SP

Not a fan today, so sorry. Don’t get me wrong, I love rebus puzzles, and I very much appreciate two way rebus puzzles—but there has to be some rhyme or reason to it, and the title “Swing States” and the revealer WESTERNUNION just doesn’t cut it for me, especially for a big Sunday puzzle and only four rebuses. For one thing for a two way rebus, once you get one direction it should give you a hint to the other direction, which isn’t the case here (unless you are going to run every Western state abbreviation, which I had to at MOMTOBE since I didn’t remember HBCUs). Maybe, maybe if they were bordering states it could pass, but just because they are all Western states is not enough justification. I didn’t think the themed entries—or the majority of the puzzle, for that matter—were that sparkling enough either (although I smiled at IMNOTAKIDANYMORE). The editors are usually very stingy about passing two way rebuses, I’m surprised this one got through. I did love the clue for NBAREF though!

I’m sure there will be complainers that the cleverness of the constructor doesn’t trump the enjoyment of the solver, but I thought both were true here. Again, think about this accomplishment: symmetrical, great theme entries, no other Ts in the grid—this is a masterpiece and fun to solve as well. Between Sunday and today we got two treats this week.

I’m just grateful the answer to to “Des Moines domain” wasn’t CORNBELT again!

Agree this was on the easier side, since once you get one row in a stack the rest fall pretty quickly. And the top row was a gimme for me. But c’mon folks it’s still enjoyable, and incredibly smooth fill for nine fifteen letter spanners. And in a debut? This is a tour de force and absolutely a worthy Saturday

Sigh looks like I need to repost this since the emus ate it the first time. Sorry if it posts twice. HecK I WIsh I had thought of this theme and that’s quite a compLIMEnt. It didn’t take ME LONg but I’d awarD A TEn to it. I hope it doesn’t elicit frustration nOR ANGEr in other commentators, nor inCUR RANTs. It made me delightfulLY CHEErful!

As long as we are extolling Dolly Parton, I wanted to point out as a pediatrician she is a strong reading advocate and founded the Imagination Library. I work at a community clinic and all our low income families can sign up and get free books monthly for all their kids from birth to age 5 . She really is a national treasure.

This was a really impressive debut for a number of reasons. A very charming theme that I enjoyed as a fellow lover of mythology. The revealer conveniently stacked right under the last clue. Four long extra down clues that were pretty interesting. Very little glue. I thought this was above average both in skill and solving enjoyment for a Tuesday. Well done!

I’m shocked really that so many literate folks (who are doing the New York Times crossword puzzle and presumably avid readers) have never heard the term “cozy mysteries”. That’s not a put down at all, it’s just surprising because I see signs for this all the time in bookstores and libraries not to mention book reviews. So it’s ok if you haven’t heard it, but don’t put down the puzzle saying that’s some obscure or made-up term, because it’s a very common and legitimate genre.

I thought this was a clever conceit, but a few of the theme clues felt a bit off—as well as several other clues. NOT and NAUT and FALL and FOLL are hardly homophones. On the other hand I loved TWO PARTICLE HARMONY and BOSTONPOPSICLE and “news hound” was a very artful clue. As for other clues that put me off—INMONO? You can say “in stereo” so the extra IN is really odd there. It just doesn’t work. BLACKART—has anyone ever said that not in a plural? Help me gamers—LIFEBAR? Is that really a thing? I’ve always called it a HEALTHBAR. AMNESIA for “never mind”? Just…off. There were a lot of sections especially the NW that seemed pretty ambiguous and/or Naticky and a bit forced. I don’t know what it was but I just didn’t have fun with this one even though the theme should be one I would enjoy. What did you all think?

For those who don’t see the point: First, I thought this was an interesting and pleasant puzzle even if you solved like a themeless (although I did use the Os on the six die). Second, I think there’s fun in gradually figuring out the theme—at first I was trying to rearrange letters or see if they SPELT anything. Finally I get enjoyment from appreciating the creativity and artistry and ingenuity of the constructor—I know not everyone does, but I do.

Loved this puzzle. Forgetting about the theme, it solved like a chewy themeless, with a lot of misdirects for me—ADAM before SELF, UCSD before SDSU, LINENS before DIAPER, I could go on—and good fill and clever clues. As for the theme, it’s getting scary—I saw the first one “meditation chant, in a sense” and I immediately knew this would be OM inside a sense word. But even understanding the theme, there were no gimmes with it, even with RAREEVENT because I thought it was Christopher REEVES. The theme helped but didn’t give anything away, the best of both worlds. Big thumbs up.

This wasn’t so terribly hard, exactly, although it was one of those puzzles where solving one area didn’t really help with the rest, I almost felt like I was solving 4 puzzles. And the fill was great, I just felt like many clues were just a little…off. Yes pirates lack VITAMIN C but so did all seaman, it just seems like an overly misdirection even for a Saturday. Same with whalers and their CATCH—nothing special about whales. Some KOI are gold but they can be other colors too so maybe it should have been “Some gold fish?” CERTS is certainly a breath mint not a candy. You can be guilt-RIDDEN but have you ever seen that as a word by itself not hyphenated? And lastly while I love the clue for INSULATIONS it just doesn’t seem like a real word. I can’t use it in a sentence. If I want to buy insulation for several attics, I would still buy “insulation” or at most different “types of insulation”. I got through all of them eventually, and any one by itself I would have ignored, but so many of them just seems…unsettling.

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…

Congratulations on a quality debut! Loved this theme set—tight, funny and a great revealer. The clue for PAPERCUT is absolutely first rate. I thought there were a lot of fresh entries, actually, for a Tuesday. Great job.

So: one Spice Girl reference is a blip. Two is a pattern. Throw in WHAM and you have a deliberate attempt at torture against the Geneva convention. Also, is it my imagination or did we just have Michael CERA and MAO clued exactly the same way in recent puzzles? Thought the editors would mix it up a bit. Finally, a funny bit of trivia, CLEAVE is a word that can mean it’s opposite. Nothing really against this puzzle by the way although it was a bit trivial proper noun heavy for a Tuesday.

I wanted to take a moment to recognize the passing of one of the great wordsmiths of this or any generation, Tom Stoppard. I found a quote of his that I believe everyone on this forum can finally agree on and appreciate: “Words... They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good any more... I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little or make a poem which children will speak for you when you're dead.” and two more of my favorites: “Life is a gamble, at terrible odds. If it were a bet you wouldn’t take it.” “Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where’s it going to end?” I’m just scratching the surface, I’ll let you discover more yourself if you haven’t already. Farewell, Sir Stoppard, thank you for sharing your wit, wisdom and humor with us. You will be missed.

Well, first this is an amazing layered theme that would be on my POY list regardless based on its incredible amount of theme material and immaculate grid, but gets even more points for a decent challenge level that has been sadly missing of late on Sundays. Now the fun part. I’ve mentioned lots of eerie crossword coincidences before but this one absolutely blows them all away. Today I am in New York visiting my kids. We stop at a lovely little used bookstore in the upper west side. There’s a little shelf of inexpensive old books and literally the first book I put my hand on (without even reading the spine) was an 1887 edition of Eliot’s “Themes from a Clerical Life” (8 bucks). A little digging and I find on the same shelf an 1887 edition of my favorite novel ever—you guessed it—MIDDLEMARCH. (Also 8 bucks, I bought both). I spent the rest of the day expounding on the plot to my kids and reading them my favorite passages from what I believe is the best novel written in the English language. And now this puzzle comes out 6 hours later. Talk about crossword gods—man, you just can’t make this stuff up.

Great debut Nate. Nice theme entries that had me guessing what the theme could be, and as a pediatrician I appreciate the NEONATALNURSE clue and the nurses themselves. That’s not a wet paint clue, we really do call them that—although to be honest they are often far too busy to do the rocking and we luckily have volunteers for that. Interesting little story, when I was a resident I would do the rounds at night in the neonatal intensive care unit. Before bed I would often sing them songs and every night would have a theme (yes Andrzej often show tunes—poor babes). I also told them that if they slept and didn’t have any issues through the night they could come to me when they were 5 and I would buy them an ice cream. No one took me up on it. Anyway, fun puzzle, fun clues. I especially enjoyed the call out to TCHALLA and Yogi BEAR who indeed must have been a cub sometime.

Like many of the other early commentators here, I am getting seriously annoyed. It takes more than a rebus and a clever theme idea to make a decent Thursday puzzle. Ok, it was a cute idea and the theme fill was relatively interesting and well chosen. And I will even grant that for some themes if you get the first one you can fill in the others more easily, that’s the nature of some themes. But for heaven’s sake why does the majority of the clueing have to be a Monday level? Seriously does three quarters of the puzzle have to be gimmes? I just finished a Saturday archive puzzle—June 4th 2016–Byron Walden/Brad Wilbur. Took me an hour and a half but I finally cracked it (except for an Natick at the end that I could have potentially cracked as well). I’m not saying it was a perfect puzzle but at least it had respect for the solver’s intelligence. And I know this is a Thursday, not a Saturday. But still—is the New York Times readership that much less intelligent than 10 years ago, or do the editors just think we are? Sorry for the rant, and if you want to go off on me for being an elitist have at it. But the juxtaposition of solving these two puzzles just really set me off.

I can almost hear Deb Amlen now: “But they said there would be no math…” And I can hear Andrzej screaming all the way from Poland. Wow. A gem in so many ways. Extremely clever theme, brilliant execution, and a high degree of difficulty (see what I did there?) for the constructor and reasonably so for the solver. Expert fill especially for the limitations, and look at all that TOPFLIGHT accessory fill for the downs. And then some great care for clueing even for some of the common fill (letters from your folks? Amazing) Also loved “it’s off the wall”. Doesn’t get much better than this in my opinion. Thanks for the “WHENIM(sixty four)” call out, I just had my 64th birthday, thank you very much. TIL a new meaning for SCUD, also thank you very much. Just added a new Crosshare puzzle. It’s a tricky Thursday and another one that’s “off the wall”. Hope you enjoy! <a href="https://crosshare.org/crosswords/fWniZWiHwr48kpqPTLjv/get-into-shape" target="_blank">https://crosshare.org/crosswords/fWniZWiHwr48kpqPTLjv/get-into-shape</a>

Didn’t finish the puzzle yet but wanted to be the first to say it—who wanted Wayne’s World to be BATCAVE or GOTHAMCITY?

I don’t usually have much to say about Monday puzzles but I think this was about as interesting and entertaining a Monday in recent memory. I enjoyed it a lot.

Thumbs up to this puzzle overall, especially for all the fresh interesting long entries. I loved the central crossers, love the phrase LIKEABOSS, love the clue for SOLOCAREER, and love the trivia fact cluing SILKMOTH. Admittedly there was some inconsistent areas in terms of difficulty and some fill that may irritate some people—is TNIA Miller going to be the next celebrity we have to memorize for their crossword friendly name along with ESAI and NIA and AYO and ISSA? Calling the Brady family an ENNEAD seems like calling the three STOOGES a triumvirate (and what about Tiger and Cousin Oliver?) Between that, the unknown FLOG to me and going back and forth between GERM and SEED I definitely had some pause in the north and middle east. Still it was more than made up for by OLDIESBUTGOODIES like GARBO and OVALTINE and great clues for GURNEY, MOSS and GYM. So kudos from me.

Lovely tribute to Mel Blanc. Well done.

Fun theme but I have to ask does the constructor (or the editors) fly first class? Because I can’t remember the last time I ever saw a footrest in the main cabin.

For those who didn’t know LETT I owe that one to Ella Fitzgerald and Cole Porter in one of my favorite lyrics: And that's why birds do it, bees do it Even educated fleas do it Let's do it, let's fall in love In Spain the best upper sets do it Lithuanians and Letts do it Let's do it, let's fall in love The Dutch in old Amsterdam do it Not to mention the Finns Folks in Siam do it-- Think of Siamese twins Some Argentines, without means, do it People say in Boston even beans do it Let's do it, let's fall in love

Wow did anyone tell Sam this wasn’t a Saturday? Loved all the theme entries but given the double stack and therefore the preponderance of some more obscure entries, the cluing could have been kinder for a Sunday— I’m looking at you COLMAN/MSG for example. Had to sweat all the way through this. ULTIMATELY I enjoyed it though.

Hmmm… I’m of two minds about this puzzle. First of all, anyone who was complaining of yesterday being chewy for a Monday is really not going to be happy today. Frankly I was feeling like I was doing an end of week puzzle with the top middle and right—PROGROCK just isn’t in my vocabulary, or BRAH though I’ve seen it once or twice, I had SATINS instead of SHEENS; and for some reason PAVES and GEEKY just didn’t come to my mind initially. And appreciate the hint on NEYO but I was going for NEEO or NEOO and the theme entry wasn’t coming to me for a cross. (I’m not opposed to rappers but I’m never going to get them without crosses). A lot of other crunchy entrees elsewhere like ASCII and UMHI and RAISINET and AKIRA crossing… Then there’s the theme, which really has me on the fence. I love the idea and the theme entries were very clever. But somehow the revealer just wasn’t clear to me. Probably just me, but I kept thinking the ENDS were involved some other way. Or we were splitting the book, or maybe the B and K of the book were involved (especially with BAG CHECK). I haven’t felt so dense about a theme in a long time. Finally it all clicked. And it really was a very clever theme. And I do like a challenge, Tuesday or not. It just felt very forced, for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on . Curious to see if others felt this way, or this was just one of those days my brain was just on a completely different wavelength than the constructor. Maybe I just need an EGOMASSAGE.

I enjoyed how this puzzle theme just gradually crept up on me. I really haven’t heard of CONGEE so it took NIHAO and HELLO to cement it. I thought it was interesting how OSAKAN was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean just as they are between China and America geographically. I also appreciated the shout-outs for MAHJONG (my late mother’s favorite game) and BRIDGE (my late grandmother’s favorite game). It brings back fond memories watching both of the them play (although beer doesn’t seem to be the drink of choice for bridge, does it?) Wondering, if Lee had OATMEAL, Cheerios, Chex and Raisin Bran for breakfast would those be cereal commas?

One more misdirect I had briefly—anyone else put ARI before RIO Grande? Guess I’ve been watching too much Wicked.

I’m going to try and scoop Mike for a change: Did you study for the test on Icarus? No, I’m gonna wing it.

Fabulous puzzle today. I’m a sucker for twin clues and they don’t get any better than ASTRONOMER and MIXOLOGIST. Not to mention CZAR and CEO. Lots of other witty clues, included MEWS and FRATS which shows that just because an entry is short (or even “Monday” level) doesn’t mean it can’t have a clever clue. ELECTRODYNAMICS was also a winner. The NE also gave me a turn. CIA, FBI, TSA, FAA? BEEP before BZZT? RATE or RAZE? TSAR or CZAR? EXTRA LARGE PASTAS are also topped, although I did question they weren’t a usual restaurant order. What fun sorting it out and certainly no ZZZ. Kudos for circumventing the nitpickers who don’t believe in LEGOS. PANOPTICON is a great example of a fresh entry that even if you don’t know (I didn’t) you could suss it out. Finally, gotta say I’ve heard of being born with a silver spoon in your mouth, but a ROYALFORK would be even better. And another silenced constructor, seriously has something changed about that? Maybe Sean can comment, usually the columnist requests constructor comments a few weeks before they are published, usually more than enough time.