Really? Derrick took a common two-word phrase, and substituted a synonym for each word to make a brand spanking new common phrase? Like CAN OPENER to FIRE STARTER? Something like that seems very hard to come up with even once, a quirk find. But he did it how many times? Eleven? Eleven??? And he made them symmetrical? And even when you figured out what was going on, the theme answers were still hard – and fun – to guess at? Really? Derrick has been making Times puzzles for 43 years? He's only made Sunday puzzles and is the longest running contributor to the Sunday puzzle? Color me impressed. After getting a couple of theme answers I started wondering how long he could keep coming up with these stunning finds – surely not through the whole puzzle. And with each theme answer I went, “Dang! He did it again!” Wordplay-lover me wordplay-loved this, Derrick. I found your creation to be quite amazing. Bravo, sir, and thank you!
I paid for my chicken sandwich with legal tenders. (But I could've used my nest egg.)
@Mike In keeping with today’s theme: Mike from Munster? PUNGENT
@Mike I always try to keep abreast of the best joke material, but today I decided to just wing it
@Mike At least that isn't fowl play...
@Mike A cockade in your cap for not being such a dumb cluck as to pluck funds from your savings for some cockamamie hero.
@Mike You mustard a had mayo with it.
@Mike A cockade in your hat for not plucking funds from your savings to pay for this cockamamie bite. One has to beak-areful to overcomb ones impulses.
@Mike I was going to say you're always bruin something up, but I couldn't bear to post it.
@Mike and @All Y'all All y'all are goin' to The Bad Place. And SP, you're goin' over and over agin. DHubby had to run in here in a panic 'cause he heard my ARRRRgh! and thought I was burned or somethin'.
The clues and the resulting fills were goofier and more farfetched than any I had ever seen before— until they came into focus and I was blown away by the cleverness of the imagination that dreamed them up. There were some absolute beauties, and they were surrounded by, and dependent on, the support of solid, fresh crosses, with no look-ups necessary. This was a terrific puzzle, Derrick, and I'm grateful that you made it for us. I enjoyed every minute of the solve. Thank you.
@Ro The hero of Ayn Rand's book "The Fountainhead," which espouses a philosophy called Objectivism.
@Ro John Galt is Prometheus who upon granting fire to the world withdrew his fire until they withdrew their vultures
@Ro Well, Call me Ishmael if that isn't a great comment. Bravo.
@Ro John Galt is what passes for a protagonist in The Fountainhead, a book which leans heavily on the phrase “Who is John Galt?” as an emotional motif. But you probably already knew that… Loved your comment.
@Ro et al. Think it's Atlas Shrugged; Fountainhead is Roark, which I know from crosswords.
@Ro I've seen that bumper sticker a lot back in the day. Im *still not sure what it stood for, even after reading the book.
@Ro You're not missing anything by not knowing.
@Ro It would seem that it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. So many eager to help; so many who don't get the joke. (except for @Al in P)
I was sure of my answer DERMa, and I had never heard of the upscale shirt maker so ETaN looked passable. Unfortunately that meant that flyspecking was pointless for me tonight. Oh well, no gold star tonight.
@Gregg - That was my last correction.
@Gregg O no! I had the same problem. But since I don’t have the patience to flyspeck on Sundays, it would have been blue star for me regardless.
@Gregg I had no idea of the shirtmaker, but ETON is a crossword puzzle standard. There are many ways to clue it. This is the first I've seen of the shirtmaker.
Loved it. Loads of clever (but not obnoxiously clever) clues. I was starting to feel indignant -- "That's not fair! All these years, I've been a regular customer at my gas station, and they never gave ME a discount!" And then I realized..."regular"....as in "not premium"... Oh.
It took me a bit to catch on to the trick of the themed clues (KINSHIP was the first to click), but once I did, I enjoyed sorting them out. It was a very clever gimmick and a nice Sunday puzzle. Bonus points for the reference to Emmylou HARRIS. While she’s a fine singer as a solo act (her version of Joni Mitchell’s Magdalene Laundries is a killer), she’s one of the most exquisite harmony singers around. Her work with Gram Parsons before his untimely death is nothing less than poignant, and her presence in a session never fails to elevate the music.
@Marshall Walthew Her tour appearances with Mark Knopfler, available in abundance on Youtube, are soul expanding as well, each taking turns backing the other.
@Marshall Walthew More bonus points for the inclusion of GWEN Verdon. I never had the chance to see her on Broadway but her partnership with Bob Fosse has shaped musical dance since the 1950s. All the Fosse tricks -- the disjointed elbow flicks, the hunched shoulders, the fluttering yet stiff fingers, etc. -- were embodied by Verdon for their first appearances. Some people are angry that Audrey Hepburn stole Julie Andrews' role in My Fair Lady. I'm sorry we never got to see Gwen Verdon as Sweet Charity on film.
Scanning solver responses is never without its interesting moments. Obviously it's heartwarming to see the positive responses, and several really hit the spot. But many appeared put off by the apparent excess Americana I ended up including -- that was a surprise, but point granted. Part of the issue is that when you try to include this many theme entries -- and 11 felt maximal -- you'll inevitably have to struggle to complete various corners of the puzzle. One particular reaction seemed curious to me, and that was the objection to THE UN. Last I knew it was still going strong, so although the clue points out its starting point those many decades ago, it didn't occur to me that it was dated or obscure. I am reminded that JFK, in his inaugural address, specifically mentioned THE UN -- then merely a teenager -- and how he didn't want it to become merely a "forum for invective." Little did he know that the Wordplay comments section sometimes heads in that very direction! Along those lines, my favorite response was the person who chided me for suggesting that a CHICKEN SANDWICH was a hoagie . . . and that it was yellow! I can only conclude that this solver didn't quite glom on to the theme, and there were others in the same boat. Maybe "Double double meanings" as the title could have warded that problem off? Anyway, I know you can't please everybody, try as one might, but I remain grateful to all those who took the time to respond.
@Derrick Gard puzzle. But a fun puzzle! More to come from you I hope. Thanks for your effort and inventiveness. Just awesome.
@Derrick My comment about Americana is just below, and I do comment about it somewhat regularly but always with the proviso that I can’t and don’t expect to be pandered too. It’s an American newspaper. Very clever work fitting in so many theme entries, that must have been hard.
@Derrick Thank you so much for responding! Yes, the amount of invective here is a subject of major discussion. I suspect some people actually don't know the difference between a critique and using words as a way to denigrate. I thoroughly enjoyed your puzzle. Most of the commenters this morning seemed to feel the same way. Hope you read those!
@Derrick FWIW (good song, by the way) Commenters here who find these puzzles a huge challenge often use "arcane," "obscure," and the go-to adjectival favorite... "random." Dated and obscure? Take it. Nice job!
@Derrick So nice to see a comment from the constructor. You led me to go take a look at your previous puzzles on Xword Info and... Wow! Just a lot of amazing stuff. Your last previous is one of the real standouts. I'll post the link to the Xword Info page for that one for any of the other readers here who may want to go take a look. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=2/2/2025" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=2/2/2025</a> Looking forward to more from you. Thanks again. ....
@Derrick A chicken salad sandwich, no less! I keep hoping that the poster was trying to use humor words to make some kind of joke that none of us get. Alas, it doesn't seem to be the case. I really enjoyed your puzzle and the theme!! It was a lot of fun, even though it was the first one I had to Blue Star on in, gosh I don't even know how long, I don't worry about streaks. If you read all the way through, I'm the one who goofily put the wrong directions in from St Paul to Duluth, even though I live in St Paul and we frequently travel to Duluth for some Great Lake fun! And I was so excited about the clue and that I know exactly how to get to Duluth, that I didn't mind the crosses.😂🫣😂 Cracked me up!
@Derrick I loved it. Had no trouble with figuring out the theme, enjoyed a rather easy fill. Thank you for a great Sunday!
@Derrick, It’s always a treat when the constructor joins in on the comments, especially when they discuss details of making the puzzle. I think a vast majority of folks here really enjoyed the theme and also appreciated the difficulty of finding two-word clues that had synonyms for each word, such that the resulting new two-word pairing was also a commonly used term. And you found 11 of them! Loved the puzzle from 2/2/25 that RiA linked to, as well. Very impressive! Thanks again for this Sunday special, it was a fun ride!
@Derrick great job. Ignore the haters. You pulled off something not many people could. I certainly was frustrated and nearly lost my 336 day streak on yours but my wife helped me pull it off. As a physician I would only disagree with dermo-. Dermatitis, dermatome, dermatologist, dermatophyte. But overall a job well done.
@Derrick I thought this was the best Sunday in a long time. Several funny clues and a tight theme. It took me average time, which I enjoyed because puzzles of late have been too easy. IMO. LGA was brilliant. So was LA RAM, but I didn't get the answer until someone here explained it! Thank you for your efforts. The puzzle is one of my favorite things!
@Derrick I think what bothered some about THEUN was the 'the'. Required by NYT rules, of course, since there can be no 2-letter entries. And the trickiness of creating a crossword of this general excellence mandates some easing at the thickest clues. But, by and large, using THE as the first part of a clue (unless in a quotation or title), is a weakness, just like adding a preposition after a verb unless mandated by meaning (e.g., "listen to" vs. just plain "listen".)
THIC again! (Too hard, i cheated — second day in a row!) I appreciated the theme but some of the fill was just impossible. I think ROLLTIDE and GALE and TAMMY and even SALS were guessable, and I confess i should probably have heard of SAGUARO and RENI, but LOMA Linda? GWEN Verdon? PISMO Beach? LARAM? The obscurity is not worth the pain.
@Petrol I actually remembered LOMA and PISMO but I still abandoned the solve - the fill was just too much for me in places.
@Petrol -- Gwen Verdon danced with Bob Fosse and married him too. She was a force! Enjoy them here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIiZuAVZH4w" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIiZuAVZH4w</a>
@Petrol LOMA Linda is famous as a city in California where the population lives to be much older than the rest of us. Look it up! GWEN Verdon was a huge dancer, singer, and star on Broadway and in the movies. She won four Tony awards and was married to Bob Fosse, an absolute Broadway director and choreographer icon. TAMMY was heard over and over at its time, a theme from the movie. It was sung by Debbie Reynolds, another big name in the industry.
@Petrol I loved the Pismo Beach clue. I'm not sure if this was intentional but 81 across jogged my memory. I knew those Saturday morning cartoons would come in handy one day.
@Petrol I managed to come up with ROLL TIDE, but I assigned The Gamecocks to University of NORTH Carolina, creating yet another mess. I am seeing that a LOT of solvers bailed on this big LUMMOX of a puzzle. I just found an error I overlooked because the crossing was vague" AEON/ENE both were legitimate words, and I did not check the clues ....thus my downfall. One Wrong Letter. Alert the media! (Not.)
After the challenge yesterday, I hope everyone can relax with this very clever and very wordplayish crossword that would have been right at home as an easier Maleska era Sunday.
Oof. So I finished, with a great deal of help from Wordplay. The clues were great, as was the theme. It was the Americana that stumped me, as it always will. Ive moaned about it ad infinitum and I have only myself to blame as I insist on working on puzzles meant for a different culture to my own. Most of the time I embrace it as a great TIL. Sometimes, like today, it seems to overwhelm the grid, making it nigh on impossible to get to the finish just using my own brain power, despite being able to correctly fill a goodly chunk of the grid. Don’t mind me; it’s exactly 6 days to our daughter’s wedding on our land and I’m feeling a tad overwhelmed. I meant to spend a quiet day with the crossword before bedlam ensues, so I think I had greater expectations than I could possibly expect a game to provide. With thanks to the sterling efforts of Mr Niederman, Ms Lovinger, Mr Self et al. I’m off to puzzle over Wordle and the Bee.
@Helen Wright Indeed there was a lot of Americana in this one. Which meant that for me, there were a lot of gimmes that were no-knows for our international solvers. Congrats on your daughter's upcoming nuptuals; our daughter has her own in August! However, it's where she lives now, Philadelphia, and we are not required to have much to do with the planning! The benefit of having raised an independent child! (We are contributing financially.) Try to relax and enjoy! Don't let the stress rob you of your enjoyment.
@Helen Wright I thought of you when I filled in SAGUARO. Not many of those in your corner of the world.
We don’t often get a theme with eleven entries. Impressive! [Yellow submarine] for CHICKEN SANDWICH is excellent. That gave me a good laugh. I also think [Blood vessel?] for KINSHIP is especially clever. My least favorite is CARPALS, mostly because the pronunciation of CAR PALS is different from the pronunciation of the bones. Well done, Derrick. [Rock band?] DIAMOND RING
@Anita If you think of it, an even better answer for “automates” would be CARPETS, although maybe not very PC terminology.
@Anita My first thought for yellow submarine was CHIneseSANDWICH. Must have seen too many Charlie Chan films as a child.
Caitlin writes: They’re SCHLUMPS. If the schlemiel spills the soup and the schlimazel gets covered, what role is played by a schlump? And the clue given for it is: [Inept sorts]. Well, the clue is kinda correct, inasmuch as people have used the word that way from time to time, but schlumpiness has more to do with a slovenly appearance than ineptitude. A schlemiel is the klutzy waiter who spills the soup all over the customer. The customer into whose lap he spills the soup is the schlemazel. The schlump is the guy at the next table who's unintentionally dressed as messily as the schlemazel with the soup in his lap.
Steve, Is this taking place at Ratner's?
@Steve L For me, the SCHLUMP is the one who couldn't find his wallet, gave up looking after a half hour, never made it to the restaurant, and is wandering around his apartment in his boxer shorts wondering whether to call his friends and tell them that he won't be able to make it today.
@Steve L The restaurant is Hasenpfeffer Inc.?
@Steve L you're absolutely right. And you saved me from writing an explanation. When I finally realized they were looking for "schlumps," I filled it in begrudgingly, knowing it was wrong. But otherwise a fun puzzle.
@Steve L Agreed! ... A word very much used by my mom when we were teenagers and only wanted to wear jeans even when invited to dinner parties... "You're going like that? Dressed like a schlump? Not with me, you're not!" 😜
Oh my gosh, you all! Okay, first, fun puzzle! I enjoyed it! The themers were a lot of fun! However, I could not find the error of my ways afterwards. I struggled mightily with NAW and WHUP.... coming close to giving up. They are two terms or spellings I'm not accustomed to, but I finally got it when I thought of whoop. Alas, no music. I flyspecked twice, I tell you, twice—not quite thrice. Certainly not quadrice!! Finally, did a puzzle check and wouldn't ya know it (if we were in person I'd try to make you guess), I got the MN answer wrong!!!! What's the opposite of huzzah?!? I couldn't believe it. We've driven there so very, very many times. We love it there! Sigh! Obviously, I'm not disputing the answer at all, but in fairness to my ridiculousness and some measure of small pride, where we are specifically, we do go E first, then N and more E. (Not enough to register on a map, of course, but for that moment, the world revolved around my darling man and me). And AeON seemed fine. Alas. I am a victim of whatever Steve L (I believe) coined as being too close to the subject. 😂 Oh my, well, one just has to laugh at these things, right?! I was, after all, so smug feeling putting it in with certainty. This and repeatedly not being able to parse LARAM have me both laughing somewhat hysterically and ALSO ready for my martini. Didn't earn it, but I'll take it! Har!
@HeathieJ what did you have for the downs? Often when I’m flyspecking I need to check both directions to check my mistake. And the opposite of Huzzah is WAHWAH (sad trombone)
Any puzzle that references MARY CASSATT and Emmy Lou HARRIS is okay by me. Thought there was something for everyone in this puzzle, with some sneaky stuff that took me by surprise after I'd gotten the answer. Well done. Here's Emmy Lou with one of her most beautiful songs (IMHO). <a href="https://youtu.be/JE_sUN_M7p0?si=9hFF3UxVmORQbEG1" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/JE_sUN_M7p0?si=9hFF3UxVmORQbEG1</a>
@Vaer Forgot to mention, but falling under better late than never, Sicario, an answer from last Sunday's puzzle, is streaming on HULU.
What's better than theme answers based on wordplay? Answer: Theme answers based on a double dose of wordplay! Fun! I could do puzzles like this every day of the week.
My favorite clue of the bunch has to be 22A - Lottery commission? which of course resolves to DRAWINGBOARD. 65A- Yellow submarine? gets an honorable mention for CHICKENSANDWICH. Really enjoyed this one!
Wasn’t a fan of this one. There were way too many obscure clues and dated references for my liking
Now, there’s the fun I was looking for. Hit a few snags and the unknown shirt maker crossed with shoulda-been DERMa foiled me in the end, but so what. The clever wordplay was worth the ride. I started yesterday’s Wordle with STARE. Didn’t help me much. I hate the words that end in -er, there are just too many possibilities.
@Heidi Re Wordle That's the reason I switched my starter from stare to aster.
@Heidi I always start with SLANT. If I could start with five consonants, I would. My feeling is that the consonants are much more obvious than the vowels. (I also want to know immediately if the first letter is S, since S allows many second letters.) Hebrew, which I studied as a kid for my bar mitzvah, is written (in its everyday form) without vowels. (There is a system of dots that can be added to words to show the vowel sounds, used in prayerbooks, school books, etc., but they're considered like "training wheels" for native speakers. I figure if Hebrew can do without vowels, they're not that important.
@Heidi Yay! I do not use any special "starter"...I prefer to rummage around, as in, "Hmm, we haven't seen any F's lately; I'll use a word with that letter!" After one or two guesses I may employ a "Sorter word" that has a lot of choices. And @Steve L You are correct: consonants "carry" a lot more information than vowels do. If writing materials are scarce/precious, skipping vowels makes good sense. My offspring use favorite starters, (even though PhysDau's fave was in fact The Word one day.)
WOWIE, $200 for a shirt? Small wonder I didn't know ETON. DIOR is more in my price range. Throw in APRES before AVANT, and you've got a tricky little section there. No matter, cleaned up my ERRANCY and got my 300th gold star. Cheers!
@Grant, kudos on that streak! 🎉🎉🎉⭐️⭐️⭐️
What a debacle! Extended my streak (losing streak) to two. Please believe me when I saw this with all sincerity, cross my heart, I hope that the onset of much harder puzzles means many of you are having more more enjoyable solves. As I've said several times, I could see both sides of the issue. At the moment, my opinion is that although I do enjoy a challenge, but I also miss sometimes getting to solve the puzzle.
I only met Ayn Rand three times, but they were all memorable occasions. The first time was in the lobby of the Hotel de Crillon in Paris in the late 1960s. I was working as a bell hop and she approached me and asked if I knew anywhere nearby where she might purchase a live harbor seal. I told her I did not, and she then proceeded to scowl at me before getting down on the floor and gently rubbing her cheeks on the carpet. The second time was years later in New York. I was working as a waiter at the Four Seasons, and she was dining with a table of upper-crust literati. She asked if there was any live seal on the menu, and when I told her there was not, she scowled at me then got down in the floor and began rubbing her cheeks gently on the carpet. The third and final time I met Ayn Rand was in 1982. I had pivoted my career to open up a live harbor seal and carpet shop in midtown. Rand came in and didn’t say a word, but I’m sure you can imagine what happened next.
@Ace I once made the mistake of thinking you were not an extra-terrestrial when you wrote about your experience in a high-end restaurant kitchen. That said, you've got something. I would never venture a guess as to what it is.
Theatre person here. "Roxanne's beloved" was NOT Cyrano! He loved her, but she was fixated on Baron Christian de Neuvillette, even after his death. "Lover of Roxanne" would be a much more accurate clue.
@Sheila Morris Definitely not a theatre person here, but I did watch the Steve Martin movie. Roxanne is only enamored of Chris because of Cyrano's words, whispered in his ear, so technically...
@Sheila Morris Well either way it’s become a timely clue since AI has become a lot of people’s Cyrano!
@Sheila Morris also a theatre person. I was so annoyed by that clue!
A theme entry and a US school abbreviation crossing two US organisation abbreviations was just mean. I gave up on that corner. While I appreciate the theme, this one just had too many names and trivia I wasn’t familiar with to be enjoyable.
@Sonja I'm American and tend to agree. And CARPALS isn't a thing.
Sonja, Which corner (and what theme entry) are you describing?
Kevin, CARPALS *are* a thing.
Are you and your CAR PALS tired of paying “less” for GAS (LOLOL) for your CAN OPENER? Lost your faith in the TRUST BUSTERS? Ready to go back to the DRAWING BOARD? Two letters: E.V. (seriously, love mine.)
@Cat Lady Margaret I second that. My EV drives right by all the gas stations.
So, I've got a weird situation here. I tried solving this after dinner, filled out the grid, and even after double checking and triple checking couldn't find my error. I decided to look at later in the night. My clock time was about 40 minutes at the point. When I went back to the puzzle, the grid was blank. I tried refreshing the tab and closing my browser. Still blank. Came back an hour later and decided to just start from scratch. Actually having to do it all over again helped me easily find my mistake (BATIK/ILIA). But since I already knew all the answers from solving it once, I got a solve time of 10 minutes flat. Which completely skews my PB stats. In other news, STARE is always my Wordle starting word, and I think it was NYE two years ago that I very happily got my only ever 1 with it
@Steven M. I also can't get my finished puzzle to show up right now. It's blank and I'm invited to start over.
@Steven M. I have been getting this on Windows lately sometimes when I just start a puzzle intending to finish it later. I find it better to just switch to a new tab when I want to get out, not go back to Games. I think this is why it only happens sometimes.
@Steven M. I’ve repeatedly had trouble, losing the puzzle or parts of it. Before I close my laptop (NYTimes.com Safari) I’ll open the app on my cell phone, and open the puzzle there. Then close laptop & the data on the puzzle seems to be safe. Fingers crossed!
@Steven M. My starter word for the last few years was SHOAL. Finally got it on the first try a couple months ago. Now I’m having a hard time coming up with a new one. It’s just not the same…
@Steven M. Clearing the puzzle and re-solving it is a technique I frequently use when I'm flyspecking a puzzle for over 5 minutes and am sure I didn't make any mistakes. On Sundays I give myself more time; there's so much space for ERRANCY. Usually it's a typo that I was blind to, once I put in a "zero" [0] instead of an O.
I flew through most of this fairly happily... lots of lucky guesses with the obscure American stuff I don't know. But I really got stuck in the NE, knowing nothing about Queens and thinking the Damn Yankees actor must have been OWEN. Eventually had to run through the alphabet to get a solve, but solve it I did. I have a warm, happy feeling from the Emmylou Harris clue, having been raised listening to the Luxury Liner album on repeat. What a voice she has. Named my beloved cats Pancho and Lefty after her version of it.
Sure, some of the themers were a bit stretched, but overall (and in that same spirit of elasticity): Crossword? MADRESPECT!
I thought this was super fun, and very clever. I enjoyed solving it. It also reminded me of one very wild, and embarrassing weekend I spent at Pismo Beach. Listening to Fleetwood Mac "Tusk" on 8-track. So a really long time ago. Fortunately.
@Margaret, coincidentally, I heard "Tusk" on the radio yesterday, on the 80s channel!
Probably the most enjoyable NYT crossword I've ever done. I just love the wordplay. When I couldn't get the "American" clues with crossers, (yes, quite few) I just looked them up - but I got all the other ones. Not quickly but steadily. But someone whose name is "Crazylegs" also has an "informal" name? Still puzzled: People actually shout ROLL TIDE? Haven't I learnt that TIDE is a US detergent? Pure dead brilliant.
@Jane Wheelaghan Re Crazy Legs. He played for the LA Rams. LA is informal for Los Angeles.
Alabama, in red uniforms, is the Crimson Tide.
@Jane Wheelaghan When at the University of Georgia, I heard "Roll Tide!" all too often. I didn't attend the games but the basement of the Fine Arts building was close to the stadium. You could not escape the roar.
@Jane Wheelaghan I agree. A real pleasure. No gimmicky tricks, just pure wordplay.
I’ll be the first to admit the puzzle defeated me, but the puzzle I did complete wasn’t much fun either. This felt like a chore.
When I saw the caption "Don't expect to fly through this prickly puzzle" I mentally prepared for a slog, but flew through it prickle-less. A nice contrast to yesterday's pricklefest.
Nice puzzle, back to feeling more ept today. At the end, I was wondering how fire and can were related, thinking it was new slang, but then I got it. Like axe or sack, not flame or butt. After yesterday, I went back and did some Saturdays from 2015, and they generally seemed to be about that hard, at least for me.
Oh, and one more puzzle find. This one all in the clues, and I think it was extremely clever. A Monday from August 21, 2017 by Tom McCoy. Some theme clue and answer examples: "Feet in the city? (3 wds.)" URBANLEGENDS "Friendly Communist ghost? (3 wds.)" KINDREDSPIRIT "Slim monarch who gets around fast? (3 wds.)" QUICKTHINKING "Head off to stare at some pictures? (3 wds.)" GOOGLEIMAGES Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/21/2017&g=47&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/21/2017&g=47&d=A</a> ....
@Rich in Atlanta These are so clever! Almost cryptic level.
@Rich in Atlanta WOW! By the time I got the last one, the top of my head was warm, I was thinking so hard. Nicely done.
@Rich in Atlanta I don’t get Urban Legends but I want to
I had CLINCH for "Snag" for far, far, far too long.
Fun (and not overly difficult) Sunday challenge. Just like Saturday's puzzle, the north-west corner troubled me the most- had CLINCH instead of GLITCH for 'Snag' and CADS instead of GADS for 'Roams (About)' for the longest time.
@Rahul My brother! Hand up for CLINCH! Created quite the mess.
Brilliant wordplay on the theme fill - that was fun
Tricky but rewarding theme answers. Took a minute to figure out why 'Can Opener'was the answer but then I got it. DUH. Will be listening to some Emmylou Harris today, for sure . Check out Coat of Many Colors and Boulder to Birmingham. And trio albums with Ronstadt and Parton. Also lending back up to Bright Eyes, Dylan and Young.
@Jeff B MD A true favorite of mine as well.
@Jeff B MD Perhaps spell it out, then? I didn't "get" that CAN OPENER at all--even though it was clearly correct. Neither meaning has come to me.
@Jeff B MD I was trying toworkwith CANAPE for a while. A'starter', right?
Don't quite want to say ITSTINKS, but this one should have gone back to the DRAWINGBOARD. Quite a mix of bad themers and terrible fill, all magnified by the large Sunday grid. Really disliked quite a few things here. Full disclosure---it defeated me. I had entered DERMA and failed to check that an ETAN wasn't a shirt. I guess I just wanted to be done, so didn't scan the whole grid in search of a possible ERRANCY before filling the last box. GALT and GALE was an interesting pairing of surnames, which the editorial team chose not to highlight. Or simply missed. Quite a lot of misses today. (Why was "Ford" included---twice---in "Iconic role for Harrison Ford"?)
Xword Junkie, Did you get up on the wrong side of the Delaware this morning?
@Xword Junkie I was thinking maybe Harrison Ford would be clued again as the iconic hero of "The Fugitive."
@Xword Junkie The double-inclusion of Mr. Ford is a feature of this puzzle, not a bug.
@The X-Phile I believe the OP meant that INDIANA and HAN are first names, so the last name in the repeated clue was asymmetric to the answers.
Love these Games FORA. I DNF'd yesterday's puzzle, just ran out of time to muse over the NW corner. Sounds like many of you had problems with that puzzle. Today's went rather smoothly but I did recognize that there were a lot of Americana bits obscure to our international solvers. TAMMY! My grandmother bought me a Tammy doll, as a more wholesome alternative to curvy adult Barbie. 'Twarnt the same.
Nice to see my Wordle starting word at 53A, which I've used since before that game was acquired by the NYT. It was the correct solution once, but I've continued using it to good effect (1,595 played, 99% win, 288 current streak).
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen your Wordle starting word is MANGINA?
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen I have posted some edgy, visceral and unpopular comments here, but that one is OUT THERE. Ace, you are hereby deemed The Mangina Guy.
A sign of the state we're currently in as opposed to where we could be: I instinctively filled "Blood Vessel" as "Warship" when it should have been "Kinship". I was working bottom to top, so I hadn't gotten to "Warrant" yet. There was a lot of good referential range in this one. The double meaning clues were brain stretchers, with "Padlock" requiring the most elasticity.
Saturday’s was a > 2 hour adventure for me. Somehow being ill blocked my brain. Today I was more circumspect… filled a little, did something else, returned…. back and forth like the guy in Gittes/Nicholson’s joke near the beginning of the film Chinatown. Worked great! It may be that resetting the synapses opens doors of perception.
I’m trying to reserve judgment on this puzzle because I’m vaguely disappointed for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on. Of course, I’m disappointed because we seem to be back to easy mode Sunday, with a well constructed grid but nothing very interesting or challenging in clues or entries outside of the theme. But put that aside, because that’s common enough these days. In the absence of that I guess I’m looking for a very tight consistent theme, which for the most part seems to be: a common phrase with two words, that can be transmuted into a another phrase with two words where the words are tricky double meanings of the first. And the best themers here certainly fit that theme: CHICKEN SANDWICH, DRAWING BOARD, PENNAMES. But then you have other themers where the double meanings are just parts of words without additional meanings: WARRANT, MATTRESS, which are clever but not as hard to find. Then there’s RAIN DELAY where “shower” means essentially the same thing in both phrases. So, maybe I’m just being overly PEDANTIC (child doctor’s trick to make his patient smile?) but I would have loved to see more of the former themers (or am I asking too much?) Especially from such a salty crossword descendant (well, SEASONed, at least) like Derrick Niederman who’s quite an Achilles’ heel in these parts (LEGEND). So maybe I’ll shut up and appreciate the perfectly fine theme that we did get.
@SP I relate. I resisted CARPALS for that reason right up to the end - looked up several crosses to be sure.
@SP MATTRESS I got all on crosses. WARRANT I actually entered from the clue, with the NT in place, but I wasn’t sure of it, since it didn’t really fit with the first three themers.
@SP I mean, it's a little unfair to the constructor to come up with a specific description of the theme (e.g. "in two words") that doesn't fit all the themers, and then complain because it didn't fit all the themers :) I would describe the theme as taking a common word/phrase that can be split into two individual words, each of which is replaced with a synonym such that the two synonyms also form a common word/phrase. That allows for both phrase-to-phrase (DRAWING BOARD) and phrase-to-word (WARRANT).
@SP Was there even a theme? I mean, punny clues are an American crossword staple, and having a number of them in a single puzzle is nothing special. Sure, you can italicize their clues and call it a theme, but still... (Also the fill defeated me, so this was far from easy mode, for me)
@SP “Of course, I’m disappointed because we seem to be back to easy mode Sunday, with a well constructed grid but nothing very interesting or challenging in clues or entries outside of the theme.” Spoken like a person who did not just spend the last 20 minutes staring suspiciously at DERMO/ETON, GALE/SCHLUMPS, and ILIA/CASSALT…only to eventually do a thorough flyspecking pass, at which point I quickly realized I had WHiP instead of WHUP. Anyway, personal misadventures aside, I agree with you that there was “nothing very interesting or challenging in clues or entries outside of the theme”…but I must say I did find the theme perfectly cromulent for a Sunday pun-day.
@SP In defense of RAIN DELAY, it seems to me that a "shower" in your bathroom is different from a shower from the heavens.
@SP Yea, to everyone who disagreed with me about “easy mode Sunday”, I guess I jumped the gun on that one. I must have been in this constructor’s wheelhouse because I just flew through it, like a GALE in Kansas, but apparently that was just me today. And, in case you didn’t drill down to my last comment to Isabeau, I appreciate everyone’s counterpoints to mine and I think they are valid; not sure why I was put off but on reflection it is a very clever theme and well executed, and I should have been more positive.
Not a fan of today's puzzle. Some of the double meaning clues just felt like huge reaches. And most of the clues were less 'Aha' and more 'Oh, ok'. Just so many proper names, foreign language concepts, awkward spellings and shortenings of things, often all groups together in the same region. Maybe my least favorite puzzle in the last few weeks.
@Chris Is it possible you really didn’t fully understand the theme? Maybe that’s why the pairs seemed like long reaches to you. The complete clues aren’t supposed to be synonymous with the complete answers. For example, [Lottery commission?] isn’t supposed to be synonymous with DRAWING BOARD. “Lottery” is synonymous with “drawing,” and “commission” with “board.” Once I got the trick, every one of the themers seemed perfectly fine to me.
@Chris Don't know if anyone will read the comments this far back, but I just want to express appreciation for the way you described what you didn't like about the puzzle. And also express appreciation for Steve L's reply. I really enjoy these kinds of exchanges.
Most of this puzzle flew by in a twinkling, but I really got stumped in the NW, where I just blanked in a few critical spots. I had CLINCH at 1A (quite the mess!) and then POKIBOWL at 20A, in addition to blanking on the Ayn Rand character. (I could never get past the first few pages of her writings.) I still don't "get" 38A's second meaning, even though I've had to see a hand surgeon in regard to my CARPAL tunnel issues... I also really, really hoped for a VAQUERO at 60A. And then SCHLUMPS....hmmm STONE, yes; TILE, yes. Not both as a name for the patio surface. (We just had concrete poured, and voila!) BATIKs make me smile. I'm about to quilt a piece I made in 1977. It will be a wall-hanging. It's best not to rush these things...
@Mean Old Lady Mates in an auto. Pals in a car. Hope that helps. ....
@Mean Old Lady a tile floor consists of individually cut pieces laid in a pattern to form a surface. Stone is just one of the types of material that is used in outdoor floor tiles, along with cement and porcelain.
116A had me for a while. I had PLANTMISTERS for way too long. As in, if you’re running a con you have a person working as a PLANT, and men are MISTERS. Never heard of a TRUSTBUSTER before but things came together once I figured out my error.
@Kelsey more Americana, anyone who learned about Theodore Roosevelt in US history in high school has heard the phrase.
I had STagE for [It’s a wrap,] then STiLE, before STOLE made me laugh out loud. Excellent clue.
Great puzzle!! I tried to list a few of my favorite themers, but so many are great! Maybe CHICKEN SANDWICH because of the aha moment... or RAIN DELAY, or WAR RANT... KINSHIP because I just knew [Blood] would solve to a relative of some sort but even with the I, I couldn't see past sIs, haha. HOT FOOT was the hardest, because KITED. So many many other great clues! Loved the LION pair. Didn't fully love the [Harrison] pair, because my brain wouldn't stop taunting me with that clue-answer parity thing. (You know, the answers are only given names but the clues are the full name.) But really I loved that here were two more words with other (proper noun) meanings when stood on their own! HAN Chinese and the state of INDIANA... And boy did I get DOOKed by 40D. Last one to fall! Sure, there were a bunch of itty-bitty fill, but almost none of it bothered me. Just soft, gentle wordplay and fun little twisters like the [Kansas] one. ONE-TIME and ONE ARM. GADS and GAPE. That LaGuardia clue-!! WOWIE, what fun! Thanks, Derrick!!