"You're getting rid of all your old jewelry?" "Yep! Playing ring toss." ("You didn't tell me about this." "I didn't want to brooch the subject.")
@Mike Having a meltdown? Yes. It's time to get liquid assets.
@Mike unfortunately, as we get older we tend to lose our earring
Mike, Though a shock at first, the freedom of wearing no fancy jewelry is something you will eventually find ennobling.
@Mike Another gem! I might go sapphire as to say it's your magnum onyx.
@Mike Just my o pin ion, but you might you might have topaz, to brace—let the urge to choker pass. The heirloom lavalier is not worth dying for.
I think this puzzle was dead solid perfect, especially for the day. It gave me pause, sometimes rather lengthy pauses, but, though I had to work for it, it did eventually fit together. I loved RICIN because I loved "Breaking Bad" and loved to loathe Lydia. Fans will know what I'm saying here. And I liked PILOT for [Ace, e.g.]. I just can't hear the word "ace" with this meaning without seeing Snoopy sitting on his dog house, wearing goggles and a scarf around his neck. "Curse you, Red Baron!" Peanuts was huge when I was a kid. But I have never heard of REXES. I could google but I'm sure someone here will come to my aid.
@Francis It's a breed commonly called Cornish Rex, as the clue suggests, with big ears, and a coat made up only of the short down fur that other breeds have beneath their outer fur.
@Francis Devon Rexes are a breed of cat. I have two - littermate sisters! They are often known as the "monkey" of the cat world. They have curly hair and big ears, but its their personality is a lot of fun. They are acrobatic and smart, and like to perch on shoulders and really be involved.
@Francis I got RICIN thanks to Breaking Bad ... and Lydia had it coming.
@Francis You need to Google to see some pics of these unusual-looking cats!
Maddie and Sam, That came up last night: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4hlv91?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4hlv91?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
P.S. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/engr" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/engr</a>
Yay me! I got a rebus on my own! 🥂 You are all invited to create a lovely cocktail (I think I'll have an aperol spritz) and celebrate with me!
@Jenny Congratulations! Count me in for the PARTY! 🍷;-)
@Jenny Congrats, and may there be many more successfully squeezed squares in your future!
@Jenny Always a big moment in a solver's life--to sniff out a trick.
On the harder side for a Wednesday. 19A "Seller's bottom lines, for short?" is a terrible clue for UPC. UPC codes can be anywhere on product packaging, very often on the side of boxes and bottles.
Yes, on the harder side for a Wednesday. If the all the reccos are for that statement, fine; if they are for the comment on 19A, boo! First rule of crossword clues and answers is that any case makes them valid, it need not be every case. The cereal box I bought a few days ago has the UPC on the bottom. The clue is terrific wordplay.
@Dave K. Terrible?? Geez Yes some clues are better than others, but when I learned that clues aren't definitions it opened my mind more to clever clueing. And when there's a ? in the clue all bets are off! If you really wanted to suss out the clue, why is it line and not lineS? For this one, maybe UPC could also - more literally - mean the price, or bottom line?
@Dave K. The bottom line of every UPC bar code is the numerical code. If you can't scan it, you can type in the code. Made perfect sense to me! But then, I'm rarely sensible.
I cannot remember a harder Wednesday. The SW just destroyed me. HOTDATE? Carbon date. Age date. But I guess we’re talking about physical attraction. And I could not crack “eyeballed”. I don’t know what a BUGABOO is. But I definitely don’t equate to hearing word as a replacement for pet peeve. But that’s on me. I didn’t think my streak (not that I care about them) would die on a Wednesday. Wavelength? My antenna was broken.
@Weak It was tricky in places. I didn't really expect HOT DATE for the Organic chemistry experiment. And, while I appreciated the misdirection, I was hoping for something genuinely O-chem related. Your suggestion of "carbon date" would have been great, but maybe a bit controversial. This puzzle contained an animal I've never heard of, a liqueur I've never heard of (even at the Minnesota School of Bartending, of which I am a proud alum), a liqueur drink I've never heard of (but was pretty easy to guess), and a surname I've come across at times, but never knew was a lion. So it was no gimme.
@Weak This is not a bitter comment because I couldn’t solve. But honestly, I wasn’t too impressed with RING being part of an entry and the circled letters. I know there are no ‘rules’ per se. But I thought inelegant. I actually questioned my RINGTOSS entry because of the circles. Sorry. I’m sure many of you thought this was brilliant. And I know this sounds like sour grapes. But my opinion, regardless of the color of my star.
@Weak The puzzle has been out for less than 2 hours. Why not step away / sleep on it? Seemed like typical Wednesday difficulty to me. I’ll grant that RASP / TIA / PIU was a hard crossing.
@Weak It took me a while to see the question mark at the end of "Organic chemistry experiment?" I was thinking that it was going to be about titration, or something. When I saw the question mark, I realized that it had nothing to do with science labs, and that helped open up that corner for me.
Nice enjoyable Wednesday puzzle. The rebus was pretty straightforward for me, as the clue "Risqué game that teenagers might give a whirl?" seemed obvious to anyone who has ever heard of the game. But the puzzle was surprisingly tricky, with its many misdirects (I'm looking at you, "Organic chemistry experiment?"), and most surprising was that my trouble areas were the Northeast and Southwest, where the many three-letter answers normally indicate ease. Thanks, Rebecca Goldstein, for a nice Wednesday workout.
Clever puzzle, but I didn't really love that there was a single rebus square that was symmetrically placed along the "ring" arc. The "ring" squares all have a circle in them, which I assume represents the ring itself. Maybe the "bottle" square could have been designated by something other than a circle, or maybe it could have been two vertical squares, or something.
@Barney The carnival game consists of tossing a ring onto a bottleneck. I think the circles represent the arc of the ring, landing on the bottle. It's pretty clever, but took a minute to register.
Beautiful and tough. Rebecca always ACEs constructions; I don't always ACE the solve. The challenging entries were wonderful. It was my own slowness that got in the way. I frequently stopped, pondered, had my memory jogged in other directions. SPIN THE BOTTLE reminded me, instead, of playing Twister with my friends, laughing so hard we had to take urgent bathroom breaks. STEP RIGHT UP brought to mind a song I haven't heard since the 70s when it played on the radio: <a href="https://youtu.be/nlpQdMdduX4?is=0Ucmd0FEEBQR9j63" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/nlpQdMdduX4?is=0Ucmd0FEEBQR9j63</a> LOX made me want to drop everything and run out and get a bagel with LOX and cream cheese stat! (I didn't; I had an English muffin with cream cheese instead. Didn't work; I still want the bagel.) And so it went. Not only wrangling with the clues, but going off on a tangent with the entries. And I loved it. Thank you, Rebecca. You're a crossword rock star!
@sotto voce Thought your link was going to be to this song (though this is early 80's)! <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ_k_VG6Syc&ra=m" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ_k_VG6Syc&ra=m</a>
@sotto voce Nothing like synchronized clowns to up the weirdness.
@sv Wow! what a great video/song--weird, but beautiful!
@sotto voce I've never had a lox on a bagel thing so I had to look it up. Boy howdy it sounds good 👍
@sotto voce I remember that song! Boy, did the captioning screw up the lyrics. Let the side show begin.
@sotto voce Why mess around <a href="https://youtu.be/uYyCitIDzvI?si=EbUtRnmWRPonPhjC" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/uYyCitIDzvI?si=EbUtRnmWRPonPhjC</a>
Glad toi see I am not alone. Much harder than your average Wednesday.
Sir, there’s a rebus in my Wednesday!
A spot-on visual representation of a RING TOSS, a delightful supporting cast of theme answers, a solo rebus, the sing-song BUGABOOS, plus cluing vagueness to slow down the uncovering and give the brain some work to do – joy in the box for me today. Even more joy from a TIL – “voluntold”, clever clues for UPC and HOT DATE, and the splendidly silly clue for SEA: [Habitat with a wet floor]. And, just a bit of evidence of Rebecca’s skill as a constructor… Up in the NE corner, five letters of theme answers PLUSH TOY and SPIN THE BOTTLE abut, and look at how cleanly she filled that corner. Brava! YUM all around for what you created here, Rebecca. Thank you so much!
P.S.: A little post-solve probing revealed the best strategy for succeeding at ring toss, where the odds are with the house: gently toss the ring like a frisbee and aim for a row close to you. You’re welcome.
@Lewis "A spot-on visual representation of a RING TOSS" Some seven hours before, Matt up on Spring Hill complained: "The course described by the R - I - N - G on its way to the BOTTLE is erratic to the point of not physically consonant with how bodies in motion traverse arcs." Seemed fine to me, but then, I never win the plush toy.
I found this one to be a little chewy, taking me about 37% longer than my average Wed time. (Of course, I would allow for a bit of extra time because I was solving on my phone instead of my usual desktop.) But early xwstats.com info agrees with me: 🌎 Global Stats Difficulty Very Hard Median Solve Time 8:29 Median Solver 32% slower ⚡0% of users solved faster than their Wednesday average. 0% solved much faster (>20%) than their Wednesday average. 🐢100% of users solved slower than their Wednesday average. 70% solved much slower (>20%) than their Wednesday average.
Literally NO ONE solved faster than their average? Never seen that before. My blue star suddenly has a gold tint to it…
@Steve L Hardest Wednesday I ever remember seeing. Rexes, evo, piu, moshe - no clue,
@Steve L Thanks for posting that, I thought I was losing my mind!
Ok. I am so very looking forward to reading the ensuing comments today. For the record, I’m fine wjth this being a Wednesday, I loved it. But one has to wonder how in the world the editors thought this was the right day for it, based on the parade of Wednesdayish Thursdays lately. Are you seriously telling me it couldn’t have been switched with any number of recent Thursdays? I just don’t understand. I’ll be happy to switch my favorite day of the week to Wednesday if that’s what the editors really want. That said, first of all, this was quite a chewy grid. Not surprising since the amount of theme material probably required some trickier entries (although overall I still thought this brilliantly constructed). But what really surprised me was a lot of trickier clueing for a Wednesday. I definitely had to stretch a bit to solve this. I enjoyed the theme but I do think the full effect was not very intuitive. Thanks @BS for explaining it, it makes sense now. I wish the column had made it clear. I was imagining a top view looking at an array of of bottles, only one of which caught the ring, but that didn’t explain the arc or the RING letter in the other entries. Anyway, I’m sure there will be a lot of complaints, but given the easier Thursdays lately turnabout is FAIR play. Thanks Rebecca for a great workout today. Your panache consistently brightens my crossword experience!
@SP This was the hardest puzzle in many weeks for me, tougher even than many archived Saturdays. Being Polish doesn't always hinder me (much), but today it stopped me in my tracks. I actually solved 99% of this unaided, but the rebus defeated me - I had S in that square, and I thought it made sense: the circled letters spelled out RINGS, and even though the resulting entries crossing on that final circle were unfamiliar to me (SPIN THE S, S CAP), I thought it was just more Americana. I mean, we had ENGR in the grid, which primed me to accept the strangest entries 🤷🏽
This was great. More Wednesdays at this level please. And rebuses every day of the week!
@abelsey I fear that a daily rebus would cause rioting in the streets
There have been rebuses on every day of the week, just not every week.
@abelsey this is where a downvote button would come in handy
@abelsey Ugh, please NO THANK YOU! I don't enjoy them at all
Stormy little nor’easter in that top right corner but quite a fun puzzle. In my opinion, a great example of proper Wednesday challenge.
What a nice Wednesday treat! Quite a bit of "not the first thing I thought of" answers, which makes it typical Rebecca Goldstein. The single rebus, with the ring moving onto the bottle was a little extra flourish which, for me, put it into early week POY consideration. STEP RIGHT UP: <a href="https://youtu.be/kTdScE3Rqh8?si=8ClZOVIvL_xRxefN" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/kTdScE3Rqh8?si=8ClZOVIvL_xRxefN</a>
@Nancy J. There it is! Tom opened with that one when I saw him back in seventy-mumble.
I’m over an hour in and not even halfway done. Slogging through a relatively unenjoyable puzzle. Feels more like a chore today.
Lovely puzzle. Enjoyed the rebus on an unusual day! Finding one on a Thursday feels like just doing my job, finding one, unlooked for, on Wednesday is a little more satisfying. Otherwise, never run across “voluntold” before. Funny word, I guess it does kinda make sense
@CruciverbalistsUnion it maybe has military roots, but it's escaped into the wild.
Nice challenge! Clever with a perfect Wednesday level of stickiness.
All good and dandy, but putting a person who was in a high position in the IDF while Israel stole and harassed and plundered and overtook Palestine in the middle of the last century certainly seems like a bad choice. I will probably not be continuing my subscription due to this.
@Free Palestine it's a crossword don't take it so seriously
@Free Palestine Really? How about Attila the Hun, Pol Pot, Vlad the Impaler, Geghis Kahn, the Marquis de Sade, Joseph Stalin, Jefferey Dahmer or Josef Mengele? All disqualified from NYT crossword puzzles? I hear Reader's Digest has puzzles.
Tough, tough tough … 1 down: __ ss __ Had to be diss related? Only after sleeping on it, clearing the entire NW corner did GRAIL hove into view and GOSSIP was a proper bolt from the blue. My sister had a REX when she lived in Devon (but I think it was Cornish); I’m an ENGR and have seen all manner of abbreviations on org charts; RICIN was this can’t be true … but the interweb confirmed it; an Italian SPRITZ in Milano (great colleagues there). And then onto the fly specking: 43across AdET makes no sense - TIL there is an ice-cream company in the US called BREYERS and also one called dREYERS. Meh, meh, meh … when filling in the puzzle, I had figured youngsters spin all manners of things now, so SPINTHEs made sort of sense. I also assumed that an s-CAP was a particular type of bottle top. When the rebus suddenly came to me, I’m sure the bright light that flashed on over my head woke the cat. Tough, tough, tough but fair. And fun. Would repeat the experience if I could
@Caitríona Congrats on figuring out the rebus! I never made it past the "Spin the S"-and-"S Cap"-might-make-sense stage 🤣
@Caitríona My grandparents had a Castor-bean bush..so lovely! But they were careful to warn us NOT to touch the seed/beans when the pods opened in their cunning way. I wonder if people died testing out the properites of CASTOR OIL......
In 1914, in the *Zeitschrift für Ethnologie," musicologists Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs a system, modeled after the Dewey Decimal System in which, with typical German rigor, they attempted to categorize all musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs system, all string instruments, or chordophones, have the top-tier designation of "3." Harps and Lyres both fall into the second-tier category 32--"complex chordophones", as opposed to 31 "simple chordophones," such as zithers or pianos. ("Simple" being a relative term.) But there the family tree bifurcates: Harps have the third-tier designation 322--"Complex chordophones in which the strings lie perpendicular to the sound-box," as opposed to 321 " . . . in which the strings lie parallel to the sound-box," and are generically termed "lutes," but include guitars, violins, sitars, theorbi, and, yes, lyres. Lyres are 321.2--" . . . in which the strings are attached to a yoke which lies in the same plane as the sound-table and consists of two arms and a cross-bar." They are further divided into 321.21, "bowl lyres," and 321.22 "box lyres" based on the shape of the resonator. And now you know.
@Bill ...and this is why one either loves or hates the Germans, ...ignoring for the moment those two bellicose incidents of the twentieth century.
@Bill " . . . published/proposed/put forth a system" Sorta like how I propose/put forth there be an edit function for comments.
@Bill We nerds gotta stick together, eh?
@Bill The reason pianos (and harpsichords--how the strings are caused to vibrate plays little, or no, role in the classification) are considered "simple chordophones" is this: a simple cordophone is one in which the sound-board or -box could, theoretically, be removed, and instrument remain, in some way, playable. So you could remove the soundboard from a piano, but if you left the frame (the "harp") and the keyboard mechanism intact, it could still be played. It wouldn't sound much like a piano, though. But Herrn Hornbostel und Sachs better not try that with my Yamaha C3!
This one was tough for me…finished about 40% above my average time…but, honestly, I’m satisfied as I was able to finish with no help. At first, when I solved 23D/52A, I thought, “That’s odd…only one rebus.” When I finished, and looked at the finished grid, however, I thought, “Aha! Perfect.” Thanks to Rebecca Goldstein for a good start to my day.
Thanks for a great Wednesday puzzle. Nice to bring up carnival memories from my childhood and good times with my children. Step right up and try your luck made for great memory evokers!. And a straight forward rebus to boot.😊
You'd think it would just sink in to the rebus-haters at some point that rebuses (rebi?) have been around forever, many people love them, and they aren't going away. But no, even when there's a single, pretty-easy-to-figure-out rebus, the usual chorus of complaints arises. Let it go already!
@Stephen Meurice I mean, the rebus was in a circle, so that was a pretty big hint. 🤷♀️ I guess they just feel especially mad to unexpectedly see a rebus on a day that's not Thursday.
Before our careers in heating and air conditioning repair took off, King Arthur and I were both carnival barkers. They called us the “Kings of the Midway,” even though Art was technically the only royalty among us. We had all the games: dunk tank, water gun race, balloon darts, guess your weight, strength tester, and of course, the crown jewel of the midway, the RINGTOSS. I’ll never forget the time Percival rolled through and hit three for three right on the cup. A perfect round. And if that wasn’t enough, it turned out “the cup” was actually the Holy GRAIL. As I live and breathe, my brothers. This thing was just sitting there the whole time, right under our noses! Well, you can bet your cadusia we never let Arty live that one down.
Slower than my Wednesday average, which seems typical today. Baskin before BREYER, mdS before DRS, bible before CANON, adze before RASP. Plus a few I just didn't know: REXES, PIU, EVO. Definitely enough of a challenge to make me glad I got it at all. Thanks!
@Jack McCullough "PIU" means "more" in Italian so after two years of college Italian I was able to figure that one out. FWIW, "meno" means "less."
Terrific puzzle but certainly not a gimme. It had me fighting for every answer.
EVO seemed obscure to me.
@Jeff P. Even the clue doesn't help one figure out what it means. Extra-Vehicular Orgy? (To go with SPIN THE BOTTLE?)
I have no idea whether EVO is obscure. I do know I'd never heard of it as clued. Let's hear it for the crosses.
I thought this was a pretty nifty puzzle and not as inconsistent with Wednesday standards as some have opined. It was a little mucky in the west central area of the puzzle, giving it a dash of Thursday flavor. I'll take a puzzle with both aperol and bugaboos in it.
Thanks, Rebecca, I quite enjoyed this puzzle. And yay for a rebus. It was a very easy one but enough to add a little spice to a Wednesday.
I think maybe long-time commenters/solvers have been unintentionally doing newer solvers a disservice by emphasizing that rebus puzzles can appear on Thursdays and Sundays. They can also appear on other days. The day with the most rebus puzzles after those two days is Wednesday. There have been 39 Wednesday puzzles with a rebus feature since 2010. Most of these have had a single rebus, but not all. The records at xwordinfo.com go further back than 2010, but that's when I quit counting.
Vaer, Noted. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4hm4ag?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4hm4ag?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
Cute puzzle, and I liked the solo rebus square, although it took me a bit to figure it out. I had the I, N, and G in the circled squares and assumed that all five together spelled RINGS. Eventually I saw that S made no sense and that BOTTLE not only fit better, but made more sense of the RINGs. I learned that RICIN was derived from castor beans from Breaking Bad, as a major plot line revolved around a plan to use Walter White’s homemade RICIN to kill drug lord Gus Fring. Although that plot never came to fruition the RICIN did play a part in series finale. Chekov’s RICIN? I got a laugh out of HOTDATE as the answer for [Organic chemistry experiment?].
@Marshall Walthew I loved that "Breaking Bad" really did their homework on the chemistry. I don't think there was anyplace I thought they had cheated on the science. By the way, I predicted the bathtub scene, as I knew hydrofluoric acid would probably dissolve a bathtub. That scene simultaneously made me a total fan, and at the same time drove away many people I've talked to.
@Marshall Walthew, Chekov’s RICIN! Well analyzed!
Spoiler alert - why is the Gameplay up for Thursday already? I accidentally clicked on the wrong day. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2026-07-23.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2026-07-23.html</a>
@Paul I clicked on it as well and luckily realized it before starting to read. Big OOPSY!
@Paul @sotto voce This has happened at least once before and very recently. No explanation why, but someone at the Times eventually figured it out and took it down.
Man, the techy biota of this puzzle -- OVO, LAN, ISP, UPC -- it's like the CIO roped in the chief ENGR to make a puzzle that would provide an outlet for those who work in places with a lot of outlets, i.e. Techies. It's not my world but I'm glad to have filled them all in dutifully, and I appreciate the Times for dragging us luddites forward. And yet there's spin the bottle, ring toss, and a hot date, all analog activities that don't require electricity (well, the last one does, rather). "Step right up," I love that phrase, maybe because of its appearance in Van Morrison's "Ballerina" off his masterpiece, Astral Weeks* -- a phrase filled with encouragement and doubt, welcome and challenge, recognition and dismissal. Loved seeing the summery APEROL, the menacing RICIN, and all the leonine Singhs out there, especially, for this admirer, Vijay Singh. Talk about aces! I still occasionally come across reference/video to his weird line-drive hole-in-one that skipped across the water at an Augusta Masters. Step right up, VJ! The Pitt Stop near the University of Pittsburgh, still going strong since the 1990s at least, selling knockoff merch, or at least less costly Pitt apparel (alas, not aperol), souvenirs, plush toy Panthers and the like...Big, hearty Chas Bonasorte, chief glad-hander and owner, could often be found in front, in a muted carnival barker mode, talking about the old times and the new prospects. Step right up, Chas!
Ballerina, from Astral Weeks: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMCha-mIUAE&list=RDGMCha-mIUAE&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMCha-mIUAE&list=RDGMCha-mIUAE&start_radio=1</a>
@john ezra If you think a HOT DATE needs an electrical outlet, you're doing it wrong.
Thanks Rebecca for a nicely Toughened Up Wednesday. I needed to fill in a lot of the Downs before being certain enough to attempt the Acrosses. Trying Ham before LOX and Adze before RASP did not help me. Sotto Voce, as always, has an apt tune for the puzzle, but the first line of this one by the Tubes was rolling around in my head after getting 17 Across. <a href="https://youtu.be/aI2NE1VOZPw?si=To1defw3WhRklygJ" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/aI2NE1VOZPw?si=To1defw3WhRklygJ</a>
@Vaer Thank you, that's very kind of you. But you chose better! @Sue S from Seattle also posted that song in reply to me, as she thought that's the one I would have picked. This is what I answered (which is what I would say to you as well) – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4hm13i?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4hm13i?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
@Sotto Voce I think you are too young to have experienced the Band in real time, but this one came to me when I woke up this morning. <a href="https://youtu.be/a2L7SrUWZWY?si=VTK3oLYokf4VOQZh" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/a2L7SrUWZWY?si=VTK3oLYokf4VOQZh</a>
Only slightly longer than my usual Wednesday. I caught onto the theme, but assumed it would be RINGS in the circles. When I got the "almost" screen, I had to flyspeck for a bit, and eventually realised that SPINTHES are not a thing. I didn't put in the rebus, and just assumed kids these days shorten everything, like sesh, totes and adorbs so SPIN THE B and B CAPS could be things that are said. However, my favorite answer is BUGABOO. it reminds me of Frasier Crane. For those who haven't seen it, Frasier is one of the wittiest comedies of all time.
@DocP I'm with you on "Frasier" but I can't recall an episode that featured or related to bugaboos. On another tack: isn't there a particularly fearsome ski area called the Bugaboos?
Weeeeellllll... SPIN THE BOTTLE is "Risque"?????????????????? What is wrong with y'all? Or (worse): what constitutes that game in CrossWorld??? I have all but one of the squares filled correctly on my page, and I stared at SPIN THE ( ) because crossing it was "( ) CAP" for "Pop top?" I took POP to mean Old Guy/Dad/DHubby--lovers of CAPs-- so I spent some time wondering, "Do old guys call them " S CAPs?..." And there was all the (apparently superfluous) carny-game stuff like RING TOSS and a RING+one more circle, and a PLUSH TOY and the Barker's spiel, none of it actually relating to SPIN THE (mystery item/S). Even with the look-up (BOTTLE) it doesn't fit a carnival/street fair, because that is a party game--which is pretty tame-- and it doesn't fit in here. (WE do not call a cola A SOFT DRINK or A POP around here...) I need to to lie down.
@Mean Old Lady Just to be clear, SPINTHEBOTTLE was not meant to be part of theme, except in so far as it was an entry that could have BOTTLE as a rebus. Could have been “time in a bottle” or any phrase that worked. I suppose back in the day it was risqué because you had to kiss whomever the bottle landed on. Wish that was what constituted as daring fun for kids today.
@Mean Old Lady There, there. Have a nice lie down. Let me bring you an iced tea. Has it really been so long since you were a teenager? Around here, we do not call a soda a SOFT DRINK or a POP, but we know what others mean when they use th term. And we certainly don't call it a COLA unless we're talking about a COKE or PEPSI, or, Lord help us, RC.
@Mean Old Lady I always thought it was called a pop top because of the sound it makes when you open it, since I don’t come from an area where pop commonly means soda!
When I saw Rebecca’s name, I knew I was in for a good time. I expected to see more grumbling about the (single!) Wednesday rebus, and am happy to see most people were fine with it. I like a puzzle that keeps me on my toes! One slight peeve: I’ve never heard of BUGABOO equating to “pet peeve”. The dictionary defines it as an object of fear or worry, possibly derived from “bogeyman”. A pet peeve doesn’t frighten, it just annoys. 2D sent me straight to “fusilli”, since Seinfeld taught me that that is the most corkscrew-y of pastas. (“A million to one shot, Jerry! A million to one!”) But that didn’t fit, so ROTINI it was. Best Wednesday in recent memory. One of the best Thursdays, too.
@Heidi I enjoy rebuses, as a rule, but single ones always get me. I don't remember ever managing to successfully identify one of them. I *know* they exist, but they keep eluding me... Still, there is hope! When I first started doing these puzzles in 2023, the whole idea of a rebus was alien to me, and it took a year or more for me to actually begin to like the feature, and be able to deal with it. Besting single rebuses is the natural next step 😁
@Heidi The famous "Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!" episode of The Brady Bunch was called, "My Sister's Bugaboo."
Most Excellent Wednesday! Hoping it bodes well for the end-of-week offerings…
I confidently started off 1A with WALDO. I guess GRAIL works too. Good fun puzzle with some surprises and a bit over average time to complete ( fir me, obv.).
I really disliked this puzzle. As a casual solver, I typically get Wednesdays in full about 75% of the time and am a clue or two away the rest of the time. Not today. Way too difficult for a Wednesday. As casual solvers, we only get three or four puzzles a week; it stinks to have one taken away. Oh well.
Perfect Wednesday puzzle!! I'm always happy on the rare days when there are no clues about basketball.
Wow. A lot of people have strong feelings about today’s puzzle. I guess a rebus will bring out the worst in some. I, for one, enjoyed this crunchy Wednesday! Difficult but not impossible, and only two lookups for me (a name and a term I was unfamiliar with). Thanks for the brain workout!
l like the portmanteau VOLUNTOLD. Been there!
The tricky clue for me was the ice cream. There are both Dreyers and Breyers ice creams. I couldn't come up with the wet habit. I tried "spa". Neither "adpt" or "abpt" were right, so I had to check the puzzle. Otherwise, I enjoyed the puzzle.
@jennie I am so glad I've never heard of or have forgotten Dreyers.