New PB for a Tuesday. Did someone switch the Monday and Tuesday puzzles this week? Yesterday was much more difficult.
@Selective Walrus was going to ask the same thing. Apparently, I completed this Tuesday four times quicker than my average.
@Selective Walrus I not only got my PB for a Tuesday, but I beat my PB for a Monday by 10 seconds 🤩
@Selective Walrus I assume this is because of the holiday. People weren't working yesterday, so they had time for a chewier Monday. Today is the first day back after a three-day weekend, so it's like a Monday, but on Tuesday.
@Selective Walrus Because of the Labor Day holiday, Tuesday is actually Monday this week. You didn’t get the memo?
@Selective Walrus My personal best Tuesday ever, which does something to help assuage my ego after last Friday’s.
"If you can't distinguish between shades of green, you should get some sage advice." ("Yeah, I mint to, but I was feeling kind of jaded about it.")
@Mike Olive your posts. You’re kellying it tonight.
@Mike You're just lodened with anxiety. Have a gimlet, a Chartreuse, a Pernod and Perrier, or a Grasshopper and you'll shake that ashy feeling off! Bottoms up!
@Mike I’m not sure if I’m too new at this to have an opinion, but I’m certainly envious! So much so it makes me a bit queasy. Anyway, what’s all this about shades of green?
Mike, If you think it’s blue, and others say it’s yellow, just compromise. A green is easier than arguin’.
@Mike Keep this up and we'll raise your celery.
@Mike is the parenthesis post, a mondegreen? Asking for a friend.
Did y'all mix up the Tuesday and Monday this week? :p
Nice that, aside from the theme answers, there is no hint of green in the non-theme answers. There are also lovely non-theme answers in the box – GLOSSES, PEDESTAL, HECKLER, ATELIER, and ENSHRINE. My biggest jawdrop came when, post-solve, I learned that the everyday word JUNGLE has never appeared in the 80+ years of the NYT puzzle. Sure, it has the letter J, but still. Amazing! It’s a tough build, with much constriction, having every perimeter word be a theme answer, plus a revealer in the middle, and still end up with hardly a whiff of junk in the grid. Impressive, even if this were not a debut puzzle. Clever of Sunny to see a word we see all the time – WALGREENS – and rather than just move on, see not only a crossword theme, but this clever one. Bravo on that, Sunny, congratulations on your NYT debut, and thank you for a fun and zippy outing!
Administrative note: I shall be away until Monday, on a little just-the-two-of-us getaway with my wife Susan. Wishing all a terrific week ahead, and I look forward to returning to this splendid daily gathering!
@Lewis I had noticed that about JUNGLE as well. And... what's kind of interesting is the number of answers that have appeared that contain 'JUNGLE." Some examples: AJUNGLEOUTTHERE THEASPHALTJUNGLE THEBLACKBOARDJUNGLE CONCRETEJUNGLE JUNGLEJIM (and JUNGLEGYM) And there were a couple of others. ...
@Lewis Yes, I loved hearing about his inspiration for the puzzle theme, shows that he has an open creative mind even when busy, that's a gift! Thanks for the great puzzle Sunny!
@Lewis Thanks for, once again, pointing out the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary.
Congratulations on your NYT debut, Sunny, and at only 19 years of age! I hope this is only the first puzzle of many more to come. For someone still so young, you crafted a very mature and excellent puzzle. The wall of greens is an elegant concept, and the fill was varied and interesting (MARTINI, SAPIENS, ABOLISH, and the fabulous Judi DENCH come to mind.) Thank you so much! In honor of all things green, here are Al GREEN with "Let's Stay Together" <a href="https://youtu.be/8T1HlGjO_XM?is=8Fjng2MMKK0HHw2S" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/8T1HlGjO_XM?is=8Fjng2MMKK0HHw2S</a> and Green Day with "Wake Me Up When September Ends" <a href="https://youtu.be/22dvKCjsIkY?is=mL-oziORM6I2E8Pz" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/22dvKCjsIkY?is=mL-oziORM6I2E8Pz</a>
There was a competitive punner who was desperate to win, so they submitted 10 entries. Sadly, no win, they found that no pun in ten did.
@LarryF My favorite form of pun is the "Tom Swifty": “America has an obesity problem,” Tom said fatuously. “That’s an evergreen,” Tom opined. “I’m going to Vesuvius!” Tom erupted. “It’s just fermented milk,” Tom said cheesily. “OK, you can have it,” Tom exclaimed. “I have a hernia,” Tom said abruptly. “That’s not right,” Tom said obliquely. “I don’t believe that anymore,” Tom expostulated. “We made a wrong turn,” Tom discoursed. “We’re entering the foothills now,” Tom explained. “Hello, Dolly,” Tom said sheepishly. “These are stem cells,” Tom said indifferently. “I gave up writing,” Tom described. “I don’t swear anymore,” Tom discussed. “Let me touch on just one point,” Tom said tangentially.
@LarryF I hear that *everything* is legal is New Jersey....
Even my PEA brain was delighted with this puzzle; that it's a debut from a greenhorn is surprising, it seemed a really smooth and neatly clued puzzle, and the elegant placement of WALGREENS was perfect (and glad it wasn't clued for the other phonetic possibility, GREENWALD -- the "Intercept" journalist who gave us Snowden). Good to see that Sojourner Truth reference again in this puzzle. I still remember in mid-November 2024 one of my favorite contributors to this forum, Puzzlemucker, created a poem based on the text of "Ain't I a Woman" that was so powerful and moving that I printed it out and pinned it to the wall of my office (which is how I know the date, I don't have that good a memory!). If Mucky reads this and gives their permission I'll post it as a reply here, or Mucky can do the honors, but it's worth reposting that's for sure!
Congratulations, Sunny, on a fine debut -- I hope we see more from you! While you didn't include my first name among your wall of greens, I still greatly enjoyed it!😉💚 Nice to see ONTARIO featured -- may both the province and lake continue to prevail in strength and in peace! ☮️ 🇨🇦 ☮️
Sunny, thank you for the sunshine. This was a fun and breezy Tuesday, and actually was a pretty impressive debut for a young new constuctor. It’s not easy being green. (Sorry) That’s a decent amount of theme material, and a reasonably tight theme where all the themers had to be clued separately from the color. I’m very impressed. No doubt this was easier than yesterday (fastest across only solve for me so far) and that’s surprising, but the ease of the solve is actually a reflection of how clean this grid was which is a positive for a Tuesday. Much easier to solve than to construct, I can testify. And thanks for the call-out to Judi Dench, one of my favorite actresses who has never given a less than sterling performance! (And whose sight is currently being ravaged by macular degeneration, please give her your thoughts and prayers). Congrats and keep up the good work!
@SP Later posters commented on Judi Dench, but not her vision deterioration. I was going to write about that if no one else did. But then I saw your post. It has special meaning to me, since I now have it in one eye and cannot have any further injections, since the first three caused scar tissue formation. I wrote an answer to your post the other night about anagrams and initialism (CBA), but don't think you saw it, so here it is again: "I had to look up CBA, too. And as an avid reader of medical journals and long time student of medical terminology, I'm aghast at the proliferation of acronyms and initialism in the medical field. I think it's only a matter of time until there is some major catastrophe for a patient because the doctor has misunderstood the initialism."
This was a fun, quick solve, but I must admit I cringed at 65A. The account of Sojourner Truth's speech from which "ain't I a woman" is taken was published over a decade after the fact, and is written in a dialect that Sojourner herself did not speak. Contemporary reports recount a very different script. Imagine someone quoting JFK as having said, "We gon git ourselves up to that there moon in the next ten years or so, and a whole lot more besides, not on account of how it's like shooting fish in a barrel, but on account of how it's like herding cats." It's just straight up not what he said. Likewise, Sojourner Truth, who grew up in New York, did not speak in an exaggerated Southern accent. Her speech is well worth quoting, but only if you're going to use the words she actually said. The relevant line is "I am a woman's rights," which seems to me like a much more powerful quote anyhow.
Nice easier than usual Tuesday to balance out the harder than usual Monday. I guess it all averages out pleasantly in the end.
I made the mistake of HECKLING Henry Kissinger in the 70’s at the UN. He was giving a speech concerning his approach to Soviet détente, but I thought he was doing a stand-up routine about borscht. This had less to do with his oration and more to do with the fact that, at the time, I was subsisting almost entirely on a diet of lithium and LSD. My memory is hazy as to what I was doing at the General Assembly Building, or how I even managed to get in, but at one point I called out from the gallery, “Yo Hank, why don’t you put a sock in it and get those legs shaved for once!” Well, you can imagine this didn’t sit well with the dignitaries, and I’m sure the translators struggled to make sense of it as well, but nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. Kissinger stopped speaking and slowly raised his head, looking straight at me from across the auditorium. He began quivering with an intense scowl, to the point that his face began to turn blue in color and foam began to ooze from his grimace. This grotesque display went on for a good 45 minutes before he levitated above the assembly and flew directly over my head, still looking down into my eyes, and shaking violently as ever. It was at this point that the interior of the room turned into a kind of hellscape inferno and smoke began to billow from Kissinger’s ears. I have no idea what happened after that, but the next thing I knew I was lying half naked under the 59th St. bridge, covered in talcum powder.
@Ace Hunter Thompson called from the hereafter and wants his acid back.
@Ace Excellent! That gave me a good laugh, thanks!
@Ace Coach Beard? Nice to hear you enjoyed the puzzle, too!
I feel like Monday and Tuesday got swapped this week. Monday was Tuesday difficulty and Tuesday was Monday difficulty. I didn't even register the meaning of WALGREENS until I read Wordplay, but it didn't keep me from solving in under 6 minutes. It helped that I did remember Adenosine Tri Phosphate from Biology.
@Chris Was thinking the same! Just broke my Tuesday record, even while watching The West Wing.
Had to look up the Disney script because I have never heard “magic mirror”. I remember it as “mirror, mirror”. Well, a few minutes later, a trip down a Reddit rabbit hole led me to the Mandela Effect page…it is indeed “mirror, mirror”. People just incorrectly remember as being “magic”. Hope I didn’t ruin anyone’s childhood today.
@S. Jones Nope, it's "Magic mirror on the wall". <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br0DCEEBplY&t=47s" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br0DCEEBplY&t=47s</a>
@S. Jones Thanks for raising this. It was one of two things I found jarring in the crossword and now we have an explanation. The other one was "can't see the forest..." which is apparently standard in Amlish but over in Blighty we say "can't see the wood..."
@S. Jones The Grimm’s version uses “Mirror Mirror”
@S. Jones The movies often FAKE UP the original [story, character, sequence, location, events, outcome, etc.] and are never to be trusted, relied upon, or cited as confirmation/evidence. Those of us who grew up largely without television, for instance, did a lot of reading (and were read to) and certain things like "Mirror, mirror, on the wall," are embedded... '' Disney may have run into a conflict over rights and just side-stepped it. (Contrast this with the beginning of "Peter Pan"--where Disney cites JM Barrie's bequest of all rights and royalties to Great Ormond Street Hospital....)
As a public service to some of you out there, I'd like to say that NENE is not pronounced "neen", but rather "NAY nay". I mention this because for way too long I pronounced it wrong -- confidently wrong, actually -- and I'm hoping that maybe this will save some of you from future embarrassment.
@Lewis Maybe you can create a meme about it, and you can even call it a may-may.
@Lewis As a rule Hawaiian words are pronounced phonetically so that’s good to remind people
@Lewis The benefits of being Polish - I never considered pronouncing Nene as "neen". When I pronounce it.the Polish way, nene sounds like the Ne of Nevada said twice in a row.
@Lewis But good for you for pronouncing it confidently! Was it Strunk (the style guide writer) who advised that?
@Lewis Thank you. And this week I learnt that the loon is our Great Northern Diver.
@Lewis Someone close to me once called this "reader's ear", and, as embarrassing as it can be, it's a badge of honor for those who learn from what they read, and share what they learn.
I love this. A wall of 💚 around the grid, like one sees in some buildings nowadays. And they are all natural things that have lent their names to a wondrous worldly palette.
I got into crossword puzzles a month and a half ago and this is my first puzzle I completed without any reveals! Loved the theme!! :)
@Madison with any luck, he’s got the grail already.
Very fun Tuesday, and congrats on the début! At 19, naysayers might say you're too green but the proof is in the putting, err, pudding. Well done. I only recently started to read the Wordplay column somewhat regularly, and I hadn't realized just how much color they add to the crossword experience. I often learn new things (thank you for "soupçon", today), and between the anecdotes, insights, and constructor's notes, there's a depth and humanity that I've really come to appreciate. Thank you for that.
Great debut, Sunny! Loved the wall of greens. Very clever.
What a fun debut from Sunny Maharjan. It was a treat to look back at the completed grid and finally see all the green. I always enjoy reading about a puzzle's origin story in the constructor notes. A friend's flake-out was our gain. Look forward to seeing more from Mr. Maharjan.
That could possibly be the easiest puzzle ever published by the NYT. Solving it felt more like data capturing than thinking...
Great job Sunny. It's not easy to construct a good puzzle like this – you should be proud.
Loved, loved, loved Sam’s column about the puzzle. Had me laughing out loud. Way to go, Sam!
The “unglamorous” origin story about the “unassuming” Walgreen’s sighting ruins my theory that an overgrown PETRI dish was the hidden themer to this puzzle. Still, there is a good reminder here to check under the Saran Wrap and confirm that really is guac…
@JohnWM YUCK! SOME of us are still eating breakfast.
This was much more of a Monday puzzle than Mondays was this week
so fun seeing my home province as a clue today!!!!! go nova scotia 🎉
@Olivia T I got the same burst of excitement for Ontario! Love that two provinces got shouted out in today's puzzle!
I found Monday crunchier than today even with an OREO in it! That was a fast solve for me which I can't really explain other than just going with the flow.
I am not a very good puzzler (is there such a thing), and this was very, very easy to solve. Monday's puzzle was far more challenging. But alas - it was enjoyable. I will forward it to my daughter who is a freshman in university. She might enjoy having a go as well. Thank you for the diversion. I enjoyed it, despite it being as easy as falling off of a log.
A lovely breezy Monday…oh, it’s Tuesday. Still a lovely puzzle. Well done young man. To be able to say at 19 that you’ve had a crossword published in the NYT is a proud feat. I confess I needed the explanation of WALGREENS; the name means nothing to me so I missed the pun. It’s Dame DENCH if you please!
@Helen Wright When you go into a pharmacy in Europe, you generally are in a two-aisle store where the focus is on medicine and other health-related items, with some cosmetics and general merchandise. My grandfather had a store like that in NYC back in the day, and it was much like that, with the addition of a soda fountain. Large chain drugstores came into the scene that were larger, with triple the floor space or more, and a greater variety of items. They put many of the smaller pharmacies out of business over time. CVS and Walgreens are currently the two major national competitors in this field. No soda fountain, but lots of general merchandise, including a few aisles of groceries, but also cosmetics, school supplies, candy, and other general merchandise, along with more pharmacy-related goods. And of course an actual pharmacy for your prescription meds. Occasionally, you’ll also see the NYC-specific chain Duane Reade in the puzzle, but they’re now part of Walgreens.
@Steve L When I worked, I worked in a building on Wall Street very close to the corner of Broadway. After the Borders Bookstore on that corner folded, a super-sized Duane Reade went in there. I used to joke that if for some reason we were trapped in the city, we could live off what was in that store for a very long time.
Easy, fun, and extremely charming! Loved the theme!
Hi Sunny, I enjoyed your constructor notes on xwordinfo.com!
Enshrined as fastest solve ever. Fun debut Sunny! Keep at it!
This was actually EVEN EASIER than most Monday puzzles...
Beginner solve here, this was my best Tuesday yet (8:47) and it did indeed remind me of a Monday with the simple clues, but I still loved it. This was also the day I found out SARAN is the brand and not just another word for plastic wrap.
Last night, after having company over for the holiday, I was struggling to keep my eyes open until 10:00. I was relieved not to have much of a fight with the puzzle, but heck, it was a Tuesday, so I don’t usually struggle with them anyway. I didn’t realize the sentiment would be so overwhelmingly united in that this was a super easy puzzle. But xwordstats.com bears this out: 🌎 Global Stats Difficulty Very Easy Median Solve Time 4:01 Median Solver 42% faster ⚡100% of users solved faster than their Tuesday average. 95% solved much faster (>20%) than their Tuesday average. 🐢0% of users solved slower than their Tuesday average. 0% solved much slower (>20%) than their Tuesday average. The commenter who said this might be the easiest puzzle the NYT has ever published might be onto something. (I only solved 14.3% faster than my Tuesday average.)
What?! No green graphic at the end? Bummer. Excellent debut! Congratulations Sunny.
@Anita There's one here: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/8/2026" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/8/2026</a>
Fun puzzle. Fairly smooth solve, and I was almost finished before the trick finally dawned on me. That was just a nice 'aha' moment. And... I'll put my puzzle find today in a reply. ....
@Rich in Atlanta Puzzle find: A Sunday from August 8, 1993 by Tom Underhill with the title: "Literal Translations." Don't recall ever seeing another one like this. A bit tough to describe all the theme answers but here are some examples (and I'll add the implied meaning): WEWTODIEHOSALUTE (WE WHO are about TO DIE SALUTE) THETHEFARMERDELL (The farmer in the dell) NEAFRIENDED (A friend in need) ISLOHEADHEELSVE (down answer) (Is head over heels in love) THECARTHEHORSE (that one's obvious) And there were more. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=8/8/1993&g=79&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=8/8/1993&g=79&d=A</a> ....
Fun puzzle, no look-ups and a personal best time! My streak is getting up there, too - 891. I know that's nothing compared to some, but it has survived overseas travel and hospitalizations, so I'm happy with it.
Today's theme (and Munster Mike's pun) reminded me of a very interesting recent New Yorker story, What Would It Mean To See a New Color? (Olo can be described as the “greenest green,” though it can never be captured by a camera. But its development tells us a lot about our color vision.) "Ng’s hypothesis was that, if retinal cells were stimulated in ways that don’t occur naturally, “the set of perceivable colors” would be “significantly larger than the natural gamut of the human eye.” " <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/08/03/what-would-it-mean-to-see-a-new-color" target="_blank">https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/08/03/what-would-it-mean-to-see-a-new-color</a> This resonated with me because once, on 4g of psilocybin, I closed my eyes for a spell and was zooming through space, and I saw a new color. I opened my eyes and exclaimed to my friends, "I just invented a new color!" And after a pause, "Wait, I can't do that!" My hypothesis is that 4g of shrooms unnaturally stimulated my retinal cells and that I did indeed see a new color.
@Bill in Yokohama Doubtful that retinal cells were involved at all. Color perception is an integrative function of the brain's visual cortex.
This was just a lot of fun. It was easy, but the theme was pure delight. And also an outstanding debut puzzle!
Congratulations on your NYT debut, Sunny. Fitting so much theme material into a 15x15 grid couldn't have been easy, and you did it well. One of my favorites, Tom Waits with All the World is Green: <a href="https://youtu.be/j-SZuD6_g6Q?si=neSY54HQgNCJUPBJ" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/j-SZuD6_g6Q?si=neSY54HQgNCJUPBJ</a>
I knew my biochem course would come in handy some day! I really enjoyed this puzzle, loved the clues and answers. I don’t know if it was just an easier one or I just meshed with it but it was record time for me, faster than yesterday. I forgot to think about the theme til I was done and then I looked back to see it, perfect for Tuesday. Hope everyone has a good week.