.png)
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
Full disclosure ... well, two full disclosures. One, I hate escape rooms. Or, rather, I imagine I would, and I have zero interest in them. They sound like hell. I know they are very popular, and very popular with puzzler types, but ... not for me, no thanks, no. Thankfully, this really had no bearing on my enjoyment of this puzzle. Full disclosure two: I met one of these constructors (Zhou Zhang) at the ACPT back in April! And I have photos to prove it:
- 39D: Final stop ... or a hint to finding the first key letter in this puzzle (END OF THE ROAD) [the "road" in the grid is RODEO DRIVE, the "end" of which is the letter "E"]
- 109A: Kids' ball game played on a court ... or a hint to finding the second key letter in this puzzle (FOURSQUARE) [in the "4" square in this grid (see 4-Down, XES) is the letter "X"]
- 93A: "The Little Mermaid" hit ... or a phonetic hint to finding the third key letter in this puzzle ("UNDER THE SEA") [there is only one "C" in the puzzle (in MEDICI), and directly "under" it is the letter "I"]
- 31A: Is completely oblivious ... or a hint to finding the fourth key letter in this puzzle (DOESN'T HAVE A CLUE) [the one answer in the puzzle that "doesn't have a clue" is 76A: - (TEE), which stands for the letter "T"]
Tim Tam is a brand of chocolate biscuit introduced by the Australian biscuit company Arnott's Biscuits Holdings in 1964. It consists of two malted biscuits separated by a light hard chocolate cream filling and coated in a thin layer of textured chocolate. // The biscuit was created by Ian Norris. During 1958 he took a world trip looking for inspiration for new products. While traveling in Britain, he found the Penguin biscuit and decided to try to "make a better one". // Tim Tam went on the market on 10 September 1964. They were named by Ross Arnott, who attended the 1958 Kentucky Derby and decided that the name of the winning horse, Tim Tam, was perfect for a planned new line of biscuits. Pepperidge Farm, a sister company of Arnott's, began importing the Tim Tam to the United States in 2008. Tim Tams are still "Made in Australia" and packaging in the US bears the slogan "Australia's Favorite Cookie". (wikipedia)
• • •
Full disclosure ... well, two full disclosures. One, I hate escape rooms. Or, rather, I imagine I would, and I have zero interest in them. They sound like hell. I know they are very popular, and very popular with puzzler types, but ... not for me, no thanks, no. Thankfully, this really had no bearing on my enjoyment of this puzzle. Full disclosure two: I met one of these constructors (Zhou Zhang) at the ACPT back in April! And I have photos to prove it:
 |
| [That's Zhou on my right and Mallory on my left; they were competing in the Pairs division, just like me and my wife. I don't know what happened between photo 1 and photo 2 to make us all laugh—we were all high on post-tournament adrenaline and/or exhaustion] |
Zhou told me that her debut puzzle would be coming out at some indeterminate time in the future, but, if you've ever had a puzzle accepted by the NYT, you know that that can mean weeks, months, even years (though I'm guessing they don't let it get to "years" any more). So I've had my eye out for her name and, well, here we are. I'm happy to report that I had a good time. Thank god solving the "Escape Room" was relatively easy. I normally don't like too much fussy post-solve business, but in this case, finding my way to each of the four letters in "EXIT" was actually kind of fun. The letters range in difficulty; "X" and "T" were pretty self-evident, whereas the other two involved searching the grid a bit for the answer. I identified RODEO DRIVE as the "road" in question (re: END OF THE ROAD) pretty quickly (I assume there are no other "roads" in the puzzle; I didn't check), and at that point I already knew what the missing vowels were going to be (you only need the "X" and "T" to see that the word is going to be "EXIT"), but I still needed to know *why* "I" was the right third letter. I looked for the names of actual seas that the "I" might be "under" ("BLACK?" "RED?" "CASPIAN?"). No luck. Then I tried to reason backward from "I" and went looking for "EYE" (!?). I didn't consider the letter "C" as the "sea" in question until a little later, because I figured there were probably a lot of "C"s in the grid ... but then I looked and looked and there was just the one "C," and under it, the letter "I." Puzzle, solved! Room, escaped!
As usual, starting this puzzle at all was the hardest part. I totally struck out in the NW at first pass. Couldn't make anything out of [Board game recommendation] or [Spot markers] or [Toddler's demand] (MAMA?), and thought 17A: Prevailing fashion (VOGUE) might be TREND, so I abandoned the area. Now that I look, RUSHDIE is in that section, and he was a gimme, so I don't know why I didn't see that clue the first time through the NW (3D: "Midnight's Children" author, 1981). Weird. Anyway, I had SESH and that was it. So I got started in this real roundabout way, from ODS and ROSIN to PSIS and then down the side of the "lock" and back up the west coast until I hit the NW corner again, and at *that* point, I saw RUSHDIE. My grid looked like this:
There were a few things I didn't know, or muffed at first. Let's start with ... "toilet TRAIN"??? (60A: Word with bullet or toilet). Oh my god, I just got it. Both my wife and I, last night, were like "what the hell is a toilet TRAIN?" We thought maybe it was a toilet ... on a train? Like maybe the "with toilet" part of the clue meant that TRAIN came not after but before "toilet." TRAIN toilet. You know, like this one:
 |
| [you can't tell, but Cary Grant is hiding in that toilet; this is a still from Hitchcock's famous movie, Toilets on a Train] |
I see now that "toilet train" is like "potty train." "Train" as verb (rather than locomotive). It's been so long since I had a small child in the house, the phrase "toilet TRAIN" has apparently become alien to me. I also couldn't make sense of [Breaking maneuver] for a while, since I kept thinking it was "braking." Eventually, I realized "breaking" here referred to breakdancing. Easy crosses meant HANDSTAND eventually filled itself in. Didn't know PEPE, which I'm assuming means "pepper" (?) (19A: Italian seasoning). Yes, it means "pepper." My favorite mistake came at 13D: Kind of joke ... or a response to a really bad one (GAG). I wrote in "DAD." There are DAD jokes, of course, and then, if your dad actually makes one of his corny jokes, you might respond with an exasperated / irritated / eye-rolling "DAD!" As in "Daaaaad, why do you do that, please stop." Had no idea about the philosopher at 1A: Philosopher who wrote "The bureaucracy is a circle from which no one can escape" (MARX). I appreciate (now) the way this clue subtly introduces you to the "escape" theme. Lastly, where my ignorance / failure is concerned, I don't think I've ever had a TIM TAM, but I know of them, so I got that answer easily after a cross or two.
More things:
- 22A: Its freedom is granted in the First Amendment (PRESS) — not sure what "freedoms" any of us are going to have left after all [waves hands toward wider world] this. I went through a mental list of 1st amendment freedoms and got speech, religion, and assembly ... and then blanked. Finally getting PRESS was a definite "d'oh!" moment.
- 119A: One taking the words right out of your mouth? (LIP READER) — what a great clue. Just a perfect repurposing of a familiar idiom.
- 34A: Put a PIN in it (ATM) — again, clever repurposing of a familiar idiom. No need for a "?" on this clue, since it ends up being quite literal (PIN = personal identification number, of course).
- 7D: Journey in which you might carry quite a load? (GUILT TRIP) — very tricky. I never thought of the "trip" in that phrase as a "journey," even metaphorically, so I needed a lot of help from crosses on this one.
- 82D: Of extremely unreliable quality, in slang (JANKY) — love this word. Colorful, with high-value Scrabble letters to boot. Crossing JANKY with WARTY, really ... vivid.
Overall, I liked this far more than I tend to like Sunday puzzles. I declare it non-JANKY. That's all, see you next time.
P.P.S. if you have crossword-related stuff you want me to promote, just ask. I can't promise I'll say "yes," but I usually do, and it costs you nothing :)
P.P.P.S. if I told you I'd promote something and haven't done it yet, give me a nudge. I feel like I lost track of these things a little this past (busy) spring.
P.P.P.P.S. Holy cow, Zhou (today’s co-constructor) and Mallory (both pictured with me, above) have today’s Apple crossword as well! Real breakout day for Z.Z.
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It’s funny; this was the easiest Sunday I ever did. Only problem was I had no idea how to solve EXIT. After reading Rex’s solution, it seems obvious. D’oh!
ReplyDeleteSame!!
DeleteI came to say exactly the same thing. I had NO idea how to solve the key and finally just hit “reveal square.” Then I got the word but had to come here to figure out what on earth the clues had to do with the word exit. Especially because they didn’t highlight yellow like they usually do.
DeleteThe rest of the puzzle was very easy.
Same for me too!
DeleteFirst time comment here -- I am a bit sad bc for the first time in my life I solved every puzzle this week, and was hoping to solve Sunday as well for a perfect solving week, a long-term goal/wish/hope. Today's puzzle -- solved every clue in grid (with 3 mistakes that I'm pretty sure I would have cleaned up while proofing) but just couldn't figure out 'exit' except for the 'x'. Will keep trying! Always grateful to Rex for thegreat blog.
ReplyDeleteUNDERTHESEA actually mentions that it is a "phonetic hint", the others just say hint, signaling that you're looking for a letter C. I was quite pleasantly surprised to discover only one C. This said, the central conceit seems to have put some strain on a grid that ended up being full of easy short answers. Not sure the ending treasure hunt, while enjoyable, was worth it.
ReplyDeleteit took me so long to figure this out. i was standing in the supermarket staring at my phone trying to understand what C it was talking about. later at a coffee show i finally realized what it might be. that was fun
DeleteJerryH
ReplyDeleteAnother pleasant surprise was that this puzzle did not have some lock-opening animated gewgaw at the end.
ReplyDeleteAgree, tho I was expecting it with that little peek of a square behind the EXIT.
DeleteYeah. Too much gewgaw in this world.
DeleteOn the other hand, we were PROMISED a Breakout Star. Where is it?
DeleteYup - solved as a themeless - a relatively easy one at that and then filled in the supplemental trick. Not my kind of fun - but whatever.
ReplyDeleteROAM
All the long themers were neat - liked End OF THE ROAD and BREAKOUT STAR. JANKY took me awhile to grok - same with TIM TAM. Learned FOUR SQUARE. IGNOBLE, BAD RAP, LOSE HEART all solid entries - it’s a clean grid.
EL PASO
The trick fell flat for me - but otherwise a pleasant Sunday morning solve.
Three Girl Rhumba
@Son Volt. I've commented already - before reading everyone else - and been quite negative, but your noting the long themers and other solid entries makes me realize that, yeah, I liked them too.
DeleteWire, ftw!
DeleteI haven't enjoyed solving a Sunday puzzle this much (or even much at all) in a long time. And this puzzle had to overcome my knee-jerk aversion to visual gimmicks. But I loved this puzzle. Imaginative, fun and well constructed.
ReplyDeleteNow get me outta here!
I can't tell you how much I hated this puzzle. The solve was RIDICULOUSLY easy and fast- there wasn't a single (normal) clue that baffled me or a single clue that excited me; and then it took me forever to figure out the key; and THEN I got the X first and thought, "Oh, it's probably just EXIT." It managed to elicit THREE different reactions from me that could all be summed up as, "Yawn."
ReplyDeleteI was worried when I opened the puzzle and saw the stand-alone word in the grid, bc the last time I lost my streak was on just such a clue (spring of 2022). But this time I thought the cluing was very fair, and I sussed it out, no problem. Whew!
ReplyDeleteSo, you “hate” escape rooms but you’ve never tried them? 🤣
ReplyDeleteReminds of my grandfather’s long, boring story about a kid who wouldn’t try ice cream. He (my grampa) told it to get us to try new food. The moral, of course, was that you might like it.
I’m with Aaron—found the grid easy but never gronked the “key”. Aarrggh!
By that logic, you should pierce your tongue. You don’t want to? But, but, you haven’t tried it, how do you know?! 🙄
DeleteWell, no, unless you have already shown yourself to be a devotee of piercing and body art. Rex is a puzzler who enjoys solving puzzles with other people, so it does seem like he might enjoy an evening of solving a puzzle with other people.
DeleteKind of like that puzzle a few years back, a Sunday where in doing the puzzle you were actually playing a game of Clue.
ReplyDeleteThis one did have the Escape Room vibe. This wasn’t one of those puzzles you could successfully complete without figuring the theme out. For filling in the Key Word, you had to rely completely on your wits – no crossing letters to help you. You had to crack the riddles to get out of the box.
Highly creative. A tale of two puzzles – the fill-in and the get out, that is, the escape. I loved this!
The theme is so attention-getting, two items deserving of praise re this puzzle’s construction may have flown under the radar:
ReplyDelete• A Sunday answer set containing just one C! I was curious as to how many C’s are in the typical Sunday puzzle, so I looked up the number in all the June Sundays, and the average is 8.4. Making a Sunday grid with just one C is quite constrictive, and Zhou and Kevin did it so smoothly, I’m guessing hardly anyone noticed, before the UNDER THE SEA riddle came into play.
• This is a puzzle debut for Zhou, who came up with this theme idea. High props and a hearty congratulations on that, Zhou!
thanks Lewis!! i always appreciate your comments, particularly from a constructor's eye :)
DeleteHey ..a Sunday nearly everyone enjoyed. That in itself is an achievement. As usual, I slowed myself down with self-assured wrong answers: Havana before Nassau, headstand before handstand and to let before unlet...but quite enjoyable. And having the key a simple solve was nice. The WSJ contest meta is enough perplexity each week. (Though, because of the holiday, there was no meta this week. Boo hoo....)
ReplyDeleteI had headstand in there first, too
DeleteHad the entire puzzle, but could not figure out EXIT and thought the hints to get you there were disappointingly obscure. All was not lost though because seeing TIM TAM brought me a lot of joy. I became obsessed with these cookies after visiting Australia. And speaking of obscure, there’s a cafe in Philly with a Tim Tam milkshake. 🤩
ReplyDeleteObscure? They’re in the puzzle!
DeleteYay TimTams! My favorite cookie!
DeleteWhat is the purpose of the gray squares above the key? I am definitely missing something.
ReplyDelete1) What's that grey-toned square above the keyhole? 2) Re caption on second ACPT photo, you say you don't know what made you "all" laugh. Well, Zhou and Mallory are laughing, alright. But you look like you're about to 13D.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteBig DNF here, breaking my streak. I got the puzzle part easily enough, but somehow got on the wrong path with the key sequence and ended up with tada instead of EXIT. Don't ask :(
Could someone explain 76 across?
ReplyDeleteReread Rex - the answer that DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE is TEE which gets you the T in exiT.
DeleteIt DOESNTHAVEACLUE.
DeleteI was sure that the end of the road was D.
DeleteThe clue for 76 Across is just a dash, thus it is the 4th letter in the key, referenced in the answer to 31 Across (DOESNTHAVEACLUE).
DeleteNoni…and also that under the sea was also a D
DeleteAnother nice write-up by OFL today. He’s been on a roll of late. This was probably about as easy a grid to (mostly) fill in as we are likely to see on a Sunday (no complaints from me though). I kinda/sorta picked up on the theme construct while solving - although the leap from the reveal(s) to RODEO DRIVE and FOUR SQUARE escaped me prior to reading Rex - so technically a DNF for me (with a head slap while reading Rex’s explanation), but I enjoyed it nevertheless.
ReplyDeleteRex didn’t explicitly state that this was Zhou’s first ever published puzzle (it could be her NYT debut) - but it really doesn’t matter, either way it’s quite an achievement to jump right to The Times with something this fresh and innovative. And a huge plus (and a thank you) for not having all kinds of bells, whistles and other electronic accoutrements showing up once the EXIT key was in place.
For that Journey clue I had GUI- and went down a rabbit hole of “Guitar amp? A heavy load for a roadie with Journey?” Completely wrong, but an interesting byway.
ReplyDeleteNice puzzle, ZZ and KC, well above the Sunday average. Don’t stop deceiving!
I guess I'm still stuck in the room because I wound up with DXCT as my key. Which made sense to me because no one would use 'exit' as a combination. That would be like using 'password' as your password.
ReplyDeleteI did consider DXIT, but I was dead set on the 'd' so that didn't look any better than DXCT to me.
Similar. It never occurred to me that the solution would be an actual word; I figured it would be random letters like TQRK or something. Here's me, dutifully solving the key letter by letter, only to crash and burn by assuming "end of the road" was "D". Sad to complete the entire grid correctly but flame out on the finale.
DeleteSame here DXCT. Also, what’s up with that gray square?
DeleteI wonder if it’s a coincidence that the letter under SUBMARINE is also an E (in RODEO DRIVE), for folks that viewed that E as the one “under the sea”
ReplyDeleteGood observation. That may explain why, to avaid confusion, the clue used the phrase "phonetic hint" to indicate that "sea" was not literally "sea," and therefore pointed to the "C" in Medici
DeleteDOESNTHAVEACLUE about sums up my work on this puzzle. Finally got a foothold on the west side of the key hole, er, EXIT, but never would have gotten to that answer without help from Rex. At the ENDOFTHEROAD, a lot of great clues and fun answers. Kudos to those who found this in their wheelhouse!
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDelete*Whoosh*
That was the Riddles going right over my head. The ole brain in no way thought of looking through the grid to find the answers to those clues. You could say I DOESNT HAVE A CLUE. Har. Maybe could've tacked on "as found in the grid" or something? You know, to help oblivious solvers, like me. Haven't read anyone yet, wondering what the percentage of people who didn't grok the overall Theme is.
Did think it's a brilliant construction, after learning that to get the answer EXIT, you had to go find other puz answers. And only having one C to complete one of the riddles. And deciding to make it a Pangram. That J of TAJ/JANKY could've been another letter, but good on ya for finding a spot to put a J. Besides, JANKY is a fun word.
Is the six-Blocker, well block, above the keyhole supposed to be a door handle? Probably should read y'all ...
Cool SunPuz. Feel stupid for not getting the complete Theme. Ah well, chalk it up to my silly brain.
Have a great Sunday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
A series of mostly easy mini-crosswords followed by a separate riddle.
ReplyDeleteWell constructed, if easily clued, and this is a me thing, but not really what I’m looking for in a puzzle. The series of largely segmented 3 and 4 letter grids works against the potential benefits of a large Sunday.
same as alot of people - it took me one cup of coffee to do the puzzle, it was going TOO fast I like to savor it a bit on Saturday morning, but I had to go to Wordplay to figure out the center. It's beyond me how anyone could have figured it out on their own, and if you did hats off! Rex, thanks for posting Breakout by Swing Out Sister.... have not heard it in forever, what a vibe and that singer is gorgeous . Anyhow - I had ReSIN before ROSIN and toLET before UNLET which is kinda wonky. And GaZA/GIZA. So , not sure how I feel about this puzzle if I could not really get the center answer w/o wordplay . So a thumbs down from me.... too convoluted.
ReplyDeleteRodeo is a drive not a road.
ReplyDeletePer the OED, a drive is a road.
DeleteVery fun! I agree on all counts. I did also find the word before I could justify all the letters and thank goodness for your blog or I’d still be trying to get “end of the road” as Rodeo Drive. Did not make that connection. Also love a crossword book, sometimes my eyes just need to get off the screens. I also print out the New Yorker puzzles and the AVCX puzzles and bring them places like waiting rooms. I’ve been asked “do they have those here?” So now I’m considering bringing extras. Anyhoo, will check these books out, LOVE your recs. I also got the Sit and Solve books you recommended once and I loved those.
ReplyDeleteYuck - clues for key too obscure
ReplyDeleteEND OF THE ROAD is D...
ReplyDeleteThat was tricky but the road mentioned was RODEODRIVE
DeleteI got my E from the other end of END OF THE ROAD, after trying the D and seeing it wouldn't work with my X and T.
DeleteShoulda/coulda been clued "famed ROAD in Beverly Hills" not that that woulda helped me grockit!
Delete“grok it.”
DeleteJust like to say the Tim Tam is the bestest mass produced biscuit invented so far. And can I add that I have had a gutful of rubbish Oreo clues. Three vowels is a lame excuse.
ReplyDeleteMay I suggest yet another lame clue for this really very nondescript biscuit: “Rubbish!” 🇦🇺
We always have Tim Tams in our pantry. Very nice with evening tea. The Originals, of course.
DeleteI set myself up to like this one because "under the sea" was my first fill after my initial pass-over, and I said to myself "if there's only one 'c' in the puzzle I'm going to like this one" - the other clues didn't feel as fun to find (although four square as an answer/clue was cute), but still a clever use of the gimmick. I don't really like isolated answers very much, but it makes sense here (and was obvious once you had it).
ReplyDeleteAlso like learning in puzzles and TIL that Miami is closer to Nassau than Havana, which would have been my first fill otherwise :)
I love the idea and the execution of the theme is inspiring. But all the tiny fill is a slogfest that I absolutely did NOT enjoy.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone else get stuck trying to get LXIX as the key answer. The key was 69 down, which didn’t have a clue, I had the x and the i but had solved over tee without even seeing the no clue, and wanted the first square to be “d” for end of “the road” which clearly wasn’t right. But lxix for 69
ReplyDeleteI got through the end using the X and T, but couldn’t figure out where the E and I came from. I don’t check for the Rex Recap everyday but I’m glad I did for this puzzle. Several brilliant subtleties escaped me and it be a shame to have missed them. (Pun initially unintended.)
ReplyDeleteTechnical DNF on the ITD SIMULIU cross, actual DNF on not getting EXIT. Like others, I wanted the D from ROAD, missed the no-clue T, and didn't bother to go looking for a C, as I thought there might be a lot of them. I did find the X in square 4 but that was no help. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of the puzzle played easy except for the NW (hi Rex), finally guessed VPS which gave me VOGUE and PRESS and eventually RUSHDIE and that was that. Pretty whooshy otherwise, and some fun clues.
Nice Sunday, ZZ and KC. No complaints, as in Zero, Zilch, and I'll Keep Coming back for more like this, hopefully with more determination. Thanks for all the fun.
I’m right there with you. The fill had no redeeming quality whatsoever. If I never see a puzzle like this again it will be too soon. Way too many plausible options for the key. Thought FOURSQUARE, ok, could be an X or it could be Latin 10 squared which would be a C. ENDOFTHEROAD, first letter under the D was a U or last one in the row was an E or last one in the puzzle was an S. Couldn’t wait to Escape ! Shame on me for overthinking. Shame on NYT for publishing this puzzle as is.
ReplyDeleteFOURSQUARE I thought, 4 squared = 16, 16th letter of the alphabet is P
DeleteIf I hadn’t been reading this blog for quite some time, I’d wonder if Rex was influenced by meeting the solver, because I thought the puzzle had all of the hallmarks of puzzles he usually hates. Lots of short easy answers, Crossword-see (e.g. “ITD), a gimmicky gimmick that drove the puzzle to have an awkward structure, and on and on. But I know he wouldn’t sacrifice his bloggeristic integrity. So I think this is a manifestation of the other reason I like the blog: his unpredictability!
ReplyDeleteLOL
DeleteWow, I really enjoyed this puzzle! I ended up figuring out every hint correctly to get to the EXIT and had a great deal of fun sussing out the whole puzzle. Lest anyone think I’m being a smarty-pants braggart, no…I had originally put in SeaMuseum in 54D then somehow corrected (through crosses) part of it to end up with SeaMARINE. D’oh!
ReplyDeleteI don't consider it a DNF if all the crossword fill is correct and Rex supplies the key - that's a different puzzle, not a crossword and one I don't want to solve.
ReplyDelete“BMs” before “VPs” for 17D. Oops!
ReplyDeleteSame!
DeleteHa!
DeleteHere's how I short-cutted (in rhyme):
ReplyDeleteI thought FOURSQUARE must be "sixteen".
And then I thought that "x" looks kinda mean;
So I stuck the "x" into block number two,
and "EXIT" popped into my mnd without further ado
Can I be the only one who first put in BMS for 17D [Number twos, in brief]? I was astonished that the NYTXW would use it, and more than amused that it was in one's "briefs". So sad that the correct answer (in the form of the current Vice President) is also a piece of BM.
ReplyDeleteI'm with @Rex on loving the word JANKY. I'm too old to have really used it when it was first popping up, but my daughter did and still does. It just so obviously sounds like what it means.
Life hasn't much changed for me now that I'm a BREAKOUTSTAR. No invites to A-list parties, haven't founded my own makeup line. Maybe tomorrow.
I really like when someone thinks up and proficiently executes a whole new idea for a theme. No escaping the fact that this was a wonderful puzzle. Thanks and congrats, Zhou Zhang and Kevin Curry.
No, you're not the only one to give a shit.
DeleteBut JANKY is junk.
I still can't figure out the T. Please explain.
ReplyDeleteIt DOESNT HAVE A CLUE. There is no clue. It is unclued you have to get it solely from crosses—and then use it to get “T,” the fourth letter of EXIT
Delete76 Across just has a minus sign (or a dash) - IT DOESN"T HAVE A CLUE. You have to get the word TEE (= T) from the crossing Downs.
DeleteSubmariner: mar=sea; next letter i is "under the sea."
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNaticked out on TIMTAM/RAFA... that entire section was JANKY... too much PPP in one spot... I did figure out the escape key, and now that I understand the escape Rom concept would love to have another (without naticks)...
ReplyDeleteI loved OFL's coining of the title of a new Hitchcock film. The funny thing is that I recognized the still photo right away, because I just saw "North by Northwest" last night. We have a great revival house in town, complete with a balcony, a live organist, and a $3 huge tub of popcorn, that is in the middle of a Hitchcock festival. They run a double bill five nights a week.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI filled it all in correctly but have to give myself a conceptual DNF, because my E in EXIT came from the front end of END OF THE ROAD - I'd tried the D but rejected it, as I already had the X and T and knew I needed an E. I wish Id thought of looking for a road! Very impressed that there was only one letter UNDER THE C.
ReplyDeleteI felt a little bad for witches, as if the first adjective you associate with them is WARTY - so I thought it was appropriate that it crossed with BAD RAP. Just because you have a single nose wart....
Here was my key solution:
ReplyDeleteD (END OF THE ROAD)
4 (FOUR SQUARE)
C (UNDER THE SEA)
A (DOESN'T HAVE A CLUE)
No, it didn't make any sense. This is the kind of puzzle that the Rexblog was born to explain. I really don't think I could have waited until tomorrow to find out what on earth was going on. But the problem with having a crossword blog is that you have to figure it out so that you can explain it to everyone else. There isn't enough money in the world to make me want to take up that burden myself. Plus the fact that I couldn't if I wanted to.
A very complicated trick that went right over my head.
I put in TIP instead of TAP, left me doing a HINDSTAND.
ReplyDeleteWell that was profoundly weird. I’m still an ambler (I prefer the term flaneur) but the ambling went pretty quickly and, upon reviewing the finished grid, I couldn’t even remember a lot of the clues. I tried to slow things down by going up to the house to make a cup of tea, but it didn’t help. Just kept dropping in answer after answer until … that really odd centre section with its obvious keyhole and weird little 6 block, greyed out section above it. Huh??? Went back to the italicized clues and got the X from 109A FOURSQUARE and dropped in EXIT at 69D. Got the congrats but spent the next 20 minutes trying to figure out how it worked. And why are those six greyed out squares still there? What am I missing? Maybe it’s a software failure? But I work directly off the NYT games page and these kind of failures don’t usually happen to me.
ReplyDeleteI could see, upon review that ENDOFTHEROAD might mean top end - so E and X, as noted, might refer to the #4 square, TEE would explain DOESNTHAVEACLUE at 31A and, after much mental anguish figured out the sea/eye equivalency at 93A, but there remain those stupid grey squares. WTH? I’ve tried to squeeze a rebus “key” in there but it won’t accept it. Now I’ll just have to go to sleep angry and see if anyone can explain this to me in the morning. Grrr.
Oh, wait, those six squares are supposed too resemble the top of a padlock! That’s it? Oh, this is sad.
And why would you stick a key in an exit? A door maybe.
ReplyDeleteCould not get EXIT. Tried and tried. Slept on it. Stared at it. Tried to see if "door", "slot", "lock", "hole" (as in keyhole), etc., would work. Nope. I had DXCA: 1) "D" is ENDOFTHEROAD; 2) "X" (as what's in the square with the 4 in it); 3) "C" is a homophone / phonetic for SEA; 4) "A" from DOESNTHAVEACLUE (figuring "A" was the only letter in that answer... but didn't feel too good about this).
ReplyDeleteRead OFL's write-up and thought, "Oh, for goodness' sake. Really??" I still don't think it's obvious. I got only the FOURSQUARE letter. Flummoxed by the others, although the remainder of the grid was fun.
Very easy. No real problems, TIMTAM and PEPE were it for WOEs and no costly erasures i.e., lotsa whoosh. I also didn’t need to parse all the “key” clues to get the “key”. With the T and X in place it was pretty obvious.
ReplyDeleteA fun breezy Sunday and a very clever idea, liked it.
SIMU LIU got his start in the Canadian series “Kim’s Connivence” on Netflix which I highly recommend.
Really fun puzzle, but no payoff! Did I miss something? An animation? Shouldn’t the lock unlock or something?
ReplyDeleteWas certain the key answer would be “NICE” due to its isolated grid number, particularly considering the Star Wars and Super Mario clues in there. Maybe too low-brow a gag for NYTG. Also mistook the shape of the lock’s bar as the “C”, rotated 90 degrees. If you look at it that way, there’s still an “I” there (in “yoshi”). Thought all the key clues were fair except the “end of the road” one. Bit of a stretch.
ReplyDeleteLike others I found the puzzle quite easy except it took me quite a while to get the key. Actually, I never got the first letter but after gettin 'XIT' I knew it had to be 'E'. Like Rex, I also filled in DAD rather than GAG at first for 13 down.
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle was surprisingly easy, so I figured unlocking the center four squares had to be the tricky part. Too tricky for me—but a clever cross! Kudos to the creator!
ReplyDeleteGreat Sunday puzzle. I think this is the first time I've said that (if ever on a Sunday) & sorry when it was over :). Loved GUILT TRIP, DENTURE, didn't know JANKY but really fun.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your debit Zhou (great pic of you, Rex & Mallory) & thanks to you & Kevin :)
I'm in a room without mirrors, feeling existential Nausea. There is NO EXIT. I blame Jean Paul Sartre.
ReplyDeleteLike Rex, I got only SESH in the NW on my first pass, BUT I didn't know RUSHDIE. I understood the UNDER THE SEA phonetic hint but left it for later since I didn't want to look all over a 21x21 grid to find the one C. The T in EXIT was easy. So instead of unlocking the lock with the key, I guessed EXIT from just the T and used the X to unlock the NW.
ReplyDeleteStill don’t know what the grey square above the keyhole means.
ReplyDeleteI posted my original comment before reading @Rex and see that I may ave misinterpreted a few clues to the final exit to the damnable escape room. (I've been to a few with my family, Rex, and I hate them.) I didn't see the connection to RODEODRIVE and thought the "phonetic" reference in 93A referred to something in the clue itself, so I reasoned that "sea" was equivalent soundwise to "see", which could mean "eye", et voila! I did notice the CI ending at 12D but, for some unknown reason, discounted it.
ReplyDeleteI think Rex was too kind to this one; a problem with being a critic and being too chummy with constructors. I pushed away a good friend almost 50 years ago when I reviewed a show of young artists debuting their talents and singled out one of his paintings as "facile". At the time I thought my criticism was justified. I still feel bad about it.
Not being a friend of the constructor here, I will stand by my judgement that this is a tortured puzzle.
Lots of people liked this (me!) who don’t know the constructor at all. Just state your opinion—no need to impugn Rex’s judgment and pretend that only You are fit to render objective judgment. Real arrogant.
DeleteAnonymous 12:21. At no time did I seek to “impugn” @Rex. I am a staunch defender. I come here because this the only place I know to find actual analysis and criticism of the puzzle. He’s the best.
DeleteBut occasionally a critic, any critic, may find themselves on the proverbial horns of a dilemma. I offered my own personal example of how wrong this can go. I still rue the day I alienated my friend. He was a really nice guy and I should have stepped back. @Rex is a lot smarter than me. I think he handled this fairly well. Where’s the arrogance in saying @Rex may have been too kind? Not arrogance, just an observation concerning the travails of being a critic from a person who has done it.
And I still didn’t like the puzzle. OK with you? Can you offer any analysis?
NGL. I noped out of the meta puzzle part. Just not my thing.
ReplyDeleteToday’s puzzle had the look of, and also hinted at, some kind of animation (in the online version of course) after solving, whereby the “key” actually opened a door. After I figured it out, I mistakenly tapped to “exit” the actual app when I meant to remain to see whatever might happen, so if it did I missed it.
ReplyDeleteDid I miss it or was this just wishful thinking on my part?
I guessed it was likely going to be EXIT, but then I had to change ENDOFTHELINE, giving me the E for the first letter, to ENDOFTHEROAD, which flummoxed me for a while. Couldn't think of an appropriate 4-letter word starting with D. But then DOESNTHAVEACLUE gave me T (or TEE) so I went back to EXIT, and that meant the ROAD in question had to be somewhere else. I like that none of the trick clues worked the same way, and had the same admiration as Rex upon discovering there was only one road and even more impressively only one instance of a letter C. Wow.
ReplyDeleteAll good except I got Naticked on RAFA x TIMTAM and had to spend a stupid amount of time trying to figure out where I went wrong. I just assumed the vowels would match--TIMTIM, TAMTAM, TOMTOM, TUMTUM... Nope.
I truly hate to admit that my first answer to 17D was "BMS"
ReplyDeleteDumb question time: What is an "Apple puzzle" to which Rex refers in his comments, and where can I find the one he refers to?
ReplyDeletethe "Apple puzzle" is the Apple News+ puzzle: https://apple.news/puzzles. i believe you need 1) an iPhone or iPad or Mac + 2) an Apple News+ subscription to access unfortunately.
DeleteAnother puzzle that seemed complicated for the sake of being complicated (certainly not fun). Needed one cheat, to get RUSHDIE, then wondered why the key didn't fit a lock, or a slot, or a hole. Finally I hit on the "under the (C/sea) gimmick, and the only possible word with "i" as its third letter was EXIT. OK. OK.
ReplyDeleteI SOOOO wanted 17D (Number twos, in brief) to be BMS, as in bowel movements. I'll see myself out now.
ReplyDeleteHated it. Solving last night I got the whole grid except for the SLOT (which was my guess for 69 down at first) and then had absolutely no idea what those clues were getting at. I finally went to NYT Wordplay and read the solution and none of those tricks made any sense to me. Different brains, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI often hate Sunday but this was the worst ever.
Rex, I've been reading your blog for years! I'm sad you want to discount escape rooms without even playing them. I've been writing about escape rooms for a decade on RoomEscapeArtist.com and I'd be happy to make a recommendation in a city near you. Absolutely loved today's crossword :)
ReplyDeleteNeat puz within a SunPuz.
ReplyDeleteM&A was able to successfully escape both.
staff weeject pick [of a juicy 36 choices]: TEE. Part of the clever cyptic EXIT escape plan.
honrable mention then, of course, to TAU.
some definite fave stuff: The 4 escape room 9-stacker side bars: STATESMEN. HANDSTAND & its clue. NAMENAMES. SUBMARINE. The ??-potential DEES clue. Biggest black square [centrally located] in xword history: 5x6, kinda minus 4.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Ms. Zhang darlin & Mr. Curry dude. And congratz to Zhou Zhang on her zowie half-debut.
Masked & Anonymo13Us
... no waitin necessary, but, please ...
"Please Take a Number" - 7x7 12 min. themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
p.s. @RP: Please feel free to plug yer [many?] fave runtpuzs, at yer own risk. There's probably a few thou to choose from, at this point. Just need to caution yer readers: "no refunds".
Ditto. Lives the puzzle . Nice sunday one to solve by the pool. But couldn’t figure out exi ( t was easy) in the key. I know Rex isn’t the king of puzzles but the escape keys were hard difficult to me
ReplyDelete76A (TEE) does, in a way, have a clue. The letter T in Morse code is a single dash.
ReplyDeleteGotta blame, or applaud, if you're so inclined, the editors for that one.
DeleteI hated this puzzle, I got all of the grid except the key, and I will tell you li love escape rooms and are good at them. This was disappointing
ReplyDeleteI liked the overall fill today but had no idea how to figure the EXIT answer. I had hoped that somehow the letters might have acted as a bridge between the words on either side of them. Just too obscure for me!
ReplyDeletep.p.s.s.
ReplyDeleteActually one could easily argue that there world’s biggest black square size is:
5x6 minus 4, *plus 6*.
‘cept then you’d hafta maybe just call it “biggest black squares hunk”, or somesuch.
just sayin.
M&A
The children's game FOURSQUARE is a complete unknown to me. I got it from crosses, just to make something plausible out of the entry. But, has anyone played it? Has anyone heard of anyone playing it?
ReplyDeleteAnd I did object to XES as the answer to 4d Spot markers. I know X marks the spot, but I don't know what marks the Spots. XES looks terrible. X's would be marginally better, but no use in crossworld. Necessary to get to EXIT, but I objected.
And I gave up initially in the NW corner when I got an idea for an answer to 17d, number twos in brief, which did not pass the breakfast test. I was quite relieved to eventually come up with VP's.
I played four square as a kid, although never in a court. You have a two x two grid chalked on the group. Squares A B C D. One kid per square, bouncing a ball to each other. If you bounce the ball out of bounds or let the ball bounce twice before hitting it, you are out! We also played with embellishments: whoever was in square A got to name a theme, like “cars” or “colors.” Each time you hit the ball you had to state a word that fit the theme. Mind goes blank? OUT! Repeat a word? OUT! The goal there was to get the players in the squares “above” you out so you could climb your way into square A. You would set the theme!
DeleteHeady days.
Good puzzle, but I do think the area to the east of the center deserves a bit of a downgrade. Confusing "hero" with "service" is a tooth grating throwback to W era jingoism--as memorably sent up in I Heart Huckabees. Spanish aside, semantically, "art is a museum display" bothered me in 79A---awkward at best. Why not "what is displayed in a museo?" And again, NAMENAMES and "tattle" seem like imperfect synonyms; tattle doesn't seem serious enough. Throw in a random children's book author and particle name, and it just felt like the amount of annoying stuff in that one area exceeded some allowable maximum.
ReplyDeleteI learned it at grade school back in the 60s. Not sure how popular it is anymore, but I still notice the “court” outlines in parks and playgrounds.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the minority, I couldn't figure out the key word from the clues, I had to come here to find the answer
ReplyDeletean escape room has an 'exit' sign? that's a new one... there's a door to escape obviously - interesting not as critical when a friend involved but that's okay fun easy puzzle good clues wonderfully easy painless
ReplyDeleteDesearía poder dejar de ver eso.
ReplyDeleteFelt like a giant Monday puzzle with a big gotcha at the end. Needed 🦖 to finish as I had D 16 D _ at one point and realized I didn't want to play anymore since surviving the Hunger Games leads to being alive in a world where the Hunger Games are played.
Join a relationship: IN A WE OF.
❤️ [Doesn't have a clue.] NAME NAMES. JANKY.
😩 UNLET. TIMTAM.
People: 18
Places: 7
Products: 3
Partials: 13
Foreignisms: 5
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 46 of 137 (34%)
Funnyisms: 9 😄
Tee-Hee: GAG. HOO. [Place for a pew.]
Uniclues:
1 Unhelpful suggestion for a drowning dog.
2 Serling disguised chopper.
3 Game played with a $2000 rubber ball by star children.
4 Acts the part of a Jewish or Catholic mother per a tired trope.
1 BARK UNDER THE SEA ASAP (~)
2 ROD HID DENTURE (~)
3 RODEO DRIVE FOUR SQUARE (~)
4 EXERTS GUILT TRIP (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: I know what y'all did last night. ON TO COWTIPPER.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If nothing else, I learned that I should never play "Escape Room". I would never get out! Made the same mistake as some others, having the letter D for END OF THE ROAD and C as the phonetic hint for the SEA part of UNDER THE SEA. At this point DOESNT HAVE A CLUE summed up my predicament.
ReplyDeleteI can see how this is a very clever, intricate puzzle. But as a crossword puzzle, it had some issues. Whereas the average number of black squares for a Sunday 21X21 is 73.9 (xwordinfo.com), this one has 105. Yikes! That resulted in an avalanche of short fill including 79 three and four letter words. The overall average word length is 4.88 while the average for Sundays is 5.29.
This glut of short stuff may be why the fill was so easy for many solvers including me. But I would have a better chance of getting out of a SUBMARINE UNDER THE SEA than this "Escape Room".
I thought there was a 51D Breaking Maneuver called a Hind Stand since 58A was Tip.
ReplyDeleteThe key part whooshed over my head so hard that my hair is billowing around me like a supermodel's. Grateful for the Rexplanation today!
ReplyDeleteI also initially had dad instead of gag! Otherwise, this puzzle was a pleasant breeze.
ReplyDeleteI too had dAd before GAG. Loved this puzzle. It took a long time to realize the theme answers resided in words that were outside the clues and answers and resided in other areas on the grid.
ReplyDeleteVery clever and enjoyable puzzle. My only problem (and it was a big one) was the NE (as in, had to Google 3D to make any headway there). But that’s on me. Puzzle-wise, this is in my top two Sundays of 2025.
ReplyDeleteWhy is DEES the correct answer for 121A?
ReplyDeleteMy question, too.
DeleteBecause there are two “d’s” in the word “odd”.
DeleteThere are a pair of D’s in the word “Odd”
Deletethe word ODD has two dees in it
DeleteI would've liked this puzzle so much better if the clue for the center theme made any sort of sense. INSERT KEY HERE being EXIT? Completely incomprehensible. And then after realizing I hadn't naticked anything, and the center theme was wrong, still couldn't land EXIT. Big part of that being I never saw the clue for TEE, I think that may have given it away, but I got that one on the downs.
ReplyDeleteAs many did, the puzzle was pretty easy, but could not get any traction to come up with EXIT. Tried LOCK, and thought under the C of LOCK was K, end of the road was D, and had no clue for DOESNT HAVE A CLUE. Was a DNF but still couldn't figure out EXIT from the clues. Had no idea to look IN the puzzle for the clues. Something like "The answer is within" or something to let us know to think metadata would have been very helpful. I really wish I had figured it out as the Aha moment would have been great. Overall was an excellent lateral aspect to the crossword solve. I get that some people are here only for the crossword, but I thought it was impressive.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I thought the meta puzzle was cute. I only got the X and the T, but as the post says, that's enough to figure it out.
ReplyDeleteI got very stuck on the NW corner until I managed to pull Rushdie out. I'd read a couple of his other books before but wasn't familiar with Midnight's Children. I noticed that this is one of the few puzzles I've seen that doesn't have multiple ways into certain areas (like the NW corner), which I wasn't a fan of.
Overall, though, very fast solve. One of my fastest Sundays yet.