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Would these things be called "trafficons" ?
@john ezra I like that one can have a tiff with a toff and still end up with a bff
@Nick I was amazed with the cleverness of that reveal which I totally didn't see while solving, as may have happened with you. It is explained in the Wordplay column, hope you will take a look.
The first clue slowed me for a bit. Since the dashed line had no spaces, I wanted to write "mesan" as in "chicken parmesan" which didn't work with the crosses (or make sense!). The next theme clue helped me get the trick. For the rest, this puzzle was really in my wheelhouse and I whipped through it , while joining so many others in admiring the clever kangaroo phrase idea!!
Nice puzzle ; fun theme -- loved it! Congrats on debut and new baby both!
Congratulations, Sam, on your 1st year at NYT. Others here have said it so eloquently but I just wanted to add my appreciation for your witty and fun columns. Wishing you the best!
@Isabeau Yeah, for me too "gaga" would imply over-the-top enthusiasm
@Sam Corbin Love your columns any day of the week! No bags of money needed...
Thank you Dominic Grillo for a cute theme and a fun solve. Had a few puzzlers and some good laughs . For entries I couldn't remember or didn't know, there were enough hints from crosses to get the answers. Your persistence in developing this puzzle is amazing!
Kudos to all who solved this without looking at the theme hint ! I confess to always checking the puzzle title on Sundays. I still had to work out how to apply it, but I would've been quite stumped without that. I found this puzzle a very enjoyable workout, with a good amount of wordplay solving. It especially made me happy to correctly imagine "idiolects" even though I don't believe I ever heard of it. Something like a dialect for a single person? The "Idio" prefix seemed a good guess, and a fun new word.
Guess this one was really in the wheelhouse for some folks who thought it was too easy --I hope y'all got great new record times from it!! For me, I finished in a little under average time and found it a nice Wednesday, with some chuckles, plus places to puzzle things out and wait for the crosses.
Thanks to Sam for explaining Wicked Wax to this obtuse reader! First I thought maybe there was some weird thing about Wax in the musical Wicked. Then, I searched on Wicked Wax and lo, there is a product with that exact name for protecting knife blades. Golly, could the constructor be a fanatic woodsman? Sometimes you have to laugh at yourself....
Wow-fast, fun, and clever! Great puzzle and debut! I totally agree with Sam about recommending this to friends getting into puzzling.
I enjoyed this puzzle. And liked the theme. Getting from "blisters" to A-LISTERS" is indeed quite an inflation! Rebuses never occurred to me, though I can see how people might've given it a try. Puzzle finished up quickly for me; had to laugh at [Tea traders]! Now if someone can just explain to my slow brain why Will Shortz chose the bird picture to lead in the column...
@Grumpy I wondered where that number came from. I've never been asked if I have pierced ears! I queried online and the top hit was a 2017 survey where people were asked about piercings and tattoos. This survey got the 84% for female ear piercing. Number of respondents:345. 'Nuff said.
Oi! Six fact lookups to get enough crosses for all the other stumpers ! Kudos to all of you who got this one -it was beyond me!
Fun puzzle with Zamboni is a winner! Kudos to the constructor and the folks making the cute graphic.
@Cat Lady Margaret Nice! We left OFF(the)SIDES and you gave us icing on the crossword cake!
@Cat Lady Margaret That's for sure. Bizarrely I started out with " goes kerpluy"
@Barry Ancona I knew what the numbers meant when I early on saw the 62A revealer. They made it easier knowing approx where to expect a rebus in the answer, something we don't always get. But it wasn't hard to know that anyway. I do agree with rebus light. As you note, one didn't need the numbers or knowing the game to get the answers. I think that's good--makes it more generally accessible. I found the reference added nostalgic enjoyment to my solve, as others seemed to. It might have speeded my solve but who knows after fat-fingering plus fly-specking!
@Dan Me neither, but apparently, they're odd!
@John I have no problem with SEEDY, that fit my usage of the word. But, like you, TIL that MOOT in its first definition means "debatable", almost the opposite of what how I've used it for decades, its second definition - "no point in debating". (Definitions paraphrased from Dictionary.com). A surprise to us both!
Enjoyed this one. UNCANNY VALLEY was uncanny to me, so down the rabbit hole! Great column @Priya Krishna -- Especially the food on the crossword page.
@Fritz I had trouble with every corner!! Good tough puzzle with lots of wild cluing, but it was beyond my level without the 6 (eek!) lookups I needed for factual trivia. And OMG the authors' timeline of creating it! What a feat!
Nice work Zachary and John! Enjoyed the puzzle (and your Constructor Comments) a lot!!
@Crystal Arroyo I who almost never watch any movies (newer than about 1968) have actually seen Clue just a few months ago. At the time I thought it was too inane but I did find it funny & liked the characters, so stuck it through to the end, um, ends. I thought the last one was intended to be the "real" truth; like you, I found it was the best surprise ending. Thanks for your fun column!
Great puzzle! I'm just about OLD AS DIRT, but enjoyed dredging brain for rarely-used-by-me words (APERÇU) and puzzling out the modern long entries (Ale and 50 Shades not in my bailiwick). Hoping to see more of your puzzles, Ms Hand.
@Elaine Epperson In the Able-Baker alphabet, used by the American military in WWII, O was the word OBOE. In the '50's the alphabet was updated to use phonemes common to many languages, presumably a necessity for alliances such as NATO. And I believe it has been updated one several times since. Look on Wikipedia or similar for interesting info on the military alphabets.
Fun! As an old fogie I didn't know "Play Hard" (I do now...) nor did I tick to the theme until the very end, but I got everything through the crosses (though not quickly!). Much enjoyed , Mr Raymon!
Fun! Great puzzle! Loved the theme-revealer quotation. I especially liked that it could be interpreted as requiring a rebus or not a rebus!!
@M. Biggen I too loved the Schronanigans!! Fun puzzle , and cute competition between yesterday and today!
I liked the trick (took me long enough to read the reveal correctly!). Good puzzle, except for one thing: I did not want to write the sacred word (9D), and perhaps others might feel similarly. So I had to leave the puzzle undone. I hope this can be considered going forward.
@HeathieJ Oops-- You mixed up the clues SanityPlease was asking about. Jaguar is the 50 across clue- and CAR refers to the brand of (expensive sports) car in this case. I thought it was CAT at first too until SUPERIOR needed to cross it. And then laughed when CAT was also in the puzzle later on as the answer to the art clue.
Nice puzzle, kept me guessing about the theme until the end. Bonus for me was learning about James Ijames today! Thanks!
Katie Hood, you are forgiven for TROUTS in exchange for this fun stumper of a puzzle. TROUTS was one of the few answers I got on the first pass, though yes, with a side eye. Looking forward to your next puzzle!
lol @debamlen's comment about the dog!
Great puzzle! Loved it! It's a busy time so I had to solve in little fits and starts, which helped my brain come up with alternate readings of those tricky clues! Thanks to Constructor and Editors for a crunchy fun puzzle-- and thanks for leaving out Dr Doofen-whatzzit-- I was able to solve with no lookups. (But I promise to look that up!) And Deb, please rest and we hope you get better soon!
@caitlin lovinger "...kind of trivia that makes me throw my hands in the air" -- lol!! -- my new phrase for future puzzles!
Dear Nate, Thank you for a lovely puzzle, which did indeed give me joy. I am so sorry to hear about your losses in the fire, and am hoping that you continue recovering from that trauma and finding new joys.
Fun, made me laugh, and I came in way under my Weds average time. What more could one want? I started with DONEr for the Guy Who Gets It since it meshed nicely with OBIT nearby(!) But I lucked out due to kin from Coeur d'ALENE , and having read the GOREN bridge column daily as a kid, and vaguely recalling the Rubik name which appears often in crosswords. Never even saw the NENE clue so no time wasted there. INGRATES clue made me laugh out loud, so I'm happy. Thanks!
Fun puzzle! TIL "waftaroms". Not much trivia and it was guess-able from crosses. Had to think about a lot of clues but some just popped into my head. Some pops were even useful. "Cooper" (thank you 1968's Aerobics) instead of BURPEE was not! Thanks for a nice start to the weekend.
After perusing the comments, I don't feel so bad that I had to build each answer letter by letter then strike and try crosses , over and over and over.After an hour I kind-of filled it but had to cave in and wiki a couple things (Ibiza, Warren G), and I had to take the Reveal for INEZ, which I really do (usually) know. Some good fun clues. I know by now that Sam E puzzles will cover a broad swath and be out of my wheelhouse but I feel I made a pretty good effort.
I'm into numbers etc so I liked the theme, and those entries were a snap for me. (Though for a minute I had cloud 18 (6x3) , not being able to remember the idiom. ) But some of the trivia names started to take too long to get with limited crosses so I had to look several up. Otherwise overall fun .
I started out with lAPTRAncES which I was rather proud of, though it certainly made my solve rather difficult. I had to resort to Wikipedia for some trivia to get my PRIZE. I consoled myself by remembering many cozy, serene experiences of baby-, dog-, and cat- NAPTRAPPing!
Yay! After struggling on Thursday in *triple* my average time, today was quick and fun! No lookups, but there was still plenty of puzzling and trial & error, with fun clues and answers. Enjoyable! --like the spelling bee cap!
Yike-- an hour of letter pushing even with 6 lookups, since "I didn't have all day"! Old age gave me mainly 3 gimmes : Ahab, Puente, and Sadies, while stealing former friends and some ability to see the obvious sooner. Good workout anyway and glad I figured out (or guessed) as much as I did on my own. Still laughing at "Bound for the big stage" .
Some good misdirects and a fun theme! I enjoyed it. And lol @Deb Amlen for your memorable troll & ogre links! (My image was more like monsters in fantasy movies/video games of the LOTR ilk).