Too many naticks, one of which required you to know two separate Hebrew words. I was not on this person’s wavelength.
@Jonathan Not that it was a problem for me, but i get that—I’m always surprised how often ELI is clued that way since there are plenty of folks named ELI that it could be clued to. If it helps it’s the same root as ELAL. As for BNAI, you might have heard of BNAI Brith, or seeing it on synagogue names driving by. My only other thought is that some of you of the right age, even if you aren’t Jewish, may have read the children’s book by EL Konigsburg (who also wrote “From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler”) called “About the B’nai Bagels”.
@Jonathan I am honestly shocked. Shocked. That this is the top comment. I’m not Jewish, presumably, either. But I have heard of bnai brith. But yeah. They could have thrown you a bone and said Archie Manning’s kid (shoutout NOLA). or gone the tri-state area shoutout with former giants QB. Maybe given some love to the cotton gin?
@Jonathan Agreed. The double Hebrew thing was a hard foul. Especially with myriad ways to clue "ELI".
@Jonathan Exactly. From the column: “Solvers tend to bristle at Naticks, but” Nope, just end the sentence there.
Too much arcane trivia and proper names made me almost quit. Never a fan of see another answer for two clues. And done twice. Long answer of amuse bouche and home run trot almost saved it for me. I came very close to thinking why bother and quitting with so many proper names.
@Robco I, on the other hand, love seeing related clues, it brings the grid together for me shows connections I may not have thought of otherwise
This is the kind of puzzle satisfying to long-time solvers who through experience learned the tricks and ways of thinking that make such grids gettable and satisfying. We have lots of new solvers who were brought in through easier puzzles, including easier end-of-week puzzles, and who haven’t yet developed the chops needed to experience the joys of solving puzzles such as these. How to bring these new solvers along, editors? Keep the end-of-week puzzles just as challenging as today’s. The only way to develop the skills needed is through practice. Give these new solvers great satisfaction earlier in the week through easier puzzles that whet their appetite for more, giving hints on what challenges/pleasures lie ahead, but keep these end-of-week puzzles tough. I hope that is the direction you’re taking with puzzles like today’s, tough weekend puzzles that were once the rule. You may lose a few solvers, but those who stick it out will stay with you forever.
@Lewis Maybe they could release the Easy Mode Friday puzzle at the same time as the regular puzzle, so less practiced solvers could have something to solve at the same time as they normally do.
@Lewis I disagree. When you have such trivia-laden puzzles such as this one and the several that we’ve had this week, it isn’t a skill issue anymore. Anyone can use Google to make a puzzle. It’s not impressive.
@Lewis Your opening paragraph is just spot on. We seem to have a growing number of posters who haven't yet developed the skills needed to solve the hard puzzles, but, instead of working to improve, blame their difficulties on all sorts of external things. Vary sad.
@Lewis thank you! Even if I am not a great solver, I enjoy learning new things that some dismiss as « trivia » . If I get curious, I look them up and sometimes get down fascinating rabbit holes. I admit it doesn’t really help me get that much better at solving yet? English is not my first language so it might be why? I might have succeeded once on my own without the buoy.
Lewis — I entirely agree with everything you wrote. (In fact in today's puzzle I was impressed with the *low* amount of popular culture trivia clueing and the high amount of clueing about the kind of knowledge that I'm happy to have or learn.)
@Lewis Indeed, a most satisfying solve, with more wordplay than trivia and a mild sprinkling of TIL. I had no idea that U2 played at the Vatican.
@Lewis I am a long time solver and, though I am able to fill in the usual suspects, I find this the most tiresome kind of puzzle solving. These clues feel lazy and they are uninteresting to me. I do not generalize to all long-time solvers, however, and recognize that some, like you, find these satisfying. I just honestly don't get it :) Perhaps, rather than belittling others, you can just express your own opinion and others can express theirs without being diagnosed. These days I find NYT puzzles either ridiculously trivial or just plain simple and rote. I'd love to go back to days where they felt clever, challenging, and fun - to me.
@Lewis Today’s comments are filled with so many ‘controversial’ topics. I love it. 1. Not every puzzle is going to be a home run. There is a reason why some puzzles stand out. Not every puzzle can be a work of art, despite us wanting it to be. 2. These Friday’s wouldn’t even make the cut for a Wednesday 25+ years ago. Go to archives and pick a Wednesday from the 80s. You will cry. And not because of ‘old’ current events. But I bet if you can get those under your belt, Saturdays in 2020s will be a joke. 3. Lewis. You are the Prince of niceitude. But you can’t change why people come to these grids. For some it’s skill development. For others it’s validation. I personally love getting destroyed (within reason!). But many want to say. “I’m a Saturday solver”. It is what it is. Today was the first grid I did this week. I gold under my average. Then I foolishly decided to start this last Sunday big grid. I can’t get 50% through it despite it being ‘big Wednesday’ level.
@Lewis Very beautifully said, especially your last sentence. Thank you. I understand that people, including long time solvers, like different kinds of difficulty. I interpret your post not to be about the specific kind of difficulty posed by today's puzzle, but about any kind of difficulty that can render a puzzle both gettable and satisfying to long-time solvers.
@Lewis I am Gen X and currently have a 2,300 puzzle streak,. I thought this puzzle was mid at best with a few too many Natiks (I was really bummed the NHL player was not named OREO). I seldom comment, love difficult puzzles and roll my eyes at the haters. But this sort of Naticky-puzzle is not what I love about the NYT puzzle. There are really great (and difficult) Saturday puzzles with almost no name trivial. Just something off on this one, and that's OK. Not everyone has to love every puzzle.
The glassblower's coworker was a real pane. (He saw right through him.)
@Mike And Tiffany one has any other clever glass puns to share, please do.
@Mike, You heard about the GLASSBLOWER who accidentally inhaled? He wound up with a pane in his stomach. (Insert rimshot here)
Wasn’t a big fan. A lot of names, foreign words and answers that just a seemed forced.
Fine Friday fare, and a sparkling debut. Thanks, Jack!
Google enjoyed solving this puzzle. I did not. Too many arcane names and trivia. But that's what Google specializes in.
What do I want on Friday, in a nutshell? Sparkling answers, sparkling clues, tough-but-fair challenge. And here it is, a clinic on what a Friday should be. And on a debut! Colorful answers, such as AMUSE BOUCHE, DON’T BE A HERO, HOME RUN TROT, COME ON NOW. Names-to-know answers, such as AJA Wilson and JOHN WOO. All are NYT answer debuts, BTW, 11 in the box today, and all worthy. Talk about spark! So many knock-me-out-good clues. Some deliciously misleading, such as [Common export] for PDF. Some deliciously vague, such as [Certain canine] for TUSK. And some delicious playful, such as [What might go off the rails] for BANK SHOT. Tricky cluing and no-knows -- a riddle-fest for my brain. Sometimes such puzzles are wearying, filled with tough clues that yield “Oh, I see.” But the best, like today's, have many tough clues that yield, “Hah! Good one!” The kind my brain lives for. Just a revelation, Jack Hatchett, a name I’m remembering. Please come around with more, and soon. Thank you for a sterling outing today!
@Lewis Could not agree more . Loved the misdirection in this one . The trivia was gettable enough . I really enjoy learning something new ., peripeteia satisfied that itch . Wonderful in every way.
High marks for this one. A couple of odd/ unusual long ones but achievable with crosses. Thank you Jack!
Yowzers! I really wish I had a TOONIE for every single entry that was so not in my wheelhouse!! For the first time in, I don't know but it's got to be an over a year or likely longer, I finally did a puzzle check, corrected a few things, and eventually actually just revealed the lower right corner, which was all that I had left. Wowzers! Hey, what's the difference between yowzers and wowzers!? I am glad that I don't worry about streaks. This one just was not going to come to me. I've come a far away, but I'm not there yet and that's okay! At some point, I just said to myself, "Self, we are done. Let's instead rewatch the last episode of Widow's Bay." And self replied, "Grand idea! Let's make a martini too!!" My selves are so good to each other!! 😏🍸😏 Enjoyed the challenge, but also enjoyed the freedom to give it up. Cheers all!!
@HeathieJ Ooh, a martini sounds good. Plus I have gin in the freezer. Thanks for the suggestion! (I was going to try a Hugo Spritz - another time, I guess.)
@HeathieJ "Enjoyed the challenge, but also enjoyed the freedom to give it up." I love that, thanks!
@HeathieJ A martini? Not a shower beer? Somewhere near the end, I lost patience and started entering what were essentially nonsense letters, just so I could get the “something’s amiss” heckle and hit the “check puzzle” button. I’m with you. At a certain point, it’s time to let go and let flow (your beverage of choice).
Great debut, loved the constructor's remarks, too. Suds in the tub indeed. Solving it was a slow but steady pleasant experience, and as Sean McGowan said, the personality of the constructor really came through - warmth, a funny amuse bouche sense of humor. And I learned that MACHIAVELLI (my first, doomed, choice as to the political philosopher) has the same number of letters as Thomas Paine, how 'bout them apples! Also liked the double pairs of catty-corner long verticals and how they match up: ACROPHOBIC with DROPS A HINT, and PERIPETEIA with WHAT A SHAME. That's probably what I'd say if I witnessed a sudden reversal of fortune. If I had to guess, we'll soon be seeing a lot of peripeteia out there, and I'm gonna be like, "What a shame."
Obnoxious bias that the NYT puzzle continues to constantly hawk hebrew / jewish religious clues in puzzles something like 3 days a week. I’ve done the puzzle every day for the last few years and this type of obvious bias of who gets to be ‘visible’ and who doesnt is shameful imo. I’m jewish and not every single one of us needs to be ‘represented’ on a nearly every-other-day basis in the crossword. the only regularly occuring term that references arabic / islam is EMIR, with the very occasional generic name thrown in (I think the PLO got mentioned twice in the last year though, which was a pleasant surprise). Meanwhile we’re regularly expected to know the names of prior Israeli PMs, hebrew first and last names, religious terms with spellings that throw anyone outside the culture like ‘BNAI’, (crossing with hebrew ELI as well) etc etc. If you don’t believe me, start a tally for yourself beginning tomorrow. Tired of this like i’m tired of OREO and ETSY’s seemingly sponsored spots. I know all pieces of media have leanings and opinions, but i’m disappointed at viewpoint the crossword wants to promote and at what an absurd volume they promote it Yours truly, a new york jew fed up with this nonsense
@Nick Wow. Wasn’t expecting to see this kind of comment. I’m not Jewish. But I guess I’m just used to a paper based in new York, with Jewish editors and mostly? Jewish constructors serving a huge Jewish diaspora is gonna have over representation of their own culture. To your point, how many times do we Yiddish clues. I’m also struck that if you didn’t qualify yourself as a New York Jew, this comment would be removed as some sort of hate crime. Maybe it will. Who knows. Also To your point. Many times EMIR or HADJ or EID or TET or AGRA is thrown in because it is a convenient letter pattern. (Like OREO or ANI or OBOE). The ELI clue definitely seemed like overkill. Given how many options the editors had. But I do recall there being long crosses in past puzzles with Islam holidays. A hard to pronounce African capital. The one I recall that created a lot of consternation. A clue was “site of conflict” or something like that for GAZA. This was pretty early in the beginning of that occupation. That seemed crazy tone deaf and there was a lot of debate over that in the comments. Anyway. I’m not mad about it as you are. And honestly, I’m not even ‘allowed’ to be, or I will be labeled anti-semetic. I sincerely hope this thread generates some thoughtful discussion. And doesn’t get removed for arbitrary reasons.
Nick, Please consider that while you see lots of words and names you identify as "Hebrew/Jewish," you may not recognize (some or all) "Arabic/Islam" words and names as such.
@Nick So all constructors should remove BNAI from their word lists? Sorry, but it's a very useful *pattern of letters*. And how else should it be clued? By the way, the Arabic IBN (son of) has appeared many times, and IMAM has appeared hundreds of times. Certain letter patters are valuable in constructing crossword grids. So EMIR and OREO and IKEA will always be there.
@Nick Thank you. I also like my English xwords to be in English.
@Nick What a--surprising comment. You've also noticed all the French and Spanish lingo? The NYETs and the HERRs and the OROs? Perhaps you can take solace in all those Midi grid swastikas.
@Nick Wow, Nick, why the vitriol from a self professed Jewish person? I respect Jonathon’s comment about the Natick but you are a bit over the top. Yeah, you are right, there are a lot of Jewish editors, constructors, and solvers. But I doubt anyone is going out of their way to construct Jewish centric puzzles, I know I’m not. And I see tons of Spanish words, French words, Japanese words, even Arabic words and no one seems to get so excited. I really sense you are overly sensitive about this because you are Jewish but not sure I understand why, you should be proud of your heritage and let others complain if they wish; Lord knows we get enough who will without having to kvetch ourselves. Wishing you the best.
@Nick OMANI IMAM IBN ADEN HALAL QURAN (and variants) all make regular appearances. Really.
@Nick So what does this mean apropos of your screed? I'm as not a Jew as you could find on the planet, and my first two fills were bnai (without the apostrophe, allowable according to the odd conventions of xwordworld, as opposed to "maam" in the Spelling Bee) and Eli. And do you think Francophones are over-represented, or Trekkies, perhaps? And you want to beef about product placement in the NYT? Check out the frequency of a certain salt brand in the food and cooking section recipes. I mean, salt! Maybe next it'll be a brand of air.
@Nick And here I was wondering whether Qatar had purchased a stake in the NYT because of all the Arab/Islamic words we were suddenly seeing in the puzzle.
Now that’s what I’m talking about! That was hard, crunchy, chewy, made my brain hurt and had not one tv personality in it. Yes! One of my favourite puzzles this year. A political philosopher plus a chippie tea? How can it not be a winner? TIL SHOWER BEER. I mean, ugh. A G&T in a bubble bath is as far as I’m prepared to go. Definitely not sharing that with DH. I’ll be tripping over tinnies for ever more. Had to Google TRITIP, it looks delicious. Might ask my butcher for the cut as it’s going to be barbi weather next week. Bravo Mr Hatchet, more please.
@Helen Wright Tri-tip can be a bit tough, so as with a flank steak, you’ll want to give it a good all-day (or overnight) marinade before you slap it on the grill. Then slice it very thinly against the grain. Yum!
@Helen Wright I seem to remember reading that it's often unavailable in meat markets because the butcher keeps it for him/herself.
<a href="https://imgur.com/a/wNB24Cg" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/wNB24Cg</a> This was the third puzzle in a row that I found impossible to solve without reveals mostly because of personal arcana in the fill rather than clever misdirection. This is getting tiresome... I've heard the term AMUSE BOUCHE before (on Master Chef, maybe?) but I had no idea what it meant. HOME RUN TROT was impossible to get for me from the clue, and I needed loads of crosses to get it ACROPHOBIC was another unknown (it's simply "lęk wysokości", fear of heights, in Polish) I was completely unfamiliar with WOOD EAR - I just checked if we have it in Poland, and apparently we do, but I've never seen it or heard any of its Polish names, either (one of them is "ucho judaszowe" - ear of Judas). I never saw FISH N CHIPS served with tartare sauce on my 2025 UK trip. PERIPETEIA... "Perypetie" are difficult turns of events in Polish, but I had no idea the etymology was Greek and that the word existed in English, and in such a spelling. Then there were all the names... I knew Sun YAT SEN (albeit as I entered it I was sure I was getting the spelling wrong), I guessed ITO (Japanese three letter skater had to be her, right?) and I dredged BARR from the deepest recesses of my mind - he's appeared in these puzzles several times since I started doing them in 2023. But the other names were stumpers. I've heard of JOHN WOO but I have no idea what he directed so the clue might just as well have been in Chinese. What's a BANKSHOT? SHOWER BEER? What?!
@Andrzej. Tartare sauce always with Fish and chips in the UK. And a BANK SHOT - called a double in snooker - is when you pocket the ball off the rail (cushion).
@Andrzej I have no idea to your last two questions, and I did not get them without help either. However, I will say that whenever I've eaten fish and chips, which I love, at a an English style type pub here in the US ( I haven't been to England yet), it's always served with malt vinegar.... unless you ask for tartar sauce. But at least upper Midwestern type fish and chips, of which there are many, especially on Fridays and during Lent, although we call them fish fry, not fish and chips, it's always tartar sauce. I don't know if you know what tartar sauce is, but it's kind of a mayo base with pickle relish, a bit of sugar, and lemon basically. I grew up on it, so I like it, but my husband who loves fry fish from the Caribbean, thinks it's a crime against humanity. By the way you never did answer from a couple days ago, are you a good cook or a wonderful lover? Inquiring minds really want to know?! 😏
@Andrzej What “is getting tiresome”? You complaining whenever you don’t know something? I don’t know Hebrew. So I guess I should complain two Hebrew clues crossing? Amuse-Bouche is a French term. Aren’t you in Europe? Sound I complain because the America puzzle used a ‘foreign’ word? We get it. We get it. English isn’t your native tongue. Yes. It’s amazing you can do late week puzzles. Sincerely. But your incessant complaining, if you don’t know something it must be arcana. Pump the brakes dude. Midori Ito was a worldwide figure (skater) back in the day. She literally apologized to her home country for not winning the gold in the Olympics. I’ve never heard of Rene Claire. Or is it Claire Rene. I honestly don’t know. But it didn’t make or break the puzzle for me. I kinda enjoyed that two words I never heard of. Will never be able to spell. Where symmetrically placed in the grid. ACROPHOBIC (I think it should have been aero…) and PERI…. I don’t know the words. I’m not even inclined to look them up after the fact. But the other long entries were fun phrases. I guess it must be because I’ve heard of these… I can’t wait for Robert Lewandowski to be in the crossword one day. So I can call foul. Arcana!
@Andrzej jeez talk about cross words, you’re taking the brief a bit too literally methinks. Certainly your negativity is becoming “tiresome” and is unkind to the creators of the puzzles who put a lot of time and effort into these things. If you don’t enjoy these puzzles don’t do them, or do them and put your big girl pants and accept that some people enjoy them some of the time - but it’s not all about you.
Very weak and disappointing puzzle! Some extremely obscure answers to tenuous clues, interspersed with random trivia. As for 7 across the clue could have been, "insert random letters here." Absolutely nothing clever about this puzzle. If I wanted a general knowledge quiz I would have gone elsewhere. I'd suggest that debut creators cut their teeth on a Monday to Wednesday puzzle, certainly not a Friday or Saturday.
@Hitch the editors should have rejected it. The standard has slipped markedly in the last month or so. Fri & Sats with terrible cluing and mysterious answers.
@Hitch AJA Wilson is very well known here. Sorry her name is gibberish in South Africa. The type of clue you describe as obscure and tenuous is just what I am looking for in a Fri/Sat puzzle. You generally don’t like a lot of what I would consider good puzzles. I’m not sure what you’re expecting.
@Hitch My experience was Very solid and pleasing puzzle! Some things I didn’t know, but learned from the crosses, interspersed with pop culture and gimmes to help me with the unknowns. As for 7 Across, she’s pretty incredible. Such a clever puzzle. This is why I come here. And a debut Friday? So cool. Isn’t it lovely that we’re all so different? How drab the world would be if we were all cut from the same cloth. I’m sorry you didn’t have the fun solve that I did. And I’m pretty sure that means you’ve enjoyed some puzzles that I merely endured. There’s always tomorrow.
@Hitch I too knew zero about the WNBA basketballista. Now that Toronto has gotten a team, that may change. But I got the two A's and then the middle letter changed a pile of nonsense into JOHN by putting a J on top!
OH COME ON NOW! Must we wait all the way to act V for the PERIPETEIA? DON’T BE A HERO - recall what happened with the PERIPETEIA of Icarus. The scene with the SHOWER BEER presaged an unpleasant PERIPATEIA for the main character. There, maybe I now know this word. Maybe.
10 names in a crossword is unfortunately too many for my personal enjoyment.
I just love seeing a quality debut on the weekend and this definitely qualifies—congrats, Jack, and I’m thrilled that your wit and personality shine through. A lot to love here: Two new words for me to learn (PERIPETEIA and AMUSEBOUCHE, both gettable on crosses). I’m shocked I never heard of the former despite being a n English major and a Grecophile. HOMERUNTROT is indeed a highlight, and had a bit of laugh at WEPT below it because don’t you remember? “There’s no crying in baseball!” <a href="https://m.youtube.com/shorts/C0M-CwxiS00?ra=m" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/shorts/C0M-CwxiS00?ra=m</a> Maybe AJA cries in the WNBA… (just kidding!!!) Also loved the clue for ROME. Anyone else notice that MACHIAVELLI has the same number of letters as THOMASPAINE? Who knew? Sounds like something he would have said (except maybe for a prince, not a king…) Never knew a SHOWERBEER was a thing, but I don’t drink, anyway Loved the PUBFARE and FISHNCHIPs cross. I can see how SUNYATSEN and OREE could be a Natick. Somehow the former was in the back of my mind although I know nothing about him. BROCK was a no know for me, I tried BRICK which would be better for a Lego character. Anyways, a great challenge, pretty much had to solve from a the bottom up which is my favorite solve for a Friday. Only kudos from me
@SP I learned "amuse bouche" in the 90s thanks to Friends <a href="https://youtu.be/wLTV7Cvnx2c?is=ip3nGT8eHhigFiJG" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/wLTV7Cvnx2c?is=ip3nGT8eHhigFiJG</a>
@SP I learned AMUSE BOUCHE from reading restaurant reviews. I had three of the Downs, OBOE, NOM and PIC, filled in and the light bulb went off for THOMAS PAINE. See also your prince v king.
@SP I’m with you on SHOWERBEER: TIL this is a thing. OHCOMEONNOW—srsly? It filled in smoothly with the crosses, but still, my mind boggles! I’ve been known to enjoy a cold one on occasion—perhaps with my FISHNCHIPS—but have never felt the need to indulge during my ablutions. I hit an impasse for a bit in the NW, but once AMUSEBOUCHE dawned on me, the rest dropped in pretty quickly. A satisfying solve, after some frustration. Hope to see this constructor again! Congrats on the debut!
@SP Thank you so much for adding some paragraphs!!! I'm much happier being able to read your insights and enthusiasm or critiques so much easier! 💛 I'd probably be more of a shower martini gal, myself! Har!! If that ever actually happens, I hope my husband knows that that's the time to call for an intervention. Har x two
@SP Congrats on not drinking! I've greatly reduced my intake but I just can't force myself to give up alcohol completely, even though I know its essentially poison... (I'm being nice now so that I can really rip into you when that puzzle of yours finally gets released 🤣)
@SP SHOWERBEER is a thing. It's a thing that I invented in 1978 (Stroh's, back then) and it's one of life's great pleasures. ( These days, Sierra Nevada Pale.) I'm not sure how everybody else found out about it.
Hah! Commenter on another site called today's puzzle an "abuse-bouche".
@Lewis that's that French website that was surreptitiously charged to my credit card
Emu’d but I will try again: Last thoughts for Jack: You never imagined your innocent Friday submission would have so many land mines, did you? Too much trivia, too many Naticks too many Jewish references, now too male-centric? That’s OK, take it in stride. They used to say, you know what they call the bottom of the medical school class? “Doctor”. So, if nothing else, know you can now call yourself “New York Times crossword puzzle constructor”. And you are nowhere near the bottom of the class. So, welcome to the trenches, and hope you reenlist soon.
@SP I would put Jack pretty close to the top of the class.
Well I did have to give up today but I just want to say that I think it is a shame there are some mean personal criticisms either to constructor or editors recently. Maybe there always were. Maybe I’m just too sensitive these days. But just because our comments are virtual, the people are real.
Crevecoeur, Nastiness directed at constructors and editors is a fairly recent development here.
@Crevecoeur, I’m slowly going through the archive and happened to be finishing a similarly difficult 2019 Friday puzzle as I was finishing this one. After completing what I thought was the puzzle from 2019, I went directly to the comments (as I sometimes do; sorry, Barry!) and was shocked—really just stunned—by the demeaning tone and cruelty. I then realized my mistake, and sure enough, when I checked the actual 2019 comments, they comprised a discussion of the harder clues, a few comments about natticky spots, and a number of TIL-based conversations. This hateful tone really is new. It’s as though people have begun to believe that their subscription gives them the right to treat the editors and constructors like dirt (or really something worse that would trigger the emus). The ironic thing is that these comments that express feelings without any evidence say everything about the people posting and nothing about the puzzle. I say that not as common wisdom about being mean, but as a conclusion I’ve come to after reading hundreds of these thoughtless and cruel posts. If a comment is so devoid of specifics that it could literally be lifted from one column and added to another with no loss of meaning, then what other than the poster’s own interiority could the comment be revealing? phew. sorry. i’ve been wanting to get that off my chest for a while now. thank you for giving me the excuse.
@Crevecoeur I'm right there with you. I detest people who go after constructors, especially new constructors. And I'm not shy about replying in kind. I like to think I'm gracious to people who deserve it. People who write things like "this constructor should never be allowed again" really grate on me.
@Crevecoeur @Francis When I encounter people who appear to feel that paying for a service entitles them to belittle the provider, I wish we had a National Service requirement—to work in a service industry for a year. Deal with the public. It’s an education.
Sorry, not a fan. I didn’t enjoy that solve at all…. Needed vowel substitution to ‘solve’ the crossing in the south east. Ugh.
Outstanding debut puzzle. Congratulations to our constructor! So many excellent long entries, a number of which I simply didn't know. But with the crosses and a bit of "alphabetical reasoning", everything came together in about 30 minutes, without any assistance required. Perfect for a Friday. Hope to see more puzzles from Mr. Hatchett.
Ugh, I'm so disappointed! For the briefest of moments I let myself believe I was finally getting my well-earned shout-out in the NYT crossword. Sigh. (Not a literal shout-out, of course, because how could I hear it?!)
@john wood ear don't let yourself get all hot and sour.
TIL that doing crosswords while watching World Cup Soccer makes the puzzles more challenging. PERIPETEIA would have given me fits in any case. Lots of slightly off kilter clues also helped make this one fun. I particularly liked GLASSBLOWER and its clue, for which I couldn’t get compliance officer off my mind.
Willie O'Ree did not break the NHL color barrier. He was the first Black player, but there had already been Native American and Asian players before him.
@Dave K. So he broke a different color barrier than the one you are thinking of?
I nearly broke out in a cold sweat when I started this puzzle, so I was totally shocked when I was able to finish it without having to look anything up. AMUSEBOUCHE and SUN YAT SEN were gimmes for me, so it gave me a little toehold, but not much. Of course PERIPETEIA was a total unknown, but it worked out through the crosses. At first I was incredulous when I solved SHOWER BEER. I thought it was a very sad answer, like, can't people wait until they get out of the shower to have a beer? But after reading all the comments, I get it. Sort of. I'm not a beer drinker, so I guess I really don't get it. You do you. It was nice, though, to finally have a challenging Friday puzzle!
@Times Rita I had the opposite reaction to 47A, as in, "It couldn't be, but I hope it is." Remember, some folks shower before going to work, and some folks need one when they come home from work...and a cold beer. My brother-in-law installed a coaster on the wall for just that purpose.
Very nice!! It was impossible until it wasn't. Actually, each quadrant was impossible until it wasn't, so I had four dopamine rushes. What more could one possibly ask of a Friday puzzle? So many things or people I didn't know. The literature phrase for one. SHOWERBEER for another, but that took surprisingly few crosses before I realized, of course that's gotta be a thing. I loved the way whole areas I had no idea about turned out to be approachable by increments. That's the kind of cluing that leaves me in awe. Thank you Jack. More, more!
I’m going to take a stab at the “too much trivia” debate. This in no way is meant to disrespect anyone else’s opinion or personal experience. Seems to me a puzzle with entries everyone knows, clued in obvious ways, is hardly a puzzle at all. That leaves three main options: 1) well known entries clued ambiguously or vaguely 2) well known entries clued in a punny or misdirecting way 3) some entries that not everyone knows. The first two only get you so far. The trick to the third is to spread them out or avoid true Naticks, and try to have them have some cultural or educational interest. So, to continue specifically in this puzzle: I get the ELI/BNAI cross. I would have clued ELI differently, although if it were clued “Manning brother” or something like that, there’s another trivia entry. Still, if you know BNA_ and EL_ which you can get on fair crosses, and you know EL_ is a name, what else can it be? I suppose THEDGE crosses it too but what else could THEEDG_ be? YATSEN/OREE. Again, fair; I didn’t know OREE and while YATSEN is an important historical figure he’s not well known. Nevertheless, no other trivia in that corner, and you could always run the vowels at OR_E and YATS_N, unless you are a purist (to be continued…)
@SP (Continued) BROCK I didn’t know, but again fair crosses. I hope no one is too upset by THOMASPAINE? Mostly fair crosses and certainly someone you should learn about if you don’t know AJA/JOHNWOO. I think the WOO part is covered by fair crosses. You could question WOODEAR, which isn’t in my lexicon either, but you got a hint from the clue about the EAR part and you could guess WOOD because mushrooms grow in a forest; not sure what else _NBA could be or W_OD. That leaves JOHN and again _OHN seems pretty straightforward; maybe the H is also questionable but BOUCHE seems like a likely guess even if you don’t know French or that word, which I don’t. BARR is gettable by crosses. Anything I missed? HOMERUNTROT is American centric but not our fault; and AMUSEBOUCHE and PERIPETEIEA are great words gettable by crosses and ones I hope everyone should know. Sorry to be wordy but I wanted to break it down clearly and logically. In my opinion this is a challenging but fair Friday and one with trivia that was interesting and not obstructive to the solve
@SP Valiant attempt, and a fair analysis I've tried to take on the "trivia" charge, but found the topic too slippery, too eely, too hagfishy. Knowing July 4 was Independence Day in the US, is that trivia? How about that the new Independence Day for the USSR-West is April 5, the day the tariffs began? Is that trivia? How about the planets? Trivia? They were for Sherlock Holmes. Not so much for Clyde Tombaugh. Although may Pluto is trivial, now that it's been reclassified as a dwarf planet. Composers? Poets? Sports figures? Are they all trivia? Some trivia? Is knowing Einstein solved the Relativistic Field Equations trivia? Is it trivia to know he did this while completely unclothed? Is the act of defining trivia itself trivia? Questions, questions questions.
This is one of those puzzles that was way too tough for me but still enjoyable for the fill I was able to make.
SHOWER BEER! Back in the day, I worked outside a lot, often amid toxic stuff. When I returned to the hotel after a long, hard day, a shower was required. And a SHOWER BEER was my secret pleasure. Today I found out it's a thing! I first had the EE and thought maybe it's some sort of beer. Instant memory of one in the shower, but I thought that was a little strange for a crossword. Imagine my delight when it was indeed the answer! Best entry of the month, for sure.
@Nora I see there are a lot of comments about the beer. So the setup is that you have to be really hot, tired, and filthy. You want a cold beer, badly, but you also need a shower, badly. The obvious solution is beer in the shower. It can't be a tiny shower, there needs to be some room to set the beer down, like on a shower bench. Or even on the sink next to the shower. Even a few sips of the beer during the shower is heaven. I found the combination made me feel much less sorry for myself about the hard day I just had.
I just flew in from solving this chewy, Saturday-style Friday puzzle and boy are my brains tired! I don't think I've exclaimed out loud as exuberantly upon solving a puzzle as loudly as this time! The SE was my almost-Waterloo, it's so fun though when the cobwebs fall— for 35D I had BANK____, and as often happens with crosswords, I thought of 'ALL' the possibilities of what 'rails' could refer to— except of course the one it turned out to be. Bank of a river? Inside a bank where maybe the rails refers to those roped-off sections? Was it BANKline? Or was this referring to a BANKheist or BANKjob gone wrong? I didn't know what. I dunno when or how I thought of BANKSHOT and "ohhh, pool table 'rails'!!" So, for 54A I had DONTBEAfool, DONTBEAdolt, DONTBEAnass, even considered DONTBECRAZY for a nanosec. Maybe DONTBEAHERO is where things fell into place, I dunno… but that was so excellent to have the SE and thereby the puzzle fall into place. Lots of wonderful clues and entries. Maybe a couple 'meh'-ish entries but overall I thought this was quite wonderful. Now, regarding this Wordplay Comment section format though, why did NYT change it so you can't open the column and Comments in a browser so you can refer back to the puzzle? For what purpose is that change? Also, typing my comment here is made super-dysfunctional and anti-ergonomic by whatever new system they've installed. Cursor obscured by keyboard. Yecch. Not an improvement. Puzzle: good, NYT format change: not so good.
@Becca +1 for not being able to open in a separate browser. I come to the comment section way less often since the change was made.
@Becca Love your comments on bank____. My experience as well. I bookmarked NYTimes Gameplay page years ago. With the recent change to accessing the Wordplay column I open a browser page and hopscotch back and forth as needed. It works well for me.
@Becca I put them in separate tabs and easily switch from on e the other. I use Chrome.
FISHNCHIPS: From a fish and chip shop/chippy - salt and vinegar are available (in the UK). In Scotland you ask for a 'fish supper' (or sausage supper, or pie supper etc). In Edinburgh only you can also get 'brown sauce' which is not HP sauce but a unique concoction. In a restaurant, tartare sauce is usually served with fish and chips. I found this hard, I didn't know any of the names, but the wordplay was nice eg BOB, TAP SHOE, RED STATE.
WOO DEAR, that mushroom clue was a doozy.
@Mike R I agree....mostly I can't figure out why I knew it!
Great Friday puzzle! What an amazing debut! Tough enough for a Saturday, IMHO. Tricky, crunchy, I found the NW and SE to be especially difficult, but loved the stack of DON'T BE A HERO and GLASS BLOWER, and the clue "One concerned with transparency in the workplace?" was excellent! And "Field trip?" for HOME RUN TROT was Mwah! chef's kiss good (making its placement above AMUSE BOUCHE beautifully appropriate). Good to see A'JA Wilson and the WNBA getting some press. TIL about SHOWER BEERs, like many others, I suppose. My first thought was "Wha???" but now I can't wait to give it a try. (In my beer-drinking days, I'd take a BEER into the bathroom of the pub, and think about the one-ness of nature. Water in, water out.) Great debut, Jack Hatchett! Your perseverance clearly paid off. I look forward to seeing more of your work.
@The X-Phile You don’t buy beer, you merely rent it.
I personally found this very satisfying! It was a nice steady fill in process for me, where I didn’t have much during the first pass but successively kept filling in more and more after each pass. The fact that this is rated as “Very Hard” on xwordstats also makes me feel like I have evolved so much as a crossword solver in the past year. Regarding the fill itself: I smiled at SHOWER BEER since I remember being introduced to this concept by my first post-college roommate :)
Now this was a solid Friday challenge. One of my only gimmes wasn't super helpful since I couldn't remember how to spell it 😂 The WOODEAR, PERIP..., RENE, THE section was brutal! Some lucky guesses and a peek at the column for THE (🤦🏼♀️) finally got me through in well over my average time. Tough but fun. Congrats on a fab debut! More late-week challenges like this one, please!
Very difficult, but I solved it in 1:49:22 with no lookups. This is the most difficult Friday I've ever seen and I thought it was going to break my 33 day streak.
It’s Juneteenth, I’m off, I guess I just have too much time in my hands. But in answer to those who think this puzzle was “universally hated”, or even more disliked than not: I counted positive vs negative comments, original posts only, and left off anything that was neutral, or unsure, or didn’t express an opinion about the puzzle as a whole. I count 47 positive vs 27 negative. So I don’t know how to compare to usual Fridays, and I may have misinterpreted a few or whatever— but it wasn’t even close, this puzzle was appreciated to a much greater degree than disliked. I respect if you were on the negative side, but don’t make out that this was some travesty of a crossword creation by popular vote. That’s all, carry on.
@SP Rigged election. Illegal voters. Ballots stolen. Isn't that what we say these days?
@SP My positive reply to Lewis' comment was removed, as were several others in that thread. I missed whatever happened there.
@SP I'm very curious how you ranked my comment. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4gtlqe?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4gtlqe?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
@SP I liked it a lot. I don’t usually post just to say, good one! So it seems plausible that the likes are even underrepresented. I have no evidence to back that up of course. Did you recommend the 3/3/2015 puzzle? I did that one earlier and also thoroughly enjoyed it. Thankfully it wasn’t too picky about how to enter the rebuses!
Continuing the trend of excessive trivia. At least the Wordplay column called out the Natick for what it is. Ugh.
@Gregg Only one of them, and with a pointed non-apology.
Continuing the trend indeed. The Times Crossword has been full of proper nouns -- and proper nouns crossing proper nouns -- since 1942 (1A crossing 2D in the very first puzzle). Successful solvers have always been expected to know things.
A SHOWERBEER is just the thing after a twelve hour shift building AMUSEBOUCHEs
I have sworn off drinking alone, so all my shower beers have been with friends.
I’ve never felt the need to comment on a puzzle, but this one broke me. This was by far my least favorite puzzle in recent memory, possibly ever; the constructor said the puzzle was “full of [my] personality”, which boiled down to sports and bar culture. Not fun.
THIC (too hard, I cheated). Too many clues that weren’t just misdirects but undirects. Off-grid connection? THE? I don’t get it. SHOWER BEER? I’m not going to google it. Did the constructor make this term up just for this puzzle? You don’t go on a date with an AMI! I confess that some of it was beyond me as a Brit, but i guesstimated BNAI, AJA, OREE and HOMERUNTROT. And I didn’t know BANKSHOT/BEIN (i had mANKSHOT/mEIN) I guess that’s on me. In short, OH COME ON NOW!
@Petrol Sean explained it nicely in his column. Here: 32A. One of my favorite clues in the puzzle, [Off-grid connection?], asks for an answer that literally connects the words “off” and “grid.” It’s the phrase “off THE grid,” which describes a self-sufficient lifestyle that forgoes public utilities like the electrical grid. As for SHOWERBEER, many accounts and reminiscences below. Can't you go on a platonic date with an AMI and then discover you want just...a bit...AMOUR? (sorry)
Lovely debut! I love DON'T BE A HERO. Not getting the complaints of "too much trivia." I only had trouble in the SE corner. Everything else I either knew or could guess from the crosses. I've said this about a bajillion times before, but if people would just widen their horizons and read/watch/listen to more things, the "obscure" trivia would be much easier for them to get.
@Katie100%. I was flying through this one and then hit a major wall for a few minutes in the SE corner. (YATSEN was not a name I've ever heard, nor was PEREPETEIA . . . thankfully those two did not cross or that would have been one of the biggest Naticks of all time!) And personally, I like learning new things so getting introduced to new words is always cool, so long as the puzzle does it fairly (which usually is the case).
@Katie What is it that you don’t get about there being too much trivia? Is this a humble brag?
@Katie Generally, “too much trivia” means “too much I didn’t know.” Trivia is whatever you want it to be, so if you’ve never encountered it, it’s “trivia.” But most of the big answers were not very trivia-like. A HOME RUN TROT relates to one of the major sports in the US. You might not know what an AMUSE BOUCHE is, but it’s a not-uncommon culinary term. OH COME ON NOW is an expression made up of four ultra-common words. THOMAS PAINE is taught in any US history class. The rest of them are similar. Some of the answers, like DON’T BE A HERO and GLASSBLOWER, require some thinking, but that doesn’t make them trivia. If you can get the long answers, the few answers that really are trivia, like BROCK and JOHN WOO, fill themselves in for the experienced solver. If they can’t get to that point, it’s a skill issue, but they don’t realize that.
When I got TRITIP and AMUSEBOUCHE and FISHNCHIPS andTHOMASPAINE and TAPSHOE and OBOE, and some shorties without much help, I thought, Okay, this is going to be fine, but when I hit the dead ends and stone walls, I decided to heck with it and started looking up some answers. That didn't help, so I came to the column. Finally just took the peek and finished it. I'm pretty sure I would never have got there without help. Thanks, Jack, and congratulations on your debut.
Fresh, fun, and Friday. Hubby was introduced to SHOWER BEERs by his brother a few years ago. His reaction? “What? Why would you want to..? Don’t you get water in it? That makes no sense! But… maybe I’ll try it…” Post lawn-mowing, he found it magically delicious.
It seems like everybody who was complaining about the puzzles being too easy absolutely love this one. For me, it's a waste of time when I get the impression that the constructor is trying to show how clever he or she is, rather than create a clever clue.
@Matt I think you're getting the wrong impression. My guess is that many of us once found late-week puzzle very difficult to solve. I certainly did. You need to struggle; that's how humans improve at things. Yes, it's uncomfortable.
@Matt This was a huge waste of time outside of learning about peripeteia for me (auto-correct even hated me typing that one out). If I wanted to play Trivial Pursuit, I would’ve done just that.
@Matt I think you've got it backwards. The constructor is trying to test how clever we are.
@Matt I would say that about this puzzle; I would DEFINITELY say that about Wednesday's "riffle shuffle" puzzle.