The whole puzzle is a hoot. Lots of supporting words to one's experience in the LAV: the two of hearts could be part of a straight FLUSH, which might ROIL the waters. If you cram too many dogs with kraut into your torso, nature might not just call but send out an SOS, you should have said "Nein, danke" to that last one, not to mention the IPA. It's also fun that NO TROUBLE AT ALL contains trou, which you presumably drop, revealing your A-$-$ (is that a TAT of MAO I saw on it?), but when your business is done you HOIST your pants back up and wash with ROSE water. Anyway, one thing we know is that Freddie Cheng is PRO (TO|LET) BOWL. I hope no one FLAGS this post! If George Gershwin's younger brother was more into hip-hop he might have called himself Lil Ira and helped his brother compose Rap-sody in Blue. Right. Back to the real world. Time to check in to see what the clown in the ear wig has been up to today. Eww.
@john ezra If George Gershwin's younger brother was more into hip-hop, he would have had a Time Machine.
@john ezra Lil Ira and Rap-sody in Blue? JE, your mind is a phenomenal otherworldly beast. Standing ovation!
This is a WONDERFUL post, John -- so breezy and imaginative and fun to read!! It's very good news for us all that no one flagged it!
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Fault line? (7) 2. Cause of amusement to a vet, maybe (6)(7) 3. Flanders neighbor (7) 4. One who's screen-sharing (6) 5. What might be found at the end of a rainbow (5) APOLOGY ROOKIE MISTAKE SIMPSON CO-STAR PRISM
My favorite encore clues from last week: [Paper view?] (4) [This isn't working!] (7) OPED LEISURE
[Matador charger]? I didn’t even know you could plug a matador in.
@Steve L You could with the American Motors vehicle (produced 1971-78) if you needed a jump.
@Steve L A matador could certainly run out of juice, though. If he gets gored by the toro.
Just don’t read 28A and 34A consecutively.
@Steve L Oh no! But they are consecutive! Coincidence, or a test for the pearl clutchers? I’ll get my bag of popcorn and meet you at the sidelines. 😆
@Steve L Aaron from Florida would like a word.
@Steve L it’s a whole 34A sentence lol
"Fido's doghouse is so clean!" "No bones about it!" (That pun wasn't final - just a woof draft.)
@Mike I have to admit, it was pretty arf-ul.
@Mike I found it fetching.
I'm not a fan of "Walk Wearily" solving to traipse. The weariness is not a connotation of traipse that I'm aware of and M-W doesn't list it either. It could have been clued "walk aimlessly"
@Sam Channeling Barry and Steve here: <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/traipse" target="_blank">https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/traipse</a> The clue works.
@Sam I'm with you, Sam. And Merriam Webster's definition does not mention emotions at all, so I feel like the weariness is a British-English gloss. I think it possible that one person could TRAIPSE blithely about without feeling any weariness whatsoever (we should all be so blessed with energy and fleetness of foot!), just as another (me) could become weary by traipsing all over town in search of an elusive grocery item. But I personally feel like the use of TRAIPSE on its own doesn't require or even imply weariness.
Just did an old puzzle: Nov. 25, 2018. Clue 97-down is "most conservative" and the answer is "safest." I think this is out of date.
If anyone keeps track of first-time consecutive fills in a puzzle, then I’m hereby nominating τΗιΣΣΣυcκΣαΣΣ as world class.
@Matt 😂 The emu programming that will need to be done to get past "those wily NYT crossword rascals" will be epic.
@Matt I consider myself an enabler of your post. I'm so proud 🥰
@Matt That is so sigma. Maybe a little too sigma.
@Matt My pearls! My pearls! Where are my pearls???
This puzzle flew by and would've been better suited to an Elgsday. (Elgsday is an extra day of the week I made up so I could complain about one more crossword being too easy)
@Stocc I hope Elgsday is no relation to Legs Day.
As the theME OWner of this puzzle, Freddie left out one obvious nature call. (My guys insist they are part of nature, despite delicious canned food and soft piles of laundry to lie on.)
@Cat Lady Margaret HISS is in there.
@Cat Lady Margaret -- Hah! I spent quite some time rummaging for animal sounds in your parenthetical sentence and completely missed your MEOW in the first sentence. My cat comment above came completely independent of yours. Great minds...
Thank you to all commenters here! Henceforth, whenever I see or hear TRAIPSE, I will always stop to determine the origin of the author, speaker, or publication – whether British or American – to give it the right meaning. This was a fine Monday puzzle and a welcome respite from my unexplainable fuzzy-headed DNFs of the weekend, something that hasn't happened since I first started solving. So thank you, Mr. Cheng, for giving me hope that the brain glitch has come and gone!
@sotto voce So glad you told us that bc I too finally gave up on yesterday's puzzle after struggling to complete it just this morning. And I too loved today's offering. It was fun and helped me feel I don't have dementia yet :-)
@sotto voce Yesterday's was sooooo hard!! I only eked it out by the hair on my chinny, chin, chin! 😏
Personal property investor Chicken feed counter BBQ queue Carpet installer's complaint Become a major leaguer Equine section at the zoo Explores the Arctic hoMEOWner cOINKiosk cHOWLine rougHONKnees turNEIGHteen zeBRAYard goeSNORTh
@Linda Jo -- Wow! Brava! Not a feeBLE ATtempt in the bunch!
@Linda Jo What they asked a founding father when his first Declaration signature was too messy? HanCOCK, A DOODLE DO-over?
Well, before I got out of the NW, I needed crosses for TEMPT and AWARE, I needed memory plunges for PRO BOWL, and PRADO, not to mention for the spelling of PENH. And boom! I was involved. As opposed to feeling robotic, mindlessly filling a Monday. This is how Mondays should be – easy but involving. Newer solvers are as smart as veterans. They can handle no-knows and tougher clues like [Specialty] if there are easier crosses. And there are today. All the better if there is beauty sprinkled throughout the grid, such as NICHE, KRILL, TRAIPSE, and EARWIG. A lovely touch is that none of the animal sounds are embedded within words; each connects a pair of words, such as ROAR connecting METRO AREA. That is a step up in constructing elegance. Your stellar puzzle, Freddy, left me anything but disGRUNTled. Thank you for a splendid outing!
@Lewis "Traipse" in the usages I've heard/witnessed/used refers to casual walking, perhaps daintily or jauntily, lightly and perhaps in high spirits. When one is tired out, he or she trudges or stumps or staggers.
Great Monday puzzle to solve…all three (mini, midi and daily) were fun solves. Looking forward to the rest of tomorrow’s puzzles 🎈
Re TRAIPSE. Oh, this is such an apt clue because the weariness is so key. It's not only a word I know; it's a word I use frequently. It's the only word you'll ever want to use when the path is much too long and hilly; when the terrain is much too irregular, slippery and precarious; and when you're required to schlep God-knows-how-many-ridiculously-heavy items on your back. If you don't know that word, if you don't savor that word, you'll never be able to complain as vigorously as you're entitled to.
Nancy, Thank you for your heartfelt endorsement of the weary take on TRAIPSE, a well-phrased counterpoint to the earlier testifying to the more lively version. Quite the language we have here.
Though it was NOTROUBLEATALL, THIS puzzle definitely doesn't SUCKs! What a fun, cute theme! I enjoyed it!
It only took 14 hours for this to arrive! I should have paid for expedited delivery.
I certainly did not think 28A, Freddy, and the puzzle was pleasantly 42A, but I was 63A to 53A before getting there, so the 47D was muted. Let's 22D a 30D.
Callie, I loved your column. Your great-aunt Pat and my mother could have been the same person.
I am picturing a tornado at a tomato farm. SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT Onotomatopoeia!
@Dale M 1A [Special dish in the main dining room during tornado at sea] CAPTAIN(S)(P)(L)(A)(T)TER
This very enjoyable Monday puzzle was balm to my ego, as I just finally finished yesterday's very complex one only this morning. I enjoyed your column too, Callie, and loved your admitting that you first read TORNADO as tomato, bc I did the same thing. And having read only the first (last) comments, I see some others did too. Thanks Freddie Cheng, for a breezy Monday puzzle that still challenged me just the right amount. Definitely a 47D and not a 28A.
As I discovered today, sometime you gotta LEARN, sometimes you gotta LETGO, and sometimes you gotta LAUGH. Today, I laughed, which is my only request for a Monday. Not much else to comment on which is good because we are probably all commented out from yesterday. Except—a pure cryptic crossword clue on a Monday? (AMT) How daring!!!
@SP Oh and Callie I also laughed at your column and misreading of “sound that warns of a tomato”. Maybe something that would have been useful in vaudeville days?
@SP I got it Callie—if you don’t like tomatoes on your fast food, you might want to get a BURGER ALARM to warn you of it.
An elegant Monday! Nice one! Our eldest was born chatty and loquacious (mamma’s kid?). Words at 10 months, full sentences by 14 months. A year younger, his brother was quiet. And when he *did* speak it was in an odd language that *only* his big brother spoke fluently. One day, hubby took older brother out, I was home with little brother who was almost three. He was so frustrated searching for something he called “ ma zotomotagh!” We looked for it together, but I had no clue what to look for. Finally hubby and brother came home. “Wa ma zotomo-agh?” “Oh! He’s looking for his locomotive.” “You couldn’t just call it a choo-choo train?” And, yeah, he also taught him that we drive around in “zahta-modos.” Automobiles.
Truly funny moments here, really enjoyed how this delightfully lowbrow puzzle wrapped everything up with a fitting theme! Very nice. Tail wagging
I really enjoyed the puzzle but then I started reading the comments…especially about 28A & 34A 😆. I think this will be one of those where the comments might be more entertaining than the puzzle (and don’t mean to take anything away from a wonderful & fun puzzle). 🍿🥤🎉💃🏻😆
I actually commented right after Lewis did today, but the emus apparently did that thing that emus do so well... maybe because I used the S word in 28A, as in this puzzle didn't. Ah well, I made more than enough comments today on the Sunday puzzle to last a while, so I shall be fret free and at the emus mercy.
Today I learned I have been using TRAIPSE wrong all these years after I assumed "walk wearily" must mean TRUDGE. I always thought I was sauntering without a care when I was traipsing. Now I know better
@Sandip No, you are correct. My only complaint about this otherwise delightful puzzle was the incorrect cluing for TRAIPSE. I even hopped onto Merriam Webster's website to confirm! (While it's possible that traipsing about could cause weariness at some point, being weary is not required or even implied by TRAIPSE itself.)
@Sandip No, you are quite correct. None of the dictionaries I consulted have that sense in the verb definitions. The closest was the noun, "a tiring walk", in American Heritage and Random House, with Collins saying, "a long, tiring walk".
@Sandip Yes! I was surprised and kind of embarrassed to learn the definition. I always thought of it as sort of skipping. Does the word simply have a happy sound?
@Sandip in British English, traipsing means to walk wearily. I had no idea until today that it meant the opposite in American English.
In the answer to 43 Across, TRibBLE is spelled incorrectly. <a href="https://youtu.be/sKLyXjMT07I?si=-cycP0yaDa8U4fow" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/sKLyXjMT07I?si=-cycP0yaDa8U4fow</a>
Not sure why profanity was included or deemed necessary in this puzzle. Hope the constructor rethinks for next time to not offend paying players. Will not be finishing today’s puzzle sadly.
@Aaron It's obvious that you consider yourself way holier than I am, but still I've never understood the definition of "profanity". I don't see any words at all here that seem profane to me. I suspect I know which one you're talking about, but it is quite a common word used in a lot of senses, none of which are "relating or devoted to that which is not sacred or biblical". So where do we draw the line? Do you get to decide for all of us? Don't the rest of us get a say?
@Aaron What is profanity? Is it a word that relates to a certain body part or sexual act, or is it a word that attacks someone based on a physical or genetic or cognitive attribute? I’m guessing you object to 34A because it causes the reader to think about a body part that you find indelicate. But I don’t understand why the word is offensive. It’s been around for centuries (derived from the old English “aers”), refers to something we all share, and is quite innocuous in its meaning. I would understand finding offense with words that mean to cause harm, like reta**ed or f*g. But a casual word pertaining to a body part? Not buying it. Clutch all the pearls you want and feel free to skip any or all puzzles, but please don’t try to shame the constructor with your misguided sense of morality.
@Aaron My ταliβαη friends tell me 34A is totally kosher.
@Aaron A dictionary definition: Profane describes behavior, language, or items that are disrespectful, irreverent, or contemptuous toward sacred, holy, or religious things. There is a current and all too prominent example of this in the newspaper today...and it isn't the crozzword!
@Aaron this is not an airport; no need to announce your departure
@Aaron Might I recommend contacting the NYT and suggesting a SAFEWORD before tackling Monday-level puzzles?
One man's profanity is another's profundity. Bad Words! [tremble]
Cute, clean, and easy -- with an adorable revealer pun. The perfect introductory puzzle for a newbie solver, I'd say. Save it for your grandkids. As for us veteran solvers: we all needed a respite from yesterday's bear, didn't we? OTOH, the clue for AMT is surprisingly sophisticated and cryptic in nature. I loved it!
@Nancy -- And in all the times AMT has appeared in Crosslandia (nearly 300), it has never been clued like that.
The OED's definition of TRAIPSE is (simplified) "to trudge wearily; to walk aimlessly or needlessly," with first citation 1593. Funny thing, though, both connotations have equally long histories, and are mutually exclusive--either motion that is weary but directed: "What soever wether comes I must goe trapesing a foote to ye end of ye lane."(1647) or aimless but (apparently) unfatigued: "I was traipsing to-day with your Mr. Sterne."(1711) There is also a connotation of "to go about dressed untidily, or with clothing trailing on the ground," but that's pretty obsolete. FWIW, I usually use the "aimless" one. Big discussion below about profanity in the puzzle, by which I assume the commenter meant 28A and 34A, which I filled in, pearls un-clutched. But it is surprising how desensitized and comfortable we--even those who wear pearls--have become with certain idioms, without remembering or considering the bodily activities which are their etymology. (And don't try to convince me that 34A is about leading a pack animal by the tail.) Or am I just being anal?
@Bill I remember in our catechism classes as a kid, the question from the book was, "How did Sampson slay the lion?" We would proudly answer correctly, as our excuse to "swear" in church. Not to mention what Baalam did to that poor talking creature.😋
Ha ha, this was really fun and a great Monday morning puzzle! I especially enjoyed Mr. Cheng's comment in the construction notes (I have a feeling it will be 47D). Like Callie, I was happy to see 29D, and am fighting off the urge to thumb through Macbeth. The theme itself just cracked me up, although I didn't get it until after I'd filled in all the circled letters and most of the cross letters. But it still made me laugh out loud. Very clever!
I woofed and hooted and bleated with delightful laughter when I got to the revealer as I neared the end of the solve.
My friend Keith regularly goes to one of those float places where they have sensory deprivation tanks. Today’s poem made from today’s puzzle is how i imagine he feels… <br> <br> a/ in the water’s easy stir know <br> i, wearily, my surroundings… my well of <br> egyptian d/ pearl and <br> the undergoing butterfly sound of whales a/ <br> aware of no other <br> <br>
@Peter Valentine You just reminded me of the movie Altered States with William Hurt. Now I’m creeped out 😋
I never comment. Well, rarely on crosswords. Came to say this was my fastest time, ever. Not a good, nor bad thing, as I enjoy spending time on the puzzles each morning, so finishing quickly doesn't always bring joy. Back to the grind and all that. However, even before solving so quickly, I knew I'd want to comment on finding it hard to imagine how an Egyptian cobra could be considered a tricky clue. Seems as if the answer to it appears, in one way or another, nearly weekly.
Our guest columnist is following the lead of every Wordplay columnist ever since a Tricky Clues section was added to the column format: it a place to comment on clues and answers regardless of their supposed trickiness.
@Pierre Du Chance I found it surprising that the clue ___ Magnon needed additional explanation in the clue and then that it was considered tricky.
Vaer, Let's be generous and consider my explanation of what clues are discussed in Tricky Clues.
Nice breezy palate cleanser after the Sunday, Freddie…some would say no trouble at all. Appreciate your contribution!
The columnist of the day writes: "11D. I’ll be honest, I misread this as [Sound that warns of a tomato]." Hi Callie, That and the Quinyon Mitchell shout-out suggest you did not come to The Times from the Midwest.
@Barry Ancona - Yes, lots of tornados and sirens all over the midwest this past week.
Hie and Traipse are new ones for me lol
@Calvin If you're adding TRAIPSE to you vocab, forget the part about wearily. Trudge is walking wearily, traipse has nothing to do with weary. I think it implies going farther than you intended, but not wearily. I traipsed all over town looking for the right pair of shoes, but I found them!
A Monday puzzle renews my faith in myself; that maybe I’m not a total doof for playing this crossword every single day and honestly not getting much better over time - ha!
A third Monday without reveals - after 2 nearly years am I improving? Or maybe just coincidence. It was touch and go though. I was stuck for a while because, after only one cup of coffee, I put Pnong PenG and PradA, which made the easy CHOO CHOO impossible. The sport clues and brand name came from the crossers - sadly for me, quite unusual. I looked up HIC and it took me a while to realise it was HI-C! (I know it's been in before). The BritEnglish equivalent to ***backward (careful now) is **** about face, or just ****-about.
@Jane Wheelaghan My mom has always euphemized it as bass-ackwards.
An enjoyable and very breezy Monday puzzle! It took me a second or two to figure out the themed clues as well as the revealer. Once I did figure out the revealer, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. I thoroughly enjoyed some of the pop culture clues (I grew up playing the PlayStation 1 as well as watching The Jungle Book). I was getting to the end and I thought I’d have to look at the key, but then closely studying the last few clues got me the answers I needed! (I am referring to the bottom left hand section of the puzzle.) Hats off to today’s constructor for a breezy Monday crossword that was extremely fun to solve!
I miss the near-inaudible call of a KRILL, as it passes down the gullet of a sperm whale, or of an aphid, caught in the pincers of an EARWIG. Funner-than-usual Monday puzzle.
The clue for TRAIPSE really irked me as I've never associated it with "wearily". But credit for 8D: I actually doubted the answer as it's way more cryptic-flavored than what I'd expect on a Monday... very clever!
@Anthony Help! I came to the comments hoping for an explanation of 8D…
Somewhat gentle KAC Monday offering over at The New Yorker.
I just love a good Monday puzzle that brings out some controversy (@$$ backwards). I got a chuckle reading 28 then 34 across consecutively. Oh the 10 year old in me shows himself again.