So, it’s been plain to see that the Times team has been tinkering with the difficulty level of the days of the week. My thoughts on this are as an experienced solver whose favorite days are Friday and Saturday, as they require brain skills that accrue with time, skills that are satisfying and pleasurable to employ. I would be selfish to ask that all days be at this level – the week should cover all solvers. But please, team, keep these two days high-difficulty-level. Don’t tinker with that. Let new solvers develop their skills through the week, to where one day they can earn their tough and tricky puzzles – start very easy on Monday and end very hard on Saturday. Let solvers at every level have their day(s). That is, don’t blanket-easify the week, making every day easier. Keep those weekend days tough as ever. Thank you.
@Lewis Hugely agree. I love a good slog with clever, gettable clueing (not just arcane trivia). This honestly felt like a Monday. One of my fastest Wednesdays ever I had to double check what day it was.
@Lewis I agree. The puzzle week should have something for everyone, including seasoned solvers looking for a challenge. I remember (many) years ago I would not even attempt a Friday or Saturday puzzle. Now, I look forward to those with relish. Tease me, test me, puzzle my brain, please.
Amen, amen, Lewis!!!!! I knew that lots of people would get here ahead of me to say that, but it bears repeating by as many disappointed solvers as possible. This cream-puff of a Wednesday-in-name-only puzzle is sending me back to one of my Will Shortz collections from the past (St. Martin's Press) to find a puzzle that will give my brain a real workout right now. I strongly recommend these puzzle books for everyone who hungers for the mental stimulation they're not getting nearly often enough from the present-day NYTXW.
@Lewis Hear, hear! I understand NYT’s objective of attracting more players, especially with the expanded family memberships they are hawking. But please don’t cater exclusively to newcomers at the expense of your loyal, paying regulars!
@Lewis Since I am finding Wednesdays quite a bit easier (as a relatively new solver), it must be that the puzzles are getting easier and not that I am getting better.
@Lewis I heavy heartedly must agree! I think Saturday’s should stay hard although for Friday I don’t mind if it’s not as hard as Saturday. For the longest time I never wanted to say it was too easy because I know how easy for the NYT it is to tighten it up by a lot and Saturdays can still sometimes stump me at the end. But that’s as it should be.
How do constructors come up with such clever ideas, that’s the burning question. Masterful construction. Four balls of FIRE, each with the first letter starting in a different position. BEST OF ALL (and somewhat surprisingly), GOOD GRACIOUS and GREAT BALLS OF FIRE are both debuts. I got the theme quickly, and even though it didn’t shake my nerves and rattle my brain, it was fun! Well done, Joseph.
@Anita Agreed! Nice neat puzzle, well constructed with fun clues. Perfect for a Wednesday.
I have to say, it is incredibly disheartening for those of us who are just becoming regular players to constantly read a litany of “tHeSe PuZzLeS aRe ToO eAsY” in the comment section. To those of us embarking on this journey, the gradual shift in difficulty from Monday to Sunday is incredibly apparent. While I’m thrilled that you are all So Smart and these are Too Easy, maybe bask in the fact that you are improving at this skill set (as a consistent player should be)! Remember that the puzzle makers are not here to constantly up the ante week to week, but rather day to day.
@Fleming The truth is, everyone was a beginner at one time…I doubt many (or maybe any) found even Mondays easy at one point in their solving history.
@Fleming It shouldn’t be disheartening. We know new players are learning the ropes and everyone here is encouraging of that. But the fact of the matter that puzzles used to be more challenging as a rule and there is nothing wrong with pointing it out in the constant hope that the puzzles will return to form. That’s nothing against early week puzzles being accessible to newcomers and gradually increasing in difficulty.
@Fleming There’s no ignominy in skipping difficult puzzles. I only did the Sunday through Wednesday puzzles until I retired and could spend the time working on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Solve at your own pace.
@Fleming AMEN! A person can be smart but maybe not TRIVIA smart. Solving puzzles is a different kind of intelligence. R-E-S-P-E-C-T
@Fleming Don’t worry about it. I started solving when electronic editions weren’t even an idea, and I always think those puzzles in the folded up print paper were much easier. That’s because you couldn’t check your answers until the next day, and I never saved my papers (I’d drown in a sea of newsprint!), so as long as I filled in every box with something, I could tell myself I did it. 😁
@Fleming no worries…the only person you compete with is yourself. There are so many constructors who come through…we can’t all vibe with every constructor but I love the days that I do! Have fun solving and growing in skill. All the best
@Fleming Hey fellow beginner - not easy for me! Let's hang in there :)
I’m tempted to talk of shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings, but I guess I should share my view of the Wednesday puzzle. GOODNESSGRACIOUS, that was a quick one. It was a nice touch to slip GOODNESSGRACIOUS into the puzzle without mentioning it in the revealer.
@Marshall Walthew 😀 please something on cabbage.
@Marshall Walthew @Steve L Good point, I I didn’t think of that, although I prefer my oysters unaccompanied, except for a splash of lemon or vinegar.
Oh good gawwwd, the new comment system has gone live [shudders]. Has the world forgotten New Coke? A really fun puzzle. Since I’ve already dug up the 80’s, anyone remember Dennis Quaid as Jerry Lee Lewis? No one’s ever belted out, “Goodness gracious, great balls of fire!” quite the same way. (Yes, I had a tween crush on him. What of it?) One more personal memory the puzzle stirred up. I used to sometimes speak for The Dog since she was limited to having very expressive eyes (one with a black patch and eyelashes, the other with white), a very wriggly body, and one incredibly active stumpy tail. “Oh goodness gracious” had somehow become her signature reply. Now that she’s gone, whenever I say, “Oh goodness gracious,” to some smartaleck comment from my friends, one of them always replies with, “As Tessie always used to say,” and another will supply, “And she said it quite often.” I’ll never stop missing that dog like crazy. Thanks, Joseph, for making me smile. Have a good night, all.
@Sam Lyons I definitely remember Dennis Quaid as Jerry Lee, but I crushed hard on him as Remy McSwain in "The Big Easy," sigh.
@Sam Lyons If we all always reply to the original poster, we will defeat this new "system", won't we? All it would take would be manually typing @[person we're replying to] Like how we did it last year or the year before that when replies to replies were not visible, at all. Of course it would be best if the IT team stopped making things worse, but I've lost all hope of that.
@Sam Lyons What a wonderful thing a dog is, and wonderful more to have friends who keep that dog's memory alive in their hearts. Sorry for your loss, and thanks for sharing a great story.
Well, the comment system is new, but it looks as though the emus are still their old hungry selves. Gah. I’m not rewriting my replies. Let’s see if the surface. Maybe by March?
@Sam Lyons I've seen such horrible things happen to my name here it no longer bothers me 🤷🏽♂️
Not too long ago, we pondered SAPPHO's evocation of eros: It is this that rouses a tumult in my breast. At mere sight of you my voice falters, my tongue is broken. Straightway, a delicate fire runs in my limbs; my eyes are blinded and my ears thunder. Sweat pours out: a trembling hunts me down. I grow paler than grass and lack little of dying. Today, we get the immortal Jerry Lee Lewis's take on the same phenomenon: You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain. Too much love drives a man insane. You broke my will, but what a thrill GOODNESS GRACIOUS! GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!!! I can't decide which I prefer.
@The X-Phile I prefer the direct approach.
The X-Phile, Feel free to like them equally.
Goodness gracious! I simply adore the new look of the comments!!! Like everyone else here I'm always complaining that this section isn't busy enough. Thanks for listening to us! Some suggestions to make the forum even more interactive and fun: 1. CAPTCHA. Lots and lots of CAPTCHA. 2. The "Email me" box is the gift that keeps on giving! Each time more exciting than the last! But what if it said "Don't email me when my comment is not not not not not published" with the number of nots constantly changing? 3. Send us an 82-symbol code to enter manually before we can submit! 4. Nobody doesn't not like clicking to see replies. But wouldn't it be entertaining if each click revealed only one letter of a reply at a time? Again, thank you! It's like you've given us all the big D of Delight!
@ad absurdum Oh the sarcasm here is delicious. Nice going.
@ad absurdum LOL with a standing ovation! Never mind anyone else's opinion on the new format; I'm pretty sure yours are the suggestions this most fabulous IT team will follow!
Loved this puzzle. It seemed perfect for a Wednesday. I haven't commented in quite awhile for various reasons, though I have been keeping up with all the puzzles. I recently starting using my laptop to do them, rather than my iPhone or my very old iPad. It has taken me some time to get used to using a different device (I'm not at all tech savvy--Baby Boomer). But I'm figuring out a bit more each day and this is the first time I was able to find the Comments. Yay!! After reading just a few of the recent comments I see there was a change in the format (is formate the right word?). So glad I finally got here because I've missed you guys. The country and the world keep getting more scary every day. I have dear friends in Minneapolis and in Chicago, and they are okay but I've been worried about them. I've been to one protest here in Grass Valley/Nevada City and hope to make it to more now that I'm finally over the weird flu that has been going around. Sorry, that was verbose but it's good to be back among you.
@Shari Coats And it's good to have you back.
@Shari Coats Hi Shari! We tend to comment around the same time. Good to hear from you.
@Shari Coats Hi Shari! Good to have you back!! And thanks for doing your part at the protests!! ❤️
Nice one. Cute using OCTAD and not OCTet.
Dan, In the Shortz era, wait for the cross. 86 OCTet 29 OCTAD
@Dan Wow. I got OCTAD entirely on the crosses and didn't even catch that. I'm sure I would have put OCTet.
My first Wednesday with no lookups and no checks. I'm happy. --The Noob
@Jennifer Dearest The Noob, Welcome and congrats! That's exactly how it's done: one glorious achievement at a time! It's a great feeling, isn't it?
@Jennifer Congratulations to noobie Jen. Can we all claim, "We knew you when..."? Your first no-lookup, no-check Wed. We're sure you'll see plenty more ahead! For all of us were noobs erstwhile And now we solve those grids in style.
As your resident alphadoppeltotter, a role I’ve inexplicably taken in the past nine years, it is my duty to inform you that this puzzle has an unusually high number of double letters, at 24, where unusual is 20 or more. This is the first time this year that this has happened, but alas, it comes with an asterisk, as this grid is a column wider than standard. I remain your humble servant, ever on the alert.
@Lewis - thank you, I'm glad someone is paying attention to these things! I found the puzzle more alliterative than usual partly because of the many EEs and SSes and LL. Speaking of LLs - how many doubles did the square of 4 Ls at the bottom count as? And how about AAA?
@Lavinia -- The four L's counted as four doubles, as they appear in four answers. When there's a triple in one word, I count it as one double, as, when going in one direction, so as not to count a letter twice in a word.
Lewis Thank you for your alertness. I had forgotten to point out that, somewhere during your recent absence, we had GOOSEEGG as an entry. I wondered if the adjacent Es would be tottable. If so, what a prize! Eight letters long, and 3 doubles!
Easy month continues...23.3% faster than my Wed average for me this time. The more things change... But one thing that did change was that the "new format" for comments actually went live sometime today. When it was first offered as an option, I tried it for a day or two, and went back to the old one, hoping they'd eventually give up on the new format. It just doesn't work well here, where people reply to an original post, then someone replies to the reply, and then several other people reply to subsequent replies. This makes for a hierarchy of progressively more indented replies. And then, you have to notice that there are replies to replies that actively have to be opened. Reading elsewhere in the paper, I see that this phenomenon is unique to the crossword comments (and maybe some of the other games comments). Most news articles' comment sections do not have long threads of replies and replies to replies. In other words, it might work really well for the rest of the paper, but it's horrid here. I guess we just get used to checking for threads that are totally hidden. But I've found myself paying more attention to opening hidden replies than actually paying attention to what people are saying. Sad. Easy puzzle, difficult comment section.
It is possible that the new format (which I haven't tried) will start to improve as people get used to it.
tl;dr And with the new system, many others will not.
@Steve L I absolutely agree that the new comments reply format is horrible. I was following a thread yesterday (or maybe the day before?) where I was trying to read the reply to a reply to a reply, etc. I think it was 6 or 7 layers deep, and the last level was squeezed into a column about 4 or 5 letters wide down the right side of my phone screen - very effectively rendering it as unreadable gibberish.
@Steve L agreed (on an easy Wednesday) and agreed on the new format. The attention to replies, and replies on replies, is particularly bizarre to me, given that the system doesn't let you know when someone (other than a journalist) replies to your comment. At least, it never has for me. It just seems like a weird inconsistency.
It would be useful in night mode if the layer for circles were in white. I only play in dark mode, and typically have my brightness set to as minimum as needed to read. Since the letters entered are typically white (blue if auto check is enabled), the black circle layer on a dark grey and black grid is lost. I’m sure there’s someone with younger eyes that will say they see it. And good for them. But my eyes are now old, and I would like to be able to accomplish the puzzle with the additional clues available in dark mode. Thank you for coming to my talk.
@Red Carpet I came to make the same request. I cannot see the circles.
@Red Carpet I will throw in a third vote for this
@Red Carpet , and for me, in light mode, no circles at all...
The word WALRUS seems so compact and self-confident, like the great pinniped it describes, that i had not considered its etymology. But of course, a headslap moment: Wikipedia tells me it probably comes from the Old Norse hvalr + hross, or “whale horse”! Of course! (We will all recognize the hvalr root from “narwhal”, which gets nar “corpse” from the color of its cadaverously mottled skin - who knew?) Actually Wikipedia mentions a second Walrus theory, just to muddy the pristine arctic waters i am enjoying: it may come from the Dutch words wal 'shore' and reus 'giant'. I much prefer the Old Norse version!
@Petrol If you don’t already know about the YouTube channels RobWords and Words Unravelled, I recommend you check them out. Lots of great etymology and history of the English language.
Yet another fun puzzle, after so so so many other fun puzzles. I love crosswords! I always look forward to it.
GOODNESS GRACIOUS, this was a fun one. GREAT BALLS OF FIRE will forever remind me of Goose singing in Top Gun… <a href="https://youtu.be/2R-5hI93tV0?si=u9lniYFk3dUZ3u0n" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/2R-5hI93tV0?si=u9lniYFk3dUZ3u0n</a> And the reprise in Maverick… <a href="https://youtu.be/pVcMsjyKlaM?si=XarND-pGNP8n4k2X" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/pVcMsjyKlaM?si=XarND-pGNP8n4k2X</a> EJECTS of course reminded me of Goose once again 😢 I always appreciate when a puzzle takes me back in time and this one was a winner in that respect. Thank you, Joseph.
@Jacqui J Indeed, by their very randomness fills smash their way into and illuminate musty memory corridors like miners' pickaxes reveal shiny veins of precious metal. For me, these puzzles are often the verbal equivalent of Proustian madeleines.
Love the theme with GOODNESS GRACIOUS GREAT BALLS OF FIRE. There was a few clues I got entirely with crossing clues like EEO as an acronym I've never heard of and OPI the makeup brand. The square that gave me the most trouble was CATERS/CAPS OFF. First I had TOPS OFF and never heard of CAPS OFF as an alternative to that. And because I kept seeing the "Does dishes" clue in terms of washing them instead of serving them I was wondering if it was something like WATERS and maybe the down clue was some new slang term I didn't know.
@Chris "taters" had me stumped for a minute bc of that.
@Chris The only place I've ever heard of OPI is here, but get used to it: it's an obscure (to me) but not uncommon answer. EEO stands for Equal Employment Opportunity; it could also appear as EOE for Equal Opportunity Employer. Is this still required in job ads? In these days, who knows?
@Chris EEO has been in the puzzle hundreds of time. Only problem for me is that I can never remember if it's EEO or EOE. And that's why I hate initialism. I even forgot what the answer was by the time I got to the end of this sentence.
Thank you Top Gun Also I don't think it's a thing for other states, but it's absolutely mandatory that you know the state bird if you live in Minnesota
This is Joseph’s second music-related theme in a row, his last being a Sondheim tribute. It’s also another where he features grid art, with those four-square circles – I don’t ever remember seeing those before (and please, anyone, correct me if you have). Let me remind you that Joseph designed the puzzle with the cutest grid art I’ve ever seen – <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/16/2022" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/16/2022</a> (spoiler alert: this puzzle image has the answers filled in). Those larger circles today compared to the one-square circles we normally see in puzzles, are indeed “great balls”. Lovely touch to have those fireballs symmetrical, and to not refer to GOODNESS GRACIOUS in the clue to the revealer, that is, to let it come as a self-discovery. Just a terrific build overall. Joseph, you love Wednesdays, on which six of your seven Times puzzles have fallen. I love how well you emphasize the visual aspects of grids. Thank you for a fun and impressive outing!
@Lewis I loved that duck puzz... Thanks for the memory!
@Lewis I had to go onto xwordinfo.com to remind myself of Mr. Gangi's Sondheim-themed puzzle, despite it being less than a month ago, and a puzzle I particularly enjoyed. But that reminded me of another recent Sondheim-themed puzzle, a cryptic crossword, by Our Boy Paolo, published by the New Yorker: <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/cryptic-crossword/2025/12/15" target="_blank">https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/cryptic-crossword/2025/12/15</a> I am extremely poor at British-style cryptics, and I only managed to solve this one through my knowledge of Sondheim's work--a lot of the references are quite obscure.
@Lewis What graphics? I went to your links and no graphics although we did get a look at the constructor.
Solid theme, nicely handled, with GOODNESSGRACIOUS, GREATBALLSOFFIRE---these gave us 16 columns today---and four "balls of FIRE" (each of which offered FIRE in a clockwise pattern, with all four possible starting positions for the F represented). Nice Wednesday puzzle. Certainly nothing to SNEERAT.
If we all always reply to the original poster, we will defeat this new comment "system", won't we? All it would take would be manually typing @[person we're replying to] Like how we did it last year or the year before that when replies to replies were not visible, at all. Of course it would be best if the IT team stopped making things worse, but I've lost all hope of that.
@Andrzej If we all always reply to the original poster, we will defeat this new "system", won't we? All it would take would be manually typing @[person we're replying to] Like how we did it last year or the year before that when replies to replies were not visible, at all. Of course it would be best if the IT team stopped making things worse, but I've lost all hope of that.
@Andrzej I'm down with the kids, I know how to copy pasta. Let's get this trending.
@Andrzej Count me in! The new system makes it cumbersome to follow conversations. Sometimes I use my desktop (rather than my tablet) to view comments, and for some reason, that has had the new way for a while, so I have given it enough of a chance to know I don't like it.
@Andrzej I simply can't understand why they think this is an improvement. It's cluttered and unintuitive. I'm in the "always reply to OP" boat. I won't let poor design win!
@Adzrjen Lucky for the IT team, everyone’s good at retyping names/handles. It’ll be like nothing’s changed!
Andrzej, I believe that's why the infamous Barry omits the @ sign. IT teams do what they do best; throw a product together, launch the Beta version, get rid of the contractor who created it, wait 6 months, hire another contractor to tweak it, rinse and repeat. Anyhow, I'm all for sticking it to the man.
@Andrzej I assume that's why BA started deleting @s from his comments.
Aaaand now I’ll have that song in my head all day! Fun solve, I really enjoyed that.
So many mistakes again today, took me about 20 minutes to unpick them. After I filled the grid and got the finger wag I went to fix and I had 7 incorrect answers, only 2 of which made absolutely no sense on review. I’ll note this was the first time I’ve smiled at an answer (in about 100 attempts at the crossword). I already had GREATBALLSOFFIRE when I got enough crosses to see the GOODNESSGRACIOUS answer and I did crack a smile, I think because of Top Gun. I did notice near the end that the circles all had F I R E but as usual themes zoom over my head with the balls thing. Found this harder than some of the other Wednesdays I’ve completed, but I’m clearly in the minority on that.
It was great when we had the choice to keep the old commenting format where replies were not nested. Now we have no choice, despite the fact that there were lots of intelligent criticisms of it by many of the regular and most esteemed contributors here (I might be a regular but can't claim to be esteemed). Now that choice has been taken away. As Steve L. (regular AND esteemed) points out, this nesting of replies is ONLY here on the Times site, nowhere else. So it's just the Games techies doing this and not paying any attention to UI/UX, as WE the USERS experience and use it, and ignoring our very relevant feedback. We know that the editors read these comments -- they sometimes comment themselves -- so why was the nearly universal rejection of this warranted? I admit that I would like nesting employed for replies to comments on editorials and major news stories, because a top comment there can receive dozens of responses and scrolling through all of them can be tiresome. But that doesn't happen too often here, where a robust response to a post might be a dozen or so at most, or sometimes a bit more if a certain provocateur from Warsaw is feeling his oats. But really, this is actually going to reduce commentary and response and generally effect this comments section negatively. Bring back the old ways!
@john ezra This, 100%. A band aid is for all replies to be made to the original post, rather than any of its replies. All it requires is manually entering/pasting the name of the person we are replying to.
Hi John, Is this the only site using the new format? I see nested replies in editorials.
Hi Anita, Possibly those have shifted over, too; I read Steve L.'s post this morning where he said nesting was only specific to Wordplay and didn't back check him on that. Or they might have all changed over to that, I don't really know. But thanks for letting me know. I'll do further research.
@john ezra Well said. P. S. I, for one, esteem you.
john ezra, This is not the first time the Comments have changed and commenters have had to reply to the OP to keep threads sane. A few folks here will remember the last time.
They need an “Expand all” option on the original post, as would be standard for any review tool.
Nice Wednesday puzzle and a good workout for me. And really liked the theme. Oh...and a lot of lyrics in that song that might apply quite well to the process of working out a difficult puzzle. (I chew my nails and I twiddle my thumbs). Was a bit surprised that the two grid-spanning theme answers were appearing for the first time, but then... realized that it's a 16 wide puzzle. That explains that. I'll put my puzzle find today in a reply. ....
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Sunday from November 10, 2002 by the great Cathy Millhauser with the title: "2D". Some theme clues and answers: "Report on famine in utopia?" HEAVENANDDEARTH "What Roy Rogers had with dinner?" CAKESANDDALE "Princess plus Elvis?" THEKINGANDDI "Cookie man with a Yankee Doodle?" AMOSANDDANDY And there were more. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/10/2002&g=106&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/10/2002&g=106&d=A</a> ....
Oh gawd the new comments section is awful. Why did they do this. At least the puzzle was great! A lot of millennials will talk about "dad rock" and mean Led Zeppelin and the Eagles. But my dad was a bit older than most other millennials' dads, so to me "dad rock" means Elvis, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis. This puzzle was right up my alley!
@Katie - My Dad's Dad Rock was Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey.
@Captain Quahog My dad as well, except for that one time I caught him listening to Bill Haley and the Comets.
Come on baby, light my FIRE. (No time to wallow in the MIRE.) Seriously, I saw REFI first. What's up with that?
Grant, REFI first? Must be the MBA acting up.
@Barry No really, my house is almost paid off. Has it really been 30 years?
A nice reminder of growing up with that music, and a quick finish. Thanks, Joseph!
I'm going to be a lightning rod here. I think I'll get used to the new comments format and learn to like it. I think it is a truism that any change in look or feel of a page is resisted at first. I don't know how many times a site would change its look, and I'd hate it, and a week later I couldn't even remember what the old one looked like. So, like everyone else here, it looks confusing and weird to me. But I think I'll adapt. I think the hardest thing for me to adapt to is knowing that if there is a "1 Reply" or "n Replies", I need to click that link to see them. Anyway, I do think it's funny that we've been repeatedly asking for an Edit button, and that was *not* in the update.
So far on mobile it seems to behaving better for me.
Dear Citizens of Carrboro, NC, Scholars who hold masters and doctorates possess minds that we mere mortals cannot fathom. Andre does what lawyers do best... argue cases, which he appears to do quite well. If there is no case, counsellors will devise one; it's what they do. I mentioned that to him a few days back, but it got lost in last week’s Great Erasure scandal. I've referred to a few of his highly critical comments, but gave him the credit (blame?) for it. I realize my comments can come across boorish and snarky, albeit some by design, but they pale in comparison to his poignancy and unmatched candor. Although there are other commenters here with equal zeal, his are relentless. As Agent J says in MIB, "You know what the difference is between you and me? I make this look GOOD!" (That would be he, not I saying that) In conclusion, unless you're either a) trying to call him out (yeah, that’ll work), or b) enticing him to write a legal brief on the topic as your lesson in litigation, consider how a deep thinker's mind is wired. And, should you ever get an "Ooh, respect" reply, you've just been granted a temporary stay of execution. Good luck with both. ;) If this survives the cut, there are simply no standards here.
First day this week I haven't beaten my average time, but I solved with no hints in just a few seconds over my average so I'll take it! Octet/ad got me stuck for a while, along with the dishes one.
Absolutely loved that clip of Jerry Lee Lewis at the piano on the Ed Sullivan Show. What a showman! Great Balls of Fire indeed!!!
I was getting back to civilian life in 1957. Did I really not notice that song, or is it just another of the myriad things I've entirely forgotten?
@kilaueabart I think the song was a bigger hit in nostalgia than it was at the time of initial release. And it remained in the public ear because of the Jerry Lee Lewis movie.
@kilaueabart In 1957 or thereabouts it was a mainstay on AM radio in my college dorm. Pretty sure it was close to the "top of the charts".
Only yesterday I learned a detail about Willem Dafoe in the movie Spider-Man. For the somewhat-famous mirror scene where his character Norman Osborn argues with his evil alter-ego Green Goblin (who incidentally throws small, pumpkin-shaped balls of fire), to add a flourish to his spiralling craziness, Dafoe took his CAPSOFF and showed his true and imperfect teeth. I agree with (not Jerry Lee) Lewis below, regarding puzzle difficulty. “Mediocre Balls of Warmth” would never have been famous.
Fun! Pretty breezy solve for me. But for some reason I initially wanted to enter RING OF FIRE into the theme answer. Instantly realizing there were too many spaces, I began trying THE RING OF FIRE and then BURNIN RING OF FIRE. Luckily I moved on after half a minute of that nonsense. Got to see The Killer Jerry Lee Lewis live at Wolf Trap VA around 1999, awesome show! The man could pound a piano.
Didn't we just see Mr. Gangi recently? (Welcome both times, of course. TOP OFF before CAPS was the only minor misstep. Couldn't the puzzle have included Wm SaFIRE or some dalmations--for local color or authenticity, you know? When I "smile broadly," it's a GRIN; when I keep smiling and pink up, I BEAM. Or so I would say. In 1957 (I was 10) I attended a birthday party that was a trip to The Temple Theater in Ft. Smith, AR, and the film was "Jailhouse Rock," starring (who else?) Elvis. The slightly older girls in the back of the theater screamed so much that we couldn't hear the dialogue. I was SO annoyed... (just a bit too young to swoon.) We didn't have a TV, and we didn't listen to much radio, though I recall "Hound-dog"...I had outgrown Pinky Lee a while back, but had no attraction that was a replacement. Simpler times.
learned a new word- Octad! I couldn't reconcile dogbreeds with octet so I knew something was amiss.
@Sam Thanks for explaining how ELS was “Enrollment center”. That would have bugged me not knowing what it was :)
Unsure what the issue is with this puzzle—there are no circled letters. I’ve had them before, but don’t in this puzzle. Brightness all the way, tried all color schemes (light, blue, dark). No circled letters.
@Robert I came to the comments to see if anyone asked, "Are the circled letters in the room with us?"
@Robert Whew! I thought my eyes were failing me!
@Robert Maybe your setting changed? Settings (gear icon), Show overlays toggle on
@Robert The circles are ridiculously faint. I had the same reaction as you when I reached the revealer, until I zoomed all the way in and the faintest of lines emerged out of the white...
Delightful.
@Andrzej You can teach old Poles new tricks.
@Andrzej, Okay, who are you, and what have you done with Andrzej???
@NYC Traveler Yesterday my negative comment received 3 times less support than two others calling on me to either lie about my impressions or keep quiet. So here I am, spreading fake delight. Ain't it grand?
@Andrzej Oh, God, I can't go through this again.
Who here did not think "GREAT BALLS OF FIRE" as soon as they filled in GOODNESS GRACIOUS? They go together like a WALRUS and a mustache. One of my favorites: <a href="https://youtu.be/Ricp8I7nquE?si=eURQAjZ5cdcxhCKP" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Ricp8I7nquE?si=eURQAjZ5cdcxhCKP</a>
@Nancy J. Well, I filled in GREATBALLSOFFIRE first (that was a gimme) and that led me to immediately fill in GOODNESSGRACIOUS.
@Nancy J. I didn't. I thought it was the song by the Doors--Baby, Baby, Light My Fire. Got tangled up (not in blue) and finally got to Jerry Lee.
My inner three-year-old expected flaming, spinning graphics along with the San Jose Strut. Even better, they could have had the full Jerry Lee Lewis song stand in for the usual music. (I'm easily amused, though. I and a friend of mine once walked in to a small country store in Alabama planning to buy a few fireworks, but ended up buying out their entire stock and making multiple trips back to the car with boxes and bags. The best one was one of the largest ones...it malfunctioned, and what was supposed to be a display lasting several minutes went up in a huge ball of flame and a deafening explosion that set off every car alarm for blocks.) Had this been published on a Thursday, I also would have expected that none of the answers that crossed the "balls" would have made any sense until they "rotated" into place.
at Bruce, It sounds like your friend may have visited Slapout, Alabama. Seriously, here's the link: <a href="https://digitalalabama.com/alabama-weird-unusual-offbeat-strange-alabama/slapout-alabama/43036" target="_blank">https://digitalalabama.com/alabama-weird-unusual-offbeat-strange-alabama/slapout-alabama/43036</a>/ Southerners have degrees of 'outed-ness' of a product. In reverse order, there’s: 1) Fresh out 2) Plumb out 3) Slap out The takeaway here, there’s just no coming back from being slap out. Read Lewis Grizzard. The real reason I really came here is to compliment you on authoring what will probably go down in Wordplay history as thee longest parenthetical I’ve seen in my one short year of terrorizing this forum. As a next endeavor, I challenge you to try your hand at nested parentheses. Anyhow, I need to return from my break on re-wiring my HVAC unit (original HVAC techs jumbled it up badly (I have very high standards in wiring (learned from early data center days (it started out as a two-beer job (now up to three))))) Keep being Barry Anaconda!
Like it was yesterday watching his fingers fly around the piano his hair flapping his body shaking toes tapping. I couldn’t wait to be a teenager.
Fun solve! I'm off to hop around the house on one foot (dancing to Great Balls of Fire), now that I've taken my shoe off at the door...
Uh oh, the new comments format has landed! Goodness gracious great balls of fire! I'm going up to Blueberry Hill and never coming down again.
@mirle234 Your mention of Blueberry Hill led me to one more puzzle find. A Tuesday from March 15, 1994 by David J. Kahn. Theme answers in that one: FATSDOMINO (that's what got me there) CHUBBYCHECKER SKINNYDIPPING THETHINMAN Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/15/1994&g=17&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/15/1994&g=17&d=A</a> ....
Am I the only one who entered SAFESEXT instead of SAFESEAT?
@Sheri Oh, I didn’t enter that, but in our current political era, it seems a logical choice….
@Sheri LOL--I know I didn't.
Sheri, Looks like you are a shoo-in for that honour… again! :)
The Walrus and the Carpenter -- known to fans as an inspiration for "I am the Walrus" -- though Lennon later said maybe he identified with the wrong character on that one.
I’m perplexed by all the discussion about the new comment system. It looks just the same to me.
@Marshall Walthew Not too many complex threads today so far. Go back to yesterday and look at the long Francis and Andrzej show and you’ll see it immediately.
@Marshall Walthew I was just thinking the same thing.