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Money in Laos / WED 7-30-25 / Extra-thick Nabisco treats, hinted at four times in this puzzle / Land of llamas and Llosa / Famous film pooch / ___ Allen, jazz pianist / Sigma preceder / Bunny with a Brooklyn accent / Monomaniacal sea captain of literature / Schadenfreude source / R-V hookup?
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Constructor: Thomas Byrne and Daniel Bodily
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
This one started rough. Just wasn't buying CLASSIC HITS as a thing (felt redundant—they're just CLASSICS), and TOOK A PIC seemed solidly in EAT-A-SANDWICH territory (i.e. Contrivedville), and on top of that I'm supposed to remember Laotian currency (!?) and then I'm condescended to with a sad letter string that couldn't even be bothered to have an original clue (8D: R-V hookup?)? That "RV" wordplay used to be de rigueur for STU clues in the late '90s / early '00s, but hasn't been seen since 2015, so it'll be new to many of you, I guess. Anyway, I was not feeling the puzzle at all. AMORTIZES? There's a word only a banker's mother could love. CHOCOLATE-COATED & DIRTY LOOK started to liven things up a little (love a CHOCOLATE-COATED DIRTY LOOK), but my feelings about this puzzle never got above neutral until I hit the revealer—that is, *my* revealer: not the literal revealer splashed across the middle of the grid (which I hadn't yet looked at), but the four-letter pre-revealer: MILK (28A: Beverage served alongside the treats in this puzzle). That answer ruined the actual revealer for me, but it tipped me off to the fact that there were "treats" in the puzzle, and as soon as I looked at those double-letters seemingly suspended in midair, I began to understand what was happening, but it still took another second or two to register the full visual effect—the double letters were creme, the adjacent black squares were cookie, and so I had four DOUBLE STUF OREOS diagonally stacked across my grid. What can I say? The visual gimmick works, and MILK really did a nice job of subtly cluing me in (whereas the longer revealer eventually just felt obvious and kind of redundant). So while I don't think the theme answers themselves are any great shakes (AFTEREFFECT? Isn't that just ... an effect?), the concept and the execution are very nice. Those do look like cookies, and making the "creme" spell out STUF, doubly, is a clever way to make up for the fact that those double-letters are technically uncrossed.
- CLASSIC HITS (12A: Popular oldies)
- BOTTLES (27A: Beer hall recyclables)
- VACUUMS (44A: Empty spaces)
- AFTEREFFECT (61A: Consequence)
Honeydew is a sugar-rich sticky liquid, secreted by aphids, some scale insects, and many other true bugs and some other insects as they feed on plant sap. When their mouthpart penetrates the phloem, the sugary, high-pressure liquid is forced out of the anus of the insects, allowing them to rapidly process the large volume of sap required to extract essential nutrients present at low concentrations. Honeydew is particularly common as a secretion in hemipteran insects and is often the basis for trophobiosis. Some caterpillars of Lycaenidae butterflies and some moths also produce honeydew. In addition to various sugars, honeydew contains small amounts of amino acids, other organic compounds, and inorganic salts with its precise makeup affected by factors such as insect species, host plant species, and whether a symbiotic organism is present.Honeydew-producing insects, like cicadas, pierce phloem ducts to access the sugar rich sap; the excess fluid released by cicadas as honeydew is called "cicada rain". The sap continues to bleed after the insects have moved on, leaving a white sugar crust called manna. Ants may collect, or "milk", honeydew directly from aphids and other honeydew producers, which benefit from their presence due to their driving away predators such as lady beetles or parasitic wasps—see Crematogaster peringueyi. Animals and plants in a mutually symbiotic arrangement with ants are called Myrmecophiles.
• • •
I think I'm supposed to be impressed by CHOCOLATE-COATED running through the whole thing, but I don't think that answer fits well today. It's a very restrictive and completely unnecessary contrivance that likely results in our getting subpar answers like CLASSIC HITS and AFTER EFFECT as themers. Maybe it's just there coincidentally, but that seems unlikely. Feels planned. But I don't get why it would be part of your planning. If I think of the DOUBLE STUF OREOS as CHOCOLATE-COATED, that ruins the entire visual gag. You Cannot See The Creme If Your DOUBLE STUF OREOS are CHOCOLATE-COATED!!! And seeing the creme is 88% of the fun today (the other 12% is the DIRTY LOOK). Do they even make CHOCOLATE-COATED DOUBLE STUF OREOS? I don't see them on offer. Oh wait, here's some. They look creepy and awful, like the Oreos are being tortured. And the color scheme is all wrong. Just let the Oreo be, man.
- 14A: Sch. whose mascot is Tim the Beaver (MIT) — I had no idea. If I'd ever seen this clue (got it all from crosses), I would definitely have guessed OSU (that's Oregon State University)
 |
| [Well I know who I'm taking in this fight] |
- 42A: Bunny with a Brooklyn accent (BUGS) — this should've been instant, but I never think about BUGS's accent this way. I never think of him having an "accent" at all. I grew up in California, so I had no idea about regional accents beyond "Southern." BUGS was just BUGS. Sure, he talked funny, but "Brooklyn." That would not have registered. And when it doesn't register in childhood, it's hard to get it to stick in adulthood, however obvious it might seem when pointed out to you.
- 25D: Land of llamas and Llosa (PERU) — my brain tripped all over the pile of crosswordese in this clue. Main problem was reading Llosa as LHASA and thinking "well, llamas are in S. America, but LHASA is in Asia, so ... I'm confused." Llosa is of course Literature Nobelist Mario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian (whether he owned llamas or not, I do not know).
That's all. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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82 comments:
Easy-Medium.
One Overwrite, my 57D Askew was Odd before it was OFF.
Two WOEs, @Rex Laotian currency KIP at 7D and pianist GERI Allen at 42D. I thought maybe GEne.
Those two made FED IN at 63A hard to see. In addition, I had the double SS, TT and UU and ass-u-med the third double letter would be VV. Wrong!
Clever. Loved it!
I solved it quickly (for me), but didn’t even notice that the double-stuf answers were visually surrounded by the chocolate cookies, nor that they spelled “stuf”, until reading Rex’s write-up. Very fun to have that revealed!
CLASSIC HITS is the industry name for the radio format that plays popular oldies.
Do your part to resurrect Hydrox Cookies - the original from 1908. Oreos are a rip-off copy introduced four years later. It badly trailed Hydrox in sales until the 1950s when, taking the lead from breakfast cereal marketing, Oreos added more filling and more sugar and started marketing directly to kids as a sugar delivery system. It has continued down that road ever since. Hydrox, with its far crunchier cookie, and filling that is more modest and less sweet, couldn't compete.
Oreos are a Mondalez International product, not Nabisco. Seems a pretty serious error for the Times
Geri Allen- great jazz pianist who passed away in 2017- too young.
MIT’s mascot is a beaver because beavers are nature’s engineers 💫
I approached with trepidation when I opened up the grid and saw that we were dealing with a stunt puzzle on a Wednesday. Like Rex, the theme started to come into focus when I hit MILK. The double-letters where the white cream belongs were more of an annoyance than anything else.
Trouble spots were that foolish clue for ARON and I can only guess that American Idol is a game show or one of those contrived “reality” shows - I don’t know why it needs an AGE LIMIT, but at least the crosses were fair.
Another solid job of construction which seems consistent with the NYT’s ongoing focus on style over substance, but for me at least, the solving experience was just meh.
Our local chocolate shop has summer-only specials. On Friday, it is $1 chocolate-coated oreos. You get get regular (yum) or mint (triple yum).
KIP was a gimme, but I got both vowels wrong initially on KeBaB.
AFTEREFFECT is a real thing, but that is a darn weird clue for it. It's like using "sweet, salty, sour, or bitter" as a clue for 'aftertaste'. Aftereffect needs something to indicate that it's not the primary effect.
So happy to see the marvelous GERI Allen in the puzzle today.
On BUGS Bunny’s accent: Growing up in east Texas, my exposure to Brooklyn accents was restricted to cartoons, where they seem to be very common. When, later in life, I finally met some real New Yorkers, I had the impression that everyone in NYC talked like cartoon characters.
On the other hand, the only people on TV who talked like me were the Beverly Hillbillies.
Beavers are nature’s engineers which is why MIT is inferable.
Since it’s double stuf, shouldn’t the double letters be vertical and not horizontal?
Tim the beaver is MIT spelled backwards. The MIT teams were the beavers when I went there but they changed the name because of salicious connotations. The ring for MIT has a beaver on it though
Hey All !
Kudos to the constructors getting in Double F's! And Double U's for @M&A.
Jeers to my addled brain, though, for not seeing that the DOUBLE STUFs spelled out STUF!
Honestly, how can I not notice that post solve? Or see it coming into view while solving? I just don't know sometimes.
Neat idea for a puz. I liked DOUBLE STUF OREOS, until they came out with MegaStuf Oreos, which is what I buy now. Triple the cream! At one point, they had a product called The Most Stuf, and holy moly, cream for days. It was basically a double-double. Only fit like 6 cookies in a stack in the tray!
Maybe change the long Down into CHOCOLATE COOKIE? Would've been apter. (Is apter a word? Or is it more apt?) Probably tried, but maybe the Acrosses wouldn't play nice.
Anyway, fun puz, not too many additional Blockers trying to keep the count down. There is 6 Cheaters, however. Six of one, half dozen of the other ...
Have a great Wednesday!
Five F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
OREO is right up there with ONO and ENO in recurring usage and they felt we needed a theme built around it? I ended up solving as a themeless and thought the overall fill was fine.
You remind me of Paul
Liked the four long downs - AMORTIZES is good fill despite its real world blandness. The ENVY x PRIVVY TO cross is top notch. TOOK A PIC not so much.
VERA
Product placement theme aside - a pleasant enough Wednesday morning solve.
Syd Straw
Oh, I liked this ALLOT. Random thoughts:
• I love, in puzzles like today’s, when seeing the empty grid makes me anxious to jump in because it looks like it’s going to be fun.
• SMORE is a nice echo in a puzzle about sweet sandwiches.
• Say TOOKAPIC five time real fast.
• Couple of names not clued as names (AMBER, STU), and a non-name that sounds like one (HEW).
• BOTTLES next to MILK. A lovely ping, as I haven’t thought about milk bottles in a long time.
• It took impressive skill, IMO, to make the leap from conception to puzzle – bravo, guys!
• Had to think a little different than usual to fill in those unchecked theme double letters, and that was very cool.
• “Schadenfreude” and OPACITY – two gorgeous words not often heard.
Daniel, congratulations on your 15th NYT puzzle, and Thomas, on your debut. Thank you both for a splendid outing!
Nabisco is a subsidiary of Mondalez.
Have to agree that my overall reaction to this was, do we really need an entire puzzle about a commercial product? Don’t get me wrong, I love oreos, but to have them take over the whole puzzle? No thanks.
Thought this a fun puzzle. Could not get the double “SS” in CLASSIC until I saw the other doubles were TTUUFF. Neat theme wrap-in. Oreos are such a classic puzzle word that it’s amazing someone can still come up with a new approach. It’s unfortunate that are something of an avatar for the sugar industry, but I guess it’s up to us consumers to enjoy them in moderation, or not.
Señor, sí señor.
Funny. An enjoyable romp. Take no prisoners approach to our most beloved product in the cruciverbalosphere.
And it's nice to be alive after paninogate yesterday.
People: 9
Places: 2
Products: 3
Partials: 5
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 21 of 70 (30%)
Funnyisms: 5 😄
Uniclues:
1 Dallas is outta Gators.
2 Pulls a teat.
3 Places in space where there are no rabbits eating carrots, or a bunny sucking on Berber, or when the words are reversed, a way to deal with cockroaches.
4 Ultimately unhelpful advantage for Starbuck.
5 Twelve, but they're not good about enforcing it.
6 Make your sibling who lost the game walk home.
7 A pile of dirt.
1 MAV LACKS ADE
2 BOTTLES MILK
3 BUGS VACUUMS
4 PRIVY TO AHAB
5 SMORE AGE LIMIT
6 HEW ROUTED BRO
7 ANT AFTER EFFECT
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Breakout session at Vegetable Con. I DO OKRA PANEL .
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Easy for me except in the SE, where I first had "pro" instead of BRO (not sharp on high-tech language), crossing "amper" instead of AMBER. My only glitch.
Question: What is it about OREO cookies that acts as a magnet to crossword puzzle constructors? For once, can't we have a puzzle about FIG NEWTONS?
The other problem is that Hydrox is a terrible name for cookies. It always sounded like a cleaning product to me, which is less than appetizing.
Mondalez is the company; Nabisco is the brand name.
I finished the grid and looked around, trying to find four entries which hinted at DOUBLE STUF OREOS. I came up with MILK, CHOCOLATE COATED, and S’MORE. Although I did notice a couple of entries where the letters seemed oddly placed, I didn’t notice it being a theme at all. That may have been because I didn’t even know that’s how “stuff” is spelled on the label. If the letters spelled out O-R-E-O it might have been more obvious. Or maybe it’s just that I detest Oreos in any form and was trying to get the thought of them out of my mind as quickly as possible.
Seems like a rather cruel irony that in order to say the medical term indicating a speech LISP, one has to pronounce the letter S twice.
I was hoping there would be an explanation for "stu." Help be out here please.
Yesterday I finished a 9" Oreo cookie box made with tropical walnut and maple on my CNC so today's theme was very apropos. I enjoyed it.
Gothmog as an orc is not stated in the books. I always assumed Gothmog was a Nazgûl. Shrug.
If only OREOS came in BOTTLES.
If only OREOS could suck up the dust from your floors.
If only there were a CLASSIC OREO ad jingle that was once a HIT.
There are two nice grid-spanning, criss-crossing answers that are pertinent to the theme -- but, alas, they are not STUFfing any OREOS.
For those reasons, I don't think the theme is nailed. And this also is an unusually easy Wednesday -- with the theme making it even easier. But it's pleasant enough, and probably should have run yesterday.
Solving on the NYT site, I saw the outlined squares but didn't notice they were unchecked until reading Rex's write-up. I guess that's a good thing, but it speaks to how easy this one was.
New STUF I learned: Laotian currency and GERI Allen. Very happy to now know of the latter.
Yep, OSU before MIT.
Growing up in Southern California, BUGS Bunny was a staple of my Saturday mornings. I couldn't have identified his accent as Brooklyn, but when he lamented not taking that "left toyne at Albakoykee" I knew he spoke differently than I did. BUGS, along with Archie Bunker flushing his terlet, clued me in that there was a much more sonically interesting world out there.
It’s an alphabetical cluing convention that is used pretty regularly in one form or another - think . . . opqrSTUvwx … . Watch out for it, you’ll be bumping into this sort of thing again.
Alphabet. R STU V
Learned "sigmatism." One of my sons had a strong lisp when he was in the lower grades. The San Francisco public schools speech therapists worked with him for three or four years on a pull-out basis. He now speaks more clearly than most people. He became an actor.
I've been living in the Boston area since 1964, and I've never previously heard of Time the Beaver, supposedly MIT's mascot. That doesn't mean he's not real, just that he's not well-known. But the crosses make it pretty clear, so that's OK.
I guess it's hard to put together a grid without throwing in an OREO, so why not make it the theme? It was fun, especially with double STUF in the unchecked squares. But 6-D is a bit weird--a chocolaty dessert without an oreo, unless those are to be considered as CHOCOLATE COATED, but I'm not convinced.
We've all got our hobby horses, and one of mine is that ETCH is not a synonym for engrave. You could look it up.
All these ACT I clues are too easy, unless they refer to Shakespeare and his colleagues, you just have to go by length, I, II, or III. Only one of them will fit.
RP was in my head this morning for 80% of the puzzle. My brain fixed CLASSICHITS, by making them CLASSICcuTS. I had OSU>MIT, thought, “oh, yeah BUGS has a Brooklyn accent”. Wasn’t there just a clue referencing Elmer Fudd’s lisp? (I see it is today, without the Fudd reference). I guess stereotypes are still used for humor, they have just changed over time.
Took the same long path to PERU (Inca trail to Machu Picchu?)
Unlike RP, I’m not in the least bothered by AMORTIZES or AFFTEREFFECTS, although they do trigger my Rex might not like this reflex.
Which fictional baddy is over-represented the most? The ORC or the OGRE?
In another era of my life, I might have known a recent British PM (RISHI), but I avoid daily news to keep my sanity these days.
That GERI clip is pretty hilarious - have all other good tunes been used up, or is she royalty-paying-averse? I guess you really see the process to turn a song into jazz when doing Itsy-bitsy spider. Was this chosen as a xwordese shoutout?
I’d say it makes sense in hindsight. Inferable is a stretch.Lots of other engineers in nature, for that matter.
I attended MIT and well knew that the beaver was its symbol/mascot. (The class ring is nicknamed “brass rat.”) but I never knew until today that he had a name!
I'm trying to figure out why, per @Rex the SS TT UU FF letters are "technically uncrossed." They seem completely and absolutely uncrossed and I can't find a non-technical crossing, try as I might.
I don't know why, but this puzzle made me wonder if Famous Amos ever got some love from constructors. No major theme appearances, but a simple FAMOUSAMOS answer to [Cookie name] in 2001 and [Snack brand since 1975] in 2016.
The AFTEREFFECT of DOUBLESTUFOREOS is that I use the PRIVYTO expunge them. Always earns me a DIRTYLOOK from Mrs. Egs.
Talk about a dupe dupe, STU plus DOUBLE STU!
I'm writing a play about succulents, but so far I've only made it to ACTI: Cacti.
My posts haven't been appearing sometimes of late, so please let me know if you don't see this one. I'm always a fan of a new, off-beat approach, and this one was luscious. Thanks, Thomas Byrne and Daniel Bodily. And congrats on the debut, Thomas.
It needs an age limit because it's real title is "The Next American Idol"-- looking for a young performer who is bound for stardom.
Lewis, if you ever ended up in solitary confinement, I wouldn’t worry for a second that they could break you with your boundless ability to self-amuse:)
Look for an EEL-based theme, coming soon.
I'm wit you
That’s a short, but really great story. Unfortunately, also the kind of service that is the first to go with budget cuts…
SIGMATISM, though, not so much.
Why was the square in #1 box yellow and the squares in ##2 and 3 blue? Was that part of the puzzle?
AMORTIZES? Otherwise, easy, cute. I'm off to have breakfast which doesn't include cookies :(
Congrats on your debut Thomas :)
That happened to me not too long ago; also, they sometimes take way longer to appear than what I’ve become accustomed to.
Thanks for making me smile! I enjoyed this puzzle even more after reading your comments.
Hydrox are waaaay better and available online.
Medium. I figured out the theme when I hit MILK and filled in the “cookie” centers and the reveal.
I did not know GERI, MIT, LISP, and RISHI. KIP was vaguely familiar.
Costly erasures - CLASSIC cuTS before HITS and KABaB before KABOB.
Pretty smooth grid, cute theme, liked it.
My only real hang-up was that I thought DOUBLE STUFF OREOS was right for 35A pretty early on, but just couldn't believe STUF would be spelled with only one F! So that hung me up for a while, until I just went with it on faith. I take issue with the clue "15 to 29, for American Idol," which seems to me to indicarte an AGE RANGE, not an AGE LIMIT,; that seems like something that could have been solved easily with better editing. My brain kept thinking "aspic" instead of AMBER, but that was the only other real hiccup. Overall, I thought the milk-and-cookies theme was cute and it felt like an appropriate Wednesday-level puzzle.
A similar theme published by the L.A. Times was done by David Steinberg as a Sunday puzzle ("Got Milk?") on July 8, 2012: https://crosswordfiend.com/2012/07/07/sunday-7812/#la
I second what Grandy said! Always enjoy your comments, Lewis.
Defeated in the NE corner thanks to OSU instead of MIT. My lack of willingness to look elsewhere annoys me greatly.
I hadn't had Oreos in years before I decided to try them again at a crossword puzzle tournament, where they are ubiquitous on the treats table due to their ubiquitousness in crosswords. I don't think I liked them as a kid - I'm not a milk-dunker and they didn't have enough chocolate flavor for me back then. I was mildly surprised to find them pleasant in flavor and texture. I don't think I'd like the DOUBLE STUF version because who needs more "cream" (sugar, vegetable oil and soy lecithin)? (Sorry, @Roo :-).
A cute puzzle whose gimmick did not interfere with solving on a different platform than the NYTimes' even though the warning message came up. I didn't get the cookie effect of the thicker lines but I will manage without it.
Thanks, Thomas and Daniel.
As someone who works in TV production, I was really happy to see AMORTIZES, a word that comes up again and again because we frequently budget set construction by spreading it across several episodes.
The whole puzzle is disgusting product placement. It’s bad enough that oreo is in every other puzzle, but the this theme is overkill.
So there I was, having at last figured out AFTEREFFECT, and wondering what those double letters were trying to tell me. S...T...U.... Aha! Very clever indeed, and really I had been enjoying the puzzle immensely. This old guy says, WELL DONE! It did help I have been in the stock market 70 years and regularly read annual reports. So AMORTIZES went right in.
Apt name for a chef, apt name for a worrier
Note: This here puz uses cookies. Caution is advised.
Good thing they weren't TRIPLESTUFOREOS. Not a rich pool of themers available, if you're gonna have 3 unchecked STUF letters together.
Altho, I reckon WELLEXCUUUSEME might work.
staff weeject picks: ADE & STU. Nice R-V and fruit additive ?-marker clues. evidently the only ones used in this here puz.
Primo weeject stacks, NE & SW, btw.
There were lotsa pretty cool answers in this puz. A few choice faves: VACUUMS. DIRTYLOOK. AMORTIZES. POPUPMENU.
Also, extra-liked the BUGS clue.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Mr. Byrne & Bodily dudes. M&A feels suitably STUF-ed. And congratz to Thomas B on his half-debut.
Masked & Anonymo8Us
... and, in transition to a wee-er world ...
"Runt Transition" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
I thought with all this gimmicky and cutesy show-off technology built into the NYTimes format, I'd be able to twist off those tops and lick off all the doublestuff when I successfully completed the puzzle. What a disappointment.
I did not realize that the AGELIMIT for American Idol was so narrow. Anyone who has taken Accounting 101 knows AMORTIZES.
This one seemed like obnoxious "product placement." I'm sure it's not, but...
That's the way I felt. As if OREO doesn't get enough free crossword exposure in the first place. The intrusive word should be reviled, not celebrated.
Yes!!!!
What is the endless crossword obsession with Oreos? You'd think they were the only cookie on the planet.
The puzzle was fun but the best part is reading your write up. Had me in stitches. AFTEREFFECT is indeed just an effect. Love that call out on redundancy though, it’s like when people say Lived Experience, or Added Bonus. People need to add things to perfectly good words! Always a pet peeve for me. Or maybe it’s just a peeve.
And a wonderful devoted Mom. She was so young.
Also, Tim is MIT backwards.
Loved this! So clever and enjoyable to solve. And I for one smiled at amortize. “What a great word!” I thought. I know Rex hates anything that smells of finance, but it’s a real part of life for many many people. Even normal ones like me who aren’t Wall Street types.
"...so please let me know me know if you don't see this one". Not sure what category of humor that is (irony?) but it's definitely funny!
Yes the Rex reveal was great! Fun puzzle with not a lot of sports and movie references
I agree that ETCH and "Engrave" are not the same thing but I see at xwordinfo.com that ETCH has appeared 339 times in the Times xword over the years clued as "Engrave" (first time in 1951) some variant ("Make an engraving", e.g.) so many times that I lost count. So maybe that itself has ETCHED "Engrave" as a synonym for ETCH in the vernacular.
No OREOs were paid for this puz.
😁
RooMonster But Some Might Get Harmed Tonight Guy
If you’ve ever seen their class ring…. It’s a beaver.
Didn't realize the team names changed. What are they now?
An AFTEREFFECT of solving this one had me teetering on the edge of a hyperglycemic coma. An OUTGROWTH of eating lots of CHOCOLATE COATED DOUBLE STUF OREOS with sides of SMOREs would be entering the portal to obesity and diabetes.
"Like poker champion Chris Moneymaker's name" is indeed an APT clue at 39 Across. As an amateur he defeated a field of 838 mostly professional poker players to win $2.5 million in the 2003 World Series Of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Final.
That changed the face of poker from a smoky, back room game played by shady characters to one where anybody from any walk of life---Moneymaker was a CPA by trade---could suddenly become a millionaire by playing a card game.
These days poker, mostly Texas Hold'em, is wildly popular world-wide. For comparison to the 2003 event, the 2025 WSOP main event had 9,735 players, each paying an entrance fee of $10,000 and had a $10 million payout for first place.
I can think of a case for all of these supposedly redundant terms where there is a distinct difference. Aftereffect is exactly what it says it is: an effect that occurs after the primary effect. Related to a side effect, but happening later in time (there’s the redundancy you’re looking for:)
I get the pet peeve, though: conversating drives me nuts - conversing is right there. Although I have to finally admit that the former can be talking in general, but conversing is specific to a small group in a specific time.
Agreed Alice, and anyone who has ever invested in a bond should know AMORTIZES
Classic hits and after effects bothered Rex. He has to move fast to get the blog post out but I think a little too fast this time. The word classics is used in a lot of categories, especially literature. So nothing redundant about classic hits. You got to establish what you’re talking about before you can just say classics
After effects is a common set expression. Don’t see anything wrong as a crosswordAlso I don’t think it’s completely redundant. It may emphasize longer term impacts.
Am not a big fan of chocolate especially products like Oreos. I rarely eat them.
But my Dad, who lived to 101 loved them towards the end of his life. I was his care giver and bought a lot of Oreos for him.
Thinking about him was a plus after doing the puzzle. But I haven’t bought a package since!
(BTW I did an accidental experiment. After he died there was a package of Oreos in the fridge opened or not I can’t remember. But guests or I would have an occasional one -Mint flavor I found tolerable - The cookies remained edible till they were gone maybe 8 or nine months later. A LOT of preservatives! )
Pleasant puzzle. The FF helped me get After effects as it happened so the theme helped my solve. Unlike yesterday.
Like others, I didn't see the actual "cookies" until I came here, nor that the "creme" spelled out SSTTUFF. I saw all the double letters, but my brain just didn't put it all together. One reason may be that I solve on paper, and print out the puzzle on "ink saver" mode, so my black squares are more on the gray side, that took away some of the visual (after) EFFECT. The visual of gray Oreos is not that appealing.
But seeing it all come together, I'm impressed with the construction and the theme. Like @Rex, the short revealer MILK turned on the light bulb and I knew what I was looking for. So the across and down spanners came fairly easily to me.
My big hold up was FEDIN, I don't often say or hear that when it comes to entering data. I had input, then addin until I sussed OFF for Askew, I still had to stare at it for a while but that F sealed the deal.
Like @Lewis, I noticed some names that sound like names but aren't - for me HEW screamed the loudest. :o)
Nice job Thomas and Daniel!
Amen on the Hydrox vs. Oreo! Gran disallowed all cookies other than her homemade ones except the very occasional Hydrox. From birth, I think, I was a chocoholic. Don’t get me wrong, Gran cookies were always best and she had a rotation of about a dozen “weekly varieties”, but none were seriously chocolate other than the chippers. I kept asking for a cookie that was “all chocolate.” One day shopping with Mom and Gran at The Big Bear an iconic Columbus Ohio super market housed in an old roller rink (anyone else remember The Big Bear?) she weirdly turned down the cookie aisle. She picked up a package of Hydrox and sheepishly told me they were actually a favorite of hers! Later in life, I equated her to me unthinkable love of any commercial baked good with Julia Child’s admission of her love of the occasional Big Mac. How’s it possible?!
I relish the memory of those life changing deep, more than slightly bitter nearly black cookies - 2 of them! And white icing in the middle. I never really cared about the filling, and chose to scrape it off and just eat the cookies. I had Oreos at a school friend’s house and pronounced them inferior. Too sweet and not enough bitter. To date, I have been unable to perfect a chocolate wafer cookie as good as a Hydrox, and I am an expert baker. I can do perfectly crisp but not delicate wafers all day long, just not a true bitter chocolate Hydrox. If anyone out there can home bake a Hydrox wafer, please share the recipe. I know it will require hideously unhealthy shortening rather than butter and a cookie stamp of some sort and I have two that will work.
Gotta order some Hydrox. Really enjoyed a puzzle devoted to cookies. I. Love. Cookies! Make them too often but my friends and neighbors enthusiastically come to my aid when the need to dispose of large quantities arises.
Congrats on the double (STUF) debut, gentlemen!
@egsforbreakfast 9:57 AM
I always close my eyes when reading your posts. Too fearful to watch.
i’m a frequent reader and love to see opinions in these comments!
are some of these odd words (i sure didn’t know AMORTIZES) what makes these puzzles actual PUZZLES? i think it’s fun to learn new words or figure out silly—or even seemingly forced—phrases in order to put in correct letters!
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