Finishing this puzzle felt like solving the combination to a wall safe.
I thought the giant snowman would come back! Yeti didn't. (This might get a frosty reception.)
@Mike You’re just Olaf a minute. (I could make reference to some explosive toreador moments, but that would be a bomb in a bull).
@Mike Not frosty at all. That would be a big feat if you could get him to show his face.
@Mike I'll try not to put my foot in my mouth when I ask if you think he might be the bro of our own sylvan big boy, or possibly just more his-story. Both might be related to the recently discovered ancient lady in South America, if you catch my continental drift, but of course they can't Peruve anything.
@Mike This one gave me a real belly laugh. Abdominal?
Mike, Yeah, I’m sick of waiting to see Yeti, Big Foot,Paul Bunyan, and all those big humanoids. Giants now, man!!
I didn’t have a single clue solved for the central box when I finished everything else. It was like doing a Mini as a bonus puzzle, and very satisfying!
I am a huge fan of this puzzle for a lot of reasons. Maybe even POY level for me. Kudos to the David clan for a very entertaining Sunday, and extremely impressive for a debut and almost debut. This reads as having been built by much more experience constructors. First, just a lovely theme idea. How meta, a puzzle within a puzzle. I think it’s a theme that could even be repeated. And think about the difficulty here—it’s not just finding symmetrical clues for another puzzle inside the box—all those clues have to ALSO have a second meaning, the obvious one they were clued as initially, and then another for the inside puzzle. And these were indeed elegant and fun, and didn’t seem forced at all (except maybe GIANT SNOWMAN, and that was too fun to complain about). Second, I thought this was an appropriate Sunday challenge. I disagree with Barry on this one. Sure not Thursday or Friday level but definitely Wednesday, and I was tricked by a bunch of clues, jumped around a lot, and had a few crannies that looked like they may even defeat me at first. (It would help if I knew the difference between ERES and ESTA and STREUSEL and STREUDEL). …continued…
@SP Last, I thought this had terrific fill especially for newer constructors. SCORIGAMI? MONKMODE? New to me (even as an origami enthusiast) but gettable and fun to learn about. And other fun accessory fill and clues, like TIME TRAVEL and SKEDADDLED and FLUGELHORN and even SELENA GOMEZ (not my favorite singer, but she is a hoot in “Only Murders in the Building”. But I have to say how can you not clue her in crossword as “Singer with her own Oreo line?” So, only positives today, Davids, congrats. Caitlin, terrific idea for a wordplay picture. Last thought—sorry, Mike: “Did you hear my cousin in Jordan just won the lottery?” “Wow—guess who’s coming to DINAR?”
@SP Examples: ¿De dónde eres tu? Soy de España. I’m from Spain. Permanent. ¿Dónde estás? Estoy en España con mi familia. I’m in Spain with my family. Temporary. Hope that helps.
ISLE OF EWE That’s the cutest and most original clue for EWE I’ve ever seen. Very fun! I loved the puzzle within a puzzle theme. Congratulations to the father-son team on their debut collaboration.
@Anita If you liked that one, you might like Piers Anthony's Xanth series of novels. Very much into puns and one of the novels (number 13) is titled "Isle of View".
A minuscule puzzle! The mini-est puzzle ever – what a cutie! – like a cherry on top of a sundae/Sunday. Kudos to this father and son duo for this gem. To have found eight themers that all have double meanings, and then all with four-letter entries for the second meaning... wow! And the rest of the puzzle? A delicious ZEN solve. —Can I say I was in MONK MODE or does that only apply to a lifestyle? Because, really, I was in MONK MODE, no distractions, completely enraptured. Bravi, gents, and thank you!
This would have gone a lot quicker if I knew how to spell WEIRD.
@Kevin D It can be spelled with the "i" and the "e" in either order, I've decided. The old rule was just too long, too many exceptions, and was just too doggoned wierd.
@Kevin D It's very simple: I before E except after C. Oh wait...
@Kevin D Maybe you confuse it with “wield.”
@Kevin D I before E, except after C! 😉 English is such a fun language.
@Kevin D I didn't even think about it, because of course the down clue solved to GAMe.....
I'm not a great fan of the huge Sunday puzzles but I rather enjoyed this one. Filling in the central section was a bit of a challenge, but when I opened my mind and realized the themed entries server as clues to the entries in the center, everything clicked into place. King TUT is a great example of how different Polish and (American) English may be. As I've mentioned many times before, Poles shorten words much more rarely than Americans: to us, the young Egyptian ruler is always Tutanchamon (our rendering of Tutankhamun) - a short version of his name simply does not exist in our language. Also, while I suppose it wouldn't literally be wrong to call a pharaoh (faraon) a king (król - the word comes from the name Karol [Wielki], Charlemagne) in Polish, we tend to exclusively use the term "faraon" when talking about any Egyptian ruler of the ancient dynastic era. Thus, your "king TUT" simply doesn't exist in Polish: he's "faraon Tutanchamon" for us, always.
@Andrzej Our increasingly annoying use of shortenings and monikers is gradually grinding me down. I guess that comes from being introduced to life in an age where sports broadcasters and journalists almost exclusively used the last name to identify someone. "Unitas steps back to pass..." or at least both names "...and Lenny Moore was gone." The overfamiliarity really feels against the grain to me. I guess it's an age thing.
@Andrzej also, to Americans, we know King Tut from Steve Martin's song on SNL. Yeah, I know, you're not fond of SNL. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYbavuReVF4" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYbavuReVF4</a>
After a few thousand puzzles, solving the daily crossword feels all too often like going through the motions in its predictability. And yet, solving the 4x4 section in the centre today felt oddly thrilling, like going out on a limb somehow. I even felt vulnerable when I typed in my first tentative guess… and electric when it fell together. Absolutely PotY material for me. Thank you to the David clan!
what amazes me are the naysayers or those who don't understand just how good this puzzle is - creating a mystery box in the middle that turns the theme answers into clues for the 8 words in the center box is phenomenal in every way. Bravo!
To me, a real slog - quick, boring, and uncreative. None of the cluing was interesting at all. The center gimmick was dutifully... present. And almost equally boring to the rest of the affair. I guess I'm saying I didn't like it. :) /Yes something fast and easy can still be a slog or a chore to wend through
@B Just out of interest, what could the setters of this puzzle have done that would make it less boring? I am intrigued to know why this was more boring than most. (If it was as boring as most other days, perhaps you just don’t like crosswords?)
@B I agree. I thought it was quite lame, I’m sorry to say.
I coined my very own aphorism quite a while ago and have waited patiently through thousands of puzzles for a chance to share it. And today that puzzle is here!!! As someone with a POROUS memory, I have always known that -- wait for it: "A MENTAL NOTE is not worth the paper it's printed on." I'm pretty sure I've never heard this or read this anywhere else. I could say more about the rest of the puzzle, but I don't want to bury the LEDE. Use it, friends. Please! With my blessing. And a citation would be greatly appreciated. I'm hoping to go down in history alongside Ben Franklin, Aesop, Mother Goose and the King James Bible:)
@Nancy: indeed. Often, the transition from mental note to written note yields only “wait, what was I going to try to remember?”
@Nancy An old friend of mine used to say, "let me make a mental note of that on paper". I always laughed no matter how many times he said it. Cheers!
@Nancy That sounds like something Yogi Berra would have said.
I’ve been enjoying the clever turns of phrase and puns of recent Sunday Puzzles. So I must admit that while I admire any Sunday constructor’s achievement, I found this one rather flat.
In my best Xzibit voice: "Yo dawg, I heard you like crossword puzzles, so we put a mini crossword in your Sunday crossword that you can only solve once the outer crossword is complete"
@Kachi Yes! Thank you for putting this here 😁
Started off thinking this puzzle was going too fast--and then came to a dead stop the same place most everybody did. So many ways those original clues/answers could relate to "thinking inside the box." Cryptic-type clues? Synonyms for "thinking" buried in them somewhere? Spent a full 15 minutes just staring, dithering about whether to look at the column for a hint, which I have not done since the rebus quandary that first brought me to these comments a few years ago. Then thought, these puzzles always have a way in. And it's probably not as difficult as what I'm trying. It's going to be obvious when I see it. I have faith in you, puzzle, editors! There is an exit!! (Mind meld, mind meld, mind meld) And then it came together. Only flyspeck was MONoMODE. I need a drink.
@Lynn But if you had MONOMODE, then what about SOIING for 60D, as noted by @Francis? I had same issue...and until I had to flyspeck I hadn't even noticed SOIING. I should have realized that double I's are going to be about SKIS; unless of course they are RADII. I loved Caitlin's snarky comment about MONKMODE. But I may try to claim it occasionally anyway.
@Lynn Thats part of why I think the title is very apt for this puzzle; just think inside the box, dont try to look for some obtuse gimmick!
A very clever and well-executed theme. But the fill clues were so easy I wondered why I was bothering to finish the "outer" puzzle before going to the box (reminder: I solve offline). I realize Sunday fill is even easier than it used to be, but when the only challenge was realizing a RESORTarea was really a RESORTTOWN, to me it's a big Monday. Again, I liked the box and the re-clued clues for it. I would have preferred this as a Thursday: less fill and tougher fill clues. YMMV.
@Barry Ancona The fill was Wednesday difficulty, for me, which I find optimal - any easier and the solve is done on autopilot, any harder and it gets tedious. This was one of the most enjoyable Sunday grids I have ever completeled at the NYT (but I still prefer regular size puzzles).
@Barry Ancona Your comment saved my streak, although I consider using comments for help as sort of cheating. I had ‘desert town’ and my brain was stuck on it.
I solved everything but the central square rather quickly. Then I stared at the box. I stared the highlighted entries. Nothing. I looked at the crossword puzzle title to see if there were accompanying notes. Nothing. I started trying four letter words like "uber" and "path." Nope. Finally, the one entry that has to be correct: YETI. That's the foothold I needed. Then MINI. Then STEM. And TAXI. And so on.
@Henry Su I had the same experience. Finding the YETI then MINI opened the box for me.
@Henry Su Identical process but my aha! moment and key to solve the nested crossword was TAKE
Loved, loved, loved this. The dopamine hit when I figured out how to solve the little box lasted hours.
Well, I did like seeing UHURA, CLIO, ORIOLE and SKEDADDLED in the grid and learning where ORIOLE comes from. And I hope never to see SCORIGAMI again in my life. I try not to speak of the Great Easening, but with very few exceptions, the cluing in this was Tuesday level at best. Oh well, can't love them all.
This is one of my favorite Sunday puzzles. Nice use of recursion or recluesion. WAY TO GO constructors!
After reading all the comments thus far, I have two thoughts: 1. I would absolutely play an "inside the box" puzzle every day if available. The gimmick, while it defeated me, made for an entertaining and challenging puzzle within a puzzle. 2. FLUGELHORN is clued and no one has posted this music video yet??? I must do so then, it is mandatory. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOtxTyJmxVI" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOtxTyJmxVI</a>
Wow! Congratulations, Henry and Frank, on a fabulous father-son debut!! At first I really thought I was sailing through, but then had to STEM my short-lived arrogance. Your MINI puzzle in the center was so clever (yet hard, IMHO!) OVERALL, so well done!!👏🏼😊👏🏼
I did the puzzle late because I was at a music festival all day where--no kidding-- I played my cornet and FLUGELHORN. So happy to see the NYT XW debut of my favorite instrument to play. Trivia: the modern flugelhorn is the direct descendant of the soprano saxhorn, invented by Adolph Sax who of course also invented the saxophone family.
I will admit I was getting rather testy about that center square that I, like most everybody, tried to ignore till the last moment. Then there was about ten minutes of stumbling around the center square looking for something I could count on. I finally settled on the bottom row was YETI. Then I saw TAKE when I finally changed my mental pronunciation of [Appropriate]. So it finally fell, but it was quite uncertain for a while. I thought it was a fun challenge. It took me a lot of fly specking until I finally realized that if I went with MONoMODE then I'd have to figure out what SoIING was. Then I realized it was SKIING and MONKMODE. Is that a thing, Monkmode? I don't know if I'd like a monk's life. Do they have crosswords? I'll go if they have crosswords. How about dogs? I'll go if they don't have dogs (my wife's dogs have been enormously successful in annoying me tonight--they are quite proud of that). I'm going to go to try to figure out just when everything went wrong. Is that what monks do?
@Francis You might want to think about what it is that they don't do, before you sign up for monkhood. 😏
@Francis I had MONOTONE first. My guess is MONKS can do crosswords, they just can’t talk about it after.
@Francis I had it completely wrong, thinking of (real word follows) a friary, then figured it was me time and it worked. Enjoy. I needed help with the center but git one word and the rest fell into place.
@Francis I would hope that monks would NOT have cross words! (Sorry)
@Francis They fish. Haven’t you ever seen a monkfish?
@Francis If they don't have dogs I ain't going.
This was such a fun puzzle! Lively fill, cool surprises. Loved it!
Really enjoyed this Sunday offering, so cool that it came from a father-son team. Loved the comment with the column pic!! Yes lovely to be “ stuck in the middle with you!”
For me, an ideal Sunday. I stretched it out for many hours; left it to turn over the laundry, then to put the sheets on the bed, then to work on my giant jigsaw puzzle (first page of the NY Times on the day I was born; a gift from my kids); then to prepare veggies for the soup I'm making to go with the bread in my bread maker.... a delightful puzzle with a fun trick to it. I first had "wind" for STEM and that turned that box all around, but I persisted! And just look at all the positive comments? Must be a record! Now, time to put the soup on and make the house smell wonderful. Shana Tovah to members of the tribe, and a lovely day to the rest!
I rate it solidly Good. It held my interest longer than a lot of Sundays because I figured I needed to get through the outer "box" to get to the inner box. I'm having a little difficulty getting from RESERVATION to STAY. I sorta see it but not really. Something to do with reserving a stay in a hotel or motel? I'm sure there's a good explanation, I just don't know what it is.
@Peaty & Oaty That how I read it. If I’m on the Hilton app, they could reasonably have a button for “Manage your reservation” or “Manage your stay”. I didn’t blink an eye at it.
@Peaty & Oaty, agreed. I don’t see a clear connection. But I also didn’t see any other option other than STAY given the crossings. I can forgive this because I thought the puzzle came together really well overall.
Sunday Whoa! Henry Lin-David n Frank S. David! Wow! Just need to put a bow on that little box and say 'Gotcha!' Had a little bit of everything there. Makes me think of the old waitress at the honky-tonk. When asked about the band taking the stage, she replied, 'Oh, they play both kinds of music, country and western!" This was one of those rare solves which had me sit back and wonder, 'How many of my fellow solvers are staring at this center collection of squares at this moment, wondering how in the heck to fill them?' Patience and persistence (and a gold star!) gets you from scratchin' your head, to sleeping soundly in bed. AMEN!
This was lovely; crunchy, interesting fill and that MINI in the centre was perfect. What a great Sunday offering. Although I completed in about my average time, it felt a lot harder/longer in the filling. As I’m not even remotely musical I took a guess at Cor Anglais, before French Horn before FLUGEL HORN finally landed. I have no idea if any of those look alike or are related, I was just flailing around trying to make something fit. Tbh, I was impressed with myself that I knew the names! More of this please.
Just loved seeing FLUGELHORN in a puzzle. I wonder if it's a first.
It is. It is one of 12 debut answers in the puzzle.
I'm tired of all the comments about the level of difficulty, what day of the week the puzzle seemed etc. Who cares?! This for me was a very clever, coherent puzzle that took me , and apparently many others, on an adventure which for me, ranged from happily cruising along to some slow downs then annoyance ending with a big "Eureka!" moment almost like cracking a safe (as others mentioned) or getting out of an escape room. How fun is that! I also learned a few things along the way. My favorite puzzle of the year so far. Bravo to the constructors!
@DP > I'm tired of all the comments about the level of difficulty, what day of the week the puzzle seemed etc. Who cares?! Given the first part of your comment, it sounds like you are well aware that a significant contingent of solvers do indeed care about “the level do difficulty” and such. So I guess your question isn’t a sincere one, but rather, just a lead-in to your own dismissal of those (numerous) other commenters’ concerns. Well: a) I care. For me, 7 out of 7 puzzles during the average week are annoyingly easy these days. b) I get that *you* don’t care, at this specific point in your own climb up the crossword-solving learning curve…but how do you think you’ll feel once you have reached a point where 95% of the puzzles being published nowadays feel trivial to solve, e.g. like Mondays probably feel for you already?
A relatively quick and enjoyable solve for me. I waited until I filled all other entries before talking the central box. Clever how the meaning of the themed clues changed. I considered TINY and OLAF before getting the correct words.
An entertaining puzzle, not too taxing on the little gray cells, and easily done without any help from the theme. The father/son teammust have had fun putting it all together.The box in the middle was my last fill, and once I got it that it wasn't going to be a brain crushing exercise in esoterica, just simple, straightforward solving, it too was easy. Thank you, gentlemen, for winding up an otherwise taxing week with a gentle puzzle. Come back soon, together, or each on your own.
Like many, I also left the center square alone until the end. And I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed that the cluing for the 4x4 was derived from answers I'd filled along the way...creative concept! And I learned about MONK MODE. A few years ago I heard of goblin mode, which has kind of the opposite meaning. Gen Z has some funny, if dramatic, self desciptors. I worry about them, but somehow I think they're adapting to this world we've all found ourselves in as best they can. Misters David, thank you for a fun puzzle, and I hope you'll consider making more! Incidentally--I shared your surname originally, and it's been rare for me to find another in the wild (Larry notwithstanding).
Phew. A long but fun no-lookup Sunday. A 3-gold star Fri/Sat/Sun....I might get my first 7-day gold streak. Probably jinxed it. Oh well, there's always mimosas. Cheers. Hook 'em.
As a few people have remarked, the theme did seem pretty random. But for me, that’s exactly what made it work! I didn’t even look at the middle until the rest of the grid was filled in (which, for me, took a pretty normal amount of time and effort for a 2026 Sunday)…and then I spent a solid 5 minutes just jumping around through the theme entries in search of a common thread. Eventually, FLUTESECTION/STEM came to me, and it was took maybe another 30 seconds from there. But I have to say, I really loved the (completely unexpected) experience of feeling genuinely stumped for those 5 minutes.
I didn't struggle too much with the rest of it, but man! Did that middle section stump me! I finally got it when I came up with a viable synonym for 37A, and then it fell into place. And then I saw it was all kind of logical, and even a bit delightful.
Clever puzzle. Got the outside done. Struggled with the center while I thought of all the parts of the flute I played 50 years ago. Resorted to check puzzle and autocheck answers when I could only come up with one of the eight answers. (I wanted to play my flute, not drink champagne.) I did finish the center with help. A challenge.
Nitpick, but shouldn’t 33A be [“¿De dónde ____ tú?” (“Where are you from?”: Sp.], with an opening inverted question mark, since the clues can use any Unicode character and it wouldn’t have changed the difficulty?
@Nick I totally agree. Should have been easy to include and we solvers like accuracy :-).
I almost folded when I came to SCORIGAMI ... but kept at it anyway.
@Chili I had to Google it even after I solved it because I couldn't believe it was a real term
The center area was harder than the rest of the puzzle put together. It was hard to find a single in even with all the clues. All eight answers were kind of bigger leaps than a lot of the other answers. A few interesting answers like MONKMODE which I hadn't heard of but made sense when I got it. Some Naticky areas like SCORIGAMI right next to CESAR.
I did the puzzle last night and solved it all except the central square. I stared at the square for a good five minutes and it stared back at me, so I threw up my hands and went to bed. I recommenced staring this morning and was on the verge of throwing in the towel for good when, flash, bang, alakzam, it hit me: GIANTSNOWMAN must be YETI, and it all fell into place. Any puzzle using the word SKEDADDLED is ok by me, and SCORAGAMI was treat as well. I was pleased to see ART clued by reference to ART Blakey, one of the titans of jazz drumming. His work with his group The Jazz Messengers (give Moanin’ a listen) is essential, but I love the work he did with pianist Herbie Nichols (e.g. Cro Magnon Nights) even more.
I will always, always love a parent/child collaboration. Somehow, it’s the very essence of why I solve. We’d get the Sunday paper, Mom would fold it perfectly into that rectangle, Dad would have a good go at it, then it was my turn, Swedish mamma would take peeks, Grandmother came over a few times a week and put her brain to work… …then repeat. Until Sunday, when all was revealed.
This morning I learned the term SCORIGAMI. This afternoon, we get a SCORIGAMI. Coincidence, or a glitch in the matrix?
@Fender Buy a lottery ticket. ...
A delightful solve with two levels of puzzle. And a tremendous two generations of creators. Well done!
What a deligbt! SKEDADDLED!? The mini in the middle was beautiful and was the last section to fall for me. Bravo bravo bravo!
SUCH terrific fun! Crunchy, quite a bit of head scratching, a few places that were nicely in my wheelhouse. Definitely took some time to see what was up with that central square. I had it about half filled when I left for church where my handbell group was playing, first time after our summer break. I love playing handbells but I'm always a little nervous too. It went well :-) Oops. Kind of got of the subject of the puzzle, which I was able to finish up after church. Loved it and I hope we will see more from this father/son duo. Be well all :-)
@Shari Coats I used to love playing handbells! Do you wear gloves when you do it?
Meta-clues and a literal puzzle box. Fun!