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The Oxford comma adds clarity with no downside. Baffling that the NYT style guide doesn’t use it, but then it also prefers “millenniums” to “millennia.” Fun puzzle with a cute theme. Found it to be a little easier than yesterday, I think.
I feel bad for any future solvers delving into the archive and encountering a “Tik-Tok” star clue, long after the “star’s” fifteen minutes are up.
In another life, I was a cast member at Spaceship Earth, so 1A brought a nostalgic smile to my face. Made some good memories slaving away for the mouse.
@D It’s a sad day when basic musical knowledge is considered “niche.”
For future solvers delving the archive: 17a refers to what was known as a “government agency.” This one, before being abolished the Great Purge of 2025, protected Americans from various types of pollution. Happily, corporations were able to govern themselves and now often offer complementary breathable air to their loyal serfs. Now back to work, citizen!
@Jim Casey This gripe doesn’t make any sense to me. You didn’t like the puzzle because you didn’t know some of the answers? But you also didn’t like the puzzle because you did know some answers? I wonder if you just don’t like crossword puzzles.
Not bad, but way too much sports trivia. The ideal amount being, of course, zero.
@Sheila This was the Monday puzzle. Each day’s puzzle releases the night before. You can still go back and do the Sunday.
@Mean Old Lady The name of the country is Ukraine. It is Soviet propaganda to call it “the Ukraine” as if it is just a region, not a nation. You don’t say “the France” or “the Russia,” do you?
For “Rely on audience support during a show,” I was so proud to immediately come up with CROWD SURF. Too bad it was wrong…
I don’t know much about Wicked and don’t really care to, but knowing that Witches fly on broomsticks was enough to tease out the theme. People should remember that these are crossword puzzles, not crossword trivia contests. One of the best parts is figuring out the answer when you don’t know the trivia. My other favorite part is figuring out the “trick” on Thursdays, so this was a winner for me.
@Kristopher “We can do better”? Can you, though? Really?
Cute puzzle. With so many rebuses, though, it’s annoying to constantly have to tap the square, then tap More, then tap Rebus, then tap the letters, then tap the next square, then tap More, then tap Rebus, ad nauseam. Any chance of moving the Rebus button so it’s not buried in the alternate keyboard?
@John Depends on your vocabulary, I’d say. “Ennead” is not a proper noun and could easily be deduced from the crosses, even if you somehow have no knowledge of The Brady Bunch.
@Dan Luckily for you, then, the answer was TAPIN, not TiPIN. Think golf, not basketball.
@Andrzej Yes, you’ve discovered that it helps to know things when you’re trying to solve a crossword puzzle. Shocking, I know.
I recommend checking out the Wikipedia page for Middle English. It predates Shakespeare and is probably a lot different from what you’d imagine if you’ve never studied it. Then check out examples of Old English. It’s amazing how much our language has evolved.
Finished in about a third of my average time AND spelled “onomatopoeia” right on the first try with no crosses! Feels like a pretty good start to the day!
8:04 without really even trying. Theme was obvious from the first clue. Please, please can we go back to clever, tricky puzzles?
@Lewis This comment really increased my appreciation for the puzzle. And just to save anyone else a lookup, a “semordnilap” is a word that spells another word when read in reverse. It’s actually “palindromes” backwards.
@Joe Looks like I was wrong about chortle. The modern definition doesn’t have anything to do with snorting, but the word was actually coined by Lewis Carroll in “Through the Looking Glass.” He may have been combining snort + chuckle after all.
@SP It’s used in online spaces frequently, at this point probably by people who have never seen Community. It was one of a few answers that felt “very online” to me.
Quick correction: 23A’s clue should be [Li’l], not [L’il].
@SP I’ve definitely encountered ARCH with that definition in books. Imagine hundreds of pieces of paper, all bound together, that contained many different words, some less common than others. These “book” were how we used to improve our vocabularies back in the day.
Brutal for a Wednesday. I was pleasantly surprised when I filled in the last letter and didn’t have to hunt down any errors. Ended up finishing almost 5 minutes over my average. Really enjoyed the puzzle, though, except maybe for “jiggety jig.”
@Jack McCullough What a strange coincidence your comment is! I was just at the “Lost in New Haven” museum last night, where they had a US Rubber Company display, complete with and authentic stuffed Nauga! For those not in the know, Naugahyde is a synthetic fabric invented in Naugatuck, CT.
Finally beat my record with a 3:31! I think I’d have to be on a keyboard to do any better than that, since my thumbs could barely keep up.
Very happy to see Chuck MANGIONE, who just recently passed, in this puzzle. Check out Feels So Good if you haven’t. Fun song for a Saturday morning.
@Prose Agreed. At least a note telling us that it’s broken on iOS.
@Beldegraded Nah, you’re misunderstanding both phrases, at least how they’re used here. Both are said when encountering a frustrating or annoying situation.
I feel like the puzzles have been notably trickier for the past week or so and I’m loving it!
@Francis You made me curious, so I had to look it up. Pretty interesting: <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bye,_Felicia" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bye,_Felicia</a>
@Joe Just realized I should have said “this was a *treat* for me.” Can’t believe I squandered that opportunity.
@Phil Nah, you’re conflating two common phrases: “golden oldie” and “an oldie but a goodie.”
Didn’t even need the downs. I think this might have been the easiest Tuesday I’ve encountered.
@Conscious Human Even as a cold, emotionless man, I found it difficult not to be annoyed by that one.
A fun, fresh challenge. Of course, that means I can guess exactly what the opinions of the Wordplay commentariat are. I think I’ll skip reading today’s comments to avoid all that unnecessary negativity.
Pretty fun one. Got stuck on DISs, though. How is DISH… oh, right, the theme. It was surprisingly difficult to keep track of all those horses.
@Puzzlemucker Overlays are turned on for me, yet no circles appear. Maybe on iPad it’s working, but definitely not on my (fully updated) iPhone.
@Andrew Regan It helps to remember that they are crossword clues, not dictionary definitions.
@Steve L I didn’t feel too tough, but my time ended up being way higher than my recent average. Nice change of pace.
@Francis Nah. There are plenty of publications with easy crosswords every day of the week. The NYT used to be the place to go for a challenge.11:37 with no lookups here, btw, and I’m half-asleep and wasn’t even trying particularly hard. Fun puzzle, but this drift towards pleasing the lowest common denominator is very disappointing.
@K P Please explain how it is “lazy.” It seems to me that it would take quite a bit of effort to create a puzzle like this. Are you sure it’s not just sour grapes? And, by the way, the revealer did indicate that there was something special about four of the squares.
@Barry Ancona I don’t know the name of a single Alp, but usually you can just stick ALP anywhere that looks like a mountain reference.
@Jeff Z They are undeniably much, much easier than they were in the past, this week especially so. Unfortunately, the easier they are, the more attractive they seem to be to the subscriber base, so I doubt we’re ever going back. The Games section basically subsidizes the rest of the paper at this point.
@Big How does it “miss the mark” and why are you “disappointed”? I can certainly think much worse words for scab that in my opinion are even more fitting.
@Nancy J. They used to be by far my favorite. Now it’s so rare to get one that’s truly clever, or even tries to be. I think part of the issue is that they always highlight or circle the “interesting” parts now, which makes the trick too obvious.
Good one! The theme was interesting and actually helped me figure out a few of the answers. More like this, please!
@Ron Myst sold over 6 million copies and held the record for the highest-selling PC game for almost a decade. It was responsible for popularizing PC gaming and introducing the hobby to many newcomers. Just because you are not familiar with something does not make it “obscure.”
@Rich in Atlanta Those are old fashioned emoticons, which we used before smartphones popularized emojis. It’s like a face rotated 90 degrees. In your examples, you can see Lincoln’s hat and beard and Mickey’s ears. Pretty interesting that the NYT ran that theme before most people had Internet access.