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Combatants in the Titanomachy / TUES 8-26-25 / They spike during the holidays / What you'd expect when you're expecting? / Mother's daughter's daughter, perhaps
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Hi, everyone, it’s Clare back for our regularly programmed last Tuesday of August! Hope everyone is staying cool and enjoying these last days of summer. I’ve certainly enjoyed watching my Liverpool win their first two games of the season (we won’t go into detail on how they won and how nail-biting and not fun they were at times — a win is a win!). I discovered some good trails that aren’t too far away from my apartment, so my puppy and I have been on a few hikes lately, and she seems to love the trails. And now I’ve got the U.S. Open tennis to watch (Go, Carlitos and Coco!), with the NFL not far behind (Go, Steelers! But not Aaron Rodgers).
Anywho, on to the puzzle…
Relative difficulty: Medium (maybe on the harder side of medium)
THEME: ASYMMETRY (66A: Unusual feature of this puzzle … or, when parsed as two words (1,8), another unusual feature of this puzzle — The only A's present in the puzzle form a large letter “A” in a grid that isn’t symmetrical
Theme answers:
- N/A
V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls started by author, playwright and activist Eve Ensler. V-Day began on February 14, 1998, when the very first V-Day benefit performance of Ensler's play The Vagina Monologues took place in NYC, raising over $250k for local anti-violence groups. V-Day was formed and became a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to raise funds and awareness to end violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender-based violence). Through V-Day, activists stage royalty-free benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues "to fund local programs, support safe houses, rape crisis centers, and domestic violence shelters, change laws to protect women and girls, and educate local communities to raise awareness and change social attitudes toward violence against women" during the month of February. The 'V' in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina. (WIki)
• • •
Gimme an A! Gimme another A! And another — well, a bunch more. The reveal of the “A” across the puzzle was clever, and the construction is really quite impressive, even if I ultimately didn’t love the puzzle. The constructor gets points (maybe even an “A”) for there not being any A's other than the ones used to form the A across the puzzle. But this really was a themeless puzzle that the software drew a big A on at the end. (What happened for those who solved on paper, I wonder?) I found this to be a slightly harder Tuesday than usual. Maybe it’s that there wasn’t a theme to maybe help you out if you were stuck in a place or two. I may have just had a hard time getting going because I didn’t know LIANE (6D: Former NPR host Hansen) or TATI (14D: Comic actor Jacques) at the top. And then the several long acrosses added a layer of difficulty. Thankfully, I took a COG SCI (24A: Study of the mind, for short) class in college, but that one might’ve tripped some people up.
Of the long acrosses, the most interesting was SALMONBERRY (60A: Fruit traditionally eaten with the fish it's named for). It’s apparently common in the Pacific Northwest and looks like a quite tasty berry. I will say most recipes that I found for this show the berries used in some sort of dessert, but I’m not from the Pacific Northwest, so who knows. The rest of the long acrosses were just kind of there. ECONOMIST (12A: British weekly on business, politics and culture, with "The") was fine. PROUD PAPAS (16A: Ones taking baby pictures in the delivery room, maybe) was cute. I hated NET EFFECT (20A: Overall impact) with a passion for some reason — it's just so ugly. And PREORDERED (64A: Like goods bought before they hit the shelves) feels somewhat blah. But those sorts of words seem to be the price you pay if you want to work out there being a giant A for your theme of ASYMMETRY in the puzzle.
There was some crosswordese and a couple answers that I didn’t care for — such as LIE (51A: That's unbelievable!) and WHOA (53A: "That's unbelievable!") clued essentially identically and I’D BET (52D: "My gut says …"). AS PER (7D: In line with) just looks bad. And RELEASE ME (34D: Cry to a captor) feels like a rather tame thing for someone to say who's been tied up. But the fill was fine, if a bit boring.
I will say I loved the clue for NORM (56D: What you'd expect when you're expecting?). SELF (8D: Beginning of consciousness?) was also funny. I had fun seeing TUFTS (19A: University just north of Harvard) in the puzzle because my cousin went there, and it seems like a great school. BLEAT (39A: What the shepherd heard, perhaps) was cute.
Misc.:
Signed, Clare Carroll, screaming AAAAAAA!!! as Liverpool’s 16-year-old scores a goal in the 11th minute of stoppage time to win the game
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Misc.:
- Where the sidewalk ends is with Shel Silverstein (not the CURB (24D))
- Seeing ONE L (25: First-year legal student, informally) in the puzzle takes me back. And it’s to not-very-fond memories of law school! Man alive, I’m glad that’s over with.
- I like the slight connection that this puzzle constructor’s last name is Curry, and we’ve got TREY (Shot that made its N.B.A. debut in 1979, slangily) in the puzzle, which is the shot that Steph Curry is known for!
- I would’ve said BLONDEs (44D: Marilyn Monroe or Britney Spears) have more fun. But I dyed my hair red a few years ago and haven’t looked back since.
- In the Majors (a level up from AAA (40A)) at the Dodgers game last night, V (no, not A) from BTS threw out the first pitch and did quite a good job! You can see the video here. My dad (who actually knows probably very little about this) guesses the pitch was probably around 75 mph.
- It was nice to have both MOM (61D: Certain parent) and PROUD PAPAS (16A) represented in the puzzle.
And that's all from me! See you in September.
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119 comments:
How is a Mother's daughter's daughter a niece?
On the tough side for me. I was moving along at a medium pace until I hit the SW. SALMON BERRY and VDAY were WOEs, the revealer clue was no help, and the clues for NORM and ID BET were a little tricky.
An impressive feat of construction but, like @Clare, I was not that fond of this one. The giant A didn’t to much for me and as @Clare pointed out the fill was “a bit boring”.
Hmmm...the scarlet letter, unsure if I was successful .... Terra?
'Costly erasures.' That's what you people like to call it, right. 'Cost me two nanoseconds..' I dunno, sounds a bit dramatic. I focked up, that's what happened. Ahgain. And it cost me more than a couple nanoseconds. KEep v. KEPT tense/scha-flipping-mense déjà focking vu - GoT AN A/GET AN A Sun. redux. Must be fiddy unis round Boston, and I'm thinking, I know most ov'em.. pU_TS (19a) ?!
Righted plus wrapped behind a passel of nanoseconds and.. ehh, it was fine. Asymmetry apparent at outset - the A-play, in my blindered beeline, not 'til curtains. Aye, author amusement over gamer service, but.. nifty, the game-end overlay.
Cannae git what I want, bit of humor, so.. lower the bar, chillax.
(O' course, The Egs, doing it every day. Just hire that guy. Prob solved.)
Thanks for the writeup, Clare! I loved the big, red A that appeared at the end. But could anyone explain the clue for NORM?
So I’m still trying to be nice. And hanging on by a thread. Since when did a nut get defined by its smallness? I’ve cranked on nuts that required a 14 inch pair of channel pliers. Not so small. About the size of a closed fist. Fortunately I had the channel pliers in my TOOLSET. My youngest son is a carpenter/contractor and the number of tools he owns is hard to describe. The bed of his pickup is full of tools. Does this constitute a TOOLSET? No. Tool set conjures up an image of hammers and hand saws and screwdrivers in a closed container like a sewing kit, or something. Not real.
COGSCI is about the ugliest word I’ve ever seen in a puzzle. I asked my wife of 50 years, a recently retired psychologist, if she had ever heard the term. She replied that she knew what was meant but she couldn’t remember hearing it spoken. Case closed.
The SALMONBERRY thing is a bit confusing because I’ve always assumed they were named for the colour of their flesh, plain and simple. So I looked up the pairing tradition of the berries with the fish and found only references to pairing the fruit with salmon roe in indigenous cultures. The problem here is that SALMON BERRies (which grow on my property, though not profusely) ripen in late spring or early summer while salmon roe is not harvested until late summer or fall. So maybe I’m missing something here or something’s just wrong about this.
Oh, and EELs, one of hundreds of species that can “burrow into the seabed”. Big deal.
And all this for a giant letter A whose crosspiece has an extra few letters in it …
I wanted to be nice, I really did.
That pitch was under 50 mph.
I found this very clever.... 1st, I was sitting there looking at the grid, as I struggled with the entire upper third of it--kept checking the calendar to make sure it really was a Tuesday!--and saying to myself--this is weird--since when does the NYT let someone post a puzzle that has NO symmetry to it? And then, when I got the revealer, going through the puzzle and finding the As and saying to myself... now that is a cool form of symmetry--"A" symmetry!!! Awesome. I actually used the theme to help me figure out "VDAY" which I had not heard of. I agree the cluing was a little fussy--like what @LES said, NUTS aren't always little. And I am not really familiar with the SALMONBERRY. But I thought the theme was very inventive and worth all the effort!!! Thanks, Kevin!!! : )
Sorry to add another sentence, but I think the point is that there IS symmetry in the grid. It's the left/right symmetry of the placement of the As. So it therefore keeps the rule that there must be some type of symmetry, even though the unfilled grid itself has none. very cool.
Mostly easy, except I had "leotard" before UNITARD and needed a lucky guess for the TOAD/TEATREE cross (never heard of a tea tree). Solved it mostly as a themeless, because I didn't see the A-letter pattern until I was finished.
Easy-Medium for a Tuesday. Liked it better than @Clare and @Les did, although I agree with Mrs. More about COG SCI.
Overwrites:
SEmi-consciousness before SELF at 8D
My 14D Jacques was brel before he was TATI
lOGic I (as in a college course title) before COG SCI for the mind study at 24A
When I'm expecting something, I expect News (56D), not the NORM (sloppy reading of the clue)
WOEs:
NPR host LIANE Hansen (6D)
V-DAY (48A)
SALMONBERRY (60A)
If the mother's daughter is your sister
The only VDAY I know is Valentine's Day; the D was the last thing in the grid for me. I noticed the ASYMMETRY of the grid, and only after I got the revealer (which helpfully told me that the first word was either I or A) noticed the As, and then of course the big yellow A appeared on my completed puzzle. I enjoyed this more than @Clare and learned the etymology of SALMONBERRY to boot. More difficult than most Tuesdays, but fun in the end.
She’s also a doctor!
I also don’t understand NORM!
Your mom’s daughter (your sister)’s daughter (your niece)
My mother's daughter as in my sister
Consider your mother. Her daughter is your sister. Your sister’s daughter is your niece.
It is if the first daughter referenced is one's sister, and she's a grown-up with a kid. Think of the clue as "One's daughter's daughter," (and don't forget it also includes "perhaps").
My mother has two daughters-my sisters. One of them has two daughters-my nieces. It’s not the best clue but it works.
If you're the other sibling, your mother's daughters daughter is your niece
Hurrah! Hurrah! For the dear old Brown & Blue! (From the Tufts fight song…)
your mother's daughter is either you or your sister. Your sister's daughter is your niece.
My mother’s (other) daughter’s child is my niece
Right! Are we missing something?
One doesn’t expect something unusual to happen (typically) … one does expect the NORM(al)
I never noticed the 'a' symmetry, which I'm sure is normal. I never noticed the 'a's formed a bit A, which might be normal. But I also never noticed the grid asymmetry, which I'm guessing is not normal.
It's a weird idea for a theme, but I enjoyed it. Today, by the way, is the 28th anniversary of the worst theme ever, 8/26/97.
My mother's daughter is my sister. My sister's daughter is my niece.
Do people really still use AOL or MSN enough to justify being in the NYT crossword?
Your mother’s daughter is your sister, so her daughter is your niece.
I’m getting to the point where I really detest gimmick puzzles - especially those that impersonate crosswords - so the NYT is in danger of falling out of the top five in my daily rotation.
It seems like every day we get battered with subpar or really arcane fill to accommodate whatever the stunt du jour is (you need look no further than COGSCI today for exhibit A). It’s only Tuesday folks - this does not bode well for the remainder of the week.
my mother's daughter is my sister and my sister's daughter is my niece
A mother can have more than daughter .If you're one of those daughters than your mother's other daughter's daughter is your niece
Your mom’s daughter is your sister and her daughter is your niece.
This mystified me too, but if it’s my mother’s daughter, who is my sister, not me, her daughter is my niece.
Yeah I still don’t understand the NORM clue/answer. Can anyone please help?
You devil, you, Kevin Curry. The Times crossword submission guidelines specifically say “Crosswords must have black square symmetry”. It is what the guidelines call one of the few “hard rules”, rules that are broken “with extreme rarity”.
Yet you found a way, came up with a theme so novel that they couldn’t say no. After all, here is a theme that has no theme answers – Hah! – not to mention that it features symmetry within asymmetry in a way that has never been done before.
Oh, I saw the asymmetry early on, when the design didn’t fit even some of the rarest symmetries is Crosslandia, but never saw the A factor, and let me tell you, Kevin, when that big A lit up the digital grid upon completion, well, that was a jaw dropper in the best way. (Yes, I am a cross-nerd.)
Thank you, Kevin. You created a classic puzzle that I will remember, possibly for aeons. One of the most brilliant of the year. A bow and a wow, sir!
If a women has a sister and she has a daughter, it is still your mother’s daughter’s daughter and is your niece
Clever construction I guess, but not much fun to solve. Without the appearance of the big A at the end, I would have had no idea what the theme was. No Aha Moment today! As Clare notes, how would paper and pen solvers have any idea?
COGSCI? Yikes. Never heard the term. And I guess the DL in ONTHEDL is for ‘down low’, but the phrase I know is ONTHE qt, maybe for ‘quiet’?
Hey All !
I'm sure someone has already said this, however, the Giant A actually is Symmetrical. The Revealer clue tells you that the Blockers are ASYMMETRY, but that it has A SYMMETRY, as in the A's are indeed symmetrical.
Funky grid to have as a Theme. So, is the Theme just the A's with the Revealer, or is it actually the Entire Puzzle? A little COGSCI for ya.
Fill came out surprisingly good, considering the A's to work around, and unable to use any other ones. Higher Blocker count once more, 41 of 'em.
Interesting, different type puz. Tougher than your average Tuesday. I'd give it an A. (Groan!)
Have a great Tuesday!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
AS PER usual, I solved this as a themeless, then got a mild chuckle out of the giant A made out of A’s I hadn’t noticed (though, like Les, I was bothered by the stray letters in the crosspiece). As for the asymmetry, I did notice that right off the bat, and especially when I got down to that ugly stack of threes in the SE.
The best part of this one for me is that it brought back the memory of Kitty Wells singing her big hit song “RELEASE ME.” A country classic.
Speaking of asymmetrical grids, the following two are, IMO, the two cutest grids of all time, IMO (and worth a look, dear reader):
• 2/17/15 by Bruce Haight.
• 3/16/22 by Joseph Gangi.
Fun puzzle and impressive construction! Clever clues as noted by Clare and a few toughies, mixed with a lot of gimmes. It was fun to solve this puzzle partly because of the unusual shape, with long acrosses right near the top
To nitpick, I couldn't help but notice that where the "cross" is for the big A, there are two non-A letters. Sorry Kevin, that brings the rating down to an A- !!
Have to admit when I finished I saw the black T and would have missed the big A if not for the yellow outline on my app.Since TEA TREE was right there, I wasted a minute or so trying to incorporate the T into the theme to no avail
Anyway, let's get more puzzles like this one, Kevin and NYT. Thanks Clare for your usual enthusiastic and accurate recap.
Fun puzzle and impressive construction! Clever clues as noted by Clare and a few toughies, mixed with a lot of gimmes. It was fun to solve this puzzle partly because of the unusual shape, with long acrosses right near the top
To nitpick, I couldn't help but notice that where the "cross" is for the big A, there are two non-A letters. Sorry Kevin, that brings the rating down to an A- !!
Have to admit when I finished I saw the black T and would have missed the big A if not for the yellow outline on my app.Since TEA TREE was right there, I wasted a minute or so trying to incorporate the T into the theme to no avail
Anyway, let's get more puzzles like this one, Kevin and NYT. Thanks Clare for your usual enthusiastic and accurate recap.
I’m from the northwest. I’ve never eaten salmon berries on salmon. To the best of my recollection I’ve never eaten salmonberries any other way than just straight off the bush.
Maybe it’s an Alaska thing where they also have salmonberries but they’re a different berry than the PNW salmonberry.
I kinda noticed the grid wasn’t symmetrical but didn’t think much about it. I did notice three Gs in the top row. I didn’t get a giant A using AcrossLite, but now that I see it, it’s one of those architectural feats that’s really cool but had nothing at all to do with my solve. Took me awhile to believe that SALMONBERRY was a thing. I’ve never heard anyone say COGSCI but it was clear enough that that would be the answer.
Claire, try to go see a Jacques TATI film sometime. Those who’ve seen it before will be laughing hysterically in advance of something that is about to happen, and those seeing it for the first time will be utterly confused.
Puzzles like this are the reason those little circles were invented. If the "A"s were all circled, the puzzle would have been better for paper solvers.
Grew up in the PNW. We call them salmonberries for the color, like blueberries or blackberries. They're good straight off the bush when you're hiking. I don't know anyone who collects them to cook with --- they're not that good. I guess you could make a savory sauce out of them? But pale orange on pale orange will not be beautiful. I do pair berries with my salmon, but I use a heartier berry with more sweetness and tannins to pair with the richness of the fish: I recommend a sauce of blueberries, red wine, and cinnamon. If you gave me a basket of salmonberries, I'd want them with a smoked whitefish, not a salmon. If you have some pretty purple pansies, you could add some petals for color. Or I'd just enjoy the berries on top of a mixed green salad, with ricotta salata and bread and butter if you insist on making it into a main dish.
took longer than average but felt easy. only had to look up two answers that i simply didn't know.
If your mother's daughter is your sibling, then her daughter is your niece.
I did not see eye to eye on many of the clues today. LIES are untrue not unbelievable. We believe lies all the time. This puzzle seems to have put its ASYMMETRY gimmick at the expense of it's content.
Pretty sure Vespa is a model name. Piaggio is the brand.
I also couldn't find any reference to the berries bring eaten with Salmon but I did find a really interesting article about the connection between the Salmonberry harvest and that years Salmon run for the Heiltsuk people. Now I like the puzzle because it made me find out that and read the article. Otherwise, I completely agree with you and found it hard to be nice.
https://thenarwhal.ca/opinion-salmonberry-heiltsuk-first-nation-bc/
Eso es increible.
Holy schmolie. Thank goodness I use the app. When I saw the giant A overlay I nearly freaked out. Complete grid destroying arrangement of those A's without any other random ones floating around, and yet the puzzle was fine and enjoyable to solve.
I am impressed. Wish it were funnier. I wish the A meant something. I wish SALMON BERRY was LAKE SALMON BERRY.
People: 5
Places: 1
Products: 7
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 21 of 76 (28%)
Funny Factor: 3 😐
Tee-Hee: SEAMEN.
Uniclues:
1 Drunken lizards doing karaoke at a fraternity.
2 You said you love her? Sheesk.
3 Stole a hog from a sidewalk in Pontedera.
4 Sassy songs from a fair haired youth.
5 What happens after it turns out I'm pretty dumb.
1 GILA KEG SING (~)
2 V-DAY LIE ... WHOA
3 KEPT CURB VESPA
4 BLONDE IMP AIRS (~)
5 IVIES RELEASE ME
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Told God. TATTLED ON ALTAR.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I laughed out loud when reading Anonymous 6:40 am’s comment!
@Anonymous 6:40 am on “She’s also a doctor”: That’s a terrific comment! I assume it’s a reference to the old riddle (one features on an episode of “All in the Family” in the early 70s) about a doctor saying “I can’t operate on him, he’s my son” after a boy and his dad were in a car accident. And most people can’t solve it, because the answer is that the doctor is the boy’s mom, hence, a woman.
Hi Clare, nice writeup. What was the END EFFECT for paper solvers today? The answer is … absolutely nothing. Didn’t notice the A’s, didn’t notice the ASYMMETRY, didn’t notice the implied grid art and didn’t notice there was no theme. Circles would have helped, but probably best without them. I guess the app solvers were the only ones to experience the sparkle and excitement here but it would take a lot more than that to get me to use a device on a daily basis.
When I saw the clue “anti-trafficking org.” at 32D, I confidently entered ATF. I did that because just a few days ago, there was an identical clue which I answered with DEA, but the grid said no - it’s ATF. So today of course I knew that ATF had to be the correct entry but - [bad buzzer sound] - wrong again. Today it’s DEA. Could it be we’ve uncovered a new kealoa?
Just one last question … does anyone not understand how a mother’s daughter‘s daughter is a NIECE? Anyone?
Reporter: Hey, coach. How come Aaron Judge isn't in the line up?
Boone: It's a hush hush situation.
Reporter: Oh, he's on the DL.
Hey, didn't Queen Elizabeth have a large collection of COGSCIs?
I had a mistake in my last letter of 33D until I changed it TOAD.
Here's the teaser to a YouTube by Sarah Loves Food: Salmon with salmon berries is a delicious and simple dish. The tangy salmon berries pair perfectly with the salmon.
I probably should comment on the NIECE situation as a great deal has been left unsaid about the underlying implied relationships that have been too long overlooked in our rush to fill grids.
A word on the nit voiced by several commenters about the two extra letters in the crossbar of the Big A. I think it is actually a strength of the puzzle because it makes the fact that the "A"s are forming a pattern far less obvious as you solve. There is symmetry of the "A"s, and the fact that the editors chose to help you see it with the yellow highlighting was not likely in the constructors control. The "A"s do, in fact, form a symmetrical "A" in an asymmetrical grid. I'm blown away by the levels of cleverness displayed in the construction of this puzzle. Thanks, KevinCurry.
44 Down uses the word OR, not AND. Thus the answer is singular.
I don’t get it. My mother doesn’t have a daughter, so this clue doesn’t make any sense. More DEI nonsense from the NY Times :(
@Les S. More 3:06 AM
Apartment and condo dwellers have TOOL SETS you buy at Walgreens for hanging up pictures. A little hammer, mini-pliers, some nails, some of that braided wire nobody ever uses, a few picture hanger-upper claw contraptions. Turns out the nuts we deal with are not on the side of a tractor requiring a two-foot-long box-end and WD-40; our nuts are old men at association meetings.
I solve using paper and pencil. Figuring out that the puzzle’s asymmetry is in the oddly arranged black squares did not motivate me to draw a line linking the a’s.
Nice joke, it it’s a couple of years dated. Baseball uses the IL now.
If you are expecting a certain result and it comes then it’s the norm.
I didn't notice the ASYMMETRY of the grid until I saw the word ASYMMETRY. And I didn't notice the A SYMMETRY in the grid until I read the clue. "Oh, there are "A"s on the diagonal," I thought. Not that I really cared.
There are people here who notice puzzle symmetry and people who don't and I am one of the latter. If all the Times puzzles suddenly became asymmetrical, I'm sure I wouldn't notice until someone pointed it out. It's something I have to be aware of as a constructor -- even though I don't make the grid -- but something I never notice as a solver. I
Anyway, I liked the puzzle. It had a bit of crunch for a Tuesday and there was little to no slam-dunk cluing. Not knowing what "the Titanomachy" was/is, I did hesitate between mythology (GODS) and science fiction flicks (PODS). But the GIDA monster rang much more of a bell than the PIDA monster. An enjoyable Tuesday.
I prefer themeless to some of the gimmick puzzles of late. So this was easy (& boring) for me. COGSCI &
ON THE DL were woes :(
Having read the comments before I came to add mine, I really don't understand all the confusion about "NIECE" - what's not to get?
Thanks for the write-up, Clare
How's Red doing? :)
Forgive the pun, but Lewis is surely Exhibit A in my comment that some people notice ASYMMETRY and some people don't. I knew he'd notice it immediately. But, as his 7:55 comment reveals, Lewis not only notices them, he remembers them!
vespa is a brand. there are multiple models by vespa. piaggio manufactures vespa and many other brands..and their respective models. ciao.
@Lewis, did you see the A SYMMETRY before you read the revealer? I sure didn't--in fact, even when I had the revealer, it took me another 2-3 minutes to realize what it meant. I was looking over the grid to see if the black squares made tiny As, or something of the sort. But no, all the As in the grid have symmetrical partners. I imagine the constructor looking at ASYMMETRY, realizing it could be parsed differently, and then figuring out how to embody that into a puzzle. Quite feat-- and after PROUD PAPAS and TEA TREE I was looking for a repeated-initials theme.
I've heard 'on the downlow' and 'on the qt,' but I don't think I've ever seen ON THE DL--but that's just me, probably. I do think carpenters and plumbers would have a tool-box or tool-kit more than a TOOLSET. Good thing 'kit' was in the clue, or I'd have put it in.
I'm noticing that my house plants are looking a little dry. I don't have a lot of cash, so I guess I'll get some ECONO MIST.
I'm wondering why Clare doesn't like Aaron Rogers. He is one of the most accurate passers in the history of the NFL. He's 41 and the oldest player in the league, so he's not able to avoid the rush very well anymore. He will get sacked a lot this year.
This thread of replies may have set a record for 'most explanations of the same point.'
Oops. I just noticed. It's GILA monster/LIANE and not GIDA monster/DIANE. If I'd been playing for the $100,000 First Prize, boy would I ever be upset!
If your mother’s daughter’s daughter is her niece you might be a redneck.
Well, I saw that all the As in the grid were symmetrical with each other, but not that they made a big A when you connected them. Nice touch.
If your mother's daughter likes salmon berries, what does your niece like?
Being one of the app solvers, I didn't really experience the sizzle and excitement. More like, "oh, okay". Seems the entire theme boils down to a punny way of viewing the word ASYMMETRY, so it seems like a lot of constructor work without a lot of accompanying delight.
The mother's daughter's daughter clue, although obvious once grasped, is convoluted just enough that it would throw some puzzlers off, as seen elsewhere in today's commentary. All of us have an off day now and then.
Not only in the 10th (not 11th) minute of stoppage time, but just a mere 4 minutes after making his English Premier League debut. His name is Riu Ngumoha (5'7" from Newham, England, with the face of a cherubic 14yo). And a gorgeous goal it was. He's played a grand total of six minutes of top flight league competition soccer (for the reigning champions, to boot) and already has a winning goal under his belt (in an away match against a fierce competitor). His official record now has him scoring a goal every 6 minutes, - a rate of 15 goals per game. I wonder if he can keep up the pace.
That's how I eat them, too. (SW BC resident). Didn't know about the Alaskan version.
It's because of the crap he's spouted off about outside the confines of the stadium, of which there is plenty. The Wikipedia article on him touches on this a little, if you care to learn more. Particularly he's prone to and propagates a lot of conspiracy theories, i.e., mind poison, and maybe you can see that there can be great harm in that (witness the defunding of mRNA research by hundreds of millions of dollars, thanks to RFK Jr., someone that Rodgers has closely aligned with).
What a creative way to have fun with the NORM of crossword symmetry - apparently flouting it but actually burying it one layer deeper. Tip of the hat to Kevin Curry!
Minor lament: For me, one of the disadvantages of using the app instead of solving in the paper is that sometimes the app discloses an element of the puzzle that I'd rather discover for myself. That was the case today: I'd seen right at the start that the grid lacked symmetry, so I was ready for the one-word ASYMMETRY of the reveal. But the NOD to "A" SYMMETRY made me eager to go through the grid and find the symmetrically placed As. I'd assumed that they'd be scattered about throughout - so would have enjoyed the extra surprise and delight of finding out on my own that the As made a symmetrically placed A. Note to SELF: next time wait to enter the last letter until you're sure there's nothing else to find.
No such thing as PREORDER! You order or you don't order. Like "preplan" and many other PRE's.
The ASYMMETRY of the puzgrid weren't too subtle. The A-SYMMETRY kinda was, tho. Real different puztheme. Like.
staff weeject pick: AAA. Actually, it's sorta the only true puzthemer.
Cool asymmetric(al) weeject stack, in the SE, btw.
faves: The Jaws of Asymmetriness. PROUDPAPAS & AERIAL [the two 2-A contributors]. EVIL clue.
LIANE & TATI were no-knows at first, that turned into oh-sures, eventually. Not so much on SALMONBERRY, but its clue helped make sense of it, at least.
Pretty smoooth fillins, actually. Amazin how that can work out, if things are ain't-symmetric(al). [An almost daily runtpuz practice, I'd hafta grant.]
Thanx for the A-mazin solvequest, Mr. Curry dude. Gets an A for netAffect & Affort.
And thanx to Clare, for a nifty Rex-like write-up.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
... and now, here's one where not even the A's are symmetric(al) ...
"De Tours" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Thank you for giving it an "A" , I guess Kevin was doing what we used to call "grade grubbing" when he wrote this puzzle, huh???? When you make a puzzle, you'll have to put an F in it, since that's what you are always counting/paying attention to. And why is that, by the way???
I could not have guessed the theme before finishing this puzzle but find the “A” symmetry interesting. And I liked the fill in this puzzle—PROUD PAPAS, MOMs and IMPs, SEAMEN and NIECEs and DEARS, FLOATS and SALMONBERRYs. It had a friendly feel to it. Nice Tuesday.
If Halle Berry married Salmon Rushdie, she'd be Halle Rushdie. But in another universe . . .
Thanks for the Shel Silverstein poem Clare!
I did see the asymmetry of the black squares right away, but that's something that would hit me, a constructor, right away. Meanwhile -- Hah! on ECONO MIST!
As a paper and pen solver, I can confirm that I had no idea, and that's just fine. And silly little circles would have just pissed me off.
--JLK
"Traditionally, the berries and sprouts were also eaten with salmon or mixed with oolichan grease or salmon roe."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_spectabilis
I see here that the app, or whatever, highlighted the big A in yellow. I guess that's not as shameful as a scarlet one. Would Hester Prynne have been better off with a yellow A, I wonder?
I was thinking COG PSY for 24A "Study of the mind, for short". COG SCI? Okay then. Both point to an interesting factoid; the human brain is so complex that it is trying to understand itself.
64A PREORDERED reminded me of a classic George Carlin skit on the absurdity of the PRE this and the PRE that. No one has ever PREBOARDED a plane. You either BOARD the plane or you don't. You don't PREHEAT an oven, you just HEAT it. And so on. Of course George would spice things up a bit with a liberal sprinkling of salty language. Here's a YouTube video with the PRE part early on.
“Release me” made me think of only this: https://youtu.be/bDFt_Dhxg8k?si=AVqdTKhyCIyEeybY
Thanks for the YouTube video on cooking salmon with salmonberries, @Egs. Always enjoy watching other people cook. I suspect that the tang in that dish comes via the vinaigrette. Salmonbrries, at least to me, have a pleasantly mild and slightly sweet flavour. I'll have to try it next June when they are in season.
Social norm, shared standards of acceptable behavior by groups
Just got back from 2 weeks in PNW. Are salmon 4-5 times saw maybe 20 different salmon presentations on menus and saw ZERO with salmonberries. No real Plumber or Carpenter would use a tool set, most of the included tools won't be used enough.
Thanks. I did read the Wikipedia article. I also learned how to spell his name.
@Liveprof: nice!
I got a big surprise when I came here, as my Across Lite didn't highlight the giant A at all-- no circles or anything-- so I completely missed it. I just thought the theme was asymmetry, which was a bit dull. Darn!
I now have so many nieces and great nieces and great great nieces and nieces in law, I have no idea how many. Very complicated family tree, as one of my sisters gave up her first baby girl for adoption (I first met her when we were both in our 30's!), another sister adopted two girls, who have children and grandchildren, and all my nieces are from my half sisters.
Lots of salmonberries in the BC interior as well. I too have only ever eaten them straight off the bush. Nice when you get a sweet one.
Amazon uses that term all the time: You can pre-order books that aren't yet published. I understand that technically "order" would be correct, but I also understand the distinction they're making.
@Gary, you're right, of course. I had forgotten about moving into my first apartment as a young man and having to go buy a TOOLSET in order to hang my girlfriend's framed Renoir and Monet posters. I may still own the tiny needle-nose pliers that came with it.
@Sailor. Well, I can't really argue with the Wikipedia citation. It's just that where I live the berries are harvested in late spring and the roe in late summer/early autumn. So I have to imagine that the berries were somehow preserved to be eaten with the roe. Sounds like a great combo. Easy enough for me to do; I can freeze the berries and bring them out when roe is available. But I can't imagine that was an option for early indigenous people. Maybe they dried them. Maybe they preserved them in the oolichan oil. More research needed.
Checked out your "worst theme ever" and it was pretty bad but I'm sure there are worse. Let's keep lookin'.
What are they fighting for? More lab time?
And the fact that you can void the pre-order with a simple click anytime before the publication suggests that the order is not actually "put-in" until the book becomes available for shipping. With Amazon, the pre-order is a price guarantee that when the order is activated, you will get it for the price agreed upon even if the published price increases at the time of actual sale.
If you turn the puzzle on its side, flip it around on its axis and then stare into the puzzle with a soft focus, a 3-D message will emerge that reads: "I buried Paul."
Salmon berries are notable for being pretty and terribly disappointing. The look great and taste like pure blandness.
Hey Clare, great job today! I just kept solving and watching and solving and thinking and wondering and sussing and pondering. And all I got was a big yellow A?! Fine.
The truly amazing thing about this puzzle is the craft, nay artistry of Kevin Curry. First of all, constructing an early week puzzle without any As except those required for the reveal requires lots of creative effort. Sure, everyone has word lists now, but keeping this one Tuesday-solvable? Impressive.
This is definitely one I put in the “Constructor’s Puzzle” category. I admire the idea and its complete resolution exactly as our constructor must have imagined it. Well done indeed.
As I solved and looked for a theme, I became discouraged only because I began to expect some sort of trick of technology that was supposed to give the big “Ooh, Ahh, Wow!” But the big yellow A landed with a wet blanket thud for me. Gave me a feeling of “Really? That’s it?” And indeed that was it. To enhance the solve, this one needed more than one hint at ASYMMETRY. Or even A SYMMETRY.
Again, very impressive construction but I felt just “ok” at the end. Probably my continuing dislike of things impossible to grok with a pencil (or pen) and paper solve. I still love finding a newspaper in a waiting room that has an unsolved puzzle. If it’s one I haven’t done, I always ask if someone could make me a copy in order to leave the unsolved puzzle there for someone else to discover. Alas, there’s no reveal n paper today and for me that’s a big no-no.
Kudos for the idea, well executed. A huge nod to Kevin Curry and constructors everywhere. Fresh ideas are never a bad thing, any time, anywhere. There’s not one flavor for everyone. This just isn’t my flavor, but I cleaned my plate!
Like most celebrities
Before reading the comments, I see that Rex had forgotten Jacques TATI which was an answer clued as a director not long ago. He acted in his own movies The Times clues are playing games with Rex’s fast solving!
Oops all is explained.
It’s Clare. About Tati. Didn’t realize till she mentioned law school.
I assume Les S More you are being humorous. Cogsci is an ugly answer. But North America has millions of Academics whose lingo, especially with class names.
Anyway she said she didn’t remember it.
Case not closed.
FWIW
Bob Mills
I hadn’t heard of TEATREE either until it appeared in the Times puzzle not long ago, I think with a similar clue. The tree is unrelated to the producer of black tea et al.
Conrad
Your record of having similar overwrites continues!
JJK
On the DL is a thing. Like most slang these days it originated among Black Americans, in this case, referring to gay Blacks were not out. Have no idea if it commonly used beyond them.
Chris S
It was noted earlier that the connection goes back to the Indians. We are talking about the ORIGIN of the name. What in contemporary restaurants is irrelevant. Nothing wrong with the clue/answer
I thought it was one of the better ones in the puzzle, even though I had no clue about the berry.
@Perry, as I mentioned above, I've mainly eaten salmonberries directly off the bush (inland British Columbia). In my experience if they are ripe enough, they slide off easily and are usually very tasty!
Did the old puzzle on your recommendation and I thought it was great! Except the OREM/MEDOC cross.
Sutsy
LIES had what Rex calls a letteral clue. The Times has been using more and more of them in the puzzle lately. The clue is an instruction, don’t believe those lies. So if you get the trick, it makes sense.
Gary
I particularly liked your Uniclues today!
Late to the party as the internet was down, we had the grandkids most of the day, got home, printed out the puzzle, did it as fast as I could as I had a singing gig at a nursing home this afternoon, and finally got a chance to read the blog. One benefit of getting in late was getting a very thorough "niece" explanation. Thanks everybody.
Like other paper solvers, no big A showed up and I never looked for it. Noticed the ASYMMETRY but not all the A's. So it goes.
Today I learned about SALMONBERRIES and met LIONA and ran into COGSCI for the first time. I'm more familiar with on the QT than ONTHE DL, which I'm guessing is the Down Low, but maybe not.
Hey NENE! Hello! Nice to see you again
Pretty ingenious construction KC for those who found it, I Keep Company with those who didn't. Thanks for a fair amount of fun.
You piqued my interest so I just did it. Yeah, I see what the common mssing element is in the phrases, but is there more to the theme than that? If not . . .weak . . .
I enjoyed the puzzle. Some people hate themes in general. Some really like them. I am neutral. So the fact that I solved this puzzle as a themeless bothered me not at all. I can’t stand the app on the phone but I like to do the puzzle lying down since I got sick. So I got the yellow A after the fact. BTW I am llke Nancy, completely oblivious to puzzle symmetry or not! Long way of saying I liked the puzzle as a themeless just fine. Didn’t think the clueing was that affected by the hidden theme. I did like the Assymmetry/a-symmetry gimmick when I understood the whole thing. I had a distinctly more favorable reaction than Clare.
About ONEL. As I said earlier lingo In universities or parts thereof varies greatly across North America. In my law school back in the mid seventies the term one L was not used. All I remember is the boring “first year law student “. Since I rarely watch movies or TV shows centered on law I had to learn of ONEL from crosswords. BTW I never claimed it wasn’t a thing just because I never heard of it before.
I agree with Clare, I was equally happy to be finished with law school!
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