Lots to love here! -10 theme answers (5 are across and 5 that are down) -all of the theme answers are still words with or without the x/o -the symmetry of taking away the X yet adding the O Great work!
@Derek And don't forget the cameo appearance by OXO!
Well, yes, this was a constructing feat. Are you kidding me? Ten theme answers totaling a sky-high 72 squares, with each theme answer working two ways due to the gimmick, crossing revealers, and still the grid has hardly a whiff of junk? But a constructing feat is shallow, not to mention show-offish, if it doesn’t deliver satisfaction to the solver. I can only speak for myself, but this theme was a first-order, multi-level capital-R Riddle, and cracking it brought great fulfillment, the sweet feeling that I earned this. That, plus being wowed by the feat, well, it also brought a huge inner standing O. Sticky areas gave my brain pleasure as well. Truly, a lovely puzzle could have been based on the STEAL A KISS element alone, but Kareem pulled off the double-play, all in a single 15x15 box. Hats off on this one. Bravo, Kareem. Perfecto! An apex Valentine's Day puzzle. Can’t wait for your next, and thank you for a scintillating solve!
@Lewis I look forward to your comments every day, Lewis. Always kind and insightful, and they often point out something I hadn't seen before.
XOXO to this fun puzzle! And now… If you want to DO WELL in life, DWELL on the positives. The victorious sportsball team got many SHOUT OUTS for their back to back SHUT OUTS. Our Captain Q always CLAMS UP (shudder) whenever any kind of CLAM SOUP is mentioned. The FLAMINGO has a FLAMING color, seems obvious now that you point it out.
@Cat Lady Margaret We've had SHOCKING PINK, but FLAMING pink is just as shocking.
Excellent puzzle! The theme came slowly at first, then faster and faster - very satisfying to work out during the solve. I love that OXO was in there like a little bonus, as if there weren't already enough theme words! Many thanks!
@Alex I loved that too. If there is such a thing as a perfect puzzle, this may be it.
Now this is what I call a puzzle!! Devilishly conceived, brilliantly executed, and really dense, it created an almost unbearable feeling of curiosity in me before I caught on. When I did catch on -- and only because of the two apt, clever, and in-the-language revealers -- my Aha Moment was huge. The fact that the Acrosses and Downs are doing two different things and also doing them differently was an added delight. And then the fact that the X-added answers and the O-subtracted answers are real words of their own -- what an achievement!!! Kudos to Kareem for this. It's going into my running list for Puzzle of the Year and could end up my top choice. Keep 'em coming please, Kareem!
@Nancy I added it to my list as well, I think it was my first Thursday I added
Having look at it further, I'm going to upgrade my opinion about this puzzle from great to superb. Challenging and a LOT of fun. Cross my heart. (Don't believe Andrzej's "Delightful" when it comes.)
@Francis All that talk the other day made me focus on how I'm really doing. Sometimes (to borrow from Mr. Yeats), the center cannot hold, and there are times that things do fall apart. The falcon can still hear the falconer most of the time, and I am grateful that sheer anarchy is not upon us, but the truth is, I'm not feeling so hot these days. I do it all because there's no one else to do it, but I don't have any days like the days Mean Old Lady turns out, for instance—no baking and solving and canning and poems and the like, and I feel lucky to get through another week. So if you're feeling your age, Francis, you are not alone, just too young for it.
Three and a half hours before this puzzle came out, one of my friends texted the group chat, “In XOXO, is x the hug or the kiss?” Weird timing!
I am ETERNALLY grateful that I did not have to DWELL on this puzzle for too long, nor look EXTERNALLY for answers, allowing me to DO WELL and keep my gold star streak going. XOXO
Loved it. I’m the guy who never gets the trick on Thursday. I tirelessly solve from the crosses and then read the column to learn what I have missed. Not today! Charming puzzle where it was fun to sort out the theme answers. What? Wait? This had something to do with Valentine’s Day? Sigh. Maybe next week.
Color me impressed with this tricky Thursday grid. I love that you added O but deleted the X for the themers. Then the two revealers crossed each other. And how cute that OXO was in there! My grandfather bought an ACURA Legend in 1988, replacing his 1977 Cadillac Coupe DeVille. Yet again, the puzzle brings up a long ago memory 🥰 Thank you, Kareem! XOXO
Brilliant puzzle! I marvel at the work it takes to make a puzzle like this, which provides so many of us a few minutes of pleasure each day. I enjoyed catching onto the double trick, which made solving the themed entries enjoyable.
That was so sweet, Kareem!
@Barry Ancona when I solve a puzzle “the night before“ as I have done tonight, you are almost always one of the first comments. It must be a big part of your day to be here at the moment the puzzle drops. I enjoy it when I can make it fit. I find myself making it more of a game with myself to focus and get it done, then, as quickly as possible. I was confused a few months ago when I was the first one “here“ to post a comment on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday. I’m nowhere near the fastest solver. As fast as I thought I was, I’m not in the top 20%. Perhaps there was a glitch with the system that night. Anyway, I enjoy the three puzzles a week that I do and I enjoy reading the comments. I have gone back now in the archives five or six years. It goes faster because I only do those three days a week. I enjoy reading your comments. Have a good weekend.
Delightful.
@Andrzej someone is enjoying Valentine’s Day 💀
@Becky I think it's delightful. I love love love celebrating it in many cute ways.
@Andrzej Didn't somebody mention that single word comments are less than helpful?
The crossed words in this crossword come across as brilliant. The give/steal craftiness is clever and fun to begin with, but to make every theme answer cross exactly its pair and no other, and the revealer do that too, don't cross words with me because it crosses the line! I LOVED it. <3
It could have been more brilliant if the Across theme answers were symmetrical in the grid. But themed answers in the double digits with equal numbers of the Across and Down variety was truly prodigious!
Good puzzle. I got STEAL A KISS quickly enough to catch onto the theme early which helped. Lots of hints that were just the right amount of misleading to make it feel great to figure it out. Center north was the toughest part for me. I was so focused on the O in OUTS being the missing O that it took me forever to think of SHUTOUTS. And GUAM/INCA/ACURA/GIS was a compound Natick for me. In addition to confusing myself over MATED because I didn't think of "Beat in chess" as a past tense form.
@Chris "Beat" as a past and "Digs" as a singular both tripped me up for a bit!
@Chris Get out of my brain! I had the exact same experience. I also thought I’d have to do a lookup to gain a toehold in that north section, but then OR ELSE came to me, which led to OLDER, which made me realize “oh, it’s the *other* O!” and then I was off and running. So much fun.
I don't know if this is just a glitch or another great innovation, but it seems that in today's comment section, you are unable to switch from Newest to Oldest, which is my preferred mode and the most logical one. It doesn't work on my desktop or on my iPhone. Thanks, guys, for nothing.
Steve L, Right now, likewise on an iPad near me.
@Steve L Same here, but I'm glad to find it wasn't targeted specifically at me.
@Steve L For me too, on Mac laptop.
@Steve L There is also no "share" button so it's no longer possible to link individual posts. The NYT IT people have all the best ideas...
@Steve L, Same here. I’m hoping it’s a temporary glitch.
@Steve L It would NOT work last night on yesterday's puzzle, either. I thought it was just me. Every time they add something, they fail to test its effect on the rest of the app or whatever.
@Steve L Still broken, hours later. It took at least four finger stabs before I realized it wasn’t my misbehaving screen. So annoying. I hate going back in time.
@Steve L I had the same problem this morning, no sorting by oldest, but it's working tonight (8 pm). Andrzej, the share link button is under the three dots to the right.
Just today I brought home some chocolate-covered strawberries and have already started nibbling on them. I wondered if I was getting ahead of myself, but then along comes this puzzle to assure me that Valentine's Day is February 14, give or take... Thank you, Mr. Ayas for this super creative puzzle that was a joy to solve! XOXO to you and the editors and column writers and fellow solvers. ♥️!
Tough puzzle for me, but finally tumbling to the trick was a huge turning point and that's always a nice touch. But being able to work in all of those theme answers with those tricks is just amazing. And... that all of theme answers were valid words with or without the trick is also amazing. Three thumbs up. And... my puzzle find today. A Sunday from April 28, 1985 by Jim Page with the title: "Play it by ear." A couple of theme clue and answer examples: "Borg: 6/6/56?" BJORNTOSUCCEED "Abdul-Jabbar to Laker fans?" KAREEMOFTHECROP "What QB Graham signed?" OTTOGRAPHS "Part of Rockne's needle found in the Bard's cauldron?" EYEOFKNUTE And there were more. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/28/1985&g=66&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/28/1985&g=66&d=A</a> ....
Terrific puzzle, jam packed with theme material, most of it pretty stellar—I especially loved CLAMS(O)UP. As Kareem said, it’s hard to build a grid like this and have decent fill, and I think he succeeded. Maybe LISTEE a little clunky but nothing much else stood out. Notice a double stack of ten letter entries—that’s very unusual with this much theme material. TIL about BATISTE; some may find LANCET a little obscure but it was a gimme for me and the name of a prestigious British medical journal. Overall I personally figured out the theme and got through it pretty quickly, but found it interesting and delightful, and I enjoyed trying to figure out the theme entries once I got the trick. Thanks for a great Valentine, Kareem!
@SP I agree but I wasn't so quick. Entering oahu crossed with honda seemed like a good idea at the time. After filling in the rest of the puzzle, cleaning up that area was the last thing I did. Got part of the theme at FLAMING but then applied it to the clue directly beneath it without checking for an asterisk. andver made preppy sense to me. Well above my Thursday average.
@SP finally got to it just now, and such fun! I was surprised when BATISTE came to my mind immediately, bc I wasn't sure what it was and didn't think it could be right the first time through. But must have been from my historical fiction reading days in elementary school-- all those handkerchiefs. It's so funny to me how sometimes words jump out like that, minus the definition, then turn out to be correct. My favorite example might be funny for you-- years ago I had a kid come in very flushed, mild tachycardia, started feeling uncomfortable after dinner the night before. I asked what they'd eaten-- salmon. The word "scombroid" popped into my head. I vaguely recalled it might be a type of food poisoning but no details came attached with the word! So I told the mom and the med student with me that I had just thought of something but needed to look it up. I never try to fake pts out... I just say when I don't know. We didn't have computers in the rooms back then. Anyway, bingo, it was classic Scombroid toxin poisoning! His mom had thawed the salmon on the counter. None of my colleagues at the med school had heard of it. Never saw it again in 30 yrs of practice. Gave him a dose of Benadryl and fixed him right up.
Overcame my fear of those asterisks and made a string of very lucky guesses, but spent forever, DWELLing in the NW corner. Came to the column, raced back to the puzzle, wound it up, now back to the column to GIVE A HUG to Kareem Ayas for an agile puzzle, dodgy and fun to work. Thank you, K.A.!
Great way to start the day! LOL I was turning my brain into a pretzel trying to make sense of LATEX for "Behind in payment" at 5D. Since I solve on paper, it was easy to shoe-horn the O's in between letters or at the end, as in FLAMINGO. Only stinker: TEHEE. Nope. That works no better than TEHE and HEHE. Sheesh. I especially enjoyed 47A with its clue relating the word to a fabric instead of "Juan- [blank]. (I've never made a hanky, but BATISTE is handy for use in some quilting applications.) Hardest clue/entry: "Legend, e.g." for ACURA ...for a minute I thought it might be ACORN... Hey, Kareem, I'm blowing you a KISS and an imaginary HUG.
Puzzle within a puzzle? Check. Fun theme? Check. Brilliant clues that are also challenging? Check. Clever Easter egg (OXO)? Check. Aha moment after aha moment? Check! This one checks all the boxes. Or to put it another way, I’ve been checkMATED.
@Heidi I never noticed the Easter egg, even though OXO was an easy fill for me. Thanks for mentioning it.
It’s ironic that the IBEX was saved from extinction by Charles Felix, King of Sardinia, on whose death in 1831 the main line of the House of Savoy itself became extinct. In terms of conservation, he was perhaps the GOAT. Wikipedia tells us: When firearms spread in the 15th century, the large population of ibex that spanned many of Europe's mountains decreased as they became easy targets for hunters. The ibex was often hunted for its meat, with other body parts used for medicine. The ibex horns were highly sought after as a remedy for impotence, while its blood was used for treating kidney stones. The relentless hunting of the alpine ibex might have led to its extinction were it not for the foresight of the dukes of Savoy. Charles-Felix, Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia, banned the hunting of the ibex across his estates of the Gran Paradiso after being persuaded by a report on the animal's endangered state.
@Petrol Perhaps C-F shared a certain sympathy for creatures with the letter X in their name--a trait which he picked up from his Grandmother, Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg. He was very fond of lynxes and oryxes as well, and did much to preserve native habitat of the axolotl. While in Mexico, he adopted a pair of xoloitzcuintli from a local shelter, which he kept with him at all times, even taking them, in 1794, on his campaign in Morgex.
@Petrol Since we're on the topic of Italian horned beasts, let me share with you the Legend of St. Julian of Trento, as photpgraphed and researched by me in 2023. The colorful story would not be to the emus' liking, so please find it in the description of the pic below: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/xJZyPjA" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/xJZyPjA</a>
I never comment but I absolutely loved this theme! My absolute favourite puzzle so far.
One of the best puzzles in a while. Very satisfying solve. Great theme. Limited amount of trivia. Ticks all the boxes that I like in a puzzle. And what a construction feat! (that too without showing off!)
@SB A good trick and generally very good puzzle, but I felt there was a lot of trivia. I find I tend to notice the trivia more when I don't know it, which I didn't for a a lot of these.
Impressive! I really enjoyed my late night tussle with this beauty. 8 theme answers plus 2 revealers stuffed into a weekday grid? Just Wow! The simplest clues can trip me up - on any day of the week. Today I fell for “Beat at chess” which has to be ’MATE’. It doesn’t fit so you start making thongs up - Could it refer to a Chess pie? What else can ‘Beat’ mean? BUT IT’S CHESS!! What on earth is going on?!! And then, Duhhh! In the end finished about average. Some toughies, some gimmes, some TIL. Perfect Thursday. Happy Valentine’s Day to all!! XOXO to the constructor (Kareem) and the whole Games team!
@Steve H Right!!! I kept trying to figure out how to put another letter in MATE! Or somehow squeeze CHECKMATE in. Then when I finally realized that Beat occurs in several tenses, I still screwed up by putting in an "S". In my defense, the "S" didn't last long.
I thoroughly enjoyed the trick to this Thursday puzzle, but as a military historian I feel compelled to point out a glaring error. The clue for 6D refers to the song “Over There,” published in 1917. The answer to the clue, “GIs,” while it does refer to American soldiers, saw its first use as a noun in 1943 according to Merriam-Webster. American soldiers in WWI were known as doughboys. They weren’t called GIs until WWII.
@Joshua As a Vietnam infantry veteran you led me to do an answer history search. And... GRUNT - was clued as "Lowly foot soldier" twice in the Shortz era. ...
@Joshua I know it's not a particularly well-known show but there was an "Over There" TV show from 2005 that had soldiers in it (although the "there" was the Middle East). Constructor may have been referring to that in the clue?
Did anybody else have trouble with the top left quadrant of the grid? I had no trouble with the rest but i must've spent forty five minutes and I only completed it after looking up nori and taking an an off the wall stab when I remembered Gilda Radner's Baba Wawa from early SNL. Cheated but completed
@Calhouri I had trouble there too. For the longest time, I just had NORI and EDEN, thought the Spanish cat might be a tigre but didn't know if it would be la or el. I think my breakthrough was RADIAN when it finally percolated out of the depths of my brain. WAWA was a guess from that same SNL skit and I had to look up whether it was a real store.
@Calhouri But the Wawa referred to in the puzzle is a real chain of stores. Has nothing to do with the SNL skit.
@Calhouri I did as well -- it was the last section I completed. Though, for these in NJ/PA, Wawa was easy (and is often in the NYT puzzle).
An extremely well-constructed puzzle, with five thematic entries in each orientation, arranged in intersecting pairs! Pretty amazing in fact, especially in light of the quality of the fill in general. I assume the constructor tried very hard to get a thematic entry in the location occupied by PANTERA rather than DWELL; this would have perfected the construction aesthetically. All in all, a masterpiece of construction with a clever theme that was also fun to solve. Bravo!
I never do well with Thursdays which means I often hate Thursdays. But today I caught the trick and got a gold star. Yes, I'm posting this just to congratulate myself. I almost lost it with 11D -- where's the X? But a typo was my mistake, and when it went away, the X slipped right in Yay me.
A cute Valentine themed puzzle, with a well worked theme. Not the hardest or trickiest Thursday ever, but fun. I’m not going to get SALTY about it. I balked at LISTEE, but I checked and it is a word. I liked the clever use of punctuation in the clue for ORELSE and enjoyed the clue for GUM (brought back memories of my school days). WAWA, our eastern PA convenience store chain was a gimme, headquartered in nearby Wawa, PA, home of WAWA University, where one can learn the seven rules of slicing, the five day dairy ordering system and the seven day deli ordering system.
Best Thursday in a long time. Nice! XO
Ooh, I just figured out the theme and I absolutely love it! Never have I commented on a puzzle before being done with it, but this gave me such a thrill I had to tell someone (haha). Seeing Kareem Ayas' name as I opened the grid got my hopes up, and I am not disappointed! I wish I could draw this out to savor longer, but I'm already halfway completed... This is how my brain feels as I solve this grid. Yippee! <a href="https://tenor.com/view/snoop-snoopy-peanuts-dance-dancing-gif-11022999122914157975" target="_blank">https://tenor.com/view/snoop-snoopy-peanuts-dance-dancing-gif-11022999122914157975</a>
@G Thanks for dropping the encouraging comment to me last week.
I thought this was fantastic! Chef's kiss! And Chef's hug! In his final years, my father didn't have much of a memory. He couldn't hold any sort of a conversation and answered every question with yes. He had to be reminded repeatedly to keep eating his meals because he'd forget what he was doing. However, he would often sing old songs I'd never heard before. One was a parody version of "Over There". The lyrics were along the lines of "Over there, over there, I'm staying here until the fighting's over over there." Does anybody here have any recollection of a song like that? And here's an inappropriate song he used to sing only around one of his caregivers, who fortunately took it with good humor. I apologize in advance if anyone's offended. The "Too Fat Polka": <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cn-iPEEzfA" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cn-iPEEzfA</a>
@ad absurdum One of the fun things about being old is that we know first hand how much things have changed. Yeah, unfortunately that polka wouldn't land very well today.
@ad absurdum I think John Candy's polka band leader in "Home Alone" refers to it and even sings a few lines.
@ad absurdum OMG I know that song - maybe from my dad too. He was more of a whistler than a singer, but he sang occasionally, always a comic song like something from Spike Jones.
@ad absurdum my dad (who taught me to love crossword puzzles) also sweetly and gradually lost his memory, except for bawdy ditties from the previous century. One of his favorites: roll me over, in the clover, roll me over lay, me down and do it again.
It is simply the case that some of us like crossword puzzles where the idea is to find the words that meet the definitions; and some also like some gimmick that sacrifices the integrity of the noble grid for the benefit of some wordplay or pun. I like to think of myself as in the latter group, but the gimmicks have to be both clever and reasonably understandable from the clues. In my view there is simply no reason for me to think that "steal a kiss" means "the referenced words have an X that shouldn't be there but put it there anyway." It's not as though there is some existing cultural reference point. To steal a kiss is indeed a thing, and an X as a signoff kiss is indeed a thing, but putting the two together is like saying that dogs have fleas and schoolchildren like to flee after school, so ... I don't know, maybe the dogs should scratch the kids. I am therefore with heavy heart tendering my resignation from all crossword solving with the New York Times. Having given this decision a great deal of thought, it is final and I will not yield to any coercion or inducement. That is my final word, a personal ban on doing the crossword for the entire rest of the day. I'll see y'all tomorrow. XOXO
Asher B., You had me at “the dogs should scratch the kids”. But I guess that’s where it really bugs you, which is fair. :)
@Asher B. Makes perfect sense though?? Steal the kiss from the word to make it fit the clue. Give a hug to the other words to make them fit. Have a little whimsy :)
@Ryan Except...Kisses are X, and hugs are O
"G.I." wasn't a term for soldiers when the song, "Over There," was written, or for quite a few years afterward. The song was WW-I era, but "G.I." meaning a soldier only came along in the run-up to the Second World War, in the mid to late 1930's. So, George M. Cohan was not referring to "G.I.s" in his song.
A good crossword. Loved the theme, all the theme entries, the other fill, and the theme's aptness to the Valentine week. Hall of fame 2026.
Man-O-man, Loved this one. Fantabulous. Side note- last night watched "Queen's Chess," a documentary about Judit Polgár. Watching Kasparov sweat facing a little girl with a ponytail. So much fun. Highly recommend. Quick trailer, if you're curious... <a href="https://youtu.be/8pmJgtLKBXg?si=w8it43L5qShbHK1z" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/8pmJgtLKBXg?si=w8it43L5qShbHK1z</a>
@CCNY That looks *really* good. I love movies and documentaries on the subject of either chess or poker.
A particularly good Thursday puzzle! More by this constructor, please
Love letters indeed. A clever puzzle, thanks, Kareem. 40A, LANCET. Timely for me. We are going to Jacksonville this morning for surgery consultation for my husband. Send me some virtual HUGs.
@Linda Jo We will be thinking of you ...and pulling for you both.
@Linda Jo Wishing you and your husband the very best!! OOOO
@Linda Jo Thanks, all. Doctor believes it will be a less drastic surgery than we'd feared. Should happen within a couple weeks.
Definitely a tough one--well done, and well-constructed.
What a feat of construction - jamming the theme entries into a 15x15 grid with such clean fill must have taken a ton of work! Really enjoyed this one!