Happy 100th birthday (2 days ago) to 46D!
@Jan Thank goodness for the man. It's one way of getting that word into a crossword. Other ways are more offensive. I was talking about Nixon.
@Jan The clip of him exercising is amazing!
What must you do to turn (B)(E)(D) (B)(E)(D) into (B)(E)(D) ??? - - - - - - - DEBUNK
I finally bought a new mattress. Bedder late than never! (I had to sleep on it.)
@Mike Are you expecting a blanket pardon?
@Mike If people could be arrested for punning, you'd be found Quilty as Charged.
Mike, A mattress pun - now that’s my Serta joke!
@Mike I give that comment my Sealy of approval.
@Mike Finally decided to spring for a new one, eh? Well, it's about time. You've taken your lumps long enough.
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Pan in the but_? (4) 2. Board of creatives? (7) 3. Creator of some bubbles (9)(5) 4. Did some school reporting? (7) 5. False alarm announcement? (3)(2)(2)(6) GOAT PALETTE CORPORATE GREED TATTLED OOH I'M SO SCARED
My favorite encore clues from last week: [Cry over spilt milk?] (4) [Sign of good reception] (4)(4) OOPS OPEN ARMS
@Lewis I thought the answer to “Did some school reporting” was SNORKELED.
@Lewis All excellent choices.
Congrats on your debut Jeff! I thought this was a fine Monday puzzle. Appropriate call out to Dick Van Dyke shortly after his birthday, Just awoke to the horrifying news of Rob Reiner’s passing. Unfortunately referenced in these pages most recently from Roger Ebert’s review of North. But he has also consistently gotten love here for Princess Bride, This is Spinal Tap, Misery, A Few Good Men…the list goes on. For a last look, check out the Spjnal Tap sequel now streaming. My last tribute will be a reference to my movie anagram puzzle a few years back: M. Ryan—what’s her yell? (WHEN HARRY MET SALLY) Thanks Rob for hours of entertainment, you will be missed.
@SP -- Dr. P! I finally figured out who you are from your clue in your post. Oh, I've loved your puzzles, how you manipulate letters. I hope there are more to come!
@SP Yes, the list goes on. I have to add "Stand By Me". So I did. And "The American President" was pretty good, but is more interesting when watching it to see the seeds of "The West Wing".
@SP I found and did your movie anagram puzzle today. A fun and wonderful distraction on such a sad few days. It was kind of funny that when I got to the movie from 1946, I thought to myself, "Self, you don't know any movies from 1946, this is gonna be tough." Then I also thought, "Wait! Isn't ___________ from 1946!?" And it made sense with the hint. Plunked it right in and was thrilled it worked. I'm not really an anagram person, either, but that was fun! ☺️
Two B's or not two B's. That was never the question. TOUCAN play at that game. I wanted to see A perfect performance: DISROBbED.
dutchiris, Go to the archive and try October 3, 2013...
@dutchiris It was recently that we had the clue about spelling Caribbean -- answer TWOBSORNOTTWOBS. Now I will always remember!
@Laura It was used a lot around 2016-2018 from memory. It's considered quite a millennial term.
@Laura It's definitely "cringe" [outdated] slang in 2025!
@Laura It became outdated as soon as I learned what it meant.
As I solved, I couldn't help but think of the Vedder man singing Better Man, maybe because two stacked beds are bedder than one. <a href="https://youtu.be/_4BObpNQqNo?si=JoaAkWUr32Y3oDD7" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/_4BObpNQqNo?si=JoaAkWUr32Y3oDD7</a> A lovely start to the solving weekdays. Congratulations on a fine debut, Jeff, and many thanks to you and the always amazing ACME!
@sotto voce That’s always been one of my favorite Pearl Jam songs.
It says a lot about me that the first Enrico the opera singer I thought of was... Enrico PALAZZO 🤣 <a href="https://youtu.be/6HA-lvIio78?si=rdJd6dZuUtVHaqO_" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/6HA-lvIio78?si=rdJd6dZuUtVHaqO_</a> Święty Mikołaj, Saint Nicholas, is our most common term for Santa. We have no "for short" for him, so there is no Polish term akin to Santa as such. He has some regional names, too. For example, in Wielkopolska, the Western part of Poland, he's called Gwiazdor, literały "the one with the star" - in this incarnation the character is a conflation of St. Nicholas and his traditional, folk counterpart of Wielkopolska lore, represented as a somewhat scary guy with a star over his head, and carrying a bag of presents but also a whip, to punish bad children. Folk stories, eh? When we were part of the Eastern Bloc, the Soviets tried to influence our culture by substituting their Russian Ded Moroz (Dziadek Mróz, Father Frost) for Święty Mikołaj, but it never caught on. As for the puzzle, I think only Patti Varol ever stuffed her "Mondays" with more trivia than today's constructors did... I almost needed lookups 😐. So no, I didn't like it 🤷🏽
Also, most Poles live in condos, not detached houses, and they tend to be small, especially by American standards. I had my own room in the 1980s, but it was tiny, some 5 square meters. To give me more space, my parents had a bunk bed made, but one with only the upper bunk - the space below thus could be used as part of my living space. The living area of the condo my wife and I live in now is the size of the whole place my family owned in the 80s and 90s.
@Andrzej I didn't need to look at your clip to know what you were referring to, but I did anyway. I'm almost positive that the character name of the guy who said "Hey, it's Enrico Palazzo!" was listed in the end credits as "Hey, it's Enrico Palazzo!"" No, I don't usually watch end credits.
@Andrzej Do you have saint Nick and something akin to Deda Mraz?
So here's an important tip: when you're in an interrogation room and the detectives ask if you take credit cards, they're not just making conversation. Do not say "Yes, we do." Unless you really like bunk beds.
I am about a month or so away from completing the archive. Just August through December of 2013 to go.
@Geoff Offermann as someone who started at the beginning and is only up to October 1997, that is a pretty amazing feat!
@Geoff Offermann i'm working my way backwards...just Th-Sun....now at Aug 2000. Then i'll do the Mon-Wed ones. Great fun...but man those older Saturdays are wicked hard ...and wicked fun.
@Geoff Offermann Did you do the 1945 one?
To my surprise, even shock, I solved them all. It took me a while, I had to stop to remember eg Hoover's name and WALZ; I'd read an article about slang going out of date and it mentioned 'fleek'! US slang is usually my bête noir, unless from 1970's. When I visited California in 1975 'rad' was the very latest slang. I hardly ever get the theme, but here the 2nd BED really helped me solve a clue. I watch foreign language films so DUBBED was obvious, although I much prefer sub-titles. Excellent start to the week for me.
@Jane Wheelaghan It bothers me when the subtitles are not good translations. This happens with both Spanish (especially idioms) and German. It doesn't necessarily distort the action or general meaning, but often it just seems like laziness--"can't be bothered to hone the prose or include the connotations--eh, close enough for gubment work!"
Random thoughts: • Another graphic representation (in a crossword) of a type of bed could be a vertical BED abutting a vertical WALL, for a Murphy bed. • WOL (Words I Love): HOBNOBBED and BEDAZZLED. • I also love “balderdash”, from a clue. My TIL is its origin. Long ago, the word meant “a jumbled mix of liquors” (such as milk and beer, or beer and wine), and moved from there to mean “a senseless jumble of words” or “utter nonsense”. • This is Tim WALZ’s first appearance in the Times puzzle, though he’s shown up a few times elsewhere. • Regarding KIDD on the eastern edge of the grid, the constructors took the phrase “all kidding aside” quite seriously! • Lovely PuzzPair© of SOAK and TUBB. Lovely side trips to enhance a fun solve – thank you, Jeff and Acme. And WTG, Jeff on you NYT debut!
Well, that was quite fun, especially for a Monday--the day when one is seldom slowed, stopped, stumped, or in suspense. I waited for the DOUBLE BED joke to emerge, but instead... Then I waited to see what came after IT'S A B. S. --- (which didn't turn out as expected, either.) New--yucky icky--vocab: On FLEEK. The EEK part seems APT. Where did this come from?-- (as in Under what rock was this discovered?) It's even an ugly-LOOKing word. Ugh ugh ugh. I believe I'll ask DHubby to play some of our recordings (78 rpm) of Enrico CARUSO- Amelita Galli-Curci duets.... perhaps some with Tito Schipa as well. Warm things up a bit; it was 18 degrees this morning.
@Mean Old Lady LOL I saw IT’S A BS… first as well. And FLEEK is all Greek to me too
@Mean Old Lady I was expecting a dad-jokey "and so to bed" revealer. Get it? Two beds? Yeah, that would have been terrible. FLEEK? IT'S ABSURD.
@Mean Old Lady I haven't bothered to check, but could FLEEK be a portmanteau (?) of FRESH and SLEEK? I believe the 1st may still be in use. Actually FLEEK is kind of growing on me.....
Great Monday puzzle with approachable cluing and a fun theme. This also marks my 2000th NYT puzzle solved overall… not as a streak, but still a nice round number.
Francis, It's safe to come out now. The co-constructors are both olds.
@Barry Ancona. who you calling Olds?!
Didn't love this. Maybe just me. Probably due to what felt like an abundance of proper nouns (my achilles heel).
@Monday Of course it's not only you. All the trivia annoyed me, too. I never get how the editors allow a grid like this on a Monday. I would have never been able to solve this 2,5 years ago when I was starting to do these puzzles. Mondays should be nice and easy, a gateway to crosswords. This wasn't it.
@Monday Yep too much trivia, esp. for non-native solvers Wonder what's the record for proper nouns on a Monday
@Jayant. Haha, yes it was intended as a Tuesday. Poor Jeff… they see my name and it’s printed on a Monday… regardless! Friend suggested I change my name to Andrea Carla Mondays
Monday puzzle on fleek today <3
Enjoyed the puzzle this frosty morning. Got out of BED to get coffee and returned to BED to complete it. Or could that be just another BUNK BED story?
Happy 100th Birthday, Dick van Dyke.
I really enjoyed this breezy puzzle, which was perfectly paired as a Monday offering.
@Elizabeth Connors I think this was my favourite Monday ever!
did anyone else get stuck spelling ARTOO as ARTWO? oops!
@Sally yep. I don’t like the spelling of this in general, “ar” doesn’t sound right. Maybe that’s how the phonetic R is usually done in the crossword though?
@Sally That was one of my many problems with today's puzzle. R2D2 is fine, but once you try to shorten in all clarity evaporates, which was especially unwelcome with today's unobvious cross. C'mon, editors, it's Monday!
@Sally. Ha ha I did too, and just figured that NWT was some insider thing on Wayne's World (the cross) that I did not know about.
Nice Monday puzzle. Always glad to see an ACME enterprise and wasn't disappointed today. Fairly smooth solve and... the reveal was one of the last things I filled in, so a really nice 'aha' moment when I finally caught on. Puzzle find today is one of the most unusual I've ever encountered. I'll put that in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Sunday from May 17, 1998 by David J. Kahn and Hillary Kahn with the title "Green eggs and Hamlet." Pretty amazing piece of construction but can't imagine that I would have had any chance at completing it. Anyway... a 23 wide grid and ALL of the theme answers were 23 letters. Clues for those were... "Start of an imaginary soliloquy" and then "Part 2 (etc) of the soliloquy" etc. etc. Those answers: IDONOTLIKEMYDADSBROTHER POISONEDKINGWEDMYMOTHER ILETTHEMTHINKTHATIAMMAD OOPSISTABBEDOPHELIASDAD NOBODYHELPSMEINMYPLIGHT NOWLAERTESANDIWILLFIGHT SWORDSARESWITCHEDINAJAM ATHEATRICALENDINGHAMIAM Whew. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/17/1998&g=65&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/17/1998&g=65&d=A</a> I'm done. ....
And one more late puzzle find. In the vicinity of dad jokes, so definitely up my alley. Anyway - a Tuesday from December 10, 2019 by Eric Berlin. Three 15 letter grid-spanning theme answers. Here's those clues and answers: "At the big brawl, the jazz musician ..." CAMEOUTSWINGING "At the big brawl, the hairstylist ..." BOBBEDANDWEAVED "At the big brawl, the king and queen ..." PUTUPTHEIRDUKES Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/10/2019&g=36&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/10/2019&g=36&d=A</a> ....
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Pan in the butt? (4) 2. Board of creatives? (7) 3. Creator of some bubbles (9)(5) 4. Did some school reporting? (7) 5. False alarm announcement? (3)(2)(2)(6) GOAT PALETTE CORPORATE GREED TATTLED OOH I'M SO SCARED
I'm very sorry for this dupe! It got emu-ed last night because of the last word in clue #1. I know that because when I substituted an underline for that word's second "t", it printed right out. Why a word can be okay in a crossword but not in a comment? -- good question. If you wish to see my favorite encore clues from last week, it is the reply to my original post -- the fifth from the bottom of these comments.
Nice puzzle! Ol' Ernest Tubb gets some props!
@Lige Ol' Ernest says: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx3PIIk8tZk" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx3PIIk8tZk</a>
Lots of fun. Really enjoyed it.
i wanna say "toughest monday in 5 years" - 1 year daily solver and all the archived mondays since 2020 - but i just dont recall the sensation of monday difficulty (and i know there must have been) at the outset a year ago...a nice example of the tricky interface between difficulty and memory...
Nice theme. But 'outings for foxhounds?' a cluel for 'hunts?' Ugh. A trip to a museum is an outing, but a fox hunt? I would say the average 'outing' doesn't involve blood lust and terrified wildlife being trapped and torn limb from limb.
@Alexandra Dixon but the clue wasnt for outings, generally, but rather those for foxhounds. i imagine were i a foxhound that these hunts would very much constitute an outing. grisly and unconscionable activity in every respect for most readers and writers here? id wager almost certainly. nevertheless, entirely appropriate clue for an activity which still very much exists.
@Alexandra Dixon agreed, fox hunting is terribly cruel and unethical. Sadly it is one of the many ways humans exploit innocent animals. A better outing for foxhounds should be walks or playing fetch.
@Alexandra Dixon What really turns my stomach is the thought of ears of corn being ripped from their stalks. Oh, the inhumanity of green lust.
For those in a bragging, competitive one-upmanship yay-me frame of mind, I tried (as usual) to complete the puzzle without using any of the down clues and I managed it in 14:08. Imagine my surprise when FLEEK, PIBB, TUBB, FALA, NTSB and TSE turned out to be correct! I’m quite relieved that I never looked at the downs!
@Petrol For once your method may have made the solve easier indeed 🤣 NTSB... I was recently solving an archived late week puzzle from 2021 or 2022. There was a down clue about the US's oldest restaurant chain. It turned out to be AAANDW. It took me a while to parse it 🤣 The stuff us folks with publicly funded schools and healthcare are exposed to in these puzzles is so weird sometimes, eh?
Never would have guessed 11D in a million years. Who says that?
@Queenie Very common phrase for a while amongst teenagers.
Queenie, It's even in several dictionaries! Here's one cite: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/onfleek" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/onfleek</a>
@Queenie no one says it anymore. it’s popularity as slang is long over. but it was popular amongst the youth at one time maybe 5 years ago
@Queenie Not me. I had to recheck the crosses to make sure I hadn't messed up.
@Queenie If there was a god, NOBODY. But alas....
For a while, Mr. PIBB had been renamed "PIBB Xtra." It was a dark day for sugar-water connoisseurs. I refused to call it that; it sounded undignified. Thankfully, it's been re-rebranded as Mr. PIBB, and sanity has been restored to the world.
Great Monday puzzle! I appreciated the reminder of summer camp sleeping arrangements on this bitter cold morning. Great collaboration and congrats on the debut, Jeff!
Sam, Re: 39A in Tricky Clues Using Patrick Berry's definition in the link you provided in the column, YES, WE DO is *not* green paint.
@Barry Ancona Why not? Is there some particular situation that calls for this phrase uniquely? If it was "Yes we can", you could hook it to Obama's slogan. If it was "Yes we will", that hook disappears and it seems to be just as indistinct as "Yes we do." Reads like 'green paint' to me. It's not merely the adjective+noun combo; it's the lack of distinction.
Sweet. An unRAPPERed gift for Christmas! 🤗 Fun puzzle. Thanks.
Two Star Wars clues in a puzzle this small is a tad much imo (though two clues in any would be two too many for me personally I understand tastes differ)
@E. It was one too many for me too! Jeff actually redid that corner getting of both JABBA AND the reviled FLEEK whose moment has come and gone, I guess! But the gods that be said we were too late! I knew we'd get a lot of flak/Fleek about it! (Sigh.)
Grew up sleeping on the top bunk in my own home. So I enjoyed the theme.. I commented yesterday that it was actually 49ds 100th and there he is. Can we come up with something other than when doubled an African fly as a clue for TSE? It’s getting old
@Megan There have only been three such clues since 2020, out of 14. And it was almost non-existent before then. Far more common clues, numbered in the dozens, are for [Mao ___-tung] (outdated now), [Lao-___]. Also, you'll find the monogram of T. S. Eliot, the initials for the Japanese stock market as well as the Toronto one, another Chinese guy K'ug Fu-___ (Confucius), and a Cyrillic alphabet letter. That's out of 421 appearances. Which one would you like to see again? <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder</a>
Nice one - wondered how bed bed was going to play out, looked forward to the big reveal.... and.... you guys nailed the landing! Well done
Thanks Sam Corbin for dating most of us here — excepting yesterday setter — “ dates back to the 20th century ” 😀😀😀 A good not obviously straightforward Monday puzzle. Thanks
@Ιασων I'll argue a not obviously straightforward Monday is a bad Monday 🤷🏽
@Ιασων Many, including me, are/were surprised the first time that they run/ran across ARTOO* in a puzzle, that it's not spelled ARTWO, as in R2D2. And it's often a subject of comments. Hopefully you will remember for next time. *if you watch any of the star wars movies with the subtitles on, that's the way it is spelled.
Back in the Mid 60’s as a teenaged (16) usher at a Walter Reade Theater I had to quell an eruption from a discontented audience at curtain time. This on account of the fact that the print of Bonnie and Clyde arrived from Hollyweird with the dialogue in Spanish; the 46a with English subtitles. There was as much popcorn airborne in the aisles as is in Blue Man Group shows.
from brutus, Sorry folks, my comment was meant to associate the popcorn to Blue Man’s toilet paper.
Great article today on Stephen Sondheim's obsession with games and puzzle-making, very entertaining article and review of a new book that's come out about it: <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/12/22/stephen-sondheim-puzzle-maestro" target="_blank">https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/12/22/stephen-sondheim-puzzle-maestro</a>
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/crosswords/the-slow-decline-of-urban-dictionary.html?unlocked_article_code=1.808.MlZ9.3E_-ufF37ixs&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/crosswords/the-slow-decline-of-urban-dictionary.html?unlocked_article_code=1.808.MlZ9.3E_-ufF37ixs&smid=url-share</a>
@Eric Hougland Thanks, Eric. I used to go there for explanations of slang expressions that were new to me. But, then, I was alerted to the Doctorow-ification of the site.
Three people in 2014 used the work FLEEK and somehow, that became a NYT crossword answer? Crosses were easy but really? Yuk.
@Allen boohoo they use slang in the crossword sometimes. Least it's not another Taylor Swift clue.
Fun one! Slight natick with BANC/CARUSO, but other than that I really enjoyed this one!