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Hero's partner in myth / SUN 8-31-25 / Williamson who played Merlin in "Excalibur" / New Zealand parrot that can solve logic puzzles / Nipsey Russell's role in 1978's "The Wiz" / Device for cutting bangs? / Greaves and cuisses, but not gauntlets and helmets / Part of a personal air filtration system / Maximum extent, in an idiom / Greatest potential accomplishment, metaphorically / Win for an away team
Sunday, August 31, 2025
Constructor: Danny J. Rooney
Relative difficulty: Easy (yet again)
Theme anshers:
Is that how he talks? I guess sho. Anyway, the sound switch yields some mildly funny wacky phrases, with the central answer being suitably flashy (double sound change!), so I liked that aspect of the theme fine. The double-"O" thing is less successful. It's harmless ... but actually, no, I'm not sure it is. I see now that early on, when I recoiled at the subpar fill (namely my OMOO / TO ERR opening), I was recoiling at subpar fill that wouldn't have been there at all if it weren't for this whole "OO" angle. No big fan of PATOOT or OOHS, either. But you gotta do what you gotta do to make your little picture come off. Seems super-awkward to have DOUBLE O as an answer all by its lonesome. I know the giant picture of a "7" is supposed to provide the "7" in JAMES BOND's code number, but the picture actually contains the whole code number within it, making DOUBLE O entirely unnecessary *except* as a means for telling people to connect those DOUBLE "O"s. Awkward to draw a diagonal line through "OO"s that are not oriented on a diagonal, but since the computer did it for me, I can't really complain. Is the "7" really a "single line"? I would've described it as two lines—a horizontal line and a diagonal line (when I write a "7", I add a little bar across the downstroke, but that's neither here nor there). Both JAMES BOND and SEAN CONNERY came as anticlimaxes—well, JAMES BOND did, for sure. I could tell by then (from MARTINI, actually) where the puzzle was going, though I didn't take the time to think about the pictorial element, so that was something of a surprise. Not particularly thrilling overall, but better than most Sundays I've done of late. Lots and lots of theme material, all of it reasonably well executed, and no real cringe in the grid. A fine NYTXW debut for this constructor.
- MOVE YOUR ASH (22A: "Don't flick that cigarette over here!")
- WHAT A MESH (24A: "Incredible! This mosquito net didn't let in even one bug!")
- GOD SHAVE THE KING (52A: "Dear Lord! His Majesty's beard is out of control!")
- SHINED SHIELD DELIVERED (63A: "Just dropped off some of your newly buffed knight's protection!")
- "COULD I HAVE A SHIP?" (74A: "Can you offer me anything bigger than skiffs, dinghies and pontoons?")
Hero and Leander (/ˈhiːroʊ/, /liːˈændər/) is the Greek myth relating the story of Hero (Ancient Greek: Ἡρώ, Hērṓ; [hɛː.rɔ̌ː]), a priestess of Aphrodite (Venus in Roman mythology) who dwelt in a tower in Sestos on the European side of the Hellespont, and Leander (Ancient Greek: Λέανδρος, Léandros; [lé.an.dros] or Λείανδρος), a young man from Abydos on the opposite side of the strait. // Leander falls in love with Hero and swims every night across the Hellespont to spend time with her. Hero lights a lamp at the top of her tower to guide his way. Leander's soft words and charms—and his argument that Aphrodite, as the goddess of love and sex, would scorn the worship of a virgin—convince Hero, and they make love. Their secret love affair lasts through a warm summer, but when winter and its rougher weather looms, they agree to part for the season and resume in the spring. One stormy winter night, however, Leander sees the torch at the top of Hero's tower. He attempts to go to her, but halfway through his swim, a strong winter wind blows out Hero's light, and Leander loses his way and drowns. When Hero sees his dead body, she throws herself off the tower to join him in death. Their bodies wash up on shore together, locked in embrace, and are then subsequently buried in a lovers’ tomb.
• • •
One other nice touch: no stray (uncircled) "OO"s. In a Sunday-sized puzzle, a certain number of "OO"s are going to be naturally occurring (I have no stats on this, I'm just guessing), but not today, because it would interfere with the theme. Actually, it wouldn't interfere that much with the theme, since the relevant "OO"s are circled, but there's a certain elegance to having the only "OO"s in this puzzle be thematic. There's also a decent amount of longer non-theme fill to give the grid added color. Banks of 8s in the corners, all of them solid, and then IDEAL MATE (nice) right down the middle. "THAT'S ME!" and "SADLY, YES" and "I'M OVER IT" and "IT'LL DO" and "YOU SURE?" give the grid a chatty, colloquial tone. As for trouble spots, I don't see many. I forgot NICOL Williamson's name (despite knowing very well who he is) and tried ... maybe NILES? And NIGEL? ... before crosses led me to NICOL (Williamson who played Merlin in "Excalibur"). NICOL next to EDOM (which I initially spelled like the wax-covered cheese) was a little bit of a choke point. LEANDER is another proper noun that might've been unknown to people—I had to read Marlowe's "Hero and LEANDER" in college, in my British Literature I course, and then I went on to study medieval and early modern literature in grad school, so Hero and LEANDER are old pals of mine. Really liked the clues on both SILENCER (42A: Device for cutting bangs?) and NOSE HAIR (16D: Part of a personal air filtration system). I mean, it's a little gross to find a NOSE HAIR in your puzzle, but I thought the puzzle handled it with APLOMB, giving it a whimsical little "?" clue as a way of slightly mitigating the potential yuck factor. (In case the wordplay on the SILENCER clue wasn't clear, "bangs" are "cut" because a SILENCER muffles (or "cuts") the sound of the report (the "bang") when a gun is fired)
What else?:
- 1D: Win for an away team (HOME LOSS) — did not like. "For an away team," a win is a win is a win. It's never a loss. The clue tells us to see the clue from the away team's perspective, and then gives us HOME LOSS, which is something that happens to the home team. A win for an away team is a HOME LOSS for the other team. That clue isn't tricky, it's just busted.
- 1A: Maximum extent, in an idiom (HILT) — I like how the puzzle went for the idiom here, and then stayed idiomatic for the other (nearby) "maximum" answer: EVEREST (26A: Greatest potential accomplishment, metaphorically). Imagining these familiar terms as idioms, and then practically juxtaposing them, made them more interesting than they would likely have been otherwise.
- 37A: Nipsey Russell's role in 1978's "The Wiz" (TIN MAN) — ah, I forgot that was Nipsey Russell. All I remember is Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow. Ted Ross played the Cowardly Lion. He's the least famous name of the bunch, but he was a really accomplished actor who won a Tony (!) for playing the Lion in the original 1975 Broadway production. He was also a mainstay of '70s/'80s TV, and played Bitterman (Arthur's chauffeur) in Arthur (1981) (which is probably how I know him best). As for Nipsey Russell, I know him from Match Game and I don't know what else. He was just ... in the air in the '70s. Ambient celebrity. Seems like he was mostly famous for being a game show panelist, and reciting short funny poems, which (I'm told) earned him his nickname, the "poet laureate of television."
- 71A: Green gemstone (PERIDOT) — don't think I ever even heard of this "gemstone" until I was well into adulthood. It's the August birthstone, so nice job getting it into the puzzle just under the wire.
- 61A: New Zealand parrot that can solve logic puzzles (KEA) — always thrilled to see the NZ parrot, mainly because I have literally seen the New Zealand parrot (they're pretty common in parts of the South Island) and kinda love what mischievous assholes they can be. Imagine pigeons if they were very smart and prone to stealing your food, your camera, whatever.
- 92D: Grounder to second, often (EASY OUT) — true enough, though I semi-mindlessly typed in EASY ONE.
- 84D: Greaves and cuisses, but not gauntlets and helmets (LEG ARMOR) — another clue where having some background in early English literature (as well as childhood experience playing D&D) came in handy. I thought this answer might be a debut, but it's actually the fourth appearance, all of them fairly recent (Kameron Austin Collins debuted the term back in 2017)
That's all. See you next time.
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35 comments:
Easy. Liked it less than OFL did. Like @Rex, I got the theme with MARTINI at 33D because not many characters have signature drinks that start with M.
Overwrites:
8D: I LOllED before I LOAFED
35A: When I went from 0 to 60 I spED before I AGED
75D: My non-bright was Dull before it was DRAB
77D: Obergefell v. lOving before HODGES (wrong civil rights case)
109A: My unruly beard was SCRAwnY before it was SCRAGGY (shouldn't that be scraggly?)
One WOE, the HASS avocado at 79D. Come to think of it, I have seen them in supermarkets but it didn't stick to the synapses.
Another small theme related item is the clue Aston Martin, as that is the make of car Bond drove in several of the films, most notably Goldfinger
The puzzle did nothing to stir me. Indeed, upon finishing, I just felt shaken.
Not much to add - the big guy summarizes this somewhat goofy-themed large grid pretty well. MOVE YOUR ASH is cute - they’re all just funny enough to keep it interesting.
Waylon
PERMEATE, LEG ARMOR, FORAGERS, EVIL GRIN etc. - most of the long fill here hits. Not a lot of pushback - most of the holdup for me was the short stuff that straddled the line between glue and useless trivia.
PEDRO the Lion
Pleasant enough Sunday morning solve. Wake up to 51 today - a little chilly as I go to surf the last remnants of Erin.
The Fall - PEEL Session 1987
It’s a little-known fact, but James Bond prefers playing badminton to tennis; it has something to do with the feel of thwacking the object in the game. It may only be a shuttle difference, but to James, it’s everything.
For all the money NYTimes has spent on technology and staff to include clever animation, did no one think that the color of the animated "7" ought to be something other than the same light blue that highlights the most recent down or across that you worked on and where your cursor now sits? Upon completion, I wasted several minutes trying to suss out the meaning that extra line attached to the "7" before light dawned on Marblehead.
Anyone else have saVE YOUR ASH? Held me up in the NW for a while. Also had NOSE Hose. Never heard of such a thing, but thought it might be a nickname for those CPAP devices – I think it should be – and didn't expect NOSE HAIR somehow
Danny juggled three theme elements, and all three – the connect-the-dots seven, the s-to-sh sentences, and the four JAMES BOND factoids – nestled comfortably in the box. Impressive.
I love that the only double-O’s in the Sunday sized puzzle are the circled letters. Elegant. (Hi, @Rex!)
And SHINED SHIELD DELIVERED? Mwah!
Oh, all those many years ago, I couldn’t wait for the next Bond picture. I knew his quirks, loved his quick thinking and suaveness, relished the evil of his enemies, and clenched inside through all the hairy moments he faced.
My tastes have changed, but it was fun today to relive what it felt like to be me then.
A trio of pairs to note:
• Two debuts in a row, yesterday and today, by people who have been making puzzles for less than two years.
• The consecutive uber-memorable puzzles this week, one by a wife and the other by her husband.
• The gorgeous crossing answers today of APLOMB and PERMEATE.
Congratulations on your debut, Danny. Thank you for a very sweet outing!
Another James Bond puzzle with a connect-the-dots image – not of a seven, but of another object in today’s puzzle – was made by Elizabetth Gorski, Sunday, 5/25/2008. You can see the completed grid showing the image here: https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/25/2008 .
(Thanks to Jim Horne for mentioning this at XwordInfo today.)
I’m kind of torn. The puzzle was too easy for a Sunday , played more like a larger Tuesday / Wednesday , but there was enough clever cluing to make it kind of fun. If I was grading it , it would be a B-/B.
As one of the many folks here who lament the passing of sufficiently challenging late-week puzzles, I would like to speak up in favor of easy(ish) Sundays. The grid is so big, and the humor so Dadlike, that I’m perfectly content with a puzzle that offers just a tad of resistance and a theme that provokes a mild chuckle or two. Today’s puzzle did exactly that. The long central answer was a bit hard for me to see, and imagining the sound of the themers in Sean Connery’s voice was fun. Just what I hope to encounter on a Sunday. Thanks, Danny, and congratulations on acing what for me would be an EVEREST of imagination and execution!
I thought the puzzle was a bit over-busy, doing too many things at once, but it did have some nice elements.
Thanks for the Nipsey Russell compilation, Rex, that was terrific! I knew who he was but had forgotten how awful/wonderful his little poems were.
Best Sunday puzzle in months, I'd say. Loved the SH puns, even though I never knew Sean Connery spoke that way. SHINEDSHIELDDELIVERED is brilliant. The constructor shows a wonderful imagination. Come back again, please.
I agree with Rex that "7" isn't a straight line, at least not geometrically.
Hey All !
Congrats on a SunPuz debut, Danny. Good for you.
Finally, an OMOO sighting! It used to be more common, but has fallen off the radar for a bit. I once made a puz using O's as the only vowel in the puz (pre-internet construction software days, I took a dictionary, and went through most of it looking for words that only had O's in them. Time consuming, but eventually found OMOO somehow [through a search engine of some sort, I'm sure {early computer days}] and just thought it was a neat title.) That puz wasn't that good, with compromising fill to make it work, but still a neat thing. I've never submitted in anywhere, it's not really publishable. All that to explain that I like seeing OMOO!
Was wondering why the second row had almost all the OO's. Then got to Revealer clue, and saw you'd need to draw a big 7 to connect them, and let out an Aha.
Good fill, started on the difficult side, but steady flow happened, ended up relatively easy-medium. I'm betting the 21 letter center Themer was the catalyst for this Theme. It is the best one.
@pablo, a PEDRO sighting, does that count?
SRAGGY seems to be missing an L, no? SCRAGGLY. Plus, that made two beard clues. Had APLUMB first, but had to give up the U for APLOMB. Sorry @M&A. 😁
I AM, I TOO, OMOO, OOHS. Neat little words.
Anyway, have a great Sunday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
There are seven circled pairs in all, so Double O Seven is not only a visual thing. Another nice touch.
A fun puzzle blending digital tech with a humorous homage to SEANCONNERY. I completely missed the play on his pronunciation, so until I came to Rex’s blog was puzzled(!) by the connection of the punny themers to the 007 theme. Anyway, I remain a 007 fan even tho the sardonic humor has been greatly downplayed in more recent films. My only instinctive frustration was the absence of “and” in SHINEDSHIELDDELIVERED, but that’s just a mental nit.
Hubby looked at me in horror as I guffawed at the JC puns! I needed a laugh this morning and the puzzle delivered!
As I was solving, I was already anticipating the howls of discontent regarding yet another “too easy” puzzle - fortunately, I had fun with it. The theme answers were reasonably straightforward and the SEAN CONNERY reveal was a gem.
One area where I wholeheartedly agree with Rex is regarding the double “zeros” strewn throughout the grid to give us a totally unnecessary giant 7 post solve. The puzzle would have been superior without the gimmick and the associated substandard fill (like OMOO) that it necessitated. It’s a shame that WS continues to embrace style over substance, but complaining about it is not going to prove fruitful - I’ve been whining about PPP for close to a decade now and day in and day out it’s going to be one out of three answers until the day I die. I also suspect that these kind of needless stunts are not going away anytime soon - and the NYT puzzles will be worse off for it.
I actually laughed out loud at GOD SHAVE THE KING. Fun puzzle!
Very easy Sunday. Knowing quickly all the circles would have Os certainly helped, but also the cluing was pretty straightforward.
Lots of bonus material not clued with any specific reference to the theme: SILENCER, APLOMB, EVIL GRIN, CASANOVA, and DOVER.
Liked: CLEO and the ASP.
Disliked: JAMES crossing JIM. They could at least use a JIM that is not specifically a shortening of James, like Slim Jim.
Between playing Kingdom of Loathing (where there's a Peridot of Peril) and having a daughter who watched Steven Universe (where there's a character named Peridot), PERIDOT was a pretty quick get, and definitely one I seem to keep running into.
Overall, definitely easy (I set my Sunday record, noting I'm nowhere in Rex's league), but a fun puzzle.
Great catch
waryoptimist
Good one Lewis!
Great Sunday puzzle, thanks Rooney! Sure, pretty easy, but I think you should either make Sunday with a great theme or more challenge, so I'll take the well done theme(s) here.
My weekend brain was slow enough that I didn't get the "7" and double 0 connection until I saw it at the end, but that cinched it for me.
If you win a bet on when a star is going to explode, do you then CASHANOVA?!
Another "oh oh" start in the NW, no instant fill, but after a slight delay things went fast enough, with allowance made for reading tiny numbers again (still faster than on line, for me). I was happy enough not to have to squint any more that I didn't bother to go back and connect the O's to make the 7, which is a nice touch and an impressive feat of construction, but I don't feel like I missed too much.
Last to fall was the SHINEDSHIELDDELIVERED, obviously the best one, but my bank security feature was a LEVER for too long--maybe something you'd need to open a safe? Anyway, fixing that led to an even better aha!
I'm with @Roo on celebrating the return of OMOO. I've also missed KEA and ERN. Welcome back everybody. No points for PEDRO, I'm afraid, as he is my brother, and no, there's no Maria.
Most enjoyable Sunday in a while, DJR. Congrats on the debut, and Don't Just Run off and not do any more. Do lots more, please, and thanks for all the fun.
Overwrought
Does anyone else think it’s weird to base a whole theme on someone’s speech impediment? I guess I’m the only wacko here.
Easy, but fun, cause I like Sean and I liked the theme. It did feel as though there was an awful lot of short vertical fill. But what a nice first puzzle, so congrats to Danny Rooney!
Solid Sunday and the fact it’s a debut makes it even better. Bravo, Danny Rooney! Looking forward to your next one.
Good one! :-D
I agree! This one was easy but had so many clever parts to it, and nothing felt strained. Just smiles all around. Perfect way to start Sunday morning.
Maybe I'm easy to please ... but this deserves 2 awards - one for Best Sunday of the Year & one for Best Debut by a Constructor (on a Sunday) of the Year. Loved it.
Have I gushed enough?
Great Sunday, Danny & congrats!
Let's see more of you!! :)
Please shay it isn't sho.....He most certainly does NOT speak like that. If he did, he would order a martini shaken not shirred
I agree too! Some, if not most, will complain (as usual) that it was too easy. I thought it was a delight - creative, fun & a terrific debut by the constructor.
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