My favorite crossword ever ever ever. The placement of the crypt, the cross, the clever letter clues to crypt. Most fun puzzle I've done. Thanks you!
Thanks for the special and personal fill (definitely not FILL) - an epic tribute puzzle today Bruce!
I love the new counting of day-of-the-week "streaks"! It gives us Thursday-skippers something to aim for (besides lowering average times).
How good of you, Bruce, to use your devastating tragedy to help and protect others. Thank you.
Like others, I wondered about the pronunciation of VALETED. When I -- briefly and very long ago -- drove a car, I only parked it myself. I wonder if the VALETs themselves refer to their job as VALETing.
TEA BISCUIT reminded me of a little diner-ish, mostly take-out restaurant that was near a place where I used to do a lot of work. Their TEA BISCUITs were absolutely wonderful, and the closest thing I've tasted since I was a child to my grandmother's scones. (These were what are sometimes called Dundee [where she came from] scones, and are very different indeed from those sweet pastries that are called scones here.)
Besides that, loved some of the other sparkly fill -- SEA SERPENT, PEA GRAVEL, others.
Nice to have a good recognition of my favorite holiday. Thank you.
1
@Deadline One of my sons was a valet for several years and yes, I've heard him say both 'valeting' and 'valeted.'
..
1
Thank you Mr. Haight for a nice Halloween puzzle. I’m so sorry to read of your loss.
CRYPT was a guess really. With SEA, PEA, and TEA, I doubted the other clues to the blind box theme. I had ARE and WHY, but mistakenly thought the fill should rhyme with SEA and spent a bit of time trying to figure something out that didn’t exist. Man, I hate it when that happens!
Here, in Conway, Halloween is an enjoyable holiday. My husband and I typically sit on our front porch with a big bowl of candy. We oooh and aaah over the cute or scary costumes of the kids that come by. Our rocking chairs will be empty tonight due to rain storms. I can’t eat the candy and hubby shouldn’t. Oh well... certainly not the biggest problem of the year!
:-)
1
Tuesday's puzzle on Monday, Wednesday's puzzle yesterday, and Tuesday's puzzle today. Nevertheless, loved it.
Went smoothly except for kUJO, AGASt, concern over 22A starting with KG, S in last cell of 26A (I've *got* to stop doing that!), and N in first cell of 51A (wrong club). Caught the theme early thanks to the shading.
Welcome again ALE, RHO, ENO, and ATON. VALETED??
Clever grid layout (cross, "crypt," left/right symmetry). Again, kudos Mr. Haight! (Ditto many others: sympathies on your loss, but congratulation on the legislation.)
B t all! (Stll having troubles with my Y, U, I, and O keys ...)
1
NOBODY I know pronounces Y and Why the same, but I guess I should get used to it when solving puzzles ;-). Is ignoring WH (or HW) an east coast thing? Just curious.
Margaret,
American dictionaries on line show both the wi and hwi pronunciation. Interestingly, most English dictionaries on line show (or sound) only the wi.
@Margaret
"NOBODY I know pronounces Y and Why the same,"
Amazing. Never knew the distinction.
4
Love the little witch hat on the Genius Bee today!
2
@Petaltown
Loved the witchy Bee too - so fun! The "Monster Mash" video Deb included in the Blog is hilarious - another fun Hallowe'en treat.
Stuck pn one last clue (well,two,actually, counting the cross). I kept thinking Rand, as in Paul Rand, because I knew A guy named Paul was the right answer.
Other than that, this was easy! What a thing for me to say...!
1
@El Jay
The guy you're thinking of is Rand Paul, not Paul Rand.
Steve,
I don't pretend to know which guy El Jay was thinking of. While you may not know Paul Rand by name, I'm sure you know his work.
http://www.designishistory.com/1960/paul-rand/
1
@Barry Ancona
I never heard of Paul Rand before, I'll admit, but since the correct answer is Paul RYAN, I would have assumed that he was confusing his Republican congressmen.
Rand Paul's father is Ron Paul, also a politician. I knew someone else named Ron Paul, so I guess that any plausible name out there belongs to somebody, if not several people.
Thought on encountering the clue for 55D: is this how one gets into 67A?
Stuck by the answer Amex since it is abbreviated and the clue was not.
Finally realized it had to be the only answer.
Not a fan of Halloween. Too scary and too chocolatey!
Got Snickers to give out, but they have been busy calling me!
Can't wait to give out every last one tonight!
May I say how truly sorry I am for your loss, Bruce.
Nothing sadder than to lose one's child.
Yet you went on to protect other children.
Honored to celebrate your son in your work of art crossword puzzle.
You are an inspiration.
5
Am I the only one who got hung up on the SW corner? I finished the puzzle eventually, but it took much longer than my average Wednesday time.
I definitely tripped myself up with a few crossword classics that were red herrings today: Dear JOHN, ANTE up, and an unwillingness to accept AMEX when the clue didn't indicate an abbreviation...
1
JT,
When you read the comments you will discover others who had trouble in the southwest.
CUJO wishes us a happy Halloween. Remember, don't be a weenie. Be a Halloweenie.
By the way, my post from yesterday can be found on t-shirts and coffee mugs, at a minimum. Like I made that up? I saw someone wearing it the other day.
I bought a bunch of candy for the kids this year. What do you give out? I'm always looking for better ideas.
I'm starting to feel a little ANTZy again. Halloween and the World Series remind me of the election two years ago. Let's hope for the best, however you see it.
3
My heart goes out to you, Bruce...
What I liked best about this puzzle was a group of excellent answers: GO FLAT, NEST EGG, ARE WE GOOD, GOMORRAH, ROTARY CLUBS, and DITTY. Not to mention its four debut answers, KGB MOLE, TAX LAWS, TEA BISCUIT, and VIDEO CAM (and I'm surprised that this last one hasn't been done before).
The cross of DITTY and BRINY brought sea chanteys (also called shanties) to mind, and I did a bit of Wiki reading on that (bless the knowledge-enriching power of crosswords!), and one thing I learned was that there was a type of work that chanties were sung to called "cotton screwing" (a method of compressing cotton bales to fit in the holds of ships). I never heard of cotton screwing before, and I'm guessing neither have most of you, so there's your fact for the day. And thank you Bruce!
5
Sorry about this repetition -- this post was written five hours ago and didn't show up, I'm guessing, due to a certain word. So I rewrote it without that word and I see it showed up about an hour ago. Sigh.
@Lewis
Too bad about that Lewis. For once I'm glad I'm late. I was rather disappointed when I went to YouTube looking for a remembered recording of a sea shanty by either Harry Lauder or Stanley Holloway and couldn't find it. I feel better now, having learned for the first time about cotton euphamisming.
I originally thought all the grey boxes would match, like yesterday. It led for a lot of nonsense, but once I figured out the theme they fell in quickly.
I was overjoyed to see St OLAF in the puzzle. My alma mater!
5
Bronwyn,
OLAF has appeared 77 times in the Shortz era, clued to the college 14 of those times. The other college in Northfield has never appeared.
I'll add my condolences to Bruce and his family; I can't imagine anything worse than losing a child, but it is good to know that his name will live on in such a positive way.
Enjoyed the puzzle and the way the theme was done. A pretty typical Wednesday for me; I struggled in a few places, but managed to work it all out. Notable moment for me involved 9d. For reasons unknown, I had managed to type in DOWER at 44a, so once I had the rest of that worked out I was left looking at PEAGRAVER for 9d. I spent a long moment looking at various crosses and trying to imagine what similar word or phrase could possibly work before the obvious dawned on me.
This will be our first Halloween with our chihuahua, Lefty (who will sometime in the near future become my new avatar). I anticipate at least 2 hours of non-stop barking. Should be lots of fun. I enjoy Halloween but, besides Lefty, I have one more reason to look forward to tomorrow: Movie channels showing something other than horror flicks (when did Halloween become a month long celebration?)
2
@Rich in Atlanta
"(when did Halloween become a month long celebration?)"
My drugstore and several other places have had Xmas merchandise and decorations out for at least the past couple of weeks. I believe the Halloween candy was on the shelves somewhere around the Fourth of July. Bet it's really yummy now!
Can't wait to see a picture of Lefty! How old is he, and when did you get him? (Give him an ear scratch from Jessica and me.)
@Deadline We're not sure how old he is. Our vet says he's probably about 3 1/2 now.
Lefty adopted us and, according to Dr. J it was about a year and a half ago (so I guess he was here last Halloween; I just didn't recall that). He just showed up in our yard one day (inside the fenced part). He had a collar but no chip. We posted on the neighborhood web site and put posters up all over the place, but no one ever came forward to claim him, and he showed no inclination to leave so he's ours now.
1
@Rich in Atlanta
Make that "now and forever," RiA. So many of the animals who have enriched my life have happened to me in much the same way.
Homeless animals have an unerring instinct about where to turn themselves in.
2
[meta comment]
Notice how there are two or three threads of actual conversation and the rest is largely individuals speaking to the void. I predicted this months ago as the inevitable consequence of the changes made at the tech-crew level here. It's so "ferric" that in the midst of these months of change/atrophy, an article was published celebrating the sense of community and dialog (for DL, dialogue), that this site USED to foster.
[what are we going to do about it?]
1
David,
Please read the thread Dan started asking about RHO. It may just be a Halloween trick, but the comments system is working properly today.
@Barry Ancona - my point is not whether it works TODAY or not - just that the end result I predicted months ago has resulted: we are no longer trusting the system in any way whatsoever. We are not responding or conversing. A few people, especially newbies who haven't had their fingers burnt OVER and OVER again, maybe there will be a thread. My point is valid. "They" set out to destroy dialog AND they accomplished it. Promises kept. Sound familiar?
1
RiA and Barry, as per the current status of comments, I wonder. I sent David a reply that seems to have lodged itself somewhere in between the Ethernet and the intangible, unimaginable Cloud.
1
According to the constructor’s notes, Mr. Haight hadn’t considered this puzzle for Halloween. After reading about the puzzle in Rex’s blog (including a comment by Mr. Haight himself), it seems to me that this puzzle was intended for a very different holiday, in the spring. Interesting.
In this day and age of algorithm-driven applications, can we still say this puzzle is encrypted?
Thank you Bruce for courageous commentary.
3
My heart goes out to you, Bruce...
What I liked best about this puzzle was a group of excellent answers: GO FLAT, NEST EGG, ARE WE GOOD, GOMORRAH, ROTARY CLUBS, and DITTY. Not to mention its four debut answers, KGB MOLE, TAX LAWS, TEA BISCUIT, and VIDEO CAM (and I'm surprised that this last one hasn't been done before).
The cross of DITTY and BRINY brought sea chanteys (also called shanties) to mind. I did a bit of Wiki reading on that and learned some cool things. Praises to the knowledge-enriching power of crosswords! And thank you for this entertaining puzzle, Bruce.
2
Bruce raises the question of pronunciation of "valeted", and it's an interesting point.
Valet in Britain is generally pronounced "VALL-ett", while in the USA it is "va-LAY"; thus the passive form "valeted" would be "VALL-e-ted" in England but "va-LAID" in the US.
This isn't distinct from the shudder-inducing (to me) southwestern pronunciation of "Colo-RADD-uh" and "Ne-VADD-uh" versus the non-southwestern "Colo-RAH-do" and "Ne-VAH-da" - the dominant culture imposes its dominance by refusing to "hear" or "speak" according to the rules of the dominated language - in the case of Britain, French; in the southwestern USA, Spanish.
It's also a distant relative of the "kibitz" discussions held here regularly [I will not mention the dread "deli"]: what does a word mean? how is a word pronounced? The answer, unsurprisingly: it depends.
@David Connell - my post was meant to echo Brutus, not Bruce...
et tu, Brute?
@David Connell
I'd always said "Color-AH-doh" and "Nev-AH-duh" until a couple of years ago when there was a great todo on a couple of TV news/commentary outlets about the pronunciation of the latter. (There was a lot of coverage of a particular political race in that state that year.) We were told by natives of the state -- repeatedly -- that the correct pronunciation was "Nev-AD-uh." I've tried to do it that way ever since. At least on the rare occasions when the word enters my conversation.
So far I'm sticking with "Color-AH-doh."
@Deadline - I've been discouraged to hear that natives of those states who ought to know better have accommodated themselves to the Great White Father pronunciations. In the past two years' political reporting on the radio, I've heard the awful, nasty colonialist versions employed by everyone who claims those states as home. It doesn't make it right, it just means, Great White Father wins again. Yay?
My point remains: people in power mispronounce in order to make others more other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR1MtfmRZlQ
2
This is the first mid-week puzzle where I’ve not had to use the hint system; so that says a lot about how well it was constructed! I did have to look up a handful of answers, though. My brain wouldn’t make the leap from deus to dea, for some reason. And though I was familiar with the name “angel dust” I completely blanked on what drug it was.
Other lookups:
Antz (I always forget that was a thing)
Ada and Cujo (I need to read more)
Tiff (isn’t it funny how all my lookups today were 4 or less? I first wrote “rift” but that made no sense for the crossings)
I was quite pleased at getting Tea Biscuit and Why Me early on, which nailed the theme for me straight away. Helped by my remembering of Aramaic. My first complete answer today was Valeted followed by IVs. I stumbled on “obit” (I was sure “bio” would be part of it) and initially put Phi instead of Rho, but my mostly-forgotten classical education came back enough to remind me.
A lot of the clues started falling into place quite easily once I got a few crossings. Think I’ll go back and try some more wednesdays now!
6
Can someone please parse RHO?
Rho is the Greek letter for P. Plato was Greek, so the clue is hinting that the answer is in Greek.
@Dan
Rho is the greek letter corresponding to 'P'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rho
@Dan Greek letter shaped like a "P" but pronounced as an "R" I think.
Hmmm...some of the Comments are cetainly CRYPTic.
Apparently I did the puzzle at some point during the night--very straightforward, and easier than the Tuesday puzzle--so here I am with not much to say.
Halloween is one of the topmost events in a child's year; our kids always started planning for the next year's costume onn November 1st.... During most of their childhood years, we had to plan get-ups that would fit over a parka, and we frequently went out trick-or-treating in sleet or snow. We gave out roasted peanuts (back before the great wave of allergy-sufferers.)
And now-- it's the first wedding anniversary of our son and his wife. Well, he'll never overlook the day...(Unlike someone who shall remain nameless, cough cough)
5
Well, saints and begorrah, there is a Spelling Bee comment showing 8 replies (on a MacBook, at least)! Is this a special Halloween edition of the Comment section? Or is the Comment section cured at last?
Here's hoping that the techies figured it out, because some days it seems like the bulk of the comments are about the Comments section not working instead of the puzzles themselves. I know we'd all rather talk about the puzzles! And life, the universe and everything else.
1
As I finished in less than usual Wednesday time, I should have no quibbles with this cute, appropriate Halloween puzzle. That said -- it is the Crossword Blog after all -- I did think the cluing in the SW corner overly vague. 1998 as the sole hint for an animated movie? I have trouble remembering my anniversary year!!! "____ John" -- I had a few for that one too, including Sean and Pope. Only the reluctant entry of "Cmon" saved that corner, rendering "Amex" obvious (which I suppose it should have been at the beginning). Funny how our brains connect or not.
Kudos again to the creators of crossword puzzles, including you Mr. Haight! It's not a challenge that I'm ready to take on anytime soon. Please forgive our little quibbles and understand them for what they are . . . . little.
5
Dear Bruce,
You make the heart ache and swell crafting obituaries for Ryan in law and in puzzles.
A.
7
I was frozen, fraught with fright upon entering VALETED. Pro-no query: Is the ‘T’ silent or hard?...Whether Hopper’s and Nicholson’s characters stashed NESTEGGS while on their ‘find America’ trek in Easy Rider is open to debate. Not subject to argument is the hilarity of the dialogue during the TIFF between Haggerty and Brooks in Lost In America. The spat ensued after said security blanket was squandered by Julie’s character during a gambling binge. Albert’s stern lecture SCENE channels Economics 101. Adam Smith is probably rolling over in his CRYPT.
https://youtu.be/xdMilnKGJdA
Happy Halloween,
Bru
1
I don't remember when I've seen a puzzle where all the pieces fit together so perfectly to create a true masterpiece of multi-layered meaning and solving fun.
It's hard to believe that the cross -- a perfect touch positioned over the CRYPT -- wasn't planned. Obviously it was meant to be. I can almost hear an angel, ELENA, singing "AVE Maria" above the cross.
And another beautiful touch is the inclusion of RYAN. His is both a very sad and beautiful story what with all the good his law is doing today. My condolences to you, Mr. Haight.
This is not your usual Halloween theme. It's so much better.
Bravo, Bruce!
16
"This is not your usual Halloween theme. It's so much better."
Amen.
7
Deepest sympathies, Mr. Haight.
Looking at this grid and the date, I said to myself, "I'll bet 67A is gonna be CRYPT" -- and the puzzle did not disappoint.
2
GRRRR!! The “mechanics” of solving on an iPad got me!
With the cursor resting on the entry at 67 Across, all of the helpful shading in the clue words disappears in “highlighting”.
There’s no way - I contend - to make sense out of the whole words in the clue answers without the shading.
Ah me!
1
I had the same experience on my iPhone. To get around it, I toggled my cursor in and out of the empty blocks at 67A a couple of times to remind me of which squares were shaded.
2
@PFW
Agree that the shading is essential (for a Wednesday).
@PFW
I wonder if there is an issue with Settings. I did the same as you and the highlights popped.
Heartfelt condolences, Mr. Haight. Thank you for sharing Ryan's story and for protecting others through his legacy. I can't think of a better tribute.
I enjoyed this puzzle from start to finish. As a relative newbie to crosswords, especially the tricks (and treats) of themes, I was grateful to have the squares highlighted - they helped me finish on my own without having to come here for help or look anything up, which always feels like a win. I did learn accidentally that Agast is an accepted and simplified form of Aghast, which I tried in vain to use for AGASP. Who knew! Love that CRYPT is alone & "underground" at the bottom.
8
@Lizziefish
Ditto AGASt rather than AGASP initially (didn't know it was "accepted!"). tEAGRAVEL seemed OK to me! Fortunately, figured out theme early, so realized the error straightaway.
1
N.B. The clue was "Audibly horrified."
AGASP involves a sound; AGAST does not.
3
@Barry Ancona
Not to mention that it's AGHAST, not AGAST. (Heh, heh, I just did mention it...)
Fun for a spooky day! The shaded squares have a sort of ghostly appearance that works well with the theme.
My condolences, Bruce. The legislation in your son’s honor is a generous legacy.
1
"A trick in a Wednesday puzzle is no treat," howled TOM humorlessly.
Yesterday's TEABISCUIT was the last of the Apple Strudel made this weekend. Dough was not stretched thin enough (should be able to read a news paper through the dough or perhaps solve a puzzle) so the crust was like chewing on a sneaker. Better luck on my second try later in November.
Pumpkins are carved with symbolic logic symbols. I have a 20 for the first kid that figures it out.
Thank you Bruce
2
Echoing the sentiments so many have expressed before me, I am sending special prayers to Bruce and family.
As for the puzzle, it did not disappoint. Bruce's puzzles never do.
I am looking forward to next year's Halloween puzzle -- because it's a Thursday!! I hope it turns out to be a Bruce Haight extravaganza. The only kind of Haight we need.
7
cute puzzle for Halloween, not too long. Only missed one square. I thought if "An Armada was destroyed" it sank to the BRINY depths. I put that instead of the correct active form of the verb, SUNK. Oh well live and learn.
Joseph,
In those sank/sunk dilemmas, I find it helpful to examine the cross word...
Joseph,
What Barry said.
I might also add that the best way to avoid that problem is to work in a herringbone pattern. No matter how easy the answers are in one direction, alternate answering, an across, then a down, then an across, then a down, within a section, to make sure you don't put one "good" answer when the right answer is a different "good" answer.
In this puzzle, I would do (if I know the answers) 1A, then 1D, then 14A, then 2D, then17A, then 3D, and so forth.
Doing that, you'd have seen immediately that it couldn't have been REVAE at 15A.
2
Today I agree with those who found this easy, but good fun as the theme gradually revealed itself. I did have a little bunch of unknowns in the SW corner, so finally looked up the angel dust and guessed the rest correctly.
Bruce, I hope you and your family take some comfort knowing that you have saved many many families from going through the grief that you had.
9
SB - Just got back in from stargazing (best time of year for it, despite the super-bright moon) and ran through the Bee very quickly. My first chance to post the grid!
25 words
84 points
Bingo
1 Pangram
C 4 0 1 1 (6)
I 0 0 0 1 (1)
L 3 1 0 0 (4)
P 4 1 2 0 (7)
R 1 0 0 0 (1)
T 2 2 0 0 (4)
U 0 1 1 0 (2)
(14) (5) (4) (2) (25)
Nothing longer than 7 letters! Three compounds, all using the same element. The pangram is in its complex origins a compound, but nobody thinks of it as such. None of the words is far from normal usage to my eye.
9
@David Connell - Spoiler alert! Don't follow this link until after you've found the pangram! Major spoiler alert. But the history of the word is well covered in this link:
https://tinyurl.com/The-Pangram
7
@David Connell Thank you David!. Got to G with 19/64 but could go no further without grid. Back to the hive!
Love your posts--am learning so much from them.
@David Connell
Thanks for the breakdown. Got the pangram (and 3 "p" words) easily after you posted. Then, I followed your link for some fun reading. Good morning and Happy Halloween.
Don’t know if anyone else noticed that the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act abbreviates to the RHO-PCP Act. Along with RYAN, an excellent way to pay tribute to your son, Mr. Haight.
28
Tricky. A real treat. ;-)
4
Fitting that in place of the gisant, which would not fit, is "THE ME", not a mini-me but a full-size effigy.
I took CRYPT as a buried clue and had GRAVE until I realized my GRAVE error.
3
I love CRYPTic crosswords, so I was really in tomb with today's THEME.
8
Thanks so much for all the kind condolences. It's an increasingly polarized world we live in, but the New York Times crossword community has been consistently kind and supportive in a big way. Happy holiday season to all !
PS To shade the squares or not to shade the squares- that is an interesting question for this puzzle I think......
46
@Bruce Haight
Shading: Wednesday
No Shading: Friday
Thank you, Mr. Haight, for having the courage to turn a tragedy into a law that saves lives. I always love your puzzles but now have a wellspring of compassion for you too.
26
Enjoyed the puzzle, but thought the shading or circles in the theme answers unnecessary. We could have figured it out.
4
@Wags
I beg to differ! It was only because of the shading that I was led to seeing SEA as "C," for example. There's no way I could have found that if the whole entry was open. If the clue were "Resting place hinted at by *the starts of* 28-, 5-, ...," then maybe. You are a smarter man than I, Wags!
2
whole bunch of Scrabble points for a three letter answer at 61D....
2
Moot point as it would not be accepted in a game of Scrabble!
1
Condolences, Mr Haight. Nice tribute - always remember
6
Cute, and timely.
Oh, Mr. Haight. I am sorry for your loss.
10
Pretty easy for a Wednesday, finished in less than half my Wednesday average, but a lot of fun to figure out. Reading through the letters the first time, I noted that there were no vowels. But much later on when I was finishing up the grid, I realized that there was a WYE. Having been trained by Spelling Bee recently to use Ys every which way, CRYPT came instantly.
There are some pretty nice entries in this grid. Mr. Haight never disappoint. Sorry to hear about Ryan Haight, though it is pretty cool to have a law named after him.
3
easy-peasy, but cute. liked that CRYPT was buried underground in its own receptacle!
5
Because I was about ten minutes early to the computer tonight, I started reading something that I'd left open last time I was on it. It was something related to spelling reform, and clicking through from one site to another via links, I quickly wound up at the Wikipedia article on the English alphabet, in which one of the sections was about how the letters are spelled out in full.
Then, this puzzle happened.
Spooky.
Happy Halloween, everyone.
9
I figured this out all by myself, no Googling or checking this article for hints! Loved the final answer!
16