One of the best Thursday puzzles in my memory! Does that make it one of the worst? (I just shrugged and went on, figuring correctly that Wordplay would explain it to me later.)
“Best/worst” is terrible.
2
@Scot Hawkins
Merriam-Webster: "worst (verb): to get the better of"
In other words, best.
2
An absolutely wonderful puzzle. Best in many years*. What a fabulous debut!
(*I've been solving for 35 yrs)
2
Does anyone else ever feel that after a certain point I just don't care? Maybe I'm just not a true crossworder. Yeah, missed the hat thing -- whatever.
9
@David -- I agree with you one hundred percent. You are clearly not a "crossworder". But there is hope. Once upon a time I too was bewildered, but I was shown the light and now I am a card-carrying cruciverbalist.
3
@David, yes, sometimes I feel that way. But if I feel myself getting that discouraged, I read the write up about the puzzle and see if getting some of the answers helps me along. If that doesn't help, I turn on Check Puzzle.
1
Technical glitch: Comments display seems to repeat - about halfway down the comments begin again with same ones.
3
Been happening on all articles for awhile.
Totally missed the central heating, er, I mean hat thing :( Also, could someone explain 58D "Edge" = NIP? At a loss on that one.
5
@michele In sports, for example, like if the Mets beat the Yankees by one run (which they will, of course).
1
OK - - but that use is a “Bridge Too Far”. What’s wrong with using the action of a playful puppy at one’s heels? Or having a “quick one” at one’s local pub? Or what Jack Frost does to one’s nose?
Edge and LIP are, of course, the far more common pairing.
On the bright side, though, this one isn’t as bad as pairing WORST with BEST as synonyms!!
1
Because of the continuing incompetence of the principals, it is quite tricky to find the place to post comments about a puzzle after another puzzle has been posted.
Because of the very same incompetence, it is also far too easy to accidentally click on the wrong day's comments and inadvertently spoil a puzzle you haven't tackled yet.
Nevertheless, the Thursday puzzle by Nancy Stark and Will Nediger was *terrific*. Totally fresh clues and answers provided an all-too-rare non-clichéd experience with a recent New York Times crossword.
5
Definitely needed the revealer as, like others, I thought it was it instead of what. I had 'come in' instead of 'show in' and haven't used a hobo bag since the 60s. Etruscan instead of old Latin threw me way off. So many more detours but....thoroughly enjoyable! Indeed, hats off to a neophyte!
3
Wow no way could I get this without help. Because of the top tier menu on the computer and the black hat, I thought the theme was IT and had that as a rebus for “chew on IT” and “you did IT”. I went way down the wrong rabbit hole. At least it was a bit fun.
3
Yay, finally finished. This puzzle got the very BEST of me. It was super challenging but so very satisfying. Thank you, Nancy Stark - what a debut! Now I need to find a BARCAR.
7
I know the worst/best clue has been discussed comprehensively, but I'll add my two cents - why not? Think Monty Python - I pictured King Arthur and The Crone discussing shrubberies "Arthur: If you do not tell us where we can buy a shrubbery, my friend and I will say--we will say--"ni".
Crone: Ah! Do your worst!
In that sense, the crone was daring him to do his best.
And P.S. loved the puzzle - somehow, my streak is up to 340 days.
7
@Jess K
A Monty Python reference is always appreciated.
Congratulations on your streak. It's a remarkable achievment.
I'm very late, and there are 368 comments.
I won't add to the debate, except to congratulate Nancy on her very fine debut and to thank Will N. for mentoring her. I'll be looking for our next effort.
2
The revealer definitely led to an "aha" moment for me -- but not until I struggled quite a bit more. Deb asked the other day whether a revealer is necessary; in today's puzzle, it surely was.
4
One more tip of the hat to Nancy and Will!
4
@PM
Is thiis your new identity, Puzzlemucker?
I got the secret theme word without a lot of pain. But 9D completely escaped me.
Yes, I've looked it up and seen that those two seemingly antonymic words can be synonyms, but I wouldn't have landed on that answer in a hundred years without the crosses.
2
@Dave S
I had same thought about 9. Otherwise very challenging puzzle that had answers I frankly didn’t see coming. But that’s what makes it fun. Congrats to 1st time constructors!
3
Bad puzzle.
5
@Bruce S
More recos than words in your post. Hmm.
2
One could respond "Bad comment" with equal illuminating effect.
6
No soup for you!
3
So, I’ve read all of the comments and the replies. First I want to congratulate Nancy, and good job to both of the constructors. I needed help to finish it. Never got the hat thing. However, I believe it is quite a feat to construct one of these, and to have it accepted by the nyt. So, I say to those who are hurtfully critical, why don’t you just construct one yourself. And to my fellow parents out there, I remember this stage well. When the arrogance was at its high point. I didn’t like it much then, and I don’t much like it now.
5
How is “best” the answer?
2
@Jonathan Leal
Checkout the oldest comment for a discussion on how “worst” can mean
“best”
My first job as a teenager working during the summer was in a beachfront delicatessen which had a cold room at the back to store pickles and processed meats and herring -- all that so-called bad "good stuff". I remember telling an indecisive customer that our wurst was the best in the area. (If memory still serves that had to be knockwurst.)
4
Thursday puzzles are supposed to be puzzling. Nancy Stark can compete with the best of ‘em! Wow what a puzzle! And a hat tip to Will Nediger as well—not a BLACKHAT. Just a regular old chapeau!
:-D
5
Hat's off to Nancy Stark and her guide Will Nediger! Thanks for challenging us with great clues and a creative theme.
My first fills were MOTH, HOOD and ACHEBE. My last fills in an enjoyable, Thursday puzzle were SHOWIN and OPENLY! And by the end those were so easy.
Keep writing Nancy! With your first puzzle on a Thursday, I am sure more great puzzles will come.
1
I don't know if anyone else experienced this but my first unpleasant find in a sweater was a HOLE. Fortunately the presence of that HOLE led me to suspect a MOTH, and that held up.
4
OT (for this puzzle at least).
I've been reviewing old pre-Shortz puzzles for errors. I am completely flummoxed by one entry I've encountered. If you have Xword Info you can look up the answer, which is STRIGA (it's only appeared once).
It's from the July 5, 1960 puzzle. The clue is "Fluting of a column, in architecture." All of the crossing answers appear to be correct. I have spent close to a half an hour googling STRIGA in an effort to find something that even vaguely matches (I even tried St. Riga, just for the heck of it). Can not find anything and can't figure out what the issue is.
I'm hoping somebody knows something I don't.
@Rich in Atlanta
See https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/striga
where one of the definitions of STRIGA is “A flute in a column.”
However, STRIGA does not appear in the Collins Dictionary or the Oxford Dictionary; Merriam-Webster is the only one of the three that has it.
1
@Ron O. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I don't know why I couldn't find that. It just wasn't popping up on any of my searches (or maybe I missed it).
@Rich in Atlanta
In addition to Google, these dictionaries are part of my word-finding arsenal:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/
3
Holy! that was hard, even with hints. I just never got in sync with the writer.
1
This was a kick arse (literally and figuratively) puzzle!!! Awesome debut! 45 whole minutes over my average that actually ended with a smile on my face. Finally got that Man in Black! Burr shot first! Major kudos.
2
318 comments already!?
OT: Could this explain the phenomenal success of our favorite constructor/solver Eric Agard?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/03/01/doping-scandal-rocks-world-bridge/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.57c898985919
;)
1
Boy, not a single rec or reply in four hours. I thought my link would elicit at least a couple of humorous replies! ?
1
@Ron WaPo doesn't allow non-subscriber access if ad-blocking is enabled.
So now I'm awake enough to enjoy all your generous and much appreciated comments even more. I do hope, however, that you'll give Will Nediger, who's the pro here, the credit he deserves on not only the beautiful grid, but on so many of the clues as well. He changed many of them, and what he didn't change he made terser. Terser, but without removing the playfulness or humor. I'd say he "professionalized" them. I take full responsibility, though, for "Worst in a competition". He didn't change that one and I figured it would fool y'all. And, no, I'm not sorry. Not sorry at all :)
After breakfast, I sat down with the puzzle and, ignoring the theme answers, tried to see how it felt to solve the rest of it. I hadn't looked at either the grid or the clues in almost 8 months, and I knew that, with my always-fuzzy memory, I could be counted on to have forgotten most of it. And so I had. My conclusion: The puzzle was pretty damned hard!
If I thanked all of you individually for being so extravagant in your praise, it would turn into one of those endless Oscar award-acceptance speeches that none of us can stand. But I will remember all of your individual comments for the rest of my life. Or at least I would if I had a memory like everyone else. :)
48
@Nancy
What memory? Download the verbiage! (highlight, copy and paste to a text file)
:-)
@Nancy and Will
... and I forgot to add: fabulous job!
At this point (5:30 PM EDT) the comment count is 333 and that's also amazing.
I'll look forward to your next one.
1
Cartoon seen somewhere, too apt:
Woman standing at Pearly Gates, met by an angel with cupped hands: "And look what we have for you--it's your short-term memory!"
FWIW...only the NE was difficult, IMHO, but that had me horn-swoggled for quite some time. I thoroughly enjoyed the struggle. Can't wait for more of your puzzles!
4
I did not get the theme (as usual), but I solved the puzzle!! I left the floating letters in thinking that’s a colloquial way of speaking. Now I see.
Regarding the best/worst brouhaha:
It’s a Thursday puzzle. It’s supposed to have trickery and misdirection. That best/worst as verbs mean the same thing is a nuance of the English language that many don’t know.
Don’t blame the puzzle constructors for a clever misdirection. Rather than gripe how unfair the puzzle was, it would be better to put that info into the “Today I Learned” category.
Same goes for the black square representing the word HAT. Once you get the revealer (BLACK HAT), it should be obvious what to do. Another Thursday-worthy piece of puzzle trickery.
Personally, I loved it!
18
@Ron O.
I live for nuances of the English language, but BEST/WORST is the first instance in my years of solving that’s felt willfully arcane, to the point of being cruel.
Wow, my *worst* ever time performance on a Thursday...on any day, for that matter. My first fill on across was Achebe and first fill on down was Agnew (who could actually thank William Safire for the nattering nabob line, I believe)...and it was a major slog from there. Had 'stacks' instead of 'syrups' for IHOP choices, 'peer in' for have a quick look-see instead 'peek in', and had 'lip' instead of 'nip' for edge...oy!
3
Jeanne,
Not sure whether Agnew *thanked* him for the line; he did *pay* him for it.
3
Obviously not related to today's puzzle, but..
Solvers, is there a way to see all of my "unsolved" puzzles at once?
Stats are telling me that I have about 10% of my puzzles unfinished, but they must puzzles that I opened for a second or two and closed out of, because I can't find any unfinished blue icons. I understand them being noted "started" (as someone could take a screenshot and solve offline, etc), but I would just like to finish what I started and can't track them down individually without a lot of effort (and accidentally "starting" more puzzles!!)
Any tips? Thanks!
1
@Ryan - If you are logged in and go here:
https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords
You should see, partway down the page, a tab for Last Seven Days and a grayed-out tab for In Progress.
Click on the In Progress tab, and the puzzles you opened but did not finish will appear. I'm still catching up on puzzles I opened for printing out in my first year, not realizing they were counting against me as "unsolved" puzzles online. So you have my sympathy!
4
@David Connell Thank you my friend!!
I knew there had to be a backlog somewhere, but greyed out meant I never even looked there. Thanks!
@David Connell
Thank you. I found 3. I've always wondered about my 99.5% solve rate.
Since it was recently pointed out that NIP is old-timey offensive slang for the Japanese, and that AH SO has racial overtones, May I also point out the following:
BLACK HATs is a not-so-nice way to refer to the Hasidim. While NIP as an offensive term is mostly forgotten, BLACK HAT is very much in use. If you aren’t familiar with it, you’re probably not living where Hasidim are moving in.
Also, BUTCH was just in the Spelling Bee recently, and it can be an unflattering way to refer to a masculine-looking woman who may or may not be a lesbian, and who may or may not take offense.
Do what you want with this information.
1
@Steve L
Black hats also refer to clandestine services. I suspect that usage is probably passe, but is 's still valid.
1
@Steve L
You should steer clear of such hatEMONGERS
1
@Steve L
I suggest that we NIP this thread in the bud.
10
LETTERBOX THREAD
I ended up with H-B(9), B-D(6)
SPOILER ALERT: HINT AHEAD
To the valiant belong the sweet spoils.
@Phil P
Me too.
Hint hint hint
Sweet solution if not for the faint of heart!
I couldn't stop seeing ANCHOVY (not a possibility), so I just quit...
“Enhh”. Cute once explained does not a good puzzle make. Recommend a pass.
Wouldn't it be BESTED?
2
I agree. Or even defeated.
And we wonder why English is so difficult for immigrants to learn. Don’t get me wrong. I love English, and I’m still learning.
2
@Chris Atkins
Just to be clear - No, it absolutely would.
1
I spent 15 minutes trying to find the error, assuming it had something to do with I'M GONE/NIP (neither of which were particularly satisfying answers) only to realize that everything was correct but I had rebused the four theme answers where no rebus was required.
I could tell while doing the puzzle that the author was new to creating the Times Crossword because the clues didn't "feel" like NYT clues. However, unlike some other solvers, I found this to be a breath of fresh air. I enjoyed working different brain muscles to figure it out.
4
Just curious—did anyone else start with COFFEE as the start of the workday? I thought it was a gimme until nothing else fit
5
Doug,
I might have, if I hadn't met a geisha first.
4
I liked the HAT trick. Fairly simple but cute.
The best/worst thing was the only part that rang false.
6
A man goes into a clothing store to buy a suit. He tells the salesperson, "Show me your best worsted."
14
It was the best of puzzles, it was the worst of puzzles ... it was the time of wisdom, it was the time of foolishness ... it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity ... it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness ......
After reading the blog and the 250+ comments so far this construction was irresistible.
Kudos plus to the constructors!!
5
What is a chet job? not even Google knows that one.
1
It’s hatchet job. The “hat” goes in the black square just before it.
8
@Xia
Now you've got me thinking "Hat's off to the constuctors!"
:-)
3
Thursday puzzles are my favorites and this is no exception. Since I print these out using the ink saver setting, my black squares are really gray --- perfect for writing on. My only complaint is the clue "Worst in a competition" --- I initially had "last" which I still think is a better answer; alas, better is not always correct.
2
@Tony Santucci
Think of besting someone in a competition.
Still doesn’t make sense to me.
4
@Mike
"best" as a verb = "get the better of". Also "beat".
I got the revealer easily before finding the trick, which I felt was kinda lame. I'm also with the BEST/WORST complainers (crosses gave me the answer but it was still nonsensical to me). I googled it and it looks like WORST can be a verb but I have never seen it used that way. Bad clue, and overall not one of my favorite puzzles.
8
I didn’t care for it. It was confusing and frustrating and learning the answers I had trouble with made me feel angry instead of edified. The “theme” made NO sense to me. Bad puzzle.
2
Once again, I caught onto the fact that there was a theme, that there was something fishy about the middle of the grid, but didn’t actually figure out what until I was about 3/4 of the way done with the puzzle.
I may be in a minority, but I love puzzle like these. They bend my mind and make me think even more outside the box than usual.
13
@Margaret Fox
I don’t think that you are in a minority around here!
3
@Margaret Fox
I generally like puzzles like these, I just felt this one was kinda dull and not executed particularly well.
2
Great puzzle. Classic Thursday effort -- first WTF, then a moment of revelation. Lots of interesting misdirection with varying parts of speech. I guess the BEST answer falls into the live and learn category, because I've never heard anybody use WORST in that way. (I thought at first it was a mispelling -- as in WURST, with BEST being a brand name.) Looking forward to future entries.
6
How is worst BEST?
1
Babel64,
Here's how (look under verb):
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worst
1
I agree. Worst is Best?! Ok. I went to Webster. As a verb. The very last entry under that word. First known use was 1636. I think they stopped using it that way in 1637. At least they SHOULD have. It makes me nauseous.
4
This was my first Thursday solve.
I couldn’t have done it without you, the comments section. I won’t cheat by using the internet in any other way, but after I’ve reached an impasse, I read the Wordplay column. Then I try to fill in what I can from there. Then, and only then, do I consult you.
You came through for me. Thank you.
I have so far solved one Tuesday on my own, and several Wednesdays using the aforementioned method, but to solve a Thursday! Even if not entirely on my own! I desperately needed a win in my life, and I like to keep my standards reasonable. Thank you to the only place on the internet where reading the comments section is actually a pretty good idea.
26
@@n0nymouse - yee-hah!
4
@@n0nymouse
Congratulations on your achievement and thank you for the heartfelt words.
@@n0nymouse thanks for sharing and good for you. onward to weekend puzzles!
1
Unfortunately, in the Across Lite version of today's puzzle, the multiple letter entry HATE in the first square of 39-across ("HATEMONGER") is marked incorrect and so is the multiple letter entry HATC in the first square of 43-down ("HATCHETJOB") incorrect. In contrast, the other two multiple letter entries in the puzzle (WHAT at the end of 8-down "YOUDIDWHAT" and THAT at the end of 37-across "CHEWONTHAT") are marked correct.
Maybe marking a few correct entries incorrect is another gimmick to make puzzles more difficult, but I, for one, hope that this author never contributes any more puzzles.
Lew,
It would be incorrect in any version; there are no rebuses in this puzzle.
4
@Barry Ancona: Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by "rebuses" but assume that you're talking about the multiple letter entries in the four HAT answers. And since two were marked correct by the Times in today's Across Lite release and two were marked incorrect, the issue is one of simple consistency. If the NYTimes is going to publish crossword puzzles that require multiple letter entries, they need to be consistent in what is accepted. Otherwise, even when a puzzle is correctly completed, Across Lite indicates that the puzzle isn't.
Lew,
Some of the formats are a bit weird about what is or is not accepted -- I solve off-line, so this is not my area -- but the fact remains that the correct solve of this puzzle does not have any "white" square with more than one letter.
4
For whatever reason, I caught on very quickly and zipped through the puzzle until I finally reached the NE corner, where--WOW I hit a brick wall. I took 9D's clue as [Noun] and entered LAST. Then, undecided between SEAR and CHAR, I chose the latter. RETRY and GUSSY were correct, but so twisted by my bemused that I decided PATHS along the Champs-Elysees made sense.... Finally worked it all out to complete the full experience of a successful Thursday solve. AaaaaH.
Congrats to Nancy, Thanks to both Wills, and a tip of the HAT to everyone who enjoyed this puzzle.
6
@Mean Old Lady
Proofread!
'Bemused STATE'
@Mean Old Lady My experience exactly! Loved this puzzle, quickly got onto the HAT trick, and ended up groaning over the NE corner. I'd been harboring AXE as the solution for "can"' and finally stuck it in when I twigged EXHALE. It was fun! A great debut puzzle! and a satisfyingly achievable, but challenging, Thursday. Btw, I loved BEST for "worst" when I finally hit on it.
@Mean Old Lady
Count me in on finding the NE to be a struggle.
1
"Okay, boys. We got a bank to rob! Put on your black hats and lets ride into town!"
"Um, boss, do we really want to wear black hats? I mean, it seems to me sheriffs are just waitin' round looking for people in black hats. It raises suspicions and we're sure to get our horses pulled over."
"That's profiling!"
"Darn tootin! But is that really the issue here. Couldn't we wear white hats, or red or green maybe?"
"I do look good in green."
"You sure do, boss. You sure do."
8
@ad absurdum,
I'm listening with rapt attention but is this tale three days too early?
@Henry Su
Good point! I was so busy being absurd that I forgot that Green Day was approaching.
1
@ad absurdum Wait, Green Day is coming around? I thought they slept until September ended.
1
What a great puzzle! Took me a bit to figure out the theme as I usually try to avoid the revealer for as long as possible. I realized early that H-A-T was missing from an answer but didn't know what to do with that knowledge. I also-duh!-didn't notice those three letters spell a word.
I was pretty sure Nattering Nabobs was William Safire. Unfortunately I don't have any reference books so I had to Google it. Sure enough, as Agnew's speechwriter, he came up with it. Why did I know that?
2
So it was Safire who was the [A-- 10D first entry]?
@Mean Old Lady
He wrote it, but Agnew spoke it.
1
@ad absurdum
Agnew wasn’t smart enough to ever have come up with that himself.
Nancy and Will both need to add a black belt celebrating creativity and construction excellence to wear with their black hat!
I agree with Lewis today. This puzzle has it all ... in spades.
Congratulations on your most impressive debut, Nancy! I bet you'll be grinning all day. (Most deservedly so!)
4
Really loved the hat trick. The rest of the puzzle felt a bit forced to me and it took me forever to finish. Glad others enjoyed it!
1
Started out real slow but the reveal was instrumental in kick-starting my first solve of the week...As others, I bit with lip and had to NIP that miscue in the bud...SW was where I finished; at no time ever was my trip around the grid ON AUTO...I relied on crosses to arrive at ACHEBE...(“The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valence” by Gene Pitney is the title song from the ‘62 oater. The clip provides a PEEK IN on several scenes, including when The Duke does in the BLACK HAT.
https://youtu.be/MYpslYIh2fY
I’M GONE; Solid GONE,
Bru
Dear Nancy Stark,
Exactly the way a puzzle should be: difficult, but doable.
Your puzzles — plural, I hope — are even better than your comments.
Thank you,
ADeNA
8
Following up on that pesky central square:
Among the dozens of meanings listed in the dictionary for the word "black" is the meaning found in "black ops", "black projects", "black box" - something that is covered, hidden from view, obscured from the public eye. I lack the skills to research puzzles that have used this trick and this meaning in the past, but I'm certain there are previous examples of the same use of the same meaning for "black" in reference to a black square on the grid that contains hidden letters.
Maybe one of our researchers could dig up some citations?
2
@David Connell
8/30/2018 was a puzzle on "ad blocks" (thx Jeff Chen). Idk if you count that or are you looking for this type of puzzle only with revealers specifically that say "black"
1
@Will From College - thanks, that fits the bill. What I meant was to counter the complaint about the black(ed) out "hat" in today's - in the puzzle you cited, the block(ed) out "ad" - to register that the fact that the letters disappear (are not entered as a rebus or in any other way) has been part of more than this one puzzle.
Any more citations out there?
@David Connell
No research, but the relatively recent brilliant black-squared "X" puzzle.
2
Great grid and a fun solve. The fill was really clean and lively, and the theme (more of a bit of crossword slight of hand) was clever but quite accessible. Kudos Nancy and Will squared! More please!
2
@Steve Faiella
“Will squared”
Technically that should be Will times two.
2
And the proofreader in me can’t resist pointing out one other sleight spelling error...
3
@Andrew
Call it a slight error ....
1
Many years ago I commuted into NYC via Metro North (one of the local railroads here). When smoking started to be banned in public places (thank God) the BARCAR on the long train from Grand Central Station was the only one in which smoking was allowed. If you needed to walk through that car to reach another, the cloud of smoke was so dense it reminded me of being on an airplane flying through clouds.
2
@Steve Faiella - I remember my few forays into the bar car on the New Haven line as equivalent to being on a team bus after a game but not being on the team nor having watched the game.
1
@Steve Faiella - I started commuting on Metro Notrth post-BARCAR. What I had instead was the BARTRACK, with vendors selling libations at the head of the track. Now that's gone too.... *sigh*. Progress - or w(HAT)ever you w(HAT)chamacallit...
1
I'm pleased to have a puzzle with no pop culture names.
Lot's of tough cluing today. I was lucky that my first guess for the "shade provider" was YEW, ( PHEW!) I also immediately thought of SUDOKU.
Much slower to get the theme for which I needed the reveal, but so satisfying to see how it all made sense. I crossed "Chetjob" of my notes of fills to enquire about, and filled in all the rest of those pesky theme answers that had me stumped.
What a terrific debut for Nancy, and hope to see many more from this pair!
8
Ha! My SE corner had LTD before LLC, but I didn't mind having some OLD (Tarte) TATIN on PI Day!
@Leapfinger
Ditto on LTD.
2
@Leapy
Pi Day!!!!! Thank you -- I had forgotten that. And now I have caught it before 1:59 this afternoon.
:-D
1
Wasn’t my cup of tea, but glad others enjoyed it. Another day, another puzzle!
13
@MJ
Now that's how to comment on a puzzle you didn't especially like. (IMO)
25
I’m with those who thought this to be a delightful puzzle.
The “trick” went right over my head - as so often happens - until I read Deb’s words of wisdom. I thought it “clever” - - not “diabolical’.
My only (mild) objections are the cluing for NIP and the use of BEST/WORST as synonyms. Neither was really necessary.
To those who have suffered such fits of pique over this puzzle: Why don’t you take up another hobby and spare us your diatribes?
To those who find racial slurs hiding in every other word:
There are relatively few words in our language whose original and/or common-use definitions were/are INTENDED as racial slurs or insults. I don’t recall ever seeing ANY of them in a NYT crossword puzzle - - or anywhere else in the NYT, for that matter, unless used in a quotation when absolutely necessary to emphasize the evil-mindedness of an original speaker/writer.
The fact that some few people have co-opted a few common-use, benign-definition words for use as slurs or insults does NOT alter the original definitions/uses and CERTAINLY does not require us to ban them from continued common usage in non-racial contexts.
Your proposed CENSORSHIP of these words would be akin to actions of the Inquisition - or Nazi Germany - and SHALL NOT be allowed to stand!!
8
@PeterW
yikes, fighting for racial slurs in puzzles is a bizarre hill to die on even for you...
3
@Will From College
That's a great-sounding comeback, but I think you're will-fully twisting PeterW's point.
Not my hill, not my battle, but I like to keep fair fair.
12
@Will FC
What Leapy said. You need to work on your reading comprehension if you want to be successful IC, especially when writing is nuanced and sentences are complex.
6
EMONGER ALERT:
if you’re going to do a CHETJOB, bring some creativity. Otherwise, the E you you’ll take is equal to the E you make.
8
@Puzzlemucker
Deb is going full on Mama Bear protecting her Nancy cub right now and I'm here for it.
2
@Will From College - I'm still puzzled as to which option is true:
was Puzzlemucker's comment a comment on the puzzle (as you seem to have read it)
or a comment on the comments on the puzzle (as it might well be read)?
I'm still having trouble sorting Puzzledog from Puzzlemucker (sorry, you two, but that's the truth), but I still prefer the second reading.
4
@David Connell
I read this as: if you're going to comment something hateful on a puzzle at least make it creative and thought it was in reference to the two comments that Deb has replied to. Don't think this has anything to do with the puzzle itself.
2
Thank you, Ms Stark and Mr Nediger, for a puzzle that really puzzled! The SE corner was the last I filled in, although partly that's because I try to discover the theme without looking at the revealer, so I was avoiding that corner for a while. I reached the point where that was the only pocket left and still hadn't really figured out the theme, when suddenly it hit me that CHEW ON THIS might really be CHEW ON THAT, and then it all fell into place. Very tricky!
I'm looking forward to your next collaboration! What fun. Happy Thor's Day, everyone!
:-c)€
2
I think of the difference between will and SHALL as intent. See Strunk and White, "No one shall save me, I will drown."
8
@Martin, thank you (and Strunk & White) for my most gruesome laugh of the morning.
1
@Martin As I learned it [and fully support the premise that this level of convolution is ridiculous], the intensity or intentionality of "will" and "shall" are actually reversed in the first person, compared to the second and third, i.e.:
I shall see them tomorrow; I WILL leave despite you.
You will see; she SHALL be avenged.
Well I'm old enough to remember DESOTOs. Also that villains in Saturday matinee westerns always wore BLACKHATs and I filled that in right away, but never connected that to the center square until I read Deb's reveal. Be that as it may I filled it all in and got the Congrats even with the head scratchers around the center square. Didn't make the connection, but the crosses all seemed right and I was a bit surprised when the Congrats popped up. Another solve in spite of myself, so to speak.
3
SPELLING BEE
Ucdfilt
21 words, 80 points, 1 pangram
C x 4, D x 5, F x 6, L x 3, T x 3
4L x 11, 5L x 4, 6L x 2, 7L x 3, 9L x 1
4 5 6 7 9 Tot
C 3 - 1 - - 4
D 3 - - 1 1 5
F 1 2 1 2 - 6
L 2 1 - - - 3
T 2 1 - - - 3
Tot 11 4 2 3 1 21
21
@Ron O. - thanks for the grid!
That pangram was hard!
21
@Wen
I see what you did there! :-)
7
@Ron O. I think Wen was just being LUDIC.
2
(Comment 1/3)
PHEW! What a relief to see an awesome puzzle after two rough days! Three days in a row and I feel like I’m turning into Rex Parker. My thoughts: first was “hey a female constructor, this should be good”; and I was right, this is very, very good. Also should point out it’s written by Nancy who often comments here (!!!) so that’s extra fun. This puzzle was delightfully hard as &%#$, it really made you work for it and I savor puzzles like this. The theme was actually the easiest part of the puzzle for me since I got BLACK HAT down quickly (thx Westworld) and the other four themers fell quickly after. Really enjoyed all four of them and how they could form a funny story. Unnamed Person (wink wink) MONGERs some HATE, we all collectively cry “YOU DID WHAT?!”, then every newspaper/news channel puts out a few HATCHET JOBs condemning them. Pleased with themselves, they think “CHEW ON THAT ya big cheetoh!”, but then two weeks pass and everyone forgets because apparently what people say doesn’t matter anymore. Sorry…back to the puzzle…oh yeah, really hard! Especially found the top half tough since I haven’t seen Psycho making ALTER EGO a no go. I knew what the rest of the clues were asking for, but couldn’t spit out the right letters. Eventually worked it out thanks to AGNEW and LAMA and felt ~very smart~.
13
And I do give Nancy high praise for the theme and her debut, but major kudos are also in order for Will (From Nediger?) on such a clean grid. The fill in here left me hunting for the right answer as opposed to feeling helpless.
8
@Will From College
Agnew was just a bit BYT.
(Comment 2/3)
Top right had an entry that I'm throwing under a new acronym PSK (Probably Shoulda Known). RHESUS was not anywhere in my head, but the Iliad is totally fair game and I'm like “yeah that's on me”. Only got it because I mistakenly thought it had something to do with it's crossword zoo-mate: rhea (side note: it is, in fact, a very cute monkey). Corner was made extra hard because BARCARs are very much BMT* and I had quickly put in TOO FAR. As in, I just took my fourth shot of tequila tonight I'm gonna make a mean joke that's going way TOO FAR. Fiiiiinally got it fixed and after over an hour I was stuck with only a car that's BMT* (_E_OTO) and a website I've never heard of made for finding a (M_T_)??? Guessed right on the car (no idea how), but incorrectly guessed Snopes.com was some dating site (MaTe). Did not get my happy music, but after poking around for 20 minutes I conceded a DNF with two errors. This was super clean, super hard, full of awesomeness, love love love. I pan a lot of puzzles only because I ACHE for them all to be this good…I can only wish. Kind of funny actually since me and @Nancy OFTEN disagree strongly on which puzzles we like. Certainly on the same page here.
*Before My Time
4
@PeterW seems churlish to meet Will’s wave of good humor and enthusiasm with that kind of snark. Or should I rather criticize the moderators for letting it through? Either way, pity.
3
@PeterW
I thought today of all the days you wouldn't have anything to fight me on. Yet, in three long posts talking about all the great things in this puzzle you decide to focus on my grammar. If it's not obvious from *literally every one of my posts*, I don't care about grammar. These are streams of my consciousness and nothing more. Clearly they intrigue you since you mention me every day so maybe I'm doing something right.
Best wishes as always :)
1
@Will From College
I'm somewhat surprised about Snopes.com. At one time it was the go to site to try and sort out internet and email hoaxes and disinformation. What sites are your generation using now for that purpose? Or has everyone just become savvy enough to suss out the nonsense?
5
(Comment 3/3)
Good Fill: YEW(NWFM**) BLOC LACY MYTH PHEW AGNEW INURE(NWFM**) SHRUG TOADY(NWFM**) EXHALE KIMONO RHESUS(adorable) SUDOKU HOBOBAG ALTEREGO JARLOOSE(disagree Deb, this is my fav bonus) ; wow, jam packed with goodies, new record of NWFMs
Bad Fill: RDA ITIS DESOTO; and that's being SUPER picky, this is so clean. I always prefer a clean segmented grid over flashier one with lots of glue
Best Clues: 23-D Burgoo, e.g. ; 7-D Politico who called the press "nattering nabobs of negativism"
Worst Clue: 9-D Worst in a competition (yes I get it, but still not a huge fan, save this for Sat.)
tl;dr This was very hard and I loved it and it's clean and 100 other good things. Excited for these two again.
**New Word For Me
5
@Will From College
DESOTO might be BYT as clued, but it’s hardly bad fill, no? Would you have objected if clued as the Spanish explorer?
1
Great theme, took a while to suss that one out. I found the cluing really tricky - not groan-worthy, I just felt like I lived on a different planet. Took me a while to get the trick but once I did, I kept trying to put black hats in places where they didn't belong.
For a while I was thinking OLDLATIN was going to be PIGLATIN. Then I thought - that would also be a good theme. Then I thought - I am absolutely sure someone had already done that.
2
@Dan
Dec. 18, 2014 if you need your PIG LATIN fix, but I also wanted badly to put in PIG, then went hey fun theme, and promptly, no that's definitely been taken.
1
Seems like AGNEW could have been referring to a few commenters here.
Anyway, very clever puzzle. I didn't do very well on it, but that is because I will cheerfully admit to being one of the WORST solvers here. Wait a minute- if WORST can mean BEST, does that mean... oh, never mind.
I knew exactly who 7d was referring to, but... couldn't remember his name. And it took me a while and that turned out to be a key answer for that section. Was still stalled almost everywhere, when out of nowhere BLACKHAT dawned on me, and I went back and looked at 8d and figured out where it went. Got 37a shortly after that. And then moved on and... completely forgot about it for the other two (39a and 43d).
Chipped away elsewhere and eventually remembered the BLACKHAT. Cheated a bit here and there and eventually put it all together.
Congratulations, Nancy, on a fine and memorable debut.
14
@RiA,
If you were any more low-key, your door-knobs would be at ankle-height.
5
Leapy,
Rich is actually shorter than that.
As am I.
2
@Barry Ancona
Hey -- wait for me. I lost two inches in the past 20 years.
Thought it was a rebus, then realized it’s not a rebus, then things fell into places...
2
Nancy means grace and this was a graceful entry. I am jealous that she still gets a dead tree NYT version.
As always I missed the theme.
Thanks, Nancy
6
@dk
Oh, please! Don't bring up Nancy Grace!
Well, there it is -- the complete solving experience. Figuring out the mystery of the tricky theme, then hacking a clear path through clever clever cluing. Ending with a sweat and a smile.
It's all here, encased in this 15 x 15 grid of black and white. Here is the joy of crosswords, all at once. This one gets gratefully placed in my sparsely populated Extra Special Puzzle file. Bravo you two!
27
I really enjoyed the theme, and didn’t find it overly difficult to suss out (for a Thursday!) but the NE killed me... not just on the BEST/Worst front (I’m with the complainers on that one), but also because of the Champs-Elysées clue. I’ve lived in Paris, and that street in particular is a CAFE *desert*. You could pick virtually any street at random in the rest of the city and it would have more classic Parisian cafés than the Champs-Elysées. It’s nothing but high-end shops and fast food places that cater to tourists.
I went with “arches” in that spot for way too long, but at least those are things you can actually see there...
14
@Sangerinde: agree 100%. I have also lived in Paris, still live in France, and the Champs-Elysées is just not a go-to place to find a *typically French* café. As you said, pick any street at random, in any arrondissement in the city, and it'll be better there.
8
@Jeremiahfrog Thanks for the backup! I had a moment of doubt after posting, wondering if my memory could have been faulty, or if things had changed... but checked Google maps and found: TWO McDonalds, a Quick, a Brioche Dorée, and (Jeeves, my smelling salts!!) a FIVE GUYS!!!
At the opposite price point, I don’t think Joël Robuchon would refer to his Atelier Étoile as a “café” either. So... yeah. I think we can stand by it!
5
@Sangerinde
One of the slight imperfections of NYT clues is that occasionally names are chosen more for their familiarity to American solvers than for their absolute accuracy.
Here the logic is: Champs-Élysées=Paris and Paris=CAFES. Therefore Champs-Élysées=CAFES.
6
Loved it! Fabulous debut. Deliciously sneaky.
ATSEA before SHIPS
UNPLUG before EXHALE
HOTELIER before ALTER EGO.
6
A fine debut puzzle, Ms. Stark. Glad you decided to throw your hat on the ring.
9
I resent that one!
I solved it, and wrote "what", "that", "hate", and "hatc" in the central squares using rebus, and was rejected. It so unfair! I want my money back!
2
@Thomas
Instead of having black as the color of the center "hat" block, they could have made that block a dark grey color.
And permitted us to type in HAT into the block using the rebus feature.
2
@Thomas - File away for next time: rebus squares have to work in both directions. A "whatrit" and a "thatoady", those aren't good answers for 33A, 38D.
Sometimes the rebus is interpreted differently in each direction, but that never means simply ignoring extra letters in the rebus square.
1
@Rod D
Not a bad idea, but the central square would have had to stay black in order not to give anything away and to maintain the BLACK HAT theme. Another idea might have been for the word HAT or a picture to appear in the centre upon completion.
3
I enjoyed the theme of this puzzle (once I figured it out), but like many others I found it overall very difficult for a Thursday (and the Ticktockman agreed). But...
Far too many people are far too upset about the fact that BEST and WORST can be synonyms (like flammable and inflammable or habitable and inhabitable). It's not a common usage, but if I read that "the Squirrels worsted the Hamsters at City Park last night". I know exactly who won. (If they say the Squirrels wore red worsted I'd have to look it up.) Similarly, if I read that Gallant Man NIPped Whirlaway at the wire I again know what happened the money I bet on Whirlaway to win is gone. (And as for objecting to NIP because it has been a slur at people of Japanese descent--if we bar any word that has ever been used as a racial, religious, or lifestyle insult we'd have to wrote off a tenth of the English language--and primatologists would be out of business.)
Finally, some of the really nasty shots at a first-time constructor remind one that those who can, do; those who can't, write blog posts.
24
@Doug Hey! :)
4
@Doug
I totally agree with you on the "offensive" word front. I'm 60+ y/o, and as stupid children we used NIP in a derogatory way much too often. HOWEVER, it wasn't until I came here and read your comment that I made the connection. I've often posted on this board that more often than not, the issue is in the mind of the offended person and not with the word itself. Granted, some words have only one meaning, and a very offensive one at that. But the majority of words that people take offence to have perfectly normal and often used alternatives whose usage far outweighs the pejorative definition.
6
EMONGER? Cannot find a definition of that anywhere, is this a new word for cyber trolling/harassment?
A tough Thursday puzzle, great debut...
4
@R T Should be (HAT)EMONGER
1
@H.G.T. - Oh. Duh. I have to say I was thrown on the "hat" by the BLACKHAT clue. In Westerns the trope was BLACKHAT vs. WHITEHAT - that's what stuck in my mind and I didn't make the connection until after I read the accompanying article...
2
@R T I, too, did not get that those two entries (EMONGER and CHETJOB) were part of the theme. The fill was easy and it said I was done so I figured they were just obscure. That's what I get for doing it early in the morning.
2
@Deb thanks for pointing out this was not a rebus puzzle. I now understand why it took me forever to hear the happy music! Great puzzle.
1
Thank you, Nancy Stark, for an incredible first puzzle! Like many commenters below, I too was stuck with all kinds of dead-end first guesses - ETRUSCAN, FIVEAM (well, some workdays do start as soon as one gets up in the morning...), TROY as the place for a king and queen, having first thought of a chessboard but it didn't fit (and I was thrown off by the other Greek clue, for RHESUS, and my obstination with ETRUSCAN made me think this puzzle must be about antiquity? wrong), EXIT instead of EDIT at 20A, NIXON and not AGNEW, PUTASIDE for "kept for a rainy day" (it fit), CHEWONT(HIS) and not T(HAT) until the final epiphany moment opened my eyes, etc. And I too was mildly surprised by the BEST/WORST conundrum (YOU DID WHAT??). And somehow I kept looking for Western hat NAMES after figuring out 66A relatively early (STETSON, where are you hiding in this puzzle?). But as soon as I saw that black HAT, just before exiting the saloon through the swinging doors (thanks for that, Deb Amlen, it actually helped me achieve the "aha!" moment of magic enlightenment), or should I say getting up out of the BAR CAR and walking happily back to my seat, this puzzle redeemed itself. All in all, and having read almost all the comments below with sympathy and commiseration, my HAT is off to the creator of this puzzle: you really bested the competition on a first try! Brava! A tough CHEW, but hey! it's Thursday! Looking forward to your next puzzle and new hat tricks!
5
@Jeremiahfrog
Why on earth would your first guess for workday start time be FIVE AM?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UbxUSsFXYo4
@Steve L
It's the gig economy. Every waking hour is part of the workday for all free-lancers. People to see and places to be.
One of the commentators on your link observes that 9am to 5pm has morphed into
5am to 9pm.
1
@Al in Pittsburgh
Amen.
Freelancers start work when they get the assignment, and they work through until the ... um ... deadline.
"Another layer of Ms. Stark’s and Mr. Nediger’s theme is that HAT is part of other words, such as 8D’s YOU DID WHAT and HATCHET JOB." How is that 'another' layer? It seems like *the* layer. Those answers don't work without the HAT square, the theme trick.
2
@Andrew - Deb's meaning was that the "hat" in those four entries never stands alone as the word "hat", that if they had been "hat maker" and "ten-gallon hat" etc. it would have been a less classy game.
The worst construction sin according to the critics would be if only one of the four theme answer used "hat" as a stand-alone word, while the others used the letters "h-a-t" within other words.
7
What a wonderful debut. You know it's a perfect Thursday theme when there are a number of confused and, shall we say, unkind comments.
It's so great to have a new "theme-making machine."
24
Terrible. Awful. Indecipherable. And HOW is the answer to "Worst in a competition" ever "BEST"? To the creators, I say, "Don't quit your day job." If they can't do better, maybe they should do something else. Notable only as a warning about any future puzzles they may create.
1
@BW
"Best" is a verb here.
1
@BW I'm picturing your bowl of breakfast cereal full of gravel.
3
@BW
How many puzzles of yours have been published?
Did anyone else have LIP for “Edge”? I’ve never heard of NIP for “Edge,” but my husband tells me it’s a sports term. That’s funny, because it was another “sports” term (BEANER) that was also a racially insensitive blunder in this puzzle a few weeks ago. I was surprised that NIP (an ethnic slur for a person of Japanese descent) would make it through, especially after the aforementioned episode. And again, I don’t think it would have been very had to change. If you CAN avoid hurting someone, you really SHOULD.
5
@Katje Sabin,
I had LIP before NIP too, and your husband is right--it's used in this sense most often as a sports term, to describe one athlete or team narrowly BESTing another. See https://umassathletics.com/news/2019/1/19/no-1-hockey-nipped-by-no-8-northeastern-in-overtime-2-1.aspx.
4
@Katje Sabin: I may be a strange exception, but "NIP" seemed easy - people do talk about "nippy weather" when wind chill has put an edge on it... e.g. "Today there's a nip in the air". But maybe it's because I live across the pond, and this might be more EU than US (?).
3
Think of “nip and tuck” or “to nip at ones heels”. “Nip” has a long usage as verb in English.
2
I couldn't figure out today's theme, but I know someone, who connected me with a guy, who for $50 gave me the answers.
11
@Tuco,
I think you need to add at least a couple more zeros to your number.
3
Henry,
For a 5-1/2 cent puzzle, $50 for the answers seems in proportion to the news.
1
@Henry Su not sure how $50.00 is any better. ;)
2
I found this to be a bit of a slog; the layout of the grid is separated into six chunks that had to be attacked separately.
1
Morgan,
I found that to be the case yesterday, not today.
1
@Morgan
What's wrong with chunky?
@Barry I see your point. The long diagonal words in yesterday's puzzle gave me more connections between the chunks, giving me footholds rather than toeholds.
@Dr See above. The pinwheel-ish shape of the grid and lack of long entries created bottlenecks that impeded my flow. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I personally found it a bit frustrating.
In the comments, Deb says "No, it's not a rebus".
But in an earlier Wordplay column, Deb wrote: " A rebus can be a letter, number or symbol that represents a word"
"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/crosswords/yes-you-can-write-more-than-one-letter-in-a-square.html
Perhaps I'm missing something, but it seems to me that black center box is serving as a "symbol that represents a word". Namely the word "hat".
1
@Rod D,
I think the distinction is that the center box isn't one in which you can enter the word "hat" or even a picture of a "hat." It's just a black box. In crosswords at least, a rebus refers to a box in which you can enter letters, numbers, or symbols.
6
@Henry Su
We should come up with another term, if it doesn't exist yet, for puzzles in which part of the answer appears outside of the answer squares assigned to that clue. We've seen answers popping up in all sorts of places: adjacent white squares, black squares, hanging off the edge of the puzzle, etc. These puzzles often trick you into thinking they have a rebus, but it's a trap. What should we call them?
3
Having mulled it over, I propose "resus" for puzzles that have answers spilling outside their appointed boundaries. Just as a rebus puzzle has extra answer letters stuffed into a Box, a resus has extra answer letters spilling into Space above, below, or next to where it belongs. So reBus/reSus. Further, resus reminds us of today's lovely puzzle from Nancy and Will featuring King Rhesus. Finally, it sounds like a confection of oddly textured peanut butter and mediocre chocolate that are somehow inexplicably delicious together, and who doesn't like candy?
5
OK, the black square in the middle is a hat, got that. Is that all? The whole thing just leaves me cold.
3
Wags,
Or was it the "bomb cyclone" that left you cold?
2
@Wags, the black hat leaves you cold?
Maybe you should put something else on...
[teehee]
5
We were south of the snow line, Barry, so we didn't get the blizzard, but the high winds were amazing. The paper this morning said that at times it was the equivalent of a category one hurricane, and had pictures of large trees fallen on houses. The interstate was closed from Colorado Springs to Denver and Denver to the Kansas state line. Quite a storm. March's lamb can't come soon enough.
What a marvelous debut performance! I was searching for where to put the HAT rebus to make WHAT and THAT until the very end when I saw the revealer. It was a nifty surprise.
The fill was far, far above average for Thursday and this made for a slower solve than usual. Burgoo was so out of left field it made me laugh. It could have been a shoe for all I knew. DESOTO may favor the oldsters but I’m just fine with that for a change. A ride in one when I’m GUSSied up would be nearly as much fun as I had with Nancy and Will tonight.
11
Talk about jumping into the deep end - to debut on a Thursday is an impressive feat. Congratulations, Nancy!
I found it really tough - especially the NE corner -- with almost no gimmes on the first pass. But after the lightbulb went on with the HAT trick, it started to gel and frustration turned to fun.
I loved BARCAR especially. Nancy, know that someone on the other side of the country is lifting a glass to you for that one. Cheers!
13
9D: how us "best" the worst in a competition?
1
@Chris Shulman
Sometimes it's a good idea to read through earlier posts before posting this type of question. It's been answered in a couple of earlier conversations. (Worst is a verb in this case.)
@JayTee maybe I'm being obtuse, but I STILL don't get it.
1
This was not a usage of “worst” that I was familiar with either, but upon looking up the definition, one usage is as a verb meaning “get the better of; defeat”.
Had CHAR before SEAR and NIXON before AGNEW; that slowed things down a bit. Did not know ACHEBE, but the HOBOBAG crosser took care of it. Caught on to the theme with HAT CHETJOB and BLACKHAT, which quickly led to the others.
A fun and challenging puzzle. Keep ‘em coming, Nancy and Will!
3
and Elke
Not to be a TOADY, but I got BESTed by the BEST of them-Nancy-on her first opus yet !
On my first go-around, I only found the MOTH in my sweater. Lots of misfits- "oyez" before WRIT, "oak" before YEW, and then indeed the mighty OAK.. Of course I had "Pandora" for "spreader of discord" ( it fit). *
Finally, I ventured a PEEK IN at Deb's column, and I could EXHALE and SAY AH so it goes. CLEVER !
Saw the ACHE and the AGUE; and LACY, GUSSY and the PROM.
Thanks for reminding me of William Safire. Still miss the "On Language" column.(What would he say about "covfefe" ?)
*Forgot yesterday about Bulfinch's MYTHology as my pre-google
aid.
Nice workout- even with lots of help. Nancy come back soon - with another puzzle.
I'M GONE.
5
and Elke
Andrew/Henry-
my CCs today actually intersect:
1) a mountain pass in both Canada and the US:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Pass_(British_Columbia)
2) IHOP has SYRUPS (pl.)? There's only a Maple one- Not YEW or OAK . The rest are coloured sugar water.
1
Robert, Elke and Andrew,
Nice choices. There is also ROGERS Wireless, which sponsors the Rogers Cup in Montreal and Toronto. It looks like IHOP's flavors are original (presumably maple, but probably not Canadian), blueberry, butter pecan, strawberry, and boysenberry.
Here is my C.C. submission:
42A: "_____ Québécois"
(I think I will celebrate yesterday's find as the highlight of my week.)
2
@Henry Su Robert and Elke
Being late to the game,(dreadfully slow solver here), of course all the good ones were taken! Lol! In light of the CAFES criticism I will offer: Sights along La Grande Allée.
Solved this with my son and his buddy. We plodded along, got the theme, but got stuck in the NE corner. BEST didn't seem plausible to me, and I just assumed 12D was going to be a French word I wouldn't know. Tried CARBAR for 9A, then we entered BAR_AR and tried every letter till we got the happy music. I felt silly when I saw CAFE.
4
For whatever reason, my brain fixated on CHEW ON T(his).
Wasted a good 15 minutes trying to figure out what Thursday trick I was missing, even though I had the revealer complete.
After figuring out (HAT)CHET JOB, my brain finally realized I should be chewing on that instead of this.
It’s interesting how once an incorrect idea is stuck in your mind, how difficult it can be to realize your thinking is wrong
7
@Rod D,
I had the same thought about CHEW ON T(his) and assumed it was a rebus but held off on adding the extra letters until the other themers came into view. I chewed on this one some more and finally got the trick. Suddenly, EMONGER and CHET JOB made sense, although I did have to change YOU DID T to YOU DID W.
2
@Henry Su
I kept my hat off for too long and got burned:
CHEW ON [I] > CHEW ON T[HIS] > CHEW ON T[HAT]
My inner thoughts re puzzle as I was mucking along:
I HATE IT > I DISLIKE THIS > I LOVED THAT
1
@Puzzlemucker
Edit: [I]T > not [I] >
(Never attempt to post a comment without your reading glasses on if over 50)
1
The center square with the word in it should be indicated in some way -- not just a solid black box. Just found this trick annoying rather than intriguing.
3
@Jean
The answer key is definitely confusing.
Seems to me they should replace the black box with "hat" to show where and what the rebus is.
1
Jean,
This is a Thursday puzzle. Thursdays are trick days. No trick if you give it away.
Rod D,
There *is* only a black box; the rebus is (or should be) in your head.
("It's supposed to be hard. Hard is what makes it great.")
8
I also found this to be a particularly tough puzzle for a Thursday, when I expect there to be some trickery and misdirection but not coupled with so much tough cluing. A first pass yielded fewer entries than what I'm used to seeing on Fridays and even some Saturdays.
For example, I wouldn't have understood from the cluing that 17A refers to the MAIN MENU without the helpful cross-reference in 20A (which I guessed as UNDO before changing to EDIT).
In the SW, I had PEEK IN at 63A but didn't think that a "numbers game" would have a "k" as its penultimate letter. As Deb notes, SUDOKU is really a game of logic.
In the SE, I had BLACK HAT but was tripped up by 64A, which I, like David Connell, wanted to be ETRUSCAN and not plain OLD LATIN (ho hum).
I finished in the NE, which was by far the toughest quadrant. I thought 10D had to be AXE but was stymied again by tough cluing for BAR CAR (I don't normally think of a train car as a "place") and BEST (I was thinking adjectives and not verbs, and in any event, have never used "worst" in that sense).
2
@Henry Su - OTOH, "sudoku" is literally Japanese for "number alone (puzzle)."
The Vetus Latina (Old Latin) translation of the Christian Bible is the source, still in use, of many of the peculiarities of Roman Catholic liturgical texts. The Old Latin version of the Psalms is particularly influential long after it has been shown to be unreliable in relation to the original and older sources. OTOH, it is written in Late Latin, not Old Latin!
@David Connell,
Thanks for the pointer to the Vetus Latina, which I just looked up and read about here, http://www.vetus-latina.de/en/index.html. I also see that to avoid confusion with the Vetus Latina, which was written in Late Latin, Old Latin is referred to as "Ancient Latin" (prisca Latinitas).
1
@Henry Su - anybody who follows Henry's link and meets an error page, simply cut off everything after ".de" in the address line and you'll get there.
My love for the Vetus Latina is precisely the disorganization of it, that it is how the church spoke to itself before it was an authority; it was a wilderness of one-off translations from Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew, without imprimatur because nothing was printed, everything was spoken, often whispered. The fact that the version of some Psalm verses that came from that time persists in our Introits and Verses two thousand years later testifies to the strength of a whispered communication.
6
“Etruscan” fit perfectly at 64A and doomed the SE.
9
Yes, Etruscan here too. And they make such wonderful animal sculptures!
Yes @Barry Ancona and yes, @Puzzlemucker, it is indeed me. Thanks for recognizing me and thanks for your really nice and supportive comments. I'm absolutely delighted that you enjoyed the puzzle. It was a lot of fun to work on.
There are already three responses to your earlier comments. If I respond to you under your posts, my comment will disappear into a vast abyss, never to be seen again. Well, maybe by you two, but not by anyone else. So I'm posting this in its own unique spot. If I'm able to cut and paste it, I'll post it under your comments as well. If not, not.
29
@Nancy - Congratulations!
5
@Nancy Well done. Brava!
4
@Nancy
Very nice! Congratulations!
3
Love the black hat theme! Fun puzzle :)
5
Another one within seconds of my average. Found myself down in the SE early. The Western villian stereotype popped right up.
Then IDIDW(HAT) exposed the trick and gave the other 3 themers. Had STACKS instead of SYRUPS for a while. SHRUG and ROGER fixed that. LAMA BESTed GURU.
Last to fall was the NE, where SEDATE and SOMBER seemed Judge appropriate adjectives or style. I avoided AXE for a while thinking it was a trap, but that's what cleaned things up.
I recently mentioned riding in my dad's '41Dodge. My uncle had a DESOTO of similar vintage.
2
Anatomically speaking the radius is a bone in the forearm, not the arm.
1
@Allen Rebchook
English is a funny language, never more so than how it calls a part of the leg the "forearm."
2
@Allen Rebchook
Isn’t your forearm part of your arm?
If so, then besides being a bone in your forearm, the radius is a bone in your arm.
8
@Evan
English is a funny language, never more so than when people don’t appreciate the wryly humerus. Thanks for pulling my leg. HOL (hoot out loud).
5
BARCAR is a place people *were* going, as some of our older NYC metro commuters may recall, but they're gone on the LIRR and Metro North. Connecticut was going to spring for some on the MNR New Haven line, but...
https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-metro-north-bar-cars-20180524-story.html
(The term BAR CAR only applied to commuter trains; long distance trains have and had more sophisticated names for their places of beverage service.)
1
Why is 9 down Best? What am I missing?
2
@Michael stahl Think of "best" and "worst" as verbs. They're actually synonyms... To "best" someone is "to get the better" of them. And getting the better of someone is to "worst them".
When you defeat someone, you both worst them and best them.
12
@Michael stahl
As mentioned earlier, "worst" in this case is verb, not a noun, and though the usage is not that common today, to worst someone is to beat or best them.
@Michael stahl
I was confused to until I read DJ's explanation.
"Beat in a competition" or "Defeat in a competition" would be more appropriate for a Thursday.
"Worst in a competion" is Saturday level.
3
Two TERRIBLE puzzles in a row.
TERRIBLE. Why am I paying for this?
4
@tim carey What did you think was terrible? The theme, I'm guessing?
I used to think that with puzzles, like this, but with practice and reading the daily commentary, I have become better at these to the point where I like the challenge.
8
@tim carey Demand your 11 cents back!
9
Tough one, clever theme.
2
Worst in competition.
Apt.
3
Welcome back, William Innes.
Jolly comforting to see some things don't change.
[wide grin]
2
Feel like expanding on that, William?
3
@Deb Amlen
My interpretation of William’s comment would be “BEST puzzle ever”.
2
This broke my tender streak but I don’t care. It was a delight and a fantastic NYT debut by Nancy Stark.
I found it tough all over, including the theme. Very few proper names. I count 1.5: ACHEBE and DESOTO. Maybe there are others but I didn’t see. Just a lot of challenging clues and a theme that eluded me until long past having used “Check Word” option on the app’s MAIN MENU.
4
Hey, Nancy!
Way to go! Fun Thursday!
(Now, will you critique it?)
4
P.S. That was a nice tip of the [BLACK] HAT to "our"Lewis (and to Erik).
3
@Barry Ancona
Is this “our” Nancy from NYC?
1
Puzzlemucker,
Just how many Nancys from NYC do you think there could be? It has to be "our" Nancy.
3
excellent debut puzzle! caught on with CHEW ON THAT and HATE MONGER. Can't do this one ON AUTO Pilot!
2
@judy d
Ditto!
The discussion of the Wednesday puzzle led me down a rabbit hole of "orthogonals" and that led me to Latin Squares (of which both Sudoku and KenKen are subsets), so there's some nice synergy there...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_square
That led me in turn to the heraldry page for the Statistical Society of Canada, which some of our Canadian friends may enjoy visiting; if Leapy doesn't enjoy it, I don't know her very well!
https://ssc.ca/en/interpretation-coat-arms
15A - Spoiler Alert! (hee hee)
Old Latin took me a little by surprise, but only because I was excited to have Etruscan in a puzzle...but, if it doesn't work, take it out!
Yews and oaks. Beautiful.
7
@David Connell
This Canadian enjoyed the SSC page, David. Thanks!
1
@Jane Jackel - Maple Leaf forever!
How is "Worst in a competition" (9D) a clue for "best"?
3
@shapjul - it's how sports people talk, i.e., it makes little sense:
The red team bested the blue team = they won over them.
The red team worsted the blue team = they won over them.
(less facetiously, they are both _verbs_, not adjectives, in the puzzle)
7
This made no sense to me, either. {Neither did the explanation following.)
2
Please see the "verb" definition:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worst
(It's not just sports, David.)
1