Well, I have successfully solved my first grid where I knew none of the trivia names with no look ups. Wahoo!
@Confused Kiwi Congrats!! Your first of many, I'm sure!!
I know about singing parts alto well. (I've posted that tenor eleven times.)
@Mike Your comment is bass-less. Descant be the first time you’ve heard that complaint.
@Mike Cowboys yodeling in the old chorale. We can't all have lofty aspirations.
@Mike I capella agree with you. Some people have cotton in their ears!
@Maestro Mike Aria obligotto trill us every night? (No, but we re-choir it.)
@Mike Don't worry about repeating; I can baritone more time.
@Mike He took it ALTO far….Ziggy played guitar!
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Bass player (6) 2. Choking cause, with "the" (4) 3. Word that becomes its opposite when its first letter is removed (5) 4. Blade runner? (10) 5. What has flatter feet? (3) WOOFER YIPS THERE HELICOPTER ODE
My favorite encore clues from last week: [Pros in Washington] (4) [Makes a return that hits the net?] (6) YEAS EFILES
@Lewis I'd have led the list with THERE. So pure, so covert, and then so obvious once you see it – a beautiful piece of clueing!
Lovely puzzle, but I noticed that the vocal parts unsurprisingly did not include my own part in the chorus: [What John Ezra had for dinner] (C)R(A)B (S)OUP, (T)HEN (R)O(A)S(T)ED (O)X [What John Ezra's vegan wife had for dinner] (F)RESH (A)VOCADO, (L)ENTIL (S)OUP, (E)X(T)RA (T)OMAT(O) Nor did it include my wife's vocal part. [What John Ezra wore to dinner] (B)AN(A)NA (R)EPUBL(I)C (T)AIL(O)RED LINE(N) JACK(E)T
@john ezra -- This is brilliant, (S)TANDARD (O)(P)E(R)(A)TI(N)G PR(O)CEDURE for you, John. It’s sweet as (B)L(A)CK(S)TRAP MOLA(S)SES, and if anyone thinks otherwise, (T)H(E)RE’S (N)(O) ACCOUNTING FO(R) TASTE. CONGR(A)TU(L)A(T)I(O)NS!
ONO, it's EMO ELMO. IMO he should remember the ALAMO and have a POMELO to avoid a HANGOVER, leave that ALTO stone alone and take a ride with OLLIE and Ms LOEB in the GTO. And remember, you reap what you SOW.
@Vaer It’s just too bad they didn’t get to stop for an ICEE and some OREOs.
Our constructor observes: Likewise, with six Down entries of eight letters or more and an average word length of 5.11 letters, the stats are more typical of a Wednesday or Thursday puzzle, so it might play harder than usual. Alex, It played like a Monday for me. A very nice Monday. Thanks!
@Barry Ancona In fact, it was my fastest Monday in months. Spelling ISIAH correctly for once helped 🤣
One thing many people don't know about the gifted Freddie Mercury is that, though he sang mostly as a TENOR, his vocal range had a span from baritone to SOPRANO. Here he is, unforgettable, sharing the stage with Monserrat Caballé – <a href="https://youtu.be/ksNoe8W2jTc?is=GKFYlUPERYxYTE4H" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/ksNoe8W2jTc?is=GKFYlUPERYxYTE4H</a> Ah, yes, the puzzle. It dropped at the right time to soothe my broken heart, just as Brazil was being eliminated from this World Cup. Nothing like a nice Monday puzzle to shake off the blues, and this one was perfect. I tackled the grid in the West, from top to bottom. With every first letter of a themer, I filled in the rest of the circles with no crosses, which made for a very fun solve. Thank you, AES, for a puzzle that was engaging and entertaining, enough to shift my thoughts away from the soccer sadness... (And I'm still marveling at how you found phrases containing the VOICE PARTS spelled out!)
@sotto voce Gasp. That video. Thank you.
Fun fact: Thanks to testosterone therapy, I sang in the alto, tenor, and bass sections of the same choir within the span of six years!
AES is one of my faves and this was a fun Monday! When I saw what was happening, a story of vocal mishaps appeared: The TALENT SHOW went on for ages because the ALTO had to keep starting over- wrong key, forgotten lyrics, coughing fit. It was all BLANK STARES when the BASS launched into his version of Queen of the Night. The SOPRANO had chosen an aria much too difficult; to get out of a bind she executed a STOP DROP AND ROLL. TENOR - THE HANGOVER, enough said.
@Cat Lady Margaret - I'm laughing at the BASS singing Queen of the Night, instead of singing Sarastro.
There were too many spaces for just "TEHRAN" (or even "TEHeRAN"), but since the clue was city + country, TEHRANIRAN was apt. There was no country in the Little Mermaid clue.
Lots of lovely longs today (11, significantly more than a typical Monday) – my favorites being MORATORIA, SONGBIRDS, DECREPIT, GALAPAGOS, COPENHAGEN, BLANK STARES, and STOP DROP AND ROLL. My favorites among them are the sweet sing-song MORATORIA, so fun to say, and SONGBIRDS, which are gloriously singsonging as I type. Add to that the rare-in-crosswords five-letter palindrome (SAGAS), the crossing rhymes GRAZE and AMAZE, and anagrams in which both words are also palindromes (NAAN/ANNA), and I’ve been put in a right good mood. That’s a gift, Alex – thank you for making this!
It's sweet to see Yoko Ono, author of "Grapefruit" (1964) one of the greatest pioneering books of conceptual art and "instructions," share the space here with Grapefruit's cousin, Pomelo. She would be amused. Well the 4th of July has passed and here we are in this smog with its aura of eden. I particularly liked the Shakespearean reminder, having just read A Midsummer Night's Dream, in honor of June 19th this year, Midsummer's Eve, my kinda holiday. Anyway, the scene with Bottom playing Pyramus's death scene, is truly an extended STOP DROP AND ROLL, and rivals THE HANGOVER in hilariousness.
@john ezra - Yes, Pyramus and Thisbe is a comedy that is often separately put on when a short Shakespeare play is called for. I am thinking of Renaissance Festivals, schools, etc.
After today's theme time to listen to some Bach Chorales....
Not too difficult, Alex, nice Monday with a few stretches. Thanks!
Nice photowordplay on the 41A clue, Sam!
This puzzle brought to mind my experience as a “treble”, which is a term used in Britain for a boy soprano, especially in polyphonic choral works. I was wondering if, how and why composers might decide to specify their preference for a pre-pubescent boy rather than an adult woman* as the singer of the highest part (or indeed a castrato!) and i came across a word I’ve never encountered before: “meane”. Meane is a word for a boy whose voice is too low for the treble parts but too high to be a countertenor, ie a “boy alto”. So some pieces by composers like Thomas Tallis and William Byrd would have five parts: Treble, Meane, Alto, Tenor, Bass. (Nowadays we can also add sopranos, mezzo sopranos, contraltos, countertenors, baritones and probably more than i can think of!) There’s far more than you could ever want to know about the meane vocal part at Grokopedia: <a href="https://grokipedia.com/page/meane" target="_blank">https://grokipedia.com/page/meane</a> *For some reason girls don’t seem to get a look in — it’s just boys, men and women!
@Petrol I think that, musically, the reason was to get a cleaner, (purer?), vibrato-free sound. More innocent and spiritual, you might say. This is effective and noticeable when hearing these works even today. Then there would have been logistical considerations in bringing females into the clerical environments of the times. Finally there is the old Adam and Eve story and the fear of bringing Temptation into the Garden.
Too many proper nouns for a Monday. Felt more like a Tuesday. Still would have been too many names and places for my liking if on a Tuesday, but a bit heavy for a Monday. Otherwise about average. Maybe slightly below.
Fun puzzle, slightly harder than usual for Monday but still Monday easy. What threw me off was that I did not know that there was a shorter spelling to the name ISIAH. I thought it was just Isaiah. Then AVON/GTO was two words I didn't know so had the wrong vowel at first.
@Chris I always trip up on that, too. It's not an easy name to spell.
@Chris I always think it should be spelled “Isaah”, because where’s the middle “i” sound? But then that doesn’t look right, so I play around the spelling until I end up with “Isaiah”. Which never looks quite right, either. And now I get “Isiah” for added confusion?? Aargh.
@Chris Mistakes can be made on birth certificates, and eccentric or 'invented' spellings, or just mistaken spellings, are found on birth certificates (which can only be altered or corrected by law/legal process.) One person we know was meant to be named "ELIAS" but "ELISE" was on the birth certificate, and he said it sure sounded funny when an announcer said, "Back on the field we have All-American Elise [so and so]".... And my dad got a copy of his birth certificate when in his 50's, to find that the doctor who filled it out wrote "Nathan," not "Nathaniel"-- as he was meant to be "Junior." Fortunately his mother was still alive, and Grandma had to go and attest to that fact ...
I came here to criticize the 23 Down clue: "Cuts open, as an envelope" for SLITS. SLITS carries no sense of opening anything. So in my book this is an inept clue. I am well aware that some people think "a clue is merely a suggestion" and should not be compared with correct definitions of the answer. And yes, this clue did enable me to get the answer. But the situation is much more complicated than that. Clues in well-edited crossword puzzles are required to be on-target, which this was not. This is a chronic problem for NYT crosswords in recent years. Two things that often accompany each other do *not* necessarily, mean one is a good clue for the other. And above all, *there is no need* for bad clues like this one. As I learned from a multi-year online workshop with the consummate crossword constructors Emily Cox and Henr Rathvon about 25 years ago (sponsored by the New York Times), a good clue should be "unassailable". That is the standard that I expect from NYT crosswords. And if I had my druthers, I would never again see a clue for TESLA that refers to the company (rather than, say, the inventor or the unit of magnetic flux density).
@Dan I can't disagree with you about Tesla, that's for sure, but are you joking about SLIT? It doesn't sound like it, but I'm honestly not totally sure because, as clued, it's the first example in this dictionary. SLIT Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com <a href="https://share.google/rVs0lAbaC3TB16viU" target="_blank">https://share.google/rVs0lAbaC3TB16viU</a>
@Dan Always take the time to do a little research before making a bold assertion.
@Dan Far be it from me to assail my idols, Cox and Rathvon, on whose cryptic Atlantic crosswords I cut my teeth; but I would argue that a completely unassailable crossword clue might also be boring, wordy, uncreative or unoriginal. I would rather have a clue that amuses me and pushes the envelope, maybe takes a risk, rather than the same old same old. That said, these clues are unassailable. SLIT is a verb which means to make a thin cut, which is what a letter opener does to open an envelope. It seems as straightforward a clue as can be. As for TESLA, whatever you or I may think about Elon Musk, Tesla is a large well known company filled with many hardworking engineers, factory workers and others who are just trying to put food on their families’ tables and, by the way, a quality product for sale. Don’t want to support Elon Musk? Don’t buy it. But eliminate the name of a legitimate company from crosswords? I disagree.
@Dan I’m just curious… what do you think “slit” means?
@Dan Now I guess we have MDS. Dude has done more good for the US and this planet than anyone could have ever imagined. Somehow you have to break the cycle before you get better.
Sharp construction, I was just a little flat this morning.
The capital city between Baghdad and Ashgabat is TEHRAN. The capital city between Baghdad, Iraq, and Ashgabat, Turkmenistan is TEHRAN, IRAN.
I'll say it for the third week in a row: tough for a Monday. Definitely a trend here!
Ya done good Alex! Come back soon and often.
I am late to the party but I agree with others, slightly difficult for a Monday. Especially the SE corner. Rating: 7/10
Quite the sad puzzle, with Steve McNair and Val Kilmer. But as I retired church choir member, I enjoyed the SATB references.
Surprised there aren't more/any comments remarking on the difficulty of the POMELO/LASE cross.
@Morgan Wick I think that's because it was oft-seen and not difficult, at least for seasoned solvers.
Solved this with just the horizontal clues, though not cleanly or quickly. Not cleanly because I "cheated" by inadvertently double-clicking and revealing the clue for COPENHAGEN. Had most of that entry in place already, but can't be sure I'd have gotten it without the clue. Did see the theme early, which helped immensely with the thematic entries and the revealer. Attempting to solve Monday puzzles using just half the clues is actually quite enjoyable. Good brain exercise for recall and alphabetical reasoning too.
@Xword Junkie I admire you guys that can use only H or V clues. I'll never have the mental horsepower for that.
SOPRANO misled me into seeking a place for TONY ...but Carmela and Meadow (and ?? the son) had no place to go... My BLANK STARE quickly gave way to the other VOICE PARTS. Slight mess there when ERASE at 48D let do some weird crosses... The collection of proper names made for strange bedfellows, eh? I don't "get" 45D's MEME as "Modern lead-in to coin or stock"--I just can't make sense of it. I'm betting it's not even part of the column, though. So I've come here for help...
@Mean Old Lady MEME stocks are bought and sold based on internet buzz, not on the intrinsic value of the company. GameStop was a big one last year - should have been out of business by now, but somebody posts a MEME on Reddit, and things get crazy.
@Mean Old Lady If memory serves, the son of Tony was AJ.
@Vaer Yep, Anthony Junior. I had to think about it for a minute.
Hi all, please come subscribe to my poems on Substack: <a href="https://substack.com/@petervalentine" target="_blank">https://substack.com/@petervalentine</a> Here’s today’s poem from today’s puzz <br> a/ the face looks calm a great rock calm the day goes where the day goes and summer goes d/ and thoughts wash away the rise and fall of species in the weather in a chair a prayer a/ a voice a song a placid stare
As others have mentioned, SE corner was a bit sticky. Still a nice Monday puzzle.
I’m wondering whether it’s only American English that uses the city/country construct. It was obviously TERHAN. I had not paid enough attention to the clue to note that the country was required. Still it just sounds funny A fine Tuesday puzzle
Jason, "Your" München may be the only one in Europe, but here we need to add states as well as countries. Athens will be found in Greece, but in the U.S. it is in Georgia, Ohio, New York...
N.B. The Madrid in Maine and the Madrid in Iowa can be distinguished from the original by pronunciation.
@Ιασων And, then, there's Italy, Texas. Pronounced "it-ly". And, what about Lima, Ohio? Also pronounced differently than the city in Peru.
@Ιασων The capital of Iran is somewhat unusual, in that it's the only city on the globe with that name. There is no Tehran, Texas.
Seems a bit odd to have one capital city along with its country (Tehran Iran) and another without (Copenhagen). Inconsistent. Other than that a nice Monday puzzle.
@Luke The former was signaled in the clue.
Today's Midi had a fun self-referential clue with two equally valid answers, at 4A "Number of consonants in this answer". Not complaining, just didn't know if anyone else found it funny
@Jonathan I started at the beginning, and was wrong! Cost me a few seconds but it was a clever clue with backtoback answers.
@Jonathan So are silent letters considered neither vowels nor consonants?
Toughest Monday puzzle in a while (IMO). I'm a football fan, but had completely forgotten Steve McMair, making the Southeast corner of the puzzle difficult.
@Phil Yeah it's funny Steve McNair isn't a household name (at least for us) after all of his success. My initial thought was to put Young in that spot.
I assume there are others who notice how subtle political references appear as both clues and answers in many word games. Today they are “Ilhan” and “TehranIran” in the Crossword. It occurs often enough to register — at least with me. Anyone else? I come here for a different type of exercise than that used to consume news reporting and op-ed content. It’s quite puzzling…
@JRQ654 I don't really know what you're getting at, exactly, but I don't think that political references appear anymore than sports, tv and movies, Greek letters, Indian breads, religious references... Oreos, orcas, or eels.... I'm pretty sure that political references have always been part of the puzzle.
@JRQ654 There are also references to Tesla, and we get comments every time. Both are legitimate to be in the puzzle, and if one is acceptable to complain about, so is the other.
@JRQ654 Maybe, MAYBE, for Ilhan Omar. But how in God's green earth is Tehran, Iran, a "subtle political reference". If you actually consider reading the name of a sitting US Representative and the name of an ancient city to be "consuming news reporting and op-ed content", then you do a terrible job of consuming new reporting and op-ed content. Personally, I just think you hate Omar and everyone who voted for her.
My apologies for being overly pedantic, but Isiah Thomas' name, appears to be spelled Isaiah Thomas, according to Mr. Google... not as it appears in today's puzzle. Am I missing something?
@Forest Stewart Believe it or not, there are two Isaiah/Isiah Thomas' who have played in the NBA. Isiah played in the 80's and 90's and is a member of the Hall of Fame. Isaiah played in the 2010's-2020's and only recently retired
@Forest Stewart We older solvers do remember the ISIAH Thomas whose existence you doubted. As a rule of thumb, I would generally suggest doing a Google search before betting against the NYT’s editors and fact checkers. They are wrong only very occasionally.
@Forest Stewart Definitely evidence as to why the AI summary can be a bad resource.
@Forest Stewart Yes. Google lies, cheats, and steals. And it's now polluted (in every sense) by Al slop. IMHO, it is useless as a source of reliable information and I now search on browsers closed to Al. Write it off and move on.
Is it me or is 62A misspelled?
@KarenE That’s how he spelled it. He’s actually Isiah Thomas III.
@KarenE The other Isaiah Thomas (the one who starred for the Celtics and was traded for Kyrie Irving) spelled it with an additional "a." Celtics fans may also remember him as the "King of the Fourth," which they played up on the TV broadcasts sometimes.
@KarenE ISIAH Thomas led the Indiana University Hoosiers to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship in 1981, so I’m pretty sure Will Shortz (IU 1974) knew how his first name is spelled.
@KarenE Thanks, all, for setting me straight.
@KarenE I wondered about that too. You're definitely not the only one.
I wish to change my answer for yesterday's 107A, "Powerhouse in English football." Clearly, it's Erling HAALAND; that guy is a beast! Also, my new favorite song is "Bonda i fra Nord," by Racer, which is played when Norway scores. (Sorta '90s ska-punk, but without the horns.) Literal translation is "Peasants from the North."
...and it looks like our English friends are still sleeping it off. A stout performance from the Three Lions by the way.
I'm a newbie (one year-ish) and I finished this one without lookups. Even the sports types--from the crosses. Yea!! So I don't think you can say this one was tough! Well, at least, I don't." And I also never saw "Frozen." Ditto "THEHANGOVER." And for that matter, EDEN. And I haven't read Austen--or Bronte. I did see a movie about 29A [Bard of ___, nickname for Shakespeare] AVON. It's called "Hamnet." It won lots of prizes and you might like to see it too. Do you know that "Hamnet" is the same as "Hamlet" and was the name of author's son--at least according to the movie. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14905854" target="_blank">https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14905854</a>/ What about TALENTSHOWs--do they put paint-by-number paintings in a TALENTSHOW? Sign me up.
@lucky13 I didn't need any look-ups today either and I definitely do often for late-week puzzles. I haven't seen Hamnet yet but hope too. The Bard of Avon is at the very top of my favorite playwrights.
I agree with Sam, that this smooth puzzle started my week on a high note. I really enjoyed the theme, since I sing ALTO in my church choir. However, recently I've been having trouble with my voice cracking a bit at F and G, which occur quite a lot for Altos, so I'm toying with the idea of switching to either SOPRANO or TENOR. We'll see. Singing is one of the things that makes me happy in these troubled times, as is playing handbells in our Bell Choir. Both groups are off for the summer, so I have to sing to myself around the house. ;-)
There is some bug on the website that prevents today's puzzle from showing up after the new puzzle comes out. In other words, if I try to find Monday's puzzle after 7pm pacific time, it's almost impossible to find it. I have to somehow find the monthly calendar then find Monday.
I don't know what's going on with my Crosswords on the NYT website... Last night (July 4) Saturday's puzzle didn't go up... until today... And today, I was able to go back and do Saturday's, but there's no Sunday puzzle, just MONDAY'S! It ruined my streak. Pretty big bummer.
@Peter It should be in the archives. It's just that Monday already dropped.
@Peter You could try contacting the tech people at the top of this page. Losing a streak because of a technical issue would suck.
@Peter see if the tech gurus at the help email above the comments can restore your streak. If you had a glitch that wouldn't let you get the puzzle they might. You'll first get an email bot and when you say that didn't help it'll turn you over to a person.
Do you suppose 60A would have been harder or easier had it read [t comes and goes *twice* each day], which would be more correct.
@Francis "Each day" doesn't limit how many times it comes and goes in a day. Adding "twice" would have made it easier.
@Francis - There are places in the world where the tide comes and goes only once per day, including large stretches along the Gulf of Mexico as well as Alaska.
Nice Monday puzzle. The usual slow start for me, but tumbling to the theme was actually a big help, and it was fun working out each of the theme answers. And, my usual puzzle find. A Sunday from October 3, 2010 by Daniel A. Finan with the title: "Can I Change Places?" Some theme answers: TRAILOFTHECENTURY TEHRANRAIN THELOINKING FRENCHFIRES MARITALLAW DONTTOUCHTHATDALI SPIRALSITARCASE ICONCOLLECTIONS Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/3/2010&h=35a" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/3/2010&h=35a</a> ....
Good Monday theme; SOPRANOS was definitely the limiting factor. Agree that this was a quality grid for a Monday; but also agree with Barry that this solved like a Monday, which is as it should be.
One more puzzle find. A Tuesday from September 16, 1997 by Christopher Page. Answers in that one: DROMEDARY STATUARY HAILMARY TIPPERARY APOTHECARY HEREDITARY Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/16/1997&h=65a" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/16/1997&h=65a</a> ....
On Monday's midi: The clue specifies a state that only touches one other state. But the answer borders two states. Unusual mistake for you folks!
@MmmmHmm You might want to double check a map. (New Brunswick is not a state.)
@MmmmHmm - The Mini is correct - it only borders one state.
@MmmmHmm as a resident of said state, I can assure you that we only touch one other, ever so gently… Two provinces, yes.
@MmmmHmm I could have sworn it touched both Vermont and New Hampshire, but nope. Had to check the map app to make sure.
Speaking of 62A ISIAH, I'm reminded of a film I've seen two or three times called "Losing Isaiah" (spelled the other way). It stars Halle Berry and Hope Lange. I wonder if anyone who saw this film agrees with me that the judge in it made the right decision, but a terrible way of implementing it. <a href="https://pluto.tv/us/on-demand/movies/5e72ba3bd0c297001ab21d8e?utm_source=amazon&utm_medium=ossearch" target="_blank">https://pluto.tv/us/on-demand/movies/5e72ba3bd0c297001ab21d8e?utm_source=amazon&utm_medium=ossearch</a>
This was a really speedy puzzle for me, except for crossing skateboarding and football, didn’t know either one, and nearby, crossing stock and a fruit I’ve never seen. Also, I guess it’s time to learn the characters in Frozen (which I’ve never seen), since they seem to show up in most NYT crosswords that I try.
@Summer As the fond grandparent of a 10 [almost 11!] year-old, I have seen both Frozen movies and recommend them highly. Quite dark in places. I was a tad sorry to see that they DON'T track Andersen's "Snow Queen" as some of the publicity suggests. Now that's a really dark tale...like most of his.