cool theme, but too hard for a tuesday. ive never heard of TCBY, SERE, or another name for a sailor being TAR? maybe i'm too young but some of these answers mean absolutely nothing to me
@fiona Give it a few more crossword months and these will be second nature to you
@fiona. I also thought it was too hard for a Tuesday puzzle. And I’ve been doing these puzzles for a long time.
@fiona me too! i’ve been doing crosswords for about 7 months now and sometimes I’m so frustrated because so many cultural references are so before my time! and i can’t memorize them all! so it ends up like this crossword, where i get everything except 3ish naticks and it breaks a Tuesday streak.
@fiona I do not like TCBY even though it’s always a gimme. I think it’s better to leave the whole category of “mostly failed chains” alone…I will accept Blockbuster for the nostalgia.
@fiona If you have the time, do other puzzles every day, as well as the NYT’s. The words that are frequently used in crosswords will become your “gimmes” quickly. Good old AER Lingus, EDYS, and EGAD!
@fiona Sailors wore coats sealed with TAR to make them waterproof, hence the name Jack TAR.
I'm on fire. Two in a row! A streak! But I've never heard of a "gut course".
@Francis Seems like Anatomy 101 from Med School if you ask me.
@Francis Or maybe kishke as part of a meal, like my grandmother used to make? (Look it up)
@Francis Me neither. I've just checked the etymology online and apparently nobody really has a clue how that siIIy term emerged. There are several alternative theories. I would not have been able to complete this puzzle without remembering some stuff I have learned from previous puzzles, which sadly (I say this as an anti-capitalist) includes at least two brands...
@Francis first documented in a Yale newspaper in I think 1908. We used it at my college in the 80s. The classic gut was a geology class known as Rocks for Jocks.
@Francis The use of “gut” to describe an easy course was very prominent during the 70’s, when I was at university. At mine, the gut course to satisfy the science requirement was “Football Physics”. I was an English major and got an A
Quick one today, to reach my 1600 day streak...I'll drink to that! Cheers!
Most of the puzzle was pretty easy, especially figuring out the theme so early. But there were a handful of clues that took me from solving in under ten minutes to nearly fifteen. ENNEADS crossed with SERE was pure Natick for me, and then BOHO.
Don’t usually mind puzzles that are more of a challenge, but I think there were too many proper nouns and names in this one. CASS, IOWAN, CAINE, TCBY, CAPE ANN, NIGER, FIDO, CCCP, AER, SUE, UCLA, FEY, ARI, TBS, OWEN, THE DUDE, LECTER, EDYS, GINNIE. While I did know most of these (and enjoyed quite a few), there were a couple that I’d never heard of (I was stuck on CASS, CCCP, TBS and TCBY in the end), and it’s always less satisfying when you have to guess answers to get the star.
@Billy - The puzzle skewed older than you are. Cass and CCCP were gimmes for many of us Boomers and up.
@Billy I don't think place names are in the same league as people / companies in terms of the old "too many proper nouns" complaint, especially names of countries / states / major cities. Yeah, CAPE ANN probably falls in the category of special knowledge, but I got that one from the crosses.
I don’t love the clue for “PENTATONIC SCALE”. I can see how it “progresses” but the term progression in music usually refers to a sequence of chords changes like a 2-5-1.
@Selective Walrus was thinking the same thing. My music theory mind way overthinks any of the hints relating to music
@Selective Walrus And then there's me, who's never heard of a PENTATONIC SCALE, and who has no idea what 2-5-1 refers to 🤣
@Selective Walrus Perhaps "sequence" would be more accurate? But, with the answer containing SCALE, it's a toss up. And... 2-5-1... nice! Bill will be proud of your taste in music. I play primarily the ever-popular 1-4-5 progression.
@Selective Walrus Agree! This is an error. A pentatonic scale is a scale, not a progression. A progression is something like a I-IV-V or a II-V-I chord progression.
It puts the lotion in the basket
@Ιασων This aggression will not stand, man.
@Ιασων I'm having an old friend for dinner.
MAKEMINEADOUBLE (Drink request appropriate for this puzzle?), also 15 letters, was my immediate guess for the revealer—it would have been fun to find a three drink example for this one so someone could go past the minimum! I thought this was fairly chewy for a Tuesday—not hard per se but had a lot of sparkling entries (even though no ASTI included), and I jumped around a bit more than my average Tuesday. No one told me geography was going to be a heavy requirement today. Thanks Brad—my thirst for a fun Tuesday was sated.
@SP Another gin crosses the wine of 47A - is that a three drink example? (Including the double gin, or the rye in 60A, also makes an ENNEAD)
Just the other day, having dinner and wine with friends, we toasted quite a few times whilst covering a range of whatever "cheers" we could think of: Salud! Prost! Saúde! Cin-Cin! Skål! L'Chaim! If you're wondering who does that, with an eye roll, I'm pleased to tell you: Those who have already passed the TWO DRINK MINIMUM, and resort to the silliest things to have fun. But for those who'll be enjoying a *grown-up* dinner with wine tonight, with a TWO DRINK MaxiMUM, here is Mama CASS to set the mood: <a href="https://youtu.be/v8I5vDewcZo?si=4sG_-Xzc6YyaDa3O" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/v8I5vDewcZo?si=4sG_-Xzc6YyaDa3O</a> For me this was bit of a tough Tuesday puzzle, which usually means that the fill is varied and rich. Not only did that make it terrific, it also allowed me to be smugly proud to have thought of NIGER with no crosses. (Especially after not being able to think of the simplest DIET for [What you eat], only "food" or "junk," and having CAPE Cod before CAPE ANN, and SOLO act before SOLOIST, just to name a few foibles.) Thank you, Mr. Wiegmann. I hope we'll see you back soon with a Saturday so we can toast to you hitting the cycle. Here's rooting for you!
@sotto voce We had the same foibles! And now I don’t feel so bad.
@sotto voce Hey there! Fun post, thank you! Salud to my emu friends?
@sotto voce Thanks for the Mama Cass "Dream a Little Dream of Me" link. Her sultry, soothing voice made my afternoon!
@sotto voce Sláinte! (I’ve been watching a lot of Irish-themed Netflix shows!)
Hmmm. Radar was an Iowan, but I'm pretty sure Hawkeye was from Maine.
@patk It’s funny, I thought of M*A*S*H, too, but I think it’s a reference to Iowan Hawkeyes (mascot for U of Iowa).
@patk I'm glad someone else was confused by that! I am just now realizing that "Hawkeye" is the mascot of the University of Iowa.
@patk Hawkeye is a nickname for someone from Iowa, the Hawkeye State. (Family brag, Radar is my 2nd cousin!)
@patk Iowa’s nickname is The Hawkeye State. But I admit, I thought of Mr. Pierce first, too.
@patk So, I guess I’m the only one who first thinks of James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales when I see the term Hawkeye. What one reads at a young age tends to remain with you.
@Mark Smith Indeed, the Leatherstocking Tales appear to be the origin of the nickname. In "The Prairie," an aging Natty Bumppo heads west, because the East is getting too crowded and civilized. Nebraskans felt the same way.
@patk am I the only one whose first thought was of the lamest Avenger? Also, am I the only one who realized that this was a tongue-in-cheek comment? I’m also a big fan of M*A*S*H, and of course both Benjamin Franklin Pierce and Clint Barton got their nicknames from the character in The Last of the Mohicans. And google tells me that the Iowan nickname (adopted in 1838, before Iowa was even a state) was to honor Chief Black Hawk, but also inspired by The Last of the Mohicans (published 12 years prior). So it all comes back to James Fenimore Cooper. 🤓
Maybe the editors and columnist should have realized after writing up fourteen “tricky clues” that this was ill-suited for a Tuesday. Just a thought.
@D Seemed fine to me. Timed right between Tuesday best and average. Seems to me that the clues mentioned in the column aren't always the 'tricky' ones--despite the heading-- but rather just clues the columnist feels like mentioning.
For 'what you eat,' I had 'dirt' filled in for a while. I was thinking a phrasing like 'what to eat if accepting blame' would have been nicer 😅
@CB, My grandma used to say something to the effect of “everyone eats a peck of dirt in their lifetime”. In her case, it was more practical than philosophical - she might have just tumbled the biscuits onto the floor (but she still expected us to eat them!) But a more recent reference (maybe a puzzle last week?) had me leaning toward DIET.
(second try) Random thoughts: • I wonder why they used rectangles to highlight the drinks rather than circles. • Could have left the rectangles out altogether, actually, and made this a Wednesday. • I wish NIGER could have been TIGER. Then, with the previous answer, we would have had “EASY, TIGER!” • Very nice touch by Brad – none of the drinks are stand-alone, as, say, the last four letters of “choCOLAte MILK” are. This made the theme answers far more interesting. • As did their pop. Four are NYT debuts. • No only did Brad find five theme answers that hid two drinks, but they also fit symmetry. Wow! • Lovely theme echo in RYES, and lovely to see BASS close to ALE. My brain loved guessing at the revealer, on top of all this other fun. A spry springboard to the day – thanks, Brad!
@Lewis, thanks, and now you've met your two post minimum.
@Lewis Rectangles instead of circles because CHAI and RUM were adjacent?
@grant -- Oh, excellent thought! Sounds right!
I left the theme entries alone until I could [tea]se out the rules and [match a]nswers to said rule; but as this was a Tuesday puzzle, the theme was an "admire after the fact" more than "required for solving / understanding the answers". Fun, with good Tuesday clues. And not only is ENNEAD familiar to Spelling [Bee r]espondents (really just players but I couldn't resist), I just realized that's why enneagram is called that. Cheers.
Not a Tuesday as far as I'm concerned. Americans may have found it easier as the TCBS and TBY and CAPEANN with GINNIE were unknowns to me. (although the latter was guessable if I had had all the other letters. which I didn't as "TOWAWAY" and "COWPOSE" were equally obscure to me.
@Peter TOWAWAY zones are sometimes marked as such to give you fair warning that you REALLY REALLY do not want to park there. When we lived in Chicago there was a song about the Lincoln Park Pirates, a notorious towing company. I don't remember much but the chorus started with "Weigh, heigh, tow them away...."
@Peter I learned TOWAWAY Zone from a song about street signs, on "The Electric Company," which was a kid's show. Not sure what I was supposed to do with that knowledge. "Jane Street, Jones Street, Park Avenue..."
I’ve been playing for about a year now, thanks to my wonderful American in-laws who generously gift me a yearly NYT subscription. I thought I finally had the main American terms down pat, only to be humbled by today’s puzzle. I’ve never seen a TCYB before (though I just learnt there is indeed one in my city) and thought maybe Fannie and Freddie were the names of realtors in a movie or TV show! Went down a bit of a rabbit hole learning about GSEs as we don’t have a real equivalent here in Canada. Fascinating stuff (for this Canuck!)
too much trivia! Never have I had to look up so many answers because I was stuck both ways. If you need that much trivia to fill your grid...
@Monday Some of the clues were sly, but most of this was either common knowledge, or gettable via the crossings, in my opinion... DeKalb County School District was big on testing students back in my day, and the 8th grade Homeroom teacher who had to administer one of the standardized tests did not know how to pronounce SERE in a sentence-completion test item. I remember thinking how glad I was I didn't have her for English. (I was behind enough as it was after Kg-7th grades in DoD schools and an overcrowded elementary public school. ) People do complain nowadays that schools lack the rigor that was experienced in the 50-60's...
As a CHAIR UMPIRE I officiated at Wimbledon from 1961-1986. I officiated the now-infamous McEnroe/Gullikson match in which McEnroe removed his pants and did “the worm” for thirty-six minutes on the grass court. Tennis has changed considerably since those days, some would argue for the better.
@Ace I have no idea if this is true, but I hope that it is!
@Ace 36 minutes doing “the worm” might tend to wear one down — even on a grass court! (Thank goodness it wasn’t hard court!)
ENNEADS / SERE / AER was a little much for me!
@max AER is a bit of crosswordese that shows up regularly. I also got SERE quickly -- I think it's pretty common in puzzles, too.
"Buffalo Bill" (aka Jaime Gumb) is the villain in The Silence of the Lambs, not Hannibal Lecter.
@Senex Sr. AFI would disagree <a href="https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-heroes-villians" target="_blank">https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-heroes-villians</a>/ Villains 1. Dr. Hannibal Lecter The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
@Senex Sr. Anyways it doesn’t say THE villain; but I’d say someone who (SPOILER ALERT) kills two guards and then wears one of their faces to escape counts as a villain, no?
@Senex Sr. I agree. Being hungry isn't a crime.
@Senex Sr. So....there were TWO villains. My problem was coming up with HECTOR ...which confusion did not last long, but tsk on me..... LECTER was playing with the FBI agent--trading what he knew for personal information about her life. That was villainous... and then of course the kidnapper/murderer was even worse because he was NOT locked up...
@Nikita 1939 produced a great many fine movies. From Wikipedia: The ten films nominated for Best Picture at the 12th Academy Awards—Dark Victory, Gone with the Wind, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Love Affair, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, and Wuthering Heights—range in genre and are considered classics. I suspect that many would say "the defining film of 1939" was Gone With The Wind considering the state of the Union at the time.
@Al in Pittsburgh That's quite a roster of amazing films all in one year. I wonder what the state of the union was at that time that caused so many now-classic films to appear all at once. I'd say "The Wizard of Oz" is right up there as a defining film. It has been transmogrified through numerous iterations up until now! I believe it is still shown on TV every holiday season--unlike "Gone with the Wind" which you have to look around to find, I think. A bit off topic maybe but here's a fascinating modern film based on a true story: "Lion." <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741834" target="_blank">https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741834</a>/
@Al in Pittsburgh And Victor Fleming directed both Gone With the Wind and Wizard of Oz which is a life achievement resume for any director right there. There is a wonderful play, “Moonlight and Magnolias” which makes the community theater rounds regularly about how David O Selznick pulled him off The Wizard of Oz towards the end to get in a room with him and scriptwriter Ben Hecht for two weeks to brainstorm how to save GWTW. Try to find it if you can; it was never adapted to a movie.
@Al in Pittsburgh it's a crazy good year when ten films are nominated for best film and The Women isn't one of them.
Sometimes constructors seem jaded and cook up puzzles that are less crosswords than conundrums. When I first looked at the empty grid I thought we might be in for one of those, but this one was just fine. Words were the key and I'll drink to that.
Great theme, well executed! Make mine a double! However: I take umbrage at CCCP because those are Cyrillic letters, and the English transliteration would be SSSR. I also harrumph somewhat at LOOS because “heads” is not so much British English as nautical language. The “heads” are the loos on a ship, just as the kitchen is the “galley”. What do American sailors call the ablutions on USS Gerald R. Ford? I stoutly resist the TCBY/TBS cross as suitable Tuesday fodder! I confess with some embarrassment that i got stuck on Denali because i thought it was Diwali, and the best abbreviation i could think of was MTH. However, i smugly appreciate SERE, because i know my Macbeth, who laments: “My way of life Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf”
@Petrol I get the compaint about CCCP, even if the answer was an instant gimme and I had no personal nit to pick with the clue. It would have been better to clue CCCP as the Russian, rather than Cyrillic, version of USSR, since that implies a different language rather than just a different alphabet. The "head" thing is a perfect example how American crosswords sacrifice accuracy for a bit of flair and misdirection. Again, I get your complaint, but that's just how things work around here.
@Petrol I know a lot of people who were in the US Navy that refer to any toilet anywhere as the “head,” regardless of whether it is on land, ship, or airplane. This has been appropriated by non-Navy people, as well, so I had no quarrel with the clue.
@Petrol You may take all the umbrage you want, as it’s one of the few things left in life that are still free and abundant, but it would be more practical to take note, as CCCP has occurred numerous times as if they were Roman letters, and this is not likely to change any time soon.
@Petrol I know many Americans who served in the navy who call it the head. No complaint.
A very strong Tuesday puzzle, I think. The revealer is absolutely inspired -- I did fill it in based on just TW-D and nothing else. And finding those embedded drinks in such interesting and diverse answers as PENTATONIC SCALE, CHAIR UMPIRE and TWIN ENGINES is a real coup. TEAM SPORT is somewhat less exciting, but it rounds out the symmetry. Do you know how hard it is to come up with this sort of theme and make it symmetrical too? A really good job! I had a problem today that I'm sure was unique to me -- one that could not have happened to someone who solves online or who has better vision than I do (a low bar). I had the "L" from LECTER filled in on the 42 square -- making the 42 look like a 47. And so I had LO-S for the (I thought) clue: "Matching pair on many jets." What on earth could that be?? When LOOS eventually came in -- there was no avoiding it -- I cried "Foul!" Unless it's British Airways, why would you call them LOOS? And do they actually "match"? But I had the wrong clue for LOOS. There's a Hogwarts one I didn't see. And TWIN ENGINES is the answer to the matching jets pair. Whew! This, I'm sure, must have caused me extra solving time for no good reason. Isn't it lucky that I pay absolutely no attention to such a thing as solving time?
@Nancy I always appreciate your constructor's eye comments. They help me look at the puzzle in a different way.
ENNEADS x SERE LECTER x CAPEANN x EDYS x GINNIE x NIGER x GESTE ....?!?!
Yep. Words crossing words. That's the name of the game.
Having grown up in a town right beside Manchester-by-the-Sea, I was delighted to see Cape Ann in this puzzle! Once simply Manchester, the town changed its name officially while I was in high school. My father, in between bouts of rolling his eyes, threatened to start a petition to rename our town "Hamilton-by-the-Dump" in recognition of the lovely landfill that sat right on the border of our illustrious communities.
I knew it was wrong, but I badly wanted 29A to be tuna, as in "You can tune a piano but you can't tuna fish".
@Michelle Botwinick My first thought to your quote was Joe Walsh album, but I had to cheat to see it's R.E.O.
@Michelle Botwinick my husband is vindicated! His first thought was TUNA too 😊
What a fun Tuesday puzzle! For me it was a bit crunchy but not as frustrating as the two weekend puzzles were. There were some clever misdirections that led me astray and a few times I thought I was done and would hear the happy music, but then had to go looking for my mistake. Lately I've been rereading all the Harry Potter books so I was delighted to see the Hogwarts clue. But that was my final mistake in need of correcting--as I had also put in hECTOR in place of LECTER--so for a long time I had hOOd in place of LOOS. Thanks for the fun and challenge, Brad Wiegmann. And thank you also Nikita Richardson, for a delightful column. Right now I'm watching a beautiful plump California quail in the back yard looking for bugs and the nuts and seeds I put out for all the birds everyday. And I've learned to make peace with all the squirrels, foxes, and deer who sometimes share in the bounty. All God's Critters Got a Place in the Choir ;-)
Bit on the slow side for a Tuesday for me, but just had a good time working things out from the crosses. And... was almost done before I caught on to the theme trick. Nice 'aha' moment. And, of course a puzzle find. I'm sure I did this one but of course had completely forgotten. Anyway... a Wednesday from June 26, 2024 by Rebecca Goldstein. First three theme clues and answers: "*Jesus." SEAOFGALILEE "*Dorothy Gale." YELLOWBRICKROAD "*Neil Armstrong." TRANQUILITYBASE And the 'reveal.' "Memorable ad-lib in "Midnight Cowboy"... or what the starred clues would say about their answers." IMWALKINHERE Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/26/2024&g=24&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/26/2024&g=24&d=A</a> ....
@Rich in Atlanta Great "Find"!!
Wow, I was astounded to read all the comments and see that almost everyone thought this puzzle was hard. First, I kept filling in answer after answer that was pure crosswordese. ACNE, SMORE, SERE, GESTE, ENNEAD, and many others that I learned from crosswords. Maybe it's because I've been doing them since before many here were born. But because of that, it made it somewhat boring. Once the first two themers were deduced, the rest were easy to see, at least for me. Second, unlike yesterday's, the theme answers were outlined, adding to the lack of difficulty. That would have been more fitting for the previous day's puzzle. Yes, there were a couple of answers that were a little thorny, e.g. CHAIR UMPIRE, which I've never seen before, and PENTATONIC SCALE, which I have heard of but didn't easily come to mind. I did like the revealer a lot, but overall, the puzzle was just meh. As Deb would say, YMMV. And apparently, mine did.
@Times Rita Most people found it hard. 🌎 Global Stats Difficulty Very Hard Median Solve Time 7:56 Median Solver 13% slower ⚡26% of users solved faster than their Tuesday average. 7% solved much faster (>20%) than their Tuesday average. 🐢74% of users solved slower than their Tuesday average. 40% solved much slower (>20%) than their Tuesday average. It took me 25.7% longer than my Tues. average, but I was doing it while watching a ballgame. It didn't seem hard to me, but experienced solvers often have different experiences compared to newer ones. Note that about one quarter of all solvers solved faster than their Tues. average.
@Times Rita If you really only learned about s'mores from crossword puzzles, and not as a child sitting around a campfire, I pity you. OTOH, If you reached puzzle-solving age oblivious to acne, consider yourself lucky! In any case, Yes, my mileage was similar to yours. As PENTATONIC SCALE and ENNEADS began to appear from the crosses, I though--"really? on a Tuesday?" And "sere" is a word I use regularly in conversation, especially around late November.
@Times Rita I agree! Over Too Soon, for sure. I did not know TETRIS, wanted ICEcapade, liked the Venn diagram clue! Kinda cute that KGS was next to MET; we're never going to convert to METric, not after we suffered to memorize the Libbies and the Ozzes and all the rest!!
I call no fair on the crossing of 36A and 33D for us overseas solvers! Running the alphabet added a few minutes on my solve time. Other than that, a fun grid. The boxes made the theme standout, happy to see GIN and TEA in there.
@Helen Wright I have just started scrolling here because I'm stuck on that crossing letter (I'm Canadian but born in the US)
@Helen Wright We just had TCBY last week...this is the 11th time this decade. At some point, you just have to absorb it, even if you've never seen one. (A lot of Americans have never seen one, either; they're not as ubiquitous as Mickey D's or Fourbucks.) To help, remember for next time that it stands for "The Country's Best Yogurt."
I'll be honest, this wasn't a good fit for a Tuesday puzzle. Would have been perfect for Thursday.
@Rebecca I don't think the theme was tricky enough for a Thursday. Without the revealer and the marked squares, you could have just solved it normally without noticing that there was a theme.
Oof, as a Brit the frozen dessert and Atlanta network cross was brutal. Plus TOWAWAY zone isn't something I'm familiiar with, although guessable. Plus plus I don't instinctively see Harry Potter as "British" in a clue, so the possible mitigation there didn't come through for me. My absolute nightmare is the clue "Sch. whose campus is just off Interstate 405" ... Almost as impenetrable as the "Dir. from Topeka to Chattanooga" kind! I'm really trying to learn American stuff, so I'm not complaining, just whinging a bit :) Got there in the end, and the theme was very nicely done. Cheers Brad!
@Alex This is probably more information than you want, but it may help with future interstate highway related clues. Interstate highways in the US are named with odd-numbered routes going north and south, and even-numbered routes going east and west. In addition, the major routes are usually divisible by 5. The north-south routes are numbered from I-5 on the west coast to I-95 on the east coast, and east-west routes are numbered from I-10 across the south to I-90 across the north. All of those primary routes have 2-digit numbers. If a third digit is prefixed to the route number, it designates a spur into a city (odd digit) or a beltway around an urban area (even digit). Knowing the numbering system can help you decipher the clue, even if you don't know exactly where the highway is. "Sch. whose campus is just off Interstate 405" -- I-5 is in the west, and I-405 must be a beltway around a large urban area. Los Angeles would be a good bet. And since the answer has 4 letters, try UCLA.
@dlr Funny, I was just reading something about Route 666, which runs north/south through the Four Corners region. They re-designated it as Route 491, but the locals still call it "The Devil's Highway."
@Alex Harry Potter the series is not exclusively British; but the clue references Hogwarts, which is.
@Alex Constructors need answers with many vowels, hence the frequency of Oreo. UCLA is half vowels, so we see it often. It’s helpful to think about what useful crossword classic might be described by an obscure clue, in my experience; never been to Los Angeles myself, so I405 means nothing to me, but with the L from FLAG (semaphore clue) UCLA was +90% likely.
I've was familiar with several USA clues from this forum, which helped today. We've had discussion about TCBY (last week?), and EDDYS, and I've learnt about SMORE's, ENNEAD, gorp, CPA's, TOW AWAY. I was sure the tumbling blocks must be jengas. SOLOIST is great! I need a bit of help (eg GINNIE) but despite the names, I found this very enjoyable. SOUPS ON has no connection to soupçon, which is a pity.
@Jane Wheelaghan Yes, TCBY was in last Wednesday's puzzle, which apparently many people forgot. I assume that EDDYS is a typo for EDYS.
impecCABle cheWINEss. That’s how I would describe this puzzle, and it has nothing at all to do with my own two drink minimum. I swear. I was ultimately done in by the unknown cross of S_RE and ENN_ADS. I tried every vowel, but none of them worked. Turns out, I had also misplaced a letter elsewhere. D’oh! I might need a little mocha… or maybe just a little mo’ chablis.
Just had to look up the gender agreement for amie. Exceptions to French language rules creating additional complexity for this overthinker…
@Phil Yeah this bugged me more than it likely should have. Isn't it a clear error?
@Phil Yeah, that French--it's a atrociously complex language!
@Phil I meant to conclude with a good-natured smiley, but hit "submit" too fast--so here it is: :-)
@Phil. It might be an exception, but one that I had no trouble remembering sixty years after I learnt about what happens when words begin with a vowel
SMORES were never worth the mess; what about hand pies? Baked apples? Who needs desserts? Oh, the puzzle. I seem to recall this constructor's name. Say, Brad: What if there were no boxes, and we had to do the word-search after the solve? Two for one! Fun! The heat, the humidity, and the mosquitos are back here in MizSippy, and I got a dose of all three this morning, filling our vacationing neighbors' bird feeders. Mrs. Mallard with 6 half-grown ducklings was willing to come close, so I stayed to fend off the pushy drakes who wanted the largess for themselves. My reward was an impressive splotch where a skeeter apparently camped out; *I* was dinner and dessert.
@Mean Old Lady Send a ray of heat over the Pond please. The wedding day on Saturday is looking more and more damp. And it’s all outside after the Abbey ceremony. Crossing everything for a dry day.
@Mean Old "Who needs desserts?" Whaaaaaaa? (S'mores are only messy if one attempts to prepare them indoors--and why? Outdoors, nothing a little creek water and Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap can't solve.)
@Mean Old Lady I agree on SMORES! I don't like half-melted chocolate.
@Mean Old Lady We’re in mandatory water restrictions here in my part of NC. “Hand watering” is OK, but yesterday the “skeeters” were thick enough to take the hose from my hand. Despite the temp and humidity, I was in long sleeves and trousers, and they still found exposed areas to feast upon. Oh, yeah - enjoyed the puzzle as well.
@Mean Old Lady Frost warnings in northern Minnesota.
A bit slyer than the average Tuesday. I like that.
Definitely a little much for a Tuesday as much as seasoned vets on here will tell you otherwise. A little reliant on proper nouns, and some odd clueing. Not a great puzzle imo
I didn't fall for the overeducated=overthinkinh trap today. 42A, Heads of Hogwarts? Hogwarts has four houses, each with their head. McGonagall (Gryffindor), Snape (Slytherin), Flitwick (Ravenclaw), and Pomphrey (Hufflepuff). But then there's that pesky question mark. So what else can a head mean? A bathroom (which actually forms a major plot point in three of the seven books). And what would a head be called in Britain. A LOO, of course
@Steven M. First thing that came to my mind was OWL 🙄
@Steven M. Hogwarts, like all public schools, also has a head boy. He is not responsible for cleaning the toilets.
Just goes to show that with some creativity you can make a crossword out of any phrase. TWO DRINK MINIMUM…who would have thought!
Saturday: “Victor over Washington on 11/12/1955 in "Back to the Future, Pt. II" — and in real life” Monday: “West Coast sch. that joined the Big Ten in 2024” Tuesday “Sch. whose campus is just off Interstate 405” We sure are learning a lot about UCLA.
@Don H It is, after all, in the top ennead of public unis.
Another very nice Monday puzzle. When the clues aren't hard, and the theme gives you a third check on so many letters, it's hard to go wrong. It was fun. Thanks, Brad.
@Barry Ancona Oh, c'mon! I thought this was actually pretty hard for Tuesday, and judging by the comments I was not the only one to get that impression.
Andrzej, Yes, it seems most people did find this on the hard side, despite the theme giving them an extra shot at solving. <a href="https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2026-05-19" target="_blank">https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2026-05-19</a>
@Barry Ancona If the editors had taken out the boxes for the drinks, this could have been a decent Wednesday, where you don't see the theme until you solve the revealer, and you get a nice "A-ha!" moment.
@Barry Ancona I did solve without overlays (as usual), but even after completing the puzzle I was stumped about the theme. When I turned overlays on it became obvious. My solve without overlays was a wee bit slower than my Tuesday average.
Whew. That was TRICKY for a Tuesday. I struggled with the NW corner but somehow still finished faster than average with no lookups. Clever one and figuring out the theme really helped.
I agree with some of the comments. This puzzle theme was easy, but the cluing was awkward, making it more like a Wednesday or Thursday puzzle. The mismatch made it a little annoying to solve.
SW corner was killer with all the nouns. And I can never remember the ice cream brand because we don’t have it here. Finally got it but not so fun. And I don’t drink. But I got there. Not inappropriate for a Tuesday just inappropriate for me.
@Crevecoeur You'll never find TCBY clued as an ice cream brand. The Y stands for yogurt (originally, This Can't Be Yogurt; later The Country's Best Yogurt, due to a copyright issue). They once had a much bigger footprint, but they've retrenched a good bit in the past few years. I was scouring the grid for EDY'S because of your comment.
I was amused to see BASS in the vicinity of ALE. I didn't find this a Toughened Up Tuesday, but generally consider them compensation for easier Thursday and Friday cluing.
Well, today, it’s probably about tennis. (22A)
Agree. In volleyball, they stand on the stand.