Clutch Cargo

@Hank We had a literalist music fan on Sunday who insisted TEMPOS was a glaringly wrong answer because the plural is TEMPI. But as you might imagine, when it comes to wordplay, there isn't always One Right Way. In fact at least some dictionaries list "tempos" as the plural form of tempo... maybe it's not the best spelling, maybe a music teacher would cross it out, but it occurs in English, so it's perfectly valid as a crossword puzzle answer, because the clue wasn't for "the best" form of the word. And so it is here. If the CWP editors can find any reference work that supports SO as a valid spelling for sol, the answer is valid. I didn't get any farther than the Wikipedia article for solfege, which considers the L in "sol" optional. I'm sure there are other references that allow it as it appears here.

@Steve Daniel The clue is "Villain in 'The Silence of the Lambs'," not "The perp in 'The Silence of the Lambs.'" Dr. Lecter was most definitely a villain in the film. There can be more than one.

@Laura Maybe what's confusing you is that the theme clues (in this puzzle, in all-caps) don't match the theme answers in a traditional way. This is not unusual in Thursday and Sunday NYT crosswords. Part of the puzzle is figuring out "the trick." The theme clues here are anagrams (words that can make different words when the letters are reordered). You can reorder the letters in the word EARTH to make a new word: HEART. So the first part of the answer to 39-Across, CHANGE OF [HEART], is another way of describing the process of resequencing the letters in the clue [EARTH]. We've CHANGEd the order of letters. If and when that makes sense, now look at the other theme clues and answers and see how there's a similar relationship of doing something different to make something new. The letters in each theme clue appear in a different sequence somewhere in the matching answer. Does that help?

@Aging Bull Well today was very difficult for a Wednesday, IMO, especially (for me) in the SW corner. But that's not been my general impression over the last two weeks. However a certain amount of brain fog is common for a few weeks, to some degree even a couple months, after surgery, and pain meds are not an asset to cognitive recovery, either. You can ask your surgeon about it at the follow-up appointment. Give yourself extra time to bounce back. You'll get there. Feel better soon.

@jp inframan No. Most people here like rebus puzzles and don't want to be tipped off in advance that rebuses are in a puzzle, because figuring that out is part of the challenge. If you want to be warned off this way, I suggest opening Wordplay in a computer browser before doing a Thursday or Sunday puzzle, especially, not reading the column if you're trying to avoid spoilers, but typing CTRL-F on a Windows PC or COMMAND-F on a Mac to pop open a Find window in the browser, then typing REBUS and hitting Enter to see if the word appears in the column. That will usually tip you off, and you can use the time to do something else instead. If you only use mobile browsers (phone or tablet), here's how to Find a word such as REBUS there: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/technology/personaltech/how-to-do-a-text-search-on-mobile.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/technology/personaltech/how-to-do-a-text-search-on-mobile.html</a>

@John Fillingham Summer, yes. Winter, no. Oslo, NORway.

@Remy Yeah well raise your hand if you, too, got off to a bad start filling in Maggie (sister of Bart and Lisa on The Simpsons) instead of ASHLEE. Even as the crosses started to fill in for me, I didn't see ASHLEE until the end and got the misdirection in the clue and uttered the Homerism, "D'OH!"

@Tommy Or seven other answers, at first glance. Keep at it. It's the essence of the theme to this puzzle.

@Ritwik I believe you when you say it's new to you, but I think it's a fairly clued answer. See for example: <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/databank" target="_blank">https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/databank</a>

@Carl If you're referring to the NYT "Add three people to your subscription" pop-up I'm seeing right now, too, I also find it exceptionally annoying. If I didn't bite on that offer the first 10 times, I'm not going to bite on it now, well many hundreds of times later. Does their marketing department hate their subscribers?

@Boodles I respect your right to throw a flag, but I have no problem with any of those clues for a midweek puzzle. Qualifiers (e.g. "in slang") are more common and expected earlier in the week. Cigarettes have two ends, so that clue's valid. And I websearched the dictionary definition of HEDGED (not hedge), and the first three that popped had as the first definition: limited or restricted. Try to think out of the box as the week progresses, because the constructors and editors do.

@Daniel Charchuk This being Saturday, it's the less well known The Movie Channel, run by Showtime: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Movie_Channel" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Movie_Channel</a>

@Dan It's Tuesday. On Friday the same clue probably would have been shorter.

@Blue Do you mean the Mini Crossword, which was just recently paywalled by NYT Games? The regular, bigger Crossword puzzle has been paywalled for years. You may have had some other way of satisfying the main crossword paywall that has now expired, such as an All Access or student subscription. Most of us have been paying for years for the main crossword puzzle. Of greater concern to me is that they recently updated the smart device app to pop obnoxious demands to update the app NOW when many older devices supported up until now have no way to update the app. And the real reason for the smart device app update? Embedded advertising. As one recent reviewer on the Apple app store of this app advised NYT: "Paywall, or advertising... pick one. You shouldn't get both." I don't need to pay NYT monthly or annually to get served more ads that I do what I can to block, with no guilt whatsoever. Ads are most likely coming to NYT puzzles in browsers soon as well. NOT GOOD. Pure corporate greed. Don't we have enough of that already NYT??

@Darren That was actually the last clue in my solve, and I thought, Wait, what?!? After a bit of thought, I saw the connection. Think legislation. It's not formal agreement in the sense of a pact but in the sense of a cast vote.

@George Nixon Welcome aboard. Thursday NYT CWPs normally have a think-way-outside-the-box gimmick like this. Most solvers who stick with Thursdays come to love the puzzles, though it's often not love at first sight. So I get your reaction, but I suggest rolling with it for a while, reading Wordplay as needed, and keeping an open mind to new challenges. A few people decide to skip Thursdays altogether.

@mainer I had P the first time through but wasn't thrilled with "poo" for 10 Down. When I didn't get the happy music and was reviewing for typos, I rethought it and found the B, which is better.

@Carrie G I knew the Nevada county with one letter filled in (that answer comes up from time-to-time in CWPs) but I didn't know the Icelandic poet or the AIDS researcher. If you want to say those are Saturday-level answers, I won't argue, but I think it's okay to use them in a Wednesday puzzle, as long as the crosses are reasonable, as they are here. We all have Wednesday answers we don't know but can get from the crosses. Now if those two answers had crossed on a Wednesday, then I'd have been unhappy as well, but no problem here. The AIDS researcher and Icelandic poet intersect with the themers on the marginalia, which is why those two answers were used in this puzzle, I'm sure. The constructor and editors couldn't find easier alternatives that could make this theme work.

@Jess R I've enjoyed Adrian's puzzles in the past, and I loved this Adrian-Jess collab here. Great job, with some very fresh cluing and answers! I hope you submit some more puzzles.

@Sarah Probably inspired by this fine CWP. The domain of Will Shortz knows no bounds.

@Mark TETRAD isn't specific to a seventh chord. It's any chord formed by four notes, which a seventh chord can be. If you're self-taught on those instruments, you probably wouldn't encounter the term, but if you take a music theory course, you probably would. See for example: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrad_(music" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrad_(music</a>)

@Toni I agree that elk is the most commonly used plural of elk, but I checked several reputable online dictionaries, and they all allow ELKS as well. That's enough for it to be a valid answer.

@MaryEllen I get your main point that you Really, Really dislike rebus puzzles, but the four rebus squares here are essential to the solution of this puzzle. "Disabling" them with a button would make the puzzle unsolvable, because using a rebuses the only way to make the answers fit. In NYT Crossword puzzles, rebuses are most common in Thursday puzzles, appear less commonly but still in several Sunday puzzles annually, and rarely seen in Wednesdays (with very obvious rebus squares). Short of avoiding NYT crossword puzzles particularly on Thursday and Sunday, or bringing up the Wordplay column and not reading it but doing a Find operation for the word, "rebus" before trying to solve so you can skip rebus puzzles, I'm afraid you're stuck with them. It doesn't mean you have to like them.

@John Within the past week NYT updated the Puzzles app and it now requires a more recent version of iOS which older iPhones and iPads cannot receive. MANY complaints about this in the NYT Puzzles reviews on the App Store. The main reason for this update: embedded advertising In the newer version of the app. (Websearch "interstitial advertising"). That's what NYT is loading into the Puzzles app. You get to pay to subscribe to an app that will be increasingly pushing ads at you between puzzles. Happy Holidays! You can continue to use the old version of the app, for now, though for how much longer remains to be seen; at some point, I expect the app will not load.

@Peter C. Most people thought LPs were dead and buried, and they have come back. CDs will have a resurgence as well.

@Eli Cotham Eli, I too really applaud you for asking sincerely about some criticism in these comments. But as hard as you worked to put this together, deep breaths all around, and try not to take the criticism in these comments personally, if you can. I struggled too at the south end and had to look up three answers to get it done, and that's not unheard of for me for a Wednesday puzzle, but it's pretty rare for me. But that's on me, not you. People need to keep in mind that constructors do not have the final say or anything close to it on cluing. In many puzzles the puzzle editors rewrite well over half the clues. And cluing challenge can make all the difference between an easy solve and a struggle.

@NS This request comes up all the time, and reading the comments and upvotes suggests to me that most solvers prefer not being tipped off. There is an easy way for you to determine whether a puzzle has rebuses before starting it: open the Wordplay, the Crossword Column (the one you added your comment to) before starting a Thursday or Sunday puzzle. Do a FIND operation (which means hold down the CTRL or COMMAND key and press the F key to open Find for the browser page) and then just enter the word "rebus." If there are "rebi" in the puzzle, you'll see the word highlighted in the column. Skip the puzzle if you don't like them, or solve it knowing they're in there.

@LivelyB You may be firing at the wrong target. Mr. Arbesfeld (nice job on today's puzzle, BTW, Alan) may or may not have written that clue. The editors revise many/most submitted clues and would in any event bear the ultimate responsibility for an objectionable clue. I agree with your point as to *usage.* I don't like "Gentlemen" as a letter-starter either, and would like to to see language become more gender-neutral. People may differ on whether this clue-answer combination crosses the line and becomes objectionable. But as a *valid* clue, this passes. "Man" is a synonym for "homo sapiens," appearing in the first online dictionary I checked: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Homo" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Homo</a>%20sapiens The use of "man" to cover everyone is fading. Someday, it may be marked "obs."

@BAuskern LOL this happens to me, too, and I'm sure others, struggling sometimes to see answers in what should be our personal wheelhouses of hobbies and interests. You can be too close to the answer to be able to pull back and see it from above. Good luck on Sunday!

@Alan Yeah, don't OVERTHINK "Snap back?" This is a known general cluing trap for a few spelled-out alphabet letters, such as this one, and the question mark is a hint that the clue is a possible misdirect. (I needed the first two crossing letters to see PEE.) Bravo Jesse Goldberg! I struggled a bit for a Wednesday and greatly admired the clever theme and fill clues.

@Remi: You may want to take your complaint up with Merriam-Webster: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kiloton" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kiloton</a> That was the first online dictionary I checked. As far as I'm concerned, it makes this clue and answer an acceptable match, even if you and some others dispute the accuracy of it, because crosswords reflect usage.

@Emmy You are precisely and accurately describing the distinction between definitions of the two terms, of course, but somewhat-misleading clues like this are expected in crossword puzzles, especially late in the week in NYT, and part of the challenge. See Deb Amlen's column today, under the "Tricky Clues" section, as she mentions this 15A distinction.

@RozzieGrandma Lol. Never Say Never, but I'm guessing we will not soon be seeing "aggregate transporter" as an answer in an NYT CWP, although maybe Erik Agard will now go ahead and construct an entire puzzle around that and similar themers just to prove me wrong.

@Grant who posted: "Jimmies on the west coast, sprinkles in the east. That's been my experience, anyway." I think you have that one backwards. I spent half my childhood years in the Boston area, where they were definitely called "jimmies," not "sprinkles" as in most other places outside the Northeast. And the Wikipedia article agrees: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprinkles" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprinkles</a>

@Catherine "Meep meep!" is definitely how Mel Blanc voiced it. Ain't no B's in there.

@Amy That took me back. I was the Cookie Dad for my daughter's troop one year, and we had to Eat a few orders where customers ghosted us. That was a cryin' shame.

@Molly: It's there in online dictionaries, so it's fair game, especially on a Thursday+. My suggestion: roll with it. Stretch your vocab. G'head, drop it aloud or typed several times tomorrow and see how impressed coworkers, friends, and family are!

@Mean Old Lady: LOL. You have my empathy on your DFW train wreck which, unfortunately, I can top (bottom?). Right before we landed last November, a severe thunderstorm had just moved away from Dallas, blowing up the DFW schedule for the rest of the day, with every flight canceled or delayed. We'd get a text saying we'd been auto-rescheduled with maybe 35 minutes to departure, having to change terminals via SkyLink, and of course missing the rescheduled flight, rinse and repeat, ALWAYS having to change terminals and walk long distances from the train. Honestly it happened four or five times before we finally made a flight. Our bags got to the destination before we got there, exhausted, seven hours late. We'd have been better off stuffing ourselves into our checked suitcases. My wife declared DFW: Never Again!

@JK Agreed, that was awful. I got lucky and guessed that one right, even though I didn't know either answer. But I guessed AREPAS crossing AHISEE wrong (entering arepos and ohisee) and couldn't figure the correct cross out because I assumed ohisee must be right. I don't know from AREPAS. I liked the theme (and got it) but the downside of the theme was that some awkward fill was forced around it. I don't see better alternatives in those two areas.

@lawrenceb56 You can get a blue star displayed on a calendar month for completing an old puzzle in the Archives. You can't get a gold star two days or twenty years after the puzzle first appeared, and you won't see it connected with a line to a nearby puzzle, representing a streak. Blue stars count neither for or against your current (or old) streaks. Mini CWPs, Bonus CWPs, etc., aren't counted for streaks. I think an Archive CWP does count for or against your Solve Rate in Statistics, depending whether you get the blue star on a puzzle you start there. Getting a hint such as whether a Word or Square is correct will block you from a gold star and therefore reset your current streak on today's puzzle, but you can still get a blue star on the calendar and perhaps increase your Solve Rate for successfully completing a puzzle after getting one or more hints on a puzzle old or new.

@CrispyShot LOL... or post *product* reviews like, "5 stars... I just ordered this and am very excited to try it out..." or "1 star... it took three weeks to get here!" /Gee... thanks for sharing. Hard to believe this puzzle and Deb's commentary stirred up such divisions in the commentariat. Joe, thank you for working hard on this puzzle. I'm glad I solved it. Deb, thanks for sharing your opinion. Let's all hold hands and take some slow, deep breaths, while chanting, "Eeeeemmmmuuuuuuuuu."

@Dan Using the desktop-Windows-browser Puzzles page (sometimes these things vary depending on what app you're using), I entered a rebus (by clicking the Rebus button up top and then typing "HOLE") six times, once in each circled square, and that worked. Somebody below did it by just leaving the six circled squares empty. If you've tried both those approaches and neither worked, there probably is an error somewhere you aren't finding. People will commonly point out in this situation that the O key and 0 are next to each other on the Qwerty keyboard, so that's the most common error people make when they think they've solved it but haven't really done so. Sometimes the eye just isn't spotting a different problem. Very rarely I've had to clear a puzzle and retype in the answers to get credit for the solve when I can't find the one square that's somehow off. Easy and fast for a touch typist on a keyboard but maybe not so fast in a phone or tablet app.

@rachelism I got these looks and in particular LOLed at the visual depiction of WHACAMOLE when that corner of the puzzle was filled in. Very clever! Ditto on ENNEADS. I definitely needed the crosses there. This puzzle was a fun, fast ride for me at the hands of two of my favorite all-time constructors. Well done as always Rebecca Goldstein and Will Nediger!