Oh, that’s one terrific theme. The marvelous cast of Othello, Jesus, Musafa, Osiris, and Caesar – all who were double-crossed – being visually double-crossed by their double-crossers in the grid. Pure originality – how often do you see a theme like that? Furthermore, IMO, the theme was beautified by those artfully-written italicized clues describing the villainous characters. Then, the skill and talent behind making this. Designing a symmetrical grid to accommodate five sets of three answers plus a 13-letter revealer had to be a bear. Meanwhile, witty clues, such as [Building that shouldn’t have running water] for ICE PALACE, and [Paired chips with dips?] for RHYMED, brightened the way, as did the gorgeous FILCHES bannering the center of the box. My wheelhouse deficiencies provided trouble spots here and there, happifying my work-loving brain. The art and science of crosswords showcased in your quality creation, Gene. Thank you, sir, and bravo!
Administrative note. For Monday, I should be able to sneak in my Favorite Clues of The Week by posting them Sunday night. But I shall be away on Monday, due to spending what I expect to be a delightful day entertaining a young family member.
@Lewis, you double cross...worded there my friend: ICE PALACE was in yesterday's puzzle, but your comment still stands and this was a really amazing puzzle, what a cast of characters indeed!
@Lewis Thank you very much for setting this out and opening my eyes. i couldn’t see the pattern and couldn’t understand how an answer could be used more than once. It turns out that’s I just couldn’t see the wood for the (thick and knotty) trees and after struggling to fill in the last few entries, I opened the comments in something of a grouch, expecting to see a sea of endless griping. Now I get it! Brilliant! No wonder why the comments are full of glowing reviews!
@Lewis Any chance you would be interested in Deb’s job? I would love reading your take on the daily crossword!
@Lewis thank you for all your fine comments in this community - happy new year, and please keep them coming!
Love that the constructor fit in STOPITYOUTWO, directed at those doubled double-crossers, no doubt :-)
I found this very clever and very gentle start to a new year of Sunday puzzles. BASE PAIRS indeed. No cross words for this one, please. Thanks, Gene.
One of the most creative ones yet…didn’t get the clue till after it was done though I saw bits and pieces throughout. Once I finished, it was like, ohhhhh! First time poster. Had to because it was so good!
Wow, I love the DOUBLE CROSSED theme and the break from crossword convention. When I came across the first set of repeating entries I thought for sure I had an error, but then I noticed the two IAGOs crossing OTHELLO and the lightbulb went on. Very impressive construction! It’s easy enough to come up with a second clue for SCAR and SET, but not so easy for JUDAS, BRUTUS and IAGO. Not a ton of wordplay, but I especially like [Where idols go head-to-head] for TOTEM and [Paired chips with dips] for RHYMED. Thanks, Gene Louise, that was fun!
@Anita I agree with you. This was a rave-worthy feat. Definitely going on my nominations list for 2026. My one problem: within my limited understanding, totem poles (which I think must be what's meant here, because of 'head to head') are not idols and are not worshipped. Perhaps someone here has a better understanding and can enlighten us.
I had DOGE BRO for obnoxious fratty sort. It'll be a thing soon, I promise you. Funny how ALIT can be both [Got off] and [Got on]. I still remember how Thomas Haden Church's character quietly betrays Paul Giamatti's character in that movie "Sideways." What a good film that was. Lovely, rich vocabulary here: FILCHES, SINTER, PLACATES, GOOSE EGG (plus FRY UP, haha), and I could go on. I didn't find this as easy as some did, possibly distracted by current threats to that Athenian invention mentioned in this puzzle from BUBBA and his DOGE BROS, may he dine well on all that nitrate-laden fare, and if he HAS A BEEF hamburger with chips, dips and pop sugar, then asks what's on the sub menu, well bless the heart that beats within his sturdy ribcage! Et TWO Brute?
@john ezra ... my perception of your implication, from your lips to god's ear
@john ezra I don’t think ALIT can mean got on.
@john ezra Yes, Sideways was a fun movie. I saw it twice. Great scenery of wine country. Sandra Oh had something to say with that motorcycle helmet of hers. Why don't I do that in similar situations? I just end up feeling DOUBLECROSSED.
Howdy :) I really enjoyed this Sunday! For cause of the fact that I am 13, I did ask my Dad for some help with this one, as I normally do with Fridays and Saturdays as well XD Spoiler alert. Anywho, when I saw the clue I put CSHARP but the other clues revealed that it was indeed, FSHARP. When I out that one down I knew I had a 5050 chance of getting it right, but also that there is probably another less common _SHARP language out there that I didn’t know about. I love programming and developing different things, websites, apps, etc. I have a lot to figure out yet, but I’m trying :) Have a lovely Sunday! Blessings🫶
However, I did only learn about F# the other day lol Such a funny coincidence.
@Ethan You sound like a delightful young man, your parents must be proud. Just what I’d expect of a Canadian!
@Ethan Glad you’re here! This is a fun community and reading your post made it better.
@Ethan Until today I only knew of C SHARP and had to ask my partner (who is a programmer) if there is a language that begins with F. So I got the answer, with a little help! He said as far as he knows, there isn't another _SHARP language. F SHARP is Microsoft's riff on a "Lisp-like language" — both C# and F# are from Microsoft — and that the F stands for Functional. Then he went on to say he he once read an essay* that suggested all programming languages eventually converge towards Lisp. I guess that's what passes for programmer humor! Haha. It certainly left an impression on him! *Written by Paul Graham, an influential British computer scientist, author and early venture capitalist who has been described as a "hacker philosopher".
I love how the puzzle doublecrossed me by making me doubt duplicate answers. What a delightfully devious thing to do. Marvelous theme elegantly presented. I'd like to request seconds, please.
You know what frosts my cupcake? Commenters here insisting that clues and answers are somehow incorrect or cheats because the commenter’s own knowledge is insufficient. So we have someone from Michigan telling us that NYS isn’t a legit abbreviation for New York State when anyone who has ever driven the thruway knows that it is! Or folks from California and Massachusetts telling us that adobe is not a home style when a poster from the actual Southwest assures us that it is. People: these puzzle constructors check their work. And Will and his team edit and test the puzzles diligently. And Google is there for you to check your facts and test your assumptions.
BL, I, too, am on team “Cupcakes Are Better Unfrosted”. (as well as team “And Cupcakes Are Better If You Check A Recipe Before Making Them If You Don’t Know All The Things That Go Into Them Just From Memory.”)
@BL The editors do make mistakes though. Every authority needs to be questioned.
@BL Not Massachusetts! I noticed that you misread my reply below. I was arguing that Adobe brick, Adobe house, and Adobe were all correct usages. I used to live in the Southwest.
Clever cluing, double fun. JUDAS was a double crosser, and IAGO was too, and when I remembered the title of the puzzle, I was off and running. But so many clues pointed in so many directions, most of which didn't fit, and made Gene Louise a sly double crosser too. SINTER was new to me, and so was RAPINE, but they were unshakeable when the crosses were so solid. Resourceful, I'd say. What I'd call a dazzler, and an entertaining one at that. Thank you, Gene Louise, for a needed distraction on this fraught day.
@dutchiris, since you are alive and solving (and solvent, too, I hope) that means your medical visit went well, I hope. Keep up the good work!
Brilliant theme and so elegant. As @Eric Hougland writes in his Crossword Fiend review (see link in his comment), the theme was both fun and high-brow, no easy feat. I love Sundays with layers and this one was as richly layered as an entremet. And learning a few new words (SINTER, RAPINE) always makes me happy — AIT’s never too late for us LATE BLOOMERS.
@Puzzlemucker Thanks for the shoutout.
I can say with great confidence that this is my favorite puzzle so far this year ;) Seriously though, what a clever and well-executed theme!
RAPINE was apt given today's headlines (and for US foreign policy in general as well)
Well, that was lots of fun!! Figuring out the theme brought a lovely amount of glee this solver! Had a little trouble in the lower right... the whole area under POPSUGAR, which I'd not heard of, was my big slowdown. Too bad I'm not a bigger lotr person—I envy those of you who found GALADRIEL to be a gimme. I needed every single cross to get her name. And I had some wrong entries there, like BEGaT instead of BEGOT, which made it very hard for me to think of GOOSEEGG. Fortunately, there were a few gimmes down there, like OTHELLO and the DOUBLECROSSing IAGOs, so I got there in just over average time. What a fun theme!! Really enjoyed STOPITYOUTWO, RHYMED, and LATEBLOOMERS. Fun Sunday!
I was not SCARred by this puzzle and it did not lay a GOOSEEGG (at one point all I had on that one were the EEGG, which was a bit of a head scratcher). I did a double take when I saw the second BRUTUS, but didn’t catch on to the multiple doubling until I saw the two JUDASes. It took me a little longer to spot that the double crossers double crossed their victims. A nice layered reveal. Any puzzle with GALADRIEL clued as the splendid Cate Blanchett is a winner in my book. Where idols go head to head: TOTEM. Pure gold.
@Marshall Walthew Yes! Loved that clue (idols—totem).
Sometimes a puzzles drives so far up my alley it almost dents my garage door. [smiles happily] Well, hello there, Gene.
For the website devs, I've previewed the update designed to "improve how you see replies to posts" and I can officially provide my feedback. It has worsened how I see replies to posts! Replies to replies are now nested and much more difficult to spot, requiring extra clicks to un-nest (there's a new word for you, setters). Works fine as it is, methinks - it's pretty obvious from the @s at the start of a message who the message is directed at. And much nicer to just read all of the replies in one flat list. Just my two cents! Anyone else agree with me?
@Tim I thought everybody agrees with you? The new "system" is horrible, utterly awkward to use, and it makes no sense at all. Who enjoys clicking a zillion times??
@Tim Yep, everyone agrees with you. The "new" system is markedly worse in every way and brings exactly zero benefits. It's a terrible idea and terribly executed, whilst there is so much room for real improvement to this decidedly mediocre (slow, featureless, primitively moderated) comment system. The only bright spot is that so far we're still allowed to turn it back off. It's a bear.
@Tim The option to preview has been there for quite a while. I just turned it back off and all seems fine. Just pray they don't actually ever fully implement it.
I thought this was brilliant and great fun. I really don’t get all the whingeing. Where’s the fun in predictability? And obscure answers like “ait” and “sinter”? Vocabulary building is good for the brain!
@BL Like you, I was glad to see AIT and SINTER. I couldn't have found them independently but, with the crossings jogging my brain, there they were -- with meanings even! Vague meanings but still a start.
Et tu, Sunday! Boy howdy, THAT was worth the doublecross. "I will wear my loss upon my sleeve For emus to peck at: I am not what I am." Now off to sleep, perchance to dream of squares filled and unfulfilled, with a sigh, "Farewell the tranquil mind! Farewell content!"
Good puzzle but can anyone explain AIT? British isle??
@Tim Ah, I feel vindicated. I had no idea what that was about, but if a Brit is equally clueless, nothing is wrong with me.
@Tim I had used the word in Scrabble without knowing its meaning. Some small islands in the Thames are called aits apparently, but I was more familiar with the variation "eyot" (also a Scrabble word for me!)
@Tim I live on the south bank of the Thames. Never heard of ait.
@Tim I've seen this word many times in word puzzles. It is an island in a river. I really don't get what the word "British" is doing in the clue. Perhaps us non-Brits know the word but don't name our aits "xx ait"?
A good example of why the "rules" are not absolute. Very creative, challenging and enjoyable to solve.
Very clever puzzle, love the theme.
What a great Sunday grid, exactly what I look for; tough, tricky, head scratching, with a real Aha revealer. Seeing duplicated clues really helped me find the theme and what a good one. Well done to Gene Louise.
Loved this! In a meta sense this puzzle slyly double crossed the 'no doubles' protocol lol
I thought for sure this was going to be DNA related based on the title AND the constructor’s first name. My first clue as to what was going on was seeing SCAR as my answer twice and scratching my head thinking this can’t be right?! Then it happened again with BRUTUS and I was off to the races. I did have RAPINE ending with a g initially (I was thinking of it in relation to pillaging). But IGNORES cured me of that. I just really enjoyed this entire grid. Thank you Gene Louise. This truly brightened my evening as I recover from the flu.
@Jacqui J Sorry you have the flu. I’ve read that it’s bad this year. Hope you feel better soon!
@Jacqui J Aww, sorry you're sick! Wishing you a speedy recovery! I really enjoyed the puzzle too!! What a fun one!
🤩My name in print, this makes people. I feel like Naven Johnson when he found his name listed in the phone book; if you get what I’m saying. I’d shout it from the rooftop but ‘tis too icy plus I have a case of acrophobia.
@brutus Et tu? Personally I was expecting a The Barber Beefcake reference as well, and felt disappointed. :)
@brutus, Twice, even! Very impressive!
I'm approaching the 2,000 NYT crosswords completed milestone this year, and building on a 550 day streak. My 2026 crossword goals: hoping to focus on honing my themeless solving skills and remembering to appreciate the joy solving brings me. Also hoping to be active in the wordplay comment section, this community has some of the most thoughtful internet participants out there. On today's puzzle: Very disappointed and may need to turn in my elder millennial card after taking too long to remember IAGO is Jafar's Parrot. I just kept repeating Gilbert Gottfried in my head! Similarly, MUFASA and SCAR should have been gimmes, but required a significant cross-solve for it to dawn on me.
Early and wrong idea of a theme: I filled in JUDAS at 69D, and noted that two of those letters (U and A) are bases in DNA/RNA. Aha, sez I, we’re supposed to swap those letters for their partner in the base pair! And those new letters will make the across entries work. Wrong theme conjecture = extra fun, in my book. Later on I said “oh *that* kind of base”! Anyhow: all you constructors wanting to do a nucleic acid theme - I’ll be ready!
@Cat Lady Margaret I immediately thought ATGC was going to play a role.
Admission: I have always disliked Sylvia Plath, even though admittedly, she's never done anything to me. Eschewing all the structured walls Of meter and of rhyme, Of rhythm and sonority That other poets climb, You call your craft "tyrannical" And think yourself a Bard, But rhyme's what makes it hard, Ms. Plath -- Yes, rhyme's what makes it hard. When rhyme's not there, said Robert Frost -- And here I'd like to quote: It's tennis played without a net -- Yes, that is what he wrote! Is poetry "tyrannical"? I think, Ms. Plath, that's true. But truest for the Bards who rhyme And not so much for you.
@Nancy I've never been a huge fan of Sylvia Plath. When I was younger, poet wannabes had a tendency to romanticize her suicide, which I thought was dangerous. But I think it's unfair to criticize her for the lack of RHYME in her POETRY. Neglect for that aspect of the art goes back much further. In the 20th Century, there's more poetry that doesn't rhyme than poetry that does. I'd look to T.S. Eliot for popularizing that trend...that continues to the present. But I'd also point out that Greek and Latin POETRY, the art that we still refer to as "Classic", almost never RHYMEd.
@Nancy Poetry that doesn't rhyme? I don't think it's so sublime.
@Nancy Robert Frost was not disparaging rhymeless poetry—he wrote it himself! (See “Mending Wall.”) By “without a net” he meant that rhymeless poetry could be even harder to construct—it only looks easier. And long before Plath or Eliot, Walt Whitman, the greatest American poet, had mostly eschewed rhyming poems.
Ruh-ROH, Astro and PINENUTS and Red ADAIR. What's not to love? I confess that I was so intent on solving I didn't notice the double answers. I think solving on the phone app contributed to that a bit. It's a bit harder to take in the entire puzzle at the same time. A good start for the new Sunday puzzling year.
@Vaer I was on my laptop so I have less of an excuse, but it took me a couple of double crossings longer than it should have to see it, but oh the glee once I did! Once I go went a full round of crosses and downs, I just jumped around, so I got some of those rascals earlier or on crosses and didn't look too deeply... For example, I got JESUS and his DOUBLECROSSER right away, but the Lady Gaga hit filled in on crosses completely and I didn't notice until I found a double SCAR. Oh how I chuckled in delight!
@Vaer Agreed - I didn’t notice until Iago! Felt pretty dumb at that point. Really fun Sunday!
@HeathieJ I can name exactly two Lady Gaga songs, so it's a good thing that that filled in on crosses for me, also.
Clever puzzle, but one of the hardest Sundays I’ve done in a while. Between the words I’d never seen before (SINTER, RAPINE, NO CAP), the answers I was sure were right but weren’t (C SHARP), the answers I was sure were wrong but were right (ALIT), and the names I simply didn’t know (GALADRIEL, the parrot IAGO), this was a slow journey. But still a good one. I must admit, entering that second BRUTUS felt all kinds of wrong— but also IMPishly right. Sometimes it’s fun to break rules.
Save yourself the trouble and just google the many MANY totally obscure proper nouns. Why not? The constructor obviously did.
@LJADZ The main difference between those who go on to become really good solvers and those who don't is attitude.
LJADZ, I've read your posts for a while. Have you ever come across a proper noun here that was not totally obscure?
@LJADZ Nancy, Barry, Steve, I don’t think the concern about proper names comes from impatience or lack of knowledge. The challenge is that proper nouns are often ambiguous and usually have to be confirmed entirely by crossers. Unlike standard vocabulary, they don’t follow consistent spelling patterns, and many can be quite obscure. Since no one knows every name, including yourselves, an abundance of proper nouns can make a puzzle feel less satisfying and more frustrating for some solvers — which is a fair preference, even if others enjoy that style.
@LJADZ It's your puzzle. Solve it any way you choose. I choose to use the crosses to try to figure out the answers that I don't know (like SINTER, MAUD, and POPSUGAR today). However, I would recommend that you not criticize the constructors for using whatever tools they can to create a clever puzzle. Making a puzzle is hard work for little reward. As a regular solver, I am always grateful for their efforts. And today's puzzle is certainly clever.
Puzzles like this are jaw-droppingly clever and huge fun. Thanks Gene!
😅 had _EN__ for 46 Down. I am not 12. I am not male. Still had a little giggle.
@Lauren Ford you're not alone, i had a similar experience. except that the letters i had were _E_I.
and now I learn how to _italicize_ in the comments?! What a day.
@Lauren Ford Yes I had a start at -ENI- as well, not to mention PIS-. That was a base pair of misdirections for me
@Lauren Ford, I also had _ENI_ there. Guess where my 6-year-old mind went to.
I liked the breaking of taboo by duplicating the answers. Felt very fresh as far as themes go. Fill was a little rough, so I won't give myself grief for looking a few things up. I will say by the time I got close to the finish my brain was done, and I had to look up AVON because I simply couldn't remember it. I even had the A and the N! :'(
@Aaron P. Yes, I was taken aback when I saw that Iago was there twice. It made me doubt myself, actually, whether I was really so certain that they were correct. But that freed my mind for allowing that other answers might be duplicated too and the rest is history!
@Aaron P. I had the a and the v and still struggled to remember the makeup brand! Ha! Don't think I've heard of or thought of Avon or the Avon lady in decades. Course I had to give myself a good head slap when It finally dawned on me.
This was excellent! Lots of fun. Loved the non-themed stuff as well. Thank you, Gene Louise! Just a delightful puzzle. Y’all have a great Sunday!
Lots of prickly fill here (AIT? ALAI? RAPINE?), but worth it, I'd say, for the delicious theme. Great puzzle, thanks!
This puzzle was way too challenging for me. Was feeling pretty good after completing friday and saturday, but this was… humbling. A mix of deceptive cluing and my own trivia blind spots forced me looking up everything I could possibly google and still struggling to finish. Oh well, not the puzzle creator’s fault, I’ll keep on trying!
@Ben V This puzzle was no walk in the park for me, either! It took me way longer than average – and my Sunday PB apparently was exactly one month ago-! "My own trivia blind spots" is a great way to put it. And this puzzle was rife with those for me... I haven't been this grateful for a Monday puzzle in a long time!
GOOSEEGG took way too long to incubate, because somehow I forgat one of the past tenses of “beget”. This was a good, fun Sunday puzzle, with all its 363 double crossings.
@JohnWM The triple double-letters in GOOSEEGG are both strange and wonderful.
@JohnWM Thanks for the help! I also had BEGaT and wondered what on earth was a GaOSEEGG. You helped me avoid the list review. Great puzzle! Great AHA moment with the DOUBLECROSSED clues.
Yes! An unwritten rule in crossword puzzle land, beautifully broken. I loved that the revealer was in the Down clues so that I had been through the grid once before getting to it. Through the years, I have seen a similar convention in other types of puzzles that have unwritten rules and then break them: whenever you are going to do so, you have to signal in some way that this is what you are doing, and have a plausible, thematic reason. This puzzle started off very soberly and ended as a delight.
@Lynn There was a puzzle in the last year or two that had SET for the answer about 8 times! Each with totally diifferent clues. So, I remembered seeing this construct before and that helped.
Very unusual and well executed theme. Missed it with SET but was wondering what was going wrong in my brain with BRUTUS and this Ohio guy wasn’t going to miss the Ohio State mascot. I really loved the cute LATEBLOOMERS clue over the educational SIERRALEONE entry at the the end. A lot of fun.
This was a really great grid. Solid theme with good theme entries, interesting and fun fill, and a lot of hard trivia but all the answers were mostly gettable through crosses (with a couple of forgivable exceptions). Amazing work! Looking forward to more from the setter.
I found the puzzle a tad more difficult than most Sunday entries. The device used was fine with me and I admit to not knowing a number of the less well known more modern terms. That’s all fine, what I do have a problem with is all of the proper names in the fill. Just too many for my taste.
Using the same answer twice, even as a themed entry, just felt wrong. I don’t recall doing any crosswords prior to this where a single answer was repeated, let alone five or six times. I guess it felt confining and confusing to me, which made it difficult and unfamiliar, even for a Sunday themed puzzle. That and the sprinkling of genuinely challenging entries, (yes, SINTER, RAPINE and FSHARP but also the seemingly benign SGTMAJ, AURIC, PISH and AIT / ACRES / ALIT) made this a slow grind. I needed to proof it a couple of times before getting it past the gold star review, finally catching AVON / PAVE after fixing PAOLO / TELOS / MAUNA LOA. Kudos
@Michael This type of puzzle has appeared 67 times, of which the previous time was in May. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Repeats" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Repeats</a> In case the above is paywalled, here are the ones from the 2020s so far: Date Author Repeated words Editor Sun Jan 4, 2026 Gene Louise De Vera BRUTUS IAGO JUDAS SCAR SET Shortz Thu Mar 6, 2025 Kiran Pandey BORN NATURE CARBON DOWN Shortz Sun Dec 1, 2024 John Lieb ICE (5) Fagliano Mon Jun 10, 2024 Kareem Ayas SET (14) Fagliano Sun Dec 31, 2023 Matt Linzer and Rafael Musa BALL (5) Shortz Mon Jun 19, 2023 David Liben-Nowell SLICEOFBREAD Shortz Sun May 7, 2023 Will Nediger SHIPOFTHESEUS Shortz Thu Dec 22, 2022 David Steinberg CAR RAC Shortz Mon Oct 24, 2022 Joe Rodini SANS Shortz Sun Mar 13, 2022 Christina Iverson and Katie Hale SIDE Shortz Thu Oct 22, 2020 Sid Sivakumar (3) Shortz Wed Aug 19, 2020 Brandon Koppy LIFE Shortz Sun Feb 16, 2020 Sam Ezersky SEIZE Shortz
@Michael Thursday, March 6th 2025 had a theme where there were repeat answers in the grid multiple times. Not sure how you'd feel about that one, but it was one of my favorites from 2025 :)
This is one of those cases where being a computer scientist probably hurt my solve when it came to technical clues. I wrote “c SHARP” in for 66D immediately, and only switched to F SHARP when the music didn’t play and “cILCHES” looked odd. (Though to be fair, I’ve also never heard of FILCHES) Not saying F# isn’t a valid language! Just saying as a tech guy who has written mostly object oriented stuff, I leapt to an answer out of cockiness.
@Stephen Yeah, I had C# first too, not F#. I bet most people who had heard of either language did too. Either way... Does anyone actually spell out "S H A R P" when talking about either of those languages? In both cases I think the official name uses the # symbol.
@Stephen I was sure of cSHARP. Just one of the places that I got really slowed down.
@Stephen I also have C.S. degree -- long before any "C" languages were invented. But I do know them, so also wrote in cSHARP. However I fixed it pretty quickly, because I always start Wordle with MEANY, TOURS and FILCH. [or sometimes CHILD]. With those 15 letters, and all 5 vowels I can usually get the Wordle in 4. I had a 98 day streak going -- and then got stuck on _ASTE. H? W? P? T? C? I guessed wrong....
Big shout to SESAME PLACE, our favorite family vacation. The kids aged out of it too quickly, but my wife and I would gladly recommend.