked theme answers. Constructing such a coherent result required singular skill and persistence. And second, a remarkable serendipity in the grid: the answer TUPAC. For after all, is not a RERE a TUPAC of RE’s? You kept me humble and smiling at the same time, Kareem. That’s one sweet combo. Thank you!
@Lewis It's a nice bit of recursion that the revealer UNDER REPAIR also has a "re" pair--just that one of them is backwards! (For that matter, so does "revealer.")
I’m Swedish, born and raised in America. We spoke Swenglish in our home. In fourth grade, Rob Prosniewski sneezed. So I said, “Prosit.” Then it went like this- RP- What? Me- Prosit RP- Prove what? Me- What? RP - Why are you saying that? Me- Because you sneezed! RP- But what did you say? Me- PROSIT! RP - Why do you keep saying that? Me- You sneezed!! Another kid said, “Yeah, CC… that’s not a word.” I went home and sternly told my mom that it was her job to inform me when we were speaking Swedish, because I had a new nickname at school. Proozy.
If bacon is a side dish at breakfast, you're doing it wrong.
@Tim I find the concept of an English breakfast very weird. When we visited England this year we usually had many breakfast options, and a few times we went for a full English. The amount of meat and fat was just loco. There was no way I could eat it all, and definitely not day after day. Already one slice of bacon was too much.
@Andrzej Agree on the full English. Although IDK if "veggie" bacon instead would be any more appealing!
As a youngster I would often hear that “the preceding show was PRERECORDED”. I wondered how they do that… record the show before it even happened? It took me a while to conclude that they simply recorded the show and played it back later. That word is very misleading, IMO.
@Mike R Agreed. PRE as it is customarily used serves no useful function here since “recorded” is by definition completed in the past 🤣 Kind of like “preboarding” as used by airline ground personnel. Yes, those of you who wish to board before you board may approach the gate now. Mark
@Mike R thanks for the comment. pedantry 😀 is what some of us are here for. “This show was recorded” “This show is recorded” “This show was prerecorded” The first two allow for some ambiguity.
@Mike R Well, to just give the boring response, wasn’t that line typically used for programs that were, or that somebody might expect to be, aired live? The show was simultaneously recorded when it was first broadcast live, but now they’re telling you that it was PRERECORDED sometime in the past, giving you notice that things might have changed in the interim, as in a rebroadcast of a news report. If the announcement was for, say, a sitcom that never actually aired live, it was to be transparent to viewers who might have been around in earlier times when such programs used to be aired live, letting them know that multiple takes and editing might have been used; the same idea applies for, say, a pre-taped interview segment within a larger news program that was otherwise broadcast live.
@Mike R I see your point! And from that, I think, we've developed the tendency to add "pre" to many, many words, unnecessarily. I think people think it sounds fancier, so better? A folder can be labeled, or maybe it sounds more better if it's pre-labeled? A speech is pre-written, lol, what else, written during delivery? I hear it all the time, especially on TV.
@Mike R While we're all busy displaying our senility, allow me to add "this program was recorded before a live studio audience" to the fray. Possible conclusions abound: 1. They tried it first before a dead audience, but the actors complained about the odor, 2. They are doing an unconvincing job of denying a laugh track sweetener, 3. The studio is ALIVE. Run! 4. The program was recorded before a live studio audience left the building (with or without Elvis).
Good puzzle. Terrible pun.
@Elizabeth L Terrible pun = excellent pun, like sick party = excellent party.
A delightful companion to my jasmine green tea this morning. The pun was fun :) Favorite entry: 68A ERIC, as in “Children’s author Carle who wrote ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar.’” 🐛 I’ve read that book in English and in Spanish many, many times to my niñas, and it is the most perfect book for the 1-3yo in your life. Also, I’ve learned that Carle was inspired to embrace his colorful approach to illustration when, as a teenager in Nazi Germany, a high school teacher secretly introduced him to banned art and he beheld with shock the “Blue Horse” of expressionist Franz Marc. Carle later wrote a children’s book inspired by the experience, but his whole life’s work bears the imprint of that clandestine art showing.
@KRB Thank you for the lovely rabbit hole (caterpillar hole?) I just went down, in search of that story. I knew of Carle's background in NYC, and his time in western MA. But TIL of his youth in Germany! This article, especially, was a wonderful read: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/mar/14/eric-carle-author" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/mar/14/eric-carle-author</a>
@KRB, I love Carle's Brown Bear in Spanish; the language is just beautiful and so evocative.
This was a joy to work, solidly constructed, lively, and in no way in need of REPAIR (although there will very likely be the usual potshots by some WACKOS and ORACLEs). It was just right for a frosty Wednesday. Thank you, Kareem. My favorite clue was the secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega. I actually remembered who that was, and was delighted to be reminded of a childhood love: Tyrone Power (one of many—Gene Autry was the most enduring). Even seven-year-old girls swoon.
@dutchiris Thank you for WACKOS! I wasn’t reading nuts as plural until I read your comment, and that’s what I needed to finish. Cause I’m nuts.
@dutchiris I said thank you making me realize that the clue for WACKOS was a plural. I was reading it as a state of being like my own, thus preventing my completion. Honestly, emu, you’re cuckoo for censoring my reference to the clue itself.
@dutchiris Oh I give up on telling you why (emu will not with me tonight) but thank you.
@dutchiris Yes! Tyrone Power's "The Mark of Zorro" is the best Zorro, and one of the best swashbucklers ever. Bonus points for Basil Rathbone as the villain!
@dutchiris, My experience with Zorro was through Disney, starring Guy Williams. I loved it. Talk about someone who could make you swoon!
@dutchiris -It was fairly clear to me that "Zorro" was the answer to 7D, but I was confused by the clue, having just read in the Sunday NYT Book Review about Joaquin Murrieta, a real person whose reputation launched the legend of Zorro. I gather Don Diego was a fictional character in the original McCulley story.
Thoroughly enjoyed this fun puzzle, and the intricacies of putting this grid together were not lost on me. I also enjoyed most of the clues; even if not so much word play they seemed pretty fresh. A few thoughts: I think ASIA and URSA Minor are the new Mauna KEA and LOA Monday we had a SLYNOD and today we have a SYNODS (I’m beginning to sound like Lewis…) One of my favorite children’s books is No More Jumping on the Bed, so I guess it’s a trampoline mat… Interesting that there’s NATURERESERVES and a NATUREPRESERVE (which could have more than one land in it?) Like Sam I was also more familiar with PROST than PROSIT. And last, I’m sure Sam isn’t the only one who’s been misspelling EVEL but heavens it seems like if you’ve been doing crosswords for any length of time it should be drilled into your brain by now…
@SP SLYNOD and SYNOD: Has anyone ever done a theme on "Get the L out"? If not, they should.
Just some thoughts on "speciesism" in quotes in the clue - I will admit it bothered me, but I realise the fact that it is in quotes very much reflects the current status quo regarding animal rights. What is the fact that gas chambers are considered a humane way for killing pigs but that, speciesism? There's a lot more to say, of course - but I guess just that the idea that some suffering doesn't count because of which species it is in question is real and so dominant in our everyday lives that it is invisible to us.
(I meant the fact that the word was in quotes in the clue, as if it isn't a real thing)
@Remy I mean, even the suffering and death of some people doesn't count because of, say, their ethnicity. Our world is a very bad place.
@Remy SOWING machines had me thinking of pigs making piglets. Pool gear made me look at swimming pools. Green dispensaries made me think of POT shops. Those misdirections were very clever.
@Remy It bothered me too, you are not alone.
Remy, Since it is in the dictionary, with first site in 1970, I don't the quote marks in the clue were appropriate. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/speciesism" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/speciesism</a>
@Remy It bothered me too. Thank you. Our ability to shrug at the incredible suffering and death we impose on billions of animals every year is very sad.
This was tough for me because there were clusters of questions about things outside my sphere of knowledge. I’ve never seen The Matrix and knew nothing about The ORACLE, although crosswords have taught me NEO. I know nothing of video games, and precious little of Catholicism and rappers. But in the end everything could be deduced from the crosses. The last section to fall was the SE, and the last answer was the revealer, which I needed to get the theme. I did know TORI Amos, and have heard her quite a bit lately, as she’s appeared several times in the WXPN (very fine local public radio station) countdown of the community created list of the 885 most popular cover songs.
@Marshall Walthew I couldn't agree more. I don't watch "Community", and SAWS for [Some pearls of wisdom] seemed weird to me. I generally thing of "saws" along the same line as "bromides" or "old wive's tales". Not real wisdom. Are [Tramboline mats] called BEDS? Or is this because a bed in a poor man's trampoline. There seemed a looseness in the clues to me--a lot of them seemed not only imperfect, which they all are, but questionable even after answering. And WARPS for [Alters the shape of] doesn't quite fit for me. A pottery makes alters the shape of a mound of clay, but doesn't "warp" it. I don't know, seems just an inch or two off. Of course this is all predicated on my not being aware of usages.
@Marshall Walthew Why 885 songs? That's quite a long list. Is the station 'at 88.5 on your FM dial'?
@Marshall Walthew Thanks for reminding me about NEO and ORACLE. Should we see this as a puzzle pair (amusing, good) or as a redundant use of specific knowledge (frustrating, bad)? Although I got both solves, I was irritated by the repeated clues from the same franchise. 🍁 ZEDder is better.
@Marshall Walthew Actually voted this year and am enjoying XPN’s cover count down altho I think one of my songs might end up in Friday’s One Vote Wonders. They do stream at xpn.org and have the count down songs posted on the website if anyone is curious.
Good morning for Greek mythology, even if it is WRONG! There was, of course, only one Hydra: she--definitely a "she," those misogynistic Hellenes!--was the daughter of Typhon and Echidna, and she lived in a wetland nature reserve named Lerna. She had more than one head, the exact number of which increased exponentially as the centuries, and mythographers, rolled: from six, to nine, to fifty. Also, she could regenerate her heads, the rate for which also increased over time. In other words, she made for a good Story Problem for ancient Greek students of algebra. Hydra had brothers and sisters, monsters all, which included Orthus and Cerberus (polycephalism ran in the family), which made for a jolly time when the Typhons would go Up North on vacation and visit the Lokis. I only bring this up as there is perfectly good way to clue HYDRAS, as [those cute little fresh-water cnidarians, which appear to have the gift of non-senescence, lucky them!] Here is a picture of Ms. Hydra, with thirteen heads, from a trip she to took to Boston in the 1920's (she caught the Sox at Fenway Park, but wished they had left it as as fen): <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Singer_Sargent%2C_John_-_Hercules_-_1921.jpg" target="_blank">https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Singer_Sargent%2C_John_-_Hercules_-_1921.jpg</a> *** *** Fun mis-reading for the day: BEAD as [Bit of condescendension].
@Bill That should read [Bit of condescension] Oh for an edit function!
@Bill Poor Hydra ( female, unique)! Hope Hercules’s batting average is low this season. (And I can’t believe that it’s a John Singer Sargent painting—never seen him venture this far into Jungendstil (sp?) territory.)
@Bill That made me scratch my heads a as well
@Bill While flipping through Grimal, refreshing myself on the details of Hydra's CV, I found this, clipped out and tucked in, under Zed: <a href="https://condenaststore.com/featured/new-yorker-january-21st-2008-mike-twohy.html" target="_blank">https://condenaststore.com/featured/new-yorker-january-21st-2008-mike-twohy.html</a> (I'll Ctrl-C/-P this on @SL's thread, below)
Bill, No doubt the editors would cite this minority opinion in support of the plural: "Heraclitus the Paradoxographer rationalized the myth by suggesting that the Hydra would have been a single-headed snake accompanied by its offspring." <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernaean_Hydra" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernaean_Hydra</a>
Tough one for me but managed to work it out. Think I'll just leave it at that. One puzzle find today inspired by 63 across. A Wednesday from July 17, 2013 by Robyn Weintraub. Theme answers in that one: ROSESARERED VIOLETSAREBLUE POLLENISBADFOR MYALLERGIES ACHOO Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/17/2013&g=27&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/17/2013&g=27&d=A</a> ...
@Rich in Atlanta I went thorough and did ALL of her NY Times puzzles ever and I did love this one! :)
If, like me, you’re feeling philosophical and Zeus isn’t a comic book or movie character for you, here’s something to go with your morning coffee: “For the ways of the gods are without deceit; but tales woven by men are deceptive and often fall short of the truth. A man becomes good through suffering; but to be prosperous always belongs to gods alone. They send now one thing, now another, and the things in the sea and those on this earth that foolish men suffer when they stumble helplessly— these Zeus strikes with thunderbolts, and he rules willingly.” Pindar, Olympian 2.22–30 (Race, Loeb) Good puzzle today. My pre-caffeinated (which is less useful than prerecorded) brain counted and recounted ‘nature preserves’ a few times before getting rid of the ‘p.’ And it needed crosses for ‘veggie bacon’ because, lifelong vegetarian that I am, I’ve never tried veggie bacon. Never been curious. When I initially gave up meat in high school, it was because I just didn’t like it. Then came along PETA and, well, other reasons for staying vegetarian, all of which were expostulated on, at great length, probably shrilly, at our dinner table at home every night. (I’ve never had teenagers but, to those of you who do, Zeus love you for your long-suffering ways. Sorry, Mom, Dad. Surely we all look back upon those days now and laugh, right? *Right?*) Thanks, Kareem. This was my kind of puzzle. Have a good day, y’all.
@Sam Lyons Anyone who quotes Pindar at length (and gives a citation, to boot) is all right in my book.
@Sam Lyons While flipping through Grimal, refreshing myself on the details of Hydra's CV, I found this, clipped out and tucked in, under Zed: <a href="https://condenaststore.com/featured/new-yorker-january-21st-2008-mike-twohy.html" target="_blank">https://condenaststore.com/featured/new-yorker-january-21st-2008-mike-twohy.html</a>
@Sam Lyons Maybe not laugh but be glad to remember? I can only recall as much of the Aeneid as "some day even this we will remember" forsan et haec olim memorabit? My Latin is a LONG time ago! I'm sure you can fill us in. Loved the Pindar...
Can someone please explain how the clue Pearls of wisdom equals SAWS?
@JR An “old SAW” refers to a well known saying or phrase that usually conveys some advice or knowledge. “Haste makes waste” comes to mind.
German for "cheers/to your health" is "Prost," not "Prosit," which is deeply archaic and hasn't been used as a normal spelling for over 200 years
@Toni You should definitely go to a beer hall during Oktoberfest to sing "Ein Prosit".
@Toni I came here to say the same thing. I even asked a German friend and they said “what is Prosit?”
TIL that Rere is a language, part of the Niger-Congo family of languages that is characterized by vowel harmony (i had no idea this existed outside the Turkic family of languages!) and tones (i didn’t realize this was a thing outside Asia!). Wikipedia also tells me that the Niger-Congo languages are characterized by “noun-classification systems”, which: “are somewhat analogous to grammatical gender in other languages, but there are often a fairly large number of classes (often 10 or more), and the classes may be male human/female human/animate/inanimate, or even completely gender-unrelated categories such as places, plants, abstracts, and groups of objects” The crossword opens my mind to a broader world!
@Petrol Vowel harmony is a feature of the Hungarian language too.
@Petrol I read somewhere that the least technological, most isolated cultures tend to have the most complicated languages, but that they get simplified as more contacts and interrelationships are established. The mechanism is this: as outside contacts are made with groups close to you whose language is related, a simplified pidgin language develops from common elements, and with increased contact, intermarriage, etc., the simpler version gradually replaces the two more complicated ones. I read that some Native American tribe has a language whose terms and grammer change completely if you're talking about your dead ancestors. I once lived close to a reservation in Arizona, and commented to someone that it would be interesting to take a course offered locally and learn their language. I was told that the return on that effort would be low, because it would enable me to speak to only a small group of people to whom I would always be an outsider anyway, that the language was difficult to learn, and that if I learned that language as spoken in one part of the reservation I would always be laughed at by those in the other half.
@Petrol do you remember a regular Wordplayer, with the handle @Oikofuge? He was big on noun classification systems in the Niger-Congo languages: why the correct plural of "impala" is "izimpala," and not, "impalodes." Boy, do I miss him! Lots of languages have tonal systems, not just Asian ones. One might even argue that English has a rudimentary tonal system. "Really!?!" you ask. "Really," I reply. @Teresa There are arguments that Hungarian and the Turkic languages (and Finnish, etc.) all belong to a larger Ural-Altaic family; but one of the major ones is that they all have vowel harmony, so, in someway the arguments are circular.
Okay, you know I had to come here and post one of my lame-o, barely relevant comments, but here it is: Under no circumstances should "veggie bacon" be paired with any term suggesting healthiness. Healthier than regular bacon? Sure, I'll buy that, at least after seeing some data to support the claim. (Not a very high bar to clear, though.) But read the ingredient list on any version of veggie bacon. Holy mackerel, what a load of chemically junk and weird extracts. You know what's truly a healthy veggie dish? VEGGIES.
@Jeff Z VEGGIE BACON is not necessarily a commercial product. You can make it at home with tempeh, tofu, mushrooms or other real food.
@Jeff Z I definitely had the same reaction for that one (and before I even knew what kind of breakfast meat we were talking about). But I still thought the clue was fine. The key thing being, as you put it: “Healthier than regular bacon? Sure, I'll buy that, at least after seeing some data to support the claim. (Not a very high bar to clear, though.)“
One day at my office, there was a sign on the stairs (!) that read, “Out of order — please use elevator.”
Stairs could be out of order if an upper step were lower than a lower step.
I LOVED this puzzle! It was so satisfying to finish it without any hints/Googling. Just the right amount of tricky without being too frustrating.
@Taylor, I felt exactly the same way. It was just challenging enough for Wednesday, and very clever.
NATURERESERVES, VEGGIEBACON, and PETA add up to quite the compassionate Wednesday! Thank you. Also a fun and clever solve overall.
Can't believe the constructor made a tribute puzzle to RiRi but spelled it wrong. Rude Boy. And I wonder how many times during the construction Kareem said to himself "I need to get another "RE" IN." (Zero's a good guess.) I have no quarrel with PROSIT, but I think we can all agree it's more fun to drink to "Eins, zwei, g'suffa!"
@ADD to tha A-B-S-U-R-D-U-M Ein prosit, ein prosit, der gemütlichkeit. Pretty sure PROSIT just means "a toast!" L'chaim!
I done did this puzz in 27% less time than average. Clever theme. It reminds me of another kind of puzzle whose name I cannot remember. If you duplicated the upper left key all the way across the top of the keyboard, would that be an ESCrow?
@Jim I know you want a howl of anguish here, so I'm not sayin' nuthin'.....
I can't forget last night's column and how happy I always was when I had finished shopping and arrived at the checkout stand with a thong in my cart.
@dutchiris In your cart, sure 😃
@dutchiris Your comment has me in stitches. Bravo.
70 A [Corn container] thispuzzle didn't fit, so I went with SILO. I mean that as a high compliment, Kareem.
I like that you can take the S away from WACKOS and it still fits the clue [Nuts]. Et tu, emu.
@Lewis Me too. I enjoy a non-plural plural. And they seem to cluster around craziness. Drives me bonkers.
As a citizen of Procrastinatoria, objects in my life are more often under ‘prepare’ than ‘repair’. Which has me thinking: if we could just re-pare the spelling of repair, then ‘repare’ would have a re pair. Q.E.Zed.
Between the rapper, my lack of German, and never having seen any of the Matrix franchise, I had fly by the seat of my pants on this one! Have a good Wednesday!
My "hole in the wall" was a dive bar. RAT TRAP? I guess that's a seedy motel. I don't stay at those. And yes, I was trying to solve with across clues only.
@Grant lol don't trust my ex-husband to book a hotel for you. He's a decent fellow, but, seriously, he has no standards in this regard.
@Grant Even using Down clues, I made the same mistake and really had trouble letting go of it in this puzzle. A key skill for crossworders is being flexible enough to bail on wrong entries relatively quickly, and I did it somewhere else in this puzzle, but I just couldn't find the way out of my dive bar here. The fact that I didn't know anything about the show "Community," was trying to use the same four letters both before and after "...stra...," and also didn't know SRI Chimnoy nearby just made it harder. I finally started to find my way out of the TRAP when I did a rare-for-me Wednesday websearch lookup to get the S in SRI.
The VEGGIE BACON (3D) entry reminded me of this clip from a "Modern Family" episode: - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEm9i2HMIeA" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEm9i2HMIeA</a>
@RichardZ VEGGIE BACON is an oxymoron. The correct term is fakon.
@RichardZ hahaha! Fauxkon disgusting! That's pretty racy.
@RichardZ that episode was hilarious. That one. Still that one. 🥓 🤣
@RichardZ Soy milk, peanut butter, LED candles, veggie bacon, and vegan leather are fine terms, some of them old. People know exactly what they mean, even as well-lobbied bureaucrats regulate against some of them...
The theme clicked for me halfway through and I laughed loudly enough for my wife to hear so we both got to enjoy the revealer! Thanks for the fun puzzle!
This was a delicious puzzle to unravel bit by bit. I jumped around, as I usually do, tackling sections, so I cracked the theme pretty early on and with a smile, no groans. The fill had just enough resistance and closing in on the correct entries was extremely satisfying, much like yesterday's ZEE/ZED (so Don Diego is ZORRO, not EL CID, and the thunderbolt wielder is ZEUS, not Thor. Okay, then. TIL.) I truly enjoyed this puzzle. Thank you, Kareem! (And since you obviously have a great sense of humor, today's song goes out in your honor:) <a href="https://youtu.be/r967lcA_rR8?si=XDoqysNYcj6i__o7" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/r967lcA_rR8?si=XDoqysNYcj6i__o7</a>
This puzzle gave me PTSD. The time the airport bathroom was out of order 5min before flight was boarding. When my term paper looked like my dog chewed it after it got stuck in the printer.
Another great puzzle. That photo of three on a sled brings back great memories.
I let out a big groan when I figured out the theme, which is a tribute to the constructor!
@Steve Oh I just got it too, omg 😆
Great puzzle! But small nit on 19A: voice messages are incoming and (almost) never prerecorded, it's voice 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 that are prerecorded.
Everyone* calls the greeting a message. *do a quick search
@Jack Kennedy so when you check your voicemails, that’s a live feed from whomever left the message or was it recorded previously?
@Jack Kennedy Every voicemail (are voice *messages* something else?) I've ever received was recorded long before I got to it.
Wow, what day is it again? This was NOT Wednesday level for me, not at all. It quickly verged into "will I even finish this" flop sweat territory, which I haven't encountered on a Wednesday since forever. I say the editors blew the placement on this. (Yes I read the saga in the notes.) Nonetheless, it was a fine puzzle. I had a big smile when I finally filled in the top of the revealer (I had the "repair" part for a while but couldn't figure out the top - "in need of"?, "needs". etc., etc.) and the weird "rere" finally and instantly made sense. My one large quibble, one I'm sure others have already mentioned by now - voice mail messages are NOT pre-recorded. That clue is simply wrong. Just wrong. Voice mailbox user GREETINGS are pre-recorded. Every voice mail system I've ever used calls them Greetings to avoid confusion with the Messages left by callers. Even old answering machines had this distinction. An unfortunate stain on an otherwise entertaining offering.
@B Was a minute faster than my average Wednesday. Wasn't that hard.
@B I did it in Tuesday time. Are you serious about this being hard for you?
@B, I mean, technically, voice mail messages ARE pre-recorded. When I listen to them, they were recorded earlier by someone else. So isn't that pre-recorded? However, the latest iOS will allow you to listen to a voicemail as it's being recorded, so I guess there's that.....
@B well those annoying robocall voice mail messages are resumably prerecorded ( or just recorded!) so the bots can easily send them over and over again. Otherwise yes not the same thing.
@B Definitely a tough Wednesday for me – and I love Kareem Ayas' crosswords. I don't particularly play for time, but stats show this was twice as long as my fastest Weds, and only a bit faster than my average for the day (which of course includes times from when I was a newbie). Maybe not flop sweat(!), but a real nailbiter for sure. And while I got the answer from the clue, I'm with you about voicemail *greetings*! Coulda used a little tighter editing, IMHO.
@B "I say the editors blew the placement on this." Based on your individual experience? Based on the bulk of the commentary here (i.e. limited volume and largely neutral to positive), along with xwstats (current median solve time is 12 minutes flat, with 34% of solvers finishing faster than average), this seems well within the typical difficulty range for a Wednesday. As a wiser person than myself once said: sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you...
Seems to me that the recent Wednesday puzzles are a bit more tricky. Not a bad thing. Lots of interesting fill in this one. I enjoyed solving it.
Scaned the comments and I've not much to add but wanted to check in. A fun one to be sure.
Independent of whether or not VEGGIEBACON is a healthier dish for humans, it's definitely healthier for the (smart, friendly) pigs who would otherwise be eaten!
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen 100%! The industrial farming of pigs is just unconscionable (I made myself visit a facility once and it was truly vile the way those animals were treated).
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen. User name checks out! Given that a lot of veggie bacon is made from whole soy (tempeh) or eggplant, versus hormone / antibiotic / nitrate riddled flesh, I'd say yes it's definitely healthier. Nitrate is a known carcinogen.
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen so TRue!
Mmm, crunchy! Thank you, Kareem, for a delicious puzzle.
Hi Kareem, This was fine for a Wednesday. This week it might have been better on Tuesday with Tuesday on Wednesday. It should be easier to solve than yesterday's, although I'm expecting a fair amount of "I solved it without getting the theme." Their loss. Thanks for the puzzle.
@Barry Ancona Count me as solving without getting the theme. Ah well
@Barry Ancona This was a slow solve for me - more like a Thursday time, though not with Thursday trickery. Maybe I was just having a bad day...? The theme did help me complete the S end.
@Barry Ancona My time on the Tuesday puzzle was barely more than half of my Wednesday time. So correctly placed from my point of view. I did notice the REREs in the gray squares, and filled in the third one before getting down there. I did also notice the revealer before I was finished, but I wouldn't say it helped me with the solve.
@Barry Ancona This solved like a Tuesday for me, and I got 2/3 of the theme. I found yesterday's puzzle much harder.
@Barry Ancona Current xwstats median for yesterday: 8:03 And for today: 11:47 Obviously that doesn’t invalidate your own experience/impression…but based on the only statistics available, the placement of this week’s Tuesday and Wednesday looks appropriate. (aside: I happen to enjoy the occasional huge deviation from a given day’s typical difficulty, so I never really get into debates about a puzzle’s day-of-week suitability…except to compare personal observations to xwstats)
Good god no. An oddly intricate construction with absolutely no gratifying payoff.
@Tim In LA If learning RERE is a RE-PAIR isn't gratifying, I don't know what is.