A Monday puzzle with some gimmes and some not-so-gimmes, a perfect combination for beginners, and an amusing pastime for old pros. Thank yo, Steven. Well done.
@dutchiris Thank yoU. (ppppprrroooof before submitting, please!!!) But you knew what I mean, Steven.
First time I’ve ever had to do lookups on a Monday due to all the bar trivia crossing each other. These puzzles keep getting lazier. Really, really poor puzzle today.
@Charles Somehow, you not knowing some of the answers makes a puzzle lazy? Would you consider the puzzle less lazy if I told you I finished it without lookups? No? So I guess it’s just about you and your particular knowledge base. Hope you encounter a less lazy puzzle tomorrow.
@Charles The only one that delayed me today was the Olga - Alb crossing, both new to me.
@Charles Recently, I’ve unexpectedly acquired a new hobby: going to bar trivia night (and being on the winning team). In the past few weeks, I’ve stumbled into two trivia nights unintentionally, and was invited to one more. I’ve been on the winning team all three times. Someone asked me if I was good at trivia because I did crosswords. I said that it was more likely that I was good at crosswords because I knew trivia. PS. It’s more likely to be “trivia” if you don’t know it.
@Charles I was all proud of myself for completing this crossword with no look-ups for the first time. Oh, well.
@Charles Weirdly, I finished without lookups, which is not always the case on Monday. (Well, I did look at the column, but it didn't help with any of the clues I was hung up on.)
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Cats and dogs, for example (5) 2. In place? (5)(3)(2) 3. The longer they are, the harder they'll be to beat (4) 4. Success in another's field, say (4)(3) 5. Meeting that goes above and beyond? (6) NOUNS WHERE ITS AT ODDS ROAD WIN SEANCE
My favorite encore clues from last week: [Private sleeping accommodations?] (4) [Volume control device?] (1)-(6) COTS E-READER
A contender for the worst Monday I've seen. So much trivia. If this was my time attempting a Monday, I would walk away and never come back.
Now that is a clever theme. I especially liked, after getting TIDAL WAVE and moving lower in the puzzle, wondering what the second high-water answer would be. I actually took a moment to try to guess it, and got nowhere. ANGEL FALLS, the highest waterfall in the world, was perfect. I also liked that this Monday puzzle started appropriately with ACME, the nickname for Andrea Carla Michaels, who has made 69 NYT Mondays, and is one of the two “Queens of Monday” (along with Lynn Lempel). Wordnerd me also liked seeing the crossing semordnilaps RIAN and IRIS, which are each proper names both ways. Not to mention IRIS ELLA sharing the box with ELBA. Hah! Congratulations on your debut, Steven, and I’m intrigued to see more from you. You brightened my day, and thank you!
Nice Monday. Not too soft, just a little al Dante. Maybe not so tight a theme—but two for Hειι, two for high water and got a great kick out of the last one being good for both. So it tickled my fancy a bit.
SP, I really wanted Dante to be there. I'm thinking French, Spanish and Latin on a Monday will not be taken as too soft.
@SP Ooh, good catch on the fallen angel reference.
@SP -- Yes, great catch! Someone from The Other Blog emailed me about the ANGELS FALL overlap and I was coming here to mention it -- assuming no one here had. I would have given the guy full credit, of course, since the thought had never occurred to me. But in retrospect, I feel it should have. I like your Dante pun, too, @SP.
It’s rare I think a crossword is terrible… but I’m going through my remaining words and they’re 90% names of people. I understand I’m on an American platform and there will always be some obscure names to me, but it’s outrageous today.
@Hamza I feel your pain. I’ve been there. I’ve griped about it. But i think the best thing to do is to recognize that you need to accept that you are in a foreign land and you will be confronted with things you’re not familiar with — you may even expand your horizons. It’s painful but worth it. This ⬆️ is what i would write if the crossword was studded with Americana (Oreos, Alex Trebek, First base, IHOP, etc). HOWEVER!! today, I’m afraid i can’t sympathize: the grid was filled with non-Americana! ERNIE Els is i think South African. MARDI is French. ARAFAT was Palestinian. ANGEL FALLS are in Venezuela. OMEGA is Greek. Van Gogh was Dutch. MEDIEVAL isn’t even a thing that Americans can do, unless they Disnefy it! IKEA is Swedish. ELA is Portuguese. i could go on. Objection overruled.
@Hamza I'm an American and I hated it too!
A tsunami is not a tidal wave. I did a report on this in the 8th grade and it still irks me to this day. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING!!! Tsunamis are caused by earthquakes, landslides, or eruptions. Tidal waves are caused by the tides. It’s just plain wrong to call one thing the other because they have no relation.
@Matt I came to the comments to call this out as well. Tsunamis are not Tidal Waves. Tidal Waves are what roll in all the time. Tsunamis the result of something more cataclysmic. Feels like an ed. or fact checker missed a big one!
@Matt 'Tidal wave' does in fact refer to a tsunami, always has. OK, it's a misnomer. *shrug*
As your resident alphadoppeltotter, a role I’ve inexplicably taken in the past nine years, it is my duty to inform you that this puzzle has an unusually low number of double letters, at four, where unusual is any number less than five. This is the sixth time this year that this has happened. I remain your humble servant, ever on the alert.
@Lewis Gratefully (though belatedly) acknowledged.
Caitlin shared that TED TALKS keep to 18 minutes because "that time constraint is supported by neuroscience to help prevent 'cognitive backlog.'" I guess, with this solve, I was on the brink of going into cognitive backlog because it took me exactly 18 minutes and 3 seconds to finish. That's a huge amount of time for me for a Monday, but I spent about 9 minutes having to rework some of the crosses to arrive at HELL OR HIGH WATER (nOir instead of GORY, LOwe instead of LOEW, and I thought "Three Sisters" pertained to the old Sela Ward series, so SelA before OLGA. A mess.) What I did love seeing in the puzzle was MEDIEVAL, which immediately made me think of a Heart song: <a href="https://youtu.be/hOm5waHlCvQ?is=3I3yWHJpuf-to6C2" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/hOm5waHlCvQ?is=3I3yWHJpuf-to6C2</a> (The singing starts at about 1:54 into it) I wouldn't want to have lived in the Middle Ages but, I've always been fascinated by tales that take place during that time in Europe. Congrats on your retirement and NYT debut, Mr. Jopek, and thank you for a, erm, multi-dimensional puzzle!
@sotto voce You probably had Sela on your mind because of TED TALKS. Her character's name on Sisters was Teddy. Your Sisters foray inspired another memory test for me. I knew the four actresses names, but could only come up with two of character's names.
Fun theme but too much trivia and particularly names in this one for my liking: I’d never heard of NADIA Comaneci, Yasser ARAFAT, OLGA from Three Sisters, Caitlin Clark, Zing ZANG, RHEA Perlman, ERNIE Els, or LEV Grossman. ELI Mannings and LOEW’s are now burned into my brain due their overuse, and while I did know REGAN from King Lear I thought this was a tad esoteric for a Monday. And this is on top of people I did know like RIAN Johnson, ELLA Fitzgerald, Idris ELBA, ARETHA Franklin, Robert Frost, Van Gogh and ESTEE Lauder. I’m surprised BALE wasn’t clued as “Dark Knight actor.”
@Billy Okay, I can see Caitlin Clark and Rhea Perlman being out of reach for someone in the UK. But ARAFAT and NADIA Comaneci are trivia? Do you read any part of the newspaper besides the puzzle section?
@Billy Agreed - far, far too many names relied upon here.
Okay, I know some of you will be curious about the photo. This from Getty Images: A man dressed in a devil costume sits on the banks of the Vltava river on November 27, 2017 in Prague, Czech Republic. (Photo by MICHAL CIZEK/AFP via Getty Images) No idea why he's sitting there. Nice to be able to see ELBA and ELLA. And I was relieved that I could come up with the names of Lear's daughters. Congrats on the debut.
@Vaer What is our Czech devil guy doing? Is that a black dog he's petting, or a cat, or an otter?
As a medievalist, I am professionally obliged to give this puzzle my approval ;) (Seriously, calling it the period "known as" the Middle Ages is exactly the kind of nuance we appreciate, for reasons I won't inflict on you all here!)
@Erika Yay! It's true--the "Dark Ages" were really NOT all that dark!
Congrats on the NYT debut. Nicely done.
Nice theme! And “Angels fall” actually also fits Hell - Lucifer was a fallen angel
We're getting RIAN Johnson every other day now!
@Andrei I feel like RHEA used to be much more common, but has recently been an endangered species.
@Andrei ESTEE shows up more often, by my count.
Hardest Monday I’ve encountered and I’m on a 140 Monday streak! Not a fun puzzle for me. Several areas left me stumped like a late week puzzle, but without the satisfaction of being one. There were so many crossings that were lookups. Too many obscure words/names and subpar clues. For me, this puzzle really missed the mark. I guess they can’t all be winners though. On the bright side, I think the creator might be great at making late week puzzles, I’m going to keep an eye out for that.
Nice Monday and congratulations on your debut, Steven!
Just saying RiverStyx has the same number of letters as PURGATORY
@Ιασων Yep, i arrived there too! But the Ferryman turned me back…
@Ιασων Started with RiverStyx as well. After solving looked at Wordplay and what a great photo! Had to laugh and wonder if it was on other minds too...
What's not to like? Nothing! I had a great time today at the crosswords. Any mention of King Lear reminds me of my wonderful Lit 101 professor who used it to teach Shakespeare. I thought I was only in the class to satisfy a degree requirement, but she imparted an appreciation for that play and literature in general that is still with me 40+ years later.
Another favorite teacher used to say, " 'O, that way madness lies' and boy, we are headed right for it." Seems so appropriate right now.
A bit frustrating but ultimately fair. Glad I did this today because I would have been quite upset attempting this after my surgery tomorrow
@Domenic May you have easy successful procedure
@Domenic Wishing you a successful surgery and an easy and full recovery!
This was a quick and neat puzzle. Perfect for Monday. The only name I didn't know was Rian Johnson but I got it on the crossings. Took me a little over 5 minutes. And I too was excited that I remember the name of one of King Lear's daughters --college was over 40 years ago!!
@R RIAN shows up a pretty good amount. Best to remember that one. Also his movies, especially the knives out movies, that I've seen are pretty great.
@R I always remember Rian Johnson because of the unusual spelling. I bet if he spelled his name ”Ryan” he wouldn’t show up nearly as often. Maybe his mother planned it that way!
Hades or wadeys, eh? Nice puzzle, Steven.
@Linda Jo I’m glad I didn’t have a fresh sip of hot coffee when I got to your comment. To Steven - thank for the theme, I’ll be singing Hadestown for the rest of the day.
Nice Monday. It filled reasonably quickly for me and I felt like the constructor and I are of a similar age, born out by his comment of being recently retired. A few names were familiar from my youth; NADIA, a breathtaking gymnast, ARAFAT, with his distinctive headware. As an EngLit nerd OLGA and REGAN were also gimmes. The only place I struggled was the unknown cinema chain crossing the unknown sportsperson, so, business as usual there then. A good theme, connecting the polar opposite Heaven/HELL concepts. Nicely done.
It’s amazing the banter here. One says it’s lazily constructed. Another carps about proper names, people defending the honor of the comment and rebuttal after rebuttal. I’m right you’re wrong, on and on and on. The only thing that would have lit up the conversation more would have been a rebus on a Monday. Perish the thought. Congrats on your debut Steve. I look forward to more from you.
@Dan Collins It has happened. Here’s the most recent one. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/6/2018" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/6/2018</a> And this one was especially clever: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/15/2004" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/15/2004</a>
Fun, a little old fashioned but chewier than the average Monday. And impressive for a debut!
Time out! Isn’t PURGATORY, by definition and its clue, neither HELL or a thing with HIGH WATER?
@Dave Rosenbaum Purgatory is part of the Greater Metropolitan Area of Hell.
When you put a revealer in the center of a puzzle, I have a chance to imagine what the next two theme answers will be. I was imagining HADES, which wouldn't have fit, and either FLOOD BASIN or FLOOD ZONE -- each of which would have fit with either UNDERWORLD or TIDAL WAVE. I wasn't expecting a "name" answer like ANGEL FALLS when the other answers are generic. I think even WATERFALLS would have made the theme answers more of a piece -- not that it's really important. As for my HIGH WATER = FLOOD reaction -- just watch the depressing evening news or read the depressing newspaper headlines. Three or four "hundred year weather events" are happening every single day. Sigh. A good Monday with grown-up fill and no junk.
@Nancy Did you see where yesterday's sea surface temperature was the highest EVER recorded? Probably the highest for the past 125,000 years, so they say.
Fitzgerald and Franklin in the same puzzle, voices from Heaven, not purgatory. Angel voices. Me like!
I took me way too long to figure out that [Stop in the afterlife] is not PUReAgOnY!
Overall, a fine Monday puzzle. My one nit (and honestly, would I chime in without a nit to pick?): Tsunamis have nothing to do with tides or tidal forces. Tsunami = tidal wave is a common misconception which shouldn't be reinforced by the New York Times, its puzzles, or its puzzle editors. Thank you for your attention in this matter. PRS
@Paul Stoddard It’s not Oceanography 101. Tsunamis are sometimes called tidal waves, and prior to the universal adoption of the Japanese word, they were always called that. Even by people who knew they had nothing to do with tides.
@Paul Stoddard It's a misnomer, not a misconception. Kind of like the old Ripley's standbys such as 'the pineapple is neither a pine! nor an apple!!'
@Paul Stoddard - interestingly, there really are tidal waves. The original usage of the term "tidal wave" referred to tidal bores and other similar phenomena, which truly are tidal in nature. Since many tsunami closely resemble tidal bores, the term "tidal wave" began to be applied to them, too. One could even argue that the tides are caused by very long-wavelength tidal waves, with one peak oriented more or less toward the moon, and the other on the opposite side of the Earth, and the troughs about midway between them. I don't think too many people still think that tsunami have anything to do with the tides, but I suppose there are a few holdouts in a world of 8+ billion souls. I wonder how many are among the NYT crossword community?
@Paul Stoddard Why only chime in because you have a nit? Sharing what one likes is worthy too!
I thought the theme was cute and was hoping to solve with just downs, but the frequency of proper nouns thwarted that effort 🤷♀️
One of the worst Monday puzzle ever. So Many proper nouns and poor clueing
There were indeed quite a few proper nouns ... but which were the poor clues?
Fun solve, but in the interests of accuracy, PURGATORY should be listed as a stop in the Catholic afterlife, since it's a bone of contention with Protestants.
@RP I think there are often reference to religious practices and concepts without mentioning the specific religion. For example, SEDER for a special meal without mentioning Judaism or NIRVANA without mentioning Buddhism. I do not thnk it is necessary to mention Catholicism here. I think it is much worse to use it as synonym for hell because then one is inaccurately describing the concept as understood by those who believe in it.
This Monday puzzle produced a head-scratcher of a poem . .. a/ in a mix of great wonder, bloody fury and arctic fleece the gods of the orange van leave the taqueria to stop d/ at a red light… it’s tuesday, a/ ted
I don't often enjoy a Monday theme or puzzle, but this was an exception. Very cute theme, even if purgatory, as I've learned here, isn't quite accurate. Thanks, Steven!
Nice Monday puzzle and an enjoyable workout. Typical slow start for me, but tumbling to the theme was a big help and that's always a nice touch. And... puzzle find today. A Wednesday from May 4, 2011 by Jeff Chen. The theme answers in this one were all down answers that ended in a single block with no crossings. A couple of examples: D E I F M A D A M I A B L E W A S I E R And the 'hint' was: "Maneuver required to finish this puzzle" UTURN Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/4/2011&h=7d" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/4/2011&h=7d</a> ....
@Rich in Atlanta Oh, and a somewhat similar puzzle from July 7, 2011 by Caleb Rasmussen. The reveal in that one... "Traffic sign literally violated 12 times in this puzzle." NOU ___T ___URN And each of the theme answers 'turned' on the letter U in different directions. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/7/2011" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/7/2011</a> .....
After a quick start I sensed a chance to beat my record so I was off to the races. Missed it by one second! On the plus side, I found that my streak was preserved even though I did Saturday a day late. Phew. Great Monday.
Took a very long time to complete this one. Too many proper nouns and trivia. Resulted in a time similar to that of a Wednesday for me. Hopefully tomorrow will feel a little easier for it haha
I see other commenters have already pointed out this puzzle had a lot of proper nouns (I counted 17), but also quite a few abbreviations and various romantic languages thrown into the mix. With a few slips this Monday became closer to a Tuesday or a Wednesday, and I didn’t see the theme as helpful or relevant. INTO / ONTO also tripped me up, and it took a minute to correct LIEWS to LOEWS. Cheers
Gotta love those romantic languages, right?
I enjoyed this puzzle. One of the reasons I do crosswords is to learn stuff I don't already know, including proper names, pop culture, words from other languages, tech phrases. These debut constructors bring these to us. This one had a clever theme too. I'm looking forward to Mr. Jopek's next puzzle!
It's ok to have different styles and preferences in puzzles, but to me as a non-american, having this many proper nouns really takes me out of the puzzle, as I have no way of knowing these people outside of these specific puzzles, and the often never show up again, so no real learning happens.
I haven't heard the expression "come HELLORHIGHWATER" since my mother said it a gazillion years ago. I always was a little curious about what conflagration she was talking about. It's interesting that we find the three sisters of Chekhov in the puzzle along with the three sisters--Regan, Goneril and Cordelia--of "King Lear." I wonder what is going on with that.
@lucky13 By the way, I've just noticed a preponderance of women's names in the puzzle. In addition to OLGA and REGAN, there is ARETHA and ELLA and IRIS and NADIA and ESTEE and ANGEL and maybe ECHO and maybe eCLAIR. Then there's also ELA for [She, in Portuguese] and the she-sheep EWE!
@lucky13 The "HELL" part comes in where you realize that there were two Middle Children...
This was a nice easy puzzle with a cute theme, perfect for a Monday. I'm wondering what "trivia" people are complaining about.
For 37D "'Three Sisters' sister", my first guess was corn. Anyone else? <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters_(agriculture" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters_(agriculture</a>)
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen No, but that is a good guess! (Do you remember the Wed. "Three Sisters" puzzle from a couple years ago?)
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen Ooh, good one!! I'd love to see a NYT ecosystem where that would be so matter-of-fact it would serve as a Monday level answer. 🥰
Congratulations on a good debut, Steven! It sure has stirred up the commentariat. :) Early-week, I try to resist the urge to solve in my typical "crosshatch" fashion, though I still approach Top/Across first. So for me, by the time I reached those apparently nefariously trivia-heavy downs, there was no resistance. Such a lovely mix in the answers! My favorite was [Word after Georgia, Virginia or low]. Laugh-out-loud good – and a terrific way to clue a common word! Made slogging through countless university initialisms in grids over the years feel a little less painful. Then with [Dance whose name is also a hairstyle], I thought it would have been next-level if it was clued [Dance whose name is also a hairstyle or a rug]. Right?? Funny that we just had SHAG. And ASADA. The former today repetitive to Saturday's Jane Fonda clue; the latter providing more nuance for all those solvers who yesterday said [Taco bar adjective] didn't resonate for them. I absolutely noticed the alignment of the HELL items on the left of the grid and the HIGH WATER ones on the right, as Caitlin pointed out. (As well as ACME at the tippy-top!) At first I was thinking it'd be next-level to place PURGATORY above and TIDAL WAVE below (as I think others have noted). Or how about the HIGH WATERs above and the others below? Or how about — the puzzle just being great on its own. Thanks again, Steven!
@G Thank you for gracing us with your eloquence. Too rare a treat. Please inspire us with your two cents more frequently!
Hmm. Isn't PURGATORY where sinners work off their sentences? (You don't get to pick, or so I hear.) And TIDAL WAVEs are less-often seen compared, say, to FLOODING... Let's ask someone from Indiana, or Texas, or... And then there is the matter of HELLfire, eh? Hard Times. I love curry, and I certainly put in more than CUMIN. Don't be stingy! Maybe that would be good for supper tonight! ....without the Bloody Mary. That's what's wrong these days....cheap mixes instead of building flavors with fresh ingredients! ZANG instead of ZING?