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I looked at the empty grid but the only game it brought to mind was Tetris. Fortunately, I gave that idea up quickly. This was a very entertaining puzzle, and I love rebuses, so I was all in. For those who aren’t quite comfortable with rebuses yet, the circles in the grid representing “holes” were a gentle introduction. I found the mole, and thought that perhaps there would be others, but WHAC-A-MOLE took care of that. TIL how to spell that correctly! My WHAC-A-MOLE experience was primarily overseeing my younger brothers and trying to prevent them from killing themselves or others, so I clearly wasn’t paying attention to spelling. Many clever clues to go along with the theme and the end-of-puzzle illustrations. Thanks for the fun!
@Selective Walrus That’s okay. I can. Or at least I could figure them out from the crosses. The obscurer the better. Great puzzle!
And here I was, solving the across clues first, and wondering at all the Bs clustered in the middle. I didn’t even notice the L until I got to the revealer. BULGE crossing with BILGE made me laugh for some reason. A very enjoyable puzzle, even without the reveal, because there were some great clues. Well done!
I can no longer remain silent. I never thought I’d see the day when HERESY was promulgated in The NY Times Crossword. Duck Duck Goose? Duck Duck GOOSE? I live in Minnesota, the land of Duck Duck Gray Duck. That GOOSE at the end of the other one lands with all the grace of a lead balloon. Duck Duck Gray Duck, on the other hand, has a delightful assonance, and gracefully trips off the tongue and comes in for a gentle landing. REFORM! Henry Zhang, them’s fightin’ words around here. I’ll give you a pass this time because it’s your first puzzle and I enjoyed solving it.
@Andrzej But what truly impressed me was not just the fact that each word had ONE L, but that the puzzle was remarkably free of crossword-ese, and that the clueing was clever.
@Jeff P. Read the clue once more. I, too, saw Cannes and Palm and assumed I already knew the answer, so I didn’t bother to read the entire clue. Oops! I had to laugh at myself and at the award.
@Derek Parks Oh, me, too! Once I filled that in, I was certain there would be some Buffy references, but alas, ‘‘twas not to be. And it took me a lot of looking to decipher PR AGENCIES from PRAGENCIES. I wanted to make it PREGNANCIES, but that didn’t fit and made no sense. “Once More With Feeling” is one of the best musical episodes of all time. 🎶 They got the mustard out! 🎶 If you know, you know.
I will be in awe of the clue for AHA for sometime to come. Not as complex as some Thursday twists have been, but it was fun, and some great clues.
I finished in a couple of minutes over my average time. It’s funny how carefully selected clues can mislead me into umpteen wrong answers. The theme part was the easy part. I came up with two or more possible answers to many clues, and somehow managed to pick the wrong answer to enter for each. The curling clue was one. It is curling season, after all, so I wrote STONES. Turns out the curling with a weight was the type of curling Sam had in mind, so BICEPS it was. Anyway, great work, Sam.
@Eric I really wanted it to be DEFER, not DETER, because of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Lord High Executioner. I also really wanted “dark side of the moon” to be BARE. I get why it’s MARE, but I find mine funnier.
@Marshall Walthew And of course, his tour de force, Kind Hearts and Coronets, in which he played eight members of the D’Ascoyne family. That is a must see.
Today I learned that I can find four different ways to spell HIERARCHAL, and that three of them are wrong. Thank heavens for the crosses. One of the trickiest parts for me was “place where a flask might be kept.” I had the R _NGS from BATARANGS, and so I naturally filled in a I because RINGS, amitite? Wrong. RIB was the closest answer I could come up with, but that was clearly wrong. And I went through CUB and KIT before I got to PUP. I can never remember that one. Loved the clue for STRAW! I enjoyed solving this—I was pleasantly surprised by the solving flourish. Nice work!
@HeathieJ I like them both. I also believe that vodka martinis are an offense against the Lord. Gin martinis, on the other hand…😇
Congratulations, Colin! Wonderful puzzle. I solved it very quickly and it made me feel super smart. All kidding aside, IGLOO and ESSAYS were memorable answers. And as others have said, the long entries were fresh but gettable.
@Heg If you’re solving on the NYT Games app, click on the lowercase i in the top left, and you’ll find the title. It blinks if there’s information there, and it always blinks on Sundays because the title is provided. Look for something similar if you’re solving in a browser. The title has been there for years.
@v I’m always rewinding on my DVR or when I stream. Possibly because I am reading or solving a puzzle at the same time and I miss something.
@Sam Lyons “Something familiar Something peculiar Something for everyone A comedy tonight! … “Something that's gaudy, Something that's bawdy-- [PSEUDOLUS] Something for everybawdy!”
@Andrzej That you can solve the puzzle to the point that you only have to look up trivia is very impressive to me.
What an enjoyable puzzle! Congratulations, Nathan. SNL was an answer, but the clue to USSR made me think of another classic late night show, SCTV, which had a running series of skits in which CCCP TV interrupted their broadcast. The Second City in that case was Toronto, not Chicago, but close enough.
@Marshall Walthew Oh, my, what a treat! I envy you that experience. Highlights from a couple of my trips to NYC were seeing Katherine Hepburn in Coco, and Zero Mostel in Fiddler on the Roof. There is nothing like live musical theater and opera for exhilarating and memorable entertainment.
@Selective Walrus Another commenter pointed out that if the underlining didn’t work for all, using a mix of upper case and lower case letters would have done the trick. For Sunday puzzles, the Info button flashes to show that the theme can be found there. A note in that space would have been helpful. I had no problems solving, but the thrill and the fun of revealing the theme wasn’t there.
@Puzzlemucker Which, of course, reminded me of the Fats Waller classic, “Your Feet’s Too Big.” Watching him perform it is a treat. “Say, up in Harlem, at a table for two, There were four of us, me, your big feet and you…” And, Waller’s ad lib, “Your pedal extremities are colossal.” The music was written by Fred Fisher, with lyrics by Ada Benson. <a href="https://youtu.be/in1eK3x1PBI?si=LWZh2n9cTyymaNJ1" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/in1eK3x1PBI?si=LWZh2n9cTyymaNJ1</a>
A Mööse once bit my sister. No realii! She was carving her initials on the Mööse. Møøse trained by YUTTE HERMSGERVøRDENBRøTBøRDA
First of all, I take issue with the spelling of the reveal. “Them’s fightin’ words!” is the correct phrase, as heard in many a movie Western. This puzzle was fun and cute even before the fun and cute graphics were added. TANS for SUNS and SCUBA TANKS instead of MASKS were early errors, but that didn’t last long. The worst part of this puzzle? NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA, NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN! is on autoplay in my head. I sure hope that sharing this with all of you doesn’t spread the ear worm infection. MWAH HA HA 😈
@john ezra Apologies to Cole Porter, you mean. He had a way with a lyric. But yours was excellent!
@Cat Lady Margaret Works for me! I have known people who are so unmusical that their air guitars are out-of-tune.
@G Look at it this way: have you ever seen a messy pin? I thought not.
@Clem And I found it entertaining, fun, and a quick solve (15:38). I guess my quirks lined up with the creator’s quirks.
This was a breeze, with a finish time well under my average. No one was more surprised by hearing the fanfare than I. I was certain I would be spending as much time tracking down errors as I did filling the puzzle in, but I didn’t have to correct a thing. The crosses provided enough words that I was certain were correct that the theme answers worked despite my not parsing some of them until later. PR AGENCIES and FLU STRAIN, I’m looking at you. Even knowing what they are doesn’t keep from thinking, “That looks wrong,” for a second when I go back to the puzzle. I enjoyed the theme and the emotions! Thanks. I RECKON SO gave me more trouble than anything else. I had I RECOLLECT (didn’t fit), and I RECALL IT before I finally landed on RECKON.
@Cat Lady Margaret I confidently filled in BEST SELLERS myself. I had a hard time letting go of it, but the actual answer was timely and depressing. Paging Dr. T. Bowlder! The term “bowdlerize” came about because he published an edition of Shakespeare without sexual references or double entendres. If he were alive today, some would let him loose on the dictionary.
@Cat Lady Margaret Your clue for IRATE EDITH is the best. They are all good, but that one is A ONE.
@Lewis “Not down, in a way,” for SIP was my favorite, mainly because I had filled it in from the crosses, so when I first looked at the answer I was puzzled. Pun intended! I always look forward to your lists.
This was fun! I liked the animation at the end, although on my iPad it was a bit small and a bit fast. Very clever, though! I couldn’t figure out what the symbol in the middle was, until I read in the comments that it was the keyhole. Oh, and when I finished and looked at the animation for the hidden exclamation, I couldn’t figure out what JACKOPT was. I made the mistake of reading the four letters across the top, then the bottom three letters (OPT) instead of the middle letter, followed by the bottom two letters. Dur. I loved the two answers with the double Cs: C CLEF and C CLAMP. My favorite series of clues and answers was 13 D (Application fig.), 37 A (No. on a résumé), and 83 D (Mr. Burns supposedly received the second ever on “The Simpsons”: Abbr.) I confidently filled in SSN for 13 D. Obvious, right? But no. Then I wrote SSN in for 37 A. Again, obvious! But no. It was worth waiting for 13 D, because that is a great running gag. It was an interesting and clever puzzle even before the reveal. My head kind of hurts, though. 🤓
@Kevin Think of it as WAND-ER. The magician had a wand, and he used it, so he is a wand-er.
@Henry Su Or, conversely, sometimes my mind seems to have fingers of its own. Bless its heart.
@Andrzej You can always come here for pop culture hints. Really, I’m amazed that anyone whose first language is not English isn’t using the Reveal button in every other word.
@Andrew Yes, that’s the thing to do. You can go around and around as many times as you like without someone noticing. Except for any passengers. Just give them a steely-eyed glare.
@Joshua Parker It works for so many puzzles and problems that need solving—both games and real life puzzles.
For whatever reason, I flew through this. Clearly, today I am a genius. All bets are off for tomorrow. And that speed was despite being unable to think of Polish cities other than Krakow and Gdańsk for several minutes. And having no idea how to spell GONG XI FA CAI beyond GONG XI. There were a number of clues that made me smile, but my favorite was NAIL. My first thought for “digital canvas” was NFTS, but NAIL is above and beyond.
@B Needing to write over the penciled-in answers made perfect sense to me. I grab the inflight magazine, find the puzzle, notice the penciled-in answers, and solve it in ink. That means that I have to overwrite the pencil entries, because otherwise it would look weird.
@john ezra 4) …and the books must be read in their original language, just to make it more fun. I read Proust’s epic work about 40 years ago, and I read Don Quixote at about the same time. I decided I would learn French and Spanish well enough to read those books in the original language. I was already fluent in Spanish, but over the years I have become less so. I can read a bit in French, but mostly tourist French. So much for that resolution. Ah, well, I’m not dead yet.
@Lewis Thanks for your weekly lists of memorable clues and answers. I always enjoy reading them, and it makes a fun way to review the week. Even though I agree it is an excellent clue, “device placed under a tongue” immediately makes me think of a dry wooden tongue suppressor stuck under my tongue and I shiver (even though I have never had a dry wooden tongue suppressor stuck under my tongue.) I remember the days of glass thermometers, though. I was wary of biting down and breaking those.
Both games appear to be from Sweden, but some parts of Sweden used “goose” and some parts “gray duck.” It’s not omnipresent in Minnesota, though. The Arrowhead region (from Duluth to the NE along Lake Superior) uses “goose.” Parts of Wisconsin adjacent to Minnesota use “gray duck.” There are some funny maps showing which usage is prevalent where. This is a tongue-in-cheek case made by a sports writer for “Duck Duck Gray Duck.” <a href="https://deadspin.com/duck-duck-gray-duck-isnt-just-a-stupid-regionalism-1819317297" target="_blank">https://deadspin.com/duck-duck-gray-duck-isnt-just-a-stupid-regionalism-1819317297</a>
@Eric Hougland And if you get a lot of rain, petrichor turns into the smell of worms. Petrichor is far superior to worms.
@Henry Su That’s a lovely story. She’s one of my heroes. When I first noticed all the Mercury references, I was expecting the theme answers to be two-word phrase, with the first work starting with H and the second with G. Some other constructor can tackle that project.
@Brady Rhodes You cell phone carrier has lists of possible spam call numbers, and that shows up in place of a caller’s name. Customers can report the phone number of spam callers or texts, and that’s part of what makes up their lists.
This was fun! I’m glad you submitted this. I confidently filled in CARE for “cherish.” I wasn’t looking at the down clues at the time. And SPLIT seemed like an okay answer for that clue. But then when I got to GRASS, I realized it made absolutely no sense without SKIRT. I didn’t pick up the semi-reveal Sam spotted, so I’m glad you mentioned it. PEP PILL is a phrase from back in the 50s and 60s. They were sometimes prescribed for people (often women) whom we would call depressed these days.
@Bill in Yokohama I tell STAT and STET apart because only one is used in editing, and that’s the word with the E: STET.
@Aaron P. Opuses always sounds and looks wrong to me. I don’t know what other spelling I would use to make a plural, but I don’t like that one. Oh, and NEMADS are cousins of neriads, but always angry.
@Andrew You owe it to yourself to get some elote at a food truck or a festival or fair this summer.