Ohhh, Pay for Play stuck me for a while. Diabolical. Nice puzzle!
@B Totally I had TIVO for a while and then realized GVA could not be a thing
@B That was my last entry (the Y, I mean)....felt quite dumb, but oh well! I'm getting used to it.
@B same - I had TIPS which partially worked when I got to the downs, but only partially...
@B Oh thanks I just got it reading your comment!
Little known fact: At the Droid factory, ARTOO was the second model off the conveyor belt. The first one was called “Amnot”
@Petrol That would have been a perfect moment in "Cheers", when Cliff Clavin would start with "Y'know, it's a little know fact..." Just a few decades too late.
Petrol, And thus was born Artificial Intransigence.
@Petrol You mad me laugh out loud ! Thank you
[Basket, ____, Dodge, Foot] DROP THE BALL Quick solve, fun theme.
@Anita Nice try, but the blank spot doesn't fit.
@Anita I'm with you on this. I think this works fine and is a nice addition to the themers. Ignore those nit-niks nesting below!
Brilliant and fun – I wish it had been Sunday-sized! Thank you so much, Mr. Bergman, and congrats on a worthy first solo!
@sotto voce Great puzzle, but not a debut. His first puzzle was 3/19/2020.
"I can't find my guitar!" "I wouldn't fret about it." ("Just my pluck.")
@Mike The police are looking into recent guitar thefts and say they’ve got no leads.
@Mike Actually i noticed that you might have lost your rhythm (i missed you yesterday!)
@Mike "Why keep stringing us along like this?" (Asking for a Fender)
@Mike I imagine you're as cabo-ble at playing the guitar as you are punning.
@Mike if you’ve lost your usual acoustic guitar, may i suggest….Steal strings?
@Mike Some strumpet probably swiped it.
I would call this an Enthuseday puzzle, a little harder than a usual Wednesday, but a lot of fun to work.
Welcome back, Wayne, solo this time, and thanks for giving us a Wednesday-like Wednesday.
Using a word I learned today in a sentence: I am going to have a driblet or two or three of scotch. I liked the puzzle a lot. Good thing I finally added the TIGER to EASY, and I was sure of SKIP A BEAT, because I got pretty stuck with DRopLET. About like my normal Wednesday time, I think. So it seemed to me like it was in the Wednesday zone, for the most part. So maybe I can come out of hiding to look at the comments today
@Francis Live wild! Have more than a DRIBLET.
@Francis I think a driblet is the amount that rolls down my chin, a few droplets of after shot.
Anyone else concerned that if kids today can't cut a rug they'll never know how to trip the light fantastic?
@ad absurdum Just show them some Astaire & Rogers films and they'll get the picture. All they'll need after that is native skills and a lifetime of discipline and practice. Presto!
To the crossword puzzle creators: First a huge thank you for sharing your creativity and making puzzles for us to solve. Regardless of ease or difficulty, I enjoy the solving process. I can either know, deduce, or research the answer. Second, never, ever apologize for having a clue and answer that another generation may not know. Period! Please note this Wayne Bergman. Happy midweek solving everyone.
@Tim Yep. I'm an old fart and a lot of new slang goes right over my head. Good thing these are CROSSword puzzles or I'd be in a pickle...
I honestly haven’t done a themed early week puzzle in private a year. I thought today was Thursday. But obviously Wednesday. Glad I was mistaken. This was ‘hard’. Okay, not hard. But when you have DRopLET locked in. 4 squares are absolutely confounding. Fun theme.
Quite hard for me today, but good clues. The TOILET LID went over my .... head. And catalogue. Must remember the meaning of LOT. If I know EDSEL, it must be really famous.
@Jane Wheelaghan "The TOILET LID went over my .... head." Oh, no, you din't.
@Jane Wheelaghan As a little kid, I remember my uncle driving his brand-new Edsel from Cleveland to NY to show it to us. His excitement quickly turned sour, and he got rid of the lemon after less than a year.
@Jane Wheelaghan Speaking of intransigence, did the endless CATALOG throw you off?
[Bossa, _____, swing, rock] MISS A BEAT [Sharp, _____, three-point, U] LOSE A TURN [Ace, _____, 3, 4] DROP A DEUCE
@Ace That last one...you mean like "lose 2000 dollars in a bet", right? Please tell me that's right.
@Ace Or....We could just embrace our inner six-year-old Edam, ______, Swiss, Sharp CUT THE CHEESE
@Ace These are great. Love the self-reference — even if it's that inner six-year-old you, lol.
@Ace @Long you guys have won “thread of the year” in my book. Drop a deuce. In the NYT crossword comment section. Inspired. Haha! I’m also a huge fan of “dropping the kids off at the pool” or “taking the Browns to the Super Bowl” Both in expression and practice.
Who? What? ____ When? Why? AXE A QUESTION (Yes, it hurts my ears too.)
@JohnWM You're going to have to 'splain that.
@JohnWM Another X that hurts my ears is the one that people often pronounce at the end of ASTERISK.
@JWM & @SD Your post made me laugh so I hard, I spit out my expresso. (But seriously, "Ax/aks" as a variant form goes back to Middle English, if not before. Although perhaps not in Canada.)
@JohnWM AAVE might encompass phrases like that...one does hear "AXE" instead of "ASK" .....but I've seen/heard it used to disparage folks (especially as Primary voting nears in this state)...so it made me wince.
Bill et al., Don’t get me wrong - “hurts my ears” does not mean I don’t occasionally say it myself. I love alternate pronunciations, and embrace their role in the vibrancy of language. I had heard before about the long-term use of aks for ask (c.f. fisk/fish). I still sometimes get confused about and even intentionally binge/purge the two versions of nuclear/nucular. And one I know only from my own weirdness (but maybe is more generally in play?) is calling a clafouti(s) - the French crustless tart - a ‘caflooti’. And actually, I have come to prefer caflooti :)
Very clever and fun. Enjoyed the theme a lot. The cluing made me wonder where the author was going and I felt as though it wasn’t a give away. Some of the clues did a very good job of polysimny and made me suss out the area more often than not. On a slightly different note, I’m finally at December 2014 in the archives. Met a Tuesday that’s as tough as a modern Saturday. Nearly wept.
@Red Carpet And yet people still think we're making it all up. (PS I think you mean "polysemy.")
@Red Carpet Your comment had me curious, so to the December 2014 archive I immediately went to try and find, and solve, what you were referencing. Might you have been referring to the Tuesday, December 2 puzzle? If so, I agree that the difficulty was of a “late week” puzzle by current standards, though perhaps not quite a Saturday. If you weren’t referring to December 2, and there is a harder Tuesday puzzle to be had in that calendar month then, well, wowza!
@Red Carpet My own journey through the archives brought me to this Thursday from 2004 yesterday: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/2004/02/19" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/2004/02/19</a>. I laughed, but whatever the laughing correlate for “tears of joy” might be called…that’s the kind laughter it was.
[Lettuce, ____, tomato, bacon] HOLD THE MAYO! Nice one.
I thought this was a terrific Wednesday. It is the first puzzle I put in my early-week POY list. A lot to like: —Fun, creative theme. Even though I got the idea after MISSTHEMARK, the others weren’t gimmes; I got TAKETHECAKE immediately, but had SKIPAPAGE initially, and tried to shoehorn in NOSTRINGSATTACHED which was a little off the theme (and didn’t fit anyway) but I thought it could have worked since the two strings were separated —Elegant construction. Great use of reflective symmetry to make this work for 5 good themers (two interlocking) and plenty of room for some other long entries especially the top middle. Not a lot of glue —some clever clues and misdirection: Head covering, Pay for play, mini mart, test the waters —just about perfect difficulty level for a Wednesday, in my opinion. Enough to chew on but enough, I hope, to give early week solvers a foothold. BTW anyone else have TIKIBAR before SAKEBAR? Well done Wayne!
@SP It lightens my mood, a bit, to have enjoyed a puzzle that you also enjoyed. I fear I was born with a broken sense of ... I don't know how to express it...without a firm sense of how to evaluate things, how to rank things. As a result I like almost everything about as much as I do anything else. The most praised puzzle I've seen here was certainly delightful, but only modestly more than the standard, to me. I think I'm missing the highs and lows, as the muse said in "Desperado". If you've read "Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance", you might say that I'm "Quality Blind". And I'm not even sure if that's a bad thing.
@SP USAA saved me from that... A big part of my life... 36D's clue was so sly! I wonder how many clues were original....
Oops, ___ , Shute, Drat, Uh oh. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YnpFbQ3Qeww" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YnpFbQ3Qeww</a>
@dutchiris 😂😂😂😂😂 That was *SO* worth the click and the thought.
@dutchiris SHUTE? Shoot? Remembering a time when it was controversial to have DAMN in a movie.....
For a larger grid: [Sir, _____, ma'am, _____, your honor] SKIPTHEFORMALITIES
Very creative theme with some excellent cluing. [Pay for play, perhaps] for TYPO and [Mini mart?] for CAR LOT. Just perfect.
3:30, ____ , 1:45, Noon TAKE YOUR TIME Dripping faucet, Running toilet, ____ , Soggy ceiling TAKE A LEAK Khyber, Subway, ___ Hail Mary PASS OUT
@Heidi Why do we TAKE a leak? My hubby says it should be GIVE or LEAVE a leak.
@Heidi These are great, especially PASS OUT. Scroll down for @Ash in LA's offerings; their last is in keeping with your add-on, in the best way! :)
Just came to say that I'm Gen Z and I know what cut a rug means! Great puzzle!
Wowzers! I'll pile on a few thousand DRIBLETs of praise, this was a terrific puzzle! Really enjoyed the theme and the misdirects. My final fill was the Y in the crossing of NYC and TYPO. I knew it had to be NYC, but could not see how it was TYPO... until the music played and the Nickel, dime ____, quarter. (I don't think I saw that one in the comments, forgive me if it's a duplicate.) Really fun one—theme and fill! Had a few this before thats, but somehow completed it way faster than average, but enjoyed every moment!! Congrats on your first solo, Wayne!
@HeathieJ I had my last trouble with that, too!
@HeathieJ Hi, can you help me find the search bar or is it only on laptops or desktops?
@HeathieJ, OMG, I just found the Search box that you’ve been raving about. Wowzer! Truly a godsend! 👏🏻🙏🏻🎉
[Perforated, _____, parallel, perpendicular] DROPALINE
@lucky13 is perforated the same as dotted?
@Patricia Henry A perforated line can be found on, e.g., coupons, bus tickets, etc., making it easy to tear them off.
Story, _____, arc, trope LOSE THE PLOT Fun puzzle, Wayne, thanks.
To all of you offering hilarious alternate possibilities for this ingenious theme, thank you. What a great, creative, funny place this is!
@Francis Kale, endive, ---, lettuce ROCKET STRIKE
Madison and 21st, ____, Bourbon and Canal, ____, Haight and Ashbury Cut some corners. Way better than Becky's.
@Matt World peace, climate, ____, Matt, ____, Tottenham LOST CAUSES 🫳🏻 🎤
@Matt Good one. Except... What is Madison and 21st?!?? 🎵 One of these things is not like the other 🎶 If "Famous Intersections" was a Jeopardy category, this one would not be in it. 😂
Matt, If the first one is supposed to be in New York, you'll need to change it: Madison starts at 23rd Street.
Such a classic banter between friends shouldn't be overshadowed by nits. This is the gold standard👏
[😊, ___, 🥹, 🤪] LOSE FACE Loved this one -- thank you, Wayne, for such a fun Wednesday!😉
DRIBLET really threw me off for a while (because I had DRopLET) and I couldn't figure out the crosses. The last thing I filled in was SKIPABEAT, and it all came together, phew! Maybe with the release of the Midi the daily crosswords will go back to their usual difficulty? 🤔
@Janine I, too, had DRopLET, and I didn’t want to give up SKIPApagE. Really made the rest of that section a struggle! Eventually got there with an eye roll (at my own expense).
@Janine Yes, DROPLET before DRIBLET for me too (and probably for a lot of other solvers).
@Janine Yes!!! I had Droplet as well which was really messing with my 7D
I personally find that Wednesdays have the most variable difficulty. Sometimes, they are very straightforward, and sometimes, they really, really aren't. Saturdays used to have more variability as well, but they've recently seemed much easier than they used to be.
I think there have been some Wriday and Thaturday puzzles recently.
@Elbridge Gerry Does Sylvester the Cat solve only Thaturdays?
Clever theme. I was looking for other people named Mark and other string instruments until the actual way to answer the theme questions clicked. A lot of good fill, not too many proper nouns that depend on specific spheres of knowledge. EDSEL/TEL was the last square I got cycling all letters. Other clues that I found tough like EYELETS and DRIBLET had easier crossings.
@Chris thank you so much! I didn’t know EDSEL either. I had sEEM, which doesn’t exactly work now that I reread it.
@Chris Edsel shows up a lot, actually. Ford will never live it down
@Chris I went a couple of directions on the theme while working the across clues. I put viola at the start of 55A. That didn't work well. Super misdirects. My favorite was TOILETLID for 32D: Head covering. Funny!
Good one. Droplet for driblet had me running in circles for a minute.
I have not felt like commenting in a while, but today’s puzzle compels me to heap praise! Clever and fresh, I thoroughly enjoyed the wordplay in this one. Thanks, Wayne!
@Mark I didn't get a chance to comment that day, but I appreciated later seeing your update a week or so ago about your ablation! So glad to hear how much better you feel and appreciate you remembering that I was hoping for an update!! ☺️
For me there was very solid misdirection with 32D Head covering? and 64A Pay for play, perhaps. I loved those clues - they really made me think.
Oh boy… I saw “Minor menace” and PE__ and thought “Oh no” I guess the Epstein files have been in the news too much. I enjoyed the puzzle though
Clever puzzle - bit on the tough side for me. Took me quite a while to tumble to the trick, and even then needed some crosses for the theme answers to dawn on me. Still a nice workout. Puzzle find today - a Sunday from August 9, 2015 by Melanie Miller. Some theme clue and answer examples: "Need rural real estate investor to..." BUYTHEFARM "Need cocktail waitress to..." CALLTHESHOTS "Need bakery assistant to..." TAKETHECAKE And some other theme answers: ROCKTHEBOAT FACETHEMUSIC HITTHEDECK FLIPTHEBIRD Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/9/2015&g=56&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/9/2015&g=56&d=A</a> I'm done. ...
<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/driblet" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/driblet</a> You can learn new words here, all in a rush, in dribs and drabs, or in driblets. Or you can complain about words you didn't know.
Now that is a Wednesday! Truly enjoyed solving that puzzle this morning. *Note to self* add this to early week POY nomination! Just wanted to mention that this Gen Xer knew both CUT A RUG and DRIBLET. I heard both from my grandmother who was born in 1914 🤣 My sister drove a MINI Countryman for years, so I automatically thought that clue probably referred to the car. (The company capitalizes their whole name which is why I did). Thank you, Wayne. I enjoyed your solo debut even more than your debut in 2020 (and I really liked that one too).
Lovely, crunchy Wednesday which felt just right. The theme came quickly, the only one I struggled with was 7D, not a phrase I’m familiar with. TAKIS and ESAI are new names to me too, but got there with the crosses, though the S of 37D was a pure guess as my final entry. There’s been rather a lot of lavatorial themed clues this week. Just saying.
@Helen Wright Perhaps you don’t get some of his TV work in the UK, like the current “Ozark” or the older “NYPD Blue,” but actor ESAI Morales has been in the puzzle 128 times in the Modern Era, clued as [Actor Morales] 52 times, and with more information the rest of them. He got his big break as the ill-fated singer Ritchie Valens in the movie “La Bamba.” The name itself, by the way, is the Spanish form of Jesse.
@Helen Wright Just search for lyrics + heart + 'skip a beat' and you will find dozens of romantic entries from the last 100 years or so. And I agree with you that we need a plumber around here. Feh!
Anyone get stuck with TOUPEELID for "Head covering?" Just me?
This was a fun puzzle to solve -- and I imagine it was a fun puzzle to brainstorm too. All those items that go missing by means of a different verb. Finding the apt phrases, making sure they're symmetrical, putting them in both Across and Down answers -- very, very neatly done. And no junky fill. I applaud your idea and I applaud your execution, Wayne. But you could have had one more theme answer in the grid without changing anything other than one clue. For 8D, you could have had "Washington Post, ______, Boston Globe." PAPERLESS! No, you don't need to have NEWSPAPERLESS, either. "Was your PAPER delivered today?" "No, I didn't get my PAPER today." I'm thinking, Wayne, that PAPERLESS was part of your theme set when you submitted the puzzle and that the editors said: "Nope, you can't use that because it's not verb followed by object of the verb like the other themers. The theme answers need to be cohesive. But no need to redo the grid -- just clue PAPERLESS as a non-theme answer. Am I right? (Haven't read your Constructor's Note yet.) Anyway, I enjoyed solving this light and breezy puzzle.
@Nancy Agree that could have worked. But as a constructor if you honestly think that PAPERLESS was in Wayne’s original theme set, then took it out and somehow managed to fit it in anyway in this Chinese puzzle box of a construction, then that would be a miracle beyond what the crossword gods usually provide.
'Pay for play, perhaps'. I saw 'pay to play' so had me stumped for a while there, funny how your mind works. Good one! Liked that.
I was CUTting A RUG down at a place called the Jug With a girl named Linda Lou... Fine Wednesday puzzle, no notes, other than that the constructor needs to play more Lynyrd Skynyrd in the house. Kids need to learn the classics.
@Grant I never even thought of that, wow, pull my Southern card and banish me to NJ.😜
Really fun puzzle today. The theme was great.
At first I thought the blank space was another person named Mark, e.g. It became a lot easier once I realized where the constructor was going with this.
OMG a Search Comments feature!!! And it works!!! I searched on "BK", and the results show what I believe are all my posts – including nested ones. 🙌🙌🙌🤸♀️
@G Yesss! Could it be an edit button is forthcoming? (Oops, maybe not. I just heard someone from IT yell at me, "EASY, TIGER!") Tbh, the coding might be in beta... I tested pnw and all that's pnw and PNW showed up, inclusive of all my posts, even nested ones. OTOH, sotto voce and @sotto voce both show a reply to my OP, but none of my own posts, not even the original one. Still, so much better than no search function at all! I'm impressed! (Lol, yes the bar is very low...)
@G Oh, smart! Yesterday when I saw the search box, I tried my name and it only came up in people who referred to me. Didn't think to try the location. I was in a state of shock to see that they added something we actually want in the comments! 😏
@sotto voce @HeathieJ I didn't even open the comments yesterday. 😳 Yay!!! You know, the only reason I search on "BK" (with the browser Find-in-Page prior to now) is that "G" is a completely hopeless search term hahaha. I'm sad to learn it's not as ready for primetime as I'd hoped... But I agree, so much better than nothing!! Especially after all the changes that hinder rather than help: I'm kinda shocked, tbh. Next up, an Edit button? Can a girl hope?? Honestly, the bar is so low in the "good things dept." at the moment, I'll take this little advancement in a place that brings me joy — and be very happy with it. Big hugs to you both! 🌞