This is the first NYT crossword I have been able to do without needing to check my work! Progress.
@Georgia The first time is something you always remember. The first crossword I did was in a newspaper. I cut it out and wrote "I did it!" on it. Then the next day, when the answer was published, I found I had a mistake.
@Georgia Good on ya, mate! (Is that New Zealandish, too, or just Australian...?)
@Georgia, I had every letter but one correct but couldn't spot the mistake. Turns out I had REED and DIMED but it should've been REES and DIMES. Oh, the agony! : ) Oh, well, there is always tomorrow
A few laudatory notes re the theme. It’s original. That revealer? That gorgeous THIS WON’T END WELL? It’s hard to believe but true that it has never appeared before in any of the major outlets. High props to Rebecca for fixing that! Its punchline perfectly caps its set-up. Not only does WELL superbly follow RAW, RARE, and MEDIUM, but the revealer also superbly puns on “ending well”. Brava! It vibrates with spark. Just look at those theme answers – RUBS RAW, EXCEEDINGLY RARE, HAPPY MEDIUM, and THIS WON’T END WELL. Bam, bam, bam, bam! Rebecca not only nailed the theme, but, intentionally or not, surrounded it with echoes: • Food echoes: SALAD, WOK, penne ALLA vodka, EDYS. • Sparky answer echoes: BLEEP, BOINK, BLOB, SPRAWL, I MEAN C’MON. This was, for me, not only fun to fill, but a tour of beauty in the box. A high-quality outing through a high-quality creation. Thank you, Rebecca!
If you don't want my porterhouse, that'd be a missed steak. (Maybe just try it? I'll filet bit better.)
@Mike Sizzling first lines of your meat cute.
@Mike A choice pun, I'd say. (I've heard you initial your BBQ with a roast tattoo.)
@Mike As usual, you ribeye respond. I thought about starting a new thread, but didn't want to brisket.
Reminds me of a good one… Where do over-explainers get their water? From a Well, actually…
Well done, Rebecca!
Do REES and REECE say US TOO, or do they RECEDE?
@BA Hi Barry! I know you do the NYer's Monday puzzle every week, as do I, although usually not until Monday evening, or Tuesday or Wednesday. I, too, found this week's, by Patrick Berry to be particularly enjoyable, especially the fun parallelism between 17A and 52A (do you remember it, without looking it up?) No comment forum on the NYer, so far as I know. <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/crossword/2026/06/08" target="_blank">https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/crossword/2026/06/08</a>
Ugh, so very many sports clues. To borrow from that vernacular - boo. Not pleasant for me. (6? 7?) It helped make this surprisingly challenging for a mere Tuesday, although I can't say I enjoyed it. 🤷♂️
@B I thought it was a bit more challenging, too, but couldn't quite pin down why. I had the most trouble in the SE, where I really couldn't trust USWNT. I had "US Women's", but couldn't finish it. And I wasn't sure if it was soccer or basketball.
Very meaty Tuesday puzzle today, and very clever revealer. I gotta say Rebecca must be like a dog with a bone once she gets a theme she likes. The other puzzle of hers which stands out to me was the Haunted Mansion which was a wonderful theme which required an unusual grid and major witchcraft to make it oft. Today may be just a Tuesday, and not nearly as complicated, but still took a symmetric grid and masterful grid design to make these odd collection of themers fit. So don’t take the design of this puzzle for granted.
@SP Do you remember when the haunted mansion puzzle ran? It sounds interesting but I don’t remember doing it and would love to either do it now or refresh my memory.
@SP My favorite of hers, which I've mentioned before was, I believe a Thursday rebus that I called the Alchemy puzzle. Pb became Au in the theme answers. It was brilliant, even more so because of her last name!
I hated 50D USWNT… but that is just me Rating: 4/10
@Darren I think I like the puzzle more than you, but I'm with you on USWNT.
@Darren Not just you, based on the number of recommendations your post has received. Completely standard initialism, but perhaps a bit esoteric for a Tuesday.
Many commenters seem to love the theme but I have a nit to pick with it. 'How would you like your steak cooked?' 'Well.' 🤷🏽 I was under the impression it needs to be "Well done". Then there was all the trivia... I didn't need lookups, but the difficulty was Wednesday-ish, for me. I had an interesting (?) realization, inspired by IRATE. "Irate" and "irritated" sort of look like they share the same root, right? They both refer to intensities of negative emotions, and "ira" is Latin for "anger". Apparently, as per Etymonline, that's not the case. "Irate" does in fact come from "ira", but "irritated" has a different etymology, probably related to the Proto-Italic verb *rito- "stirred," which is the same root that produced English "run". Now, Polish has its own word for "irate", of proto-Slavic origins - it's "wściekły" - but our equivalent of "irritated" - "poirytowany" - has the same etymology as in English.
@Andrzej I appreciate how you think these things through. In terms of your nit, it strikes me that the revealer/spanner is within the margin of error for a decent pun. The phrase typically is "well done" but I don't think puns have to be accurate, they just need to evoke the desired response.
@Andrzej It doesn't. People say "well" all the time in restaurants in Murka as shorthand for "well done." It works.
@Andrzej How would you like your steak done? Well, please. Works for me. Though I prefer medium rare.
@Andrzej The IRR- opening leads an English speaker's etymological eye to see an elided Latin IN- prefix plus a root starting with R. Just as IN + MOBILE becomes IMMOBILE, IN + RESPONSIBLE becomes IRRESPONSIBLE, etc. The long I and single R at the start of IRATE would preclude such an etymology.
@Andrzej The way the Germans use the word “irritieren” confounded me for quite a while. It isn’t used to signify anger, but rather some sort of confusion or puzzlement — perhaps being “stirred” in some way.
@Andrzej The gaslighting in these replies 😂 Nobody says “well” for a steak. It is “well done.”
@Andrzej There are five levels of steak doneness: rare, medium rare, medium, unfollow, unfriend!
Not my first time forgetting my phone was on loud awaiting a work call and playing the NYT crossword jingle to an otherwise silent room!l. A good way to identify any other solvers present… And at least they know I can finish a Tuesday!
Ms. Goldstein is, by far, one of my favorite constructors, so I'm thankful she's so prolific. A terrific Tuesday puzzle, capped off with Duran Duran's "RIO"... <a href="https://youtu.be/nTizYn3-QN0?si=mV028ZZ2b9YQW6oV" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/nTizYn3-QN0?si=mV028ZZ2b9YQW6oV</a> What would make it even more perfect is if John Ezra were to reappear. Where are you, sir? You're being missed!
@sotto voce Speaking of MIA puzzleniks, what has become of Sam? I came across some of her comments while working on an archived puzzle. Did she warn us of an impending absence?
@sotto voce I prefer COMEUNDONE, which is a fate happily avoided with this puzzle
Well, be advised that this comment won't end well ... but at least it started that way.
This one seemed especially meaty. (Let's see how many beat me to this pun.) Solving took me almost 20 minutes, so "meaty" applies doubly for me. Didn't know REES or REECE, and had REESE initially for the latter. The former I must have filled from the crosses, since I only saw the clue while reviewing after I finished the puzzle. Liked the two pairs of long vertical entries. The lateral symmetry was a nice variation on the usual, and made the grid pattern feel especially fresh today. Nice Tuesday puzzle!
@Xword Junkie You and I were on the same wavelength today, including the meaty pun and noticing the grid design
@Xword Junkie When I got the "something's amiss" note, my first thought was to re-examine REES and REECE, neither of whom were familiar to me, but the crosses seemed to confirm that they were correct. Turned out that I just made a foolish typo (involving GNU), and then came the music.
@Xword Junkie REES Dee, or Dee REES? The clue was a bit too ambiguous for such an odd name. It turns out that Dee is short for Diandrea. Nope, not likely to watch any of her oeuvre.
A bit too obscure for me
I will write this again and try to emu-proof it. I know it's (reverse) sexist but I don't care. When I see a woman setter's name atop a solve, I am happier than when I see a man's. I just think women set more elegant, subtle, enlightening and enlivening grids than do men, all Venn-diagram considerations applied. At least in these pages. And over the last 18 months I've been live solving and 10 years of archive spelunking. So there. I said it.
@Matt Can't say I notice, but perhaps there's something in the fact that constructing used to be more male-dominated overall, so newer and fresher female constructors make more appearances these days. I don't know if it would make any difference when you take into account other factors like age & location etc though.
@Matt I responded to your second post above
@Matt I don't usually look at a constructor's name before solving their puzzle, and often not even afterwards, so I'm probably not an authority on male vs female in the context you raise. I would note that Adam Wagner contributed EXCEEDINGLY RARE, which was a bright spot in today's otherwise average Tuesday offering.
For 46A, I had HAPPY__DI__. HAPPYenDIng? I thought, “No. Not the Grey Lady. She’s not going for this”. But it does fit the clue.
I finished with one wrong letter--the crossing of the director (unknown person and ?movie?) and the slang usage DIMES. I had read "Assists" as a noun ("He was credited with three Assists") and I had REED/DIMED. A longer time spent considering the crossing might have suggested the S, but REED seemed a more likely surname. Oh, well. As it happens, DHubby grilled two lovely steaks as a "Birthday Dinner" last night. MEDIUM RARE--which didn't make it to Rebecca Goldstein's list. I am not quite sure of MEGA for "Sonic boom generator"..... MEGAton bomb, but as it stands alone in the grid, rather a stretch. I got both a Server Error at one point, and later a forced sign-in this morning. Is someone at The NYT upset about the Knicks's loss, or what?
@Mean Old Lady it’s not MEGA actually it’s SEGA - the video game platform that many through its Sonic (the Hedgehog) games
@Mean Old Lady Happy Belated Birthday! Heartfelt wishes for an OH SO wonderful year ahead for you and yours! 💖
@Mean Old Lady Happy Belated Birthday! Heartfelt wishes for an OH SO wonderful year ahead for you and yours! 💖
Ok, “Sonic boom generator?” is a pretty good one, made me chuckle when I got it.
Don’t know what prompted me to notice — and perhaps it is quite common in crossword puzzles, due to the frequency of answers that are one-syllable words — but I was struck by the number of them in this puzzle that have homophones: INDY, AWED, LIAR, WAIST, TONY, SOAR, WOE, SEAR, WAYS, GNU, RECEDE, MEETS, WOK and, in a way, REES and REESE. (I thought about including EDYS, but Google tells me it is pronounced with a long e.) Maybe I missed some? Maybe I should just go to bed.
@Strudel Dad Interesting. If you mean WALK/WOK and AWED/ODD, I pronounce them completely differently. Even SEAR/SEER—I pronounce the latter almost with two syllables, or at least two syllables slurred together. Still an interesting observation.
@Strudel Dad TONY is one syllable in English? As I pronounce it, it sounds like having two syllables, to my Polish ear and mind, anyway. Maybe I'm saying it wrong? [Toe-nee]? But however I try to pronounce it, I always get two syllables (as they are defined in Polish). RECEDE surely is two syllables?
Tough old Tuesday for this Aussie. Definitely felt like a Wednesday, but we got there in the end
Thought I was on my way to new best time and then got caught by what always seem like simple clues (simple only after I’ve solved) in the very last third of the puzzle. Lovely Tuesday theme.
Struggled with all the sports clues in this one
@Gabriela having two niche sports clues (one being a name) intersect with one another is terrible design, guess I’ll need to use the answer key to complete this one.
ABYSS BLEEP SONAR :-) I'm sure the raw-medium-well (done) progression has been used as a theme before, but Claude Levi-Stauss and I liked the inclusion of "raw" into the mix. As it was released in 1954, I was a little young* to have a concert stub from the Jimmy Rowles Trio: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm-64D_mGzE" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm-64D_mGzE</a>
Is it just me, or is this one of the weirdest, most random themes they've used? Not bad, and helpful in solving--just weird.
@Jeff Z It's just you. what's weird about it?
I'll have to add DIMES and USWNT to the ever growing sports term folder in my brain. I'm familiar with DIMES relating to ratting someone out, as in dropped a dime, presumably using a pay phone to call in an anonymous to the police. Interesting that it has a positive connotation in basketball. I guess it makes sense, since the caller is assisting the police. Unless there's another reason for that term. Nice toughened up Tuesday, Rebecca.
@Nancy J. The genesis of DIME in hoops may well be related to dropping a DIME, since when you drop a DIME you're frequently donating the coin to help out (assist) your friend. The other possible origin is "turning on a DIME," the smallest coin there is - whence the idea of precision and timing going into the assist just as the phrase also applies to the exactitude of a perfectly executed juke or deke.
@Nancy J. That’s was my first thought about that phrase as well
@Matt Back in ancient times, you dropped a DIME into a payphone to help the cops solve a crime...anonymously. I guess that works for an assist. Sports announcers are infamous for coining odd idioms, like "tearing up the pea patch" or "sitting in the catbird seat."
Bit of a tough Tuesday for me, and must confess that I had to stop and review and ponder after I had it all filled in before the theme finally dawned on me. No big deal. One puzzle find today - a Tuesday from January 3, 2017 by Michael Shteyman. Three theme answers, straightforwardly clued: ATLANTICTIME ATHLETICTRAINER ATOMICTHEORY And then the 'reveal.' "Communications giant, or a possible title for this puzzle." ATANDT Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/3/2017&h=54a" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/3/2017&h=54a</a> Might put another puzzle in a reply. ....
Good puzzle today, fun solve. A lot of clever 'AHA' clues considering it's a Tuesday. I got all the theme clues before I got 'THIS WON'T END WELL'. And didn't understand the theme until I read Wordplay. Maybe a miss on the theme. But good puzzle.
Puzzle first, update notes second I loved this puzzle. Good mental workout for a Tuesday. Was AT SEA when I confused Hispaniola for the Iberian peninsula. Oops. As to the update. It’s gonna take some getting used to not having the blog open my safari to look at comments and the blog. I like to be able to follow some comments so being able to keep open that tab in Safari is helpful. Is there a way to modify this setting so I can go back to my preference?
@Red Carpet I emailed Support about it. Apparently, they think it’s an improvement. Everybody please write in with your thoughts - email is at the top of the comments page.
@Red Carpet I'm a little confused; are you solving on a phone/app? If so you can open the Gameplay link in Safari and access the Wordplay column and comments there, and toggle back to the app as needed. A bit tedious but workable. Bookmark it to make it easier to find. I don't have Apple but just verified it works on Android. I think @Steve L. was the first to suggest this workaround.
55A and 48D made me smile, that is all I can really ask for when solving a crossword puzzle.
Ok, hands up--Who here actually knew the answer BLOB when they saw 6D [Carnivorous cinematic alien] rather than just getting it from the crosses? Second question who can remember seeing this quasi-horror film in the theatre in which a meteor from outer space produces a BLOB that (spoiler alert) actually eventually encompasses (envelops?) a whole diner with people in it? By the way, first role for Steve McQueen with hit song by Burt Bacharach.
@lucky13 I didn’t know BLOB right off the bat from the clue, but a couple of letters from crosses gave me enough info. I remember the movie well and can still see the diner totally engorged by the creature in my mind.
@lucky13 The Blob remake is also excellent. I sadly have to admit I only got it from the crosses however.
@lucky13 wow, talk about a rabbit hole! 1) I needed at least one or two crosses because I was trying to think of four-letter names for the monsters of Alien et al. but one or two letters was plenty. 2) I saw it on our TV at home in the 60s or early 70s; I just looked at the trailer and realized it wasn't shot in Black and White. 3) I had NO IDEA about the Bacharach (and *Mack* David, who happens to be Hal's brother) tune. it peaked in the 30s on Billboard's top 100. And lyricists deserve billing. so... thanks? btw it was remade in 1988 (presumably without Bacharach's participation, although there's a Dillon in the McQueen role). here's 2:38 of Burt and the other David, featuring the Five Blobs: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejtPJc-fDZ8" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejtPJc-fDZ8</a>
@lucky13 Except this answer is wrong. If it's the 1958 Blob, it's not a carnivore, it's an omnivore. If it's the 1988 Blob, it's a carnivore, but not an alien, it's a government experiment.
Tuesday au jus.
@Matt Hey Dr. ER Doctor (that's a bit redundant)...do you mind if I ask you about the TV shows, "ER" and "The Pitt"? Ever seen them? Thoughts on realism? Things that drive you crazy about it? Feel free to ignore, but I've never talked with anyone about ER experience.
@Matt P. S. I'm assuming you've lived in a place that these are shown. My recollection of Book of Revelation Geography is a little hazy.
I don't understand the half-helix clue. Can someone please clarify? I'm no expert on genetics, but as I've understood it, a DNA STRAND is a full double helix, half of which would be an RNA strand.
@Ned S I'm no biologist but as I understand it, a DNA double helix consists of two intertwined DNA strands.
@Ned S Oh oh. You unlocked my mansplaining box. No, not quite. First of all, RNA and DNA, both have a double helix structure. Most of the components that go into making DNA and RNA are the same, but the sugar is different. In RNA is is ribose, and in DNA it is deoxy-ribose (there should be a number there, to indicate where the "deoxy" part is, but I don't remember it). So one of the RNA building blocks is different from the DNA building blocks (there are also so other differences in the bases used). So a DNA molecule is the full double helix. These strands are held together by a whole lot of fairly weak forces, and so it is possible to "unzip" the molecule into the two helices. Various processes do this unzipping, and then use these two helices to construct as a template for creating two more helices out of raw materials. Afterwords, we have to identical molecules, which encodes enough information to make a cougar, or an emu, or a sequoia tree, or a potoroo, or a terrible, terrible mansplainer. Note: Someone double check me here. I'm going off of what I learned a long time ago, and I'm too lazy to go out and refresh. So if I've misstated something, let me know.
@Ned S Interesting. Perhaps this misunderstanding of RNA is why certain anti-vaxxers mistakenly think mRNA vaccines can change their DNA. (For the record, it can't.)
50D: Lindsey got married at the end of 2024 and now uses her married last name of Heaps. Is it part of the NYT Style Guide to use maiden names for activities that happened before they were married? Or is this a tiny nit in a puzzle I enjoyed?
@Kimble --- I doubt any harm was meant, but I think it's a valid point and a genuine nit in a puzzle I enjoyed as well.
Kimble, I watched her play this week as Heaps. She won gold in '24 as Horan. I thought the clue was fine.
@Kimble USWNT stumped me, I had to get it with crosses. Does the acronym leave out the fifth word of United States Women's National Soccer Team because the international word word be football?
Don, U. S. Soccer is the governing body for all soccer in the U.S. The senior teams are USMNT and USWNT. <a href="https://www.ussoccer.com/about" target="_blank">https://www.ussoccer.com/about</a>
Does anyone else think the grid looks like a sheep?
@Cathy Some advice: Stay away from Rorschach testing. THatWONTENDWELL.
@Cathy Not sure i see that, but it’s totally refreshing to hear “sheep” instead of “swastika”.
Sheesh— I’m eancmon. Puzzled over that one until I read the Tricky Clues. Sure to appear again.
@Spring Day Me too. I had the whole puzzle done with any lookups even and I ended up checking the puzzle to find one letter--the second "M" in IMEANCMON. I had never heard of DIMES for basketball, but now I know what it is--a very precise assist that helps a teammate make a basket!!
My NYTimes is glitching pretty badly; I solved on my phone, and then the solve disappeared. I re-solved on my laptop and got a blue star. I refreshed and it wiped clean and told me i had to log in. [obvi i'm logged in]. When I did it offered me the chance to upgrade my subscription, or a "continue without upgrading" option. Clicking on that just restarts the cycle--I'm again asked to sign in. I'm about to reboot and see if that helps. tl;dr anyone else having signing in and accessing their puzzles?
@Bob T. reboot seems to have fixed it. in the meantime... I enjoyed this puzzle. In fact I liked it so much I did it twice! I like the word ABYSS, and got a kick out of EXCEEDINGLY RARE and THIS WON'T END WELL. DIMES was a TIL, and not one I'm likely to remember. And as for 64A... I do not think that word means what you think it means. Yes some of the online dictionaries mention two definitions, but the ones that only give one aren't talking about cartoons. I just noticed and like the symmetry. Now off to read what y'all thought of it.
You're too late. It was all eaten yesterday.
Loved today’s puzzle! Live it even more after reading the ABC lesson of it all it made me like the tonsil clue and answer even more!! I guess it did end well today!! Thank you!
Today's poem made from words found in today's puzzle<br> a/ in the hills boom skies in the throat of orioles open bottomless songs parades of jays cardinals d/ stir and delight and a/ now all soar
@Peter Valentine I KNEW I liked this puzzle
The cross of 3D and 33A was a Natick for me. I had to go through the alphabet. I mean, c'mon!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Bleep Who doesn't enjoy an abyss? Boink
Anyone willing to explain OHSO … The theme was cute. Thanks.
@Ιασων This puzzle was OH SO good. That restaurant's steak is OH SO delicious. Wherever you'd say SO to denote a great amount, add the OH in front for dramatic effect. And now I'm off to bed because I'm oh so tired... ;-)
@Ιασων Be sure to put a space between the H and the S. And then sing along with me: “I feel pretty, oh so pretty. I feel pretty and witty and bright!”
What sport is MMA? This is the second time this has appeared in recent days. I think the puzzle was a nice little challenge for relatively new solvers.
@Boston -- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_martial_arts" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_martial_arts</a>
@Boston Soon to be playing at an arena where it shouldn't be.
@Boston Mixed martial arts is a barbaric display of aggression in which two people in a cage essentially try to maim and possibly kill each other. It appeals to the lowest instincts of mankind, hearkening back to the days of Roman gladiators, when actually killing the opponent was frequently the goal to amuse the onlookers.