TURTLESHELL is absolutely incredible, one of my favorite single clues I've seen.
@Jimmy Stoyell It was the only of the themers I actually found clever, if terribly sad at the same time.
@Jimmy Stoyell This clue led me to a fascinating — to me, anyway — exposition about turtle shells and how they help different breeds of turtle survive. It will surprise you. <a href="https://zooatlanta.org/what-the-shell" target="_blank">https://zooatlanta.org/what-the-shell</a>/
@Jimmy Stoyell made me think of a post turtle. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Snorkblot/comments/i9kiy7/post_turtles" target="_blank">https://www.reddit.com/r/Snorkblot/comments/i9kiy7/post_turtles</a>/
This puzzle was sneaky good. The themers weren’t obvious (at least not to me) and each one was its own aha moment. My favorite, and the last to fall, was DRAGONSLAYER. I also got a kick out of seeing RAP and EMO stacked atop each other (even though EMO wasn’t being used as a music genre in this case). I had tried EMO as the mix tape genre, so I was amused to see it crop up right below where I had improperly inserted it.
@Marshall Walthew Yeah same! I filled in EMO on the top and then filled it out again on the next line thinking it was def one of those.
@Marshall Walthew same here. I was an emo kid, so all my mixtapes were that genre. When it also worked for the clue below, I had to rethink my assumptions.
@Marshall Walthew same, same! “Genre for many a mixtape” seems to be a lame clue. Unless there is some wordplay that I’m missing about how “mix” is used in rap music terminology (more than in any other modern musical style), the clue may as well have been “Music genre”. If I am missing something, someone please enlighten me. Thanks.
Woolly court proceedings? SHEEPSHEARING I thought this was lots of fun, and took me almost exactly my Wednesday average time. I had filled in several of the themed clues before clicking - trying to puzzle out PIGSKIN is what really brought it home for me.
Sam, 32A ORD *is* short for ordinal. An ordinal number is a number that tells the position of something in a list, such as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and so on.
@Barry Ancona Yes, I was going to suggest the same
@Barry Ancona I went with ORDER due to overexposure to Exel spreadsheets.
"Is this saddle really a top-of-equine product?" "I would neigh-ver steer you wrong!" ("Okay, don't want to stirrup anything.")
@Mike Hay, with tack like that you'll have a hors d'oeuvres the moon. It deserves it, because when it reins, it shines.
@Mike That’s a filly gift, but the bridle love it. It’s all she’s wanted since the groom popped equestrian.
@Mike Your puns somehow give me both a nagging doubt and a galloping heart rate
Well, it's early and I had to go to both the Wordplay AND the comments to finish this one but how about: Big Cat's utensils? LEOPARDSPOTS Your ride talks back to you? HORSESASS Don't worry. I may be back with more.
@lucky13 That second one works backwards form today's theme, but is pretty funny, nonetheless.
A number of Curry's puzzles were nominated for the Griddies and this one may well be, too, with its offbeat cluing (very fond of [Casting rod] - WAND) and that great pair of clues that led to RAP over EMO -- I wanted to put EMO for both clues! Dragonslayer and Catscan were also fantastic. It made me think of my all-time favorite youtube video: a cat sitting on a couch all by itself, watching the metal band Slayer on TV. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx1sN15C5rs" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx1sN15C5rs</a> It's only a minute long but every time I watch it, I laugh and laugh, without really knowing why.
@john ezra that video is hysterical 😂
@john ezra "Casting rod" solving to WAND is not offbeat at all if you've ever played a fantasy game 🤷🏽♂️🪄
@john ezra Great video! When I was a kid, out cat used to love to watch Red Skelton with my father. She would sit on top of the television and bend her neck down and stare at the screen. She never did this when anything else was on.
Oh, bravo to the mind that came up with this wordplay theme – never been done before. I wouldn’t expect less from Kevin, whose {Pan in the butt] made 2025’s Clues of the Year list (answer in reply). Also, good choice to tighten the theme by limiting it to animals. Freshness in the grid as well, as every theme answer is not only an in-the-language phrase, but a NYT debut. I like the PuzzPair©️ of RELAY RACES and WAND, the lovely answers SKULK and UPSHOT, the rare-in-crosswords five-letter semordnilap (LOOTS), and how IT’S ODD contradicts its clue number. I also like the unintended airport code (ORD) sharing the box with the intended one (LAS). But mostly I like the play of words in the theme, a “Hah!”-heavy solve for me, the loudest coming at TURTLESHELL. Your mood elevator was greatly appreciated, Kevin. Thank you!
@Lewis Actually it has been done before, at least twice, as @CLM and @RiA have pointed out. Myself, I found that the short fill seemed a lot less forced than many puzzles recently--no weird text message abbreviations or playground retorts--albeit somewhat straightforward in its cluing--I mean, who cares how many calories are in an oreo? But I'll blame that on the clue editors, not Mr. Curry.
Excellent puzzle, Kevin! My favorite was TURTLESHELL. Made me laugh out loud.
I had a big goofy smile on my face this entire solve. Definitely not SO LAME … even though we are teetering on the edge of “dad joke”.
I enjoyed reading some nice potential themers in the comments today. The only ones I could come up with ended with HIT.
I loved the reparsing of the theme answers. None of them seemed obvious and each brought a smile as I figured it out. I enjoy jigsaw puzzles as well as crosswords, so I liked seeing EDGE PIECES and was surprised it was a debut! I saw a link between CLIPS and MAVS as nicknames for NBA teams. I had one MISSTEP with ScARFS before SNARFS. All in all a fantastic Wednesday. Thank you, Kevin.
@Jacqui J I forgot EvaDE before ELUDE. Both great misdirects!
What a positively charming puzzle, I was smiling at my screen half the time!
Wow what a tight fun theme. I do think Kevin’s choices ended up being the best ones rather than his alternates—BEARSPRAY is clever but PRAYER is really the noun; TOADSTOOL is a little stretchy; and Babe at a family reunion doesn’t convey the possessive. But the ones he included were terrific! I had some odd misdirects today. I know enough about sports to know David Justice’s domain is MLB (even if it was wrong) but not enough to know Nowotzki was on the MAVS not the CAVS. I had PEON before PLEB, EVADE before ELUDE (and no reason to think Vegas’s airport code doesn’t start with a V), and the usual ambiguity between SCARF and SNARF. That and CATSEAT before CATSCAN and being mad that it didn’t follow the theme. So this Wednesday was both a decent challenge and as much fun as a Thanksgiving party (or a TURKEYSHOOT as I like to say). Thanks Kevin!
@SP after reading your comment, I realized I actually had two MISSTEPS as I also started with EvaDE before ELUDE in addition to my ScARFS before SNARFS.
@SP Did we solve the same puzzle? For me this solved like a Tuesday, at best, and one with one of the most groany themes I have ever encountered at the NYT.
@SP Funny, I had ELUDES, PLEB and SCARFS right away, but doubted myself on all of them — especially PLEB. That __VP on the cross did not allay my hesitancy! (Though it would've been the same with PEON.) I guess I need to add ELUDE/EVADE and SCARFS/SNARFS to the ole KEALOA list...
@SP don’t worry i spent the entire solve thinking 11D must be some obscure US word for a tug-o-war until I got the crossings. Scoff was also an option between scarf and snarf.
@SP also had CAVS and EVADE and yachtRACES
How about [Nonsense that is black and white, but not gray?] = ZEBRASTRIPE Okay, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch. How often do people say tripe? Anyway, I loved this puzzle dearly :) When I got to TURTLESHELL, I went “aww poor guy!” out loud.
@Elena We say tripe all the time (and eat it) so that made me grin!
Good fun. Thanks. [Simba's pet rabbit?] LIONSHARE
Jeff Goldblum’s deleted kissing scene in a 1986 movie classic? FLYSPECKING (or a toad’s activity with those night-vision goggles)
Granted, there is a question mark in the clue "Outlet store?" for 13D POWER. (But I hope this doesn't suggest that energy per time is actually stored in a wall outlet, because it isn't! Instead, energy is actually manufactured inside each powered device, by a new kind of battery based on a recently discovered archaea microorganism that eats light.)
@Dan Yeah this was my least favorite clue. Does it mean the outlet is a litte 7-11 with shelves full of electrons? Is water from my "faucet store?" Even with the question mark it's a klunker.
@Dan Agreed. I would have preferred it clued as “Outlet supply”
Jesus... Monday/Tuesday clueing and a theme of groaners... This was one of the least satisfying Wednesday solves I have ever experienced at the NYT. What a letdown 😐 For a fascinating, modern look at the Medusa myth which reframes her as that victim and Perseus as the villain (if not quite a monster), check out the brilliant Natalie Haynes's "Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths."
@Andrzej As I was solving this one, I was thinking: Andrzej is going to hate this. Lo and behold, yours was the first comment displayed when I entered the forum. Ha! I’m easy and corny so I loved the puzzle, but I was “delighted” to see your review as predicted as well as the alternate Medusa reference. That’s what makes this fun!
@Andrzej hey Zeus - ye flippin' gods! Wasn't that bad was it? Maybe setting up a false sense of security before a heinous Thurday, perhaps?
@Andrzej I thought the puzzle was at par for Wednesday and elegantly thought out. Not particularly my thing but it wasn’t 34A. It was good. Re Medusa Haynes did a very good series on the BBC. <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/natalie-haynes-stands-up-for-the-classics/id1495971324?i=1000522541040" target="_blank">https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/natalie-haynes-stands-up-for-the-classics/id1495971324?i=1000522541040</a>
@Andrzej As is so often the case, I agree with you. I found this puzzle to be a yawner. After doing the puzzle for so many decades, I must have seen this trick many times.
@Andrzej O you are not being a curmudgeon here! I didn't like it either. Maybe It's because I keep watching all those animal shows on the telly. This puzzle just had a lot of ICK in it regarding animals.
I would like to read about Pandora's Jar. One of my favorite characters from Greek mythology is Penelope, Odysseus's wife. Penelope told the suitors who demanded that she accept one of them to replace long-gone Odysseus that she would re-marry when she finished the tapestry she was weaving. Every day she would weave it all day, then stay up at night un-weaving it. It sounds like the lot of a lot of American women today, maybe, hitting that glass ceiling, etc. For two great movies about women's struggles (in the workplace) today, check out North Country (starring Charlize Theon) and Lilly (with Patricia Clarkson). Both are based on true stories. My absolute favorite female in Greek myths is Daphne. You can check out her struggles with Appollo in Edith Hamilton's classic book "Mythology."
@Andrzej Nice to see you standing up for Natalie Haynes. I'm a fan of hers and her podcast "NH Stands Up for the Classics". I haven't read her books yet, so I have that to look forward to. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b077x8pc" target="_blank">https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b077x8pc</a>
@Andrzej You are one hard fella to please.
@Andrzej, I was going to comment that I thought it was way too easy, as I look forward to the middle of the week when the puzzles start getting harder, typically on Wednesday. (I decided not to comment, because it seemed I was in minority.) I finished in the single digits, at 40% of my usual time, which was a bit of a letdown. But for me, the punny theme answers made up for it and left me with several smiles along the way. My favorite was TURTLESHELL at 56A! I loved seeing all the witty additions in the comments.
Canine hole? DOGSPIT Hey, I tried!
Typical slow start for me, but finally tumbling to the trick was the big turning point and that's always a nice touch. Thumbs up on this one. And... has it been done before? Yep - a Wednesday from August 7, 2002 by Randolph Ross. Some clues and answers in that one: "Insect's bedtime ritual?" BUGSPRAYERS "Sass from Elsie?" COWSLIP "Hammer for a hopper?" TOADSTOOL "Puss's food container?" CATSCAN "Rams, lambs and ewes?" SHEEPSKIN Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/7/2002&g=26&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/7/2002&g=26&d=D</a> I'm done. ....
@Rich in Atlanta Actually it's been done more than a couple of times before. Some other sample answers from preivous puzzles (you can guess the clues): ROYALTIES PIGSKIN AMBASSADORSHIP CONSTABLE BUGSPRAYERS TOADSTOOL TURKEYSHOOT And there were more. ....
Speaking of how tricky it can be not having spaces, I could not figure out for the life of me what SOLAME meant. Even googled it to see if it was some new slang until it finally dawned on me. I felt SO LAME in that moment 😅
@Erie I was going to tease you about mixing up Salome (the dancer) but it was too much work...
For once it was beneficial to be a Scandinavian and not local. Power happens to be an outlet store chain for household appliances and electronics and it operates in Norway, Finland and Denmark (only). So that cue was very easy and "obvious" to me. For once!
I enjoyed today's puzzle. Not often the theme can make you go "Ugh" but still seem awesome. My original guess for the mixtape was EMO and that happened to be the right answer for the clue right beneath it. Also one of those puzzles that didn't rely too much on proper nouns, super awkward phrasing or overly common fillers. I rolled my eyes thinking the son of Seth would be ESAU again, turned out to be ENOS.
@Chris I take issue with RAP being the answer to ‘Genre for many a mixtape’. Cassettes died out after the into of CDs in the early 1980s. Sure, there was some rap around, but not much.
One of those puzzles where I struggle for 44 minutes thinking I’ll never finish until suddenly the music comes on. I was tempted to do a lookup but glad I held out and solved with brute force. It’s more satisfying that way. The puns were okay. I did love CATSCAN and TURTLESHELL because they were kinda edgy, but the other two were CRINGE (the answer I kept coming back to before realizing it was SO LAME). I wish for once ADE would be clued as “Nigerian musician King Sunny.”
A fresh clue for "Oreo"! Nice !
Suzanne, New exact wording, not new concept. Sun Feb 20, 2022 21A Snack item with approximately 53 calories Victor Barocas
Tony's old flame? TIGERSEX TURTLE'S HELL made me chuckle.
A nice, straightforward Wednesday offering. Unusually for me I ‘got’ the theme right away. Yay me. I’m with @Andrzej on the MEDUSA line. Monster or victim? Depends on your outlook, but I would class her character alongside women cast as witches. More sinned against than sinning. Still floodbound here. We’re fine on our little hill, but surrounded by flooded fields and unable to get out of the village. Some of the village houses haven’t fared so well; they were fine until a couple of massive tractors sped through. The resulting bow waves flooded several houses. A couple of farmers on the larger farms are getting some angry calls. We have a name for the young lads who drive these behemoths at breakneck speed, but it’s definitely not emu friendly.
@Helen Wright And we've got more arctic weather incoming, with -18°C forecast for Warsaw. A decade of light winters brought about by climate change made people forget how to deal with loads of snow and properly freezing temperatures. The roads are being well maintained, but footpaths are barely passable, and water mains keep bursting.
@Helen Wright & @Andrzej: Without going into the (very valid) Monster vs. Victim debate, the clue threw me off a second as well. Somehow, I never considered Medusa to be a monster, but rather a (monstrous) person. Which got me wondering how I made such a distinction. MONSTERS: Hydra Sphinx Harpies Minotaur (also, quite the victim, in my mind) PERSONS: Medusa Polyphemus* the Hecatoncheires (albeit a haberdasher's nightmare!) UNDECIDED: Echidna--I can't the image of those cute little monotremes out of my mind. although I'd be hard-pressed to articulate the distinction. Andrzej, I need to look up that book you recommended. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTxGIQcrtc4&list=RDJTxGIQcrtc4&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTxGIQcrtc4&list=RDJTxGIQcrtc4&start_radio=1</a> (I wish there was a clip of the whole performance!)
@Andrzej Can you please ship some of that cold wet stuff to the western USA? No snow to speak of from the Rockies to the Pacific. I ran the sprinklers in my yard this week -- which usually only happens from April to October. That snowpack in the mountains melts into the reservoirs and gives us water all summer. Lack of snow is biiigggg problem!!!
@Sam Re 32A, I took it to be an abbreviation for “ordinal” — versus “cardinal” numbers.
dlr, So did I. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4dhkdt?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4dhkdt?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
Liked the cluing for WAND and the grid placement under DRAGONSLAYER. Also limeade is vastly superior to lemonade. As ever, go Gunners! Dreaming of May and the Treble.
As someone who tends to anthropomorphize my animal friends, I thought this was great. Loved them all. Coincidentally, in my rerun comics, this one came up today: <a href="https://www.gocomics.com/toomuchcoffeeman/2026/01/28" target="_blank">https://www.gocomics.com/toomuchcoffeeman/2026/01/28</a>
@Nancy J. Whoa! That's some pretty highbrow stuff. I had to look up buphagidae. Is this related to today's theme? RHINOSBIRDS doesn't seem quite right.
What a cute little theme! As a CT technologist, CATSCAN definitely made me laugh. Huge shoutout to TURTLESHELL also because that's hilarious. Loved this puzzle!
@cameron - hilarious for you perhaps, but not for the poor turtle 😉
Very enjoyable and clever puzzle. Who didn’t laugh at TURTLESHELL?
A lesson in parsing, eh? Usually, Kevin Curry's name causes a little frisson of anxiety, but in this case it morphed into something more akin to frustration... at least for a wee moment. Speaking of EDGE PIECES, I am still pecking away at the 1,000-piece puzzle, about 3-5 finds at a time, all alone--PhysDau not coming (horse show cancelled) and DHubby (never a big fan) unwilling... but I did find the lone missing edge piece finally! Now down to the dark, dark and the white, white pieces. Slog, slog. It has warmed up; our part of the state has been spared, largely. The counties to the north are in a bad way. This one was serious! All y'all stay safe and warm. Beware of the ice.
@Mean Old Lady. We were fortunate as well, all pipes in working order and no black ice. I do wish this winter storm were more like last years though, giving us 12” of snow instead.
@Mean Old Lady Tell us more. Is it a snow scene and if so, why not wait till summer and do a nice beach scene now? Or would that just feel worse? Spouse and I are big jigsaw fans. Now that we've put the holiday stuff away, there's room to start one....
[Relatives in a sty] for PIGSKIN? Fantastic clueing. (Go Seahawks!)
@Sam Lyons Quite litteral. Speaking of which, I wasted my reading time yesterday searching through the Project Gutenberg text of Der Zauberberg to check on some of the quotes in my notes from the L-P translation. It only identifies Chapter breaks and my German isn't good enough to find the precise sentences I was looking for among the dense paragraphs. (I did see that the description of the harbor cranes as elephants was as Mann wrote it.) Anyhoo, I'm pressing on. Settembrini has just "explained" to Hans that Nature is opposed to the Mind and is "mystical and evil". He notes that Voltaire fumed against Nature for the great Lisbon earthquake. Hans stands his ground, for once. Next up: Hans and cousin in the garden after lunch.
Sometimes I feel really in sync with a puzzle, so that even if it comes easily, it's still fun and satisfying-- this was one of those. Thanks! I have always loved dad jokes.
Oh, some awesome punning, love it. Especially with the dad joke response in there. (And yes, turtle's hell was the gem.) Skosh, the word, always bugs me, I guess knowing that it came to English from GIs in Japan (sukoshi = a bit) and somehow landed in the US without acknowledging that. At least "moose" (musume = daughter) didn't catch on for girl.
@jes But, countless English words came from other languages without acknowledgement (whatever that means). Does it bug you because it was borrowed by GIs? I don't get it.
@jes I speak Japanese but had never heard of "skosh" in English! I got that clue through the crosses but didn't really understand, thanks for explaining😂😂
Totally ignored theme and just went about my business fueled by the effects of a long lunch extending into happy hour both with dear friends to celebrate my birthday and finishing with a Mojito and a slightly slower solve for a Wednesday. Happy to see OREO's reappearance which segues into cookies and somehow s'mores the Italian equivalent of which I discovered at aforementioned lunch where I chose the Pizza Pillows covered with cinnamon and Nutella. Bliss. Nice niggle-free puzzle - thanks.
@Your Fired Happy birthday.
@Your Fired happy birthday 🎉🥳
A personal favorite for the month. Reasonable clues and giggle-worthy wordplay.
TURTLESHELL was my favorite answer in a long time!
at first i didnt quite understand why HORSESTABLE was a furniture item, and i was sure that SCARfED was correct. wasnt till i saw CHICKEfSTRIP that i was like Oh yeah okay. One of my favorite and fastest wednesdays in a while. 14:56
Clever. Smiled to myself the whole way. Great way to start another frozen day.
Anybody else put TSA instead of PRE and think things are getting pretty risqué on YouTube?