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Creature on the state flags of Michigan and Idaho / THU 8-7-25 / Financial center of West Africa / European land where much of "Game of Thrones" was filmed / Tourist destination outside of Delhi
Thursday, August 7, 2025
Constructor: BEN ZIMMER
Relative difficulty: MEDIUMish
THEME: FRUITLESSLY — 36A: In vain... or how to read the answers to 17-, 25-, 49-, and 58-Across. These answers are all clued as simpler words that make longer words or phrases when a fruit has been added to them.
Word of the Day: UTA (32D: ___ Hagen, Tony-winning acress and theater practitioner). I'm a theatre major; I'm well aware of who Uta Hagen was. But I wanted to highlight her —
Uta Thyra Hagen (12 June 1919 – 14 January 2004) was a German and American actress and theatre practitioner. She originated the role of Martha in the 1962 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee, who called her "a profoundly truthful actress." Because Hagen was on the Hollywood blacklist, in part because of her association with Paul Robeson, her film opportunities dwindled and she focused her career on New York theatre.
She later became a highly influential acting teacher at New York's Herbert Berghof Studio and authored best-selling acting texts, Respect for Acting, with Haskel Frankel,[1] and A Challenge for the Actor. Her most substantial contributions to theatre pedagogy were a series of "object exercises" that built on the work of Konstantin Stanislavski and Yevgeny Vakhtangov.
• • •
Hey everyone, it's Eli back again for one last Rexplacement blog before Rex gets back tomorrow. I was excited to see Ben Zimmer's byline today since I knew that set a floor of at least "competent" for the puzzle. To spoil things, this wasn't one of my favorite of Ben's puzzles today, but it wasn't a complete miss, either. Theme answers:
- TOP EARNERS (17A: Mixtures in copier cartridges) (TONERS)
- IMPEACHED (25A: Chatted online, in brief) (IMED)
- ROMAN GODS (49A: Some fishing gear)(RODS)
- PROBLEM ONE (58A: Investigate in detail)(PROBE)
Hey, 34D: R U Talkin' R.E.M. Re:Me?
Theme aside, this puzzle played a little tougher for me. It's possible I was just moving slow so I could think of things to blog about, but I definitely ran into a few hiccups. The NW corner just didn't come together to start things off. "Be up" is a fair but hard to parse clue at 1D for BAT, and BUMP isn't the first thing I think of at 1A (Speeding check). Couple that with the fact that I had ETS for UFO at 2D (What arrives in the film "Arrival") and I had to move along to find a place to start. I then confidently entered SELF CONTROL instead of the correct SELF COMMAND at 24D (It's need to stay calm). So to say I had trouble getting footing is an understatement.
On top of that, there was some definite old-timeyness in the grid. GAMIN (54A: Street urchin) and DROSS (51D: Useless leftovers) feel like words that don't spend much time outside of the pages of the OED these days. And ODEUM (7D: Classical performance space) mostly lives in antiquity. I'm much more familiar with ODEON (which means the same thing but also feels archaic) and ODIUM (unrelated). There's also LEG ARMOR (38D: Par of a jouster's protection), which in addition to being old fashioned feels a little generic. Is there not a specific name for it? Greaves, maybe?
 |
| Someone who could have used better leg armor |
Stray Thoughts:
- 23D: Director DuVernay (AVA) — I love Ava. One of the many advantages of living in LA is that we get a chance to see things like an anniversary screening of SELMA at the Academy Museum, followed by a talk back with Ava and a large group of cast and crew (including David Oyelowo). An unforgettable experience.
- 63A: Rivian competitor (TESLA) — I don't know much about Rivian, but as long as they're not owned by a Nazi, they are a million times preferable to Tesla.
- 21A: Drink made with an artisinal flourish, maybe (LATTE) — I bought an espresso machine a little over a year ago, and while I'm pretty good at pulling shots and making drinks, latte art has mostly been a failure for me. I was getting frustrated with the fact that I couldn't get it right, when I realized that I've made fewer lattes in the whole time I've been trying than a barista would make in their first week on the job. Good thing the art doesn't add to the flavor.
 |
| Latte art I definitely didn't make |
- I just realized I couldn't find anything Simpsons related in the grid today. Enjoy this GIF I made as a general purpose way to exit a conversation:
It's getting late, and I've got an early morning. Hope you all have a great Thursday!
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129 comments:
The best thing about Thursday is that it comes right before what’s usually the best day of the week, puzzlewise. Today, I struggled with the gimmick, only to be rewarded with TONERS and PROBLEM ONE, both of them weak for the reasons Eli noted. At least the “fruitful” answers were real words/phrases and not the gobbledygook we sometimes see on Thursdays.
Medium-Challenging NW and NCentral, Medium for most of the way and Easy once I got the theme.
Overwrites:
My 1D speeding check was a traP before it was a BUMP
@Eli ets before UFO at 2D
7D: ODEon before ODEUM
The 14A Magi journeyed from the east before AFAR
never before GOD NO at 15A
I thought Albright and Havel had been born in kRAkow before it turned out they were actually born in PRAGUE (20A)
@Eli again for SELF COntrol before SELF COMMAND at 24D
DRegS before DROSS at 51D
No WOEs.
Good review.
I hated this one.
No cheats. No lookups. Got FRUITLESSLY early on, but it took me over an hour to find all the fruit. I had "self control" before SELFCOMMAND, which complicated the search. Had more fun with this one than I normally do on Thursday.
This puzzle had too much dross.
I couldn’t get on the same wavelength as the constructor on this one. I’ve never been big on themes where the theme answers initially make no sense and then retroactively have to be “decoded”. I know the convention is used pretty frequently - but it’s not much fun for me to parse together every cross for an entry in an attempt to come up with a plausible word or phrase. I got the reveal and confirmed the construct with the first to theme entries, but didn’t even bother looking for the fruit in the remaining theme entries - PROBLEM ONE sounds dumb enough already - I wasn’t about to was spend any more time/energy looking for a hidden meaning.
In addition to the blasé theme, I agree with our guest host that the fill held this one back as well (GAMEN, ODEUM, DROSS, and wherever GoT was filmed wouldn’t even make the list of the top 10,000 things that I actually care about). Thursdays are often hit or miss for me, and I feel like this one sailed wide right.
nothingburger
Brilliant puzzle, on the challenging side here. The theme answers were hard to come up with as they didn't have anything to do with the clue prior to subtracting the fruit. Perfect revealer but it was still a tough solve. Addition by subtraction ... Bravo!
Pretty tough Thursday. I did get the theme before getting the revealer, which you would think would help but since you don't know what fruits are coming and the themers are unclued, doesn't help all that much.
Biggest problem was having ANG in 49A, figuring the fruit had to be ORANGE, figuring the fishing gear had to be ROD, then staring at RORANGEOD trying to make it into a word or phrase.
Agree PROBLEM ONE is not a phrase I hear.
New niece (my 4th) welcomed to the world and to be named Clara. I'm calling her 'the it baby'.
I agree. Especially with the PROBLEM ONE issue. WTH is that?
An unusual occurrence today - two of the answers in today’s NYT mini puzzle are duplicated in the LAT full-sized grid. It’s not at all unusual to have a dupe in the main grids - I don’t ever recall two answers from the mini joining the club though.
I agree with you on the revealer and some of the longer answers, but overall this puzzle felt decidedly lacking in pizzazz. The themers weren't super strong and combined with how arcane some of the other answers were this ended up feeling like a weird mix of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday difficulties.
“Problem one” is a theme answer: probLEMONe -> probe.
Hey All !
Agree with PROBLEM ONE. Haven't heard it. Is it in Jay-Z's "99 Problems"?
Took a minute for the ole brain to figure out the FRUITs had to be added before being taken away, if that makes sense. But, figured it out. YAY ME!
Had LEGA__OR, and couldn't parse it as LEG(something). Was like, "is it LEGAL FOR? LEGAR?OM?" Finally saw LEG AR_OR, and let out a "D'oh!"
Last letter in was the M of SELFCOMMAND/GAMIN. A logical guess, even though GAMIN is a new one here. SELF COMMAND is kinda odd. I can see it, but slightly off to my ears. "Stay calm, stay calm ..." as a mantra to oneself I can see.
EELS and ASSED, no ENO, ONO, OTT, ORR or OREO. Did also have a Directional, SSE.
That enough silliness from me, have a great Thursday!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
It occurs to me that one could make a similar theme using flowers instead of fruits. The revealer could be “deflowering”…. Hmmm…. Could be cued as “favorite activity of Casanova”.
This was a tough one. I thought it was Saturday.
It says 0 comments, but I don't believe it.
Anyway, flying start with BAT (baseball season) and BUMP (drive over two on my way in and out every day) and UFO. Cruising down the West Coast and was momentarily slowed by SELFCONTROL (hi Eli) but was rescued by the fortuitous CROATIA My son and his family are in Europe visiting his wife's family and are doing some travelling before returning and as it happens, he just called us from, yep, CROATIA. And one thing he mentioned was that there is GOT stuff all over the place. Another good reason why it pays to talk to your children.
Only other snag was DREGS before DROSS, which made me wonder what a TEGLA was. This was fixed by PROBLEMONE, which I, at least, found familiar.
The revealer showed up early and gave away the game but it was helpful to find the hidden fruits amid the in-the-language revealers.
I liked your Thursdecito just fine, BZ. Bright, Zippy, and the fill was interesting enough to keep a smile on my face. Thanks for all the fun.
SELF COMMAND is terrible
Wow, 9am and no comments yet. Is no one up this morning? Hand up for ODEon before ODEUM. TOPEARNERS and IMPEACHED made FRUITLESSLY easy. My hangups were those pesky short names UTA and OPI, and initially choosing between MADD and SADD. Thought this was mostly fun stuff, but then I’m pretty easy to please.
Me too. A particularly egregious example of gimmickry run riot.
Who says SELF COMMAND? “You need some self command!” “I just needed to get command of myself.” “My self command needs some work.” No one says these things. They do not exist in the vernacular. Why did Rex let it pass with nary a word???
I thought "deflowering" meant having sex with a virgin -- is that what Casanova was especially known for? "Casanova" to me suggests more of a womanizer generally, and not particularly women who are virgins.
A delicious puzzle. A theme that's never been done before, never even been thought of before, I'm quite sure, beautifully conceived and beautifully executed. The on-point and original revealer is central to the solve: I wonder if any solver would pick up on the trick if the revealer weren't there. Which is the mark of a super-great revealer.
I'm glad that FRUITLESSLY is placed mid-grid. That meant that I could use the revealer to help solve the last two themers. I felt much more involved than I did at 17A, where, looking at TOP EARNERS, all I could do was scratch my head and say "What on earth?"
And the cluing throughout the puzzle is first-rate. The importantly situated BUMP and BAT, placed at 1A and 1D, are not at all apparent at first glance. LONG I fooled me yet again. And PUERTO is terrific. Loved this puzzle!
Clara is a beautiful name. My newest nephew is called Henry. I love that some of the old-fashioned classics are coming back into fashion.
Good theme idea and (as Eli noted) an excellent revealer.
But there's a bit too much DROSS for my taste. Brutal tri-column up top: LONGI, ODEUM (the best of the bunch) and UNREP -- ouch. I'm not really buying INEEDIT or SELFCOMMAND. And PROBLEMONE -- GODNO.
The plus side: SOOTHSAYERS, PRAGUE (beautiful city, beautiful in a grid), the great AGASSI, and the clue for PUERTO.
Thankful Rex wasn't here to weigh in on the YALE-UPENN connection; pretty sure the term "poison Ivies" would have been used.
Agree with Eli, not the most exciting Thursday I’ve ever done. Perfectly serviceable though, in a businesslike way. Despite trying to make it an orange for a long time, MANGO was the first themer I spotted. PEAR and PEACH were pretty easy. LEMON was the hardest for me to parse, probably because PROBLEM ONE was as foreign to me as it seems to have been for others.
I think TONERS in the plural is fine since most printers use separate cartridges for black and color inks. In fact, COLOR TONER was my first try at that answer.
my reaction upon finishing: that was awful
Welp, for all of those who don't like PROBLEMONE as an answer, I guess you're just anti-blemone.
PROBLEM ONE for me was the Kealoa at 20A where I had _ _ A _ _ _ and smugly/idiotically threw down gdAnsk. Wait for some crosses, big fella.
Remember when the Dems FRUITLESSLY IMPEACHED the orange moron twice? Typing this got me to thinking about when Nixon was tumbling toward the same fate and my Dad invented a drink called the Peach Nixon. A local columnist/family friend even published it in the paper (for those who don't know, paper is short for newspaper and was a primary source of news delivered daily to our caves).
I thought it was wonderful that the editors opted to not use circles or shading for the fruits. Made me think that the anguish about dumbing down the puzzles may have not been completely ignored. I liked this a lot. Thanks, BEN ZIMMER.
Agree somewhat re TONERS. Toner is measured by volume, not number. It is the toner cartridges that are measured by number.
However....
If one is dealing with toner colors (black, cyan, yellow and magenta), one would speak of 4 different TONERS, and though Eli may not come across this much, it's pretty common to speak of TONERS when the reference is taking into account the four toner colors. But one probably needs to be hanging around offices with color copiers and printers to hear it that much,
And speaking of hanging around offices (and classrooms, too), PROBLEM ONE is, in fact, very much a thing. A proposal in a business, or an argument in a classroom, teenager being told by a parent to do something will invariably be met be a response: "I don't see it: PROBLEM ONE is..." referring to the person's principal objection, which then may be followed by lesser objections (problems 2, 3 & 4).
Lo necesito.
So far this year we've had good watermelon, cantaloupe, blackberries, raspberries, apricots, and the Colorado peaches showed up this week and are perfect. It'll be over soon and back to apples and bananas. We do have chile season in a month and that's the only reason living here is tolerable, but I think they're more vegetable than fruit. VEGETABLELESS would probably be a Sunday theme idea.
I'm wondering what this "language of life" tennis speaks. I think of tennis as "try to hit the ball over the net," so I'm obviously not up on the complex vocabulary in tennis's language of life.
Learning the word GAMIN today. There seem to be a suspiciously large number of words for kids who live in the streets. Maybe get them homes?
Undertaker = GRAVER.
Exam tobacco users fail = TARTEST.
ICELAND and CROATIA have the same number of letters and I was told in Iceland by Icelanders they shot some GOT there. Wrecked the southwest corner of my puzzle today. Stupid Iceland.
People: 4
Places: 6
Products: 8
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 26 of 74 (35%)
Funny Factor: 3 😐
Tee-Hee: Half-ASSED.
Uniclues:
1 Hole in the head of a big wig.
2 Czech chai.
3 Skating arena hosting a "Don't Drink and Drive" event for students. Also, by dropping a D, every skating arena.
4 Doomsdayer RSVPed. (They're not coming.)
5 Nigerian brain freezer.
6 Showy shiny shin tin for fuzzy friend.
7 Most ascerbic drunken grandmother.
1 TOP EARNER'S PORE
2 PRAGUE LATTE
3 SADD-ASSED RINK
4 PREPARER MAILED
5 LAGOS ICEE
6 ALPACA LEG ARMOR
7 TARTEST LIT NAN
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: My reaction to a hat store offering knowing every single man I've ever seen in one seems like a tool. FEDORA? GOD NO.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Enjoyed the puzzle and the theme but needed to get the revealer to figure out the themers. All in all fun and enjoyable. Within normal limits for a Thursday. BUT ! SELF COMMAND. No! NYT have a little self control!
An apology to those who thought my panning of yesterday's cluing was unnecessarily harsh. Perhaps it was. But the quality of the clues is what often makes or breaks a puzzle for me. And the difference between the sparkle and imagination of today's clues and the stale predictability of yesterday's screams to be noticed. If you have the time and inclination, look back at yesterday's puzzle and see how many answers can be filled in on automatic pilot while your mind is on your grocery list. Many, if not most, I'd argue. Then try that today. There's just about nothing that gets filled in here without at least some brief amount of thought -- and many answers require a lot more than that.
Thinking is what eats up the time in crossword solving. If you're not a speed-solver and yet you finished a given puzzle in record time, chances are that you didn't have to do much, if any, thinking.
This was slow going for me -- couldn't get on the same wavelength as Ben Zimmer. DRegS before DROSS. I didn't know VLAD (a name you wouldn't ordinarily expect before Guerrero). Guessed tuniS before LAGOS. Like others, I found SELF-COMMAND and PROBLEM ONE (synonym of problem child, perhaps?) clunky. Hard-to-parse, nearly inscrutable cluing for BAT. And what could be more drearily dull than (tax) PREPARER?
I am no good at these directional things. Is it ESE or SSE? Heaven knows. I'm also typically caught out by these pronunciation misdirects (I was wondering what LONGI was the plural of, before going d'oh!)
Unlike Eli, I didn't think FRUITLESSLY quite nailed it as a revealer. All of the theme answers have fruits in them, thus they are not fruitless. I mean, I see what he's going for, but you have to indulge him with more words on top of the bare-bones adjective to get there.
Took me twice as long as an ordinary Thursday.
Posted hours ago. Second time this week I've been "censored."
Couldn't get "problem one" nor the mani/Pedi brand. Finally just put in every vowel until it gave me the "victory" melody, and then just kept staring wondering what IS that?
Went with "wire" for speeding check!
I'm totally in Nancy's corner today. Brilliant theme together with excellent cluing.
After having entered PEAR and PEACH, I was stuck on 49A, but I knew that the name of a fruit had to be in there. And I had GO from the crosses. Could it be MANGO? A theme that helped me solve! Another plus.
I don't recall seeing the AGASSI quote before. I suppose it's in his book, which I've read.
Out here the street signs call them "speed HUMPS."
Heh, just here in my home town they're labeled Speed Humps, Speed Bumps, Speed Ridges, Speed Tables, and Raised Structures. They're also called Speed Ramps, Raised Ridges, and there must be others that I can't remember now.
Because Rex is on vacation, perhaps?
I’m not sure I understand PUERTO. Is it that P.R. Represents Puerto Rico?
Never watched GOT, but just got back from Croatia and most guides mentioned the series brought much needed revenue to their country. Diocletian's Palace was used as one of the locations. Truly impressive.
I think somewhere (Bermuda?) they're called "sleeping policemen".
I agree; seeing names that had gone out of fashion come back makes me happy.
A little sparkle, but not a lot. Take, for instance, 4D tax PREPARER. Combine it with 16A LOAN default and 27A risk AVERSE and you’ve got another NYT puzzle prepared by an accountant.
Speaking of dull, LEGARMOR at38D. And what on earth is 20D SELFCOMMAND? Do you mean SELFCOntrol? Thank goodness for 66A half ASSED, a term I use often but didn’t expect to see in the NYTXW. That’s sparkly.
Toughest part of the grid for me was probably 1A X 1D because I couldn’t think of BUMP. I couldn’t let go of the idea that a “speeding check” was something you would have to write because you’d been clocked in a radar trap and “be up” for BAT, as simple as it seems in retrospect, just eluded me.
I struggled with the themers, too, until I hit the revealer. Thank you, Mr. Zimmer, for placing it in the middle so I could use it to solve the last two and check those up top.
I had ODEon at 7D for too long but I was pretty sure Havel was born in Prague. Changed it to ODEUM and got the congrats. Seems ODEUM is ODEon latinized.
And for those of you professed non-car people who might have been confused by the clue for 63A TESLA, Rivian is a producer of EV light trucks and RVs. I thought about buying one about 5 or 6 years ago but I had worries about the range of the batteries. I like to occasionally pack up my fly rods and, accompanied by one or more of my sons, head out to some quite remote streams in the Canadian Rockies. As much as I love those places, I don’t relish the idea of being stranded out there. So I ended up buying the most eco-conscious gas powered small truck I could find instead. The thing is that with my Ford Ranger with its 4-cylinder Eco-boost turbo-charged engine I can throw a few jerry cans of fuel in the back and get out of trouble. Try packing in an extra battery. Or waiting for the auto club to come and rescue you - if you can find cell reception to reach them. I know, TMI.
Well, my McCoy Tyler playlist has just run out and my cigar is just about all smoked so it’s off to bed for me. I’ll try to post this first thing in the morning, Pacific time, which will be mid-morning for most of you.
I think the last thing I filled in was the first letter in that BUMPS/hUMPS kealoa. The thing I would never call them just BUMPS; it would either be 'speed bumps' or 'humps'.
@Conrad. Thanks for reminding me about 14A. I also had east and when I fixed it I thought, "That;s pretty clever."
So did I.
I did not like this one. Sometimes, with themes such as this one, I just can't be bothered. Didn't catch my interest; I just wanted to finish as quickly as possible and there were plenty of clues which felt a bit tortured. Rex, you pointed them out. British 'grammy' was particularly nasty. I had —AN and just stared at the Natick for a while. I didn't care and I didn't see the mango in ROMAN GODS, for example, which might have helped. Just wasn't dialed in.
Leg armor and greaves are in the same Venn diagram, but greaves only protect the shins (and calves) and were never used in jousting which required far more coverage.
I was thankful for a lack of circles too.
Fascinating. Just goes to show you we all think and experience language differently. I’m a psychologist/therapist so I think about this often (e.g. my experience of the sensation and feeling of sad may or may not be your experience of sad, we’ll never know). Yet it never ceases to amaze me. I liked yesterday’s puzzle quite a bit, while I found this one dull. That doesn’t speak to level of difficulty, just enjoyment of language usage. Ah well. To each her own!
Tough for me too. It turns out I really needed to figure out the theme to solve this one and that took a while.
Costly erasures - ePI before OPI, ets before UFO, ODEon before ODEUM, SELF COntrol before COMMAND, GRAyER before GRAVER, and DRegs before DROSS…tough one.
WOEs - CROATIA and TESLA (as clued), and VLAD.
Clever and tricky, liked it.
Not for me. And that I have now have to go back & search for my typo in a puzzle I really didn't like AT ALL is very annoying :(
I loved it too Nancy, for the reasons you said, but I guess we are in the minority today!
Congrats on Clara! Haha on “the ‘it’ girl”
If I'd only remembered that Madeline Albright was Czech, I'd have put in PRAGUE and thereby ruled out the thing that really held me up, ODEon for ODEUM. Presumably the Greek term is older, but I guess they're both classical, so OK. AFAR was kind of tough, too, since I was looking for a place or a direction -- went with east for awhile. But eventually it all fel into place. But a couple theme answers felt a bit off--SELF COMMAND instead of self-control, LEG ARMOR??? Come on, that's a greave, no one calls it anything else. And PROBLEM ONE? hardly a phrase at all. 'Pupils, please had in PROBLEM ONE of your math quiz.' Yeah.
However, the puzzle did bring the good news that some EELS are being protected in Europe; if only they'd do the same for the glass eels of Maine.
My step-grandson goes to PENN. If you're going to add that U, you really need to make its rival be YALEU to match.
Doh! )Or is it D'oh!) I'd completely overlooked Havel in that clue, or I'd have got it much sooner.
Haha Bob…I feel quite sure you’ve never said anything that’s not censored. I have had times too when I THOUGHT I’d successfully transmitted my comment and it didnt show. Of course I’m the kind of person who can come up with some screwy ideas like…hmmm….maybe I hit the button to publish at the exact time the “moderator” was “releasing” the cued up comments, which caused mine to fall into the morass of “nothingness.” 🤣
The theme did help with the solve, though; both for LEMON and MANGO I got the first few letters of the fruit, guessed the rest, tried it out in my mind, and found that it worked.
I thought of color printers, too. Mine has 4 toner cartridges. But I still say "I have to order some new toner," even though what I'm ordering is a 4-pack, one for each color.
It seems straightforward to me -- the letters in the grid are PROBLEM ONE but if you read them FRUITLESSLY you get PROBE.
Here in Boston we started getting "Speed Humps" signs 3 or 4 years ago. I figured they were taking lunch dates to the next level. But eventually I came across an article explining the whole thing -- a speed hump is wider that a speed bump; if you make it even wider it turns into raised pavement (or if it functions as a walkway, a raised walkway.)
In the UK they call those last "zebra humps," because of the stripes. A fellow American who was walking with me thought the signs must be the work of surrealists. I had to disappoint him.
A winner for me: a theme I couldn't figure out until I had the reveal - which I then was able to use to unmask the PEAR, PEACH, and MANGO, plus a SOOTHSAYER and a GAMIN, the TIGRIS in the East, and DROSS on the bottom. I liked the array of entries ending in non-e vowels: ALPACA, PLASMA, TESLA, ASTI, AGASSI, OPI, LONG I, GOD NO, UFO, O ROMEO, PUERTO. Small moment of triumph: not getting tricked by LONG I, for once in my life.
My favorite I NEED IT: My two-year-old granddaughter Rose tearfully pleading for just one more last bedtime story - "I neeeeeeeed it!" What book lover doesn't know the feeling?
Fruit pickin! [Watch out for an ICE bust!]
Cool puztheme. M&A had trouble initially, figurin out the 17-A themer, so quickly resorted to checkin in with the revealer, which soon cleared everything up, puztheme-wise.
No big objection to PROBLEMONE, which could certainly be clued up as: {Current POTUS?}.
staff weeject pick: SSE. APPLESSE, without the fruit.
Primo weeject stacks, NW & SE, btw.
some faves: PREPARER/PEAR. IMPEACHED [but better to keep the fruit here, and lose Problem One]. PUERTO clue.
Thanx, Mr. Zimmer dude. Will be sure to invite the Roman gods along on our next fishin trip. Thanx for the tip.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
... and now, for pure poetry in xwords ...
"A Rose Is a Nose Is a Hose" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Wow. One thing we can all agree on is that this puzzle seemed to generate some opinions that hinge on one’s “taste” in crossword solving! I can only say I was in the “thought it fun and had crunch” camp, and was delighted when I early on spotted the “peach” sitting there amongst what just HAD to be Immediate, then immediately filled in FRUITLESSLY. Yay! I know this sounds like or IS bragging, but keep in mind I’ve had this happen so rarely working a puz that for me, it was a very “feel good” experience.
Also, I guess to see how PROBLEMONE was PROBLEMONE with the theme. C’mon Eli…365 (or other random high number?) When people discuss a topic or project the list is relatively short and PROBLEMONE is the BIGGEST problem. The defense rests.
As usual, done in by brand names/proper nouns. No idea who or what "Rivian" is, never heard of OPI, no idea what Sr. Guerrero's nickname is/was . . .
This was the pits, except for PROBLEM ONE, which was just seedy.
Take out the name of a fruit, ha! I liked this. Got the word FRUITLESSLY easily, but didn't understand what to do until I hit PROBLEM ONE and saw the LEMON. My only other real hangup was that it took me forever to remember PRAGUE—I just couldn't think of the "P" place—but once I did, I changed NO WAY to GOD NO, got the top middle, and was finished. A peach of a puzzle!
This is a very normal Thursday gimmick. Thursday is gimmick day. This is a peaceful gimmick protest in the established marching route, not a riot.
The "more words" are in the revealer's clue. It tells you "how to read the answers" to get versions that match their clues, ie by omitting the fruits.
Did not lik
It is bizarre to me when people complain about things like SELF COMMAND. Self-control is more common. But you're playing a word game! Words have more than one meaning and meanings have more than one word! That's kind of the whole point!
I see your point. There was one clue, though, that I think shouldn't have been dumbed down the way it was, and that was "Kind of "fever" that's not actually a fever, and is typically caused by pollen" (HAY). Everything after "fever" should have been editd out, and then it would have been a Thursday-level clue instead of a Tuesday-level clue.
Would you share the recipe for the cocktail? I'm thinking I could modify it somehow to make it relevant for Trump. Maybe just garnish with an orange peel. Depends on what's in it, I guess!
I like having words like GAMiN, DROSS, and ODEUM in the puzzle. They're good words and I prefer not to lose them!
I enjoyed the theme today and thought the revealer was very clever though, unlike @Nancy, I always find the mid-grid revealer unfortunate for giving it all away.
I had all of Eli's problems. I was pleased to use the theme to get 49A when MAN filled in, but PROBLEM ONE was a problem for me as it was for many others.
The top central was almost as hard as the NW - with LONG I and ODEUM (yes, I started with ODEon). But once PRAGUE was uncovered, it came together.
Ben Zimmer, thanks for a nice Thursday puzzle.
Also considered ETs at 2D, but that shouldn't work because the clue would then say "What arrive" not "What arrives". Also ironic that Eli finished the paragraph asking whether PROBLEMONE is a thing by literally demonstrating the colloquial expression that it is.
That's no excuse!
I came to check if there was a typo in the clue for 14a. Did nobody notice the double ‘the’ there? I’m surprised not to see a mention of it here, although to be honest I didn’t spot it either, it was pointed out to me by a friend.
great puzzle it should be celebrated as such the word they should banish in puzzles is Nitpick if you get me thanks Ben!
Teedmn…I don’t mean this to sound “flip” and, in fact, I’m kind of dumb when it comes to crossword mechanics, but I thought a “revealer” is intended to help you solve the themers…especially if the answer “as clued” is not the answer as it “appears.” But, I guess to your point…if it’s at the end, then you can go back to the themers so it prolongs the enjoyment…?
I agree! Anyway, DROSS still has an application in heavy industry like in integrated steel mills and foundries. Although, these days they keep finding ways to make industry DROSS useful.
A bit surprised at how Glowing Nancy's comments were today.
I did enjoy the theme once the realer clued me in. but I'm with those who disbelieve "problem one" is a thing, so that made the theme a lot weaker.
I get ya. I think the first RIVIAN I saw was six months ago. I was at at stoplight and scrawled the name on an envelope I’d pulled out of my mailbox. Haha. I Googled it a few days later. I tend to leave the junk mail in my front seat for a bit…
@Gary, I PLAY tennis and don’t know what it means! How about “you win some, you lose some”? Well. That was MY tennis language of life…
I noticed it, and at first assumed it would be part of the Thursday wackiness today. Realizing it was a legitimate typo was disappointing.
It’s not PROBLEM ONE, but rather the word LEMON that separates the word PROBE, with the E at the end. It tiook me awhile to see it.
Jacke -- you're right. I should have checked back to see how the actual clue was worded, instead of remembering only the answer.
I was hoping for a bit more zip and sizzle for my Thursday, but it was okay. The revealer was the best part. Not too many names, and I think Rivian was the only Unknown.
Of course, hands up for ODEON before ODEUM. SELF COMMAND and PROBLEM ONE were a bit clunky.
Major disappointment for me yesterday, as the Snowbirds aerobatic performance was scheduled to begin at the exact moment a huge thunderstorm hit, with torrential rain. They eventually did their show an hour later, but with no notice I couldn't get to a good viewing spot in time.
I’m another in the minority today despite turning up my nose a tad on PROBLEM ONE. However, I had a wonderful geometry teacher who always started reviewing our homework by saying, “Who’s up for PROBLEM ONE?” That was the cue to hopefully become invisible lest you end up at the blackboard revealing your mess of a proof for all to see. I’m a Ben Zimmer fan.
Good eyes! Mine passed right over it.
Love your observation about the number of words to describe “street kids.” It will only get worse as we lose more critical financial support from Congress. Kids are the nation’s most unique and valuable resource we have. Alas.
I was late to the party as usual yesterday, but never take offense at anyone’s honest opinion. Experiencing everyone’s varying opinions is for me the highlight of the blog. Allows me to try on different points of view. It’s often downright enlightening. Thanks for daily sharing yours, @Nancy.
If you never heard of Vladimir how did you know he was/is Senior ?
Great choice of illustration for leg armor, I got a laugh, thanks
I knew that Havel was president of the former Czechoslovakia, and that Albright was born somewhere in Central Europe, so it had to be PRAGUE (Bratislava and Brno didn't fit, and where else is there in Czechoslovakia notable enough to be crossword-worthy?). I still remained stumped for a long time by ODEon not working. ODEon at least is also a 20th century English word but I was unfamiliar with ODEUM.
I refer to the universities as YALE and UPENN respectively, so I found that to be OK. PENN alone is insufficiently specific. It could the the state as a whole.
mADD instead of SADD held me up for a long time.
ghana before LAGOS also didn't help.
And long before I got the theme, I filled in the end of 49A as rODS, which then mucked up 28D.
And by the way, the editors really ought to be aware that ALPACA wool is quite itchy and not a good substitute for good old sheep wool. Yes, it's a good word to have in one's crossword arsenal, but it really ought not to be clued for its wool.
Villager
Usually, Mr. Zimmer’s creativity puts me through several of the circles of hell - and occasionally all seven - before I’m allowed a seat on his train of thought. Today though, this was a breeze. The solve felt absolutely weird. Yet, I enjoyed the unusual Thursday whoosh. Like yesterday’s puzzle, we had a true reveal and very cohesive theme answers. Yes, PROBLEM ONE lacked sparkle, but it was only standing in for PROBE, so ok. But on the meh side.
Since I have been binging baseball as I recover from moving, seeing BAT immediately at1D kept me from entering trap at 1A. Had I not checked the down before filling any squares, I would have had a tougher time getting started.
As for the theme, I just replaced the TONER in my printer about a week ago. Knowing that had to be the answer at 17A was my next cue to check the downs before letting my “certainty” trip me up. Being a fan of Mr. Zimmer’s puzzles also had me on the lookout for some trickery. All of the downs fell fairly easily except for puzzling a bit before choosing ODEUM rather than ODion, and doing a short head scratch before LONG I in “nighttime.”
My brain “saw” PEAR despite parsing TOP EARNERS which made me think perhaps the PEAR was gratuitous or . . . the theme? By the time I “IMED” someone through IMPEACHED, I knew I was right. The reveal did its job beautifully. Just like yesterday.
Today, though, we had we had theme answers clearly related to one another through the fruits of our solving labors, only to find that we should ignore said fruits to see the intended answer. Yesterday, we had seemingly unrelated answers pulled together by the reveal. Two exceptional themed puzzles.
I do wish it had given me more of the tussle I expect from Mr. Zimmer, but I enjoyed this easy but “legit” Thursday apparently lots more than most.
Agree with Nancy - the theme helped my solve. Very compelling.
Havel and Albright were Czech, not Polish, so no way Krakow. I admittedly had _RA___ in place (usually do downs first), but of course had ODEON instead of ODEUM for the penultimate cross from 7D (Roman vs. Greek classics), but once arriving at 20A I had to think a bit about Havel (Brno is possibly the more active theater city than Prague, so a a little hesitation,, but then I recalled Havel's father was an architect responsible for many buildings in the Czech capitol and lived and raised his family there).
I suppose the whole puzzle took me longer than average because if I spend so much time thinking through the answers I know, imagine how long I need for the answers I don't know! (Never heard of Rivian, blithely unaware of UPENN/YALE rivalry, made the usual initial errors with 1A and 14A, etc.)
@anonymous, I think he meant Señor…
Thank you. Eli, for calling out the Nazi friend of our esteemed despot of a president.
I'm in the "put the revealer last" camp. That way, you get to see all the themers and have more information to try to come up with the revealer, which I can sometimes do, but more often say aha! That's what the connection is!
My PROBLEM ONE is with the first themer. Neither TOP EARNER nor its FRUITLESS TONER match the letter count of its symmetrically placed themer PROBLEM ONE.
I kept trying to squeeze in AFARAFAR.
I do the puzzle later in the day. I liked this one but more so just wondering if anyone actually reads the comments all the way to the end? Which is a loooog way today. So…anyone?
Yikes! Don't know how I did it but I meant to hit the space bar but somehow clicked on "Publish" instead.
To continue: Coming up with consistent themers that are both stand alone worthy words or phrases and have matching letter counts is the biggest challenge for constructing themed puzzles. Being able to bypass part of this challenge by simply tacking on a gratuitous S to one of the themers greatly reduces the level of difficulty. And I think that lowering the degree of difficulty by taking that POC (plural of convenience) short cut significantly lowers the over quality of the puzzle.
Okay, now I'll see if I can correctly click "Publish".
@jberg and others. If your printer is like mine, and most other home office types, it is an ink jet printer and does not use toner. Toner is a powder used in laser printers. Most home office printers use liquid ink.
Andy Freude
I have heard the expression such and such is problem one. The biggest problem. I don’t understand the criticism of the themer It might be business speak but it is a thing.
63A Put Lucid in there and left it as long as I could. Why shouldn't the American Library Association have a read-a-thon?
Yes, all the way to the end, almost every day.
Played tough for me but I had fun. Thought her name was UNA so despite having a good bit of the letters for the revealer, that N just would not let FRUITLESSLY fall. That error slowed things up quite a bit until I got the F from SELFCOMMAND - not one of my favorite answers...
Like others, had Dregs instead of the correct DROSS. That, along with never saying and rarely hearing PROBLEMONE, caused a problem for me.
Other than that smooth sailing with enough bite to keep it interesting.
Good stuff Ben!
Connections Puzzle Nyt Crossword Clue please, thanks
I stil don't get it: what's LONGI?
Even more surprised that the NYTimes has not corrected the error, even as I write this at 8:30 pm EDT, and especially wityh a NYTimes Games editorial staff that has grown by leaps and bounds over the past decade from when it was just an editor and an assistant or two. But that's what happens when the NYTimes eliminates all the proof readers, I guess.
@Gary re Iceland, I sympathize. England, Ireland and Denmark also fit and are plausible. But 39A had to be FCC. Took a while for me to see CROATIA.
No, I just skip to the end, to see how late people keep commenting
For me a reveal answer is more of an explanation of the theme than a help to solving though they can do that and did for me today. It's just surprising how many times I fill in the grid AND get the revealer and still don’t get it. :-)
Lynnatny
Nighttime has two “long” letter i’s.
Same!
Was the clue on 14 a type-o? If yes, when was the last time that any NYT had a type-o in it?
Yes!
Me too to the end. Course I’m on PST so it’s earlier here. Just now 8:51pm.
@Anonymous 5:56 PM
Every day.
@Lynnatny 8:24 PM
Long "i" sound.
In the NYT crossword, the generally-accepted standard for any multi-word phrase like this is that it should be an actual thing people say or write or use, ever. SELF COMMAND is not that.
Thank you for explaining it to e.......Finished with a wha????
computers, actions, fictional beings, non-fictional beings
The Magi traveled from afar.
I grew up in New York in the 70s and 80s and heard "problem one" all the time. Not in the sense that most people have suggested, but as a near synonym of "problem child." I'm surprised to discover that it isn't more common.
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