Is it just me, or is there a new lag between finishing the puzzle and the site responding to it being completed? Used to be that as soon as I entered the last letter, it said that it was done and correct or that I missed something. But now, it seems that it's off doing something else and has to stop texting its friend so it can remember that it has a job to do.
@Joe Horton I’m having the same issue. I just reported it to the TECHSAVVY department.
@Joe Horton I've noticed it too! For me, the lag is there only if the puzzle has been completed correctly. If I have a mistake, it tells me that right away, which is just mean. Anyway, I find this new lag surprisingly annoying. I hope it gets fixed soon.
@Joe Horton Thanks for the post, it's not just you!
@Joe Horton Same here. For the Mini, too. I think the following started at the same time -- When looking at a past completed puzzle, I click the View button and it plays the Solved music and then I have to click again to view the puzzle.
I really like it when I learn something while I’m having fun. Ain’t it grand to be a nerd?
@Sue I really like that definition! This happily retired nerd is off in a couple of weeks to Scotland for a geology expedition to Glen Tilt. My non-nerd friends here think that's odd. Go figure.
@Sue Nerdicity/Simplicity They're hard to tell apart One tumbles from the head The other from the heart
@Sue Maybe I should get into writing supermarket greeting cards. Is there money in that?
Why is speed a criterion for so many? Why not relax and enjoy the solve? I’m disapppointed when the fun is over, and the day’s real challenges must be faced….as in today’s delightful puzzle.
@Trish Personal Bests (PB), time to complete, and streaks are all measured and reported, giving them a sense of importance. And those are all objective and quantifiable. Whether or not a solver enjoys the puzzle is subjective (clearly evident in this group) and neither quantifiable nor reported. Leaderboards are a fact of the modern connected world, for good or evil. And I also found today's puzzle delightful and rather easy.
@Trish If you read carefully, you will notice that many people are mentioning their speedy solves in a negative way. They are saying that this puzzle was too easy, and therefore solved too fast (for a Wednesday). Speed is often mentioned without it being about setting out to set records. Many of these commenters are relaxed and are still hitting personal bests. At the same time, trending faster than before is an indication of progress. Once you’re past the stage of “will I solve it or will it be undoable?” speed is the only indicator of improvement. Hope this helps!
@Trish AMEN! And whyever do folks care what day the puzzle is on or whether it is easy or hard? It's a puzzle that boggles my mind. A puzzle is a puzzle. I just do them. Probably slower than most folks here.
@Trish I'm with you 100%. I just don't get all the fussing about how hard or easy the puzzles are. Some days I surprise myself with my brilliance and speed and then there are the other days when I hit snags. But every day it's fun and the best distraction I know, along with good long walks, seeing my adorable and brilliant grandkids, and reading good books.
@Trish I agree completely , but I believe we are in the minority. I find that, generally, men are much more into quantitative measures than women are. I mean, if you find something pleasurable, why would you rush through it? Makes me wonder what the speedsters are like in the sack.
@Trish There is a contingent here that feels compelled to constantly remind everyone (especially the newbies) that they are Very Smart People because they can do the crossword very quickly. I'm with you--why not just enjoy the puzzle and focus instead on the many interesting discussions that arise from the clues and answers?
"I can't find my post-its!" "Sounds like a sticky situation." ("Do you think I should buy some more?" "That's a re-note possibility.")
@Heidi Wite-out. Mike Nesmith's (of the Monkees) mom. Definitely was an intentional invention. But an interesting story anyway. Shouldn't be too hard to find. I think it's in both of their obituaries.
Dept. of "I Was Told There Would Be No Maths" I just spent a great hour listening to this program on CBC Radio: <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/mathematics-and-literature-sarah-hart-9.7122330" target="_blank">https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/mathematics-and-literature-sarah-hart-9.7122330</a> It discusses the affinity between maths, language, music, and literature. For those of you suffering from antimathy (not a typo!), it helps explain why nonscientific terms like beauty and elegance keep turning up when mathists talk about what they do. Also, why maths has come to stand in for Truth, why patterns form bridges among all the islanded arts and maths, and why mathematical themes were expressed in the earliest examples of art that we have in human history. The main interviewee is Sarah Hart, mathista and author of the delightfully named "Once Upon A Prime". Enjoy!
@SBK It's amazing how people who don't hate math don't get those who do. Do you realize how annoying it is to hear about the "beauty" of math when you suffered 12 years of trauma in ineptly taugh classes at school? Have some empathy, please. There is something condescending about believing an hour of talk radio can alter the experience of a lifetime.
@SBK I will thank you in advance for this general program link. Sounds like it might be a nice adjunct to the BBC's In Our Time.
@SBK I think it all goes back to the pre-Socratic thinker Pythagoras. Before he did that thing with the right triangles, he recognized that the intervals in music that were most beautiful, most harmonic, were based on simple numerical ratios: 1:2, 2:3, 3:4, etc. He inferred, not completely mistakenly, that mathematics underlay the order of the cosmos, and that the cosmos itself was beautiful.
@Matt I'm a neurologist. This is a psych issue.
@Matt And I speed read, and confounded neurologist for numerologist. 🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️ I hope I have a better day at work.
@Matt @Andrzej Like Matt, I hated history until I was out of school. I never could understand why memorizing names and dates mattered, especially those about wars. I'd be willing to bet that most people who like history don't simply want learn trivia, either. And being out of school and able to read what I care about, let's me find the history that interests me. I wasn't interested in the math we did in elementary school. It was arithmetic -- boring and repetitive. Similar to Matt's experience with Gödel, Escher, and Bach, my interest in math was sparked by a book that seemed to have no relation to the math we did in school. It was a self-paced book about set theory someone handed to me. I loved that book and spent an entire weekend working through it for fun. Like puzzles. In other words, Andrzej, I don't think I like the math that you don't like. And it's possible that there might be some topic in math that you wouldn't hate if you were exposed to it in the right way. But I can accept that you aren't interested in finding out. However, I strongly believe that there is no person who would not benefit from some knowledge of math beyond arithmetic. Among other things, in today's world, I believe an understanding of statistical concepts and statistical thinking is required to interpret most information we are faced with evaluating. So why are people willing to say "I don't do math" when they'd never say "I don't do reading"? They seem equally important to me.
@SBK Wait, what? Was I sleep-arguing? Is that even possible? Glad I missed the whole hoopla. Thinking about putting my head under the covers, as the rain is pouring here. By the way, who -- if anyone -- won?
@SBK It seems you and Andrzej have a thing, but your original post here seems to me wholly innocuous and well meaning. I'm not crazy about math myself (and don't plan to listen) but I took the comment as entirely benign and informative... 🤷♂️
@Andrzej The way I read it, SBK wasn't trying to persuade anyone math is beautiful or whatever. SBK was imparting *information about the content of a podcast episode.* Your ire was misplaced. If you just had to get this grievance out of your system, it should have been directed at the podcast interviee, not SBK. On another note: your comments here grate on my nerves every single day for my own personal (psychological) reasons, but I've never asked you to withhold them because they bother me. Just saying.
In the spirit of ruining all our fun… I don’t think there is any way to know how many people were going to St. Ives. Was the narrator alone? Was the man with seven wives alone, or were one or more of his wives along for the journey? It’s never stated that the man and the narrator were headed in opposite directions. Maybe the man approached from a different path that joined up with the narrator’s, and so they met while they were both traveling to St. Ives. Along with an indeterminate number of wives. And cats. And maybe a kit or three. So how many were going to St. Ives? None. They stopped for lunch in Penzance, where they were captured by pirates. The end.
@Heidi You are such a stick in the mud!
@Heidi You probably stood on line at the premieres of mysteries and told everyone waiting whodunnit as they went in. I hope you enjoyed yourself.
Heidi, I always figured it was a psychedelic poem, and the narrator, with their visions of exponentially-expanding clouds of poly-amorous women and fecund felines, was, like many heading to St. Ives, on E.
@Heidi Your comment added to my fun! Love the twist ending!! ☺️
This was the first time I was able to do a Wednesday puzzle without looking up anything! So I loved it 😊; it was fun.
Love the theme… others… In 1896, Henri Becquerel found the film left in his drawer, when developed, had the image of a metal Maltese cross, just like the one he’d left between some uranium salts and the film. Radioactivity. In 1934, Enrico Fermi noticed his experiments on producing artificial radioactivity with neutrons were far more effective in the setup on a beaten up old wooden table than on a nice new marble table. Moderation. There is no serendipity in the discovery of nuclear fission though. Ida Noddack knew and published that Fermi had been incomplete. She was not heeded. Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn figured out fission with good old fashioned systematic science. Meitner, of course, refused to work on the Manhattan project. She’d seen enough gruesome death on the battlefront in WW1 as an early x-ray technician-nurse.
Let’s just say my first attempt to spell PENICILLIN was much more COARSE.
OK, so the MIDI doesn’t have it’s own comment section. Too bad. I’d like to do a shout out to the animation that happens when I finished the MIDI. Thanks for the “grin from ear to ear”
@Jim G That's why I popped in too, having just finished the Midi. It was so much fun and is a great addition to the daily puzzles. Now on to today's big crossword :-)
Fun! I love it when a puzzle serves up some TIL fun facts! Today I Learned indeed.
"In 1946, Walt Disney was looking for a song to go with his latest animated feature, The Song of the South…" = SERENDIPITY DOO DAH
"Opera" is the MEDIUM of Don Giovanni. The GENRE is "Buffa"
@Senex Sr. It's actually more of a comitragedy. The ending isn't exactly buffa.
@Senex Sr. This article seems to think OPERA is a genre: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_classical_music_genres" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_classical_music_genres</a> OPERA buffa seems to be considered a subgenre. And yet this one seems to think that the subgenres are genres, justifying this by saying that OPERA is just the Italian word for a work (of music). Which, of course, it is. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_opera_genres" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_opera_genres</a> Yet the broader you go, the more likely OPERA is the genre. If you include all types of music, and not just the highbrow ones, OPERA is just one genre of many, and it no longer means "any work of music." <a href="https://www.musicgenreslist.com" target="_blank">https://www.musicgenreslist.com</a>/
Interesting fact about 1A: In ancient Greek rhetoric, "comma," along with "colon" and "period," did not originally refer to the marks, but to the clauses themselves (Hi, @Margaret in Denver!)--"comma" (="cut-off"), a short dependent clause (by some grammaticians, no longer than eight syllables: the Greek rhetorical version of a byte.) "Colon" (="limb," like an arm or leg), a longer, yet dependent, clause. "Period," while derived from Greek, comes a little later, by way of medieval Latin. In fact checking this post, I discovered a whole class of obsolete, compound punctuation marks, which included an (em-)dash, and were used between 1650 and 1900. In particular, the colon+dash, :— , fell into disfavor for its graphical COARSEness, and was known as a "dog's bollocks." And, in checking out *that* paragraph, I discovered two new keyboard shortcuts to type the en-dash, – , and the em-dash, — , in Windows 11. (Win+hyphen, and Shift+Win+hyphen, respectively.) Now, if only I could find a way to type italics into the NYT comment box!
@Bill Pardon my ignorance, but isn't the en-dash already on the keyboard? If not, what is that mark next to 0? I recently learned that the em-dash is also accessible by using Win+. (period)
@Bill I second that last thing! I hate using quote marks when it should be underlining or ilalicizing, and just putting in the brief underline at beginning and end of a title is inconvenient. If I use copy/paste it still won't keep the italics. Sigh.
Maybe it was SERENDIPITY that I got every single clue immediately, or maybe this was one of the easiest Wednesdays we've had, but I just missed my Wednesday PB by 2 second.
@Dave K. I don’t keep record what my personal bests are for each day of the week, but today was my indicated to be my personal best for a Wednesday and beat my average by 18 minutes. given that I’m a relatively newbie to crosswords (I have been doing them on a daily basis for only the past five or six months) and would consider this on the relatively easy side.
I enjoyed tonight's Wednesday puzzle. But I'm curious if anyone else has this puzzle symptom, which I've seen in the last week, give or take, upon solving on the NYT website on my desktop: As soon as I type the final letter, there is an unusual one- or two-second pause before the little musical phrase, etc. appear as usual. This never happened before, since the advent of this online app. Just in case, I cleared my cache and then solved an old Monday puzzle from the Archive right away ... and the exact same thing happened. Anyone else have something like this? (In case it's relevant, my browser (Firefox) and my Mac OS are both up to date.) What might be causing this?
Meanwhile, I notice that the discoverer of one of the most serendipitous* inventions is apparently deemed too borderline for inclusion in a family newspaper, merely because of the constraint that there is no room for a fourth theme entry in a 15x15 grid like this one. (I refer, of course, to Albert Hofmann.) ––––– * By which I just mean "unexpected"; no approbation shall be inferred, nor was any implied.
@Dan I'm seeing it also, and I'm also solving in BC ATM.
@Dan That's happening with me, too. There's a noticeable lag between the last correct entry and the congrats screen. It used to be instantaneous. I wonder if they've moved the finish function from the client to the server code. I don't think there's anything we can do about it, other than cultivate patience.
@Dan Same here. I solve on my desktop PC.
@Dan Me too – solving in Italy on my Android phone using Chrome browser on the NYT website. Must be worldwide then. Be interesting to know whether anyone has ever done the NYT crossword up at the ISS... but I suppose there's already a bit of a built-in lag way out there.
@Dan To me it's a 'gotcha' moment. That instant you're not sure if you got it or not.
@Dan Yes, consistently, ever since the last awful web site tweak a few days ago, when they removed the non-functioning Admire button. Easily a 2 second lag now, whereas the confirmation and music used to be instant. They are not competent at design or testing. It's bad.
After doing the Midi today, I'm convinced that they added the delay on purpose. It allowed me a moment to see the fun animation that appears when the puzzle is completed, before the popup hid it. Many times in the past I've missed fun additions to the finished puzzle until I come and read about them in the comments. The delay is still annoying, but less so if I know there's a reason for it.
Miss Serendip is a wonderful character in a book that my Dad read to me when i was a kid. His mum had read it to him when he was a kid. And i read it to my kids and, to my great surprise, they loved it. It’s called The Wind on The Moon. Miss Serendip is the governess of the two girls at the centre of the story, and she can't say a single sentence without inserting all kinds of trivia. "Will you pass me the pepper, Dorinda? Pepper, as I daresay you know, is a spice. There is black pepper, white pepper, and red pepper. Pepper used to be a monopoly of the King of Portugal. Much of it is now grown in Penang. Penang means the Island of Areca Nuts. At one time it was a penal settlement, or prison. The word prison is derived from the word prehensio. Our prisons used to be very badly conducted, but gradually reform was introduced. Newgate was a famous old prison, Sing Sing is a well-known modern prison. Thank you, dear. Put the pepper back in its proper place." (Thanks to Tropedia for saving me the effort of typing this quite myself! <a href="https://tropedia.fandom.com/wiki/The_Wind_on_the_Moon" target="_blank">https://tropedia.fandom.com/wiki/The_Wind_on_the_Moon</a> )
This puzzle put a smile on my face, not an easy thing these days, so thank you!
@Bill in Yokohama I won't bore you with the whole story of Bill Gore cooking bits of Teflon in his wife's oven, but in the end, Dupont (his employer) wasn't interested, so he was free to make Gore Tex raingear on his own. My dad worked there as an engineer, so I got his employee discount on all that high-end gear, which was nice.
I kid you not - Lauvey's "SERENDIPITY" was playing as I was filling it in as an answer. Probably my most serendipitous moment I'll ever have while crosswording.
Pretty fun puzzle but super easy for a Wednesday. 8 minutes. I think it'd be my personal best, except that my real personal best is covered up by a time I did a puzzle mostly offline and when I came back on it logged my time as 2 minutes. I enjoyed the theme of accidental inventions.
@Chris 5:20 for me! Faster than my fastest Tuesday, and within five seconds of my fastest Monday. This is not intended as a brag, only a reflection of how easy the puzzle was (for me, of course). Clearly the fact that I happened to know all the inventions was SERENDIPITY, but still.
I loved today's theme! Always fun to learn a bit of trivia--SILLYPUTTY was a new one for me, and POSTITNOTES and PENICILLIN triggered deep memories in my brain of fun facts once known... anyway, I love coming away from the puzzle with something to share with others throughout the day. My question is, ever since NYT updated the UI on desktop (now putting the three crosswords in the header instead of just the full size), has anyone else been experiencing a slight delay (5-10 seconds) between finishing and receiving the "you solved it!" notification? Or maybe I just need to restart my computer again...
@g No reboot needed; the validation delay is on their end.
@g Yes, and after finishing the Midi today, I realize why it's there. It allows a moment to glimpse the fun animation before it's hidden by the ending popup. Since I'd seen the colorful jiggling answers, I knew they were there and was able to close the popup to enjoy them better. Many times before when there was an animation or other change in the big puzzle after it was completed, I missed it until I read about it in the comments. Before today, the delay annoyed me. Now that I know there's a reason for it, it's less annoying. I hope there are fun things in the Midi often enough to make it worth putting up with.
We had International Women's Day themed puzzle over the weekend, so I thought today was National Inventor's Day, but alas it's on February 11 (it was also on Wednesday this year, it would have been just the right puzzle).
But I thought Romy and Michelle invented post it’s???? :p Easy breezy Weds! Tuesday gave me a lot more trouble this week. Night night folks
@Amanda Came here to say this. Can't believe the Times would post such a glaring error.
I remember using the SILLY stuff as an inkpad for the Sunday funnies. Fun puzzle. Thanks.
@John Carson I wouldn't have thought of that in aeons. Thanks for bringing that up. The Popeye cartoons were my favorite to rub, followed closely by Nancy.
Nice Wednesday puzzle. Needed some crosses before each of the theme answers dawned on me, but that just made for a good workout. And, pretty amazing about the similarity of all of those discoveries or inventions. And... also amazing to be able to work all those into the puzzle with perfect synchronism from top to bottom. Two thumbs up. And... a rather amazing puzzle find today. I'll put that in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Tuesday from December 1, 2020 by Byron Walden. Four fifteen letter theme answers, all placed synchronously in the puzzle - three of them across answers and 1 down the middle. And there was one other down theme answer off to one side, but it was exactly opposite the 'reveal' on the opposite side. And... all of those theme answers had the letters REC in the very middle of the answer. Those were: SOFTWA(REC)OMPANY HOMEFO(REC)LOSURE WHATMO(REC)ANISAY PRESSU(REC)OOKER IMP(REC)ISE And the 'reveal' answer: RECCENTER Just really amazing to be able to come up with all of those and fit them in that pattern. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/1/2020&g=7&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/1/2020&g=7&d=D</a> ...
This was a fun puzzle and it felt appropriate for a Wednesday overall. However, there were several clues in here that were very difficult imo! Overall I finished on the faster side (of my own record) but the NW corner had a bunch of stuff I had never seen before. ADIN, CONTE, even MESSIANIC was a challenge
@Lara totally agree about the NW corner! Added minutes to my score figuring out ADIN
@Lara Had the same issue with NW and I’ve never heard of TUN as a large vat container before this puzzle. That said, what trivia I do know played well into the themed clues. So I was able to get those pretty well.
@Lara Nothing about the puzzle, just to say hi to a fellow prairie girl. I miss the snow ❄ 🌬 ❄ and the winter sun and the big sky. (All the Torontonians are going to hunt me down and throw snowballs at me on the weekend.) Nice to see you.
One and done. No lookups. Whee... [In the 1950s, Kroger Grocery helped develop a home cleaning product that later became obsolete and morphed into a fabulous supply for creative output] Wait, wait don't tell you??? PLAYDOH!!!!
@lucky13 It was originally marketed as a wallpaper cleaner. Many homes were heated with coal furnaces, which left soot on the walls.
My grandfather who was born in 1876 was a physician. He used to talk about how doctors would complain about how mold would ruin their bacterial cultures. It was Fleming's genius that he recognized the potential of mold.
@Margaret I was shocked when I learned that Botox gets its name from the Clostridium botulinum bacteria, which is responsible for botulism food poisoning. Again, someone [Alan B. Scott?] looked at--in this case a deadly toxin--and thought "Hey, can I use this for good?" I was also surprised when I learned that it has many important medical applications in addition to the cosmetic ones of which we tend to be more aware.
Although not exactly serendipitous, my favorite invention-story is that of Bette Clair Nesmith, the secretary who, c. 1951, invented Liquid Paper. Necessity is the mother of Invention, but also of Michael Nesmith, of the Monkees.
@Bill I've always assumed she just took some paint and drizzled it into a used nail polish bottle?
Another language in which the word “computer” is literally “electric brain” is Tibetan (same number of letters)…..
There is a famous question that was asked of famous people on "Inside the Actors Studio": "What is your favorite word?" I've always thought that mine was SERENDIPITY. The perfect combo of a gorgeous-sounding highly mellifluous word -- which is really important to my poetry-loving ear -- and a delightful and happy meaning to go with it. But I didn't see it coming as the revealer of this interesting and off-beat puzzle. I was dying of curiosity to know what the constructor's inspiration for the puzzle was. Did he read the story behind the invention of SILLY PUTTY? Or maybe of POST IT NOTES? And then go looking for other inspired invention stories? Or is there a non-fiction book that chronicles the history of serendipitous inventions? I went eagerly to read John's Constructor Notes to find out. But you didn't tell me, John. You say you had this idea for quite a while, but you don't say where it came from. Anyway, it's an interesting puzzle idea. But don't quiz me about any of the inventors or about how they went about making their discoveries on the SAT because I know I'll flunk.
The real eureka moment in the invention of Post-it Notes was when Spencer Silver thought: “Add ease of removal!” and that was his ticket to success.
It's interesting that thus far, no one has commented on the etymology of the word "Senedipity." It was coined by Horace Walpole, first used in 1754, and taken from an Italian fairy tale (a "conte," as it were), first published in 1557, called "The Three Princes of Serendip." That, in turn, was taken from an episode in the Persian tale-collection *Hasht Bihisht*, written about 1302. ("Serendip" is the Classical Persian name for Sri Lanka.) The tale itself, which concerns a lost camel, has little top do with lucky chance, and all to do with intelligence and logical deduction.
@Bill You must have missed the prior posts. Here is part of one thread. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4eidjt?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4eidjt?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a> Word derivations are catnip around here.
@Bill My school newspaper in HS was named Serendipity. Our yearbook was named Ad Astra. It was the 70s, therefore I never deemed it necessary to delve deeper into either meaning. Boy, did I miss out on a lot, but I've made up for it.
This puzzle made me feel like I was back in school, and that's a good thing. The only ones I knew were POST- IT NOTES and PENICILLIN. I think that the accidental discoveries are incredible, but what I find truly magnificent is what followed - the genius of the utilization of the discoveries. That's the part that leaves me in awe of human creativity. Thank you for your creativity as well, Mr. Guzzetta. I love the way you think. Please keep constructing for us!.
I figured there would be complaints of "too easy" today, but I enjoyed this puzzle a lot and I want to thank John Guzzetta and the whole team. Sam's column was informative and enjoyable, as always, and it was especially fascinating to read the story behind the NUTS comment. It was new to me, and I only came to the correct entry after trying both nein and nope and getting no joy. All the puzzles on offer bring me joy, every day. The Midi is a great addition to the club and today's was especially fun.
I thought the serendipity thing would be because petri crossed with penicillin and I spent time trying to figure out some other crosses. But I guess that would have made it a Thursday.
So, Art Fry, sharp, spry, and in his 90s, came to our office last year to speak about his life and career, and graciously stayed around afterwards for nearly two hours signing POSTITNOTES for everyone. Silver invented a super-sticky glue with the useful property that it comprised tiny beads. But Fry had the original idea for the sticky note and was looking for an adhesive that could make it work. He discovered that he could make a mildly sticky glue by dispersing Silver's super-sticky beads relatively far apart from each other. Although Silver's glue was ultimately used, the Post-It Note is Fry's invention by all accounts, as correctly noted, if not in the "Newspaper of Record," at least in "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion." Fun fact: Art Fry said he was actually consulted for the movie and came up with the jargon-filled description (inaccurate, but full of nice technical buzz words) used in the scene where Michele is pressed by skeptical classmates for specifics on how she "co-invented" Post-Its.
@CT I have to add that Post-It notes are great and never cease to amaze me. How do they do that??!!
The Constructor Notes mention Velcro and Teflon which didn't make the puzzle, so I looked up those origin stories. Seems like the puzzle theme answers were all accidental discoveries or created by accident. Teflon was too, but I don't think Velcro fits the theme. Swiss engineer George de Mestral set out to create an adhesive that worked like the burs which stuck to his clothes/dog. He studied the burs and then spent a decade perfecting his Velcro. Seems very deliberate and focused, nothing accidental or serendipitous about Velcro.
@Bill in Yokohama Not disagreeing with your point, but you could say that it was serendipitous that the Velcro inventor had a problem with burs on his clothes. His original assignment (whatever that might be) wasn't to find a way to close our sneakers.
@Bill in Yokohama, @Nora, et al Teasel "berries" (actually dry seed pods) were used to "full" fabric surfaces (as in upholstery), and those might have also inspired Velcro... but one of the biggest (perhaps less-recognized) benefits of Velcro was in the special education/therapy field, enabling kids (and other patients) with impairments to participate in activities, use adapted tools, and--yes--"tie" their shoes. I remember when it was terribly expensive...(early 70's.)
@Bill in Yokohama And of course, Velcro is a brand name and comes with a superscripted TM or ®️. (Similar to Kleenex brand or Band-Aid brand.). The common name for a Velcro-like closure is “hook-and-loop”. All of this because back when I was working, we needed a high-strength reusable packaging closure that could withstand literally tons of shearing force. Instead of Velcro (brand) or generic “hook-and-loop”, a “mushroomcap-and-loop” closure was used. Our lawyers (rightly) insisted that we not use the term Velcro, but our customers always referred to our “Velcro packaging”. (Geek-out, nerds!)
@Bill in Yokohama I'm not an expert, but I would venture that Teflon is not good for you but Velcro is. Velcro is wonderful!! On the other hand, someone in these comments pointed out that Gore-Tex was developed from Teflon. I don't think I have any Gore-Tex, though. I prefer natural fibers. Especially wool. But don't put any Velcro on wool garments!! It will never come off!
As Debbie would write: "TIL". Enjoyable and informative puzzle. Plus got to think about Silly Putty. Fun to play with as a kid myself and again with my own children.Simple pleasures.
I love the word SERENDIPITY, both its meaning and the fun of saying it. Fun puzzle! The process for producing large quantities of pharmaceutical-grade penicillin was developed by Pfizer during WWII, in response to a need to treated wounded Allied soldiers. In 1996, clinical researchers at Pfizer discovered that a drug intended to treat hypertension and angina had an unexpected side effect ... Viagra
@Anita Viagra? What is that and what unexpected side effect do you speak of? (Asking for a friend)
Welcome back, John Guzzetta! Where ya been?? Other than wanting YEP! For 59D instead of plain ole YES, this puzzle prettty much solved itself!....because I started in the far SE and hit upon the word at 56A off the Y. SERENDIPITY, indeed! There are some really nice words in the grid, but I guess the three-letter often-seen words were unavoidable. This does seem more like a Mon/Tuesday solve, though. Pollen season has burst upon us here...and yet we're promised one more cold-snap toward the end of the week. Alas for the early bloomers! If you happen to be passing pine trees at the right (wrong) time, you might witness the concerted (explosive) burst of POLLEN!!!!
Little-known fact: Arthur Wynne, British-born journalist, was attempting to eat alphabet soup while reading his newspaper one day in 1913, and upset his bowl… CROSSWORDPUZZLE (What this world *really* needs, though, is a messianic latte.Tell me that two-word column in today’s puzzle isn’t an idea just sitting there, waiting for development.)
Felt like a Monday, and certainly clued too directly for Wednesday. Nice enough grid, put appearing on the wrong day.
@Xword Junkie I finished it as quickly as a Monday, so yeah.
@Xword Junkie For what it's worth, the horde at XWstats agrees it's "Easy". Personally I would have said Average. I enjoyed it. <a href="https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2026-03-11" target="_blank">https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2026-03-11</a>
@Xword Junkie got my fastest ever time for a Wed
Whenever I see the St. Ives riddle, I remember the Sesame Street sketch where I first learned about it: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vtszdW8MTs" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vtszdW8MTs</a>
Pretty straightforward Wednesday but fun facts. I knew the first two, didn’t know the second two, but filled in Serendipty right away. I also was struck by the serendipitous symmetry of these classic examples, even before I read the constructor’s notes. I had a brief pause with the middle left and TUN which was new to me but the rest pretty much filled in itself. I enjoyed the NUTS clue; I had NEIN first too. Nit of the day: can I get a ruling from an expert whether Chinese is a “language”? I thought Mandarin, Cantonese, etc were separate languages. Rabbit hole of the day; if you haven’t seen it check out the movie Serendipity with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale; one of my favorite Rom Coms.
@SP The clue is about the characters, i.e. the written language, which is consistent across the various versions of CHINESE.
ADIN? Really? Is this a transatlantic thing because I've never seen it abbrevieated to anything but ADV. Am I missing something?
@David Hartin been a minute since I played, but on the court we always said ad-in or ad-out after deuce. Adv might be only on a scoreboard?
@David Hartin It’s a UK thing as well, or was. The older players at my club used to say AD-IN or out, and sometimes van-in/van-out. Seems to have died out though. Now we have bagels instead!
@David Hartin That baffled me too. I've watched a fair bit of tennis over the years and never heard the expression.
The tennis "score" (as per the clue) would be AD IN or AD OUT; it would be "called" as "Advantage [name of player]."