The clues could have been punched up a bit, but the theme was nice. Now, let's sing: You say McKinley, I say DENALI You say Gulf of America, I say Gulf of Mexico You say Lake America, I say Lake Ontario (and on and on and on) Let's call the name changing off
@Nancy J. And who is Fort Bragg named after???
It's been great to start out the week with three very nice Monday puzzles.
DENALI was what Mount McKinley had been called for centuries by the region's natives, and what, for some years, it was officially called (in my youth, it was Mt. McKinley, and was 20,320 feet tall officially) but in January 2025, the Department of the Interior reverted its federal designation to Mt. McKinley -- also, in its dotage, the mountain has shrunk a little and is now 20,310 ft.* So using that in a puzzle is a serious provocation to our thin-skinned leader and may get Dana Edwards's puzzles banned from the 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Ed Sheeran are you reading this? You could learn something from Dana Edwards about how activism works! Dana nailed it -- and is not in denial about Denali !! And while yes the cluing is perhaps too straightforward and bereft of wordplay, but at least the "it's fair game" works in a lovely and unexpected way with "balloon pop" and blew me away! Plus, I, unbeknownst to myself, have become a hair metal enthusiast in my hair-free waning years. If you put on Motley Crue's masterpiece, Dr. Feelgood (1989) you may be converted, too, it may kickstart your heart. It's not like I listen to Poison or MC that often, but some of those songs are bangers. When I get high, I get high on speed Top Fuel funny car's a drug for me My heart, my heart Kickstart my heart Always got the cops coming after me Custom-built bike doing 103 My heart, my heart Kickstart my heart
@john ezra Ha! Your comment made my day. -Dana (the constructor)
AH... OH... UH... this fill was pretty BLEH.
@Andrei It was awful. Not one of the worst but close!
@Andrei All Andrzejs largely seem to agree today.
@Andrei ah yes, you saw that too. Uh, no?
During the pandemic, I worried that referring to the coronavirus as RONA was going to be a thing. I did see it used a few times but it, thankfully, never caught on. I didn’t want the same name as a deadly disease.
@Rhona Scoville Just be glad your name isn’t Karen. (I always feel bad for the innocent Karens when that term is used.)
There's really not much I can say about the puzzle: the clueing was so direct I typed in almost all entries on auto pilot, and I was done in Monday/Tuesday time. Both a CAT and a dog PERSON would enjoy staying at the hotel at Reszel castle (pictured below) - its permanent residents include Lola the golden retriever, and Barbara and Roman the cats, and pets are welcome. There's also a cozy restaurant serving local produce, a museum, and an art gallery: the castle used to be popular with Polish artists, and Franciszek Starowieyski - <a href="https://www.artnet.com/artists/franciszek-starowieyski/2" target="_blank">https://www.artnet.com/artists/franciszek-starowieyski/2</a> - came here to paint for decades. <a href="https://imgur.com/a/xoqjOqB" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/xoqjOqB</a> Sadly, my short holiday is coming to an end - it's back to Warsaw tomorrow.
Puzzles have been REALLY easy lately. It's starting to feel less satisfying to get a fast time and more like the bar has been lowered. Hope the editing team can find a bit more balance in the future.
@Eric Didn’t you think last Thursday, Friday and Saturday were hard enough? I kind of did:)
Did anyone else solving online have a weird highlighting (yellow, with a thick blue border that obscured the filled-in letter) of the square where the cursor was? Or just me? I don't see it as a setting I accidentally turned on.
@Timothy When I was doing acrosses, the right hand column of each blank was heavier than the others.
@Timothy Absolutely. And very annoying.
It never ceases to amaze me that DOULA, a word that literally means slave, has been co-opted to be used for assistant without anyone caring. The other day it was used on some podcast to refer to someone in any office helping out. This from the same crowd that has palpitations when anything that is mildly socially uncomfortable is pronounced.
@Ιασων So this is a legitimate controversy and has merit; and you may be more sensitive to it as a Greek native. (I mean we wouldn’t stand for any occupation called “slave” in English no matter the context). I certainly think it’s very insensitive to use it to mean any random assistant or worker. Still it’s hard to ignore a term that seems to be the preferred one for many if not most doulas (correct me if I’m wrong.) I might too; it would connect me with an ancient and respected profession regardless of the status of the practitioners. It wouldn’t be the first time a negative term was co-opted to a group to be a positive one (see “Queer” and “Yankee” although admittedly they don’t have the force of slavery, of course). Last, abhorrent as it was, slavery was an accepted and almost ubiquitous practice for thousands of years; it would be hard to erase its long literary and cultural ramifications. Nevertheless, a point duly noted.
@Ιασων It could be that practically no one knows the etymology of DOULA. But one might also argue that the word that means "slave," or as Google translates, "maidservant," is δούλα. (If it can indeed mean "maidservant," is that a little better?) On a similar note, when Italians say "ciao," they're using a corruption of "schiavo," which also means "slave"; they're affirming that they're your slave. Weird.
@Ιασων As a now-retired doula (both birth and postpartum) I sort of understand the criticism. At first, I had trouble embracing that job title, although it wasn't a big problem for me as in Montreal I went by "accompagnante à la naissance". However, over the years, the profession has gained enormous respect in the population, and even (most of the time) in hospitals. Now doula is widely used, even in French, and has a very positive connotation. I'm sure there are many words in the English language that have origins that do not fit the current usage. Not sure who the crowd having palpitations is.
@Ιασων Given that most of us do not know the original language from which the word was borrowed, and since it has a fairly substantial history of meaning "helper/assistant" for some of life's important events (birth, death) I don't think it's fair to lash out at its appearance in the recent puzzles.
My best moment was the “Hah!” that spontaneously flew out when I saw the “fair game” meaning for BALLOON POP. And there were more sweet puzzle offshoots. With [Greek salad morsel], as I was cataloguing the possibilities, when I landed on OLIVE, I actually tasted one even though I wasn’t eating one, tasted that one-of-a-kind marvelous flavor. With HERMITS, my brain shot back to that forever-ago group, Herman’s Hermits, and I remembered their catchy song, one II haven’t thought about in decades, “I’m Henry VIII, I Am”. I believe that song will be with me all day. But listen to this from crossnerd me. Dana, the constructor, has a chance to make crossword history. This is his third Times puzzle, and they’ve come in order – Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Only one constructor (Andrew Ries) has hit the cycle (a puzzle for every day of the week) in their first seven puzzles, but no one has done it IN ORDER. Go for it, Dana, and thank you for those sweet moments today!
Thought that the blue border was part of the theme! Finished the puzzle and unfortunately realized it was just a weird new feature that I can’t turn off…. It’s so thick and disruptive - my wife and I felt like we couldn’t think straight! Especially when it’s interfering with the letters around it.
New fastest Wednesday at 5:03 I suspect this will be a common theme in the comment section
@Wesley I wasted a minute or two with eNDOR, but still finished ahead of my Wednesday average.
@Wesley I tied the PB I set on July 8 this year
Been pretty tired for a while now of the difficulty of the week being flattened to Monday/Tuesday every weekday and Wednesday on the weekend. It's obviously not getting any better. I'll miss what used to be the best crossword in existence, but once I'm finished with the archive it's probably time to cancel. Kind of sad and bizarre that even something as niche as the NYT crossword puzzle isn't exempt from the way everything on the internet is trending quality-wise
DENALI was what Mount McKinley had been called for centuries by the region's natives, and what, for some years, it was officially called (in my youth, it was Mt. McKinley, and was 20,320 feet tall officially) but in January 2025, the Department of the Interior reverted its federal designation to Mt. McKinley -- also, in its dotage, the mountain has shrunk a little and is now 20,310 ft.* So using that in the NYT is a major in-your-face to Mr. Toad and may get Dana Edwards's puzzles banned from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Ed Sheeran, you reading this? You could learn something from Dana Edwards about how activism works! Dana nailed it -- and is not in denial about Denali !! And while yes the cluing is perhaps too straightforward and bereft of wordplay, but at least the "it's fair game" works in a lovely and unexpected way with "balloon pop" and bloo me away! Plus, I, unbeknownst to myself, have become a hairmetal enthusiast in my own hairfree dotage. If you put on MotleyCrue's masterpiece, Dr. FeeIgood (1989) you may be converted, too, it may kickstart your heart. It's not like I listen to hairmetal often, but some of those songs are bαngers and sometimes that's just want needs spinning. When I get high, I get high on speed Top Fuel funny car's a drug for me My heart, my heart Kickstart my heart Always got the cops coming after me Custom-built bike doing 103 My heart, my heart Kickstart my heart
Sorry people, I hit submit once too often after thinking the emus had nixed this.
@john ezra You forgot to link to the best part - <a href="https://youtu.be/CmXWkMlKFkI?is=Gtbm9dm0cRofMXZs" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/CmXWkMlKFkI?is=Gtbm9dm0cRofMXZs</a>
Too many filler words in a crossword is like a conversation with someone who over-peppers their speech with “like”s, “um”s and “you know”s. They may have something interesting to say, but you may not have the patience to listen.
What's the deal with the thick blue border around the highlighted square? Is that a bug? I tried to ignore it but it was so bold that it sometimes it covered up parts of the neighboring letters. Hopefully it will be gone tomorrow.
@ASK YES! An E above now looks like an F. More "improvement". Cory Doctorow has a name for this. 16 letters.
Everyone who does not like this new highlighted Square should complain in the feedback section.
The strange new outline around some letters is VERY distracting. It obscured parts of some neighboring letters as well. I hope this is just a bug and not something that will appear on all new puzzles going forward...
@i w Yes this is terrible... please fix it!
@i w this threw me off too, thought it was part of the theme at first
@i w On the online version in Firefox, too
YAY for enby rep! This was nice. Again, a little easier than I would like for a Wednesday, but better than the surprise rebus from last week. But I can’t complain! Happy Wednesday. 🐪
Oh, I get it now. 😣 Theme was interesting but I still found it a stretch in the end. After completion, I did need to read Sam's Wordplay to understand. (Aside:Hopefully, in 2 years time, we will see Mount Denali, Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario on our maps again and not just on T-shirts!)
@Jeff B MD My sympathies are with the kids learning Grade IV Geography. Very Soviet experience: "Yes, last week it was the Gulf of Mexico and that's what your old book calls it. But books can't be trusted, not like Google which is /always right/. And now our Dear Leader has decreed that it will be called Gulf of America. So that's what it is from now until forever, because our Dear Leader is always right and we all love Him. And if we don't, our whole family will be punished, so remember: Gulf of/America/! Now, repeat after me..."
Who calls an oboe a "sprightly companion"? Well, apparently J. B., who may or may not have been John Banister (the Younger), who, in London in 1695, published The Sprightly Companion: being a Collection of the best Foreign MARCHES Now play'd in all CAMPS with Two Farewells at the Funeral of the late QUEEN* . . . . . . Design'd Chiefly for the HAUTBOY; Yet Proper for the FLUTE, VIOLIN, and other Instruments also Plain and Easy DIRECTIONS for Playing upon the HAUTBOY (The First of this kind Publish'd) Here's one of said Farewells, which is neither by Banister, nor particularly sprightly: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpj_dWUw3NY&list=RDJpj_dWUw3NY&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpj_dWUw3NY&list=RDJpj_dWUw3NY&start_radio=1</a> John Banister the Elder composed incidental music for a revival of *The Tempest* <a href="https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/6/68/IMSLP94133-PMLP194121-The_Sprightly_Companion.pdf" target="_blank">https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/6/68/IMSLP94133-PMLP194121-The_Sprightly_Companion.pdf</a> *Mary II
@Bill Must have been a popular term around that time - I still somehow remember singing the duet Sound the Trumpet back in the early 80s. It was composed in 1694 and mentions the “sprightly hautboy”
Disappointed that the asymmetrical blue outlines weren't part of some esoteric visual theme...
Oh, this one was fun (if easy -- my fastest-ever Wednesday!). Liked the inclusion of HAIR METAL, SILENT BOB, and RONA, which always makes me think of the Cardi B coronavirus video (though I don't think she even uses that word). Hope I live long enough to someday torment my great-grandnieces and nephews with this trivia.
I figured that the blog would tell me and if it didn't, I could always Google it. But I really wanted to try and guess what a game called BALLOON POP, "requiring precision", might look like. I quickly rejected my first thought: balloons spinning like crazy past a stationary carnival-goer holding a pin. I rejected that in favor of this: It's the carnival-goer with the pin that's being spun dizzyingly in some sort of spinning machine past a bunch of unmoving balloons. Can you see it in your mind's eye? All the vertiginous "thrills" of the Roller Coaster and the Cyclone to be found in a pop-the-balloon game. What BALLOON POP really is turns out to be rather prosaic by comparison. This is a cute theme that's a little off because of the missing "A". The revealer really should be THAT'S [A] FAIR GAME. Except that the A doesn't work for OPEN SEASON. Oh, well -- close enough for crosswords, as they say. A pleasant solve.
Random thoughts Brave or foolish to kickoff your crossword off with a [Meh] BLAH combo? Wait, another Mario character? I thought I'd learned them all. Four letter Irish singer? Wait, just learned that Bono/Enya are a potential kealoa, so ENYA no longer a gimme. SILENT BOB? Yes, I know who he is, but needed a few crosses to be reminded. The constructor is correct. Mostly for 12 year boys of all ages and sexes. Mostly because Jay is not silent. But they were also in Kevin Smith's movie Dogma, which had a crazy premise and a great cast, which included the late Alan Rickman, at his world-weary best. But let's hear it for the ILIAD and OLIVEs. I'd love to be enjoying an authentic Greek salad with a side of warmed-on-the-grill pita this very moment.
@Vaer Loved that film, even though I’ve never been a 12 year old boy. Alan Rickman showing his Angel ‘bits’ or lack of has been rolling every time.
@Vaer Don't forget George Carlin as the bishop. "Of course he blessed his putter!"
the web version has crosshairs now and they can't be toggled off. super annoying!
I guess I JIBED well with this one and posted a new PB for a Wednesday. Fun puzzle, thanks.
Nice puzzle. The theme had good wordplay and the solve was enjoyable even though the cluing wasn't a FAIRytale GAME of misdirects and twists and turns. A bit more spice would have been nice, but still I had a good time and so I say thank you, Mr. Edwards. Please come back soon! For musical accompaniment, I'm skipping HAIR METAL, but still turning it up with The Who and "Eminence FRONT"- <a href="https://youtu.be/5HTVMh7fur4?is=8XZ4OIH25REV2254" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/5HTVMh7fur4?is=8XZ4OIH25REV2254</a>
I enjoyed this puzzle, but it was quite an easy fill (felt "Monday") and ‒ while it's clever wordplay ‒ I didn't really use the theme while solving. I'd like to see this level of wordplay in the clues directly!
The Star Wars franchise (if that's the word) went a planet too far. I put in ENDOR--even though I had started with BLAH. Any puzzle with that many junk words (RONA, ENBY, CCED, UH/OH) might easily add BLEH, or so I opined. Actually the puzzle was fine for the most part...but there's just one GAME on the Midway at this carnival.
I was too committed to Thunder setting being "OKC" and genderqueer identity subsequently being "POLY". I've never heard of "ENBY" before or maybe I would've been able to figure that corner out on my own.
@Michael ENBY is a shortened form of non-binary! “NB” for Non-Binary became ENBY colloquially
@Michael Literally the same thing happened to me. Was staring at that corner for a solid ten minutes.
OK, that’s ATARI three days in a row. No way this is a coincidence! Something up your sleeves?
@Josh Yes, this is a conspiracy. Kudos to you for noticing it.
@Josh Apparently it's just a useful piece of fill. First appearance was in 1994 and... it's been an answer in 230 puzzles since then. ....
@Josh "Yes, this is a conspiracy. Kudos to you for noticing it." And now, we will have to kill you.
@Josh, Yet another sign of Big 16-Bit Gaming taking over the New York Times.
very annoying new change to the web interface. I spent most of the puzzle thinking this was related to the puzzle but it is not
@Casey I suspect that this annoying innovation may be designed for people who are colour-blind — I beg their pardon, colour-visually impaired. Otherwise, I can't imagine why the previous mark of a coloured highlight of the active square didn't suffice.
How come I've never heard of "Rona" or "Andor"? I lived through Covid 19 and have never heard that before.
@Jonathan Short for Corona Virus Andor is a streaming series, spinoff of Star Wars
@Jonathan I also had not heard of ANDOR. I filled it from the crosses so hadn't read the clue yet when I filled in my last square. Of course I had a typo so when I went back and saw the clue I immediately thought of that other Star Wars word that ends in NDOR and changed it. BLeH didn't seem right, but took me way too long to figure out my mistake and change it back. Oh well.
@Jonathan “Andor” is on Disney +. It is a prequel to “Rogue One” which is a prequel to the first “Star Wars”. Much darker and grittier than most of the franchise…highly recommended.
I’m so happy they included gender pronouns because everyone defiantly knows what an enby is
@Big chungus "...defiantly knows..."? I defiantly did not know what an ENBY was before this puzzle. Now I definitely know what it is.
@Big chungus I didnt know then, I dont know now and I dont care to know.
@Big chungus You don't have to know everything in a crossword. But you should be able to reason it out using the crosses.
@Big chungus You’re in the crossword comments. If you’re going to be hateful, at least correctly identify the part of speech you’re being hateful about. Hope this helps!
@Big chungus I'm sure I am, for the most part, preaching to the choir, but I can't help but want to try to get people to really focus on gender dysphoria. I gave a flip response above, but it's a real, and life-altering condition. If you don't have it, good for you. But it is real. Just like a lot of diseases that some people refuse to admit exists until they experience it, it is very real and it wreaks havoc with people's lives. For example, NYT columnist Ross Douthat belittled those suffering from Lyme disease, until he had it. Try to think of it like this. The sexual organs are the hardware, but the brain is the software. As relatively simple as genitalia are, the brain is enormously complex, and prone to a multitude of maladies. And just because you don't have any of them doesn't mean they don't exist. At one time, and maybe still, a lot of people used load a unix-like operating system, Linux, on their PCs. So the computer looked like a PC but behaved like a unix machine. This is just an analogy, but I hope it can lead some people to understand that the "jest pull down yer pants and look" people will reconsider, and show at least a little compassion for these people.
Third day in a row with ATARI as an answer? I know it’s a common one, but three puzzles back to back is kind of lazy, no?
@Michelle M explain how that would be lazy
What’s in a name? Although I recall the mountain being referred to as McKinley in my youth, DENALI is the name I will always refer to it as. If the misguided renaming furor persists, I guess the Dakotas, Oklahoma, etc will have to be called by more “American” names. As far as the puzzle is concerned, I never remember Covid-19 being referred to as RONA. I must be suffering from long COVID.
@Ken S, I have distant cousins in their early 30s who used it regularly. While they weren't total deniers, they felt Covid was no big deal and used 'rona' to make light of the situation.
Fun mostly easy puzzle. I got hung up at the end because I had LOOPY instead of LOONY which made it hard to get FRONT and also have never heard of the term YENTA right next to it.
Fairly easy for most clues but ANDOR instead of eNDOR got me and being a fan of the older Star Wars movies, I was certain on it and BLeH worked as well. DOULA I had as DOoLA which matched oHNO. I couldn't figure out the errors and had to take a blue star for a Wednesday and I'm mad 😡💢
If you are a Star Wars fan and haven’t seen Andor, you are in for a treat. And if you are a language fan you are in for a double treat. At the risk of irking the emus, i repeat my comment from July: One of the best things about Andor — perhaps the very best thing for language lovers — was its Ghorman language, a kind of mock-French that sounded like French but wasn’t French. It’s hilarious and brilliant and outrageously faux, and the icing on the cake for one of the very best things in the entire Star Wars universe. Here’s a taste of Ghorman (no spoilers): <a href="https://share.google/zTtUAytiGTiEMhdkI" target="_blank">https://share.google/zTtUAytiGTiEMhdkI</a>
@Petrol Ye gods, indeed! It's like you asked AI to demonstrate what French sounds like. Still, I've been so disappointed by many of the recent Star Wars releases, both cinematic and TV, that I'm reluctant to give "Andor" a try...
fun theme idea and answers - the fill is so banal otherwise it's not to put down the constructor it's just so obvious you could have better words than Atari a tad Enya Star Wars clues alone should be banned for a year even Jedi's would agree. have a nice day.
@acjones Thanks...I had forgotten that I still have "Ulysses" downloaded on my Kindle.
It seemed like I got this mostly from the Downs. My guess is that was by design, to make the Across themers emerge relatively slowly. I had no familiarity with SHOOKETH before last Saturday's puzzle and then I heard it used Monday on the radio. Funny how that works sometimes. It's a funny word. Thanks to everyone who solved my Crosshare puzzle yesterday, it means a lot to me. Of course it's still there, <a href="https://crosshare.org/PeatynOaty" target="_blank">https://crosshare.org/PeatynOaty</a>. It's a lively themeless, average solve time as of now is about 15:00.
@Peaty & Oaty I didn’t see your post yesterday. But I did solve it and O liked it! I left comments.
@Peaty & Oaty Well done with some great longer entries. My favorite Q and A was 3d. In the clue for 30d, is there an apostrophe in "pro's" just to make it easier to read? Is it fair play to capitalize Departed in 40a?
@Peaty & Oaty Nice puzzle - much more of a Wednesday than today's Monday cakewalk at the NYT (and I prefer themeless grids).
I’ve never been to Nicaragua so I’m channeling my brother, Eugenio Callejas. Hopefully this hits with Nicaragüenses nicaragua a/ a light of light-green lifted and passed — a gift slender and free in the catches of loops and rings or in the data of fish eggs a/ a jeweler’s glass magnifying the voluminous everything between us and the thunder the heart of wood the old man the words i remember a/ we are good we are good
Excellent clever theme and grid; but yeah pretty BLAH clues unfortunately. I will take a moment to say that, with SILO(S) in the grid today and yesterday, I have been watching the TV show SILO and it’s a pretty well done show! ANDOR was pretty good too.
@SP I'll grant you the theme was OK, but how was this Monday/Tuesday difficulty *grid* "clever"? You point out the disappointing clues yourself. Do you distinguish between the grid and clues being clever in some way I simply can't grasp?
How’s your leg after the injury? PRETTYWEAK THATS FAIR GAME. (Is a BALLOONPOP like a helicopter parent? Asking for a DAD.)
@JohnWM Only if he’s an airhead. (I hope he’s not waiting on pins and needles.)
5:43 Wednesday PB, including the time to waffle between eNDOR and aNDOR like most of you all. Big sci-fi and fantasy fan, but never been able to get into Star Wars
@Andrew I would give give Andor a go, notwithstanding your prior history with Star Wars. While set in the SW universe, it doesn't feel that way at all. IMHO, the writing, direction and acting in Andor are two or three levels above everything else that has a Star Wars stamp on it. (The showrunner is the same guy who wrote and directed Michael Clayton -- Tony Gilroy.)
Not a complaint, but as a long-time (well, lifelong LOL) member of the LGBT+ world I have never before heard or seen the word ENBY used for non-binary people. It left me completely stuck. Maybe it's obscure ... or maybe I'm just getting old.
@William N.B. But it’s a common construction in a crossword to have to spell letters phonetically. Hence ENBY. As in [Barely passing grade] = DEE.
ENBY has been here before: Sun Mar 23, 2025 69D Disc jockey : deejay :: nonbinary : ___ Andrew Colin Kirk Shortz Tue Oct 8, 2024 20A Genderqueer identity, informally Justin Werfel Fagliano Sun Oct 9, 2022 108D Genderqueer identity Jessie Trudeau and Ross Trudeau Shortz Thu Jun 9, 2022 69A Genderqueer identity Dan Ziring Shortz
1A said it all about this puzzle, although I did appreciate the reference to Jay and SILENTBOB from Kevin Smith’s askewniverse.
@Marshall Walthew I think there are a certain segment of solvers who will know him with no crosses and many who will have no idea whatsoever.
@Marshall Walthew I got it from the "Silent--" I did NOT remember much about the movie--especially not Jay, but I remembered watching... and my ears heard "SAH-um BOB" rather than clearly enunciated "SI-lent"..... I kept referring to BOB by that name just for fun....because otherwise the movie seemed fairly worthless.