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Relative difficulty: Medium-Easy (for me, a brutal four square section ... and, once I worked that out, a cakewalk)
Theme answers (Downs / fractions):
- 17D: Coffee with less kick (4/8 CAF, i.e. HALF CAF)
- 26D: Pretty darn good (NOT 2/4 BAD, i.e. NOT HALF BAD)
- 47D: Inning part when the visiting team bats (TOP 1/2, i.e. TOP HALF)
Theme answers (Acrosses / letters):
Word of the Day: PETITS-FOURS (40A) —
- 16A: Not up to us (OUT OF OUR HANDS)
- 19A: Increase the intensity of (HEIGHTEN)
- 37A: Doctor's reassurance before a shot ("IT WON'T HURT")
- 40A: Small, fancy confections (PETITS FOURS)
- 60A: Made amends (ATONED)
- 63A: Reliable, to a lender (CREDIT-WORTHY)
A petit four (plural: petits fours, also known as mignardises) is a small bite-sized confectionery or savory appetizer. The name is French, petit four (French pronunciation: [pə.ti fuʁ]), meaning "small oven". // In 18th and 19th century France, gas ovens did not exist. Large brick (Dutch design) ovens were used, which took a long time to heat up to bake bread, but also to cool down. Bakers used the ovens during the cooling process, taking advantage of their stored heat, for baking pastry. This was called baking à petit four (literally "at small oven"), a lower temperature which allowed pastry baking. // Petits fours come in three varieties:
- Glacé ("glazed"), iced or decorated tiny cakes covered in fondant or icing, such as small éclairs, and tartlets
- Salé ("salted"), savory bite-sized appetizers usually served at cocktail parties or buffets
- Sec ("dry"), dainty biscuits, baked meringues, macarons, and puff pastries
In a French patisserie, assorted small desserts are usually called mignardises, while hard, buttery biscuits are called petits fours.
• • •
I wonder if solving on paper would've made this easier. I think I could've maybe visualized the whole number rebus aspect a little better with pencil and paper. But as I say, once the "half" gimmick dropped, there wasn't much left to this one, except to discover how the remaining "halves" were going to play out, although at that point I guess I didn't know they were all going to be halves. I suppose other fractional amounts were still possible. But I at least knew to look for number rebuses in the Across answers, and it's not too hard to see the number in PETITS FOURS, which helped me change NOT SO BAD (?) to the much better NOT 2/4 i.e. HALF BAD. And then I came at TOP 1/2 i.e. HALF from above, with the TOP already in place before I ever looked at the clue, so no problem there—just needed to see what numbers were going to be involved, and ATONED made that clear quickly. I think this theme is ingenious, even if it meant that the puzzle played really, really unevenly (much struggle up front, virtually none thereafter). The fractions are handed gracefully—more gracefully than I require, frankly. No need to make your rebus gimmick this symmetrical, but if symmetry's your thing, here you go. I was definitely looking for another HALF somewhere in the grid, but I guess the choice was made to keep it simple, symmetrical, clean—so those NE and SW corners are allowed to remain fraction-free, and since they're more than solid, I appreciate that. Love the chili pepper over LIBIDO (hot!), and I love the colloquial quality of "GOT THAT?" I don't love TAKE A CAB, but of all the EAT A SANDWICH-type answers, TAKE A CAB is probably among the best, in that it actually seems like a legit standalone phrase. So we've got a very clever theme and a highly polished grid. Good enough for me.
I feel like some contingent of solvers are going to have trouble with PETITS FOURS, either with not really knowing what they are, or not knowing how plural French spellings work, or ... something. But I don't see much else (outside the entire theme concept!) to give solvers too much trouble today. There are hardly any proper nouns from pop culture (of any era). In fact ... there are none? I mean, SPOOFS is clued via "Airplane!" and "This is Spinal Tap," and I guess you could consider POOH "pop culture" if you wanted, but this puzzle just doesn't have trivia of the sort that is likely to leave anyone generationally baffled (see yesterday's BEASTIE BOYS, lol). My mistakes were all fairly petty. I wanted UTAH before UTES (18A: Salt Lake City team), which left me briefly wondering why a chair might need UGANDA (11D: Something a chair needs = AGENDA). I wrote in LEST for some reason at 22D: "Should that be the case ..." ("IF SO...") (four letters, "S" in place ... it seemed plausible in the moment). 32A: Grammy equivalent is a wicked clue, in that you're sure to think "award" before "grandmother." NAN came as a surprise there, but luckily crosses were easy. I liked the clue on DESELECT (8D: Turn off, digitally) because "digitally" seemed to work in two ways ("online," "with your fingers"). I don't really get the HOW and YES clues at the end (66D: Good question / 67D: Good answer). That is, I don't know why they're "good." Is this some kind of meta-commentary, like "HOW does this puzzle even work?" and "YES! I finally figured it out!"? Maybe you have better ideas. Let me know.
It's a new month—time to highlight the best NYTXW puzzles of last month (two themed puzzles, and one themeless). So here it is, the Best of May 2023:
- Themed: Catherine Cetta, "SAY CHEESE" (Mon. May 8); David J. Kahn, "CAPITAL / GAINS" (Thu., May 4)
- Themeless: Spencer Leach (PRIDE PARADE / POLE DANCE / PROMO CODE / BORED TO DEATH) (Sat., May 13)
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Confession: I solved this without knowing what those pairs of doubling numbers were supposed to mean. The penny dropped once I read Rex’s write-up! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteSame!
DeleteI also went down a wrong track thinking the answer was DECAF; when I got the FOUR part I thought “oh D is the 4th letter in the alphabet, that’s the gimmick” (and convinced myself that E is the 8th letter🤦♂️)
Lol, thot I was the only one dumb enough to think this, LMAO
Deletehttps://downforacross.com/beta/replay/3391414-omp
ReplyDeleteHere's me bumbling through some parts of the puzzle and just flying through other sections. As you can see, my first rebus square was I(TWO)NTHURT crossing what wanted to be NOTTOOBAD, somehow. I thought maybe there was some homophone trick? But NOT(TOO)BAD was one square too short. Eventually I found the (ONE)(TWO) pair but didn't immediately get TOP HALF (though I remember seeing that term somewhere). Then I finally figured everything out with NOT HALF BAD.
I maybe could've finished the SE quicker, if only I hadn't looked at every single clue there except OBOE which unlocked it. Not too keen on the HOW/YES clue pairing (??), those could've been anything. I can think of a whole lot of questions to which YES wouldn't be a "good answer" at all.
I was all prepared to be outraged that NOT(TWO)BAD had the numerator and denominator switched until I read the write-up and realized NOT(HALF)BAD was also a thing.
ReplyDeleteFantastic puzzle - the reducing fractions descending thru the grid - squeaky clean fill and @Pablo’s OTTER. I liked figuring the graphic HALF - but could see how some might have wanted a true revealer.
ReplyDeleteOne of the greats.
A mulatto - an albino
I had a fighting chance with the acrosses, as something like OUT OF 4 HANDS is pretty reasonable to discern. Trying to decipher the 4/8 “half” connection was just way to much stimuli for my feeble brain to process. Kudos to those who stuck with it and actually solved this puppy.
ReplyDeleteHopefully someone will see the light regarding the HOW/YES combination and educate us all. On the surface, that one seems truly bizarre, even for the NYT.
My solve was completely different from Rex’s. It still had a nice Aha! moment, but much later than his.
ReplyDeleteI danced around the grid, knowing something was up in three sections but not sure what. I figured out the double-rebus at the bottom with AT(ONE)D and CREDI(TWO)RTHY. Then I got I(TWO)NTHURT, but I wasn’t seeing the other rebus yet. (Rex - yes, I forgot that PETIT needed an S.) I went back to the top, easily got OUTO(FOUR)HANDS (which is what I had wanted it to be at the beginning of the solve, but it wouldn’t fit so I skipped ahead). I got H(EIGHT)EN with a little more difficulty. Then I went back and got PETITS(FOUR)S. Happy music.
Now for the hard part: Figuring out what these number rebuses meant. That took almost as long as the solve, but I was determined to get it without coming here. The difficulty was that two of the down answers made total sense ignoring the rebuses - NOT BAD and TOP. But the other one didn’t - CAF. NOT BAD is obvious, and you could say that the inning part where the visiting team bats is the TOP. But coffee with less kick cannot be CAF. I stared at the three for forever trying to find a pattern. Finally saw (HALF) CAF and the Aha! moment came. But I can’t tell you how much harder it was to get it since those two down answers didn’t really need the HALF to make sense.
I was going to write that PETITS (FOUR)S is inconsistent because the FOUR means four, while in all the others the number doesn’t have anything to do with a number in the whole answer (if that makes sense). But of course, FOUR doesn’t mean four in French. I never thought of that until I read the very interesting explanation of how the treats got their name. Of course I knew that quatre means four but I absolutely always thought that PETITS FOURS meant little fours! What an idiot I am.
In addition to the kind of odd HOW / YES pairing, there’s the “food that’s folded” / “food that’s rolled” crossing. I had crepe for food that’s folded at first. I had TBd before TBA, which made PAWS hard to see. Then I thought it would be clAWS, wondering if it was part of the rebus trick.
Lots of nice clues. “Calling for tails, maybe” for FORMAL was my favorite.
This was a challenge to solve and an even bigger challenge to grok the theme. Nice job, Steinberg CLAN!
Nice Thursday 👏👏
ReplyDeleteHas anyone figured out how to get the Times web version to accept the rebus squares?
ReplyDeleteWriting out the number worked for me. I didn’t try numerals.
DeleteNumerals worked in the iOS app.
DeleteNumerals also worked in the Android app
DeleteNifty theme. One where I had absolutely no idea what was going on until 88% of the way through the solve. Then I got the big AHA. And that allowed me to get H8EN and finish up.
ReplyDeleteI like that the pronunciation of the numbers is different in the themers than in the numbers themselves - though PETITS FOURS is awfully close and, for some people, probably identical.
I figured out the rebus early on from hEIGHTn… I also had DECAF before HALFCAF despite brewing HALFCAF most mornings. Enjoyed this one more than most rebus puzzles.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone tell me how the NYTXW app wants us to actually enter the rebus squares? Maddening…
The toughness/cleverness of this puzzle just made the eventual aha moment that much more rewarding. Not easy, but worth the effort.
ReplyDeleteDavid Steinberg notes that this puzzle was the brainchild of his father, Paul. Sadly, Paul is now in hospice. Even though we are complete strangers, I have done enough Steinberg puzzles to feel like I know David. Today I feel more like family as we honor Paul and wish him strength.
I like the theme, but wish they had included other fractions. You could’ve reasonably gotten clues for THIRD and QUARTER. Maybe even WHOLE
ReplyDeleteDitto Rex’s deCAF and ScuLLS. This one took me much longer than usual and despite the moments of frustration I’d say it was NOT so BAD. (Another wrong answer that slowed me down.)
ReplyDeleteThis was a faith solve, where I kept filling in what squares I could, while believing that the tricky things eluding me would eventually become clear. And, with an explosive “Aha!”, they did. All this in a beautifully constructed grid – look at how those fractions are symmetrical! And it is a massive task to smoothly work abutting PAIRS of rebuses in a grid. Throw in some lovely wordplay cluing, and this is one impressive Thursday.
ReplyDeleteYet as impressive as Crosslandia can often be, David’s note (on XwordInfo and Wordplay), which brought tears to my eyes, reminded me how the connections between people run so much deeper than the thrills and wows of our marvelous pastime. My heart and wishes for comfort and strength go out to you, Paul, Karen, and David.
Great, fiendish theme. Yes, tried to figure out how FOUR EIGHT equaled DE. Then got the second set and maybe there was some kind of homophone thing going on (NOT TWO … BAD), but couldn’t figure out what the FOUR was doing. The word HALF didn’t occur to me until I hit the baseball clue, then I looked back and realized it worked for all three sets. And they were reducing from top to bottom! Well done, Team Steinberg!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete@Rex: The way I interpret 66D, "HOW does A.I. work?" evokes the reply, "Good question." YES is a good answer because everybody (usually) is happy when the answer is YES.
My solving experience was similar to OFL's, with two differences: before I got any of the rebodes I misparsed 63A and thought it was CRED[itw]oRTHY. That slowed me down a bit.
My "Aha moment" came later than @Rex's but earlier than @Anon 6:10: I finished the puzzle, got the happy music and still didn't understand why we had these rebused numbers in these places. Then I went for a walk. That's when it hit me. I said (probably out loud; you could ask my neighbors) "It's HALF caf!"
Super-easy following the strategy I used. Since it was obvious from the empty grid where the trickery was going to be found, I just approached it as a themeless and filled in everything except the suspicious squares -- which was mostly about Tuesday-level difficulty -- and then readily saw the theme with three examples to work from.
ReplyDeleteSeriously what is the good question/good answer twofer about?
ReplyDeleteIs NO LOSE a thing anybody says?
PAWS felt too broadly clued. Also didn’t care for the FORMAL clue. Felt too forced to let any of its cleverness through.
But otherwise for a puzzle with lots of shorter answers it was pretty clean and interesting.
I can attest that I've recently described a situation as "no-lose," for what that's worth.
DeleteI solved on the web page and did not have any darker line between the numerator and denominator.
ReplyDeleteFor rebi today, I just entered the numbers, no extra steps required. For multi-character rebi, the ESC key gets me in.
Fun puzzle.
My dark lines showed up just long enough to identify trick squares, saving day until the end, when my letter rebuses wouldn't work... Numerals in puzzles so rare!
DeleteI solved this without understanding the theme one single bit until reading Rex’s write-up, and then I was still scratching my head because how is one supposed to know to put in actual numbers as opposed to a letter rebus? I spelled out the numbers in rebus squares and couldn’t then make sense of the crosses. So it all felt a little unfair.
ReplyDeleteBest Thursday puzzle in a while. I spun my wheels just as Rex did, with deCAF and ScuLLS and being absolutely sure that 16A was OUT OF OUR HANDS, but...but...nothing fit together. It was PETIT4S that assured me I was supposed to insert numbers, and then I just went back and filled in the numbers that would make sense: Oh! So it *is* OUT OF OUR HANDS, but it's OUT O4 HANDS.
ReplyDeleteBut what I was left with was a clever CREDI2RTHY crossed by TOP12 and two similarly mysterious down answers. I filled in the final square gingerly and was amazed to hear the happy music. So this is all correct? I had to walk away and leave it alone for awhile, then look at it with fresh eyes to see the "halfs." Kind of an odd experience to get it all right and not know what you'd gotten right. But what a eureka moment! Delightful!
David Steinberg, you did your dad proud. Congratulations, and thanks!
I don’t know the Steinberg family (for years, I thought David Steinberg the comedian was the one constructing) but, like @Lewis, teared up reading about Paul’s Parkinson’s and hospice status.
ReplyDeleteThe sadness during a loved one’s final days can be overwhelming. In the last five years, I have lost my mom and dad (ages 97 and 96, so not untimely) and, most heartbreakingly, my sister, whose birthday was yesterday. Memorial Day followed by May 31 birthday of my departed sister/best friend have made me prone to emotions (beyond my standard righteous indignation!)
Remarkable that the three Steinbergs can work together to come up with such excellent puzzles. Not only the cleverness of the fraction rebuses today but the clueing - so many fun AHA moments! If this was indeed Paul’s crossword swan song, he ended on a high note.
Congrats on an amazing puzzle, thanks for the trickery and best wishes for the days ahead…
I’m a digital solver and I did not have the dark line! I guess different apps or platforms do it differently.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, got that there was a rebus, with numbers but still took me a while to get the half business, definitely a un Aha moment. I love coffee and I knew there was something fishy about the DECAF answer, because of the “less” kick, so had that blank for a long time until I figured out that half theme. Very fun!
For the NYT Web version Rebus I just put "TWO" and "FOUR" and such. That made the most sense to me, since they had to spell out for the across answers anyway, and it took them fine.
ReplyDeleteI did NOT see a darker line between the numbers, that would have helped a lot.
On iPad I solved , correctly, by spelling the numerals rebus style. Does it work electronically if you put in numerals as in the illustrated blog?
ReplyDeletePretty puzzle and pretty easy.
A brilliant puzzle, truly brilliant! An innovative theme, some diabolical clues scattered around solid fill - all that and a dearth of proper names and places to boot. My thanks to the Steinbergs. What a tremendous family effort. Dad’s core idea was a beaut and I’m so glad Mom and son were able to bring it to fruition. It was a real joy to solve, which is my highest compliment to a constructor.
ReplyDeleteSadly, the experience was once again tarnished by glitches in the publication process - in my case, requiring that I print the newspaper format, which cuts off the left side of the first 19 clues, and then squishes the rest of it into skimpy little squares with numbers so tiny I can barely read them. Seems like a big ask for getting nothing more in return than bold lines to indicate rebus squares. I even tried JC’s suggestion of downloading from the website as a PDF file but no dice. And interestingly enough, no bold lines there either or on the app. I would’ve been perfectly happy without them in my print issue as well. Far happier come to think of it.
As the Brits would say, Too clever by half!
ReplyDeleteI saw the 4 in OUT OF OUR HANDS immediately.
ReplyDeleteThen I saw the 8 in HEIGHTEN.
Then I realized that the dark line separated numerator from denominator. "Aha!", I thought, "HALF".
And because all the theme answers today were HALFs and not thirds or quarters or eighths, this highly enjoyable and beautifully constructed rebus-type puzzle proved quite easy for me. But that didn't make me enjoy it any less.
I love the way 2 is embedded in CREDITWORTHY and also in ITWONTHURTATALL. (Although I did want to yell out to the doctor: "Liar! It'll hurt like hell!")
I did question 72A. I'd much rather deal with a bear's PAWS than its teeth.
There are two insomnia answers today. The DRIP as clued. But also HALFCAF. If you want to sleep, you don't want a HALFCAF, you want a NOCAF. And even those can't always be trusted. Waiters have been known to lie. Just like syringe-wielding doctors.
Thanks, Steinberg family, for a very entertaining and well-crafted puzzle.
@Nancy 8:52am:
DeleteI have seen you complain about decaf coffee more than once. I don't know if anybody has told you, but decaffeinated coffee is not caffeine free! At most, it is 99.9% caffeine free.
@Anonymous (7:12) When I go to the website on my desktop computer, there is a button above and to the right of the grid which says REBUS. Click that and enter the answer. Using the web version on my iPad, there is a REBUS button on the lower left of the keyboard.
ReplyDelete@Andrew (7:57) I’m so sorry. Losing all three that close together had to be painful. Those anniversaries are tough times. My mom’s is coming up next month, 10 years, but it still seems like I just talked to her last week.
No dark line in my (Android) NYT app. Written numbers worked to get the solving music...
ReplyDeleteDidn’t have issue with the gimmick today as I really wanted half-caf to fit. The early aha helped quite a bit. No darker line on the app to assist and glad they didn’t give it. After all, it’s Thursday.
ReplyDeleteMy printed version wouldn't print properly, so I tried to do this electronically. I wouldn't say that this was not the day to try this if you're not used to it, but this was not the day to try this if you're not used to it. Obviously a number/rebus thing going on but trying to enter such things defeated me and I never got to the fractions part, as the whole HALF concept went whooshing right over my head. I mean, really.
ReplyDeleteI probably gave up too soon as the construction is wonderfully impressive and I did like all the fill, which I filled in correctly, minus the numbers. Oh well.
Triple bonus points for including OTTER being described as a "gamboler". I suppose including "playful" would have been redundant, but my OTTERs are always playful.
Congrats and best wishes to all the Steinbergs, D, K, and P. This was a Doozy and Kept Pushing my limits. Thanks for all the frustrating fun.
@Barbara S. from late last night--I wish!
Yay! This was enjoyable all the way through, with a nice Aha! That let me go back to the top and fill in the HALF CAF. Nothing too discouraging while I whittled away options and looked for enlightenment- not Naval gazing. 🙃
ReplyDeleteAlways happy to see TACOS - that reminds me, a house in our neighborhood has a sign posted on their porch steps - “No Solicitors. Pizza always welcome.”
BoAR before BEAR, so figured 73A must be "tusk"
ReplyDeleteRecently I’ve started doing the puzzles online. (And then in the morning when the paper comes, I fill it in - weird, yes. But it’s what I do and I can’t help it). Anyhow, I was doing this one at 10pm last night and I saw the number theme early . There were no underlined squares - at least I didn't notice them. But I could see it should be OUTO4HANDS. so I did alot of the puzzle but after awhile I logged off and just waited until the newspaper arrived this morning. Rebuses are so much easier hardcopy. Granted, I am still getting used to doing it on the app. So I finished it in the paper - loved it.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, brilliant puzzle. A lot better than NOT(HALF)BAD. HOF IMO, thanks Steinberg family and my prayers go out to Paul and the family.
Really enjoyed this one. Got OUTO4HANDS pretty quickly, but moving through the puzzle, missed a couple rebuses - had HEEN, and, having made the same sort of error as Rex and misread the clue, couldn't figure out the fraction part. Never acquired a taste for coffee - except for coffee ice cream. Maybe I just need way more cream and sugar in the coffee.
ReplyDeleteLost a few minutes when I'd put in the numbers in all the right places, but wasn't getting happy music. Tried changing from numerals to words - still no. Finally realized I had entered ROMa instead of ROME, based on the clue. Success! And the words had turned back into numbers. Sheesh.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteNot only David, whose puzs are often head-scratching inducing, but now we get the entire Steinberg CLAN! Is there an "Uncle!" equivalent in crosswords? Cause I came close to calling it!
Pretty neat theme once I figured out what in tarhooties was happening. I didn't have the darker lines twixt the "fractions" that Rex mentioned in his write-up. Which is a) good, and b) kind of odd, since the NYT subscription thingie usually has all the tricks. It did change them from word rebus to numbers, however.
I like how not only you can see them as fractions, but also as whole numbers, that they reduce by HALF each time! 48, 24, 12. Cool.
Thanks for a fun puz, Steinbergs. It was NOT24BAD. 😁
Two Visible F's, Two "hidden" F's (in both FOURs), Three inferred F's (ala HALF). Some F love!
RooMonster
DarrinV
Like several others, solved (indeed, fairly quickly) without ever figuring out the theme. Shoulda seen it…
ReplyDeleteI’m so glad to see that everyone else liked this puzzle as much as I did.
ReplyDeleteThe lame “punny” puzzles that have dominated the NYT lately feel really stale.
This one felt fresh and fun to solve!
Thx, David, Karen & Paul, definitely not 'two' clever by half; a most CREDIT WORTHY creation! 😊
ReplyDeleteMed (but hard sussing out the rebuses altho, I see that just the numbers would've sufficed).
Had I grokked the math trick earlier, I could've cut my time in 'half' (literally).
No division lines on NYT' games website.
Hands up for deCAF.
Very clever theme! Liked it a lot. :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
HATED THIS. I DO NOT DO THE CROSSWORD TO DO MATH
ReplyDeleteWhelp, I couldn't figure it out. Finally peeked at the first themer in 🦖's grid, said "Oh, numbers," and then wrote in all the other numbers and done. Weeping over my abilities. Looks like OFL struggled for a moment over the 4/8, so my 40 minutes of whaaa?? seems about right.
ReplyDeleteReading up on otters, I found this from Wikipedia, "Animal welfare groups say that, unless threatened, otters rarely attack humans. In November 2021, about 20 otters ambushed a British man in his 60s during an early morning walk in Singapore Botanic Gardens. Despite weighing over 200 pounds, he was trampled and bitten and could not stand up without help from a nearby rescuer. The man speculated that another runner might have stepped on one of the animals earlier, and wished that there could be more lighting installed at that location."
Tee-Hees: LIBIDO SOIREE BRAS. Sort of a meta-uniclue answer for "First indication it's gonna be off the hook." But the sexiest thing in the puzzle is CREDITWORTHY, amirite?
Uniclues:
1 Clean up end-of-school wild party.
2 The collective rapacious proclivity of posers drinking bad beer.
3 The official grandma of oily nations.
4 What deriders believe The Bell does.
5 "Oh bother" playful pest.
6 The Scots, if you're looking for a knuckle sandwich.
7 What Obama did according to supporters.
1 REAP GRAD BRAS
2 IPA CLAN LIBIDO
3 FORMAL OPEC NAN
4 SPOOFS TACOS
5 POOH MOTTO OTTER
6 HALF-CAF IRISH
7 RAN NOT HALF BAD ERA
Boy did I puzzle over those number squares...in vain. I finally threw in the towel to have @Rex explain them to me - the right decision, as I never would have come up with HALF. The Steinbergs got me good! Maybe I'd have had a chance if I were more into coffee or baseball, but I only know "deCAF" and the "TOP" of an inning, without any "HALF" needed (hi, @Wanderlust!). Moreover, my central phrase would have been "NOT so BAD." So, those diabolical constructors came up with three theme answers that have quite reasonable alternatives to "HALF" - nice job, I guess.. :) A worthy Thursday for sure!
ReplyDelete"Oh, it's a fraction!" One of my most exciting aha moments ever.
ReplyDeleteI do the puzzle on a printout from the NYT webpage. It had the three fraction bars in heavy black. That helped a lot.
One of my all-time favorites. Besides the genius gimmick, it had everything else. Great cluing, crunch, and lots of sparkle.
.
Just to put this answer out there--there were dark lines for the fractions in the print version (sorry if someone already said this).
ReplyDeleteWonderful puzzle! It gave me the perfect Thursday experience. And it did it without even requiring the "rebus" function. These are my favorite rebi... single character rebuses. Numbers. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteC'est Magnifique...Truly! And what made it crazy good is my finally figuring out what, seriously what, I was doing.
ReplyDeleteSo...I'm thinking this is pretty easy but I know I have to find a trick somewhere. I did at OUTO4HANDS. Ok. four what....Leave that part because deCAF didn't fit and I didn't see (yet) H8EN.. Go to I2NTHURT...Fill in PETITS4S. So what do I do... I mumbled...I've got a 2/4.
I cheated on SHELLS. I don't understand that answer. Racing boats are SHELLS? Why? What am I missing!!
Stared hard and H8EN finally came. So I have 4/8 CAF for the down. Good gravy...now I'm further confused.
Get up, sit down...get up, sit down. Finished this and all I could see was 4/8...2/4...and 1/2 and it meant nada to me. Walk the puppies. Grumble that this is a math puzzle and I hate math....Drink my coffee. Sit back down and promised myself I would understand this before going to @Rex.
Ay Dios mío....Can it be a half we're looking at at the downs? HALF CALF, NOT HALF BAD and TOP HALF? I think that's it...I'll check...Yes....Even though I did't understand it, I did. Crazy Wow.
Good one David and Mom and Dad. Brilliant, actually.
For me, 1/2 = half; 2/4 and 4/8 don't. would 3/9 = third or 4/16 = quarter? Not in my world.
ReplyDeleteOn the tough side because the theme took a while a grasp (I did not have a dark line on my iPad). The rebus squares were the last to fall. The rest of the puzzle was mostly easy. A fun Thursday challenge and a fine family effort, liked it a bunch.
ReplyDeleteJC66 you are overthinking
ReplyDeleteOn BEAR PAWS. When my kids were little, we took a trip to Yosemite and stayed in a small cabin in the park. We followed the rules about how to stash any food we had, but I thought they overdid it a little with all the dire warnings. Not so! In the morning, 3 or 4 cars had doors ripped off by bears to get at food that was left inside. Those paws are something else.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to the Steinbergs. This puzzle was right on the m1y. A piece of cruciverbalist ar2rk.
ReplyDeleteCool theme mcguffin. Different. Like. Plus, 15x16 puzgrid … more solvequest for yer moneybucks.
ReplyDeleteM&A did the printed version, which had the little thick lines. Lingered in the 4/8 thick line area, until finally figurin out what was goin on. Lost many precious nanoseconds.
Fortunately, the possibility of HALF-CAF occurred to m&e, which quickly led to assumin that a 1/2 dealie might be goin into 1/2CAF … but then the crossin Across answers, like OUTOONEHANDS, made no sense. Nice ahar moment, when unreduced fraction usage finally dawned on the M&A brain.
staff weeject pick: GRR.
Thanx for gangin up on us, to all them Steinberg folks. Great ThursPuz. And NOT2/4BAD, 2 boot.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
**gruntz**
The current trend toward exposed bottoms in the NYTXW could have been nicely augmented by including three/six assed as an answer today. But that idea is probably five/ten baked. But, OTOH, discarding the unusable stuff is six/twelve the battle. In fact, I have four/eight a mind to DROP this, as my better two/four is calling for me.
ReplyDeleteIt’s been a thrilling two days for me. WORDLE in one yesterday. Birthday #70 today, accompanied by a wonderful puzzle. Theme and cluing were top notch. Thank you, and whirling rainbows, to the Steinberg family.
I simply did not get this. I had to cheat to get the half aspect. I had FOUR written in as a rebus in OUTOFOURHANDS, but I had no idea what the next step was going to be. Wanted DECAF, didn't see HEIGHTEN. Couldn't do it! Frustrating, but I do kinda like the theme in the end.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 7:35
ReplyDeleteNGRAM for "no lose" => no lose
Can confirm solving on paper was easy. I don't time myself but I wouldn't be shocked if that was a PR Thursday for me. In the print edition there were thick lines in the fractions that made it obvious something was up.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI do the puzzle in the Chrome browser. It started with no dark lines. Then it kicked me out and restarted with the dark lines. Then it kicked me out again and no dark lines. So I went to my NYT replica edition to see the print version and the dark lines. I just refreshed my browser solution and ta-da -- dark lines!
I almost always solve in the paper that is delivered to my front porch most mornings, so I had the three dark lines. Ultimately, they helped ... but first...
ReplyDeleteI got OUR O4HANDS pretty quickly, so when I came to 17-D, which was the right length for deCAF I thought I'd figured it out -- the word crossing the rebus should be entered upside down! That seemed a little zany, so I didn't put it in yet, but it was there in my mind until, much later, I saw H8EN. I couldn't see why, but obviously we were supposed to interpret 4/6 as DE. Hmmm.
Then after realizing that it was I2NTHURT, rather than a terse WON'T HURT, and was bludgeoned into remembering how to spell PETITS4S, I saw that I was supposed to include the 2, but not the 4, in the down answer. But neither of these half-baked ideas worked for TOP1/2, and I finally figured out what was going on.
I was excited for @Lewis when I read the clue for 56-D, but then saw it was more prosaic -- a tracker that was a palindrome, not a gadget that could track palindromes. Something to be invented!
I don't usually read either Wordplay or the constructor's notes -- no reason, I just don't -- but after seeing the comments here, I read them today. The story of Paul Steinberg is both hear-breaking and heart-warming. My brother has Parkinson's pretty badly, though he is still able to cope for himself, so it struck home. Thinkin of you, Paul.
At our wedding, my wife read an e.e. cummings poem that ends "I am through you so I," to which today's puzzle adds HOW YES.
If it's OK to make a crossWORD puzzle using NUMBERS in place of WORDS, why not allow punctuation marks? Or geometric shapes? Or blank spaces? I'm amazed at the favorable comments here.
ReplyDeleteSuggestion...don't call it a crossword puzzle if only some of the answers are words. Fair enough?
Bob, we have all been there at first, offended with a "how was I supposed to know THAT!?!" moment. Stick with it and you'll see all kinds of tricks. Remember it's a puzzle, not a test. When you start opening your mind you'll be well rewarded with that AHA we learn to enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI have been building a streak for slightly less than 2yrs now and I have a hard end date later this month. Once this streak is over, I think I may never do the Thursday crossword ever again. I always dislike Thursday (I like puzzles, not games), but I truly detested this one.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first entered "decaf," I figured that D could stand for FOUR (in the across answer) because D is, after all, the 4th letter of the alphabet. Devilish.
ReplyDeleteSolving on paper definitely helped, though at first I had no idea what those heavy lines were. This is one of the most brilliant puzzles I have ever had the pleasure of solving. My only real hang-up was I thought that BEAR was a BoAR, and therefore the PAWS might be tuskS. That, and while I wanted TOP half, I had no idea at first that numbers were involved.
ReplyDeleteMy last letter (or number) was 8. HEIGHTEN strikes me as a little off, while as a sometime home cook I was looking for "hotten". But it just had to be 8, since 4/8 definitely is a HALF. Still, a SERRANO pepper is not always hotter than a jalapeño, and a jalapeño can be very hot indeed.
I liked NOT 1/2 BAD. As a regular reader of French, I soon learned that the French version of 'not bad' (pas mal) is very often a high compliment. Less so in the English version found here. If something is not half bad, it must be a little bad.
A note on sculls (I've admired this picture since I was a boy. It's at the Met museum in NY):
ReplyDeleteThomas Eakins - "The Champion Single Sculls":
https://eclecticlightdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/eakinsmaxschmittsinglescull.jpg
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/max-schmitt-in-a-single-scull-thomas-cowperthwait-eakins.html
Eakins was apparently fascinate with making paintings of men racing in Sculls, there are fine ones at Yale too and in Washington too. Naturally I thought sculls was an answer.
.
@retired guy - same here with the D=4 idea. I really thought I was onto something there... but it fizzled.
ReplyDeleteLike Alice Pollard - I abandoned the app and did the newspaper version. Thursdays w the rebuses are just easier to do hardcopy. This was a great puzzle. I showed it to my non-crosswording family and that is my sign of a great puzzle. Thanks Steinberg family and best of luck to Paul and the clan. Life can be a struggle at times, all the best
Enjoyed this one. It took me a while to figure out the theme, but I could see it, even though not perfectly right away.
ReplyDeleteThe good question/answer clues bug me. I think you could say that asking “HOW” is generally a “good question” to ask. I can also see how “YES” is generally a “good (positive) answer”.
But since YES is not an answer to HOW?, having them sit right next to each other doesn’t make much sense imho. Still wondering if I’m missing anything.
Solving on Across Lite, there were no circles and of course no black lines. But I had further issues! I got the trick and entered FOUR EIGHT, etc, but no success. Then I tried the numerals 4 / 8 etc.. no success. Then tried just the first letters: F / E... nope. So I gave up and clicked Reveal Complete Solution... it put the numerals back in and declared success! Technical issues.
ReplyDeleteHands up for SCULLS and DECAF, along with SRIRACA (sic) for the jalapeno substitute.
[Spelling Bee: yd 0, my last word this archaic 5er which I vaguely remember seeing before.]
For Georgia: Thanks for the feedback. We obviously see the issue differently.
ReplyDeleteCrossword puzzles once tested s solver's vocabulary, as well as the solver's general knowledge. It was that way for decades. Now it seems that constructors, many using computers, compete with one another to devise visual tricks that have little or nothing to do with language or rhetoric.
If that's your thing, fine...just don't call them crossword puzzles.
Note to self: You get the daily paper, for Pete's sake - just do Thursday puzzles there instead of on the app! (The fraction lines in the print version might have given me a chance to understand the numbers.) This isn't the first time I've been burned by impatience to do the Thursday puzzle the night before and thus missing out on something helpful in the print grid.
ReplyDeleteI use Chrome on a PC and could see the dark lines just fine.
ReplyDeleteBob Mills, open your mind a bit. Thursday’s are full of tricks and curveballs. This really was a fun one. It might have taken you awhile to “get it” and that is contributing to your crankiness. But take a step back and admire this one for what it was - a finely constructed crossword puzzle
ReplyDeletejcal,
ReplyDeleteEakins was fascinated with figures--lots of nudity in his paintings and photography. As is current in the Academy, some folks say Tom was a closeted homosexual because three of his major works feature naked male buttocks. I have my doubts.
What is indisputable is that nearly everyone in the country is--whether they know it not--familiar with Eakins Oval named for him. That's the small park immediately across the street from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I think you'll agree with my assessment when you realize that you're looking at Eakins Oval in every shot of Rocky running up the Art Museum stairs where camera is facing Stallone.
Happy 70th @egs! 🎂 🎉 🎁
ReplyDelete___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
This didn’t take me long to get but the gigantic AHA was so much fun! So, lime so many of us, I suspected a rebus early. What really surprised me though, was how easy the top tier answers were (except for the rebus ones of course). I was inwardly groaning a bit thinking “Please don’t make the entire puzzle this easy.” And I was not at all disappointed.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the puzzle, this dandy collaborative masterpiece fVe us so many wonderful clues. Calling for tails (FORMAL) Grammy equivalent) NAN are two favorites among many. Then Fontaine contents that took a bit to suss out the French clue. “EAU, I said homophonically.
So the theme. This was so frustrating because most solvers of even average experience would be in the ballpark with a likely answer for the first two but nothing fit - especially going both directions. I passed by after a bit, deciding to let the conundrum percolate for a bit, knowing that there is was a rebus in there. I was all the way down to trying to fit in something about the injection when it hit me. The clue “Increase the intensity of” had been doing a replay loop back in my “AV stacks” because it was the one for which I was 100% certain of the correct rebus square. I had H_EN and it kept irritating me like a mosquito bite. Al of a sudden HEIGHTEN popped into my head Nd lime flashing neon I saw the word EIGHT, and kaboom! Before I was all the way through thinking “but this doesn’t make sense going down” again . . . AHA 4/8 is HALF for my HALFCAF. Genius, Steinberg family. Sheer genius. And the rest was a snap.
A delightful, clever, engaging Thursday the limes of which we haven’t had for a while. Please collaborate again!
Another horrid gimmick puzzle, par for Thursday. Numbers for words, ugly.
ReplyDeleteI had a dark line when solving on a PC (normal website) but none at all in the Android app which I use when commuting - pretty pleased with myself for working out some of the gimmick before seeing the dark lines.
ReplyDeleteI loved this puzzle. The aha moment was great.
ReplyDeleteSolving on the NYT website, using Firefox, i did have the bold line between the numerator and denominator.
I chide Rex, lightly, for insisting on using ancient software and then complaining that it does not render the puzzle well. Being a curmudgeon is one thing, but being a curmudgeon about puzzle-solving software?
Ipad solve gave no lines & only a faint hint of one on a paper printed version. There’s enough commentariat angst in today’s posts to suggest that some combinations of software & technology are simply going to cause problems. I still miss the AcrossLite that NYT deep sided a while back, but I’m willing to accept the occasional glitch as merely another layer of complexity. Besides, any Steinberg Family tag team is something I’ve enjoyed (see 5/22/2022) before. Thanks for sharing Paul, Karen & David.
ReplyDeleteI agree to a great extent with “Bob Mills” @ 12:43 pm. Using numerals instead of words is not a crossword puzzle but if that is ok then using numbers makes no sense in this puzzle. You don’t pronounce them as they appear …separately. If you do , you have nothing. This reminds me of how answers in Spanish leave out tildes and accents. You get some ridiculous answers. and, what is worse, you demean the Spanish language.
ReplyDeleteTwo over four is indeed in a way equal to one half as is four over eight and one over two. But you have to go into verbal contortions to get the right word..
NOT TOO BAD is a phrase used at least as much as NOT HALF BAD. And since digit-subbing is involved, I could not parse the correct answer to save my live. Thought it was NOT 2 BAD but then there was a blank square. That paired with PETITS-FOURS, which is a screwy plural, I had to call time of death and hit reveal after about 38 minutes. Rude puzzle, DO NOT LIKE!
ReplyDeletedark lines for the fractions...yet another reason, aside from the ever-so-civilized as-one-does-osity of it all, to solve on paper in red pen
ReplyDeletethe only way to fly daddy-o
I'm still feeling my way through a dark tunnel on this one (and I'm very disappointed because I majored in math -- emphasis on "abstract algebra" and yet it didn't save my butt one bit!)
ReplyDeleteEven with the light shone by skimming Rex's write up, I had to struggle and finally chalked up a DNF.
My hats off to those who kenned the trick early on and enjoyed a breezy solve!
@Harry - it happens.. sometimes it just doesnt click . there is always tomorrow.
ReplyDelete@JC66 How intriguing! What world do you live in? In mine (ours, speaking for… most people here), the fractions in the puzzle are exactly equivalent.
ReplyDeleteHow can we visit your world?
How did you travel to ours?
Do tell us more!
Also the numbers halve themselves going down the grid. 4 to 2 to 1 and 8 to 4 to 2.
ReplyDeleteI see that a lot of people liked it but to me this seems a little too far outside the box. One problem was that yet again the page that lets you print the puzzle was screwed up and cut off the left-hand side of the puzzle so I had two write the numbers in by hand.
ReplyDeleteWell, Jeopardy wasn't on last night at its regular hour, so Scouser husband and I turned off the TV and listened to music. I download the puzzle. I look at my husband who is enjoying a little glass of Pinot Noir and I ask him: "What's a police officer, in British slang?" He tells me to wait until after Grizabella, in the musical "Cats", finishes singing "Memory." She does. He tells me he has no idea. I ask him to please try to jog his memory. He goes to bed. An hours later he shouts PLODS!
ReplyDeleteThank you. It's OMAN not Iran.
I got on my swift horse and rode this one with a nice trot. Slow at times, but oh, it was enjoyable. I stopped several times to smell the roses along the way. A big pause at ACHILLES. What's he doing in STYX. At first I had sun BEARERS attending a saturnalia. Why would they do that, I asked. Ah, wait. It's UP TO and it must be a CUP. That looks better
We trot on over to the far right. Came to a halt. A website clue. Thorny. Can I get around it? No. Plod on....Stop again at this little 15D sign that was muddy. Why doesn't the sign read HINDUS? Wrong direction. I know most of my religions. Vishnu/Shiva? SECTS, of course... Then, we actually saw a sweet smelling STALK standing in the field. Awesome. You gave us the SPARK we needed. That PISTON looked like a bad boy. It was.
We finished that area and decided it was time to move on down to where the grass was greener.
Ah...look at that PIANO TUNER. Plunked you right in. ARMORED CAR wanting to give us a lift. We came to our end and look what was waiting for us....an NYPD ASS. He was having a little AGUA FRESCA with some PLODS and eating a little VEAL schnitzel ....
Most enjoyable and I didn't have to get off my horse once. Thanks
Absolutely loved this puzzle. And the fact that it was a family collaboration.
ReplyDeleteSaddened to learn about his father. My thoughts are with Paul and the family during a difficult time.
I lost my mom in January. She was 99. It's never easy.
Peace to all of you.
Excellent puzzle by the Steinberg clan. I went through exactly the same experience as Rex did and I solved my puzzle with pen on paper. So Rex, it made no difference if you solved on line or not. Very clever theme. Tricky but fair. It’s a good thing those thick black lines were included otherwise it might have been a bit too tough to solve.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I truly pity all you tech-bound folks. Good old paper and ink comes through again! Three heavy lines...now what to do with them?
ReplyDeleteI stayed away from them till I could get a handle on what was going on. Found myself--as usual--down south, and saw the first one at CREDI[TWO]RTHY/TOP1/2. Thinking they were all 1/2, I filled in NOT1/2BAD, realized it wouldn't work, and changed it to 2/4, which did. So, we were reducing, and the next in the series would probably be 4/8. Didn't take long to confirm that, as we have been drinking 1/2CAF coffee for decades. In fact, that's exactly what Folger's calls it.
This is a Steinberg-clever (i.e. very) puzzle. Clues are not for the dense. The solver earns every bit of the solution. High triumph points, fun to do, and different, with no fill detritus. Eagle.
Wordle bogey.
And welcome back, @rondo! Glad you avoided the riots.
NO POPUP POOH POOH
ReplyDeleteThe IRISH girls said, "SEE OURHANDS?"
SO something AROSE in THAT Speedo,
IT was WORTHY OF their DEMANDS,
and NO, ITWON'THURT his LIBIDO.
--- NAN SERRANO
oops, must proofread - demands should be lowe-case
ReplyDeleteGot it but I didn't. Realized pretty quickly that the "barriers" were between numbers - didn't realize they made a fraction, but that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteOh the rebus. Good morning Thursday.
Diana, LIW
Thanks @D,LIW and @spacey for the thoughts. We were actually in Marseilles the day of demonstrations/riots but thankfully that wasn't happening at the train station where we were waiting for a connecting train.
ReplyDeleteThe Steinberg family is one smart CLAN. This was a TOP notch puz. In all the ways described above. And YES, designed for paper. Even with a Thursday gimick this one can't LOSE. Symmetric and all THAT. HOW good for the day.
Lame gimmick, IMO, MEH.
ReplyDelete