@Adin Coffee before shower, IMHO.
@Adin The only days I don't have a morning shower are the ones I volunteer at the dog pound. They don't care what I smell like and I look like a scarecrow but they think I'm just fine.
I didn’t have any comment yesterday and don’t have much to say today. Nothing wrong with either but just such by the book themes and unremarkable Monday/Tuesday entries and clues nothing much piqued my interest. Except one thing. I know it’s been used before and considered a legitimate crossword entry, but if I never see AMIRITE again it will be too soon. One of those entries that is just like nails on a blackboard to me. Budding geologists or paleontologists—please someone discover a new mineral and fossil and name it AMIRITE so we can come up with a legitimate clue for it!
@SP exactly. Am I rite?! Too soon? 🤣
@SP That phrase was extremely common when I browsed imgur regularly 10 years ago or so. I find it much less annoying than any of the random phrases that pop up in these crosswords, often with multiple spellings - anything with oh/uh/aw, say. Also, if English spelled things as Polish does - generally with only one way to write stuff down for it to sound a certain way - we wouldn't even be having this exchange 🤣. Why won't you be normal, English? 🤪
@SP I assumed amirite was another AAVE, based on the spelling and it being a concatenation. There's aintrite, as in "boy aintrite" to contend with, too. There was cantgetrite on Eddie Murphy's "Life," (or am I giving this too much attention). Any constructor who'd use SPITSBARS, teeters on the edge of AAVEdom, in my opinion.
@SP [Follower of "The Kite Runner" protagonist] AMIRITE
Aha — so OREO is now a collective noun.
@Dan Oreos are endlessly mutable. Not just a cookie, but a royal cookie
@Dan Yeah, I came here to say something about that. A plural clue supposed to have a plural answer.
Dan, I read somewhere that the proton-dense double-stuf in the middle is now required to keep all the paired dark-matter planes on the planet from cocoalescing into a big-crunch singularity. Can’t find the link to the reference, though…
@Dan Perhaps OREO have adopted LEGO as their/its role model?
Hey UK friends is it LOO or LAV?
@Steve See also yesterday's discussion. In rough descending order of popularity (according to me). Not exhaustive. At home: Loo, Toilet, Bathroom (if there's a shower/bath), S*****r, P****r, Lavatory/Lav if you're 100 years old In public venue: Toilet(s), Loo(s), Gents/Ladies, Bog(s), Little Boys' Room, WC, Lavatory/Lav if you're 100 years old
@Steve What Tim said. Personally it’s generally LOO at home , Ladies or LOO in public. Lav is definitely an older generation thing. As for @TIM’s more ribald names; clutch my pearls!
@Steve The weirdness of the British class system: Upper class - lavatory and never toilet (so common) but loo accepted now. So I've heard. Working class (in the past) lav and WC and now toilet, loo, bog, The Ladies, the Gents in shops, airports etc. As a chid in the 1950's we said 'the lavies'. My grandsons are old enough now to want to use 'the boys' and not 'the girls' with me.
@Steve Oddly, my public, American middle school/junior high in the mid-70's used a LAV pass when we pre-adolescents/teens needed to go to the restroom. Before paying attention to the word on the pass during our first week of school, most of us kept whispering to one another, "Why does everyone keep asking to go the the LAB?"
@Steve It depends on which words cross the second and third letters.
A puzzle that BEFITs Tuesday. What a pleasant stroll, Mr. Schmenner. Hope everyone had a raring Monday!
@Red Carpet Very befitting, indeed. For some reason, I'm drawn to olde English "be" words like betroth, betwixt, bewail, befuddle, bemoan, bedazzle. It just does it for me. I'm also partial to "es" words, like espy and estoppel. It just sounds so... doggone noble and cultured.
Since I don't have anything specific to say about this puzzle, which was a worthy Tuesday effort, I'd like to focus on a complaint heard on Sunday. If you haven't done Sunday's puzzle yet, and would rather not see anything related to it, turn away now. I'll wait. Still waiting.... OK, that should be good. On Sunday, a lot of people complained that since they didn't participate in the activity suggested by the colorful symbols, they couldn't solve it, or didn't have a good time with the puzzle. In other words, because the theme was unfamiliar to them, the experience was ruined. Good solving should not be dependent on one's intimate knowledge of the theme or any of the clues and entries. The skill of good solving is figuring out what you don't know, and filling in missing answers via the crosses. Being aware of the world around you, taking note of things that aren't in your sphere of interest, and generally being well-rounded are the keys to good solving. Hating things so much that you refuse to even osmose well-known items works against you as a solver. You don't have to like rap to know that "Lil" is part of many a rapper's name. Which leads me to a puzzle many may not even be aware of, the monthly Bonus puzzle. It's not on the app; you have to access it on the website. (No idea why that's so.) But how this fits here will come in a reply. (If you haven't done the Bonus puzzle yet, and don't want spoilers, do it before opening the reply!)
@Steve L The monthly Bonus puzzle debuts on the first of every month, and is available all month on the website Games page only. It is a themed puzzle with a title. The title clues you in, of course, on what the theme is, and the difference between daily puzzle themes and the Bonus puzzle's themes is that the daily themes are found in certain symmetrical theme answers, the Bonus puzzle tries to shoehorn the theme into as many answers as possible. (Again, if you don't want spoilers, go find and do the Bonus puzzle and then come back.) Anyway, I read those negative comments about the main puzzle on Sunday, and then opened the new monthly Bonus puzzle. The title was "Get Real!", and the theme (not much of a spoiler, since a quick look at all three top-row across clues makes it obvious) is about reality shows. (In fact, the puzzle was co-constructed by a reality star whom I've never heard of.) This was as far from my wheelhouse as it got. The closest I get to so-called reality shows is the nightly news, which is actual reality. I did not recoil in horror. I did not immediately refuse to do it. What I did was get down to work. The key is that crossword constructors do not want you to fail. They cross unguessable names with things that can be figured out. They make every crossword solvable. They don't write clues like [My brother-in-law's middle name]. More to come in another reply.
@Steve L Oh Steve, some people don't come here to learn. They come for a gold star and they want it as quickly as possible. They resent anything that gets in the way of that.
@SL I did not comment on Sunday's puzzle, as I started it on Saturday evening, but only got a chance to return to it late Sunday night. But for me, the greatest challenge, and subsequent satisfaction, came in figuring out what the colorful symbols meant: a realization I came to at about 4:45 am, in the parking garage of our building, as a walking to my car to drive to work for the day. (I participate in the longer, slimmer version of the activity, where different symbols are the convention.) This was a completely separate experience from the less-satisfactory one of filling in the mundane cluing. One of my main reasons for doing the NYT XW is the opportunity to be introduced to words, phrases, and "things beyond my ken," as Liesl sang in "Sixteen Going on Seventeen."
Steve, I did the bonus puzzle. It was very easy, despite the fact that I know no more about "reality TV" than what I can't avoid during commercial breaks in other programs or reading the paper or online news. I do feel for people doing themed or tribute puzzles on subjects in which they have no interest.
@Steve L I will just chime in to say that I have done the activity suggested only twice in my life and was almost killed both times (first time at age six when on the way home my dad hit the brakes on an icy road resulting in a crash; second time as a teen when friends decided that since I was a competitive figure skater I would be able to handle the suggested activity at a level higher than the inexperienced ought to attempt). Despite these unpleasant experiences, I loved Sunday's puzzle, got the them fairly early on, and used to turbocharge the rest of my solving. Did not get the symbols until reading the comments. My verdict: People complain too much.
TL;DR If you don't like or identify with the theme, try to enjoy it anyway and don't hate on the constructor.
Not a hard puzzle, but enough already with slang crossing slang, i.e. SPITS BARS and SLAPS, and "informally" i.e. NORMIE (65A: Person with mainstream likes, pejoratively), AMIRITE (23A: "Don't you agree with me?," informally). Yes, I do say and write "gonna" and "wanna," but, "gimme" a break, you're never gonna convince me that AMIRITE is anything but awful. As for NORMIE, I have a cousin Normie, but since he's from Brooklyn, as am I, he has always been called NAWMIE, even after we both lost our accents.
Regarding my snoozing the alarm clock morning habits, ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies!! A very nice puzzle. Felt very zippy and fresh going through it. That said, I finished 75% faster than my average Tuesday. Crazy!! As for PAINS, I started physical therapy today and I hurt worse now than I have leading up to the reason why I need physical therapy! Yikes! I think it's probably normal, but it doesn't SLAP! Har!
@HeathieJ From the Book of Dubious Adages: No pain. No gain. Appropriate Scripture can always be found.
The early morning question for me will be whether to do all that stirring and stretching in time to go out in the cold to see the lunar eclipse…or not. It might go: stir, stretch, roll over, doze off.
old people when crosswords have slang from 1980: ☺️ old people when crosswords use modern slang: 😡
@abram The menace of boomer overindexing will haunt us for decades after they pass
@abram It's not the age, it's the attitude.
Nancy J., Amen. Thomas Lawrence, The earlier comment was not from a boomer.
@abram That was quite mean-spirited. Maybe you only meant to be funny. I'm not laughing, just trying not to feel too insulted. I will pretend it was harmless humor.
I love how HOT is sitting above SHOWER. Aaah, so good – right up my alley, never mind the purported benefits of cold showers. I wasn't familiar with SLAPS being slang for "is awesome." So I guess Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers slaps when he bass slaps... <a href="https://youtu.be/Q0oIoR9mLwc?si=ANA1zigRJ1wqPr1K" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Q0oIoR9mLwc?si=ANA1zigRJ1wqPr1K</a> Nice puzzle, Mr. Schmenner! Thank you!
OREO! My long-lost friend; at last, you have returned.
@Don H It's been once a month this year. But... October of last year? - Five times. ....
@Don H It's been once a month this year. But... October of last year? - Five times. ...
I've seen both SLAPS and SPITSBARS called out in the comments as passing phrases, and therefore unworthy of inclusion on the word list. Both of these terms are as old as I am. What is *new to you* is not necessarily new, and suggesting that language which has existed for over 20 years is lesser because it is most often used by a community besides your own is, at best, close-minded.
@Rory Fair enough.
I noticed the grid was 16 wide ... needed for the revealer. I prefer to have a revealer at the bottom, so I can try to guess it after entering the themers. Oh, well. And I trust nobody needed the revealer to solve the themers. The fill was fine, but some of the clues seemed "easy-Monday" (I'm talking about you, southwest corner.). Drew has done some nice puzzles, including a tough Thursday and a rebus (if easy) Sunday. I hope he'll have some more for us.
@Barry Ancona I felt like the majority of the clues were easy-Monday, tbh. And a lot of the others seemed like stretching common words/phrases to make the fill work (I'm looking at you HUSHES UP).
Nice to see some contemporary slang. Puzzle slapped.
What? No Coffee??? Don't talk to me until I've had my coffee.
@The X-Phile We're coming back into sync ... caffeine came to mind for me too!
Had the constructor worked in "caffeinate", this puzzle would have really slapped. Actually, had to guess at the crossing of SLAPS and SPITSBARS, as both entries were unknown to me. IHOPE the usage is correct in my opening sentence.
@Xword Junkie It is! "slapped" is a weensy bit dated - you'd hear it more often before and during the pandemic - but anyone familiar with the slang would be able to interpret your sentence correctly.
Cute, but way off today. STIR. Instantly regret plan. Attempt to layer up to face the chilly morning, Try to find the sleeves of a pillowcase ("What *is* this? Pants..?") Try to hide the pre-caffeine hatred for everything including lovely hubby as we trek up the hill to see the blood moon. Begin to feel human. Overcast skies block it but the sunrise was stunning. Walk back to the house feeling grateful. Sip tea with pups and blanket on my lap. Do puzzle. Morning all!
@CCNY With the "overcast" prediction, I decided I could do without going outside this morning, even though I woke up at 2:48 a.m. So I did the Wordle (new streak now 150) and the Spelling Bee (Genius + and adios to that) and read Joyce Vance's column.... This puzzle...had me puzzled SLAPS? SPIT BARS? AMIRITE? I GOT them, but they brought me no joy.
Almost 6 minutes under my Tuesday average. Was afraid that the four or so slang or rap related clues would slow me down but the crosses were easy fill. I guess after SMEAGOL twice in three days cluing IAN McKellan as Gandalf was asking too much. Nice mix of French and British terminology mixed in
Wizzed through this pleasant morning offering. For me it’s always a bath, I’m not a shower fan except on the very hottest days. Perhaps it’s because I spend so much time standing in the rain corralling various animals. Our temporary ovine guests have discovered how to force up the protective wiring to nibble at our delicate young trees, meaning the first job every day is reinforcing the fencing and persuading stubborn sheep to eat the grass. I prefer my gin and TONIC with lemon please. Cheers.
A few years ago, my baby brother, who is 59, used the expression "slaps" on an all-sibling text thread. We all dropped him as a contact on our phones and didn't speak to him for a year. Harsh medicine? Sure. But he thanked us later. "It was the only way I was going to learn," he said.
@Jeff Z Tough love. I'm glad it worked. Things would only have gotten worse.
Quick and easy — thanks for this one!
My first things are a shot of espresso and the NYT XW!
Quick! What's the difference between `1) STIR THE POT, GET UP TO SPEED and FIRST THINGS FIRST and 2) SLAPS, as used here, and SPITS BARS? Answer: The former have "legs", i.e. they've lasted. The latter don't and probably won't. For those who do puzzles from the archives and for me who has Will Shortz puzzle collections in hardcover, the main difference is the lack of ephemeral youthy slang in the old puzzles. Ephemeral youthy slang means that these puzzles will probably be out of date by the time they are ready to be collected and published. Meaning they may never be collected and published. And it's too bad, because most of this puzzle has grown-up non-junky fill. The biggest questions for me were: Would the "image problem" be a BLUR or a SLUR? And is "is awesome", in slang SLAPS, SLIPS or SLOPS? One makes just about as much sense to me as the other. YMMV
It's fine not to listen to hip hop, but to throw a fit when hip hop terms are in the crossword might create an image problem.
@Nancy Slaps and "spits bars" have been around since at least the 90s, if not earlier. Just because it comes from African American Vernacular English (AAVE) does not mean won't last, because AAVE will still be around even after those terms fall out of popular (non-AAVE-speaker) use. Including AAVE terms in a puzzle is linguistically no different from the occasional answers in Spanish, French, or some other language.
I have to admit that I Log On before I even GETUP. And I bet that everyone else who comments here does so also.
@lucky13 Not before coffee and mucking out the animals. If I’m lucky and it’s not raining so hard I have to grapple with the waterproofs, then I can usually hit the screen within an hour of STIRring.
The whole time I was solving, I was trying to imagine different, more creative clues for the given entries--why is LINK an [_Online_ connection]? Why IRATE [_Absolutely_ steaming]? That, and wondering whether there will be a youtubeable intersection (there is, below). IMHO, She-Ra was always a more interesting character than He-Man, as Xena was to Hercules. Separated at birth, they inhabited parallel universes, with the occasional crossover. It's interesting to compare the series' theme songs and music--the leitmotiv for He-Man has a strong, masculine* rhythm, with the accent on the final syllable: "he-MAN!"; while She-Ra's leitmotiv has a more lilting feminine* one: "SHE-ra, SHE-ra" (*I'm using "masculine" vs. "feminine" in their neutral, prosodic definitions of "weak-STRONG" versus "STRONG-weak," but the gender connotations are impossible to ignore.) I clearly had way too much time on my hands in the early 80's. *** *** The Karakoram are alive: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVion9SrlJU&list=RDKVion9SrlJU&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVion9SrlJU&list=RDKVion9SrlJU&start_radio=1</a>
Nice Tuesday puzzle. Typical workout for me and didn't catch on to the theme until I was almost done. Thought that was a really clever sequence. And... one answer history search today was inspired by LOO. Wondered about clues for JOHN. And... "Can" "Lav" "Loo" "Head" and... "One place to solve a crossword." Multiple references that way. And I'll put my puzzle find today in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened. A Sunday from November 12, 1995 by Randolph Ross with the title: "At the marathon." A couple of theme clues and answers: "Like the toughest part of the race." ANUPHILLBATTLE "Ran hard in the marathon." POUNDEDTHEPAVEMENT And other theme answers: INTHELONGRUN NOTUPTOSPEED HADAGOODTIME JOINEDTHEHUMANRACE GOTHEEXTRAMILE Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/12/1995&g=87&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/12/1995&g=87&d=A</a> ....
This one went by in a BLUR I finished so fast. Oh well, 🤞🏼Fingers crossed tomorrow trends tougher. Hopefully we get some grittier ones from Drew in the future 😉
This was a lovely puzzle!I enjoyed it very much. Thanks, Drew! If it’s primary day in your State in the US, Please VOTE! Happy Tuesday, y’all!
"Am I rite?!" BOOO!
@JC from KC As many here have noted, this puzzle is infected with youthful slang. 'Amirite?' is pretty common in online places like Reddit, blogs, and Facebook comments. I have seen it used many times even though I'm old. 'Spits bars', on the other hand...
@JC from KC: The rate at which language is evolving is exponential.
Thanks for a clever START to my day, Drew! I enjoyed your theme and constructor notes as they mimic most of my mornings, these days. Now wishing I had an OREO to dunk in my second cup of java. ☕️☀️
The theme was a great description of my morning (the stretching is PT for my shoulder alas). And another regular FIRST thing of the day for me is to go birding, so I enjoyed the header photo (though it appears to feature only Mallards … which are nice I guess just not much of a rarity/challenge). Grateful to the Puzzle team, and now it’s time to go brush something and get on with the day!
@Laura Whitaker A lovely way to start the day indeed! I went out first thing this morning to see if I could catch a glimpse of the lunar eclipse- it had already set, but it was lovely to see the birds out, greeting the new day. I too have to do PT for my shoulder- what a pain! ;)
Anyone else consider spitunes for 3d? My baptismal was manned by the Summerhill Gang. For real, the rap genre AIN’T chiseled on to my Mt. music version of Rushmore. There I go again, waxing all slangy. If the phrase BEFITs, coin it.
Quick puzzle in general. When I finished the puzzle I was almost surprised I got it without any mistakes, I was sure LIESL was wrong. And I still don't get the theme. But the answers were easy enough.
@Chris The beginnings of the theme clues are the four things one may do first in the morning: STIR then GET UP then STRETCH then SHOWER.
@Chris stir, get up, stretch, shower first things a person might do each day
And they are the first things in the theme answers, so they are first things first.
@bortney An old French coin of very low value.
@bortney File that one away for future reference…but not in deep storage. You will *definitely* be seeing it again: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder</a>
That was fun but I STRETCH (with my Chiweenie) right after I STIR but before I GET UP.
@Kevin Now...just out of curiosity...what's a Chiweenie and how do you stretch with it? Ok, I just googled Chiweenie and I fell much less alarmed now.
Had to be the easiest Tuesday ever. Even searching out a typo, i was 2 seconds off my record. - - - - - - Extra lines for emus.
@Joe Although plenty of new tech issues have developed, I think the "extra lines for the emus" issue was resolved months ago.
I avoided the revealer and tried to figure the theme FIRST but failed to catch on, so the yolk's on me. Cute one but please, can we dial up the clues just a little bit?
@John Carson No. Not on a Tuesday. Just be patient, Wednesday is on its way. Or, if you can't wait, dip into the archives.
Do my eyes deceive me or is there now a search comments function out here?
@HeathieJ Just popped up for me too. Don't know why. ....
HeathieJ, It searches the comments, but not the commenters. If I type HeathieJ in the search, it brings up comments addressed to you or mentioning you, but not comments from you.
It also picks up words that include the searched word. Search emu and see the first result.
@HeathieJ That's a great feature. The search function only searches text, and not the name field, unless name(s) are mentioned inside the text box. The "find on page" tool on my iPad is too wonky, and it wants to conduct searches on the wordplay column instead of the comments section. I figured out a way around it, but I'm glad for the new feature. Still, you'd have to know to type on "andr" to get to the ever popular Polish author we all know and love. Now, if Bill (Detroit) would change his name to "the cool Bill," it would be so much easier on all of us.
Ωραίο is back 👍 I’d argue that an extra shot makes a cocktail more POTENT but not necessarily POTENT. I’m not sure that AMIRITE is even English. At least the dreaded lav is gone. Nice Tuesday puzzle
I solved the. puzzle fairly quickly but didn't understand the theme until I read the column.
Well today’s Tuesday and I have not cheated, no cap!
Third theme entry should have been "whiz kid."
I've made cornbread in my Lodge cast iron for decades. Never knew it was called PONE. With my last 3 squares being SLAPS/SPITSBARS, LIESL/LINK, FROS/PONE, it was enough to invoke Check Puzzle and lose the gold. Very sad performance on my part for a Tuesday. Cheers.
@Joe In contemporary American cooking, cornbread usually includes wheat flour--up to 50%--as cornmeal/-flour alone contains no gluten, and doesn't rise. Is this what you make? Bread, or breadlike concoctions, made from cornmeal alone, is called "corn pone" in the South, and "johnnycake" in the North. This is what First Nation peoples ("pone" comes from an Algonquian word) and wheatless European pioneers, would have eaten. But the definitions and distinctions, like the batter, are fluid.
@Joe Pone is old south, not often used any longer. In Eddie Murphy's "Life," Goldmouth would have done just as well with "You gon each yo pone" as he did with the "you gon each yo conebread" scene. Loved that movie, sorry. We use the Lodge for cornbread, too. I also learned to make homemade pizza in it, and adds great crunchiness to the crust.