I finished it while waiting for my scans to be read by a radiologist. A kid drove his scooter into me today while I was in the crosswalk with the walk sign on. I fell backwards and hit my head on the asphalt. I think NYT XWD was a good test that my brain is still okay. Still waiting....
Henry Su, Good test indeed. I hope the scans confirm! Barry
@Henry Su, it's a good sign you finished this puzzle (which shows if you are concussed it's not severely), and ironic that FMRI is in here. Also, it's good to see you in general back here with your always insightful comments.
@Henry Su: I hope scooter guy learned something. Gosh! Glad you are OK.
@Henry Su Hope scans are all good. Crossword completion and your commentary seem like encouraging evidence. Nice to see you here. Several years ago my dad suffered a rather severe head trauma. In his first OT session they asked him to name the state he lived in. Completely confused and at a loss, he was given a hint: a state starting with M. He named every state starting with M except the right one.
@Henry Su hope everything turns out ok. This puzzle was definitely a good test for the brain after what happened to you!!
@Henry Su Ouch! Hope all is well. As a physician, I'd hazard to say that completing a NYT XWD while waiting for scan results puts the "F" in "FMRI". (Meaning your brain is functioning well.). Wishing you a speedy recovery!
MANEUVER sent me down a rabbit hole into a linguistic wonderland. In British English I would spell this manoeuvre, from the French. But the French squidge the O and E together, to make manœuvre. This œ is called a ligature, also known amusingly as an "ethel" or "œthel". Perhaps Ethel doesn't get much love in America*, but in British (and I dare say Canadian, not to mention Australian) English, she pops up much more often than I had realised, in words like foetus, diarrhoea, oesophagus, oestrogen, subpoena, phoenix and Oedipus, not to mention onomatopoeia (if you'll permit me a plop, thud, clank and parp). In French Ethel is even more common, in words like boeuf, soeur, coeur, oeil -- so much so that French school kids learn it as "e dans l'o" (which sounds like oeufs dans l'eau -- "eggs in water"), and the French have to add accents to words like poète in order to signal that Ethel is not at home! Of course this all comes from the Greek, in words that had an omicron-iota diphthong, like oikos, from which we get oikonomics -- oops, I mean economics. Who knew? Not I! *Which is, incidentally, a fœderation!
@Petrol Bugs-Bunny-worthy rabbit hole.
@Petrol what a wonderful comment! Thank you!
@Petrol And English - especially American English - in its glorious mishmash inconsistency, chooses to retain it in some words. You pointed out subpoena and phoenix, but also Phoebe, amoeba, Oedipus, and oenology.
@Petrol, Your comment is why this forum is worth reading after the puzzle has been completed! I really didn’t learn much from the puzzle today, but you filled that gap and I appreciate your effort to inform us.
@Petrol So many TILs here — this is great stuff! Love the nickname Ethel for a ligature. Thanks for sharing!
@Petrol Great stuff! And we can dive deeper! As the œ ligature is called an œthel or ethel, the æ ligature is called an æsh or ash, and can be found in such words as: Æsthetics, anæmia, Cæsarean, encyclopædia, and crossword-favorite æons. And, although I'd never thought about it before, it's pretty obvious that manœuvre, coming from "manos" + "oeuvre" means a "work done by hand".
Enjoyable puzzle, to find the right three themers that would fit the spaces, for front, center and end phrases takes some derring-do. I had IT'S US as a [non-specific answer to "Who's there?"] - since me seems pretty specific compared to us. But that's just me. Even more non-specific, perhaps even non-sensical would be to answer "I'm not!" As for difficulty levels (B0RING!) it certainly started out in the NW very Thursday before losing its sedge and becoming lighter as it descended. CLASS A M0R0N stood out as a keeper, TOONIES was sweet, and I'm left wondering whether Trump killing the penny can be considered COINCIDE.
@john ezra So happy to see you back and in great form, as usual. COINCIDE for the killing of the penny? Really now. How beautiful is that. Bravo!
@john ezra Choosing “It’s us” before ITS ME means it certainly wasn’t Occam.
DISCLAIMERS seemed like something to have fun with, so I did: BROADWAY OPENING: Watch at your own risk. The orchestra may or may not be under-rehearsed. VISITOR CENTER: There is no guarantee you will find the info you seek, and your children may leave crankier than when you arrived. FAIRYTALE ENDING: More things will transpire, but we cannot attest how happy or for how long.
@Cat Lady Margaret Did they lie to us? I thought that "happily ever after" was the guaranteed reward for dealing with all those wicked stepmothers and other monsters.
I thought it was a really good puzzle, but it was more or less lost on me because I had an error I just wasn't going to see. The problem was the cross of METH and TOONIE. Despite my desperate attempts to become a Canadian, the only "_oonie" term I knew was LOONIE. That left me with MELH, which I thought might be some kind of acronym for a syndrome. I obviously hadn't heard of "Beautiful Boy". I found the error when I looked up the movie, and saw it was about METH, and i uttered a naughty word. Dings my pride a bit to need a lookup on Thursday, so I'll pretend I'm being as philosophical about it as I urge others to be. I'm also worried that they'll never let me into Canada because I didn't know what a TOONIE was.
@Francis As you will have seen, you were not alone. I suspect that most Canadians will recognize the toonie but a substantial minority will think there's a W somewhere in there. For those who were wondering, the animal on the silvery TOONIE is a polar bear, but both it and the bronze-coloured LOONIE have had many variations over the years. (I was among those who hoped that the $2 coin would be called the /berry/ but no luck!) The loon, usually floating alone calmly, has been shown flying, splashing up out of the water, and in a flock against the sky. My favourite TOONIE showed a rear view of an adult bear with two cubs leaning into her on each side. We're happy to see visiting Americans. And even if someone voted for Donald the Menace, I'm sure it's a curable condition – though such a person might be happier visiting Alberta, where guns, beef, and oil are what really matter.
@Francis. Knew the TOONIE spelling, turned around at Grand Portage today and stopped for lunch at My Sisters’s Place, my son’s favorite burgers from when he was little. Honked to say hi.
@Francis Of course we will! Come to Montreal!
@Francis I'm pretty sure that MEL H was one of the Spice Girls, so adorable as to be a terrible menace to more than one beautiful boy.
Well now, that was a pleasure. We have a theme rich with riddles and wordplay, one that’s fun and satisfying to figure out, involving phrases known to everyone. We have the symmetrical and rhyming IN STRIDE and COINCIDE, not to mention the ARNIE / TOONIE / EENIE / OUTIE quartet, and NITT touching WITT. While never reaching GRUNT level, there was enough CHOP in the water to fully involve my work-loving brain. An “Ahhh!” rather than a “Phew!”. There was even an LOL moment for me, when I was thinking BYES for [They might be seeded], leaving FUB for the parka material, and there I was for several ticks wondering what the heck FUB was. Nothing GARISH in the box today. I felt nestled and cozy throughout and after your puzzle, Scott. Congratulations on your first solo Times puzzle (after six collabs), and I love what you did. Thank you!
@Lewis Me too for BYES. And in particular, too-seeded. Just like some RYES.
Oh I guess since BROADWAYOPENING is a clue today I will shamelessly plug my son’s theater company The Goat Exchange which is in previews for the off-BROADWAYOPENING of “Dad Don’t Read This” at the Greenwich House Theater. Haven’t seen it yet but it got great reviews by NYT in an earlier brief run.
@SP Oh, wow! Congratulations!
@SP "Haven't seen it yet", and it's called "Dad don't read this"? Surely we should applaud you for taking the hint?
@SP Congrats! Wasn't hard to figure out which one is your son. Such nachas!
I seem to be struggling with the crosswords lately. Perhaps it’s my general exhaustion holding me back, but, for me, there have been too many puzzles lately filled with tv trivia and US based product/company names to make them enjoyable, let alone achievable without frequent look ups. The chewy fill that I can drag from the recesses of my brain, or by intelligent guesses based on crossings are enjoyable and satisfying and the reason I attempt crosswords for pleasure. Today that would include SEDGES from one of my favourite poems, though it took me long enough to release hEDGES and ETCHANT. The (to my eye) odd spelling of MANEUVER held that corner up for a while. Even my iPad wants to correct it! RARED and INSTRIDE really jarred. I accept the first was noted as colloquial, but still. The other just seems odd. The iPad is screaming Red Line! at me again. Do you not say IN your/its/their STRIDE? Two unknown tv programmes at 14A and 43A only added to the frustration. Ditto soda wars (what the?) Sigh. At the risk of sounding old and ‘back in my day…’ when I started the NYT puzzle page back in 2016 the grids were hard. I had to get used to multiple word answers, unknown in UK grids, US v UK spelling (a big learning curve) as well as unknown sports names and terms and US geography, together with a smattering of product names, but always based on language, history, science etc Now? It feels less literate, more TV Times. YMMV
@Helen Wright taking something in stride is a common expression on this side of the pond anyway. I also had never heard of rared. I guess Coke vs Pepsi was not a world war.
@Helen Wright i think that if you're doing a cw from a US based news source that you can't really be complaining about US based trivia if you're not from here
@Helen Wright When I solve The Guardian cw I don't complain that the clues are too 'UK based.' You do sound old.
To the three posters ahead of me, Helen buried the lede, which is the how the puzzles of 2026 differ from the ones of 2016. She is not alone in feeling this. If you read many of the other posts today and other days, you can see this.
@Helen Wright Yes, they seem more pedestrian to me.
@Helen Wright I had to doublecheck that it's okay to spell manoeuvre that way too!
@Helen Wright I’ve never tried to do a crossword published in another country, but I can see how there would be unfamiliar obstacles. I would not expect to know localized trivia or references to societal culture. However, it seems to me that variations in spelling between the UK and the US would be subtle. I’m curious now about the British spelling of MANEUVER.
@Helen Wright @Mark @Ryan @J Grey Thank you for taking the time to comment. In response: Thanks Mark, I’m always happy to learn the subtle differences in our common language. Here it would be as I put it, hence my confusion. The whole Coke v Pepsi thing passed me by, but as I don’t drink either (they don’t go with my gin!) it’s not surprising. To the other gentlemen: I don’t expect you to read my other posts, but I have stated countless times that I fully accept and generally embrace the differences between our cultures. My point was that recent puzzles have felt overloaded with them, something that other none US based solvers have also pointed out. @JGrey. Tone is everything in the written word. You sound rude.
@Helen Wright------This puzzle is a US based product so of course it has US based vocabulary. What else would you expect?
@Helen Wright Coming in late in the game but here I am anyway. First, thanks for this insight into your solving experience. If only as a "hands across the water" gesture, this was greatly informative. Second, RARED is a variant on 'reared' as in 'reared up' meaning 'eager to go'. I suppose the original metaphor was a horse. As for 'INSTRIDE', yes, NoAm English does accept 'in stride' in its stride. I remember the first time I stared a Times (of London) crossword in its beady little eyes. Not only were all the answers misspelled but the grid seemed to have lost half its spaces and the clues seemed to have lost half their mind! I've spent a bunch of happy decades since then enjoying UK-style puzzles but that first face-off was a shocker. The Atlantic is both broad and deep. So, for me the bottom line is: it's all just more fascinating stuff to learn. Hope you find your way back to that mode of solvation (sic).
I thought the puzzle was good overall with good cluing. Stuff like CLASS A MORON, COINCIDE, MANEUVER, NETGAIN, etc. The theme though, for a Thursday? Clues that have nothing to do with the answer except that the three letters in the clue appear somewhere in the answer? Why? I got them based on good crossings but the theme was a nothing today. The tough area of the puzzle was North for me. HOYT and ONO next to each other, both obscure proper nouns. Also crossing GIST which was tough to get because SEDGE is even more obscure.
@Chris CHiP/CHOP and iNO/ONO was the last square to fall during flyspecking.
@Chris Maybe I'm misreading your comment, but did you notice that they didn't just "appear *somewhere* in the answer" (emphasis mine)? The location was specified by the answer (opening, center, ending) which made the answer define the clue. I would say it's on the basic side as a theme and a very fast Thursday, but cute enough cluing.
@Chris It was a lot more clever than that, as explained in the Wordplay article. 😊
Trivia defeated me again: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/07WbtS0" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/07WbtS0</a> The crossing of the mascot and author naticked me - that was the square where I decided I would not bother with getting a "clean" solve today (before anybody tells me T was the only good choice there, what's wrong with NiSTANY and BINEs? Other letters look ok-ish there for me, too). Once I freed myself from the tyranny of the good star, I proceeded to reveal other personal esoterica, too. Big name in archery... SRSLY. Also, that was one cruel way to clue OUTIE for anybody who does not watch and remember some random series... The theme was quite good. However, personally I thought the fill featured very little intelligent misdirection but much arcana, which is the exact opposite of what I enjoy.
@Andrzej I agree about the trivia and arcana. I wouldn't have been able to solve this one on paper. The spot you mentioned would have naticked me as well. Thankfully we have the magic crossword fairy who sings a song the instant we provide the desired letter.
@Andrzej Agreed. Archery brand name. No. CLASS A MORON. Nasty.
Andrzej, You would not be expected to be familiar with the NITTANY Lion, but BINET is not Americana; he was French. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Binet" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Binet</a> And I too had no idea what the 14A clue meant, but the crosses for OUTIE were easy (so I "learned" something).
@Andrzej I groaned when I saw the "Big name in archery" clue. William Tell is the only name I've ever heard ascribed to archery. But I suppose other NYT readers scurried down to their basements to check brand names on their arrows and quivers.
@Andrzej - As I said in another comment, Severance is very popular and critically acclaimed enough to be well-known in the US, beyond its viewership. It's not just "some random series" IMO.
@Andrzej I got the T with a very good guess, as my last box... But I agree that there were some other letters that I thought would work. Anyhow, I'm a big fan of Severance and I highly recommend it, if you have the opportunity to check it out. I really like the basic concept of it. In times of great grief or pain, I've wished there was a button I could switch to forget all about it for a while, which, not that it's a literal button, the show explores and I find fascinating. There's also mystery and some real funny ridiculousness... and sweetness. And this is my biggest selling point to you, it's not a musical! Although there is a real groovy dance scene. 💃🕺 But I still feel your pain. There are plenty of shows mentioned out here that I've never even heard of and can only hope for a gentle crosses.
If you have to clue something as "Big name in archery," that's a signal that maybe you need to re-work that part of the puzzle.
@Barney One of the American "Big names" I actually knew.
Personally, I would have preferred [Knuckleballer Wilhelm] or [Folk singer ___ Axton], but the crosses worked just as well as knowing HOYT as clued. I last used a bow and arrow in 1958.
I miss the dastardly kind of Thursdays where you went in knowing the tricks could be any sort of cruciverbal gymnastics that might take liberties with our expectations of the grid -- not just rebuses, but words that turned corners, or climbed stairways of squares, or ghosted themselves out in the margins. I felt offended at first -- "How can they do this?" -- but hung in there long enough to get addicted to the incredible "a-ha!" feeling when I finally cracked the code of a real brain-bender. The experience was often excruciating, but it helped keep me sharp, and open to new possibilities in ways that had impact beyond just solving a puzzle. Tricky Thursdays were hands down my favorite day of the week, even on those occasions where the solution remained elusive before I called it quits. Nowadays Thursday is just another day. And my brain feels flabby. Maybe my obsession with the NYT crossword has run its course.
@Anna in Bellingham I agree that those are my favorite kinds of thursdays, the brainbenders that required thinking outside the grid. I do still see them on the occasional thursday or sunday, and while I wish they were more frequent, variety is the spice of life, eh?
@Anna in Bellingham Remember the wormhole puzzle? It was either a Thursday or a Sunday. But that may have been my biggest Aha of all time. Might have been more than one, but I remember that one.
@Anna in Bellingham Earnestly, maybe you need a new obsession if doing these puzzles doesn’t bring you joy or exercise your brain enough. Sometimes something new can get the blood flowing again.
@Anna, You should stick around. These things seem to come and go in waves. I’m guessing we’ll see their return before too long.
Sure it was Loonie, wondered who Mel H is.
@DIVAS IVLIVS me toonie
@DIVAS IVLIVS No one has ever agreed with me, but during my 12 years of being a temporary Canadian, I loved having a jar full of loonies and toonies, not for their value, not because I like collecting loose change, but because, with their gold and silver tones, they looked like treasure chest contents to me. Such beautiful things to pull from one's pocket; so much better than boring US coins or crumpled wads of paper currency.
RARED crossing ANIMAS crossing NITTANY crossing BINET... These trivia heavy grids of late just feel like homework and not fun.
@Gregg I grant you BINET and NITTANY as trivia. But ANIMAS and RARED are just vocabulary – uncommon vocabulary (social sciences and a rural expression) but not trivia.
@Gregg - I'm from Pittsburgh. Got Nittany right away.
Upon completing this puzzle I felt a strong and mercifully brief urge to pat it on its eager head, watch its tail wag vigorously as it could barely sit still on my screen and tell it: "There's a good boy! Such a clever boy!" So, yeah, I liked it.. Not quite a Chaser-the-border-collie Thursday but still...*such* a good boy!
@Matt But still… kind of a condescending congratulations? I want my Thursdays to be more than a Good Boy. I want a Great Boy. I want a boy that can confound and delight me. This was not a bad puzzle. In fact, I thought it was a pretty good puzzle. I just didn’t think it was a Thursday puzzle. (Wag, wag, sniff.)
Wholly unsatisfying puzzle with a worthless and inane “theme” to boot. After yesterday’s mess, I’m left thoroughly disappointed in the late week puzzles.
@D Did you understand the theme? "Worthless" and "inane" seem rather strong. Care to justify why you chose these words?
@D Since "late week" generally refers to Friday and Saturday, I can only assume that you're using ESP with respect to those future puzzles. Your opinion of mid-week puzzles (Wednesday/Thursday) is noted.
1:23:14 for me. I'm slow but I eventually get em.
@Hanson Just another 31 seconds and it would have been: 1:23:45 ....
“Eeyore, the old grey Donkey, stood by the side of the stream, and looked at himself in the water. “Pathetic,” he said. “That’s what it is. Pathetic.” He turned and walked slowly down the stream for twenty yards, splashed across it, and walked slowly back on the other side. Then he looked at himself in the water again. “As I thought,” he said. “No better from THIS side. But nobody minds. Nobody cares. Pathetic, that’s what it is.” There was a crackling noise in the bracken behind him, and out came Pooh. “Good morning, Eeyore,” said Pooh. “Good morning, Pooh Bear,” said Eeyore gloomily. “If it IS a good morning,” he said. “Which I doubt,” said he. “Why, what’s the matter?” “Nothing, Pooh Bear, nothing. We can’t all, and some of us don’t. That’s all there is to it.” “Can’t all WHAT?” said Pooh, rubbing his nose. “Gaiety. Song-and-dance. Here we go round the mulberry bush. ...I’m not complaining, but There It Is.”
@CCNY It was his birthday if memory serves. The Tao of Pooh illustrates these archetypes perfectly omho
Oh no! An ONO I don't know! Would "essence" be GIST or PITH? I wrote in the "I" to start. I thought that the NOBLES might be INERTS, science not being my strong suit, but I was smart enough not to write it in without crosses. What on earth is FMRI? I imagine it's appeared here before and I imagine it will appear here again, but don't expect me to ever remember it. Other than that, a pretty easy puzzle of the Cryptic type, which I always enjoy. I would have enjoyed it even more if the backing-and-forthing with a magnifying glass (hold it up and read the clue and find its place in the grid; then put it down and write the answer) weren't so annoying. But I got a good report from the cataract surgeon on Tuesday: much less inflammation this time than for the first eye, so he'll be able to supply me with a new reading glasses Rx on my next visit on 7/8. Once I have the new glasses, I hope to be able to do puzzles without a magnifying glass. I actually CAN see the grid and the numbers without the magnifying glass with my old Rx -- YAY!!!!! -- but it's a huge effort and it's much easier right now to magnify.
@Nancy Functional MRI. One of the many types of MRIs out there
@Nancy The MRI is done while a patient is doing some task...Functional MRI might pinpoint an area of dysfunction in the brain (or some such)..
Mighty easy for a Thursday. I was certainly not running against the wind. As a former English major, I liked the Keats clue, and as a gardener I like knowing that the way to distinguish SEDGE from grass is that SEDGES have edges.
I thought that MELH was some spice girl I hadn't heard of, and that she was quite the charmer to be someone's downfall in a movie I hadn't heard of.
Now, THIS was a puzzle! What fun! DHubby, a Penn State alum, watches the NITTANY Lions (assisted by PhysDaughter) faithfully. And I, on the other hand, stay in the kitchen or the garden... and accidentally doubled the N instead of the T on my first pass. Oh, the shame! Query: does ANYone actually go around casually referring to "The NOBLES" in relation to that set of gases? Asking for a friend. (I hated Physical Science...) Flood watches all over the state, and it's raining again. Please, everyone, take care.
I'm guessing today's [xwstats.com] "median solve time" will be faster than yesterday's. I think this is the Wednesday puzzle, and yesterday was the rebus-free Thursday puzzle. Both perfectly fine puzzles. Thanks for this one, Scott.
@Barry Ancona 16:30 yesterday, a very slow Wednesday for me 12:30 today, a slightly speedy Thursday for me and what would have been a rather slow Wednesday for me
Hi! It's we! Fresh back from our two-day retreat with our gurus--Urdu nobles both--spent curled up in sedge 'n' fur nests, drinking Stolis and Pepsis, ryes and Dews, and wines; listening to favorites songs from 1981* on the AM/FMRI; and getting ins into the workings of our animas (to call them "animæ" is merely garish), until we had to revive ourselves from our alcohol stupors with epipens. Disclaimers: 1.We'd wager a toonie these were merely cases of seeing double. 2. We'd wager a toonie these were merely cases of seeing double. *<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDMlRxnHdhc&list=RDdDMlRxnHdhc&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDMlRxnHdhc&list=RDdDMlRxnHdhc&start_radio=1</a> *<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2M3rQc71WE&list=RDi2M3rQc71WE&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2M3rQc71WE&list=RDi2M3rQc71WE&start_radio=1</a> (Hi, @Grant!)
@Bill Hi yourself! And if I had a million TOONIEs...
I got the puzzle but not the theme. I saw that the clue ended up in the word, and through the column could see that it referred to the position in the word, but the clues/words themselves seem so random. They couldn't have been anything. Why were bro, sit, and ale put together as a trio? Even the actual answers they were pointed to, how were those a set? Simple beginning, middle, and doesn't seem interesting enough for a Times puzzle. Am I missing something?
I briefly had LOONIE crossing MElH. I wasn't too happy with that so tried to rationalize. Since I only knew "Beautiful Boy" as the John Lennon song, I thought maybe Sean had fallen in love with a Spice Girl, and that was his downfall. Then I thought "Nah, let's look at this again." After rereading [$2 coin...] it hit me. Nice solo debut, Scott. A little too quick, but I really liked the concept and the fill.
@Nancy J., “… maybe Sean had fallen in love with a Spice Girl, and that was his downfall.“ Hilarious 😂!
@Nancy J. Sounds like a good number of us tripped up on that square.
I seem to always be the contrarian here. I thought this puzzle was ridiculously easy for a Thursday. No misdirects, no clever wordplay, much easier than yesterday's trivia and pop-culture nightmare. If the page didn't have the day printed on it, I would have said Tuesday. There were a few answers that I didn't know, such as OUTIE and HOYT, but they were few and far between. I kept thinking I was missing some diabolical trick. I don't know how I knew NITTANY. Maybe it was because of a rare road trip that my family took when I was about 10 years old, from Brooklyn to Cleveland to visit my uncle. So long ago that I-80 was yet to be built, so we had to drive through Pennsylvania. We stayed overnight at the Keystone Motel, remembered because it was the first motel we'd ever stayed in. I recall the road wending through tunnels through the mountains, such as the Kittatinny Mountain Tunnel. Even though one was not named NITTANY, somehow those names made an impression on me. OTOH, perhaps NITTANY appeared in a Times puzzle before? Or I've seen NITTANY Lions somewhere else? In any case, it evoked a fond remembrance of that trip. While the puzzle was okay, even with its light theme, I wish there had been more of a challenge. And apparently, others' mileage did indeed vary.
@Times Rita You are clearly not an outlier here. I thought this had a good theme, but was way too easy for a Thursday. The cluing was early week level. I remember exactly when I became aware of the NITTANY Lion. I was staring at the giant tattoo on the back of a client. I said "Nice cat!" then was schooled on it's meaning.
@Times Rita Well, I-80 is now built and we still have to drive through Pennsylvania. ;-) (Takes about seven hours to get from NJ to OH.) Sounds like you took the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which opened around 1940. Originally there were seven tunnels along the route. Now only four are in use. Apparently NITTANY and Kittatinny are etymologically related. According to Gemini: Yes, the words "Nittany" and "Kittatinny" are closely related through their shared roots in the Algonquian (specifically Lenape/Delaware) language family, and they both describe geographic elevation.They share a common linguistic suffix used to describe mountains. In the Munsee Delaware (Lenape) dialect, the root word for mountain or hill is atëne (or achtene). Kittatinny: This word stems from Kitatëne. The prefix kitschi- means "big," "great," or "endless," combined with -atëne (mountain). It translates directly to "big mountain" or "endless hill". Nittany: This word stems from Nit-A-Nee. The prefix nita- means "single" or "alone," combined with the same modified -atëne root. It translates directly to "single mountain". Note that Kittatinny Mountain is actually an Appalachian ridge that stretches from NJ through PA to MD. Must be 200 miles long, so "endless mountain" seems spot on. The Appalachian Trail runs along about 40 miles of the mountain, until it leaves PA at the Delaware Water Gap and enters NJ.
"So long ago that I-80 was yet to be built, so we had to drive through Pennsylvania." Times Rita, Just for the record, I-80 also goes through Pennsylvania.
@Times Rita I'm a relative newbie, and this was my fastest Thursday solve yet. I agree with you.
Today's puzzle answers the counting rhyme question as EENIE. Yesterday's puzzle answers a similar clue as EENY. Never has a made-up word caused me such consternation.
@Michelle Botwinick I'm with you. Thought the exact same thing.
@Michelle Botwinick Wouldn’t be the first word that can be spelled multiple ways, made up or not. Made any UEYS/UIES lately?
Awesome Tuesday puzzle!
Thank you Sean McGowan for the concept of a boxing/crossword throw down! In addition to learning that you took boxing lessons and that there were other crossword fans in the gym, well, the whole idea just tickled my funny bone. I will admit I was a Sean McGowan fan pretty much from the start. Same with Sam and Caitlin. Given that Deb Amien set the bar high, it’s a gift to have so many distinct voices sharing their wisdom, guidance, and humor here.
(Second attempt, now with encryption) This was a very enjoyable puzzle, Mr. Hogan. Thank you and congrats on an elegant solo debut! It elicited a sedate and pleasant kind of thinking, not the hair-pulling and frenetic kind, which made it really nice. Not only was I purring along, I also had a wonderful LOL moment with DISCLAIMERS. I've never gotten over Preparation H having one that says "Not for oral use." I can only hope it's not because they've already been sued by some CLASS A M0R0N who — oh, you get the GIST. EUROPA rang a different kind of bell as it reminded me of a movie named "EUROPA, EUROPA", winner of the Golden Globe for Best International film. I watched it in 1991 or so, when it came out, and I've already lined it up for a rewatch on HBO Max. It's the true story of a German-Jewish kid who escapes the holocaust by passing himself off as a Nazi and joining the Hit!&r Youth. A rom-com with a FAIRYTALE ENDING would make for lighter fare, but there's inspiration to be had in this story of courage, resilience, and resourcefulness. And now I leave you with my favorite Bob SEGER song, "Turn The Page" – <a href="https://youtu.be/evnZfSEtr5k?is=9-StEM3_QRPub55k" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/evnZfSEtr5k?is=9-StEM3_QRPub55k</a>
@sotto voce I watched "Europa Europa" as a teenager and I was wowed by it - it was the work of the Polish director Agnieszka Holland, who also created 2023's "Green Border" (Zielona granica), a shocking drama about migrants at Poland's Eastern border, which makes the Polish far right foam at the mouth.
@sotto voce Allow me a tale from the trenches apropos of your "Not for oral use" mention. 'Twas 0300 in the ED years ago when a young woman alit 'pon us with abdominal pain. Turned out she was pregnant. But, she said, I always used my contraceptive jelly before sex, she said. Can't be. On toast, she added, when we enquired further. If I'm lying, I'm dying.
@sotto voce One evening at the warehouse, we encountered new signs admonishing us not to drive forklifts into the freight elevator. (Weight limit.) So some class A you-know-what must have done exactly that, probably with dramatic results. When you're the reason why there's a new safety briefing...
Nice theme overall, might be simple but it's still very elegant, I enjoyed it. I thought I was on my way to a new Thursday record but I ended up getting tripped up by too many unknown words. Like others pointed out, the BINET/NITTANY crossing was especially tricky, as well as ETCHANT/STINE. And I learned the word SEDGE today.
@Norbr I live in Pennsylvania, My son grew up reading the Goosebumps books, I work in Special Ed, and my first husband did glass work, so I TOTALLY lucked out on those four clues!
Always glad to see a reference to one of my favorite poems, a faery tale without a happily-ever-after ending. It begins: O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, And no birds sing. The whole poem can be found here: <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44475/la-belle-dame-sans-merci-a-ballad" target="_blank">https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44475/la-belle-dame-sans-merci-a-ballad</a>
@Al in Pittsburgh Speaking of. I'm currently reading the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons, and it features both Keats and father Lenart HOYT, so the puzzle had a sub-theme for me today (too bad HOYT was clued arcanely though, and that I actually know none of Keats's poems 🤣).
@Al in Pittsburgh Yes, one of my favourites of Keats as well. Alone and palely loitering Was the family go to phrase when our daughter was in her emo teen phase.
An enjoyable puzzle but I think it lacked some spark. I always look forward to Thursdays for their unique crunchy themes but this one for me just fell a bit flat
Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow” video is about as close as I get to knowing about archery :-)
@Mary and Kosta in France Great song, especially for Pride Month.
I like this puzzle and its gimmick OK. My main complaint with it is that there are only three themers, but given the theme perhaps you can only do one beginning, middle, and end? I do wonder about whether there is a stockpile of really good Thursday puzzles somewhere that the editors are withholding for fear of losing the revenue of beginner solvers. A Modest Proposal: Make every Thursday a rebus puzzle. If constructors knew this, they could make that a goal of constructing. If rebus-hating beginners knew this, they could simply avoid Thursdays. And, while advanced solvers might be mildly annoyed about knowing in advance that a puzzle would have rebi, as long as they were sufficiently challenging, I think this group would be happy, as well. What say you, puzzle editors? Thursdays used to be special. I used to buy compilation volumes of Thursday puzzles. Can they be special once again?
@The X-Phile I would not support making every Thursday a rebus, part of the fun is figuring out when there is one. Plus there are a lot of very fun tricky Thursday themes that aren’t rebuses. Unless, maybe, you are willing to up the ante on Wednesdays, allow them to be as tricky as Thursdays without a rebus, move Wednesday level puzzles to Tuesday, and combine Monday/Tuesday level themes all to Monday. I could consider getting behind that. One positive side effect is that right now you generally need some sort of clever revealer to justify a rebus. I suppose if all Thursdays were rebuses, you could justify more rebus themes that didn’t need revealers, or at least revealers that implied a rebus.
The X-Phile, IMO yesterday's puzzle was tricky enough for a Thursday. Not every rebus puzzle should appear on Thursday and not every Thursday should be -- or ever was -- a rebus puzzle. Let's just go back to having trickier Thursdays (and harder Fridays and Saturdays).
@The X-Phile Hmm, I'd like to see more rebus puzzles in the mix, but I do like the other gimmicks that pop up occasionally, like answers making turns or jumping the black squares.
I've read the comments and--oh, fine puzzle but more Wednesdayish to me, and faster than yesterday's actual Wednesday--nobody's flagged all of the plural beverages? WINES (which is fine) DEWS (some y-g sodas? eh) PEPSIS (come on: Pepsi is just one cola in the cola wars STOLIS ( ugh) RYES (clued as bread, but still) Constructor may be a SOT.
@Charles Peterson, 💯 agree. When I filled in Stolis, I was “ha ha yeah” as in hesitant agreement (ref. Recent Kuggelman puzzle). But then Pepsis? And Dews? (Didn’t have to be clued referencing “some yellow-green sodas”). Felt kinda like the puzzle could have been titled “Brought to you by….” Oreo, Ragu, and Edys failed to make the cut (this time).
@Charles Peterson What is "ugh" about STOLIS? First, the brand is Latvian, not Russian. Second, there are multiple varieties of the brand (orange, cranberry, raspberry, etc) so there's nothing suss about the plural. I prefer Tito's myself, but it's a premium vodka, and a proper alternative to Absolut, as clued. Stoli, darling!
@Charles Peterson Good catch, I hadn't noticed that - maybe the constructor was thirsty ;)
Easy for a Thursday, but enjoyable with some solid cluing. Nice puzzle.
Might need a toke or two to work this puzzling crossword.
To my mind, there's virtually no wordplay in this puzzle other than the themers. Not really what I expect from a Times puzzle, especially late week. Moving on, it's nice to see my old pal Eeyore again so soon. Congrats on soloing, Scott. And the German Shorthaired Pointer in your xwordinfo.com photo is a beauty.
@Vaer Right? There was no misdirection to be found anywhere 😢
@Vaer speaking of old friends, where was ARTOO, or is it ARTWO? At least now I can consistently spell Eeyore correctly.
Hey, if you are in the mood for a twisty Thursday check out March 3rd 2016, Andrew Zhou. At the risk of sounding like Rich, Just finished it, I think this is the most intricately, elegantly constructed Thursday I can recall. Don’t want to spoil anything but I was amazed.
@SP I just finished it. Elegant indeed. Thanks for the recommendation 👍🏼
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/2016/03/03" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/2016/03/03</a>
@SP Dude! A m a z i n g p u z z l e!! You have a new job! Do this every day!!
@SP Now, *that* was a Thursday puzzle. Thank you!
@SP Dang. All I got was “View solved puzzle.” Imagine the comments that one would get today.
@SP I no doubt did that puzzle, and in CrossWorld, you can't go home again... Is there a work-around?
@SP A Thursday puzzle that makes a solver happy for Thursdays. I called it up in the Archives and had to re-set the solved puzzle, and it *still* was an total surprise and joy to (re-)solve.
@SP I'm in favor of making this a regular feature of the Comments. Every time the editors feed us a sub-standard Thursday, someone should go back in the Archives and remind us of what a Thursday puzzle is supposed to look like!
@SP Wow! Really enjoyed that one. Thanks :-)
@SP Glad everyone liked it. I really didn’t do it to diss Scott, or make a comparison, I was going to post it no matter what (and of course this is such a wow most puzzles would pale in comparison). I think Rich generally has the market cornered in reposting interesting puzzles, and I don’t want to steal his thunder; although I don’t really read his posts because I don’t want to spoil them for myself. If I come across other noteworthy puzzles though I will definitely bring them up, as I do from time to time.
I agree it wasn't a Thursday puzzle difficulty, But it was FUN. Able to get the theme answers from enough down clues and then go back to each answer to get the clever wordplay. Visitor center took me a second to get but smiled seeing fairytale ending.
A perfectly fine Monday theme. Guess the supply of Thursday-esque puzzles has dried up. This one isn't even close, thematically. That said, I enjoyed the puzzle, and it took me about twenty minutes, so the cluing was about on a mid-week level. Lots of interesting entries too. Spent almost three minutes on my last box, the crossing of METH and TOONIE. Not familiar with "Beautiful Boy", and had no idea that Canadians decided to put a tuna on their $2 coin. A loon at least makes some sense. ;-)
@Xword Junkie I have three thoughts on the subject. 1 - The constructors who create the tricky puzzles we used to get stopped sending them to the NYT knowing that the editors don't trust us with anything too difficult. Where do they go? 2 - The editors are sitting on a stockpile of excellent Thursday puzzles and will dole them out every once in a while. Not often at all. 3 - One day, editing will decide "Enough is enough, to heck with the complaints" and go back to challenging the solver. A person can dream.
@Xword Junkie I read the book (and wondered if the agonized father was in for more disappointing relapses)...unaware of a movie. A sad story repeated endlessly with any number of drugs....
@Xword Junkie I don’t believe they have dried up. This is an editorial choice.
@Xword Junkie Not knowing very much about Canadian currency, I had put in LOONIE as the two-dollar coin, and spent some time wondering how a young person could meet his downfall through MELH.
@Xword Junkie For a while, I thought MEL H might be one of the Spice Girls. Surely they have led many a young man astray.
I had dash instead of sash for about an hour! Great puzzle.
I simply filled in totalmMORON for a while, just silly double m escaped me. Then CLASSAMORON made me laugh out loud at myself. Had to run the alphabet to get METH and TOONIE, both good to learn. Finally ANIMe to ANIMA. Solid fun puzzle, thanks!
Is this really the way Thursdays are going to be from now on? This past winter in the UK it rained for 50+ days in a row. That’s what ... no, wait, maybe better: there’s a book by John Ajvide Lindqvist, “I Am Behind You,” where a grouo of people find themselves on an endless, flat, featureless plain that is completely inescapable. Put those 50 days of rain in the picture too, and THAT’s what Thursdays have felt like for weeks.
@abelsey Do the puzzle that @SP recommended below and you'll almost forget this one ever darkened your doorstep.
I never thought of this question until now, but how many schools have the same animal as their mascot? In addition to Penn State Nittany lion, the University of Vermont has the catamount, Brigham Young and the University of Houston (and many more) have cougars, the Toledo public schools have a puma, Middlebury has a panther. There must be more. 45D reminds me of a vacation spent at a family resort in Ontario. One of the older vacationers (younger than me now? Probably.) who entertained himself and some of the young kids by hiding loonies in the beach by the lake. I think it was before toonies, but the kids enjoyed finding them. I still wish we would eliminate our unit note and promote the dollar coin. We tried watching Severance, but the first episode was so unbearable that we never went back. Thursday always starts with a bit of apprehension, but today was fun without being too hard or easy. Thanks.
@Jack McCullough Lafayette College has a leopard.
@Jack McCullough To know the Penn State Nittany Lions and not acknowledge the University of Pittsburgh's Panthers is a serious matter in an otherwise lighthearted comment.
@Jack McCullough This site lists 41 schools (!) that have a Wildcat as their mascot, including University of Kentucky, University of Arizona, Kansas State Univ., Villanova, Northwestern, Davidson, the Univ. of New Hampshire,... <a href="https://x.com/college_logos/status/1321798250186313728" target="_blank">https://x.com/college_logos/status/1321798250186313728</a>
Cute theme and a good Thursday workout; not all that easy for me, of course, but things fell together from the crosses. And, of course, my puzzle find today: A Sunday from May 7, 2000 by Patrick D. Berry with the title: "Pardonable Crimes." A couple of theme clue and answer examples: "Publicly disrupting a concerto?" BREAKINGINTOSONG "Doing counterfeit sculpture?" FORGINGAHEAD "Cancelling a newsmagazine?" KILLINGTIME And some other theme answers: POACHINGEGGS HOLDINGUPTHELINE STEALINGTHESHOW SHOOTINGTHEMOON And there were more. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/7/2000&h=5d" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/7/2000&h=5d</a> ....
I agree with Sean that "employee after hours" would stand on its own for OUTIE, assuming it's short for "I'm out of here," and I do say that. Why muddy it up with a gratuitous pop cultural reference, especially one on a streaming channel? Brevity is the soul of wit. Same with "Beautiful Boy," which I'd never even heard of, except as a John Lennon song. HOYT archery gear seemed a bit niche to me, and my brother-in-law is a bowhunter. I knew Baer as a brand, and I think Voit made those cheap fiberglass bows we used in PE class. VINEGARY potato salad (Pennsylvania Dutch) is the best potato salad.
@Grant I've never seen or heard of OUTIE referring a person not at work, until Severence started referring to Innies and Outies in the show. For the record I've never seen the show, only read reviews of it or seen the people talking about it on chat shows and learned of its use in the show that way.
@Grant - I admit I'm biased since I subscribe to Apple TV and loved the show, but Severance was popular and critically acclaimed enough to be widely known, at least in the US. I don't agree that it's a "gratuitous pop cultural reference".
@PAGthe You're missing the point. Gratuitous, as in added no value to the clue. I do like some pop culture, but I were an editor, I'd err on the side of leaving it out, rather than gussying up an entry with it.
I really liked the combination of a tricky theme* and clues that weren't pushovers. *It soon became clear what the theme was about, but the details for each theme entry required patience to suss out.