OK, let's get this out of the way from the start. 28D changed its name from NAURU to Naoero last week. It was in all the news reports. That is all.
@Steve L Because I had not heard of the island 🏝️ I looked it up on the Maps app on my iPad with “Nauru“. Seems like they have not updated it either.
@Steve L I hope you haven’t read today’s front page headline: “Trump Said to Have Secretly Used Military Jet to Leave Turkey Amid Threats”. You know Turkey changed its name to Türkiye several years ago? Are you writing to the Times to complain about that too? Cmon, let the nits go, and live a little. (Disclaimer: i haven’t read the article, so forgive me if i misunderstood the headline: maybe the President was absconding from the Thanksgiving table?)
@Steve L It's because I saw that story that I knew the answer, so appreciated it.
@Steve L and yet, we still know the name SIAM. Historical names don't disappear quickly.
@Steve L When I heard the report last week about Naoero, the first thing I thought was, "Well, there's another crossword word to learn." I was happy today when memory of the report *helped* me with this answer. It's a good point about Turkey/Türkiye. I wonder if it has to do with the fact the there are English names of many countries (e.g., Germany for Deustchland) that are just not going to change for English speakers. Is "Nauru" in the common English parlance enough to warrant not going with what the country's elected leaders want? One of the official languages of Naoero (unlike Turkey and Germany) is English! Adding to the complication is that I wonder if one motivation for Turkey to try get the world to change its spelling is that the word "turkey" (as in the bird and George Jefferson's favorite insult) in English has a somewhat pejorative connotation.
@Steve L This puzzle was likely finalized long before then.
I'd like to apologize to the good people of Myanmar for believing — for far too long — that they were big exporters of RABIES. Sorry!
@MP Rogers Thé U was my last letter, and I had the same thought, but mine came with "surely not?" What a relief when KUNIS seemed vaguely familiar.
@MP Rogers Same. I had to look up the name of the actress.
@MP Rogers Well, my first guess was rubbish - shame on me!
How do you get down from an elephant? You don't - you get down from a duck.
@Mark Haubrich I believe a version of that joke has been found in the earliest cuneiform writings know ln to exist, or at least joke books found in Egyptian pyramids…
A very clever and unique theme. I love that the constructor even threw in a Chinese DUMPLING. As it happens I listen to HANS ZIMMER every night. He’s the composer of the ABC World News Tonight theme. Congratulations, Wade. A fine debut!
@Anita HANS ZIMMER is my favorite soundtrack score composer. And my favorite by him is for "The Thin Red Line" which perhaps didn't get the attention it deserved because that year it had to go up against the Piovani's "Life is Beautiful" for the Oscar and lost. Anyway, it and many of his other soundtracks (but not the ones for superhero movies) are great to listen to at night to fall asleep to.
My apologies, Hans Zimmer composed the former news theme, not the current one.
Still don’t understand the complaints. Isn’t the idea of a puzzle to figure out the answers? Just filling in the answers that one already knew would be more like an exam. We all approach it with a different perspective and life experience. This creator is a recent college graduate; I graduated over fifty years ago. Solving a puzzle bridges an age gap. Clever descriptions and clues to help figure it out is the fun part and then you have the increased knowledge for the future !
The NAURU/ Naoero controversy is unfortunate, but not terribly surprising given how recently the name change happened. I assume the puzzle was given the green light months ago, and there’s no staff dedicated to revisiting puzzles and looking for clues that have changed in the brief interim. I suggest we give the clue editors a little grace. And I suspect most of us got there anyway, so what’s the problem, really?
@Heidi Actually that’s not entirely true. Constructors get the final clues about two weeks before publishing and are able to give input if there’s a clue they think is off. This happened to me, and they changed one for me not too far in advance. I don’t think it’s the end of the world, and I just saw the announcement last week; I’m sure it will be correct in the future. But clues are reviewed closer to publication. I was just surprised, that’s all.
@Heidi Oh, and to follow up on my comment, if you’re wondering what sort of clue the editors might change, it was for ASTHMA and the clue was “Target of …” with some obscure and little used asthma medication. I told them I would get laughed out of my pediatric practice if they used it, gave them a couple of more common examples, and they kindly changed it. I wouldn’t presume to ask them to change a clue purely on style or difficulty level, nor would they.
@Heidi Agreed about giving the editors grace. I, too, had heard about the name change a day or two ago and came to the comments to see what others were saying about it. The clue could have been revised to, "Former name of the island that's the world's third-smallest country..." if the NYT puzzle staff or the constructor had heard about the name change in time, but no shade on them that they didn't. BTW, years ago I saw a TV news segment (maybe on "60 Minutes"?) about the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which occupies a couple of buildings in Rome and is thus even smaller than the Vatican. Guess it depends how you define a country.
Wade, congrats on your debut! It’s always a pleasure to see a construction that reflects its constructor’s passions and apparently this includes two of yours—thanks for sharing! Very tight theme considering the constraint of musicians/composers and the limitations of the dynasty name—quite remarkable, actually. I expect there will be some push-back in the comments about the number of proper nouns (even apart from the theme), which is a fair critique: I hope they will be kind; if not remember everyone has their own opinion and expectations. Don’t let it dampen your achievement! I enjoyed it immensely and was able to get all the proper nouns that I didn’t know from crosses. Anyone else try DIAN Fossey before NOAH? Great clue, that! How about RUBBER before RUBIES? Also surprised that editors didn’t change the clue for NAURU. I expect the former name will stay around for a while but deserves to be recognized as such. After all, SIAM finally got the update! Congratulations again, Wade, hope to see more of you!
@SP For more on RUBIES, I recommend The Burmese Harp, a film made in 1956. It's available on popular subscription streaming services but I think this link to an English subtitled copy works, too. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/3y5dktyu" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/3y5dktyu</a>
I fully understand why “NAURU” was included, as the puzzle was surely constructed before the recent name change to “Naoero.” However, I’m very surprised a comment wasn’t included in the notes. Of all the times to add a little wisdom, this detail is just begging for elaboration.
@JMF A bit ironic, given the Siam -> Thailand entry.
@JMF I’m sure some constructors will be giving their new name a spin in the crossword with all those vowels. Keep your eyes peeled! 👀
Love, love that this puzzle has more modern references. I would much rather see those than something like OLEO. (And I do realize that WU-TANG CLAN was formed in 1992. It's still more modern than OLEO.)
@Matt Agreed! It’s been so fun to see puzzlemakers cater to a wider variety of audiences lately.
Welcome aboard, Mr. Bednar, and congratulations on your debut! The SONG going through my head as I solved was "Don't know much about (Chinese) history..." so I'm glad this was a breezy Tuesday puzzle and all was gettable. Very happy to see HANS ZIMMER get a shout-out. Brilliant composer. So he's finally made it into the NYT crosswords? I'm sure his Oscars and Grammys will pale by comparison. *Now* he's arrived! :-) Here he is in Prague, playing "Time" (with, yes, Johnny Marr of The Smiths on guitar!) – <a href="https://youtu.be/va1oiojnGrA?is=9vD53a2AvS-xv3za" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/va1oiojnGrA?is=9vD53a2AvS-xv3za</a> Mario, Wario, LUIGI...everything I know about Mario Brothers I learned from the NYT xwords. As for NAURU, I thought it was funny that it showed up today. Just last week I noted here that I was trying to commit the new name to memory, thinking the abundance of vowels would land Naoero in a puzzle. I feel bad for the editors that an addendum to the clue fell through the cracks. Maybe it will show up tomorrow? Thank you, Mr. Bednar for a very nice puzzle. We'll done!
@sotto voce After reading HANS ZIMMER's Wikipedia entry, I'm surprised that there's any movie that he hasn't scored.
In what world does auto-correct think "we'll done" exists? Sheesh.
This is a tight theme (Hi, @SP!). I’m guessing that there aren’t going to many theme answer possibilities (with dynasties not used in today's grid) showing up in the comments today. But the Crosslandia gods smiled on Wade, because the theme answers he did find broke into two pairs with equal letter counts, to enable grid symmetry. I would like to have seen the fist pump he made when he discovered that! But first a constructor has to come up with the theme itself – and the idea for today’s theme – musical entities that contain Chinese dynasties – IMO, was a stroke of brilliance. So quirky! Never been done before, I’m sure. That comes from a mind I'd like to see more puzzles from. Bravo on all this and on your NYT debut, Wade, and there were enough no-knows for me (fairly crossed) to give my brain the work it cherishes. I loved this puzzle from start to finish. Thank you!
The Battle of Hastings was fought between two armies of about 7000 men each in 1066. It is one of the most important battles in history and known to every Briton (and maybe many more across the world.) At the same time the SONG DYNASTY had more than 1,000,000 soldiers. It was fighting the Mongols with rocket-propelled arrows, flamethrowers, crossbow snipers who could assassinate enemy generals, and fleets of warships. It’s no wonder that the Mongols, who eventually beat the Song, found conquering Europe such a cakewalk. More here: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_the_Song_dynasty" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_the_Song_dynasty</a>
Congratulations on a very good debut. Looking over the list of dynasties, it's hard to find other examples that work. Possibly [What might come out of the closet] -- CLOTHE(S HANG)ER. The SHANG dynasty is China's first verifiable dynasty, lasting approximately 550 years. But others? Pretty hard. I dare someone to find a good one for QING, the last dynasty, which ended in 1912. Some other ones equally hard: XIA, QIN (easy enough, but a commonly used phrase?), YUAN, ZHOU. SUI might be too easy, but suit yourself. Must proudly admit to watching with rapt attention "Dynasty" on TV starting with the second season, probably 1983, when Joan Collins, the Machiavellian beauty, schemed her way into my post-adolescent heart. I liked Dynasty much better than Dallas, its rival, chiefly because of Dame Joan's devotion to her role. Can't say I've ever read anything of hers, my low-brow inclinations have a limit, but she was a dynasty unto herself, in her time. Funny, I guessed ADVIL as popular tablets, a bit tired of IMacs and IPads, but that's on me. Also paused a time because I'm more likely to say, suspiciously, You're UP TO something and not the more positive, ON TO . Likewise, I'm more prone to saying I'll ADMIT it than I'll ALLOW it. Puzzles allow us to psychoanalyze ourselves.
@john ezra Don’t forget the dynasties all have to be part of a music related entry (actually musicians/composers) to fit with SONG. So this is an awfully tight theme!
Great to see some Hip-Hop legends in WU-TANG CLAN and Dr. DRE included in today's puzzle. August 11, 1973 - DJ Kool Herc's Back to School party in the South Bronx is widely recognised as the official start of Hip-Hop culture. Happy 53rd Birthday!
Watch out on 28 down, editors! NYT just reported on a name change! 🤣 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/world/naoero-nauru-name-change.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/world/naoero-nauru-name-change.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share</a>
As an American, my goats have always gone BAA, no matter how stridently you may try to convince me otherwise. Therefore, your comeuppance will be KARBIC.
@Eric DM my goats very distinctly say Maa. Though I concede that goats are not big on consonants.
@Eric DM As a human, the goats owned by my sister have always gone MAA, as well as any other goat I've heard in real life.
[Group with the 1964 hit "Leader of the Pack] THE (S)(H)(A)(N)(G)RILAS
I'm still not sure when to write "disc "and when "disk." But obviously it was "chide" and not "khide," so I was able to correct. Other than that, a quick Tuesday. It was nice not to have too much crosswordese.
@Jonathan Simple. Write DISC when the cross requires a C. Write DISK when the cross requires a K.
@Jonathan This made me think of Sandisk, the company that makes flash memory chips. Was their name trying to be a contraction of "sans disc"? I don't think any of their products ever contained anything disc-like. I suppose I could Google it, but we just don't do that in the NYT Crossword comments arena, now do we?
Speaking of Francis, where is he? I know Andrzej is taking a hiatus but don’t recall seeing anything from Francis lately either. Francis if you are out there let us know you are Ok and hope you come back here soon.
@SP There were a few replies to the first post from last night that have since been removed, connecting [Truth alternative] to a certain political leader, also known for his skill with Sharpies. I think, but am not absolutely positive, that @Francis might have been in that thread.
@SP He's okay, he just needed a break after the frustrating tone and, well, some pointed accusations out here over the last week or so. I'm sure he will eventually come back, but it can be a bit of a love-hate thing out here you know.
@SP We need both Francis and Andrzej in this forum, and I would be very sad if either decided to make a permanent break. I understand an occasional hiatus, though. It’s probably a healthy decision. I missed the latest hoopla, but I know things can become a bit much sometimes. Still, this is a much more civil forum than many I’ve visited, so there’s at least that.
NAURU a complaint here. Or Naoero a complaint. Perhaps a little chewy for a Tuesday, but I welcome that. More puzzles, please, Wade!
NAURU is no longer its name! A few months ago it officially changed to “Naoero”. I bet the change happened after this puzzle was written!
@erin mast For sure, but not too late to addend "in a prior spelling" to the clue
An excellent puzzle that managed to have both easy gimme zones (the NE corner!) and some areas stuffed with real ticklish stumpers. I tried the “Across clues only” challenge and my bumpy progress eventually foundered on SYSCO and AOKAY, and it turned out i had rubber instead of RUBIES. I’m proud to say i got all three band names by puzzling them out. I clung to the “Ming” DYNASTY for too long, but eventually relented, with some surprise that the answer was SONG. Today i learned!
@Petrol, I tried the down clues only, but could only get the revealer by letter patterns, and had a couple of large-ish blocks with little filled in, leaving me nowhere to go. For me, too many proper noun clues to make getting it from just the downs possible. Once I gave in (and subsequently finding I was wrong on many answers I had felt confident about), it was smooth sailing to complete the puzzle.
@Petrol where you had RUBBER, I had RABIES. Seemed odd that a major export would be a disease! Finally looked up the name of the actress and fixed my errant ouzzle.
Thanks to those below who explained that “doi” was two words. I do recall the word “doy” from about fifth grade in central Jersey; it meant “yes of course I know that are you stupid?”
Lovely theme, so clever to incorporate dynasties into SONG/group references. Kudos. Also loved the mini themette with ELM/ELMO OUT/OUTER. Yes, the Island nation has changed its name to better represent the native tongue, but I think we can forgive the team for not picking up on it. I’m sure the choice and print date is decided so far in advance it’s difficult to flyspeck every one right before publishing. Still in drought here. Our water bowsers are now dry. Watching our mains water meter whizz around while we keep the animals alive isn’t fun. I think my arms will be some inches longer at the end of all this from toting heavy watering cans around. Who needs a gym?
PS...oh! It's CT Primary day! I'll go out and vote before I start working. Never miss a chance to make your voice heard.
DOI slowed me down. Love WUTANGCLAN.
I'm impressed with the number of commenters who are aware of the name change of NAURU to Naoero, but... Isn't it extremely common to refer to other nations by something other than its "official" name? Greece/Hellas Germany/Deutschland Spain/Espagna Japan/Nihon/Nippon Is this any different?
@The X-Phile Yes. The new law specifically noted that the new spelling was the official English-language name. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauru" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauru</a> PS It's only "Espagna" in Italy.
@The X-Phile I was aware, but assume this puzzle was in the pipeline well beforehand.
@The X-Phile I think the little island nation has bigger problems than what we call them. And since we're doing China today, when does the NYT style guide change that to Zhongguo? We did Turkiye.
An excellent first puzzle Wade. I don't know much Chinese history and prefer classical or earlier then the 80's music but I learned some and had fun struggling to solve this! Keep up the good work.
Someone's got to say it... This puzzle is for the children!
Wade you made my Tuesday evening a blast! You have quite an eclectic taste in music. I hope to see more of your puzzles. I was sure 56A was doi as in duh, of course. Do I makes more sense, but I would be more inclined to answer doi.
I went down the rabbit hole to find out that 59A [Big export of Myanmar] RUBIES are the most prized in the world but are also boycotted because of political issues there. From a NYT article called "Burmese Rubies: Costly and Controversial" <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/22/fashion/jewelry-rubies-myanmar-mozambique.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/22/fashion/jewelry-rubies-myanmar-mozambique.html</a> "Second only to colored diamonds in value, fine unheated Burmese rubies command exceptional prices per carat at major auction houses." "Due to political conflict, strict import regulations, and past embargoes, many international jewelers require extensive documentation or turn to alternative origins like Mozambique."
@lucky13, Interesting. Back in the 90s, I traveled extensively in SE Asia, and I recall being on a flight traveling business class, where the guy next to me was dressed very casually, and carried only a backpack which he put beneath the seat in front. I thought maybe a student? But we chatted a bit, and he was from Myanmar, and told me his job was a gem courier. I remember asking, “Oh, what type of gems”, and he said “Rubies, Emeralds, Safires”. Later he fell asleep and I noticed he kept on foot planted on the backpack.
When I woke up I thought it was Tuesday?
Nice debut! Fun puzzle with some thinky clues. Embarrassingly I didn't fully realize the theme until reading the column after solving. Very impressive.
Like everyone else here, when I saw MING circled I thought we'd finally been given the Flash Gordon puzzle we've all been clamoring for.
Well... tough Tuesday for me. A lot of working the crosses and, must confess that I wasn't entirely grasping the theme even after I finished. I guess I kind of get it now, but I feel like I must be missing something. No big deal, that's just me. And... my puzzle find. A Wednesday from November 23, 2022 by Erica Hsiung Wojcik and Matthew Stock. I had done this one, but of course had completely forgotten. Anyway.... ...four theme answers and the clues for each of them were just colored circles. One example - circles colored... ...red, yellow, green. And the answer was TRAFFICLIGHT. Another one: red, yellow, green, blue TWISTERMAT Tough one. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/23/2022&h=46a" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/23/2022&h=46a</a> ....
I don’t usually comment on Monday or Tuesday puzzles, but the theme today was just irresistible. After getting the revealer, I went to bed with a big smile. For me this is a strong contender for early week puzzle if the year.
So far I've found both of the puzzles this week a bit harder than usual, which should be good news to the people who have been complaining that it's been too easy lately. Funny timing on NAURU, which I would guess most people wouldn't know under either spelling. I agree with the objections to EIDER, since that's the name of the bird. I'm trying to picture a scenario in which it would be correct: "What kind of down is that? Goose?" "No, EIDER."
@Jack McCullough The "too easy" crowd doesn't obsess over Monday and Tuesday puzzles. They're supposed to be easy. And according to xwstats.com, both days are Average. Sorry, Jack. And as for the down question: "Do you want duck down or goose down?" "I don't care, I'll take EIDER."
One more puzzle find - by far the oddest I've ever seen. A Thursday from June 19, 2008 by Joe Krozel. The absolute strangest grid structure I've ever seen and... beyond that - here's Jim Horne's note above the puzzle: "Clues with lies, or at least errors: 1-, 14-, 19- and 24-Across; and 8-, 9-, 28-, 47-, 49- and 50-Down. In an interview with the Yale Daily News, Will Shortz called this his favorite puzzle of 2008." Brow furrowed. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/19/2008&h=12d" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/19/2008&h=12d</a> ....
@Rich in Atlanta -- I love this puzzle! Love the grid design and the theme concept.
@Rich in Atlanta thanks for the tip. I did the puzzle and enjoyed it. Sadly was off by one letter
This was my best Tuesday time ever and yesterday was my best Monday. What a rush! Excited for Wednesday. P.S. Loved the NIALL Horan reference, what a throwback.
The Wordplay column says [54D. Oh, the many four-letter places [What icicles do] could go! My first guess was “hang,” and my second was “drop.” I was one letter off from the correct answer, DRIP.] I thought of MELT.
@lucky13 I thought of all of those, plus FORM. Did not think of DRIP until I saw IRA.
Today I Learned - Don't do the crossword puzzle when you keep falling asleep. I hit Check Puzzle when trying to do something else. Darn. That's it. Off to bed.
Tricky one, had to Google more than I care to for a Tuesday. Funny how at first glance you feel up a creek. And yet after getting some 3-4 letter entries the toughies start to fall into place. You know more than you first realize. Thanks Sam for explaining the theme!
I spent a minute trying to figure out where I went wrong because I could only get EIDER for "duck down". I've never heard that word in my life, so clearly that couldn't be the answer on a Tuesday, right? Oops lol
@LW Down can come from EIDER duck or goose. How do you get down from an elephant? Silly, you can't get down from an elephant. You get down from a duck.
finished this one way quicker than most tuesdays, but then again, as i was solving it i kept wondering if this was made based on my playlist :) cheers
poem made from words in today’s puzzle i hold this truth a/ of trifling things of polar bears standing in a cornfield o’ of the goats there that lollygag and hop in a cheery manner bleat against time i establish that d/ this is the opinion of the soviet union the vatican and noted island people and this is probably anyway what you feel in this country you feel the a/ old song
After reading through the comments, Sarge's classic response to Psycho's rant about his name comes to mind: "Lighten up, Francis."
64A reminded me of the notorious Dowager Empress Cixi (Qing) who spent the navy's annual budget to rebuild the fabulous marble yacht at the Summer Palace. I've been aboard, and it's quite a monstrosity - and of course, it doesn't float.
@Grant Washington's new royal ballroom, arch, and 747 sound as practical as the marble yacht; they won't float either.
@riled I grew up DC-adjacent, and I'm not a fan of the triumphal arch. Did we subjugate the Gauls?