43A. There are no bad dogs, only bad owners.
@Steve L you're almost 100% right. I've known bad dogs with good owners, but they were rescues and certainly their earlier owners or life experiences are to blame. I remember reading a fascinating article about how wolves became dogs, and the gist was "did we train them, or did they train us?" There's a good argument for the latter.
@Steve L Bet your comment here will be top of the reader picks! Totally agree! It's one of a handful of words I never like seeing in here. Wish there were a better way to clue it. Poor pups! I just bought my grandpup a new toy. Can't wait to give it to her!
@Steve L I knew that entry would inCURR some wrath, and I quite agree with you.
@Steve L I have to say that really good dogs can sometimes do really bad things. My evidence: from my favorite TV show "America's Funniest Videos." Just today, there were some real doozies. I can't hardly believe them when I see what those cute puppies can do when left alone for a little while.--but soooo funny!!
@Steve L Okay. I’m gonna be that guy. So all dogs in existence. There are no just inherently bad dogs? Like 3 standard devs from average dog. None? I get that I’m taking this literally. And I get that dogs are incredibly emotional support animals. But please. I guess there are no bad kids. Just bad parents. Feel free to down rec me.
@Steve L The clue is actually questionable. Webster's Dictionary says a CUR is "a mongrel or inferior dog," not "no good." I'll leave the checking of a dozen dictionaries to defend it to you guys.
@Steve L I know your comment was meant to be lighthearted. But the truth is a bit more nuanced than that. I have spent years working with a dog who is, quite often, very bad. (This is not my Kangaroo dog, it’s the other one, who I lovingly call The Crocodile.) In the process, I have learned a lot about a dog’s emotional development. Simply put, personality forms within the first year, and traits developed in this time tend to lock in. Any abuse or neglect in this time can lead to lifelong behavioral issues that may be impossible to overcome later on. It’s also true that some dogs are simply born with a metaphorical screw loose, just like some humans. I rescued my dog off the streets and I don’t know what made him the way he is, but I know it’s not my fault. (Or his.) Also: both of my dogs respectfully request that the NYT Crossword knock it off with the “cur” slurs. Thank you kindly.
@Steve L Good point. Our dog trainer said the following; " if your dog goes poo in your house, roll up a newspaper, and hit yourself on the head, with it."
@Steve L Nah there are definitely some "bad" dogs, if bad means not fit for domestic life.
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. What to call people ... or what not to call people (5) 2. Show that ends in disarray? (5)(5) 3. Hot shot producer (8)(7) 4. What's kraken? (3)(7) 5. Bull rings? (5)(5) NAMES STRIP TEASE ESPRESSO MACHINE SEA MONSTER PRANK CALLS
My favorite encore clues from last week: [Double-decker checker] (4) [Food processor] (7) KING STOMACH
@Lewis Excellent choices! Though I'm still irked at how long it took me to switch from Crankcalls to Prankcalls.
The arguing actors made such a scene. (They need to learn to playwright.)
@Mike If they can't play nice, it's curtains.
@Mike Because what will they do when it's postscript? They have to draw the line somewhere.
@Mike Is there a method to your madness?
@Mike The list of folks who want to smack you is long...quite the cue!
@Mike I didn’t like that coral reef atoll. Oh well - Laguna matata!
Made this harder for myself by spelling it 'HUNNY' at first but another solve with no look ups :)
@Confused Kiwi I also had HuNnY. I think if you’re going to use Winnie the Pooh in your clue, that should be the spelling that is used.
@Confused Kiwi I waited until I had enough crosses to establish what spelling was intended.
@Confused Kiwi Such deliberate misspellings would make a fun theme. But here? nah
@Confused Kiwi A A Milne, would be most proud of you. Christopher Robin, as well.
@Confused Kiwi, Imagine, if you will, the outrage and uproar that would ensue if the crossword were to use “alternate” spellings for some words without giving a clear hint. Art Heist, move over.
Aah, a Lynn Lempel puzzle... how do I love thee, let me count the ways... It's that wonderful knack she has for twisting phrases into a theme, and giving us a Monday that's breezy without sacrificing interesting entries in practically all the acrosses and downs. A Lynn Lempel puzzle is like LOX on a toasted bagel with cream cheese. You can't go wrong with it and it never fails to satisfy!
@sotto voce Absolutely. Now if they'd only give us another Robyn Weintraub Friday.
Am I the only one having trouble figuring out the meta of the midi today? What's with the numbers? Almost--but not--of them are primes. But beyond that, I'm as lost as an Easter egg.
@Joe Horton Took me a while to get it. The answers sound like the letters of the alphabet in that order. So (3,4) sounds like (C,D).
@Joe Horton It was very clever. And the title of the puzzle was not revealer. But who is Warren G? Haha
It's always a treat to have a Monday by Lynn Lempel. I didn't really like the clue for TURBOPROP, because that's not really accurate any more. Except for very small operators, most airline companies have dropped the use of turboprop powered planes and switched to smaller jet planes, which are more efficient and economical. The military still has some planes for use where there are smaller runways than jets can handle, the C-130 being one of them (the Blue Angel's 'Fat Albert' support plane is a C-130). But they aren't really short hop transports. And my first airline flight (in 1963) was on a Lockheed Electra turboprop that I took from NJ to San Antonio, TX, not a short hop at all. A little more trivia: The "Soarin'" Disney attraction was designed at home by an Imagineer and demoed for staff using an Erector Set. The Imagineer built a working model that showed how the seats for the attraction could be lifted into place for the show. Thanks, Lynn, for the nice Monday!
JayTee, Lots of TURBOPROP air taxis [Small aircraft for short flights], so the clue seemed fine to me. Some solvers will know the C-130, a smaller group will remember the Electra.
“A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside." —Winnie-the-Pooh Have a lovely day, friends.
Simple, clean, elegant, with a theme that lands. That’s LL, and here it is again today. She’s been doing this for 46 years, bringing a sea of quality to the Crosslandia pastiche. The grid’s north took me back to my youth. My grandparents always referred to a refrigerator as an ICEBOX. The phrase “Holy TOLEDO!” reminded me of Batman’s Robin. LOG CABIN was our family syrup. And ERECTOR SETs were for me what Lego sets are for kids today. AFRESH brought a meta-moment, as I haven’t heard that word in a long time, and when I uncovered it today, it felt new. Your puzzles, Lynn, make me feel good through and through. There is an art to that, and you’ve mastered it. Thank you for another splendid outing!
@Lewis Interesting that MECCANO was in the clue; it was the British ERECTOR set (something my dad--born 1912-- had coveted but never owned as a young lad)...he sent one to our son, who was already a serious Lego builder. Those were actual brand names, so the clue was definitely a bit off IMHO.
MOL, The clue is fine. Erector Set (trademark styled as "ERECTOR") was a brand of metal toy construction sets which were patented by Alfred Carlton Gilbert and first sold by his company, the Mysto Manufacturing Company of New Haven, Connecticut, in 1913. In 1916, the company was reorganized as the A. C. Gilbert Company. The brand continued its independent existence under various corporate ownerships until 1990,[citation needed] when Meccano bought the Erector brand and consolidated its worldwide marketing with its own brand. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erector_Set" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erector_Set</a>
Sean thought this Monday puzzle was on the spicier side. Jim Horne had this to say about Lynn Lempel's spicy debut entries: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/13/2026" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/13/2026</a>
@Barry Ancona Nice! Very fun highlight reel of Lynn Lempel's many, many playful debuts. Thanks for sharing, Barry.
Ms Lempel (Okay if we call you Lynn?) Made a puzzle quite RACY with SIN With PLAYTHINGS, (some ORAL But none really immoral) And all served up with a grin. I deny that the HERO’s a WEASEL Or a Dorian Gray on an easel And the SEXIEST COP With a bright TURBOPROP Leads to less woe than a poor CURR’s fleas ’l Thank you for all the fun, Lynn!
Ooh, I’m clutching my pearls (with delight) at the subversive nature of the puzzle. Innocent toy PLAYTHINGS on one level, nudge nudge, wink wink RACY ERECTOR SETS just under the surface. I’d better fan myself with a copy of the Lady. Lovely Monday puzzle.
What sort of PLAY THINGS are in your nightstand?
@Helen Wright One could join the mile-high club in a TURBOPROP
I’m always a little disappointed when it isn’t spelled “hunny.”
@Nic I’m glad that I’m not the only one!
@Nic I’m glad that I’m not the only one!
Monday's mini was more challenging than the midi.
I misread the clue for 25A as "human's earliest phrase" instead of "phase," according to Freud. And I thought, whoa, this solve is really going to have a payoff, because I sure don't know what Freud though our first few words together were. Tremendous puzzle, just a giant disappointment I created myself.
Our columnist couldn't find another word ending in prop. May I suggest AGITPROP, in which PROP is short for propaganda? It's from the Russian and combines AGITation and PROPaganda. In my youth, all leftist theater productions aspired to be AGITPROP, profitable not being an option. 😏
The Wordplay column says: "Finally, a [Small aircraft for short flights] is a TURBOPROP, which is a new word for me." The theatre word PROP stands for "stage properties." I learned this when I was in the drama club in high school. One year, I was assigned to be the "prop mistress." I had to find the stage properties such as lamps, ashtrays, books, ottomans, etc., to dress up the set. The next year I was the assistant director for the second act.
@lucky13 Interesting! Never considered a theater "prop" as a shortening of something before, but that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for sharing.
Practically perfect Monday in just about every way, to quote Mary Poppins.
monday funday. nice to see you @sean on a different day. FWIW BASTE is a very real thing and was a gimme; in building costumes you baste the fabric to make sure you got the fit right, and then go ahead and make it official.
@Bob T. My mom sewed. I picked up a lot of the vocabulary (though few of the skills) at an early age. BASTE was a gimme for me, too.
@Bob T. I mixed up sew with sow (to cast seeds) and I was sew confused 😂
@Bob T. I had no idea what the English term was so I had to rely on crosses, but the Polish "fastrygować" is a term I've known since childhood. All kids were taught to sew in Polish elementary school in the 1980s and 1990s. I was quite bad at it and only ever "mastered" fastrygowanie 🤣 Strangely enough, the Polish word comes from the German "fast riggen", meaning "to tie together strongly" - even though there specifically is nothing strong about fastryga...
Yay me! I finished it without using any of the Down clues in 20:59. A great puzzle. HOWEVER, i cannot agree with Sean’s assertion that malaprop would have been “a less fun entry than turboprop”! Mrs Malaprop is almost up there with the Reverend Doctor Spooner in my estimation, and definitely fun. Sean, your opinion is, as the great lady might have said, denuded, erogenous, and falsetto!
@Petrol I agree. MalaPROP would have been better. And it could've been clued with a couple of examples, like Yogi Berra's classic, "He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious."
Isn't whether it would be a more interesting answer a question for another puzzle? malaPROP wouldn't fit the grid.
I took the Monday "No Downs" challenge for the first time today. It made what would otherwise have been a ho-hum solve into a fun test of skills, (and roughly doubled the time it took to solve it). And I still got to enjoy the excellent Monday theme. In fact, I think I enjoyed more than I would have otherwise, since I needed all the Across-help that I could get. For those who find Monday puzzles less-than-compelling, I encourage you to give it a try!
@The X-Phile hooray! Congratulations! It’s a great way to stretch out the ticklish pleasure of an “easy” puzzle! I’m glad you enjoyed it. For those who think it sounds impossible, just imagine that you have filled in enough of the Across answers that you can see a Down answer must be _ O G _ A B _ N You don’t have be to be a genius to guess the interpolating letters. And so you fill them in and suddenly you’ve unlocked a bunch more Acrosses. Try it next Monday! (Or even tomorrow if you’re feeling brave!)
@The X-Phile you should try no acrosses sometimes too - Makes it more of a challenge to understand the theme since Monday themes are usually acrosses. I can usually solve in about 10-15 min this way but today was a little tough for me - I needed some of the across clues to finish.
@The X-Phile. Someone mentioned doing "No Downs" last week, so I went back in the archives to some old Mondays to give it a try. I love the challenge! I'm hooked. That's how I did today's. I completed it, but found it challenging. I got the theme answers quickly enough but the revealer took a while!
A turboprop is a type of engine that can be used on many different kinds of planes, some of which are quite large and long-range. The C-130 Hercules military transport plane is a turboprop. Weird clue.
@Shrike No weirder than calling the 15-16th century empire of the Inca ancient 🤷🏽
@Shrike I wondered about that, too, but I know nothing about planes. In fact, I'm not entirely convinced they actually fly. (But I'm no flat-earther!)
@Shrike I desperately wanted to shoehorn PUDDLEJUMPER in there but no rebus would make it fit and my computer screen has no deformable third-dimensional capacity.
Shrike, With all the King Airs and Caravans and other [Small aircraft for short flights] out there being TURBOPROP, I thought the clue was fine. Personally, I have spent more time around the C-130, as I suspect is true for one or two other commenters.
Could someone please explain today’s Mini? I don’t understand the revealer. Maybe time for more coffee?
@Cherry Sure thing! Each of the starred clues are missing its last letter. For their answers to make sense, we have to suss out what that last letter is. For example, 5A's [*Dallas Cowboys stat] solves to TEXAS, because the clue is missing the letter E at the end. The Dallas Cowboys stat*e* is TEXAS.
@Cherry Cherry, Cherry, coffee won't help, but I can explain it. Each of the themed clues with an asterisk is missing ONE letter in the clue: 4A [*Place to find a doc] should really read--[Place to find a dock] PIER 5A [*Dallas Cowboys stat] should really say [*Dallas Cowboy state] TEXAS 6A [*Make a scar] is really [*Make a scarf] KNIT 7A [Number of letters missing from the ends of each starred Across clue in this puzzle]--the answer is ONE, i.e., one letter is missing from each clue to make it make sense with the answers Now, if I can find my yarn and needles, I'll get back to my entrelac swatch.
@Sean McGowan and @lucky13, Thank you for your replies! I see now that I didn’t read it carefully and thought it was the answers that were missing a letter. No wonder that didn’t make sense! Ugh! 😣
All the world's an oral stage.
@ad absurdum Your post reminded me of this classic Groucho quip: "I love my cigar, too, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while!"
@ad absurdum For those who prefer not to mouth off, anyway!
ad absurdum, …thought the infant, and future, Rev. Roberts to himself.
My Diary of a Crossword Fiend review: <a href="https://crosswordfiend.com/2026/07/12/monday-july-13-2026/#ny" target="_blank">https://crosswordfiend.com/2026/07/12/monday-july-13-2026/#ny</a>
@Eric Hougland I’m not trying to be critical. But the picture of your ‘lox’ is incorrectly placed. And I don’t get the Austin city limits link. I think Mondays are probably a tough write up in general.
36D [Singer Vikki with three Grammys] CARR Three great songs from my long-lost youth It Must Be Him <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-qgHOQ1ofg" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-qgHOQ1ofg</a> He's a Rebel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S3HCG22zsk" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S3HCG22zsk</a> The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j2jHOwVT4I" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j2jHOwVT4I</a>
@lucky13 I remember that in "Moonstruck," Loretta's father, Cosmo Castorini, adored Vikki Carr and sat in the dark, listening to her records.
@lucky13 With all due respect to Ms Carr, some songs belong to certain people. "The First Time..." belongs to Roberta Flack. If you forced me at gunpoint, I'd let Whitney Houston sing it too – a distant runner-up. But Ms Carr isn't even on the same planet with those two, when it comes to this song. Sorry.
Took me an enjoyable 23 minutes using only the horizontal clues. Spent too long before seeing PLAYTHINGS, but otherwise things went smoothly enough.
No constructor notes? Honestly. This was probably the thing I was looking forward to most for a Monday. Also. I never really cared about this before since I only did Friday and Saturday. But what is the thinking on the early release of Monday? “Let’s cut short the time we feature the grid we’re most famous for, because solvers are just jonsing for a Monday grid”
@Weak I hope Barry will back me up on this, but I think it's to allow the staff to go home earlier on the weekend.
@Weak I think when you're the Queen of Mondays you draw a bye on constructor notes.
A clever Monday to start the week…I also enjoyed the nod to other toys like log cabin.
@Maria I suppose you refer to Lincoln Logs. Another: Tinker Toys.
Not a bad puzzle, bad day placement… This was definitely more of a Wednesday puzzle. That is not the Constructor’s fault. Loved the theme! Rating: 9/10
Darren, Your take on Monday appropriateness is noted. Your take seems to be an outlier. <a href="https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2026-07-13" target="_blank">https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2026-07-13</a>
@Darren I got within 10 sec. of my Monday (and therefore all-time) PB. Had it been Wednesday it would have been quite an outlier.
@Darren fwiw, I also found this one quite challenging and was well above my average time. So you weren’t alone! :)
Interesting late answer history search, inspired by our constructor's name. And, the string of letters... LEMPEL has never appeared in any answer. And.... LEMPE was a part of 3 answers, but they all contained: KLEMPERER (WERNER and OTTO) And finally - EMPEL was a part of 4 answers, all in the pre-Shortz era: HEMPEL, REMPEL, STEMPEL, VONKEMPELEN Just thought that was all kind of interesting. ....
I'm not even halfway through my first pass and I feel like I'm having deja vu.
Just noticed the picture on the column! Thanks for the Cincinnati call out, Sean. But I can assure you a Reds player would never cheat. Or if we did, we’d have a heck of a lot better record than we do now.
@SP 😂 Might I introduce you to a player caller Mr. Pete Rose? This is teasing, at least in part because I don't know if he ever *cheated*, although I know which way I'd wager on that kind of bet.
@SP Ironically, while the Reds may never cheat, if you’re correct, the team likely owes its first World Series championship to cheating, as they were the winners against the infamous Black Sox who threw the 1919 Series after at least eight of their players took bribes from gamblers.
Here's hoping 35A and 60A were gimmes for Andrzej, our resident Chilean schoolgirl or Pakistani miner. And pleased to see Rena Cohen elevating the elegance of today's Midi.
@Matt They were, but orangeADE was not. I've been familiar with oranżada (or orangada/اورنجیڈ) almost all my life, but the English word I've seen for the first time today.
@Matt 4D on the Midi: In Australia, Civics are almost exclusively Hatchbacks, and most Corolla's come in Hatchback form too. The most common Toyota and Honda SEDANS in Australia are Camry and Accord.
A lovely Lynn Lempel puzzle to start the week! I am in a LOG CABIN right now, so 11D made me really happy.
Fun Monday puzzle. Typical workout for me, and then when I was finished I had to stop and ponder for a moment, as I was thinking of a different interpretation of PLAYTHINGS. Just made for a nice 'doh' moment when I finally caught on. And my usual puzzle find - a Sunday from September 18, 1997 by Robert H. Wolfe with the title: "X Marks the Spot." Will just say that it was rather unusual - Here's a couple of theme clues and answers: "0X" NEXTTONOTHING "TH000X" AFTERTHOUGHTS Will just say that I remain puzzled even after looking at the solution. Here's the link if you want to go take a look. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/28/1997&h=40a" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/28/1997&h=40a</a> ....
@Rich in Atlanta Thanks for the tip. This kind of cluing is very cryptic-ish.
@Rich in Atlanta You did mean 28th not 18th, right?
@Rich in Atlanta Apologies, I didn't notice that you were puzzled about this puzzle. Looking at the samples you posted, here's how I would read them. "X marks the spot" that the clue describes. So, in example 1, X is adjacent to the zero, i.e., NEXT TO NOTHING. In example 2, X follows TH and some zeroes, i.e. AFTER TH + OUGHTS. Hope this clears that up.
How lovely! A Lynn L puzzle on a Monday, and nothing I needed to look up. It was fun, and fresh, and now I'm done, and starting my day. And, speaking of "everything bagels," guess what we're having for dinner? (Mentally checking the refrigerator: lox, check; cream cheese, check; Swiss cheese, check; tomato (not in fridge), check.) I love Mondays and Fridays because they are my volunteer days at the Hospital, and hubby is in charge of dinner. But it never hurts to supply the idea and he just has to prepare it. And I spend the rest of the day at the ED imagining what it will taste like. Mmmm.
Found this one a bit more difficult than a usual. I had never heard of Meccano or an ERECTORSET. No small plane I’ve ever taken has been a TURBOPROP nor had I even heard of one. Maybe this puzzle was just meant for someone a little older! Still finished it without having to use the checker but this struck me more as a Tuesday.
This definitely took me a while longer than I would have liked -- I got too focused on "toys" as a concept instead of the PLAY on words. Still, enjoyed it overall. Never heard the term "cur."
poem made from words in today’s New York Times crossword puzzle a/ a dog watches not the transgressions of man good dog good dog a treat for the good dog and a treat for the man water and a treat a/ in the empire state on the great lake erie and the giant fish of the great large lake experiencing the a/ rises
I played the midi for one of the first times this morning. Several clues had brackets at the end e.g., clue: “Evasive [11, 7]” and the answer was “cagey”. I googled what the brackets meant and received several conflicting answers. Then read the How to solve the crossword NYT article that’s linked in this article, but couldn’t find what these brackets mean. Could anyone help me decipher this?
@Mia. "Cagey" is pronounced K G. K is the 11th letter of the alphabet, G is the 7th. Took me a while to figure it out, too!
@Mia This is a regular frustration with the midi, they have themes but they don't have revealers and don't have a column explaining them. A lot of times when I see clues like these I expect there to be some sort of twist that makes the answers unintuitive, but these answers were what I'd expect based on the clues alone, so I was just left wondering what the brackets meant and how they related to the puzzle title. (Then again, I also needed this column to explain the theme of the main crossword, so...)
Lynn Lempel is always so PLAYful! She is like the Energizer Bunny of CrossWorld--just keeps going and going. My first PLAYTHING was ..[something]CURTAIN, which was a surefire way to get smacked if you chose to hide behind onne. Remember when everyone wanted an old ICE BOX to convert into a place to store bottles of red wine? TURBO PROPs are "small aircraft"? Piper Cub is what came to mind for me... (My cousin's husband flew one; as a ten-year-old I was very confused to have a cousin who was a grown woman with a baby! Dad was the 5th of 6 boys, so his older brothers had a head-start.)
@Mean Old Lady my dad was the youngest of 12 in a very Catholic farm family in Kansas. He had a niece who was only two years younger than he. And as HIS youngest, I had very few cousins near my age, even though there were over 30 of them. As we’ve grown older, it’s interesting to note how those age differences matter both less and more, depending.
Mondays aren't about the solve. They're about the time. Today: 5:15--a new record for me.
Just checking out 28A [Like the man on an annual People magazine cover] SEXIEST The sexiest man alive for 2025 is someone I never heard of, an actor from "Bridgerton" and "Wicked." I guess we'll have to wait until November for the Sexiest Man of 2026. Any suggestions? I'm asking for a friend. I mean besides Jamie Ding, of course.
This was breezy and fun for a Monday! A quibble: I was taught by an expert scholar in Inca art that it is always Inca, not Incas or Incan.
@Summer Perhaps console yourself with a nice tamal.
Such a clever little thing! I hadn't thought of my erector set in decades. Sold at a yard sale in 1970 along with my Magic 8-Ball and my Cymbal Clapping Monkey. ... ... If I'd only known.
I really disliked this Monday crossword. It seemed extremely difficult with lots of difficult words that did not seem suited for a Monday. Surprised not more people are mentioning this. Not fun at all, one of the worse ones recently.
Nice crossword, but I'm fairly certain (although I am merely a hobby aviation-fan, with limited knowledge), turboprop is a type of engine, rather than an actual aircraft, let alone one designed for shorter distances. The first turboprop engines appeared in the later stages of the second world war on the Allied side (but don't quote me on this).
@Gergo It seems it is used both to describe the engine and an aircraft powered by such an engine, see <a href="https://www.atr-aircraft.com/turboprop" target="_blank">https://www.atr-aircraft.com/turboprop</a>/
Gergo, Here in the U.S., we may refer to an aircraft by its powerplant. Many air taxi services use TURBOPROP aircraft as clued. Some of us are familiar with larger, longer range, and older aircraft with TURBOPROP power. Scroll down for a few takes.