Peaty & Oaty
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Really fun, clever-but-not-too-cute puzzle. Recently someone mentioned solver satisfaction vs. constructor vanity. I thought this one was long on solver satisfaction and short on constructor vanity. IMO it should always be that way.
It was over too soon! (That's a compliment, not a complaint)
More RAPACIOUS and CONFABULATE for us please!
@Darren WADR, I think of it as a constructor and editors who want to show solvers how smart THEY (the solvers) are. I am SO up for that.
We had zero familiarity with: The abbreviation RCCARS (we looked it up afterwards and much to our surprise, yes, it is a "thing") GARGANTUA AMAZEBALLS MORIA OBELI MOIL TILSIT Island of a Thousand Temples Under the Volcano Shirin Ebadi Rabelais Durin Daugava River Pearl Jam's debut album name Unit equal to one weber per square meter Sewerage (described that way) Yet we persisted and got the ⭐️ that we have come to so obsessively and unreasonably crave. And it was enormously satisfying regardless of the gold star. It took about an hour and twenty minutes, almost double our usual Saturday time. Yes, we live under a rock, don't get out much, etc. But now that's true just a touch less so. If we can do it you can too. P.S. That esoterica in the clues can help you, but if it's not helping you, you should just ignore it. Do not let it intimidate you.
And one of those puzzles that by the end had us feeling smarter than we probably are. Who could complain about that?
What's not to like? Nothing! I had a great time today at the crosswords. Any mention of King Lear reminds me of my wonderful Lit 101 professor who used it to teach Shakespeare. I thought I was only in the class to satisfy a degree requirement, but she imparted an appreciation for that play and literature in general that is still with me 40+ years later.
A good crossword puzzle is a good crossword puzzle and a thing to be grateful for regardless of the day of the week. And these are always good crossword puzzles in the sense of high quality. I do enjoy some more than others, and very, very rarely I might be tempted to call one "bad". But in the end I always land on at least "good enough". IMO. (This one was WAY better than good enough.)
Can we really be the first to mention FAKING crossing BREAKUPSEX?
As I SITWITH it it's growing on me. A little. I am content with it. I liked seeing Apu's last name. That's something, isn't it? I did gold star it without assistance so whatever you might say about my assessment, it's not sour grapes. It took me about an extra 10 minutes but I don't care much about solve time. Actually I like spending extra time if the process is enjoyable and the end result is satisfying. Very Thursday-ish.
And if we started every puzzle with a thought of chocolate Labs that would be good with me.
@Patrick J. Comment of the week, at least
Two really tight, clever, fun puzzles in a row. I feel a little like Roger Ebert: "I loved my time at the movies." Make that "with this puzzle" and those are my feelings exactly.
We had a blast with this as per usual. The content wasn't really in our wheelhouse but as we circled and circled and zigged and zagged the momentum gathered until the thing seemed to bloom like a flower right in front of us. Goodness we love crosswords!
We are puzzled by BITEME. We were raised to not bite, not crossword puzzle constructors, nobody
Being a plodding solver (something like an hour and fifteen minutes for this one) has its advantages. I thoroughly enjoyed this. My gold star was in question from the moment I read the 1-Across clue to the moments when I backspaced over an X and hit R to get EROTIC, after 15 minutes of flyspecking (I think that's an accurate use of the lingo?). In between I appreciated the construction and cluing, got the satisfaction that comes from sticking-to-it, and learned a little. Note the absolute minimum of glue and crosswordese in the grid. ETS, EBB, OPS and that's about it? MES maybe? No OREO's or ERA's or EON's? No "made up words"? In a wide open grid like this? That's an accomplishment. One to savor!
@Sam FWIW a suggestion - Scan the Comments and click "Recommend" on the ones you agree with, ignore the others. That does wonders for my outlook on the whole matter.
I finally glommed completely onto the gimmick about 3/4 of the way through and that allowed me to fill in my last few problem areas. I think you could say that's the way it's supposed to be. So very clever.
🎯 Nothing here for Peaty to latch onto. They don't get much better than this.
In a bit of a twist we found ourselves running the alphabet on a clue - after we already had the answer - to get DIALOG. Or DIALOGUE if you wish - it's your puzzle, in this case you get to decide how much theme inconsistency you'll abide. Interesting looking word which made for an interesting clue. We had a good time at the crosswords today.
So much unfamiliarity for us but it slowly came together. We'd like to think that means it was well-clued. Much appreciation here.
Haven't read the other Comments yet. I'm guessing this is going to torque a bunch of folks and make a few very happy. A fair amount of names, long names and sports names at that. Crosses, people, crosses. To say it was stretchy would be a huge understatement, at least for Fridays of late. MASH instead of MALT got me over the top. And running the vowels in TICHA crossing MII. Naticky there? Yes. But also gettable with a little reasoning? Yes. Interesting about the electric sitar, had no idea that such a thing ever existed, but it's not that surprising OTOH. Leave it to Stevie Wonder, right? Lots of top notch wordplay and misdirection: Setting for an uphill climb (appreciated no ending ?, it being Friday, not Saturday, notwithstanding) Lightning conductor? Jazz aficionado, e.g., (again, appreciated no ?) Unprofessional letters? Screen capture? Org. that might do some spring cleaning? Love, love, love all that wordplay and misdirection. An enthusiastic thumbs up overall.
Wow, that was really good. The grid was starting to light up all over until it wasn't in the SE. Then a lot of wheel spinning until aha! LOGARITHM. And then BP___ was going to work after all! I love when a seemingly intractably Sheldon Cooper-ish clue like "Inverse of an exponential function" yields a relatively benign answer like LOGARITHM. That answer should be in any high school graduate's wheelhouse, whether they could define it with the clue or not. (Not that there's anything wrong with not being a high school graduate! So odd that I feel compelled to say that.) That speaks to one of the things I learned that transformed my later-in-the-week solving: Don't be intimidated by the clues! (Half of me really digs the t-shirt one of the constructors is wearing in her photo at xwordinfo.com. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/29/2026&h=6D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/29/2026&h=6D</a>)
Banging great puzzle today! Bringing some energy on a Tuesday. So much of life is timing, enough said about that. And thanks for the Pink Pony Club earworm now on repeat in my brain.
Really liked CAESURA. It was totally new to me so thanks to the constructor and editors for being accommodating with the crosses. I looked up the pronunciation and was pleasantly surprised.I was expecting something like say-zer-a but it's more like suh-zhur-a(?). Feel free to correct me. Seems like it would make a lovely, "poetic" girl's name, but I don't remember ever seeing it used for that.
Yes, we do see what you did there. Fun while it lasted. Two nouns signing off.
@Sarah We like your parenthetical comments above, they strike us as appropriate and funny in a good way. Sometimes the simplest questions are the best, maybe a little reminiscent of Occam's Razor that was cited in the puzzle not too long ago. The puzzle wasn't really what we were wanting either, but it was OK. And obviously we're swimming upstream, people overall are gushing about it. That's OK with us also. (And of course "Why not?" could be seen as just as appropriate and simple. But not as funny, in our opinion)
Per XW Stats this is our "Fastest Constructor" but the fun thing is we always feel challenged by his puzzles. We particularly liked "Success in another's field, say"/ROADWIN. It is a wonderful thing to have these puzzles to enjoy every day.
Another favorite teacher used to say, " 'O, that way madness lies' and boy, we are headed right for it." Seems so appropriate right now.
@SP Thanks for asking! Peaty & Oaty are the crossword versions of Petey (Little Rascals dog) and Odie (Garfield dog). All four (Petey, Odie, peaty and oaty) make appearances in the puzzle from time to time. PEATY and OATY are pretty weak fill IMO (but I understand they are "necessary" now and then), so that's me having a little fun with that situation. I get a lot of amusement from the name as a whole, but I'm not sure anyone else does. Perhaps more importantly, I've found my comments are a lot less grumpy, condescending, etc when I assume the persona of two friendly, relentlessly-positive in the case of Odie, cartoon/children's TV show dogs. Regarding the "we", it seemed only fitting because there are two of them. I only yesterday decided to give it up because it is too weird for even me. And that's saying something. RELO is also a riff on a crosswordese word that shows up from time to time.
Really admire: 1. Where to be above all the drama? / OPERABOX - Simple, highly-accessible wordplay clue combined with a solid Scrabble-y answer. This combination is a cut above and suited to any day of the week. It borders on elegant. 2. Silent type / MIME - No "?" at the end of the clue helped to make this shine. It needed to function as a "quiet" whole and it did.
FWIW: 1. The constructor's photo at xwordinfo (<a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Author/Zachary_David_Levy" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Author/Zachary_David_Levy</a>) is hilarious! It's so good I don't even care if it's "real" or not. 2. There wasn't a "Q" in the puzzle this week. The last Q was last Thursday, in the "Dark Energy" puzzle. I don't really know how common/uncommon that is. I am pretty sure that it is more common than it used to be, owing the pervasiveness of computerized fill. Same would apply to the other Scrabble-y letters. No value judgments here, just an observation. 3. A certain rock band's abbreviated name/chess rating system hasn't appeared in the puzzle yet this year. If that holds through the end of the year - actually it is still early - it would break a streak that goes back to 1994. I miss seeing the band name as an answer from time-to time, they've been a favorite of mine for a looong time.
@kkseattle We're not complaining, not disagreeing, and we did gold-star the puzzle without any assistance. Perhaps there was a tradeoff in terms of an excessive amount of proper nouns and French necessary to obtain usable fill around the entries you cited? There's no way to for us to know for certain, but that seems plausible to us. Of course what is excessive is subjective. But FWIW those proper nouns and all that French are getting a fair amount of play here.
We still have to go back to flyspeck, but couldn't wait to get here to say yes, yes, a thousand times yes! So delightful!
Fun solve, and it included an Aha! moment I won't soon forget: I realized I had been SITting WITH "Mull over". Crossword gold
Breezy and fun solve. Pretty, pretty, pretty darn clever theme, especially the revealer. I particularly liked: MRSLATE Got it all off his chest?/MANSCAPED
We love when there's a DOG in the grid, and a SCOTTIE at that! 14x15 grid, we believe necessitated by SOLOMONISLANDS without a second 14 letter entry?
@Aidan Deshong Hi AD! I heard from you recently. That's enough said about that LOL. Congrats on the puzzle!
@Charlie good one
@Lynn we emphatically agree with you about running the alphabet! We call it using our problem-solving skills
@Xword Junkie This was the last answer we completed. Wanted him to be Bert or Burt or maybe even Birt. Bart looks and sounds so much better.
Well, I suppose this is the kind of fill we get when there are lots of crossing theme squares. I've made my peace with it, because this situation will no doubt pop up again numerous times in the future. So it's a good time to start getting used to it. My only beef - why the clue for EGO that caused the Natick at the CONGEE cross? Seemed totally avoidable and unnecessary, especially given all the aforementioned, uh, challenging fill.
@Lewis Overtook? for HOARDED was a cut above IMO. I remember reading the clue referencing Time and Life and wondering if younger solvers would get the references. Nice niche you've carved out for yourself here, congrats.
When Peaty finally got it and exclaimed, "OATY!", his faithful four-legged best friend came running! Other Peaty digs: CENSE
The people have spoken and it's obvious they want their misdirects spoonfed to them. Even on Saturday. My quick count was eight clues ending in ?. OTOH my quick count of non-? misdirects was 2, HOSE and THOU. (Of course YMMV on what should be called a misdirect.) So glad THOU wasn't ?-ed, it was my favorite.
If Peaty and Oaty could soldier through this in average time so could anyone. It is a crossword puzzle after all, emphasis on CROSS and PUZZLE.
@Mean Old Lady My mother did the same thing!
We had a good time with this puzzle, especially since Oaty's alter ego made an appearance.
Those 15x15 grids always look like a piece of cake on our phone after the 21x21. By Friday that feeling always wears off. But, what with the GE, we have always been prevailing lately. Unremarkable as expected. Enjoyable while it lasted.