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Minty herb used in Japanese cuisine / SUN 5-4-25 / Toon fighter of Skeletor / Bunless cookout entrees / Boxer Beterbiev / Invasive Japanese vine / Concave umbilicus / Poems also fancily known as quatorzains / Chairman ___ (old NBA nickname) / Sport that takes place in a dohyo
Sunday, May 4, 2025
Constructor: Brandon Koppy
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- GINSU KNIFE (22A: Product that "can cut a slice of bread so thin you can almost see through it," in old ads) / 23D: "Well, OK" ("SURE")
- LETTUCE WRAPS (34A: Bunless cookout entrees) / 8D: Dew, for example (MOISTURE)
- IRS AUDITS (44A: Book reviews of sorts?) / 45D: The Masters host city (AUGUSTA)
- BEGRUDGING (52A: Given reluctantly) / 53D: Countrylike (RUSTIC)
- BLOW-UP DOLL (87A: Companion who might take your breath away?) / 85D: Big name in organs (WURLITZER)
- AD NAUSEAM (97A: Over and over) / 93D: Routes across low waters (CAUSEWAYS)
- VITRUVIAN MAN (107A: Famous Leonardo da Vinci drawing with four arms and four legs) / 102D: Just what the doctor ordered? (DRUG)
- SENSUALITY (122A: Steaminess) / 123D: Sport that takes place in a dohyo (SUMO)
Perilla frutescens var. crispa, also known by its Japanese name shiso (紫蘇), is a cultigen of Perilla frutescens, a herb in the mint family Lamiaceae. It is native to the mountainous regions of China and India, but is now found worldwide. The plant occurs in several forms, as defined by the characteristics of their leaves, including red, green, bicolor, and ruffled. Shiso is perennial and may be cultivated as an annual in temperate climates. Different parts of the plant are used in East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine. [...] Shiso (紫蘇) is extensively used in Japanese cuisine. Red, green, and bicolor varieties are used for different purposes. (wikipedia)
• • •
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| [My actual living room] |
Weird that the one "bonus" theme answer in this grid, on a day celebrating the Force / Fourth, is LORD VADER (81D: Term of address aboard the Death Star). I Iove it as a standalone answer, but ... "May the Force be with you," that's the phrase of the good guys, where are the good guys? Foregrounding the Death Star and not the Rebellion—interesting move. Did you know that (Luke) SKYWALKER and LORD VADER are the same number of letters? There's no way SKYWALKER would've fit in this grid with this set of themers, but maybe if you used the Force you could make it work (and yes, nerds, I know that Darth Vader is also a SKYWALKER (Anakin Skywalker, Luke's father (spoiler alert)), so SKYWALKER does not necessarily balance out the Dark Side—but the clue could be Luke-specific). I'm just saying that a real Jedi would've found a way to overcome, or at least balance out, the Dark Side, instead of allowing LORD VADER to march right through the middle of the grid, unopposed. Semihilarious (if not SEMISONIC) that OBI-WAN and KENOBI and LEIA and HAN and even WOOKIEE have appeared in the grid many times before ... but not today. Today, we debut LORD VADER. I guess ANI (young Vader's nickname) always was the most annoyingly persistent Star Wars-related answer of the bunch. Oh well, maybe HE-MAN's here to represent the Rebels (25A: Toon fighter of Skeletor). Use the Force, HE-MAN! (now there's a crossover for you!)
The solve was very easy today, though for some insane reason the puzzle decided to put its two most obscure (to me) answers right next to each other, making for one small but slightly scary patch, just off-center: SHISO alongside ARTUR. LOL that I would know anything about modern boxing. ARTUR Beterbiev was recently, and briefly, light heavyweight champion ('24-'25)—he got beat by some other Russian dude, in Riyadh, earlier this year. This may as well all have been happening on Mars, as far as I'm concerned. A hundred years ago, boxing was massively popular and everyone would've known champion boxers' names. Today, uh, no (51D: Boxer Beterbiev). As for SHISO, even looking it up didn't help much. A lot of its use in Japanese cuisine appears to be as a garnish, or a coloring agent. But it is common, so I have no complaints about its crossworthiness. Happy to learn a new culinary term (even if I'm doomed to forget it fairly quickly, probably). Anyway, that SHISO/ARTUR patch GOES HARD (seriously, goes right through GOES HARD)—hope the expression GOES HARD was familiar to you; you might've been in quite a fix.
Bullets:
- 26A: French name that's an anagram of a mostly German river (HENRI) — I had HENRÔ (jk ... though I do confuse those rivers still, embarrassingly, a lot)
- 32A: Brand with a line of "Calm + Restore" products (AVEENO) — after a nearly 3-year hiatus, AVEENO makes its second appearance of May (and as we know from this puzzle, May is only four days old)
- 79A: Bad spot for a tear, in brief (ACL) — was reading this as "tear" (rhymes with "beer"), and thinking, "... your EYE?"
- 87A: Companion who might take your breath away? (BLO[W-U]P DOLL) — are we gonna talk about this? "Companion"? "Take your breath away?" So you're out of breath ... because of your BLOW-UP DOLL? I have ... questions. I'm not going to ask them, because I don't necessarily want answers. But I still have questions.
- 118A: Invasive Japanese vine (KUDZU) — no-looked this baby because the "D" and "Z" were already in place, what else was it gonna be. KUDZU is a very handy metaphor for anything that proliferates undesirably. "In Europe, kudzu has been included since 2016 on the list of Invasive Alien Species of Union concern (the Union list). This means that this species cannot be imported, cultivated, transported, commercialized, planted, or intentionally released into the environment anywhere in the European Union." (wikipedia)
- 9D: A nemesisssssss to Indiana Jones? (ASP) — we're in the middle of a two-part Love Boat episode set in Egypt where one of the characters is the lowest-rent Indy knock-off you've ever seen. Like, a porn-movie Indiana Jones. They spent maybe 10 bucks on his wardrobe, and made him go unshaven for a few days, and voila—anthropologist-adventurer. You see, Doc has come by this golden ankh, which an out-of-breath man gave to him at a bazaar, and it turns out it probably was part of some mummy's tomb, and now porn-Indy and Dynasty's Catherine Oxenberg are both after the ankh, and both of them are keeping their intentions hidden, and one or both of them might be bad guys, and all of this is happening on a Nile river cruise that is such an obvious knock-off of Death on the Nile that there's actually a Death on the Nile joke in the episode. All in the Family's Jean Stapleton co-stars as Captain Stubing's old college friend and new potential love interest. Oh, and Rhoda's Valerie Harper also co-stars as a high-school history teacher who gets the hots for her former student (now 25) who just happens to be on this small Nile river cruise. She'll almost certainly end up back with her loser husband (the Love Boat is, in the end, for all its ambient bikini-clad bottoms, a very conservative show**), but for the moment ... things are looking exciting for Rhoda.
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| [John Astin is there too, somehow] |
- 111D: Piece of improv (SKIT) — I wonder if you all can find a way to fight about what this word means today, as so many of you did yesterday, and have done in the past ("SNL segments are 'sketches,' not SKITs! Somebody tell the editor!")
- 3D: Poems also fancily known as quatorzains (SONNETS) — no one calls them this, fancily (!?) or otherwise. I love "fancy" literary terminology, but unless you're French, no one but no one is saying this. In fact, ahem: "When [quatorzain] is used, it is to distinguish fourteen-line poems that do not follow the various rules which describe the sonnet" (my emph.) (wikipedia) ("quatorze" is Fr. for "fourteen," btw).
**UPDATE: At the very end of the Love Boat Egyptian cruise, Valerie Harper ditches her awful husband and runs off with her 25-year-old former student! Good for her. Did not see that coming. Even in its 9th (and final) season, Love Boat can still surprise you.
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121 comments:
Easy-ish. Hard to tell because I solved while watching the run-up to the Kentucky Derby (I bet $12 and won $8.32 so for me a successful day of horse race betting). I didn't keep track of my overwrites, but I had pretty much the same WOEs as OFL. Got the theme at 22A, GIN[SU] KNIFE, and filled in the 70A grid spanner with no crosses. I was too lazy to verify my feeling that the U-adjacent rebus letters spelled STAR WARS.
Ah, but Lorne Michaels specifically prohibited actual improv on his SNL sketches… “no skits allowed!” I suppose. “You skit, you skittatle!” For John Oliver.
Easy-ISH, but clever and enjoyable. Like OFL, I didn’t notice the 4th letter aspect until done. Unlike OFL, I think “may the fourth be with you” is kinda cute. I plan yo use it today.
The big guy hit on pretty much everything I had. Impressive construction chops - apt spanning revealer and fill in the blanks easy especially once you get the trick and can fill in the trailing U in the FOURTH themer string.
I Don’t Want to Get Over You
DO I EVER, MAKING DO, RHODESIAN, BEER PONG all solid longs. The remaining short fill tends to be cumbersome - I’ll chalk that up to the constraints of the theme. Side eye to the ARTUR - DEPARTURE adjacency.
Love is the DRUG
Pleasant enough Sunday morning solve.
You in the SKY
Hombre de Vitruvio: El famoso dibujo de Leonardo da Vinci con cuatro brazos y cuatro piernas.
Well, you approach a Sunday puzzle with incredibly low expectations and somehow this one managed to lower the bar further. I sooo much want better Sundays. Littered with juvenalia and completely wasting the Vitruvian Man on a black-square short-word festival, we're celebrating (yet again) a fifty year old movie franchise that has repeatedly sucked the life out of cinema. A punny jokey reveal that wasn't funny the first time the phrase was uttered a gajillion years ago and now we have an annual reminder of its lameness. And this all created by a constructor who knows better.
Then add in Indiana Jones why dontcha? And that lovely cinematic achievement in Twilight.
Finding the rebus squares kept me occupied in between the mind melting fill. Thirty-nine percent gunk, and so many other nothing-burger words made me want to use a blaster on my phone.
And let's not neglect ABETTER without a special shout out, at least until the ghastly stakes are raised by the honorable mention of [Hue of dry bloodstain].
Next time somebody complains about a Harry Potter entry, from a movie franchise that is actually good, we can point to this puzzle and remind them how much worse it could be.
I do like Enid in Wednesday. Wolf out.
People: 18
Places: 1
Products: 14
Partials: 17
Foreignisms: 4
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Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 54 of 140 (39%) I repeat, for the third time, 39% ... on a Sunday.
Funnyisms: 7 🙂
Tee-Hee: This line is supposed to be reserved for me to take something wildly out of context and treat it like passing gas in an elevator and run the risk of getting axed by Rex for comedy gone stinky, but not today. This list of deliberately NON-GMO entries is all from the minds of the NYTXW team plagued as they appear to be with finding rewarding companionship on junior editor salaries in the Big Apple. [Moves one's butt]. [Goes hard]. [It squirts on a squid]. BLOWUP DOLL. BED CHECK. BEER PONG.
Uniclues:
1 Skin care product line akin to putting salad on your face.
2 I clue this unfortunate pairing and I go down the river Styx, you clue it and maybe you laugh, but it's a cheap laugh at a tired trope so don't do it.
3 Four legged man insists his hands weren't in four cookie jars.
4 Petrachan-style odes written by soft-hearted dad about his misadventures building the Death Star.
1 AVEENO LETTUCE WRAPS
2 BLOWUP DOLL BED CHECK
3 VITRUVIAN MAN DENIES
4 LORD VADER SKY SONNETS (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: People who love conjunctions and their accoutrements. AND FREAKS, ETC.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Looking forward to a Billie Joe MacAllister puzzle on the third of June - when the revealer might finally tell us what those two were throwin' of the Tallahatchie Bridge.
I love the backstory, that Brandon came up with this puzzle idea in January, realized it HAD to be done, realized that it was very late in the game to have it come out the first week of May, then fashioned the grid – designed and filled it! – in ONE DAY, then clued 140 answers in TWO DAYS, then hurried it in.
I repeat, in single day he crafted a puzzle with such hard-to-attain features (symmetrical theme answers whose fourth letters are rebuses, the first letters of which spell STAR WARS) – and the result doesn’t feel forced! Nor do the clues feel hastily thrown together.
Furthermore, the answer set includes sixteen NYT debut answers, including lovelies NON-GMO, SENSUALITY, ELICITING, and DO I EVER. On top of that, there are excellent original clues, such as [Book reviews, of sorts] for TAX AUDITS, and [Baby monitors] for NANNIES.
This is a backstory with notes of talent, skill, and passion. It is a story with a very happy ending – an impressive and pleasing-to-many puzzle that successfully landed on the day it was born to land on.
So yes, I’m wowed by what led up to your puzzle, Brandon, as well as grateful for the splendid outing it gave me. Standing O!
I'm giving bonus points for crossing "Wurlitzer" and "Vitruvianman" - that's not a combo you see every day.
A pretty good Sunday puzzle. Did not use the theme while solving, but that's OK. Non-symmetrical, non-identical rebuses added a little bit of challenge to an otherwise very easy puzzle, and the obscurities were fairly crossed.
I did fail to remember APEROL, which I think we had about a month ago. Again, fair crosses though.
I don't quite get the theme. I'm familiar with the revealer, and I know the relation to STAR WARS, and I get that it is May 4 today, but ... it doesn't seem to come together properly. And I see that it is always the fourth letter in the themers that gets rebused with a U (you). Hmm. I guess I do get the theme after all. Just needed to talk it through.
There are an awful lot of stray Us in the grid. Eight - or six if you ignore the two in the revealer.
Catherine Oxenberg was, for a bried period around when Lair of the White Worm came out, the most beautiful woman in the world in my eyes.
Are we gonna talk about the fact that ABETTER isn't a word?? The word is ABETTOR. In fact, if you Google "abetter", it gives you a definition for "abettor." And my autocorrect just changed "abetter" to "a better".
Got to the end, and no happy music (I never saw the clue for NEI, so I missed the "error"), so I had to scan the whole puzzle to find the problem.
I frequently wonder why bother having a theme if it turns out to be so convoluted that even Rex (who has done like 10,000 puzzles in his life) finds it difficult to discern. Oh, well - it’s interesting that there are so many people who enjoy sticking with it and are actually able to discern the theme. I’ll bet having some experience constructing helps, and we seem to have a fair amount of posters here who have at least tried their hand at the craft.
That center section had the potential to suck all of the air out of this one with the Japanese herb, a Russian boxer, Mary, Queen of Scots, a dog from Zimbabwe and a daytime soap star all bunched together. Give yourself a high-five if you successfully navigated through that potential trouble spot unassisted.
The clue and answer for BLOWUPDOLL might be the ickiest ever.
For a long time i thought closing time was REM. Iconic song.
Hey All !
Impressive construction. A puz right up @M&A's alley!
I, too, missed the Rebus being in the FOURTH spot in each Themer. Very cool. I also wondered why I had run into two RU's, thinking they'd all be different, but then also a WU, when at first I was thinking only the letters of FOURTH would be with "U". Was able to suss that the "with U" letters spelled out STAR WARS. That helped with SUMO, as I had JUDO there.
So a multi-layer, kind of tricky Theme. And the crossing Downs are real words, actually clued as that word. That seems to have been lacking lately with these Rebus-type puzs. Also, many Downs go through two Themers, so extra tough to get clean fill.
Great SunPuz, on the correct day, layered, clean, punny, not super easy. What more do you need?
Try not to get into a lightsaber fight today!
*Zzwoom Zzwoom*
Har
Have a great Fourth! And Sunday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Decent theme but felt very heavy on names.
Pretty easy. A few good non-theme clues, but as someone who on a good day doesn’t care at all about Star Wars, and on most days actively dislikes it, it would be nice if one wasn’t constantly bombarded with its hegemonic dominance in the crossword.
Yes, I actually laughed. ABETTER really is just hilariously awful.
I’m so not into Star Wars either. I saw the first one in the theater when I was maybe 7? And after that I am not sure if I have even seen a whole film. Whatevs. Easy Sunday except for the cross of WURLITZER and VITRUVIAN MAN. I have seen it hanging in a museum, I’ve taken art history, but I didn’t know the name!
Yes, I thought that was a particularly good crossing as well!
Gotta blow up the doll somehow 🤷♂️
So that’s why I had ABETToR - thanks, I’m not crazy. This reminds me of episode 2 of the current season of Black Mirror.
If you actually follow your Google search and look at the dictionary links that come up, you'll find it's an accepted variant.
This word wasn't any trouble for me, but isn't English fun?
I'd rather have ABETTOR than DOIEVER in my puzzles.
Damnit Rex, you and your excellent writing skills almost made me turn on Love Boat yesterday, and now you double down on the intrigue.
I guess the breakfast-test days are done what with needing to imagine BLOWUP dolls this morning.
I kind of like the trifecta of unofficial holidays this time of year, and wonder if one will ever become a federal holiday.
Pi Day 3/14
May the Fourth
4/20
Like Halloween, no pressure on any of these to do it just right, unlike so many that have been co-opted by Hallmark et al - Valentines, Fathers Day, Mothers Day, Birthdays, Xmas.
L
L
L
L
I got stymied on two squares.
Didn’t have the Z for Kudzu crossed with Wurlitzer. I had an H there as my best guess.
I also missed the D for Arrid crossed with Della. I had an N there for my best guess.
Are either or both of these Naticks or am I just being fussy?
I’m 34 years old so not particularly young or old as a solver.
Am I the only one who laughed at blow up doll thinking you are out of breath after inflating them and did not think about their intended purpose until the writeup? Eww.
Definitely get to know SHISO! A game changer 🍃
I saw that it was a "U" rebus comprised of rebus squares with one letter plus a "U". I had no idea why. But I never met a rebus I didn't like -- and the fact that every rebus was different and that the squares were not identified pleased me no end. It gave the puzzle added crunch and interest.
I assume that MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU is from Star Wars. Yes? Happily, the phrase is so much WITH US that even I knew it -- and therefore could figure out the pun. Oh, I see. MAY THE FOURTH (letter of the answer) BE WITH U (appear in the same square as a "U"). Clever! Good idea to build a rebus -- one that's never been done before -- around.
Toughest clue for me and biggest surprise? BLOW UP DOLL, nicely crossed with WURLITZER.
But oh, Brandon. So much pop culture added to the already pop culture-y theme. I felt that I was wending my way through a tangled thicket of pop culture names and Japanese words. This added difficulty -- though not necessarily the kind of difficulty I most enjoy.
Still, the theme was great, the embedding lovely, and the density impressive. Mostly a very good and enjoyable Sunday.
The printer is still down, older son (may be) coming to the rescue to help us connect the new one today, as the instructions defy comprehension, so today I can understand and commiserate with all other solvers who have had the joy of not being able to enter rebus answers. On paper I just write two letters in a square, not today though. I had everything right (in my head) so I'm singing the happy music to myself.
The revealer was a gimme and most everything else was easy enough ENID and the boxer and the Japanese spice being notable exceptions. Stopped watching boxing years ago. Beating the other guy senseless somehow lost its appeal..
Impressive construction indeed, BK, but a Better Kind of Sunday would not include a rebus. Thanks for some frustrating fun.
I would have wagered that the spelling was wrong if I were ABETTER man.
Giving myself a high-five. :)
Yes, I fall into the category of thinking that blowing up the BLOWUP DOLL is what takes your breath away. I remember that I sometimes got a bit winded as a child blowing up a large balloon. But some of you allude to the fact that Rex identified a more controversial reason why said doll would take one's breath away. So I scurried back to Rex, looking for the scurrilous explanation. But it's not there. Rex assumes, I suppose, that we'll know what he means. I don't. I assume it's some sort of porn thing, maybe?
When a waiter assists in moving two tables together, he is an abutter abetter.
@Pablo, this may be too little too late but the NYT app has a rebus key on the keyboard that allows you to put in multiple letters/symbols. Kinda funny…I view using the app as preferable to squeezing my writing into a very small square!
In my decades of imbibing gin, I have found that there are gins you savor, gins you relish and GINSUKNIFE.
My friend, Frank Stopkowski, once taught photography to Kristen Stewart. So KSTEW learned FSTOPs from FSTOP.
Did you know that there's a beauty pageant just for girls who've been jilted by their beaus? The winner is crowned MISSYOU.
A lot of people think bartenders are prone to phantasize before opening time because that is when they PRETEND.
I'm surprised that @Lewis is the only one who has mentioned that the letters with the rebussed "U" spell STARWARS, making this a terribly difficult construction. I loved it. Live long and prosper, Brandon Koppy.
RHODESIANRIDGEBACKS are among my favorites, VITRUVIANMAN not so much. Quite the feat of construction, especially getting it done to be published on May 4. Having constantly morphing rebuses hidden throughout the puzzle gave this a bit of added interest. KUDZU is a real pain—that stuff seems like it grows 2 or 3 feet a day. Luckily it has only a tiny root and is easy to weed out if you can get at it in the thick shrubbery where it likes to germinate.
Nice theme puzzle. Chewy in spots. Liked it.
Pretty sure @Roo mentioned how the rebus letters spelled out STARWARS…
Rex wrote about this, READ THE BLOG
PS - Am I the only one who likes Jar Jar Binks?
“…those fourth letters (the ones paired with "U") spell out STAR WARS“; Rex underlines the letters and everything. You people should read Rex sometime. His posts are full of all kinds of useful information.
Yes
"chewy in spots" - nice Star Wars reference there : )
Count me in as someone who really liked the puzzle today and I DID use the FOURTH square revealer to figure out BLOWUPDOLL/WURLITZER (with just the R in Wurlitzer). It’s been noted that there were some arcane propers and foreignisms but I dunno…I tend to find many of these interesting, so if they are fairly crossed (maybe they weren’t today?) I’m okay with that. I did notice that the rebused letters spelled out STARWARS and I did NOT know that May 4 is Star Wars Day, and yes…THAT seems kind of dumb. But these days almost every day of the year has some designation.
I am a bit surprised that Rex and some commenters have “dissed” Star Wars (in general). Maybe it’s because I was 21 when it came out I think of the original trilogy as iconic, I was amazed at the cinematography and FX (for that time), and I thought it was a pretty damned good story! Like many things, however, (including LotR) they just could not leave it alone and I started losing interest in Star Wars before the end of the “prequels.”
Thanks for an enjoyable Sunday solve Brandon Koppy!
Not that difficult-but garbage nonetheless. I cannot believe that i am paying good money for tripe like this.
I had enough letters (B, W, and T) to get 70A once I realized what day today was. Perfect timing and all that. What I didn't get until after I finished solving was that the U's were rebused into the 4th letter of the answer in all of the theme answers, clever and subtle and not guessable from the title of this puzzle, which I guess is a good thing?
I did quit too soon with my writing out the letters of the rebi to get STAR WARS, which is a nice bonus. I guess the STAR that I did have should have pointed me to that.
It took me until right now to see that HENRI anagrams to RHINE. On the other hand, TILDES didn't fool me at all. I was a bit worried in the SDSU crossing DNA area but once I had _NA, the Kendrick Lamar lyric was inferable. (Why is AutoCorrect trying to correct inferable?)
Brandon Koppy, I applaud your effort in creating this puzzle, thanks!
Yes. :)
My take on this is closer to yours than Rex’s. ( Except I do think he's right that it’s time to highlight the rebellion) I saw the PPP crossing PPP and was sure you'd confirm that this was a poor job.
When one knows the date and sees the name of the puzzle and in ten seconds writes in the reveal, there seemed no point to continue. Reading today's comments reinforces the idea that as usual, Sunday's puzzle is a total waste
of time and ink.
Speaking of wow, your comment on the backstory made me click the link under the Info tab that led me to the Wordplay column. For the FIRST TIME!
All this time, all these puzzles, and I was missing, to paraphrase Paul Harvey, “the rest of the backstory”. Wow.
(Same thing happened when I recently found clues from Steve G and others under the Community tab of Spelling Bee. So nice not to no longer be stuck on NICE!)
Well done, Brandon. 21 published NYT puzzles as a side gig to his ad agency job. WOW!)
I am not a "Star Wars" person, @Beezer, and I sincerely apologize. But here's my very own experience with the first Star Wars flick:
One day, I'm sitting in the office of Jim C -- a young, amusing and attractive guy in the Product Management Dept of The Literary Guild where I was an editor. Jim was speaking ecstatically of the new film he'd just seen. "I've seen it 11 times," he said. "You absolutely HAVE to see it!!!!! It's fantastic!!!!!"
I liked Jim. I trusted Jim. I went -- with the highest of expectations.
Now, remember, @Beezer, that I don't have a memory and this was 48 years ago. But what I think I remember is a bunch of really peculiar -- grotesque, even -- creatures sitting at a bar. I think they were just blabbing away; I really don't remember. But whatever they were doing, I didn't care. And I think that that one scene went on and on and on. "Jim saw this 11 times?" I thought. "HE SAW THIS 11 TIMES???!!!" I felt that I couldn't leave, although I really, really wanted to. It had to get better -- it just HAD to!
It didn't.
Finally, I did leave. It was at least 30 minutes later than I had wanted to. Maybe 45 minutes later. As I raced out into the wonderfully fresh air and looked at streets filled with normal, recognizable people, I cursed myself for staying as long as I did. "He's got to be out of his ever-lovin' mind" is what I thought about Jim C.
Needless to say, when the next film in the franchise came along, I dodged it. And all the ones after that. Who knows -- maybe they got better. They certainly couldn't have gotten any worse as far as I was concerned.
Yes!
The last area of this puzzle to drop for me was the SHISO ("she so fine") ARTUR GOESHARD combo Rex expounded upon. My struggles there were compounded by an inability to grok IRS AUDITS (I was thinking 1D, Currency unit of Kabul, might end in S) and by having PaSt for 39D (Focus of some psychotherapy).
But yes, other than that it played easy, and the theme actually provided me with an answer. I had figured out the __U gimmick early on and had 7 of the 8 in place (STAR __ARS). Realizing that the final one was WU jarred my brain into remembering WURLITZER, which I knew but was blanking on.
The across WU answer brought both the tee-hee and eww musings, but mostly the pleasant remembrance of Lars and the Real Girl.
Easy-medium if you don’t count the time spent tracking down a couple of typos. I didn’t figure out what the theme was until I’d almost finished the puzzle. A subtle/clever/apt idea and a delightful “a ha” moment when I caught it.
In spite of what John Oliver said about puns, I liked it.
Absolutely obnoxious puzzle. What a waste of time. Take your FORCE and stick it where the sun don’t shine. Sheesh. Pathetic.
@SouthsideJohnny - not being a fan of rebuses, I thought I was the only one (besides @GaryJugert).
Yes
confirming this fact now.
WHEW! I never saw "Star Wars" & never missed not seeing it (sorry SW fans).
This was my worst nightmare - a REBUS incorporated in a Sunday-sized grid. Aside from the "rebus" thing for me, there was KUDZU, HE-MAN, ARTUR? Not a fan or wrestling, but I did catch a boxing movie the other night on TCM made in 1949 with Robert Ryan, "The Set Up" which I could actually tolerate... now THAT was boxing. Don't know this ARTUR guy.
Impressive puzzle Brandon, thank you, but a Sunday rebus?? - not for me.
Definitely yes
Fun solve. Convenient that the revealer is 21 letters. Kudos to Brandon for making a theme out of it (in a day, no less). I particularly liked the Kendrick Lamar clue for DNA, then smiled big at [Senator Baldwin or] Duckworth (Kendrick Lamar's last name).
I'm just a casual boxing fan, but the ARTUR Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol fights were intense. Both highly skilled and evenly matched, nobody knew who would win. Naoya Inoue has a fight tonight on ESPN. Some rankings put him as the #1 pound-for-pound boxer. It won't be a close fight, but it's fun to watch how technical and dominant he is.
SHISO: I don't see perilla used much outside of Korean cuisine. You might see Korean perilla leaves at Korean BBQ restaurants, used in LETTUCEWRAPS. Perilla in soy sauce is also a common side dish (I'm not a fan).
Conan's Mark Twain Prize ceremony is finally out on Netflix. Today was a good day.
Wasn't familiar with the revealer's pun sayin or the 4 May observance, but anything that generates extra U's is A-OK with M&A, of course.
Looks like the puz had 8 regular U's, plus 8 more rebUs U's. Had noticed the STARWARS companions to the rebus U's. Hadn't noticed the rebus squares always bein in the 4th position, til I came to here. Primo constructioneerin feat.
staff weeject pick [of a mere 30 candidates]: OKC. M&A and PuzEatinSpouse [and some Stillwater OK friends] are big OKC Thunder fans. NBA Semi's with Thunder vs. Nuggets begin tomorrow, 8:30pm OKC time, on TNT. Just sayin. And Go Thunder.
fave stuff: MUCH clue. MASK. And that's just in the first row.
Thanx and congratz, Mr. Koppy dude. Primo job. 4.5 U-stars.
Masked & Anonymo16Us
... my apologies to @Lewis, on the followin puz's slant ...
"Double Takes" - 8x7 12 min. themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Well done!
I liked this, and it's very appropriate for today. We wish our (adult) son (who is a techie and a Star Wars fan) May the Fourth be With You every year. But of course, this would not be everyone's cup of tea (or whatever they drink on Tatooine or the Death Star).
Another Thursday. Go fourth and divide.
I really dislike these forced games.
@Nancy - they got better for the next 2, or at least consistent, then did actually get worse, much worse for the next 3.
You are not the only one that got tripped up with KUDZU/WORLITZER. Those are two words I never heard of. I ended up just going through all 26 in the hopes of hearing the puzzle done jingle. As I was approaching the end of the alphabet, I was loosing hope at the thought that I had another mistake someone else. You can imagine my joy when I got the jingle on 'Z'.
I'll try again. @Nancy-The "creatures" in the bar scene have become a handy reference for any strange group, the latest one being DJT's cabinet.
I see from your profile you are in NYC. No KUDZU there. None where I live either but I have driven south in the past from my humble Midwest abode. Rex mentioned the EU problem but here is what I found (and have witnessed in past) copy and pasted:
Today, kudzu is estimated to cover 3,000,000 hectares (7,400,000 acres) of land in the southeastern United States, mostly in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Eastern Kentucky and Mississippi.
Yeah. It’s the leafy broad-leafed vine that grows over deciduous trees and essentially chokes the trees. If memory serves (didn’t re-Google), it was introduced to US as a food source for cattle. Yikes.
I LOVED Lars and the Real Girl! You just brought those pleasant memories to me!
Why is "drip" a cause of insomnia?
100% agree. I initially thought “this reads like a frat kids idea of a clever clue to blow up doll, ugh. Thank goodness this is the NYT though!” Once I got a few crossers and realized that WAS the answer I couldn’t help but wonder if the editor had seen it at all. Gross. I’m not religious but having it on a Sunday seems especially egregious somehow 😅
I'd have to rate this a medium Sunday solve. There was a lot of easy stuff and some pretty hard stuff to balance it out. And a big handful of PPP I just didn't know, but they seemed fairly crossed so no complaints. Got the rebus idea at 22A but, of course, I spelled GINzU wrong. Confirmed the idea at 34A where I had most of LETTUCEWRAPS filled from crosses. It wasn't until I got the revealer that I figured out the fourth letter position was important. Honestly did not know May 4th was a special day for Star Wars fans. I am not one of them. Saw the first few and then quit. Anyway, knowing that fourth letter thing made the puzzle much easier and I found myself liking and admiring it.
Returned to the NW to erase that zed and clean up my mess there and realized that the first letters of the rebus squares spelled out STARWARS and was even more delighted. I think I like this constructor's work.
STAR WARS fan that I am, I loved the puzzle, managing to catch on to the "FOURTH" part of the rebus in time to use it to place the Us in my last two theme entries. Like others, I found WURLITZER fun to write in, and its cross with VITRUVIAN MAN the cherry on top.
Hands up for being a non-fan of Star Wars. I remember watching the first movie and thinking: this is a silly spoof. It was a spoof, not meant to be taken seriously. And not science fiction, it was fantasy... okay "science fantasy" if you insist. And all the sequels, and the fuss, yikes.
With all the rebus stuff going on, it was baffling that 70 across was too long for MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU; and of course Unknown Name ARTUR helped keep me from getting it for ages. (Note: there is another ARTUR right next door in the middle of DEPARTURE.)
But even though Sundays are usually a drag, and I missed the "second rebus letters spell STARWARS" *and* I completely missed the "May fourth" thing, I didn't mind this too much. Except for...
Yes I always complain about abbrev's, sports teams, and Unknown names, and those stupid things ganged up on me in mirror positions in the middle left and right. SDSU crossing DNA clued as a tiny part of a song title I've never heard of, and OKC and YAO crossing COCO clued as a damned Pixar film. For SDSU I saw "Aztecs" and thought: well, probably Arizona? Southern Arizona State University? For OKC I thought: well, Oklahoma, so obviously OKL.
And when Igor helps Dr Frankenstein at the slaughterhouse he is an abatoir abetter.
Yes!
Interesting that John Oliver is credited with the quip about puns. It's centuries older than Oliver. There are several variations of it, as well as various humorous replies. I first heard it as "the pun is the lowest form of humor", but earlier attestations have it as "the pun is the lowest form of wit", attributed to the English playwright John Dennis (1657–1734).
ChrisS
It always being the fourth letter totally escaped me. I thought we were inserting the Greek letter mu as it’s a symbol related to force in physics (the coefficient of friction) and the title of puzzle was Force Play. *exasperated sigh*
RE: BLOW-UP DOLL -- I can't stop thinking about one of the most juicily vicious "bad-girl" disses of a no-good man I've ever heard: "Lousy date? Are you kidding? I bet even his inflatable woman gets a headache!!"
My bad. I’m usually sitting there and shaking my head about people who do things like this. My only defense is that we were staying with old friends for the night and I was being called to breakfast. So clearly, I didn’t read @Rex very thoroughly. I’m a moron.
Definitely a puzzle for the younger crowd.
Long, long time reader and fan of this blog but first time commenter. Today’s opener from RP: “ As someone who finds this "holiday" corny and obnoxious ... yeah, this was not the puzzle for me. The whole MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU pun is like something that kind of makes you smile the first time you hear it, maybe, but ... every damn year now, everyone reproducing this tired pun AD NAUSEAM.” really struck a chord me because this “tired pun” is also my birthday! I’ve been enduring this trope since 1978. And nearly everyone who says, “oh, happy birthday, may the fourth be with you!” thinks they are the first clever devil to shuck this pearl. I smile politely.
Anyway, dropped in the revealer with just 2 letters, rolled my eyes, and finished in “Easy” time. Overall, better than average Sunday, which isn’t say much. Until next time, cheers.
Everything I know about STARWARS I learned from crossword puzzles. I'm a graduate of San Diego State (SDSU) and I'm not even sure why they are the Aztecs. The original Aztec people were from mid- to lower Mexico and that's nowhere near SDSU (or Arizona). The athletic teams have a likeness of the Aztec calendar on their uniforms.
I’m here, I solved fairly easily, I read (as I always do before I post) and I still don’t get the theme. Or maybe I do, but can’t appreciate it? First off, why is the 4th May (the 5th month) “the day” to celebrate The Force? Is May significant to Star Wars? And since there are 8 not 4 theme clues, that also didn’t make much sense to me. So the theme didn’t land for me. Or maybe it could have been relevant to the 4th of any month and this 4th just happened to be a Sunday and Mr. Koppy designed this puzzle for a Sunday. We have seen his byline often over the years, and I enjoy his puzzles. In fact, I enjoyed this one despite missing out on the theme. I’m certain the Starwarzians among the neighborhood will appreciate its undoubted cleverness.
The puzzle as a whole was fun and easy. The Masters is one of my annual joys to follow and watch. I got the rebus at AUGUSTA and whooshed on along, really enjoying the variety of fill.
You can’t hate seeing VITRUVIAN MAN eating his LETTUCE WRAPS the fillings for which he prepared using his GINSUKNIFE, not BEGEUDGING the extra time the prep took to make a lovely presentation to enhance the SENSUALITY of the dining experience. His postprandial metier improved after yesterday's painful IRS AUDIT with the agent who exuded all the personality of a BLOWUP DOLL going on AD NAUSEAM about his “highly questionable” deductions.
Hope y’all have a pleasant Sunday.
Very nice review. I also got my Z use mixed up with GINSU and then was unsure whether Z or S for WURLITZER. I agree that fair crosses make all the difference when PPP is involved. Hey. I’m an equal opportunity learner of PPP!
That’s a great story Nancy! I can totally see why some folks wouldn’t like it. But underneath my erudite facade (HAH!), there has always been a kid who DID read Marvel/DC comic books, loved cartoons, and stupid sci-fi fantasy movies. Given the fact I was 21 when it came out…I was enthralled with the splendor and novelty…then things kind of went like @burtonkd said. Plus, it’s like…ok, just stop, enough already.
weirdly the only thing that bugged me about this puzzle [except for feeling like a complete idiot, when, after celebrating may the fourth be with you all afternoon (by posting GIFs and videos online with friends, nothing extravagant), i came to do this puzzle, and thought the big grid spanner had to be something like, we come in peace, or take me to your leader, absolutely and completely not at all considering a star wars revealer on today of all days...] ANYWAY massive forehead slap aside, i take issue with the clue on ICEES. they do NOT "get slushy over time" - they *ARE* slushy and then they melt. that is, if they are even slushy when you get them, as a lot of machines these days give you way to much unfrozen syrup, which is why these aren't my frozen treat of choice.
although, writing this out has helped me realize something maybe? because i guess you could argue that they get slushy over time if you're talking about when they're still in the machine, from pouring the goo in to churning it into a frozenish substance...like if a clue for ICE CREAM was "it gets frozen over time"...which is true! but would still seem more like an oversight than a clever misdirect but then, i guess that's what makes clever misdirects successful.
tl;dr IGNORE ME! happy star wars day! enjoy what's left of the weekend everyone!
-stephanie.
ps i'm glad rex mentioned the blow up doll. i definitely said "oh no, ew" when i realized what i was gonna have to write in - but i also laughed XD
Not to mention the former monk, now an unhappy short-order cook at said slaughterhouse, who has just spilled the pancake mix and now has to help the waiter combine tables — the abattered embittered ex-abbot abattoir abutter abetter.
@Tom T & Beezer i also loved that movie. saw it in the theater having no idea what was about to be revealed and was transfixed. there is also a House, MD episode with a similar setup. fond memories indeed.
-stephanie.
Hated this puzzle to pieces... what a PPP-drenched slog! DNF because BLOWUPDOLL, PEET, LARA were all ouside my wheelhouse.
Still waiting for a Paul Desmond / Dave Brubeck–themed 5/4 puzzle.
Yes. But Brandon cleverly used it both ways.
@Nancy yes, inflating the blow up doll is what takes your breath away. however, blow up dolls are sexual in nature. so having blow up dolls in the puzzle to begin with...and then calling them a "companion"...even without any secondary meaning of "taking your breath away"...it raised an eyebrow lol.
-stephanie.
If @egs is the last anonymous…no biggie! I actually DID read Rex but somehow missed that. The “you people” anonymous commenter could’ve been a bit kinder…
…and given that whitehouse.gov has taken it upon itself to abuse Star Wars with a meme of t34 as a Sith lord… no thank you. Even if it the puzzle was cleverly done.
Lowest form of humor … but highest form of wit.
At this time of night I need to look up attributions, but I"ll leave that as an exercise for the so-inclined reader
D
I liked seeing DO I EVER.
While it may be new to you (just a guess) it has been around since at least the’30’s and probably longer. I would have thought it is one of those expressions that only older people know, but according to Google it is a name of a song.
Southside Johnny
I can see your point about the listed answers except
Mary Queen of Scots aka Mary Stuart, yes the cousin that Queen Elizabeth I had executed. There are countless stories, books, plays, operas and tv series about her. Her family name helped lo her death because it gave her a claim to the English throne which didn’t make Elizabeth very happy.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with having such a famous woman’s “House” name in the puzzle.
@Anoa Bob, in New Mexico I saw "Aztec Ruins National Monument" on the map and thought: wow, I had no idea the Aztecs lived this far north! Of course the first thing I learned at the site was: they never did.
Strands and Connections also played off the Star Wars theme today
Nailed the puzzle. The Wurlitzer answer got me to understand that we were playing with a rebus, but had no idea what the pun was until I read through all the comments here. Clever indeed
She lies and says she's in love with him. Can't find abetter man.
I saw the first Star Wars movie when it came out and then the next 2 when they arrived. (I have read that the first one is now officially called Star Wars a New Hope and given an episode number. Don’t care. It is Star Wars period to me).
Never saw any of the other movies or TV shows. The first one can be taken as satire but I am not sure if that was the intent! Together the first three tell a decent story with for the time outstanding special effects I liked them
Sadly, along with Jaws , and some others, the success of these movies irrevocably changed Hollywood to be a bland franchise machine. Oh well.
Liked the puzzle. Learned that Vitruvian had 2 i’s.
How much I don’t think about Star Wars is emphasized by my not getting the long theme answer. My granddaughter who has never seen a SW anything gave me a well deserved eyeroll. “Duh, Grandma! What day is it?” I answer “May 4th.” Still not there. “OK, ask ME what day it is.” “OK G-Bear, what day is it?” “It’s May THE fourth.” Ohhhhhhhh. I never realized that I don’t say (or even think) “the” if I am saying month and day, but if I say, for example, “our party is on THE 4th, then I use “the.” Wow. This did not ease my SW pain though. But I sure feel dumb!
Yes PLEASE!
Hey @Les S. Nice job. Partially for you, I made up a theme related word today. In my post.
@Beezer, I had S/Z issues with GINSU too and knowing that WURLITZER for sure had the zed, I went ahead and thought GINZU did too. BZZZZZZZZT! (wrong answer buzzer) self corrected on the down.
Missed it too @Okanaganer. Had to have my granddaughter explain it. She’s never seen anything SW related. Put me in my place.
Not much point to this for someone who had never heard of this ‘holiday’! Some holiday, though-nothing religious (‘holy’ day, or a break from just another routine day. Truth is, even after l read Tex’s analysis l still didn’t get the hyper-complex associations from a ho-hum movie series from when l was a much younger and less-discriminating human. My verdict: A puzzle for the hypo-intelligentsia. Gonna have to give up consuming the empty calories of NYT puzzles. PS. to Rex: As an academic, or so l believe, will you pleeze eschew encouraging the further destruction of the English language with you hypo-intelligent use of ‘fun’. Aren’t we all supposed to adults here?
How do you even win $8.00 for a $12.00 punt? There were no payouts of less than even-money!
Yes! You should definitely be buying different tripe.
Mostly easy, but actually finishing was a big age-check. Cute use of the free-theme at least.
Here's a late but enthusiastic hand up for being reminded by 87A of "Lars and the Real Girl". Just one of the sweetest, smartest and quirkiest box office flops ever, starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Mortimer. Everyone I know who saw it loved it, but sadly very few people saw it.
Live long and prosper is Star Trek not Star Wars, of course.
I've been reading Rex's column for about two months as I take my first steps into the world of Cruciverbalism. However, I had never noticed the NYT Wordplay column -- thanks for pointing it out to this newbie!!
I hated this puzzle!
Just finished this in print, as is my wont, finishing the Sunday puzzle later in the week. Interesting that you have John Astin in the write-up. Now 95 years old, he (as paterfamilias Gomez Addams) is of course the only surviving regular cast member from the 1960s TV incarnation of "The Addams Family," since the death of Lisa "Wednesday Addams" Loring in 2023 at the age of just a little over two years ago. Blossom Rock (Mama), Ken Weatherwax (Pugsley), Carolyn Jones (Morticia), Jackie Coogan (Uncle Fester), and Ted Cassidy (Lurch) all passed away years ago.
DRIPs are usually silent, unless the sink stopper is down. Then you can hear the plop plop, and there's no sleeping till you do something about it.
I often miss the second part of a multi-layered theme, but not this time. Even noticed the 4th letter placement. This had to be hard to come up with; kudos to Mr. Koppy. Birdie, with a nod to @M&A, for all the U's.
Wordle par. Congrats to Scottie Scheffler, who once again showed them all how to play golf.
Reply to Anonymous 2:43 PM, who asked
Why is "drip" a cause of insomnia? -
@spacecraft has answered this, but I submit for further edification this haiku by Brian Bilston:
Haiku Written at 3 a.m.
while Lying in Bed
and Listening to the Sound
of a Bathroom Tap
Drip drip drip drip drip
Drip drip drip drip drip drip drip
Drip drip drip drip drip
Brian Bilston
Gonna blow your mind, Rex…in that Love Boat Egypt episode…John Putch (the actor playing the Indiana Jones wannabe) IS JEAN STAPLETON’S ACTUAL SON!
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