Finding a rebus without assistance makes me feel like a freaking genius. That is all.
C(UT)E! Hope today’s theme might draw in Sam Lyons for a visit. But, let’s talk about “pharynx setting”. Hah, it made me wonder what settings you could dial in on your pharynx. “Set your pharynx on stun.” “This pharynx goes to eleven.” “Put the pharynx in autocorrect mode.”
@Cat Lady Margaret Hello! :)
My erstwhile neighbors, lovely folks—an Omaha beach sailor and his wartime Angel of Mercy bride—got themselves a Basenji in their sunset years, a pretty girl they named Tulip. “She’s a descendant of the dogs Egyptian pharaohs kept,” Dick used to tell me. “Basenjis were bred not to bark in keeping with the dignity of the royal palace.” Upon which Tulip would let loose at a random jack rabbit, bird, moth, or nothing at all. “Tulip didn’t get the memo,” Dick would add ruefully. Their property abutted ours. One day, we came home to find that Dick had fenced in a portion of his, right up to our property line. Suddenly there was a chain link fence running through the junipers. “Surprisingly… unneighborly,” my husband said, what with there being no chain link fences anywhere in our little town. Our houses bordered the National Forest line, and neither mountain lions nor bears appreciated metal obstacles. Then we saw the gate built into the fence, opening up onto a straight shot to our rear deck. Sure enough, Dick and Tulip came through that gate not an hour later, bearing a good bottle of NM Riesling and the good news: “Did you see the enclosure I had built so our dogs could play without bothering the bears?” And play they did. We let them out through their respective gates on the side of each properties and let the Basenji/Australian Cattle Dog Games begin. The representatives of both breeds could outyap a nervous Pomeranian. Tulip didn’t give a fig about courtly manners.
@Sam Lyons Tell me I can read more of your work somewhere...
@Sam Lyons a lovely bit of writing, that.
@Sam Lyons you summoned him @Cat Lady Margaret!
Excellent puzzle and fun to solve! And definitely a Wednesday crossword: two-letter rebuses (rebi?) plus a graphic are a great intro to the concept.
A Wednesday level rebus for a Wednesday puzzle. I appreciated the after the fact graphic, as I sometimes have trouble visualizing the images to be seen by connecting certain squares in the puzzle on my IPad. I was happy to see two of my favorite female singers, JONI Mitchell and the ubiquitous ENYA. Joni Mitchell has had a remarkable career filled with adventurous choices ranging from folk troubadour to jazz chanteuse by way of confessional singer/songwriter. One of the greats, her music appears in most of my playlists. As for ENYA I love her pre new age work with Clannad.
@Marshall Walthew Thanks for mentioning that. I did NOT get to see the graphic at all. Mine went straight to the Congratulations page and stayed there. (Web version on mobile browser.) When I went back to review just now I got to see the animation.
@Marshall Walthew -- Here is a most pleasurable dissection of JONI Mitchell's "Court and Spark" on the "You'll Hear It" podcast (60 minutes).
Is it time to trot out that video about the "two yutes" who got into trouble in Alabama? <a href="https://youtu.be/K6qGwmXZtsE?si=y-45Z0arR_Aocelk&t=108" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/K6qGwmXZtsE?si=y-45Z0arR_Aocelk&t=108</a>
@Steve L Yeah, I was wondering how they were going to work the Yutes into the revealer but no such luck.
@Steve L "The two what?"
@Steve L Yea, and you blend!!! I love it!
Loved it! I liked the theme / rebus, cluing, and animation, so well done all around. Especially like in medias res, basenji, and the Bono / Enya sleight of hand. I assume I'm not the only one to dutifully write in Enya for the 1st Irish singer clue. That led to 'Maa' for the barnyard sound, which I don't like but think I've seen before (made by sheep who can't pronounce the letter 'b'). When I needed to regroup and change to Bono, I thought something to the effect of 'well played, constructor, you got me.' Then to see Enya later... magnificent. I felt like a seal jumping through hoops 😅
@CB I always think “baa” is for sheep “maa” is for goats.
@CB Apparently, "Maa" is what goats say, not sheep. I learned that from NYT Xword clues.
@CB Hand up, I did the same thing including MAA
@CB I had MAO for barnyard sound. Unlikely, but I suppose if Animal Farm had a sequel, they might have discussed the chairman.
As a relative newcomer to NYT Crosswords, I think this is the first Wednesday I've completed with no hints or helps or reading the column. Definitely the first rebus I figured out with zero help. The fact that it was for my home state was doubleplusgood!! I really enjoyed this one. Well done to Gorman.
What a pleasant surprise! This is exactly the kind of friendly Wednesday challenge I grew to expect in the old days (prior to the Great Easening of January 2026). Not all that hard but crunchy, thoughtful, and creative. Liked the double Irish maneuver. It could easily have passed for a Thursday these days. Very happy with this puzzle. Even the rebuses (I'm in the learned-to-tolerate camp) seemed like an old friend.
This was beaUT,, and cUTe for Wednesday. I know that sometimes crossword grids have UTilized UTah-shaped blocks of black squares, bUT I'll leave that to the crossword historians among yoU To discuss. Tomorrow morning I'll be getting into my sport UTe and driving up to Jersey to see my mother. So I'll be offline and oUT-of-pocket for the puzzles for a few weeks. I was glad to catch a rebus afore I leave.
@Linda Jo Have a safe trip and treasure the time!
A rebus on a Wednesday, hip hip haramba!! 🕺💃 Fun one! The nickel dropped as early as 3A on my first spin around. I don't watch all those British mysteries for nUThin' ya know!! It is exceedingly rare that I would know anything about a best-selling highest grossing type movie from any year, animated or otherwise, but I did get this one right away. For some reason a friend of mine and I just loved it so much that we kept dragging more people to see it with us. Including a boy that I had quite a major crush on.... It did not lead me to a whole new world with him, but that's okay. My treasure was to be found elsewhere! This felt very gentle and quick, and I hope that it makes rebus fans of more solvers! Though, upon consideration, I'm not going to hold my breath on that. But a girl can hope!
@HeathieJ Dang it, three down was when the nickel dropped.... AUTOPSY. If I had a nickel for every time I wished I had an edit box here, I'd have probably 48,000 nickels. Imagine!
Okay. Best as I can tell, there’s never been a connect-the-dots Times puzzle depicting a state. Furthermore, never have the dots been rebuses – they’ve always been single letters. Two never-before-seen elements in this crossword genre. To which I say: A[UT]HOR! A[UT}HOR! One more thing re the constructor. He’s had four puzzles in the Times, all for different days of the week, so he still has a chance to do what only one other constructor (Andrew Ries) has done in the 80+ years of the Times – hit the cycle (a puzzle for every day of the week) in their first seven puzzles. Go for it, Peter – and thank you for a splendid outing today!
p.s. – My favorite connect-the-dots Times crossword? 11/12/25, by Brad Wiegmann and Nicole Wiegmann, which features an ingenious square, IMO.
So I subscribe to this elite sports streaming channel. And it’s pretty good, most of the time, but on some Thursdays and Sundays, and some Wednesdays, they show golf. They’ve been doing this for 50 years and I know some people like it, and even subscribe to it for that reason, but I hate golf. I just posted on their comment site. How dare you show golf! You know it’s not even a real sport! It’s so cheap that they use little balls instead of big ones, they are so much easier to hit! And lazy too, sports should have a lot of running in them. I just turn it off whenever I see it. I could learn the rules but I really don’t want to. And worst of all, I like to keep track of how often I can predict the winner of sporting matches, and when golf is on I lose my streak! I could just subscribe to a different channel that doesn’t show golf, but instead I just want this one to stop showing it! I pay good money for this channel and it should cater to only me and the sports I like! For the record, if this were true, I would be fine if someone posted on their site: “I really dislike golf, it’s boring, and just posting that so that if enough people say it, maybe they will change their programming. And they should at least have an optional TV guide letting people know when it’s going to be on.” Because that’s honestly how I feel about golf. But I hope the other comments show how silly and petty some of you sound, in my opinion.
@SP Thank you, Jonathon Swift!
I guess I’m in the minority, but not a fan of this Wednesday rebus
@Dorothy me too. I gave up, had no idea what the hell was going on. lol.
If you fly over Utah, with all its mountains and canyons and such, and study the borders, you'll find that they don't seem nearly so perfectly straight. But is that really the best use of your newfound ability to fly?
As soon as I see a rebus puzzle I stop, I neither appreciate, nor do I care to participate in that nonsense. I know many like them, and good for you, to me it’s one of the laziest and silliest concepts imaginable. “I made a crossword puzzle but the words don’t fit.” So instead we all have to pretend it’s interesting or novel to cram multiple letters into the same square. No. Ill keep my sanity and peace. Thanks.
@RL If you recognize that the puzzle is a rebus you're halfway home. Why don't you just go with it?
@RL Yep. It’s an insta-reveal and I don’t care to continue.
@RL C’mon. “Cramming random letters in random squares,” is willful mischaracterization of the rebus concept, and particularly egregious when applied to putting UT in seven squares to outline the shape of Utah.
@RL Again “lazy”. I don’t care whether you like rebuses or not but please for the love of God explain why it’s “lazy”. Do you imagine the constructors are sitting around thinking, “I really want to play golf today but I have to finish this puzzle. I know, I’ll just shove some letters into one box, like I can shove my dirty clothes under the bed, and that way I can save myself some time. Please someone just explain what on earth you mean?
@RL Although I sympathize with your anti-rebus stance, I have to tell you that, from a constructor's perspective, rebuses are anything but a lazy trick to work into a puzzle (and do it with the talent shown in this one).
@RL There’s a rebus most thursdays and occasional other days, so you’re really making a fuss about this ‘rogue’ puzzle type when it’s there on more or less a weekly basis. it’s a thing in crossword puzzles. they are Puzzles. you may be *puzzled.* there are other maneuvers besides pure wordplay - do those all offend you too?
@RL Are you one of those "Atlanta Implants"? It's getting harder and harder to find actual Georgians in those parts. I was surprised how many of my HS classmates were still in (or had returned to) the Atlanta/DeKalb County area. We were a tough lot--no a/c in the school buildings, bussing only if you lived more than a mile from the school (we didn't), and one TV in the HS (in the library.)
@RL Why even bother with a grid? I just write my answers on a blank sheet of paper, one per line.
@RL Now you've done it. You said the L-word, now all the townspeople have to go get their pitchforks and torches.
I came for the comments and they didn't disappoint. A rebus on a Wednesday? Oh, the inhumanity!!
@Allen there ought to be a law! 😆
My sincere congratulations, Mr. Gorman – you've crafted an outstanding puzzle. And I say this not because of the theme, though that was fun, but because of the fill, so varied and rich. I looked forward to each new entry... AUTOPSY, TETRADS, EXECUTION, FOREHAND, BASENJI, and on and on. Thank you so much! At first I thought the puzzle was, for some reason, honoring the University of Texas. And that made me think of @Eric Hougland, longtime Austinite (though recently relocated to Colorado.) When then UTAH came into the picture, I thought of @Sam Lyons, of course, and hope she's had a blast with this solve. I loved that the puzzle had the unexpected extra touch of a rebus and graphics – a very nice surprise for a Wednesday puzzle. Many thanks to Will Shortz for keeping us on our toes! To wrap it up, here's U2, but mostly BONO, with "Red Hill Mining Town" – <a href="https://youtu.be/yLvpZwN9Oko?is=BUVPVErJ10TPVgpU" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/yLvpZwN9Oko?is=BUVPVErJ10TPVgpU</a>
Brilliantly frustrating. Can't remember the last time a crossword had me so deeply engaged. I felt like a wizard when I figured out what the rebus pattern was! The clues felt like a breath of fresh air; so many interesting word choices and plenty of fun wordplay! Well played.
@Cooper R I'm surprised that XWStats users rate this as "Very Hard". Personally I think that says a LOT more about the G.E. era averages than it does about this particular (delightful and mildly challenging) puzzle... Glad we both enjoyed it though!
EXCELLENT puzzle!!! UTter delight!!!
R Uinta mountains? If you are on the road between Green River, Wyoming, and Flaming Gorge, Utah, there is a side trip worth taking called the Sheep Creek Geological Loop, located at the T of ERUPT. I took it 31 years ago, and my memories of it are still vivid.
@Fact Boy I'm printing out the puzzle right now and circling the T of ERUPT so I know where to go if I ever make it to Utah. ;-)
I liked the map theme! I grew up in a home where a map of the US was affixed to the wall at the top of the stairs (which was also between the bedroom and bathroom) so the shapes (and colors) of all the states became lodged in memory for all of us kids while we waited for another family member to finish up. Studying maps turned into a somewhat calming activity for me.
@Unmoored I had a US map jigsaw puzzle where the shapes were the states. Then right out of college, I lived for a few months with a family who had a similar puzzle. Their 5yo son would say, while assembling the puzzle, "Michigan the glove, and Michigan the other Michigan."
I really like a rebus crossword. From the first tingle of doubt and suspicion that something isn't quite right, to figuring out the remedy that makes everything fit into place, it's a lovely extra layer of puzzlement. I thought this was a great example of the genre - not so difficult, but perfect execution and satisfying right up to the end. Many thanks!
Nice cUTe puzzle today! Other than Basenji (a bit of a punch in the moUTh), this was a UTopian Tuesday solve that I UTterly enjoyed.
Oh boy.... I sense some pushback on this Wednesday. I liked it...nice change of pace.
WSJ and NYT not competitors. I kept thinking “there must be at least one other business newspaper in the world… FT is only two letters…”
@Bryan Agreed. The WSJ's main competition is truth, especially in their editorial department. I'll never forget the WSJ editorial that called people who made too little money to owe income taxes "lucky duckies". Of course they weren't talking about the billionaires (and billionaire presidents) who simply never pay income taxes, regardless of how much wealth they command.
Huh? Did the wind turn the page on my wall? Beware of days that start with T. The grids found there, they sting, they tease. Them squares are rigged, your streak is kaput - A rebussed toe that's stubbed barefoot. Before you howl and drop your subscription, It's not just T days, (I thought I'd mention!)
@Whoa Nellie Nice jabber. You wock!
Finally a rebus I could get on my own (no help from the column or comments!) PLUTO/ANYMINUTE sent me on my way. What a feat of construction! Impressive, and my thanks! I thought it was really fun and enjoyed the animation at the end.
This was terrible. The lack of T’s was so annoying
@Mike Oxlong put the Ts in then 👍🏻👍🏻
@Mike Oxlong Because for some reason (one that I don't understand and would likely disagree with if I did) online a 'rebus' square that needs more than one letter entered can also be successfully filled with just the first letter. In today's puzzle entering the Ts was therefore optional. Bah.
Just moved from SLC to start college in Washington... crazy timing! I was ecstatic once I figured out the theme. Thanks for the puzzle :)
I am happy to announce that I FINALLY figured out a rebus on my own.! Also excited to see Basenji as an answer. Years ago when I had Rhodesian Ridgebacks Basnjis were one the few dogs they peacefully coexist with. Besides they have the cutest curly tails!
@David Gropper Congratulations! And on an unexpected Wednesday to boot!
@David Gropper Congratulations! You never forget your first time.
@David Gropper I'm laughing my socks off. In the last century there was a great Canadian folk group called Stringband who wrote an amusing song called "The Maple Leaf Dog". Among its canine catalogue it includes the Rhodesian Ridgeback which I had never heard of before or since. Indeed, I had concluded it was a fiction. Thanks for l'arnin' me.
this week has been a pleasant surprise so far as someone who can't complete the monday sometimes without autocheck. it wasn't until i got to 66 across that i realized it was a rebus and then after that everything got easier. that's why i like rebuses that have a pattern to them. i get an extra burst of energy filling out those answers i skipped before thinking i had an answer that didn't fit.
Well "execued!" Glad to see so many people liked the rebus
Wow. Cmon now that’s just cool. Bravo! Great Wednesday puzzle!
Enjoyed that! And thank you much for acknowledging the second mononymous Irish singer, BONO. When I first encountered the across clue I automatically entered ENYA, as one does, sending a mental hug to one of my fave nieces. When I encountered for the second time, I had a ??!!?? moment, and tried to remember if it had been a clue for the Midi, or the new Bonus crossword, both of which I’d just completed. Not sure if the ESPN clue was deliberate, U2 is my all time fave rock band, in no small part because of Bono’s voice and lyrics. Hope to see him used more as an answer to this particular clue! BTW, I had my suspicions, but YOUTUBE confirmed my rebus theory.
I always love when a TERN is mentioned, because it reminds me of my all-time favourite Whose Line Is It Anyway bit: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBzwv057GPs" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBzwv057GPs</a>
Nice tight clean fun We’d puzzle, thanks. I loved IN MEDIAS RES, needed no help with RES, me and this phrase go back a ways, ever since parking my car at the trailhead for Delicate Arch in, of course, Utah, when it was still a little dirt parking lot, no one but me there in December, and I pondered alone all those like Edward Abbey who had walked that trail before me and all those who would walk after.
I can't ever recall a Wednesday rebus in the past 21 months I've been here (doesn't mean there wasn't one and that my memory just isn't what it used to be) but color me delighted. More off-day rebus bombs, please, to ease the dis-ease of the Easening.
@Matt The most recent Weds rebus puzzle was July 22. Here's a link to a list of all the rebus puzzles in the Shortz era from xwordinfo.com. I think people should start saying that rebuses mostly appear on Thursdays, Sundays and Wednesdays, because there are a fair number of them on Wednesdays. I counted tge number per day once, but of course have no idea anymore. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Rebus" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Rebus</a>
A rebus on a Wednesday??!!?? Well, why not when we're given the magic key at 3D and 14A. It was like hitting a homer every time one of them came at us, and nothing like the stress and strain of trying to slog through a Thursday swamp of them. This one was fun—a real beaUIty! Conjuring up that connecting outline for UTah was a triumph. No idea how you managing to dream up the UT clues to make it work. Thank you, Peter!
@dutchiris Totally agree!! ☺️ And I hope you're feeling okay!!
I love the idea of a barkless dog. I wish my neighbor had one.
a puzzle about Utah with nothing in the puzzle About UTAH. hands down this is the worst puzzle I have ever seen should never have been allowed to be printed it's bereft of anything about Utah good or bad or in the middle. how about mormons practice of baptizing dead people without permission of the families they are baptizing? How about them losing the Sundance film festival for the same reason just mentioned? how about they are creating hell on earth for draining the Great Salt Lake? how about Mormons refusal to accept LGBTQ or women's rights? that's what UTAH IS. has Peter Gorman ever been to Utah? good day!
@acjones So @D from Ohio, I could really use your sage advice right now so I am not accused of being a sad person or berating anyone90
@acjones So @D from Ohio I could really use your sage advice right now so I’m not accused of being a sad person or berating anyone. There are 3.5 million folks in Utah, I’m sure there are quite a few that are good and kind people. There are even, dare I say it, some Mormons who are good and kind people. I really don’t think that an entire state should be excoriated for the actions of a few (nor should Peter Gorman be excoriated for creating a light-hearted puzzle using a state map and a few rebuses and for some reason not including clues denigrating the state in question.) So given that I care about this forum, the people in it, and the thoughtfulness I think it deserves, what should I do, in your infinite wisdom? Flag the post and be accused of censorship? Ignore it, because after all everyone has a right to their opinion, and tacitly suggest that such posts are acceptable in this forum? Or respond and tell them in as polite a way as I can muster (of which I don’t think they are deserving) that despite the legitimate feelings they have for the causes that concern them, I don’t believe it is right or appropriate for them to demean an entire state and this constructor in such a way and in such a forum? And if I were to do so would you call me a bully? Or do you think they are absolutely right about posting that and anyone who would question it is intolerant themselves? I really need to know.
@acjoneshow bout you settle down in your glass house?
@acjones I'm sure there's plenty of bad stuff happening in Utah, just as there is in every place on earth and for all we know on Antares too, if they have sentient life there. But inclusion or even being featured in a grid is not an endorsement (as you admit by accusing the puzzle of saying "nothing good or bad" about the state.) And even if it were, there is much to admire by way of natural beauty in Utah (unless Donald J. Tyrant has put it on the auction block already.) Moreover, as you have just done, you have an opportunity to rebut any implicit endorsement by listing those many deficits. These comments are read by thousands and, it seems, quite closely too. But none of this makes it a bad puzzle or the constructor or editor carel
@acjones CONT'D (My apologies for dropping out in mid-sentence) ...careless or bad at their jobs. I've never been to Utah and am on the other side of the galaxy from what seems to be their politics – which I knew before I saw your note. But I still enjoyed the puzzle and I don't think that in doing so, I gave their reprehensible conduct a pass. P.S., If you ever feel the need for some capital letters, I know a guy... 😏
Not a favourite puzzle this, especially on a Wednesday. I dislike a rebus anyway, but this felt quite shoehorned in. To each their own of course, but this was not an enjoyable Wednesday for me.
@Jonathon I suppose a rebus is by definition ‘shoehorned in’, whether you enjoy it or not!
I found this puzzle to be deeply satisfying to solve. I love the slow discovery that rebusses are involved and how everything starts then to make sense. At first this puzzle looked to be one of those impossible to solve without assistance but about half way through the Across clues we were given some easy ones that gave just enough to start chipping away at it.
A really delightful puzzle! The surprise rebus on a Wednesday! (It is Wednesday, right?). Not one, but two single named Irish singers. Good clueing, straight forward fill, and the graphic at the end! Who could ask for more? Nice job.
Or you could just tell us when there are non standard puzzles since lots of people hate them.
@Dan Most of us would be in favor of an optional link you could click on to see if a puzzle was a rebus before you started the solve, if that helped, but certainly not a reveal that wasn’t optional because that would spoil it for everyone else. I’d still like to understand—again, in the honest spirit of sharing our viewpoints, not in a judgy way, if you wish—what bugs you about it. Is it just the principle that you think crosswords shouldn’t have rebuses? Do you think that it is too difficult you personally to solve, and that no amount of practice will help you get past that, and so you just want to skip them? Or you just can’t enjoy a puzzle that has them? Or some other reason? Again, asking to understand.
@Dan Absolutely. Would save us all from wasting our time.
@Dan Literally just read the column. She explains right away that is it a rebus. Or maybe go do something else if you hate puzzles so much.