I’m sitting here, shaking my head in amazement, looking at this theme. How did Adam come up with it? A theme involving capital letters in repeated clues that make a word suggested by the answers to those clues – where does this come from? This is not low hanging fruit. This comes from a highly creative mind. Then came the skill of fleshing out this theme. Coming up with a clue from which the four suggested words could be drawn. Coming up with four theme answers that fit the same pattern, that fit puzzle symmetry. So, mix high skill in there with the high creativity. And here’s something else coming from such a mind – a new clue for OBOE, a word appearing in the Times puzzle more than 800 times. An angle none of the inventive bunch of Crosslandia constructors ever used before. You rock, Adam. You bring meteoric spark to the box, and thank you a splendid outing with a generous helping of amazement.
@Lewis I like your attitude – you have the makings of a really good friend.
So this was MUCH more impressive than it seems at first glance. When I saw the first themer, I was a little bit “ho-hum”. But then when I realized it was the same clue each time, and how natural and elegant the entries were with phrases related to making/forming etc., I was wowed. (BUILDABEAR was my favorite). And thanks Isaac for giving us a little insight into how the sausage was made. Terrific decision to keep it to four themers, because this was a very interesting, chewy grid for a Wednesday and would have been fun even without the theme. Some clever clues like “Veg out in a spa” and “paper view” and even a fresh OREO clue. I liked the ASAHI and SAKE cross and the “Brest friends” near ABREAST, not to mention TROTS and TROTSKY. . Happy to say I got THEDEETS with little prompting, I guess crosswords are making me cooler. I like the little misdirect of MORDOR before MTDOOM. Last, I always love a crossword coincidence, and I just got back from a wedding where I shared CAKE with a former member of the Village People, who shared his YMCA moves with us during the disco party the night before. You can’t beat that!
@SP that IS a very cool coincidence!
@SP So glad I read this comment to the end!! I am happy for you, that wedding sounds like an experience to remember.
@SP Your experience with the solve sounds exactly like mine. Adam's notes illuminated a lot for me and I thought this was a really slick puzzle.
I think this was the first puzzle in a while that was perfectly appropriate for its day off the week. Quality Wednesday puzzle.
Heads up dark mode users: you may have to go to the light side for this one so that you can more easily see the bold letters. If you want to stay in dark mode, looking at the clues in list mode helped me see the bold letters
@Gautam Oh man this is horrible. I can’t see the bold letters in any format. Light, dark, or lost mode. I guess I’ll have to just solve the crosses.
@Gautam Lots of complaints about the bold letters being invisible. I could see them, but I did have to squint. Perhaps an extra layer was needed to make them stand out. Capitalize them? Make the font one size larger?
@Gautam Thanks for the tip! It came a bit late for me, but I’ll remember it next time. I could not figure out what a “bute” was supposed to be - didnt realize the r was bold until I solved the clue
Brilliant! Twice I said WOW out loud: when I got the gist of it, and when I read the constructor notes pointing to the word ASSEMBLE in the themers. IMHO, that extra layer would have been fantastic. But even without it, mind blown. Thank you, Mr. Wagner. You've rocked it yet again!
For everyone thinking that there is a tense issue with LAY, this is straight out of MWD: Lay is often used where lie is considered standard, as in "I'm going to lay down for a quick nap." The use, which dates to the 14th century, troubled no one until the 18th, but since then, people who care about such things have tried to teach the rest of us that a person lies, not lays, down. Lay in the related use means "to place (someone or something) down gently in a flat position." It requires an object; there must be a thing or person being placed. //Lay it down. //It's time to lay the baby down for a nap. Lie, on the other hand, does not require an object; instead, the one lying down is already in position or is moving or going to move to such a position on their own. //The cat lies there every morning. //You can lie down on the sofa. The tenses of the verbs complicate things further. Lay becomes laid and laying //She laid the baby in his crib for a nap. //They have laid it all out for you. //I'm laying out the fabric. Lie becomes lay, lain, and lying: //The baby lay asleep in his crib. //He has lain there since noon. //A note was lying on the table when I came home. On a separate note, Pennywise is a SKATE PUNK local band right here in my neck of the woods. Jim Lindberg is heavily involved in the Beachlife Festival here in town which is an annual three day concert. This year’s headliners for each night are Duran Duran (Friday), The Offspring (Saturday) and James Taylor (Sunday)
@Jacqui J Correct or to make it simpler: Tomorrow I plan to LIE LOW; yesterday I LAY LOW. Tomorrow I plan to LAY my cards on the table; yesterday I LAID my cards on the table. The clue is 100% correct.
@Jacqui J The lay/lie difference is one of the pedantic plagues of the English language. Why does it matter if something is "correct" or not, if it's perfectly understandable? If I say "I laid down for a nap," that would *technically* be incorrect. But is anyone going to mistake my meaning? Of course not. This is why I'm on a personal vendetta against "whom." There is simply no need for this word. I will destroy it.
@Jacqui J Or as Dylan sang, " Lay Lady Lay."
On my phone the bold letters were nearly indistinguishable from the others. Made it very difficult. Hated the clue for GIBE, way too obscure for me, perhaps I’m too obtuse. Otherwise I enjoyed it.
@Bart I had to screen shot and zoom in to see all of the bolded letters - even with my 2.75 readers on
@Bart agree the cluing for GIBE was a bit of a stretch. I started out with DISS tried half a dozen other things before getting it
Although t I easily got the answer to 44 down, I am curious. Frodo’s destination is Mount Doom. If we are going to abbreviate it, then shouldn’t the clue have an abbreviation? Maybe Frodo’s destination in LOTR? Or am I being too picky? Just asking.
On what planet are Blink-182 and Sum 41 considered “skate rock” bands?? Give me a break.. like yes I get that NOFX, Pennywise, Black Flag, Descendents, Suicidal Tendencies, etc would be too niche for a Wednesday, but this clue is a massive stretch. /soapbox
@HackDiesel Oof dumb typo on my part.. meant skate punk not skate rock
@HackDiesel I’m with you. When I watched a couple of songs from Sum-41 at Riot Fest, they said themselves that they don’t even consider themselves punk, but instead just a rock band. However for Blink-182, some might include their first three albums (Buddha, Cheshire Cat, and Dude Ranch) as representative of CA skate punk in the early 90’s. If that’s all I can come up with though, and considering everything they put out since then, I would of course agree with it being a stretch.
@HackDiesel So Blink-182 and Sum 41 are not niche? Let's take a poll here.
@HackDiesel I know. I definitely tried to write pop before I realized it didnt fit. But if mean, if Blink 182 and Sum 41 hadn't gotten so famous, I'm sure nobody would be as bothered by them being called skate punk. We're kinda splitting hairs here.
@HackDiesel. Well tonight Blink-182 turned up as the specialist area in a TV quiz show tonight here.
@HackDiesel I probably couldn't get that far on a skateboard anymore, but I definitely remember hearing Sum 41 in the skate shop near where I grew up. Genres are fluid, but all the bands you mention are excellent.
Ah well, MORDOR before Mt. Doom. And I get my jibes & gibes confused. And is a bow really a part of a musical instrument? Letter between Juliet & Lima got me thinking about that novel by Maria Vargas Llosa, "Aunt Julia and the Script Writer" set in 1950s Lima: satire, memoir, romance all neatly woven together. But then it occurred to me that this was a Nato Alphabet thing, and what a great thing it was, back then, to FORM AN ALLIANCE, but then circumstances and negligence allowed some people to CREATE A MONSTER, and while some make a stink, we're all really bone tired and would rather have a vodka tonic, a candy bar, sake, an oreo... Trotsky must be rolling in his grave to see what his revolution has become! Speaking of which, a lovely Jamie Ding moment on Jeopardy about a week ago. "A piece of mountaineering equipment at the International Spy Museum in D.C. was used to kill this man in 1940." Ding was the only one to get it right; he wrote: Who is Trotsky (ouch!)
@john ezra We got it right here. Poor Leon.
@john ezra How did the assassin get the item out of the museum to use it against Trotsky?
@john ezra Forgot to say that Llosa's novel was made into "Tune In Tomorrow" with a wonderful cast including Peter Falk. Extremely funny.
Does anyone else think 45 down should’ve used the present tense of “try” instead of “tried”? The clue makes me think the answer should be “laid low”.
@Tim i’ve entered into the increasingly contentious comment section for this. You are for sure correct and I very reluctantly filled in that square as my last, afraid that it would be correct
@Tim Please just read the comments below, thanks!
@Tim I realize this may be addressed below, but just for fun: LAY LOW is the correct past tense of “lie low,” because it features the intransitive verb “to lie.” I think using “lay low” as a present tense phrase is common but grammatically incorrect.
@Tim I lie in bed. Yesterday I lay in bed. Many days I have lain in bed. LAYLOW seems correctly paired with the clue to me. (We're not laying an object, like an egg or carpet.)
@Tim Here is a link to SP's earlier comment, which provides a succinct explanation: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4fdvcu?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4fdvcu?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
Much more difficult than recent Wednesdays, which is not a bad thing. My last stumbling block was 6A, because the down clues seemed to have a tenuous grasp on their respective entries. GO TIME as a moment of truth rather than a moment of action? EEK as a synonym for Holy Cannoli? GIBE spelled with a G? I’m not complaining, I’m sure it’s all fine. It just felt a little klunky. As I was solving, a few random thoughts popped up: -How long has it been since we’ve had a rebus? I feel like we’re overdue. -How do the Village People feel about their anthem being used as propaganda? And why was that the chosen song? I’ve never understood. But I’d be happy to never think about it again. (If future constructors need to include an entry from the Village People catalog, may I suggest Macho Man? Equally ridiculous, less triggering.) -BUILD A BEAR from “Pooh” made me smile. But I’m a sucker for the Hundred Acre Wood.
@Heidi So I just had two rebus puzzles rejected that I think were pretty good and might have been accepted in earlier years. Not sour grapes at all, who knows, and it’s so competitive to get an acceptance these days, but I do think that the NYT is starting to be more selective about rebuses and shying away from them.
@Heidi JIBE: Be in agreement (also a sailing term) GIBE: A derisive remark
@Heidi I had the same thought/question about rebuses while I was solving! I was already most of the way through so I knew there weren’t any in the puzzle this time. But we are definitely due for a rebus puzzle!
TROTSKY appears in the puzzle on the 97th anniversary of his arrival in exile in Turkey. Now that's puzzlemaking!
FORM AN ALLIANCE. Anyone else sick of "make a deal"?
@dutchiris It's called "negotiating"! And, yes, I'm sick of it. But FORM AN ALLIANCE? To my ear, it resonates too much with the silliness of "Survivor" and "reality" [?!?] TV. [Whose idea of "reality" is this???]
PSA: if you’re about to post something about LAYLOW being the wrong tense (relative to “Tried” in the clue), please don’t. The entry is correct (“lay” IS past tense in the answer). You’re the one who is wrong. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
@Anonymous Unfortunately, the type who rushes to make incorrect corrections usually doesn't read the other comments first. That's why there are already about ten of the same comment already. If Oprah were moderating this board, it'd be, "You get a dictionary. And you get a dictionary..."
I had trouble distinguishing the bold letters. (Oldoer? Bue? :doggie headtilt:) Granted I don't have the best eyesight any more, but as it was executed I couldn't solve the themers except by crosses. BUILDABEAR amused me but it made it harder to appreciate the puzzle than the puzzle deserved.
@Isabeau the bold letters spell: ODOR … which led to the answer STINK BRUTE … MONSTER PACT … ALLIANCE POOH … BEAR
The creativity behind puzzle concepts and construction continues to amaze me. However... All the olds on here with vision challenges, Hands Up Not a constructor and don't pretend to be one, but maybe the more user-friendly solution to the bold problem was to describe them as "big bold" and use CAPS
@Long walks n sunsets MAGNIFYING GLASS.
@Long walks n sunsets Yes! I had a really hard time finding the bold letters, too. Started on my phone, and then went to bigger screen using the webpage. That was a little better, but nor much.
Last night as I was solving, I was thinking it was the Thursday puzzle and muttering to myself that this was the easiest Thursday trick yet. Then the light dawned. Nevermind, said someone somewhere once. No trouble seeing the bold letters in dark mode on Android app. Except i did miss the h at the end of the last clue, and for a moment thought, Oh God, will I be clutching pearls? Fortunately, not. As for Mordor v Mt Doom, as someone once said, "Use the crosses Luke." I already had ODE, so Mordor was out. Miss you, Deb.
@Vaer “No, Frodo… I am your father” -Gilda Radner
I liked this puzzle a lot. It made me think. And it was tricky to get all the last letters right.
I will, however, mention that odor doesn't mean STINK; brute doesn't mean MONSTER; pact doesn't mean ALLIANCE; and Pooh is not a BEAR. On second thought, I don't like the puzzle all that much in retrospect. The above shaky connection between the bolded letters and the theme answers is one reason. But mainly I just don't like the whole idea of reading which stupid letters happens to be in bold ... when the constructor could just come out and SAY which letters they want us to know.
Clever with a crunch! Loved it. True story- yesterday I spent 57 hours on hold in between 14 brief, confusing conversations with a lovely girl whose English is *not* fluent. The issue ( and I swear I am not joking ) was her struggling to understand my *name.* My pathetic ability to recall the NATO alphabet ( not that it would have helped much ) sounded like this- “ No, miss, that’s not my name either. I’ll try again- C as in…catastrophic…? A as in…apostrophe..?” At one point I said “N…as in…Neanderthal…” to a poor girl who couldn’t understand the numbers in my zip code. So, that was fun. But today’s puzz? Bullseye. 👏👏👏
@CCNY There's a great Nichols/May bit about a telephone operator. She's supposed to look up the number for a Mr. Kaplan, and she confirms the spelling: is that K as in Knife A as in Aardvark P as in Pneumonia L as in Luscious A as in Aardvark again N as in Newelpost Kaplan?
It was a little tough for me to identify the bold letters, but eventually I picked them out. The trick was fun and actually made a difference in solving the puzzle. Also there were quite a few nice clues that took a little time to work out. I thought using lay as the past tense in LAYLOW was a nice touch, and had me scratching my head for a bit. MTDOOM flummoxed me for a minute too as I tried Mordor first. Thanks Adam, it was a lovely puzzle all around.
@Marshall Walthew I had M_D_O_ and was so sure of MordOr that I erased ODE, but I couldn't figure out Or_ for that so had to take a second look (setting on MTDOOM).
I think it’s extremely impressive that four very common phrases were all debuted with the use of a single clue. Once I caught onto the theme it made solving that much easier. Fun! Very clever, Adam.
@Anita But they're really not the same clue.
I expect the two most common topics in today's forum will be: 1) Lie LOW vs. LAY LOW--C'mon, Peoples! Weren't you paying attention in Mrs. Peterson's high school English classes?!? 2) MT. DOOM w/o an abbr. in the clue--well, in the text of the LOTR, J.R.R. Tolkien uses the full name, "Mount Doom," throughout, except when he uses "Orodruin" or "the Mountain" (capitalized). But "Mt. Doom" does appear on Christopher Tolkien's end-maps. Nonetheless, as Sam sang to Frodo in Disney's musical adaptation, *Incinerated*, "Let it go!" Looks like no one has ever bothered to arrange the Skye Boat Song for oboe:-( So, here's a version sung by Amanda Powell, backed by the skatepunk band Big Red and Her Bons Amis (aka Apollo's Fire). Fast forward to 1:50 to get past the blather and on to the music; and 5:50 for a few clips of excellent dulcimer-player Tina Bergmann: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlO9zzMRYyU&list=RDBlO9zzMRYyU&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlO9zzMRYyU&list=RDBlO9zzMRYyU&start_radio=1</a>
Overall great puzzle. 45D has a tense mismatch, I think? “TRIED not to draw attention” vs “LAY low”? Shouldn’t it be LIED LOW or a similar change to the clue?
@Selective Walrus I was just coming here to say the same thing. Seems like a mistake to me.
@Selective Walrus The clue and answer actually do match in tense.
@Selective Walrus The past tense of LIE is LAY. Clue is correct.
@Selective Walrus According to my 1973 edition of the Random House College Dictionary, bought when I went to college that year, the past tense of the intransitive verb “lie” is “lay”. And I’m not a grammarian, but isn’t lie in this case intransitive? BTW, I don’t know if it would be taught in high school English class, but one way I remember the past participle of the transitive verb “to lay” is that the expression is “to get laid”, not “to get lain”.
@Selective Walrus The first definition I saw in the dictionary was "to cause to fall by a blow," which made me think (incorrectly) the clue was wrong. Lay / lie / lied / laid / lain is so confusing!
Brilliant puzzle. But regarding MTDOOM, is it not a rule that an answer containing an abbreviation must have an abbreviation indicator in the clue? Or do I have that wrong?
@Paul Not in cases when the abbreviation occurs as often or more often than the spelled-out word. A marker is necessary for things like INTL or SYN, where it is a recognized abbreviation, but only used when space saving is critical.
I don't know if the whole thing is just whooshing over my head, but I don't get the puzzle at all. Is the point behind having the clues for the theme answers being bold letters in a long phrase that you are "making" a pact/brute/etc? The phrase the bold letters are from is REALLY long, so it's not a major construction feat IMO to form four different short words of 4 or 5 letters each out of that long phrase. Do the four theme answers have anything to do with each other? Are they "bold" or something? This is a perfectly fine puzzle, and if the bold-letter gimmick were removed, this would be a great themeless. But I'm not understanding the theme, even after reading the constructor notes. I am very confused.xwo
@Abby The bold letters indicate what needs to be produced in the answer. In 17A, the bold letters spell ODOR, and the expected answer is MAKE A STINK. The column already gave the expected answer to POOH, the bold letters in the clue for 57A. The other two theme answers are clued by BRUTE and PACT and are ways to produce those items.
@Abby It seems easy but it’s not. First you have to make a short word from bold letters in the same phrase in order; ok maybe not so difficult. Then you have to create natural phrases that all point to making, creating, forming, etc. that’s much harder and these were all very much “in the language”, not forced. And last they have to be symmetrical.
@George LAY LOW is just plain wrong. Will, time to retire?
@George As mentioned earlier, it is correct as clued; LAY is the past tense of LIE, but LAID LOW is also a common version, and is what my answer would have been if the space allowed, which it didn't.
We often see comments about being on the same wavelength as a puzzle or constructor, which makes solving a breeze and angels are heard on high. I was so far off today I thought I would be done in…on a Wednesday. EEK! Something finally clicked, but CREATE A MONSTER summed it up for me. I haven’t read all comments yet but if it’s all about how easy this was I think I’ll LAY LOW until Thursday.
@M. Biggen I think you better LIE LOW until Thursday if you don’t want the grammarians on your back.
CUKE in a spa? pretty stretchy, IYAM.
@jp inframan O, now I get it! People put cucumber slices on their eyes at spas. It seemed like a total non sequitur.
@jp inframan Also lots of cucumber water to drink. Which is surprisingly nice.
@jp inframan Did not like this clue.
@jp inframan Vegetables in a spa made me think of terrible jokes from childhood - most of which were in poor taste then and would be pounced on today. But I’ll risk blowback and say the second I saw veg and spa I thought hot tub and “Stew.’
I'm stopping by on my way to the Answer Key to check my solve. MOST of this worked out once I went back to the PC and printed the Newspaper Version. (Usually if there is an essential feature, the puzzle will ONLY print the version that includes the special features, but not today. Thanks a lot.) I know I got all of the Themers, but there are a couple of somewhat baffling entry/clue pairs ...or maybe just one. (I am never going to read LOTR, and you can't make me. And it's too late for me to study French or explore things like 18D. DHubby is having me learn to use Quicken....that's enough New Tricks for the nonce.)
@Mean Old Lady I had to check the key because I had ‘Mons Amis’ & could not for the life of moi figure out what GIME meant - it was obviously my problem.
@Mean Old Lady You could always watch the LOTR movies. I watch many things because of the cast, and they had good ones for the most part. Ian McClellan, Sean Bean, Viggo Mortensen. Though I do admit I was kind of over it by the third movie. Too many battles for me.
@MOL "I am never going to read LOTR, and you can't make me." Don't bother: everything you need to know about the Lord of the Rings, and the Hobbit, you've learned from doing the puzzle: There are ORCs, and ENTs, and an ELF or two. There's a dragon named SMAUG; he dies. There's a guy named FRODO, and a guy named BILBO, who's his uncle; they travel to the Undying Lands in the West. There's a place called MORDOR, feat. MT. DOOM--don't get them mixed up. As I recall, we once got SMEAGOL, but that's a pretty deep dive. And, at nineteen letters, it's unlikely A ELBERETH GILTHONIEL will ever show up, even on a Sunday
I'm a ten-month newbie and today is my first Wednesday without any lookups. Yay!! Today's Midi has 13A ["Winnie-the-Pooh" author] solving to AAMILNE. And today's Crossword has 57A [(P)ut all the b(o)ld letters in this clue t(o)get(h)er?] with "Pooh" in bold letters, solving to BUILDABEAR. It looks like some people like to FORMANALLIANCE?!? Disney's animated "Winnie the Pooh" is all over the internet. For a real treat, there are also the original beautifully illustrated books I read as a child: " Winnie the Pooh," "The House at Pooh Corner," "When we Were Very Young," and so on. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Winnie-Pooh-Milne/dp/0525444432" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/Winnie-Pooh-Milne/dp/0525444432</a>
@lucky13 Congrats on the Wednesday victory! Wednesday used to be my “throw your hands up” day when I started doing these intermittently a few years ago. Now I’m compulsively addicted and usually finish today’s puzzle the prior evening. Oddly, I average longer solve times on Friday — logging about 550 puzzles with longer average Friday solve times than Saturday or Sunday. 🤷🏽♂️ (I still cringe at rebuses!!) Happy solving!
Nice crossword, but I didn’t feel the clues for 44-down and 45-down matched their answers… For 44-down MTDOOM I would have had an abbreviation in the clue, e.g. ‘Frodo’s destination in LOTR’ (I mistakenly had MORDOR as the answer for this) For 45-down LAYLOW I didn’t feel the tense of the clue matched the answer… instead of ‘tried not to draw attention’ I would have had ‘Try not to draw attention’
@Allie RW. For LAY LOW see all the discussion below. (It is right)
@Allie RW yes, I came to the comments to see if anyone else mentioned Mt. Doom. It's not a huge barrier to solving, but it threw me off for a little bit since Mordor has the same number of letters and doesn't contain an abbreviation
The bold letters are not visible in the app.
@Dave Agree. In dark mode they were almost indistinguishable. In light mode, a little better.
@Dave visible to me in the iOS version
Today's poem made from words found in today's puzzle <br><br> a/ put all the people together in a love cannon<br> put in all the gold all the paper all the cheese<br> put in all the wind instruments <br> put in all the cats<br> put in the musical, cats<br> all all together in the cannon together<br> d/ now the moment of truth<br> a/ go time<br>
@Peter Valentine This one really grabbed me. I got caught up in the rush of all those "put" imperatives.
I printed the puzzle. No bolds here so I did it as themeless came here to see the joke
@Robco I too printed out the puzzle and looked in vain for some letters in bold.
@Robco, Juanita and Whatsername If you want the bold letters, the Newspaper version is the only printable version that will have them, or any other-than-normal characters, drawings, etc. The other printable versions don't include everything that would show up in an overlay on digital devices or the web page.
6A tripped me up. I thought that was spelled a different way my entire life!
@Jake I thought so, too. Apparently jIBE is a variant spelling of GIBE.
@Jake GIBE = caustic insult jIBE (with) = harmonize, agree, mesh
Got fooled a couple places—Smooth instead of SERENE, and MordOr before MT DOOM—before getting corrected via crosses. But then I expect some of that when we get to midweek. And it was fun to have to do a little "work" to decipher the clues for the themers. Prep for Thursday? Fun puzzle, Adam, and thanks!
That was so crunchy for a Wednesday I think I chipped a tooth.
@Matt Kale as! I originally had MATT for 6A. Then changed to MALE. GIBE works too.
Theme felt cryptic-like, nice. Go Gunners! Let’s go to Budapest!!!!!!🏆❤️🤍
I liked the theme today, gotta love themes that deliver the “Aha” moment. The part at the end I got stuck was crossing GIBE with BONSAMIS. I’ve never heard of the word GIBE and don’t speak French. And that foreign language word was crossed with yet another foreign language word.
@Chris "Alas, poor Yorick!...Where be your gibes now?" Adding to my list of reasons to require high school students to study Shakespeare and grow up to my NYT crossword solvers.
I do like a VODKATONIC on a hot day, and it's supposed to hit 90 degrees, so I'll be having a few. After cutting the grass, of course. I must have missed that episode of "Mythbusters." Why would you do that to yummy cheese?
@Grant just added tonic and lime to my grocery order for today!
@Grant I went down the rabbit hole. The story of Edam cannonballs refers to an anecdotal, likely apocryphal, tale from the 1841 Uruguayan Civil War. According to the legend, Uruguayan Commodore John Coe (or Co), having run out of traditional ammunition during a naval battle against Argentina, ordered his men to load the cannons with hard, red-waxed balls of Edam cheese. The cheese was supposedly effective, tearing the sails and damaging the rigging of the Argentinian ship commanded by Admiral William Brown. The story first appeared in the Aristocratic Monitor in 1847, claiming it came from Coe's anonymous first lieutenant. While the battle occurred, historical records do not confirm the use of cheese as ammunition. Edam cheese is uniquely suited to this legend because it was historically produced in hard, spherical shapes and covered in paraffin wax, allowing it to withstand long sea journeys. MythBusters tested this story (Episode 129) and found that while aged Edam is hard, it did not act as an effective cannonball, bouncing off sails rather than damaging them.
FYI, the letter between India and Kilo is Juliett, with two T's. It's spelled that way as a compromise between Juliet, in which French-speakers read the T as silent, and Juliette, which might entice the rest of the world to venture a fourth syllable.
@Jac. I seem to recall that sometime ago we had discussed this. There appears to be some regional variation.
My preferred print version didn't show the bold letters, so that presented an extra layer to solve which made this a little tougher and more entertaining. Clever, with themers very much in the language. That must have been tricky to accomplish with the same clue for all four. Adam always impressess.
Looking at his Times bio, I noticed that @Isaac Aronow is an alum of Hampshire College. I wonder what he thinks about the recent news of the shuttering of his alma mater? <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/us/hampshire-college-closing-amherst-massachusetts-enrollment.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/us/hampshire-college-closing-amherst-massachusetts-enrollment.html</a>
High school classmate is on the faculty. Guess he'll retire now.
@The X-Phile Thanks for your comment. I took a game design class my first year there that ultimately sparked my interest in puzzles as a career. I met a lot of people there. Some of them were odd (and I'd be happy to count myself among them), but all of them were cool.
Enough with the AROD clues. He's nobody's favorite Yankee, best left forgotten. How about... "Homer's nuclear take away"? Or... "Bomber that pairs well with juice"?
@Jay Or "PED-assisted Yank"?
This was probably my favorite early week puzzle in a while... Maybe so far this year! Finding 4 interesting entries from the same set of words? A well-executed and tight theme, and so many fun clues throughout (looking at you, CUKE). I'm very proud of myself for knowing TROTSKY immediately 🙌🏼 His story always fascinated me. And of course any puzzle with MT DOOM and MEOW is fine by me. Thanks, Adam!
I'm BONETIRED but I still want to say that I really enjoyed this puzzle and the clever theme. Hopefully, the BONSAMIS are walking ABREAST to share a couple of VODKATONICS.