When does a bad joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent.
This one’s groan on me.
I spent a good 45 seconds pondering what the theme answers had to do with sneezing and came up empty. I don't think another 45 minutes would have helped.
@Twangster They all feature the sound “achoo” when pronounced.
While I was cringing for Andrzej, I was *loving* that my dad was eating this puzzle up wherever he is… His two favorites were- Why was the cookie so sad? Because his mother was crummy and his father was a wafer so long. And- What’s that nut that looks like a big peanut? A cashew? Gesundheit! Takes all kinds, don’t it? Thank heavens.
What's your favorite nut? Cashew. Gesundheit.
@Mitchell Munster Mike is not going to be happy. Because you probably outdid him. Or he is going to have to go back to the drawing board, before posting.
I liked the originality of this theme, having “achoo”-ish words as enclaves in other words, and I liked the clever revealer. I liked the lovely non-theme answers TAMPS, SCANT, STYMIE, AUTEUR, and PATCHOULI. I liked the lovely serendipities – OER crossing ORE, PAH under DAH, and four double letters in the first two rows. I liked learning post-solve that the formal/medical term for sneezing is “sternutation”. I liked that if the answer ASU were a word, it would come close to being a theme echo. Finally, what I liked most – me, who’s weak at the skill of figuring out a revealer before filling it in – No, I didn’t come up with TO SNEEZE AT, but before getting it from crosses, I *did* see the “achoo” in the theme answers, and that felt very, very good. Small steps… And thus, a splendid like-fest today, that I greatly enjoyed. Thank you, Adam!
@Lewis P-ATCHOU-LI was a themed answer.
Just yesterday, we were driving down the road and my husband called out "a shoe". I said "gesundheit" Appropriately, he groaned. We got out to move it a little to the side so it wouldn't get run over, thinking it may have come off someone's car roof and they may come back to look for it. It was a black and white checkerboard Van's. It looked brand new. When we passed it on the way home, it was gone. Seeing this puzzle 12 hours later made me smile, just like the thought of the happy reunion.
FYI the link is broken coming from the puzzle directly. I had to search “wordplay” to find it!
I will never get why Americans seem to enjoy dad jokes so much. They are considered utter cringe over here, and those who engage publicly in groanery are near-universally derided, as it should be. We call dad jokes "suchary" (literally, hardtack biscuits), and we describe them as "czerstwe", stale. Karol Strasburger, a once-famous actor, became the host of the Polish version of Family Feud in the 1990s. (Interestingly, over here it is called "Familiada", which is a neologism based on "olimpiada", Olympic competition, that in no way indicates a feud - I have noticed over the decades that American versions of shows and game shows are usually more confrontational and filled with more engineered drama that their European counterparts). He always started the show with a suchar. "Nieśmieszny żart prowadzącego" (the host's uncanny joke) became a meme and entered our language as an idiom.
Argh. That was supposed to be the host's *unfunny* joke! I missed Google autocorrect's blunder when posting...
@Andrzej Speaking from a neighbouring part of Europe: we enjoy puns/wordplay a lot, so maybe limit your assertions to your own country? It's almost like different cultures have different preferences, go figure...
@Andrzej In the UK Family Feud is called Family Fortunes so also less confrontational than the US title.
@Andrzej I may be wrong, but: I think the humor is less about the joke itself, but more the thought of the unhip guy you love thinking that the dumb joke is funny.
Andrzej — although I don't frequent comedy clubs or watch broadcast television these days: I first heard of "dad jokes" in NYT crosswords, and have never heard of them anywhere else. Not even once.
Dan, Dad jokes do exist outside the crossword. <a href="https://www.today.com/life/dad-jokes-rcna27325" target="_blank">https://www.today.com/life/dad-jokes-rcna27325</a>
@Andrzej I'm a big fan of dad jokes, puns, all kinds of lowbrow humor. Guess I just never really grew up and it's too late now...
@Andrzej That drama is why I stay away from most American competition shows, whether it's a game show or a reality show.
@Andrzej You realize that “Family Feud” is just a play on a common expression, right? No feuding involved. And it’s not confrontational at all, just two families playing to win. The only thing I find objectionable about it (and most game shows in general) is the constant! loud! cheering!! to the point of mania. Makes me want to slip everyone a Valium and tell them to settle down, it’s just a game. As for puns and dad jokes, I used to hate both. I thought they were beneath me. But now I kind of love them. I’ve come to appreciate the wordplay involved and recognize that a finely crafted pun is harder than it looks. (Hats off to Munster Mike!) I’ve also learned the value of allowing yourself to just be silly sometimes. It’s freeing.
@Andrzej I don't think we do enjoy them usually. You hardly ever hear them in average situations. I don't remember hearing them growing up. Some sitcom or family movie must have started this trend of dads and grandads telling them.
I found it unusually hard for a Tuesday (Yay!!!), delightfully silly, and I liked it a lot. I never would have guessed the revealer from the theme answers, but once I had IT'S NOTHING T, I went back, curious, to re-read those answers, and I immediately heard the ACHOO in all of them. I then confidently wrote in O SNEEZE AT, pausing momentarily to make sure that there would be a Z where a Z had to be. Fun, playful and different. I had a good time.
EnCLAVE/OnO I'd never heard of an exclave. Makes sense now that I see it, but.... Another early week puzzle bests me. This is getting scary. The theme was completely beyond me. I've read the description and, maybe for the first time ever, I just don't get it. As ever, no shade on the puzzle.
@Francis For "catch you later," say "catch you" quickly with the accent on the second syllable. If you do that a few times in a row, it will sound like a sneeze, so the joke is that it's nothing to sneeze at. The other starred answers will have similar sounds in them (Mass - "a chu" - setts).
@Francis I also never heard of exclave so I looked it up “The word exclave is a logically extended back-formation of enclave.” So it’s not really a word. It’s just made up stuff that makes one sound clever. Perfect for puzzling but not for speaking or writing which I had thought is the purpose of words. Was surprised to have two ONOs in my solution but feared that someone would say it’s not explicitly forbidden and thus allowed.
@Francis I've noticed that sometimes, when an early week puzzle "beats you", that it's an error you might have caught if you checked your completed grid more thoroughly. I think if you did, you would have seen that ONO was already in the grid, and that ONO was not really a kitchen brand. Just removing that N and contemplating other choices might have jogged your memory to see that OXO has been here before and made more sense. I'm only bringing this up because sometimes I see you make unforced errors, and then you beat yourself up over them. Slowing down a little could help.
@Francis I also put EnCLAVE / OnO at first, but with ONO already locked in from a previous clue I was immediately suspicious and changed it. I see both EN- and EXclave as fine for a region contained within another country, like how a person who moves to live in a different country is both an immigrant and an emigrant. Exclave is pretty common among geography/border nerds, but you can use whichever fits best with the emphasis you want. To Jason, I'd say remember that all words are made-up... It's not like ENCLAVE is a universal inevitability that formed during the Big Bang while EXCLAVE is a fake interloper plucked out of thin air...
No one on this planet says "pah" in disgust.
@EnviroLawProf My Baba used to say it. But I suppose as she’s left this world you may be right, that no one remaining on this planet says it. Maybe I’ll bring it back.
@EnviroLawProf - Have you surveyed the entire world's population on this matter? If not, how do you know this?
@EnviroLawProf, Yeah, but that’s how we wrote it in the puzzle today, and if you read it out loud it does rhyme with ‘pa’, so they have us on a technicality.
@EnviroLawProf I had mah and went through the whole puzzle before figuring it out. Tough cross to pair it with.
@EnviroLawProf My grandmother's epithet of choice was, "fishcakes and sour balls," and I've never heard it anywhere else. But it must have been a thing once.
@EnviroLawProf Yeah, but have you checked the *other* planets? Huh? Huh?
@EnviroLawProf I'm from the UK, but it's definitely a thing that's said. It's usually in refute of something in disgust, though. Like 'pah, you're talking jibberish'. It's a much harder, shorter sound than bah or wah or gah.
@EnviroLawProf I think that somewhere in the last few days I used Pah! on this very board as an expression of disgust.
@EnviroLawProf I havent heard it recently, but I've read it in books.
I recognized Christine Cornell's drawings in the Wordplay photo. Her courtroom drawings are always amazing. How can someone do such a complicated, accurate and artistic drawing sitting in a courtroom? Here is a media piece about her: <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/human-interest/2025/08/14/sketch-artist-profile" target="_blank">https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/human-interest/2025/08/14/sketch-artist-profile</a>
@lucky13 Some courtroom artists are so meh, but Christine Cornell is really great. I wasn't familiar with her before this. Thanks for the link. The No. 1 courtroom artist in NY when I was growing up was Ida Libby Dengrove, and I was so taken by her work. But I didn't know that she also did a lot of Jewish art, so I was shocked when I noticed that a print of hers was hanging over the buffet in my grandparents' dining room!
I found this one to be tougher than the average Tuesday.
This was awful. Way too many “alternative” usages (that no one really uses) and the theme was sloppy. I honestly don’t think I have ever hated a Tuesday puzzle so much. Rating: 1/10
@Darren Wow, that's terrible. Maybe this will cheer you up <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JXvXrBtdhIs" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JXvXrBtdhIs</a>
Pretty good puzzle overall, I liked the cute Dad Joke theme. One answer I want to talk about, EXCLAVE. When I saw the clue "Part of a country located entirely inside another country", I thought it meant something located in Vatican City. So I came up with ENCLAVE, mixing it up with CONCLAVE. Just happening to be a valid term one letter away from a similar correct answer. Since I did not know OXO this was an extremely difficult error to find.
Chris, All of, not part of, Vatican City is located within Italy, which is why it is an enclave. An EXCLAVE is, as clued, when part of a country is within another one. And the cross was Crosslandia's kitchen palindrome, not the singer/artist palindrome.
OXO was here last month. This is its third appearance in 2026. If you don't have it in your kitchen, have it here.
@Chris re: exclaves, Cabinda and Kaliningrad are the two that immediately come to mind
@Chris I had the same issue, and ONO seemed like a perfectly good brand name. I spent about 10 minutes looking for the error in my completed puzzle, and never found it. In the end I had to use the reveals.
Honestly just didn’t like this, PAH - which, whatever I guess, crossing PATCHOULI, having to translate an entirely Spanish clue to get ENERO, I could go on but honestly too much of a chore for Tuesday. Not a difficulty assessment necessarily, although I think this will come out on the harder side stats wise, just not breezy and kind of felt like a grind. Too early in the week to feel like I’m doing a homework assignment. Don’t really get the theme, read the word play column after solving and seems like a stretch. My own opinion, hope others enjoyed it.
@RL I didn't feel quite the same...it wasn't a chore to my mind, it was just....meh. So I felt let down, esp when I was promised a JOKE!
I'd like to thank SP, Heathie and others who noticed that my post yesterday was taken down, for no reason whatsoever, and for the kind comments. I'm posting about it again in case my answer wasn't seen. I did NOT flag my own post. I have a gut feeling that it was flagged by the person who made the uncivil comment to my post about Sunday's puzzle. What I don't understand is what could have caused a moderator, if indeed there is a human moderator here, to have agreed that it violated any standards. If that commenter is still here (and I just know that it was a male), I hope this one is seen before he does the same thing again.
@Times Rita Does it matter what gender the person was? Honestly, as others pointed out, there were a lot of age-related comments on both sides. I don't see the value in making this a gendered issue. As someone else pointed out in the deleted thread, your comment on Sunday's post was also pretty rude, even if wasn't attacking someone personally.
@Times Rita Appears that eventually the moderation monster gets us all. I actually do think that we deserve some information about why some comments are pulled and other are not. We are not really guests here--guests don't pay for the privilege. We all ante up to participate in this, and I don't think we should be censored without explanation. I'm not saying every post should stay up, but I think it's not too much to expect that when we run afoul, that we get some clear indication of why. Fact is, neither the NYT nor anyone else has solved the problem of internet moderation. It seems almost certain to remain capricious, because it would just be too expensive to do it better.
No joke, for me, PATCHOULI is someTHING TO SNEEZE AT. I'm sensitive to a lot of aromas, and PATCHOULI is one of them and was particularly popular back in the days of John and Yoko's bed-ins. Ballad of John and Yoko, anyone? <a href="https://youtu.be/MZ0ZXgxqUcE?si=PK5ZJOsqL9YXg9AA" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/MZ0ZXgxqUcE?si=PK5ZJOsqL9YXg9AA</a>
@Vaer I’d better keep away from Brooklyn then, I love PATCHOULI based scent. 😮
@Vaer For me, PATCHOILI is a particularly 1970s smell, along with joss/incense sticks, and long cheesecloth skirts.
It's an admittedly small amount of data, but my theory is that words that sound like sneezing are, on average, harder to spell!
While most groan at Dad jokes, I laugh. So, I LOVED today's crossword. Thank you Adam.
Well, I enjoyed entering the unusual bits-- we don't see much PATCHOULI in these parts. Especially not in MASSACHUSETTS...or so I think, based on my Boston visit. No one puts up a STATUETTE in honor of PATCHOULI. We can neither disprove nor affirm that it causes SNEEZEs, but if you're not a fan of strong odors that lodge in the depths of your sinuses, this might be something to avoid. Sorry, but twisty ways to spell "achoo" are weak supports for a puzzle IMHO.. I did learn EXCLAVE, and I tried ATTEST before I got more ASSERTive. See you tomorrow...
@Mean Old Lady I believe all dad jokes are required to be weak, by definition.
This puzzle was crafted with Mike from Munster in mind. I don't see him around, though...
I have no idea when bad jokes became dad jokes but i ever so mildly resent it. Speaking as a father, I am just as unfunny or funny or punny or unpunny as anyone else. Indeed, if there is an age group that can be relied on to be painfully unfunny, it's children, with their repetitions of jokes and laughing at one's own joke or messing up the punch line. We love them for it, we get it, but let's not put fathers out there as some sort of class of people incapable of funniosity. Where are the mothers in all this? Delivering rock solid material that gets no one groaning? What this gets me thinking about, actually and away from the world's least furious rant, is a related rant: I ask you to consider whether the generalizations about age groups, generations, regions, etc. to be a gateway drug toward worse biases. How long can a brain spend time saying trite stuff like "Gex X is so foolish," "Moms have no sense of fashion" or "Portland is full of weirdos" before being open to generalizations about identity, about gender, about ethnicity, religion, etc? I'm persuadable. Convince me that the lesser generalizations don't for some people open a pathway to worse.
@Asher B. Very thought-provoking post. You might be onto something. I think it's very possible that lazy thinking in one area will begat lazy thinking in others. I think you might be right. I think humans are coming to a reckoning that I think all "intelligent", competitive species face eventually (assuming there are other intelligent species). And that is this: how do we turn competition, which has been extremely beneficial for humans, into something other than tribalism, which is no longer beneficial to us? Why is it that we simply cannot avoid an "us" vs "them"? One answer is simple: because there is so much media money to be made by making sets of people furious at each other: different races, different genders, different life styles, different generations. Nothing like a fight to bring in viewers. There is a new documentary out that really has me thinking about this: "Natchez" documents current life in Natchez, MS, a city where the "us" vs "them" is particularly visible, with the stately mansions and hoop dresses on one side, and slave markets (former, for now) on the other. My Civil War historian son recommended it to me, and I heartily recommend it to others.
@Asher B. I agree with you completely about the dad joke thing. As to the other generalizations, I think they already stem from long present biases and generalizations about identity, gender, ethnicity, religion, etc. We're just finding ways to narrow it down further. I remember folks in my church growing up (non-denominational) joking about Lutherans. My tiny brain though, "Aren't we all Christians though, why are they saying that?" And worse would be Catholics, and I'd wonder why... they're Christians. And on and on. My husband, an immigrant of color, lived through busing in the 70s in Boston... he can tell some stories. So, to me, it seems, the availability of so much more information about people (generation names and all the rest) helps us whittle it down further to see only more and more differences, furthering the divide, and not the shared humanity. People feel safer having a side or a team or a whatever. And I think our current political situation heartily encourages that over seeking ways we have commonalities. I like to think it's not too late but it's a rather large ship to turn around.
@Asher B. Not sure I can convince you or even myself. There’s a bit of common sense and “you know it when you see it”. I’m not offended by the idea of “Dad joke”, though I am one (and one of the biggest offenders). But I can see the case being made that the idea that all Dads have a bad sense of humor is not so far removed from all blondes being air-headed and then not far removed beyond that to racist or ethnic stereotypes. That said, I would push back on concerted efforts to curtail humor and colloquial speech towards a PC goal, for want of a better term, or to avoid a slippery slope. I think intention and context is overriding, and I wish most of us were perspicacious enough to be aware of that. I think it should be very obvious to any reasonable person that the idea of a “dad joke” just like “mom jeans” is good-natured and no one would take it seriously as a negative stereotype. I’d hate to have such an evocative phrase removed from our vernacular. Similarly, I can tell a “blonde joke” to my friends or my daughter in law, who is blonde, and they are well aware that I certainly don’t think most blondes are ditzy. I can even tell a Jewish joke to other Jews implying certain pecuniary tendencies with a good spirit, but of course a non-Jew telling the same joke in another context might be offensive. All of this is to say, your concerns are noted and not without merit, but I personally wish our society was less prone to snap-judgments and rigid rules of offensiveness.
@Asher B. My dad was known for telling "shaggy dog" stories, which were quite funny. And because he was from Maine, he also had an endless supply of "Newfie" jokes, because those people on the other side of the water must not be very smart, or they would live here instead.
@Asher B. Maybe what we really need is more made-up groups. In Yiddish lore there was an imaginary town named Chelm, and it was a stand in for any “stupid person” joke you could think of. So instead of an offensive “Polish” joke or “Blonde” joke (or pick whatever opposing ethnic group you want) you could make the same joke about someone from Chelm and you never had to be worried about offending someone. It’s just that starting a joke off as “There was this very stupid person and he…” just never works.
@Asher B. are all Dad jokes puns? or vice versa? I don't know. I agree with responses that context and intent are important in humor, and not to take offense where none was intended. I do think it's possible to become too PC police-y, but some responses talked about jokes that invoke stereotypes of other groups - blondes, Jews, Poles, etc. that often cross the line. So back to puns - I am delighted by them, and - bonus - they don't require a victim. Also spoonerisms - The Rev. Spooner is long since passed and can't take offense. Malapropisms - the fictitious Mrs. Malaprop won't complain. Mondegreens? I doubt not that "Lady Mondegreen" would be happy to have them named after her, if she existed. So far from being the "lowest form of humor" I think they are the best.
@Asher B.Your point is well taken but I think too sensitively. In my experience, everyone loves dad jokes! They’re not “bad,” but they are corny and still funny, made extra funny by the person delivering them, whom you adore.
I'm extremely cranky and sad about some things happening at my place of work, which has been wonderful for me as YET. PAH! My resulting mood is absolutely coloring everything today, so I can't judge anything fairly. I'm not sure even a CHOCO taco with a NIP of something would improve my day, but I'd be willing to give it a try... har!
@HeathieJ Work is the curse of the drinking class.
This page's URL should be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2026-07-28.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2026-07-28.html</a> -- it's still year 2026, not 2027.
Random rambling. For some reason, it bugs me how much RIAN Johnson appears in these grades. It’s weird because I have no problems when I see OBOE or OREO I am genuinely gleeful when I see Brian ENO. Nothing against the brother. I really have no opinions on him. But his name bugs me. No idea why my I’m even posting this. I must be really bored.
@Weak You know he’s an avid crossword solver and even wrote the Wordplay column once? Just letting you know, he could be reading…
@Weak Probably because of the spelling. When I see a name spelled so off from the standard, it also bugs me. Recent examples: Hydee instead of Heidi, and Alisyn instead of the many other variations of that name that don't bug me.
Weak, RIAN Johnson had this to say here: "Rian Johnson is a filmmaker and crossword fiend. He’d like to alert any puzzle constructors reading this to the tremendously useful vowels in his first name." <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2026-03-05.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2026-03-05.html</a>
I have to say this theme was very weak. I genuinely had no idea what was going on until I came here. Being from MASSACHUSETTS myself, I kept looking for something to do with the meaning, and the connection to sneezing just was not there. Still a quicker-than-average Monday for me but the same crossword would've been far stronger without forcing a theme on it.
Attempted to solve this one using just the horizontal clues. Came close, but did not succeed. Had all the thematic content, though STATUETTE still doesn't work for me. Had no clue about the author at 5A, but with O__LL in place I guessed ODELL. What got me was "___ Taco (ice cream treat)". No connection for me to CHOCO there, and I had guessed EXSLAVE and ROASTED rather than EXCLAVE and ROOSTED for the verticals. Oh well. So there goes another streak. Start again tomorrow.
Very cute puzzle!
Almost my best Tuesday. I'm in good company with not knowing EXCLAVE. We have OXO products here - tin openers etc, but I assumed ONO could be an alternative US brand. Nice clues though.
@Jane Wheelaghan Not to mention the OXO Tower and food brand.
@Vaer I remember seeing Brooke Bond OXO on a Formula 1 car and wondering what that meant. TIL it's a food brand. (Merged with a tea brand.)
@Jane Wheelaghan having used some of their products I confidently entered OXO. When the cross started looking like EXCLAVE, which I had never heard of, I also decided that maybe ONO was a brand, too. Then I saw 18D could only be ONO. ONO says I, I have two ONOs in the puzzle. That's when I learned that EXCLAVE was a thing.
poem made from words in today’s puzzle a/ each next until now once more out across the first and on down to huddle under the next - bubbles in a rainstorm - a bonfire on the mountain - a star in a spangled banner d/ and the untruth night stretching through the cold and visionary day a/ it’s soon again, later
@Peter Valentine Loved this one. Great wordplay and just on the sweet spot between linear and fractal.
way too cute for a tuesday. PAH? at that point just admit the grid doesn't work
Oh, how I miss the CHOCO taco.
@Steph Coldstone has been advertising a chocolate and peanutbutter flavored thing thats similar, but no idea how it compares to the real thing. I miss them too.
@Steph - I've never had one. When I heard of their demise, I tried to find one last package in the local freezer sections, but they'd already been cleaned out... It is very sad.
Noticed the "chu" part but, ah, did not fully grasp the theme so the reveal was a nice chuckle. A fun one that you can't beat with a CLAVE.
Congratulations on and thank you for a fine and light-hearted puzzle, Mr. Vincent. Having your eighth crossword published by the NYT is NOTHING TO SNEEZE AT! I loved seeing EXCLAVE because I think it'll now stick in my memory, considering the LENGTHS I went to before finally getting it. I could not for the life of me remember the term, despite knowing it started with EX. And I could picture the Kaliningrad Oblast but then couldn't remember its name. Frustrated and not wanting to wait for the crosses, I googled "Russian land that borders Lithuania and the coast" which finally gave me EXCLAVE. If not the crosses, then LOGIC being in the puzzle should have nudged me to use it (enclave vs exclave) but, instead, all I could think of was of Supertramp and The LOGICal Song... <a href="https://youtu.be/kln_bIndDJg?is=WH3R8yVBogTRr3za" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/kln_bIndDJg?is=WH3R8yVBogTRr3za</a>
@sotto voce Thanks for the tune. Since you mentioned Supertramp, check out Roger Hodgson, his 12 string, and sax player at 4 a.m. on the Faroe Islands (apparently he wrote this song when he was 19). The joy in the crowd that his plane finally got there: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CdTrqV6dt3o" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CdTrqV6dt3o</a>
@sotto voce I'd never wondered about it before, but I just now decided I needed to know whence the name. "The word supertramp means a supreme or superior wanderer/vagabond, originating from the 1908 book The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by Welsh writer W. H. Davies."
Aaaarrrrgggg! Hidden Dad joke that everyone missed and made my solve double tricky! I solved two theme entries first - the revealer, and the 'until next time' clue. If you ignore the 'sound' hidden in the answer, it's a dad joke all in itself, and left me perplexed and unable to guess at all the other answers! (if it's still not obvious, think 'spreading germs')
Yep, liked this one just fine. Had to flyspeck three times before I fixed the ONO to OXO. Or the other way around, I forget....
@Down_Home Yes, that was my last letter and I was just running thru the alphabet at that point. Loved this puzzle, fun to do, it had me laughing - "Bless you" to Constructor for this one :)
Argh, had ACTS instead of OPTS for 5-down, telling myself CALEO is a more strict "California" version of PALEO (which I think of more in terms of "meat and vegetables only" than "no processing", probably wrongly), and not knowing who the author of 5-across was. Took me way too long to root that mistake out. I also didn't get the dad joke even after I saw the "ahchoo's". I guess a pun-loving dad would say "IT'S NOTHING TO SNEEZE AT" after someone said one of those starred answers? Last gripe: "CHOCO taco" made me hungry. No, I'm neither PALEO or CALEO.
I read the first few newest posts and quit. Too negative. I've got better things to do. Good puzzle though.
@Hanson I'm with you. I usually read only the first several posts. There are some grumps among us.
The wrong clue is given for exclave, it describes an enclave. Like Alaska, an exclave is a portion of a country separated from the main part by one or more foreign territories. An enclave is, as the clue describes, a piece of land completely surrounded by another country such as San Marino.
@Jc PART of a country = exclave, ALL of a country = enclave. Alaska is part of the US.
@Jc I believe the puzzle is correct. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclave_and_exclave" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclave_and_exclave</a> Look how it describes exclave A2 in the diagram.
Jc, Alaska is a semi-exclave; the ocean is not foreign territory.
@Jc According to the link posted by Elbridge Gerry, "An exclave is a portion of a state or district geographically separated from the main part, by some surrounding alien territory. Many exclaves are also enclaves." The clue is correct.
This was a fine Tuesday, but I didn't feel that the theme added much. I guess I often have that response to themes, especially early in the week. I've never been to an EXCLAVE. My closest exposure to enclaves was when I moved to Michigan and found that there were two within the city limits of Detroit: Highland Park and Hamtramck.
@Jack McCullough There is a little enclave in Oakland CA, Piedmont. From what I've heard from someone who grew up there, Piedmont was incorporated because people there thought the schools weren't getting enough funding. (Berkeley and Oakland went through some cheap, one might say conservative, leadership in the early 20th Century.) Piedmont contracts most of its services to other cities but I assume it still treasures its schools.
Cluing was a bit too obtuse for a Tuesday. Revealed was a complete nothing-burger, but the starred answers helped me get there, so that’s worth something, I guess. Crossing two Spanish language answers was… a choice. Not a great puzzle but nothing terribly offensive either.
This is the fifth appearance in the past three months for that totally obscure Spanish word SENOR. I trust those not familiar with ENERO found the crosses Tuesday-worthy.
As usual, I missed the Dad jokes even though I finished the grid. Needed Wordplay to fill in the pun blanks in my head. Having finally got the joke, my feelings were; nice puzzle, a tad chewy for Tuesday, but was that a deliberate choice of day by Mr Self? Joining in the pun? See, I do get it eventually.
Question from a sincerely baffled blog reader: Why is there a photo of a courtroom sketch artist in the column today? A "Reader's Pick" comment that seemed completely out of the blue and off-topic drove me to the column -- and, sure enough, there it was. A photo of the courtroom artist. But WHY? Why is she there? What did I miss? Is there a clue or answer I'm forgetting? It wouldn't be the first time, btw.
Nancy, Others have pointed out that hearings take place in court.
Lots of fun. Loved it, loved it, loved it. We certainly need some reasons to laugh these days, don't we? Among other things to worry about, I've been getting alerting pings (don't know what to call them) throughout the days and for the past several weeks, because there are grass fires popping up everywhere, way too close for comfort. Hoping and praying we won't get an evacuation order. Also praying for all those who have had to evacuate already, not just here but in many other places too.
@Shari Coats Oh I’m sorry to hear that Shari!
My dad joke clue for 38A is "A whole bunch of dentures?" Thanks Sam for explaining the theme, a little slow this morning!