No pun today, just a special shout-out to my mother, who is one of the strongest, most special women I know (and who would absolutely tell me I'm getting too maudlin right now). Just like me, she's a fan of crosswords and cats and, of course, rolls her eyes at all my (attempted) humor. And I love her for it. Here's to all the special loved ones in your lives!
Wow, in addition to the incredible 22 women crosses, the constructor managed to include clues or entries for Caitlin Clark, Taylor Swift, Etta James, NORA Ephron, Geena Davis, THERESA May, Pamela Anderson, and even HER. Very impressive construction. I wish the clue for 95A had been [Look ma!] NO HANDS Brava, Kelly!
@Anita Also Virginia APGAR, the pediatrician who devised that test.
@Anita Look Ma, NO HANDS! Look Ma, NO HANDS! Look Ma, NO HANDS! Look Ma, no teef!
@Anita Very impressive work indeed! Kelly Richardson, thank you for this delightful puzzle. I'm so glad that IWD fell on a Sunday this year so you could give us this expansive tribute to so many women who have made our world better.
There are so many great women poets but I am inexorably drawn to Emily D. In my mind anyway, she is Walt Whitman’s sister and they both give me hope during my darkest days. To make a prairie (No. 1755) To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, One clover, and a bee. And revery. The revery alone will do, If bees are few. -Emily Dickinson I’m glad to see the NYT Xword celebrate International Women’s Day with this fantastic puzzle! Thank you, Kelly and Will.
@Puzzlemucker She's long been my favorite too! “Hope” is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm - I’ve heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me.
We need a puzzle now and then To celebrate women instead of men Not just the singers but doers as well For more than a day we need to tell That half of everyone needs both sexes To create the center of human nexus Men claim so much and have their say But now beware: it's Women's Day
@dutchiris As a card-carrying misandrist I'm all for it. But don't Monday-level clues do a disservice to the very ethos of the project itself, which is to celebrate the sagacity and subtlety of the distaff half? Sorry...this emperor (empress?) had no Sunday clothes.
@dutchiris For starters amp up the clueing for the supporting fill, maybe, before you play some fun games with the women entries? I cannot point to a single non-proper-name entry whose cluing was tougher than Tuesday level. And most were Mondays.
@Matt Misandrist? You *do* realize that there are many wonderful men out there don't you? If not, you're keeping company with the wrong crowd. I agree with you on the cluing today. A big Monday grid is a little tedious.
@dutchiris Surely the close should be: But now rejoice: it's Women's Day.
For a while, I thought the Taylor Swift hit must be OAR SONG -- presumably a sea shanty.
I enjoyed this puzzle a lot ... BUT ... nobody in Australia says G'DAY MATES. Despite our reputation for shortening anything we possibly can, we would say G'DAY MATE individually to each person.
@Paul ? Like even for groups of 10 or 20 or 30? I guess that's one way to pace one's drinking at the pub.
@Paul, that struck me as being off, but I let it slide for this wonderful puzzle. In a similar vein, you may be interested to know that nobody in Texas says y’all when addressing one person. Except on TV.
@Paul On a recent vacation to Yellowstone, a young Aussie woman was part of our 6-day tour group. Very fascinating and intelligent woman. She's an Astrophysicist and knows all about parsecs, novas, etc. No one used G'day to her, just once or twice. She educated a few of us on prawns though, not shrimp. The funniest moment was when one of the guides pulled out a pocket knife to cut the tag off a piece of luggage. I said to her "He called that a knife." Right on cue, she came back with "That's not a knife." Fortunately she didn't produce a Dundee knife.
@Paul Stumped me too. I thought since I had GDAY and 5 letters to go, I was doing something wrong for sure.
Well, congrats on a very special puzzle reminding us of a very special day. Let’s give credit where credit is due, creating a puzzle with 21 women’s names all stacked is a feat, no doubt, and while a common complaint here is too many proper names I think we can certainly let it slide this once, can’t we? I will observe that oddly the top half and the bottom half of this puzzle seemed totally different in difficulty level. I was disappointed because I almost literally filled out the top half of the puzzle without skipping a letter—if the across wasn’t a gimme, the down was. The bottom half seemed more of a normal Sunday challenge. Last observation: not counting MRROBOTO (which is a title) and MONETS (which are clued to the paintings not the painter) the only male proper names referenced in the puzzle are Babe the blue ox and ELMO. I have to uncomfortably point out that what they have in common is that their male accoutrements either don’t function (if he’s a proper Ox) or are lacking entirely. Sigh, I suppose we deserve that.
A class act of a puzzle. Once I had the theme, I dropped the rest of the grid to focus on first filling in as many of the names as I could. Kelly, thank you for a shining ray of joy and pride -- it is much needed these days.
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY! [...to those who celebrate it, as they say on the social platforms to avoid offending anyone.] On this day, I'm reminded of what a wise woman once said about Mother's Day: We have such a celebration so that we can ignore our Mothers every other day of the year. If we showed our gratitude on a daily basis, there would be no need for such a holiday. May we all continue to strive to make this a better world.
Hi Kelly! I shoulda guessed a Michigander connection to this puzzle, with ODAWA (I spend a fair amount of time around Little Traverse Bay), and the shout out to Detroit's Fisher Building. Heck, the block of black squares at the bottom left of the grid sorta looks like the top of the Fisher! If you haven't caught it yet, the Detroit Institute of Art is presenting an interesting show of contemporary Anishinaabe (i.e. Odawa and Ojibwe) artists. Very much worth seeing! Any grid with Hedy Lamarr is Hunky-Dory in my books.
@Bill ooo I need to visit Detroit! - A Montrealer
@Bill I'm glad HEDY was clued as actress AND Inventor. She got the patent during WW2 to stop radio-guided torpedoes from being jammed. She gave it to the Navy. It is the basis for GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth technologies!
What a wonderful puzzle. The theme feels necessary not for the day, but for the times. And 22 themers side by side is quite the hedy feat.(Hey, with Mike taking a break today, Issa G'wen to be me Ina punny mood Ora nobody. Ya Reid me? So no pShaws.) I've been told that I hold grudges for too long, but I've always believed I was given insufficient time to study for my Apgar test.
Amen, a.a. Repeating a reply from last night: "That's Hedley." They didn't let you retake the Apgar?
@ad absurdum what, 9 months wasn’t enough for you? I was wondering if APGAR was one of the theme words, because it was invented by Virginia Apgar. It works as a mnemonic (appearance, pulse, grimace (reflexes to touch), activity, and respiration) but is also her name. (If my second child had been born a few hours later, his apgar would have been calculated by a local Dr Apgar, related to Virginia, which is why I carry about this piece of trivia.)
So, women not only get just one day, but a 23-hour day at that?!
@ad absurdum Well, if you move to Arizona or Hawaii, you get all 24!
@ad absurdum One fall, I was working successively in three countries that “Fell back” on different days. Since I only “fell forward” once the following spring, have I gained two hours on the universe?
ad absurdum, Anything I can do in 24 hours, a woman can do in the one that’s missing.
@ad absurdum I hear it's Women's History Month.
At 14:19, this was a new Sunday best for me by a statistically significant margin. Shoutout to my middle school Civics teacher, Mrs. Gordon, for sparking my interest in women's history. I promise this isn't the only time in the ensuing decade that's paid off!
Thank you for this phenomenal tribute, Ms. Richardson, and the incredible construction! The reason "This is a man's world but it would be nothing without a woman or a girl" is that no man would've ever have had an APGAR score had there not been a woman. ;-) Back to the puzzle: As soon as I got the INT crosses, I read the clue for that beautiful spanner and dropped in the answer without missing a beat. Thereafter, I had incredible fun waiting for all the WOMEN to appear. I couldn't decide between one or the other, so the musical score today falls on two amazing ladies: Sade, The Sweetest TABOO: <a href="https://youtu.be/T2u2eqerRks?si=YwMAWQCsYDU1fIdQ" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/T2u2eqerRks?si=YwMAWQCsYDU1fIdQ</a> Nina Simone, Everything Must Change: <a href="https://youtu.be/vgX2EAdvFyw?si=SpRFtwEm0xPxZBpr" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/vgX2EAdvFyw?si=SpRFtwEm0xPxZBpr</a>
@sotto voce, Your comment reminds me of the old saying, “Behind every successful man, there stands a totally surprised woman.”
@sotto voce Excellent musical choices. Thanks.
I enjoyed this puzzle. I’m not a skilled solver and it was a record for me. More importantly my Sunday streak is now 33 weeks. I’m getting closer to my retirement goal of completing a year of Sunday crosswords - a goal nobody in my actual life understands and some of you might!
Such a beautiful theme: a kaleidoscope of different women. Also, can’t remember seeing this type of thing before, where *every* entry crossing the revealer is a theme entry. Wow! My small contribution to IWD was to create a bonus honoree: DITTIE. That’s DOTTIE with my perpetual I/O typo.
Boo yah. This woman got 18:11. 23:59 faster than my average. Loved the theme. Was grateful for a graceful Sunday. Glad everyone got their chewy weekend, and a fluffy desert for Sunday!! It’s going to be in the sixties tomorrow. Here’s hoping for a blizzard next Friday.
@Red Carpet I was with you all the way, nodding along... until your hope for a blizzard. 😏
@Red Carpet Two to one in favor of a blizzard. Thus are the ballots counted and confirmed.
@Red Carpet Having failed to make it out of New York in time to beat the blizzard last month, I’m generally opposed to them.
I don’t know whether to be proud of International Women’s Day and all the amazing ladies it celebrates, or saddened by the fact that it needs to exist. There’s a reason there’s no International Men’s Day, after all. My hope is for everyone to give a little extra love to the women in their lives today and remember that none of this— none of US— would be here without them. Great puzzle, BTW.
@Heidi International Men’s Day has been held every year on 19 November since 1992.
@Heidi I hear ya. Something about the calendar instructing me to celebrate, has always felt a bit like the weightless might of my appreciation is diminished. Just a little. If I wait til your birthday to let you know I feel blessed that you were born, haven't I been slacking the *other* 364 days? But you are right. Why not celebrate a bit extra today?
@Heidi международной день женщин (International Women’s Day) didn’t start out as a worldwide celebration of women. Vladimir Lenin declared 8 March as International Women's Day in 1922 to honor the women's role in the 1917 Russian Revolution; it was subsequently celebrated on that date by the socialist movement and communist countries. The holiday was promoted by the United Nations in 1977. I’d never heard of it before I studied Russian language in 1978.
I did not know it was IWD today, so yay for us. No3 son is attempting to make his first Sunday roast today (for 8), so I’ve shared that info with him from the comfort of my chair in front of the fire. A great puzzle; crunchy enough for a Sunday, lots of interesting fill, but not impossible to deduce. Lovely.
@Helen Wright I'm hoping the fire to which you refer is in the fireplace and not a reference to the Sunday roast.
Having a couple of wrong guesses right out of the box (a misspelled "angst" (agnst) for AGITA, tap for TAD) led to a few nonsense crosses where IODINE and ATEAM should have been, but I've come to understand that on Thursdays and Sundays, there can be shenanigans, and since the rest of the top was fine, I moved on, thinking I'd figure it out later. When I got to the spanner at 71A, I realized that the theme was just it and all the Down clues crossing it, so I had to go back to the NW and figure it out again. There were a lot of gimmes, but I put SAYSO for 132A without checking the cross at 103D, necessitating a little flyspecking before getting the jingle. I thought maybe ODAWA was wrong, but the crosses were solid, but then I read that it was just a different spelling for "Ottawa." (I was reading it to rhyme with the conductor Seiji Ozawa.) THERESA up on top was a bonus themer. Were there any others? Does DOTTIE count, being a fictional character? Anyway, plenty of female representation in this one, and from so many different walks of life. Nice one, Kelly!
@Steve L Gorillas in the Mist seems at least theme adjacent. Plus Etta James and Taylor Swift. And SIS, NORA, HER... and that's just the acrosses!
@Steve L Virginia Apgar, MD, devised the rating score and introduced it in 1952, and it is still used in thousands of labor and delivery rooms, performed at 1 and 5 minutes after birth, to evaluate the health of a newborn. I was happy to see her included in this puzzle, even though hers wasn't one of the 22 crossing names.
@Steve L To answer last night's question, it was '66. I was 16.
Fantastic tribute puzzle, Kelly. What a fun solve this afternoon. Lots of crossover in my life as well which added to my enjoyment. I thought about the installation of clean water wells in RWANDA that WOMEN in my family were part of, baseball references of DOTTIE, AT BAT and MEN ON, KEY GRIP and CINEMAS for film references. Thank you for this fun romp down memory lane, Kelly ☺️
Loved it, thank you! So many wonderful women and their contributions to the world.
Fun one today. Twice as quick as Saturday and no look ups! Go women ❤️
What a wonderful puzzle! Well done! Fantastic theming and incorporation of the theme answers. On top of that, all the clues and fills felt natural clever. Really impressive! More please!
In order to do my part to emphasize that men should not run the world, I entered hOTTIE for "Role for Geena Davis in 'A League of Their Own'". I thought maybe she had an unnamed role... My bad.
I've never seen the film, but I have seen pictures of Geena Davis. I'm surprised I didn't think of "hottie".
+1 on the mention of HEDY LAMARR. Her work resulted in the WiFi and Bluetooth connections that I can't live without.
Wow! Very enjoyable puzzle today.
I thought this might have been a nit-pick, but I looked it up and confirmed that a GRILL is just a thing you cook on (or its verb form) and doesn't go on an air vent. That's a GRILLE.
@Pat A grill is also the covering over a hole in the wall, for example, that lets air in or sucks it out.
@Pat Good call. I knew of the other spelling, but didn't realize it was exclusively a metal framework. <a href="https://www.thefreedictionary.com/grill" target="_blank">https://www.thefreedictionary.com/grill</a>
Pat, Grill is an accepted variant for grille, and it makes for a slightly more challenging clue. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grille" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grille</a>
Thank you, Kelly, for a fabulous feat of construction featuring so many extraordinary women! While I achieved my Sunday PB today, I enjoyed every moment of this Sunday romp. Happy INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY, everyone -- so much to celebrate and so much left to accomplish! Onward! 💪🏼🌎
What a wonderful puzzle! Difficult? No (the basic French clues were gimmes as a Canadian). Elegant? Absolutely! I loved the celebration of women and the clever way so many were represented. Thank you Kelly for the puzzle, and for sharing your anecdote about writing down the names of 100 women - I might try it with my family later. A lot of proper names? Well, hopefully the complainers for this one can try to enjoy the learning opportunity today instead :)
I loved the recognition of international Women’s Day, a much bigger celebration in the rest of the world than here. Kudos!
I hate to nitpick on a puzzle I enjoyed as much as this one, but a megaBIT is not typically used for storage, it's a data transfer measurement. MegaBYTEs are for storage.
@Katie A megabit is ⅛ of a megabyte and can be properly applied (though it is not done so commonly) to storage.
@Katie ROM chips (when they were separate chips) were often listed with their sizes in megabits, and likewise RAM chips are sometimes only a single bit wide, and they are used in groups of 8 (or 16 or 32).
@Katie, I had the same reaction as you. Never heard of storage in terms of bits, only bytes, but more qualified folks than me have weighed in on this, so I will defer to their judgement.
There is absolutely no conceptual distinction between bits and bytes — just a factor of 8. Anywhere you might use one of those to refer to some quantity of data, you could multiply or divide by 8 and express that same quantity in the other.
Now this was a worthy crossword. The theme was on point and the proper nouns that were ungettable for me (because I am not from the US) had crossing entries that made me able to get them. The overall difficulty was above average, and the difficulty of the clues was apt so that after getting the answer you feel fulfilled, not irritated by the unnecessary mental gymnastics. Good crossword.
@Apurv Also, wishing a very happy International Women's Day to all!
I think for International Women's Day we should celebrate our mothers, grandmothers, wives, and sisters. The crossword puzzle includes “sister,” though I wish it also had “mama,” “nana,” and “honey” among the answers. Salutations to all the ladies who make this world a better place. 🌸💐
@msk Glad we didn't find a BAE in this one.
Huh! Hah! Solving top to bottom and the *moment* I read the clue for 71A, looking at alllll those white squares, the NPR radio announcer said, "CC, the answer is INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY." That's what I heard, anyway. My story. Sticking to it. Happy Sunday all. Here's 14 seconds of a bunny eating a strawberry. With a duck. <a href="https://youtube.com/shorts/D0dQbYO-PhQ?si=ZF4JDZaEXnknRjLL" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/shorts/D0dQbYO-PhQ?si=ZF4JDZaEXnknRjLL</a> Cuz it's Sunday.
Whew. And Wow! Good long workout for me, and needed crosses in multiple places for something to finally dawn on me, but this was just one amazing piece of construction, with those 22 names crossing the central answer. And... a number of my very favorite women in that group. Two thumbs way up. I'll put my puzzle find today in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As promised - a Sunday from September 29, 1991 by Nancy Nicholson Joline with the title "Vowel Play." Some theme answers in that one: LILIUOKALANI POLLAIUOLO LEEUWENHOEK OEILDEBOEUF OKEECHOBEE SEANOFAOLAIN VALHALLA MOOGOOGAIPAN ONOMATOPOEIA And there were more. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=9/29/1991&g=23&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=9/29/1991&g=23&d=A</a> ....
Two things, neither of which have to do with today’s puzzle: 1) I loved Saturday’s puzzle! Thank you, Fritz & ed’s. for a true Saturday experience. I needed a couple look ups to complete it, but that’s just fine with me. The SW was a riot and quite worth the effort. 2) My schedule has changed and I now tend to do the crossword quite late in the day, which is why I’ve been commenting so rarely. I still lurk and appreciate others’ contributions, and I really wish there were a way to meaningfully engage with the commentariat regardless of time of day. Anyway, I feel like I’ve only been popping in to leave critical notes, and Saturday’s puzzle made me want to say something wholly in support of the work of the constructors and the editorial. So… Huzzah! and thank you.
@Josh I agree - I wish there was a real-time chat.
@Josh I'm always late on weekends because of the sabbath, which gives me offline time Friday night and Saturday. With the early releases of puzzles those days, I'm always turning up when the posts have accumulated by the hundreds! In the result, I'm often adding comments (and worse, queries) long after the party's over.
Wow, Kelly Richardson, that was AMAZING! Thanks for a great Sunday puzzle!
Would have appreciated a trans sister in the clues ❤️
Oh, this was such a wonderful puzzle! For one I knew all the names! Except, LILIOUKALANI! Yay for women and International Women’s Day. I am aggravated that it took me 12 minutes to find my typo! I would have had a Sunday best. Oh, well. Had MaNON instead of MENON and didn’t catch the error in MaGABIT. So much fun to see and know the women in this puzzle! Thanks, Kelly! Have a great Sunday, y’all! And treat the women in your lives like queens.
@Terry AVL NC Yep. Flyspecking seemed to take as much time as the puzzle. Most of the "solving" was just a speed typing test. I suppose that's what caused all the typos.
Very enjoyable theme -- and I'd say that even if I wasn't typing these words sitting on the couch with my wife and daughter.
As something of an international woman myself, I enjoyed solving this in record Sunday time.
Great puzzle. I’m not big on recognizing themes so most of the time I come here for an explanation. I am sometimes annoyed by the nit picking and unnecessary political slants taken. It’s a crossword puzzle sometimes they are more difficult than others. I’m in awe of constructors whether it’s a Monday, Saturday or Sunday. Thank you for your efforts.
Loved this one - such a joy to complete, even if it made me realise that my spelling of some very famous women’s names can be shaky at times! Still, a very fun solve and the note on the inspiration for creating this puzzle very much echoed my feelings in working through it.
Nice tribute puzzle, Kelly.
Excellent theme execution. Really enjoyed this.
In case the guys are feeling left out, here's a little something from NINA Simone: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZWnyQ-801M" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZWnyQ-801M</a>