There's no way I would be able to guess at Star Wars AND Aladdin. Crossing them is just a non-starter. :-)
1
Help! 113 down: OREO? Clue left me mystified. Got it only because anything else wouldn’t work.
1
OREO is one of many things you might "add-in" (mix in) to "fro yo" (frozen yogurt). If not OREO, you might prefer sprinkles, M&Ms, chocolate chips, butterscotch nuggets...
1
"Fro yo" is short for frozen yogurt; I guess you can get it with Oreos crumbled on.
1
Thanx.
Paved with good inventions. Definitely.
2
Except for the cross of 41D x 66A. Had me plugging in E, S, Y, I... then ANKHSiously reverting to the old-fashioned alphabet run till Mr HP appeared.
N-veigled
2
We had "idle" crossing "tingle" so we lost our streak. I think both our answers fit the clues. Humph!
Both IDLE and IDLY work perfectly for their clue. But the TINGLY clue seemed just a little off to be TINGLE. TINGLE would be pins and needles feelings, but not like pins and needles feelings.
ABACI?? OMG! That was the last word I filled in to finish the puzzle, but it was only the WAC across that brought me to it. I had no idea why ABACI even registered as the correct answer until I read Deb's commentary. That wasn't the only thing to hang me up today--TABARD was one other--but it did make for a longer than average workout.
3
Got off on the wrong foot with 1D (EATS for "Does course work?"), and the whole puzzle took longer than usual for a Sunday. Figuring out the theme actually helped with DRAGSHOW but the others were more like "OHO, I see now." Even I needed several crosses for 115A--not to mention WAYNESWORLD and IAMLEGEND. Maybe I was groggy from the time change. At least THEBEEGEES was a gimme.
UK rocker Chris Rea sounding very much like Dire Straits with "THE ROAD TO HELL" from 1989:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EBw_da7BZk
Bonus clip: US rocker Marshall Crenshaw with the wonderfully titled "I'm Sorry (But So Is BRENDA LEE)" from 1985:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnXGBgMBpsI
3
IS(BSIBL), lol!!
2
Can someone explain 23 Across to me? Big tower letters? AAA, I don't get it.
Ah. Big tow-er. As in tow your car with AAA. I did not myself get this until now.
3
Ah, man, thanks! That one was driving me nuts!
A fine puzzle. I did find it a bit tedious but since the fill was tricky ( I never got the theme) I somehow felt compelled to finish it. When I say tricky, I mean the things like the mouse clue ... doubleclick fit perfectly. And there were others too numerous to mention and several of which would demonstrate my complete ignorance, such as thegoodneighbor for theroadnottaken. I was thinking of good fences making good neighbors. (When it comes to Robert Frost, I am out in the cold.)
This puzzle took me an inordinate amount of time to finish, possibly the longest since the mid '60s, when a bunch of us worked the Sunday puzzle until Wednesday or Thursday to finish it.
Well done! I hope this is not Natan's last.
3
Maybe The Carpenters will stick to his last.
Nice to see you back, Lawn Guy Land.
Thank you, Leapser! We keep missing each other because I am usually here around 7 PM on Saturday and you are much later. This one took a lot of time for me, so I posted about 132 hours later than I usually do. (all right, maybe 15 hours).
Keep 'em flyin'.
1
I'm sorry, HAL, I can't do that.
3
I'm on the run and will return to read everybody's comments. Just had to tell Natan how much I enjoyed this puzzle especially because "The Road Not Taken" is one of my all time favorite poems. (Maybe next you can do something tricky with "good fences make good neighbors" in a grid?)
Beyond your constructing chops I am even more impressed and grateful to you for your humanitarian efforts. You most surely will not ever be found traveling on THEROADTOHELL.
3
LAWD, what a fine puzzle! It held my interest all the way, even though the crossing of RAINN/PWNS was a 110%Natick for me.
We have a summer cottage on a lake in northern Ontario, and up there they call it LABATT’s.
3
'Black flies, the little black flies...'
I would have thought, even in North On-tare-eye-oh, they'd call the Molson rival MOOSEHEAD.
Nice puzzle. Tricky/clever clues for ATTACK AD, MEDIA BIAS, ALL ABOARD, and SOS. Though PWNS an interesting addition (etymologically, a common typo of “own” (p and o are keyboard neighbors) originating in online gaming taunts and without an official pronunciation. It’s one of those rare and magical mistake words that rival the original, ...like Bush’s “strategery.”) Only ABACI made me cringe, and I was puzzled by the “I. to r.” clue until reading the helpful comments here. Plus, the theme did help me solve at least one entry as I grasped for the correct verb for batting (DRIVE IN A RUN). Good Sunday!
1
Blew a 13 day streak on that one. Most of the tricky clues came to me, eventually, but I was flummoxed for want of a Y at the intersection of TINGLE and IDLE. After 37 minutes of frustration, I clicked on the life saver. Some of the clues made me smile though.
4
Exactly where I was stuck. Thought it was right for an hour!
My last change, too.
I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. A SLEW of fun, challenging, and fair clues: ALL ABOARD; ATTACK ADS; UPHOLSTER; WCS; DRIVE IN A RUN; OUTIE; SHADE. And I learned about BRENDA LEE and PWNS.
I thought I was all set, got the "almost there" prompt. Drove me crazy to the point that I printed it out and went over the clues yet again, one at a time. It finally came clear: IDLE and TINGLE were IDLY and TINGLY!
Sheesh.
3
Thanks for your comment, I was in the same spot with idle and tingle, but didn't see it at all.
My streak may be a tiny bit fraudulent now, but you've given me a contented Sunday which is priceless.
All the best.
2
A similar situation happened several months ago with me putting OLD instead of OLE for ____Miss. I didn't catch that one before I gave up. I didn't want to end my streak today.
Exactly my trouble, too! Idle and tingle. Drat.
For 99d I briefly had NO S_I_. Couldn't believe the naughty word I was seeing would be in a puzzle, but it did fit the definition.
9
Sorry but I must be slow . I filled in the entire puzzle and get the road not taken but I still don't understand the circled RSED and OS and the bottom of the puzzle. Are they related somehow to crossed? Please explain. I really enjoy the NY times puzzles and especially look forward to the Sunday puzzle. Thanks for your help.
1
Hi Ruth,
There are two roads to take for each of the theme entries. One is the Across entry read "as is," like 97A's DRIVE IN A RUN.
The other is s divergent road, where you start at the beginning again, but change lanes and follow the circled letters to the end. So at that 97A entry, you would start again at the beginning and read it as DRIVER'S ED.
Does that make sense?
2
Deb, I think that Ruth is referring to 117A, Pathfinder, Pathos.
1
AHA! now I see it. Thanks so much. It was really bugging me since I did not diverge. Thanks for your help
2
Somehow once I had WORLD as part of the first theme answer, WAYNE'S popped into my head although I've certainly not seen it or the sketch. The circles led to WAY OF LIFE, and I was delighted with the clever theme. Still lots of work to be done, but had fun all along the way.
Of Deb's favorite fills, I was unfamiliar with UPSELL and STUBHUB, so good to learn those, but still don't really understand PWNS, but think I'll manage to carry on anyway.
Really tricky construction to make those diagonal "divergences" work, but the puzzle didn't suffer IMO, so thanks Nathan for a great Sunday puzzle.
3
Santa's reindeer: 1. Dasher; 2. Dancer; 3. Prancer; 4. Vixen; 5. Comet; 6. Cupid; 7. Donner; 8. Blitzen
But do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all ?
Santa's reindeer is a NONET. No idea how the constructor got away with OCTET.
8
Santa did just fine with an OCTET for 116 years until a retailer decided to amp up the selling season.*
*Rudolph first appeared in a 1939 booklet written by Robert L. May and published by Montgomery Ward, the department store.
8
And then there's Olive, the other reindeer.
8
@ Barry that is a very fun fact! But still then for the past 80 (almost) years santa had had 9 reindeer so I think my point still stands.
Regarding the new comments format, to further elaborate:
Using the Opera browser, as I said, I get the new format, which has the sequencing issue I mentioned before, and the green checks are missing. Switching to Edge, I get the new one as well. Using Firefox or Chrome, I get the old one, where the green checks still show up.
For all I know, it's totally random, and has nothing to do with the browser. When I open the NYT home page, it's a crapshoot whether I get the usual format or a new beta version where the link to the crossword is way at the bottom.
Oh. I've just got this one steam-powered desktop...
3
so this puzzle though clever offered only one major solution I knew immediately: the Frost line. (The road not taken) And for me there were far too many references to music I never heard of, and authors so obscure that even this long-lived avid reader was stumped. when I have to look up more than two or maybe three references on The Internet I lose all interest, and I think theme clues should pop right out after you've gotten the lead. Driveinarun didn't, and draganddrop was concealed, not revealed, by the conceit of divergence. Making intrapuzzle patterns might amuse the constructor but the process often tortures the solver.
1
Not this one!
5
Nor I. This was thoroughly enjoyable for me.
3
DRAG AND DROP/DRAG SHOW was the first themer I got and revealed the theme to me.
My mileage varied.
1
I found most of the puzzle easier than usual. I did not bother with the divergent part of the clues because I was able to get the first part of each clue easily. And the circles were not letters I needed help with in other clues. So, while clever, the theme was unnecessary. ABACI was the toughest for me and I didn't even see it at first once I filled in all of its letters. Then I groaned in appreciation. For PWNS I had no clue, but it filled itself in and my teenager confirmed it. ACR took a while. Also, I really liked PAROLED. And I agree that MEDIABIAS does not actually apply to columns.
1
"So, while clever, the theme was unnecessary."
Good morning, CB. Did you read the column? Deb suggested something quite similar yesterday: "One of things I liked about today’s theme is that the entire puzzle is solvable even if you don’t take those detours."
3
This is for the Sunday Mini. Jazz has more points than quiz in Scrabble!
1
But there's only one z in the game.
8
Thanks, Viv. You beat me to it.
3
I finished last night with errors and came back to it this a.m thinking that a night's sleep would help. Finally gave up and ran a check. Two errors were should have knowns: MOW/MSN -doing course work was a clever mis-direction; UNHOLSTER, which somebody might do in order to provide cover in a dangerous situation and ATP was a complete unknown to me; and finally WAC also an unknown. PWN was also an unknown, but I was sure of the crosses. I did get all of Deb's tricky clues without a problem and I enjoyed the theme.
What happened to the "archive"? I like to do ten year old Friday/Saturday puzzles on Sunday. They are more challenging.
The links for the Archive and the Statistics pages are at the very top of the main web page for the puzzles - sometimes they go all subtle like that.
I do the old Saturday puzzles too. Started at the oldest Saturdays. Working forward and now at May 1999. Much better then. Even the old Sundays better in the 90s. I'm doing them in a puzzle book I got for Christmas last year.
2
The good news: completed puzzle without hint or help. The bad news: couldn't figure out what the heck the theme was.
1
BTW, with this newfangled display, I'm now allowed to reply to a person who has replied to a comment him/herself (see just below "in response to Sleigh." However, it would really be nice if this type of comment would appear with the one I'm responding to, instead of as a separate comment.
2
What is this "newfangled display" people are talking about?
Mine looks the same as ever, except when it's having its periodic glitches, which are themselves similar to those that have gone before.
1
Depends on what device and what browser you’re using. And even if you see exactly what you’ve been seeing all along, one time you may open up Wordplay or any article that allows comments, and suddenly, the new version will be there.
The NYT home page also has a new version, where the link to the puzzle is way down near the bottom, and it’s pot luck (for me, at least) which one will open. You can click to revert to the old one, but that doesn’t mean the new one won’t come up the next time.
Nice Sunday challenge. I didn't catch on to the fact that all of the themes were variations on 'ROAD' until after I was done - made it that much better. Not a complete success for me (an understatement), but I enjoyed working out what I got. The theme answers helped a lot - sometimes working one way and sometimes the other. For example, WAY OFLIFE led me to WAYNES WORLD. Like others I was a bit surprised by BRENDA LEE and it took me a while to work that out.
WAY, WEH, HUE jumped out at me and reminded me of this bit of dialogue early one morning on a firebase on an unusually clear day in 1970. "Wow, you can see the ocean from here!" "Really? Can you see Hue out there?" "Oh yeah, way, way out there." And a note to our constructor - if you are ever inclined to donate blood, mention that you have been in a malarial area. Don't know if those rules are still the same, but it's worth checking.
And here's an appropriate song for various reasons. ALL ABOARD!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2VZjE6JdHg
..
2
"Hue down upon the Perfume River..."
2
Well played Barry...well played.
2
Does the Times pay people for these? Is there a submittal process?
Rebecca, yes and yes. Here you go:
https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/submissions
..
1
Given the recent issue with comments not posting properly, Rich, I wasn't sure whether Rebecca's "these" was a reference to puzzles or comments.
Also, I'm testing Steve L's comment that with this "newfangled display" he could not reply to a reply. Maybe we have different displays?
Something goofy has been going on all this past week - subthreads where there used to just be threads - comments disappearing or being delayed. This morning there's a new wrinkle, posts with the time "false". I imagine this latest development has to do with the clock change, but who knows.
The system was working well for a couple of weeks there. Time to make "improvements..."
1
The puzzle didn't feel like a slog as some Sundays do -- I thought it had a good blend of spark and challenge. A strong thumbs up here. The theme actually did help my solve; I saw it about midway through. I like that the circled diagonals shoot off of different kinds of byways: WAY, ROAD, DRIVE, PATH, and DRAG (as in main drag). Terrific clues for DRIVE IN A RUN, ABACI, and PAROLED. And who knew that piece of trivia about Brenda Lee??? There was a word-ending-with-ER (8), word-ending-with-AR (7) mini theme. And I don't know why, but I love having EULER and THE BEEGEES as neighbors.
But mostly, this puzzle gave me a good frame of reference for where I seem to be standing since last November:
1. Standing on THE ROAD TO HELL dreaming about THE ROAD NOT TAKEN.
2. Standing at the intersection of NO YOU DIDN'T and GOD HELP US.
12
and ELKE (aka sometimes known as 'crossword glue')
Was glad to see the circles , without which I would have been in a blind alley.
Liked seeing GILDA, because it reminded me of GILDA Radner . sniff.
Thanks to Deb's column we know what Natan L. is involved in now. He says that Robert Frost's 'The Road Not Taken' was his jumping-off point for the puzzle (and his current employment ).
Robert Frost reminds me of the JFK Inauguration (Jan.20, 1961). On that occasion the poet recited by heart 'The Gift Outright' ; he had also written one for the occasion (but bright sun glare prevented him from reading it ). It was JFK's speech though that really made an impact . The President urged young Americans 'Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country'.
Seems that Natan L. managed to heed both messages- and create an interesting puzzle to boot.
My admiration to him !
6
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” (JFK, 1960).
“Are you better off than you were four years ago?” (Reagan, 1980).
Thereiin lies the root of our problem.
7
Not sure about the Reagan quote, but JFK said that in 1961 at the inauguration. Please don't be upset with me, I have COPD and ONPD and I am a big fan of NYPD and FDNY.
MEDIABIAS is specifically *not* a slant in newspaper columns, which are expected to be biased, but in stories.
5
Of course, Paul, but it's a clue, not a definition. If you push it, you will be told that *all* newspaper copy appears in columns.
3
I really tire of the "clue not a definition" excuse for bad clues.
5
Were you too tired to read the second sentence of my comment? Also, MEDIA BIAS does, in fact, properly refer to the "slant" of entire publications or media generally, and *does* include editorials and opinion columns.
2
I don't understand l. to r. clue or answer. As a radiologist, standard display of medical images is from left to right, and acr are the initials of the American College of Radiology, but that seems both far-fetched and obscure as an answer to any clue. Please help me to understand what the puzzle composer intended.
Abbreviation of “across”, maybe?
8
Well, I'll be darned, Kurt.
3
But across is not only l to r. It's u and d too.
I've been told that Natan originally had HOR (for horizontal) but when they unfolded his notes, the H changed to an A and the O changed to a C. The moral? Use a stiff piece of cardboard under your notes if you are not working at a desk.
Gaining an hour tonight, I decided to tackle the puzzle today rather than waiting till morning. I'm not a night person so that may be why it took me longer than most Sundays.
Put WE'VE HAD IT before GOD HELP US; SUCCESS before SUCROSE for 'sweet stuff' I filled in STUB HUB but thought I was being overly cute.
When I found out about the diagonal 'extras' I went back to look, but never figured out what RSED meant or how it connected to DRIVE IN A RUN.
Must admit I didn't find the whole thing particularly enjoyable except for the inclusion of THE ROAD NOT TAKEN.
Unlike the other answers, there's not a clean word break there... the divergence is DRIVERS ED.
1
Driver's ed. Driver's education classes
I think
1
Veered from one's planned route on a road trip?
DRIVERSED.
3
Wait! What is “From I. to r.”?! From Liz B’s comment, I’m assuming ACR is for ACRoss, but I still don’t get it.
Not I. It’s L. Left to right.
2
Doh! Thanks!
2
LAWD for 78D? Really?
Between that and the frustrating fact that i can’t see those blasted circles on the iPad app, this puzzle did not bring joy. So, as Marie Komdo advises, I will toss it away.
1
Better than YAHWEH, if you're a religious Jew.
3
I didn't put together the title with any discernible theme until I got to DRAG AND DROP/SHOW. After that, the theme was actually quite helpful in solving the rest of the puzzle.
But I felt like I was detoured into an awful lot of naticks!
In the 65 square, I didn't know either of the crossing entries, but ELSA was at least a known name, so I took a chance. Still don't know who she is, or haven't gotten around to looking up ATP.
In the 71 square, I was completely lost. Started running the alphabet, and at the J a dim bell rang -- possibly from whatever year's Tony Awards -- with JAFAR. Took another chance.
At the crossing of RAINN and PWNS, I again started running the alphabet, but quickly realized that nothing I could put there would make any sense to me. So I gave up and revealed that letter. Surprisingly, MHP showed up, so that one Reveal also validated my guesses at the other two naticks. Whew!
I had some other things that took a long time to dredge up/figure out: WAYNE'S WORLD, USFL, MSN, PATHFINDERS, ELFMAN, BRENDA LEE (#3? really?). LA BATT, NERISSA, some others.
Nice and meaty, Natan. And I'll forgive you for putting the KOCH Bros. into my brain since it wasn't really your fault.
5
What does MHP mean? I do not understand this paragraph in the context of the crossing between RAINN and PWNS. Thank you
MHP is "Mr. Happy Pencil", the common nickname for the graphic that appears at the end of a successfully completed crossword in the Across Lite program. See:
https://wordplay.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/happy-pencil/
2
Sorry, Houston Puzzler (Mr. or Ms. HP?) It's what Craig said.
The surprise was that one reveal told me the whole puzzle had been successfully completed, thus verifying my two guesses.
I had to stare at the finished puzzle for a while to get the divergences and how they worked. Sometimes I'm just blind to things like that. DRAG AND DROP was the first theme answer I got by thinking about it; the rest of them kind of filled in on their own. It did feel like there were a lot of political/media clues/answers, which didn't improve my mood. I didn't know JAWA but I did know JAFAR, and PWNS. HORizontal before ACR.
Neat theme.
1
I had to look up PWN and found this bit of info: From own, possibly born out of a typographical error (o being adjacent to p on qwerty keyboards).
2
An Internet security expert named Troy Hunt created a web site to help people know if their username or email address has been compromised by being in stolen or breached data - it's called https://haveibeenpwned.com/
It's a very subcultural word though.
2
PWN is derived from Leetspeak, which was popular among gamers a few years back. I saw it often in City of Heroes when I used to play it.
1
glad to see Robert Frost poem. Things we learn in high school stay with us forever -- as opposed to things we learned this morning!!
7
"Sad to see an Ed KOCH clue become Koch Industries..."
Given his resume, I doubted the published clue came from the constructor; shame on the editors for changing it. That was one of several NONOS in an otherwise delightful and thoughtful puzzle.
19
I totally agree!
Thankfully it was changed as I would likely not gotten an Ed Koch clue. We aren't all New Yorkers. But as an energy industry consultant, Koch Ind was a piece of cake.
1
Could this be an example of MEDIA BIAS...?
1
Good puzzle. I had to guess at the J in JAWA and JAFAR, and lo and behold it was right.
Pretty darn clever.
4