.png)
Online publication of Vox Media / TUE 8-12-25 / Lorde who wrote "Sister Outsider" / 1990s-'00s sitcom starring Brandy / Tres o cuatro / What the Beyoncé title "6 Inch" refers to / Edible Christmas ornament / People living abroad for tax reasons / Like this: ESMCLDRBA
Tuesday, August 12, 2025
Constructor: Erik Agard
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
This is just a beautifully crafted puzzle. A beautifully crafted easy puzzle. I love it because it shows that easy puzzles don't have to be boring. The theme is simple but cute, and kinda funny. Just three themers! (plus a short revealer). Back in the day, three themers was pretty normal, but some time in this century, a theme-answers arms race seemed to start where the standard went to four and often well north of that. This was enabled by the rise of constructing software, which allowed puzzle makers to more easily fill grids with a dense set of fixed answers (themers are always fixed in place first when you're building a theme puzzle). But more is not necessarily better (as you may be aware), and there's something to be said for a theme that leaves a little air, a little breathing room so that the rest of the grid can shine a bit. And today's grid does just that. First, it's clean as hell. Polished, vibrant, lovely. Plus it opts for mirror symmetry over the more customary rotational symmetry (a feature occasioned by the theme—how else to arrange this set of answers symmetrically?), and this gives us a grid with very deep corners in the SW and SE. Deep pockets! And it's here where the grid really goes to the next level—two banks of 9-letter answers, each of them 3 wide—so (if I may show off my math skills...) that's six 9-letters answers, all of them good to great, giving this puzzle a level of non-thematic pizzazz rarely seen in themed puzzles. Six 9s?! That don't compromise grid quality at all? In addition to a full theme!? Nuts. Bonkers. It won't feel bonkers, because it just plays like an easy early-week puzzle. The craftsmanship on this one isn't showy. But if you make puzzles yourself, you know how impressive the work is here.
- CAN'T HOLD A CANDLE (17A: Pales in comparison)
- CANDY CANE (27A: Edible Christmas ornament)
- MEXICAN-AMERICAN (51A: Chicana, for example)
The Cut is an online publication that, as part of New York magazine, covers a wide range of topics, such as work, money, sex and relationships, fashion, mental health, pop culture, politics, and parenting, with a specific lens for women. // In 2015, The Cut published a New York Magazine cover feature by Noreen Malone that included interviews with 35 women who had accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault. The cover image and photo portfolio by Amanda Demme included portraits of all the women seated and an empty chair to symbolize those unable to come forward.
In 2018, The Cut published an essay by Moira Donegan in which she revealed herself as the creator of the "Shitty Media Men" list that contained rumors and allegations of sexual misconduct by men in the magazine world. Later that year, Lindsay Peoples's essay "Everywhere and Nowhere," about the challenges of being a Black voice in the fashion industry, came out, sending a "ripple of waves through the industry."
An excerpt from E. Jean Carroll's book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal ran in 2019 on The Cut and on the cover of New York's print magazine, in which she first shared her story of being sexually assaulted by then-President Donald Trump.
In 2022, The Cut ran a special package that highlighted resources for accessing an abortion nationwide following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The Cut is known for a number of columns, including Madame Clairevoyant's weekly horoscopes; as-told-tos in "Sex Diaries"; and the "How I Get It Done" series, highlighting the routines of influential women. The Cut has published widely read personal essays including Emily Gould on the "Lure of Divorce," Grazie Sophia Christie on "The Case for Marrying an Older Man," and Charlotte Cowles's "The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It to a Stranger".
• • •
In addition to the six 9s, it's got five 7s (!), and even some of the shorter fill is original and interesting (THE CUT, BLIGHT, MOESHA). I just looked at the grid sitting here on my desk and said "man, this is just a good puzzle." Aspiring constructors should study this puzzle. It's not that there's no overfamiliar short stuff, it's that the repeaters (TSAR, UAE, DES, OLE) are doing work, holding together sections composed of much stronger stuff—they allow the shiny stuff to shine. Another thing that makes this puzzle remarkable is how much it foregrounds Black women. Again, there's nothing particularly showy with how Erik does this, but yeah, four Black women (more if you count the women in the clues —e.g. Beyoncé, Kerry Washington). And precisely no white men (unless maybe you want to count ARES (?) or the TSAR). Historically, the (in)visibility of people of color generally, and Black women specifically, has been an issue that many solvers have called attention to and that (fairly recently) some constructors have tried to address. This puzzle quietly gives Black women the kind of puzzle prominence that is absolutely routine for white people (men in particular). I say "quietly" because it does nothing to the overall solvability of this puzzle. MOESHA is a bit of a throwback (55A: 1990s-'00s sitcom starring Brandy), so if any proper noun gives trouble today (beyond THE CUT), it's probably that one, but the rest are right over the plate. AUDRE Lorde may not be as well known to solvers as ANITA HILL and HARRIET Tubman, but she's in the puzzle a lot (full name earlier this month), so if you don't know her, you should. Weird fact: LORDE first appeared in the NYTXW as the pop star of that name back in 2015. The first person to clue LORDE as the poet Audre LORDE was ... Melinda Gates!? (in a puzzle co-constructed with Joel Fagliano back in 2018). Bizarrely, AUDRE has appeared fewer times (2) than the full AUDRE LORDE (3). Sorry, I'm in the statistical weeds now. My point is, this puzzle centers Black women. That may not matter to you, but it's a deliberate move, and I think it's worth noticing. (11D: Lorde who wrote "Sister Outsider")
The only trouble I had with this one was THE CUT (I know of it, but the name didn't leap to mind) and ... I think that's it. I did write in CAIN before BRAN, which made me laugh (38D: Raisin ___). Nice when a mistake makes you laugh at yourself rather than gnash your teeth or say "d'oh!" or slam your head on the desk or whatever your reaction of choice to self-stupidity is. Again, this puzzle has very few lowlights, and the highlights are everywhere. I smiled at the clue on SCRAMBLED (30D: Like this: ESMCLDRBA), raised my eyebrows at the inventiveness of "ARE WE LIVE?" (31D: "Has our broadcast started?") and nodded appreciatively at the double-X of TAX EXILES (32D: People living abroad for financial reasons)—and that's just in the SW corner! That is one hell of a stack (still not sure what to call a "stack" that involves Downs rather than Acrosses).
Bullets:
- 19D: Tres o cuatro (NUMERO) — me: "OK, so three and four is ... seven ... but ... that's SIETE! I don't ... wait, what does 'o' mean? ... oh ... right." "O" means "or," not "and," my bad.
- 40D: A dispiritingly large percentage of phone calls (SPAM) — I appreciate the commiserative tone of this clue. It's nice to have some acknowledgment of how badly polluted our lines of communication have become. We finally got rid of our landline because it was 90% garbage calls that we never answered. I don't get many SPAM calls on my cell, but email, texts ... it never ends.
- 50A: University in western Pennsylvania, familiarly (PITT) — in the near future, this answer will be clued as the (soon-to-be) Emmy-award-winning TV show, so keep your eye out for that.
That's all. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️:
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️
- Midwest Crossword Tournament (Chicago) (Sat., Oct. 4, 2025)
📘 My other blog 📘:
- Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)
Save And Share :
87 comments:
Mostly easy with a comfortable theme. I needed a lucky guess for the NOMS/MOANA cross (are "noms" short for nominees?).
Noms? Surely, that should have been ‘nods’.
Yup - wonderful early week puzzle. Nothing wrong with the difficulty level as long as it’s placed right - this was spot on. Cute theme - interesting presentation and an apt revealer.
I Got STRIPES
Slight edge to the fill - no issues although I needed all the crosses for MOESHA. Liked the KOALA x ALOHA mash up and the fantastic vertical tri-stack in the SW.
Naked Raygun
Short - but highly enjoyable Tuesday morning solve.
Life Can Be So Nice
All easy, except 24D is wrong (sort of). "Have I Got News for You" has been running on the BBC for 2000 seasons (feels like, Wikipedia says it's only been 69), been through scandals that have rocked British society, leading to the decision (making a virtue out of necessity) of having constantly rotating hosts. I even have the DVD box set of the complete Boris Johnson appearances on the show (where he proved his general incompetence beyond the shadow of a doubt). Etc.
TBH: even before I wrote in the first letter of 24D, I stopped and thought "NYT; US audience; oh, they mean *that* HIGNFY" and wrote in CNN grimacing. CNN doesn't even broadcast the show where I live. Part of me was hoping I had overthunk this and that my original notion was right. No such luck.
[I have seen some of CNN's teasers for the show, Roy Wood Jr is great — and he's hosted the BBC version at least twice. Otherwise, yes, funny, but I wish Ruffin and Black weren't quite so shouty. Seems you can't do comedy in the States without screaming at each other. Sigh.]
I first had NODS, but with the cross figured: …kay… short for NOMinationS… well, if y'all insist.
I must lead a sheltered life—was totally surprised when Rex highlighted THECUT. I never saw it in the puzzle because I entered it all from crosses. Live and learn. I enjoyed being played by the Tres o cuatro clue. Also started with NOdS, but finally recognized MOANA. ANITAHILL also developed from crosses and brought back floods of memories.
I saw Erik’s name at the top of the leaderboard and was worried that we might have a classic wavelength mismatch today. Fortunately, he (very successfully) kept it within the constraints imposed by the desire to keep it Tuesday-level difficult.
Rex makes a very insightful observation about the theme density and how less can often be better - I couldn’t agree with him more. I’m sure most, if not all of us know the feeling that we get when we realize that the theme has overwhelmed the grid and we just keep bumping into gunk fill and contrived theme entries that should have been left on the cutting room floor. I sometimes refer to it as “theme fatigue”.
Credit goes to Erik for those six long downs as well - all “in the language” and all discernible from the crosses if not readily apparent - they would be appropriate for any day of the week.
ANITA HILL warned us of Clarence Thomas; the most dangerous, crooked judge on the Supreme Court
When I saw Erik Agard’s name, I thought I might be in trouble as I often find his puzzles challenging. But after getting all three opening acrosses bang-bang-bang, this puzzle turned into a pretty straightforward, enjoyable solve. And I agree with @Rex about its elegant cleverness. I had only two problems at the end. I’d put in MAGIC SHOw for MAGIC SHOP – read the clue too fast and not accurately. That left me with the incomprehensible wLS for [Partner of “ty”], but it was all the way down in the SE corner and I didn’t notice it for a while. The other problem was dead center at the crossing F of BFS and FILA. I blanked on FILA, although now that I see it in place, it does ring a bell as a [Sneaker brand]. And, I dunno, BFS was just not occurring to me as significant others – I wanted BAES but it was too long. Anyway, those two sore spots were easy to overcome and then, yay, happy music.
Like @Rex, I noticed the women of color and all the terrific long answers. And hey, @REX, you’re in it, too!
UNICLUES:
1. Fentanyl and ketamine.
2. Epstein’s client list.
1. LATE CELEB MEDS
2. HEELS’ LAST NAMES
Como decía antes, me interrumpieron tan groseramente...
You see Erik Agard and you panic a little, but then you say, "It's Tuesday, it'll be okay," but then you wonder what he's doing on a Tuesday. Then it turns out he's doing the Can Can and making a gunkapalooza.
The shocking news to me: Saturn has 274 moons? When does a big rock become big enough to become a moon?
People: 6
Places: 4
Products: 7
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 7
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 30 of 74 (41%) {Ew, on Tuesday?}
Funny Factor: 1 🤨
Uniclues:
1 Propofol for Michael and Fentanyl for Prince.
2 Phrase said with air quotes when the other planets gossip.
3 Rub some dirt on it.
4 Empanada filled with green chile and math.
5 This one goes by Ms. Above Your Left Ear and this one is Ms. Above Your Right Ear.
1 LATE CELEB MEDS
2 SATURN NORMAL
3 THE CUT DIG
4 NUMERO PIE
5 HEELS LAST NAMES
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Where Coke-or-nothing people go when society won't play along with their nits. PEPSI ONE ASYLUM.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Agree that the Agard name up top can be daunting, but I thought, well, this guy knows it's a Tuesday, so probably OK, and that turned out to be right.
Noticed the CANs right away (note to OFL, the plural of cans does not require an apostrophe) and thought the TOUCAN revealer was just great. Never heard of THECUT, never remember AUDRE, my bad, and don't know a thing about Brandy or MOESHA but the crosses took care of them. The "o" as "or" in Spanish I knew, but did you know if the next word begins with an o, or an ho, the o changes to a "u"? So if the clue says "siete u ocho", now you know why.
Rex didn't even mention the REX shout out. He's way behind @Roo though.
Great stuff, EA. An Exemplary Archetype of what a Tuesday should be, and thanks for all the fun.
Easy. No WOEs, only one overwrite, my 62A time to look ahead was Edt ("spring forward") before it was an EVE
Erik is the master. Loved the puzzle, loved the write up. Best Tuesday in memory.
Hey All !
Visions of TOUCANS doing the CANCAN dance. The ole brain being silly again.
Only 34 Blockers, when normal is 38, more puz to fill. Agree with Rex that the fill is quite nice. Also a shout-out to REX at 42A. Appropriate, since we all know 42 is the answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Not ASHAMED to RUDELY acknowledge myself as a CELEB today, as I turn NUMERO 56. With an often non-NORMAL SCRAMBLED brain. HAHA
You know, my book is still available, sloooooowly working on a sequel, but get it at Amazon or barnesandnoble.com, Changing Times by Darrin Vail. 😁
Anyway, have a great Tuesday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I don’t think I’ve fully processed your gunk gauge until today. Why do you consider people and places gunk? I’m also curious about your thoughts about Rex’s comment about the short stuff holding together really good stuff today. I certainly don’t mind a little ugly short fill when the long answers are this good.
Glad Rex made THE CUT his word of the day, as I kept trying to make that be something else ... something I've actually head of, seeing as it is Tuesday.
AUDRE Lorde hasn't fully sunk in yet, but once I got the D and R in place it came to me. So she's in that twilight where I don't know the answer from the clue, but recognize it once it comes in.
Nice early week puzzle. Absolutely *loved* the clue for ELEMENT. Also not a particularly clever clue but for some reason 2-down made me smile thinking about KOALAs eating eucalyptus. 🐨
My submissions for what to call a vertical stack:
A tower
A building
A taller, narrower stack
My submission for mistakes that make one smile: I mindlessly wrote in "canCAN" for the revealer. That's...not a bird... I also had filled in just enough of 51A that I thought it might be MEXICAN, A MExICAN. Like it was just repeating itself for emphasis.
Even though the SE corner felt very 90s to me, between the phone book reference and MOESHA crossing ANITA HILL, this was a very fun, fresh solve!
Erik Agard fooled me with the reveal: after the first two theme answers, I was sure it was going to be "cancan" - and I even allowed myself to imagine that the two black L shapes at the bottom represented legs kicking up. But a reveal surprise is always a bonus. And I thought CAN'T HOLD A CANDLE was a real treat.
Over the past few weeks, my husband and I have been godparents to a family of robins who have been nesting on our front porch. They built the nest in the early spring and we got quite excited about our new tenants, but then they abandoned their construction and disappeared. I guess they found a nesting site they liked better for their first brood of the season. But then, around 10 July, they came back and started reinforcing the nest. Woo-hoo, we’re going to get some avian action, after all! The mom laid four eggs but, sadly, according to one of our eagle-eyed neighbors, one was stolen by a crow. (I like crows for their astonishing intelligence, but it’s no wonder they call them in groups “a murder.”)
Mom-robin was the soul of patience as she sat incubating those eggs. Our neighbors are having their driveway, front walkway and back patio replaced, and she had to carry out her vigil through the sounds of jackhammers and stonecutting saws – what a cacophony! I found it interesting that although she mostly sat there quite motionless, she did feel free to fly off for brief forays, presumably to eat. (It was during one of these absences, of course, that the crow struck.)
Then, one day, we noticed both parents sitting on the edge of the nest and looking down into it. Hah – that could mean only one thing: baby birds have hatched! Then began the non-stop feeding ritual, in which both parents seemed to participate equally. They flew in and out of our porch at Mach-speed. If you happened to be out there near the flight-path, your hair could practically get singed.
The little birds grew until first beaks and then bodies were visible over the sides of the nest. We were surprised that there was no chirping in the early days of feeding – it seems it takes a few days for the babies to find their voice. Hatchlings are really not an attractive sight and their open beaks seem to be the same size as the rest of them. But how quickly they passed through that stage and turned into little speckled buddhas sitting stolidly in a row, waiting for their next meal.
And then one early morning before I was up, one of them fell out of the nest. Code yellow! Red alert! Battle stations! The dear little thing was unhurt and my husband popped it back in, after first determining that this action wouldn’t jeopardize the viability of the family. Apparently, robins don’t have a particularly good sense of smell so aren’t able to detect human interference. And, indeed, feeding went on in the normal fashion after that. Then, the next day, the little blighter fell out again, but this time, when my husband went to retrieve it, it flew a short distance. It flew! Good grief, how can that be? A mere two weeks ago, it was an egg!
The second chick departed soon after that, leaving one lonely hold-out in the nest. We understand that, for a time, the parents feed the fledglings on the ground, and were a bit afraid that in their zeal to find the departees, they might forget about the remaining nester. Early this morning, my husband looked out and that last chick was perched on the edge of the nest, looking around, and presumably closely considering its next move. A little later a parent arrived with food and found that chick…gone! Poof, vanished, out into the big wide world.
So, sniff, my husband and I are empty-nesters. We’ve been utterly riveted at all stages of the family’s development, and can’t wait to see if the nest will be used again.
Yep, a good Tuesday offering. I wouldn't class the six 9's as "all good to great" (half of them are actually quite boring) -- but the fact that they're there at all is the real story, so bravo for that.
I whooshed through this so quickly that I never noticed THECUT, HALAL, ASHAMED...or even TOUCANS!
I feel like CANTHOLDACANDLE is incomplete; I've never heard, read or spoken it without "...to [whatever is being compared]." But that didn't bother me while solving, and I suspect that it's my understanding, not the entry, that is incomplete.
Like others, NOdS before NOMS. I was thinking afterward...do NOdS perhaps refer only to wins? I also had AUDRa for a bit.
KOALA brought to mind a story I read yesterday about Little League Baseball. In the regional competition to get to the upcoming LL World Series, the team from Lexington, KY -- and specifically their pitcher -- was struggling. The coach, sensing the need to reset his kids without simply urging them to "buckle down" or "focus", gathered the team at the mound and proceeded to tell a slightly winding tale about how a KOALA is a marsupial because it doesn't have the "KOALA-fications" to be a bear. That was it -- no strategic advice, no pep talk. The pitcher rolled his eyes at the Dad joke, but it did the trick; he settled down. The team didn't make it to the LLWS, but the story went viral up as an interesting example of situational awareness and knowing your audience. I loved it. You can read more here if you like.
For a vertical stack: a bundle?
Agreed! Beautiful Tuesday puzzle. I love Erik's work in general.
Here’s another beautifully executed gem from today's New Yorker site:
https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/crossword/2025/08/12
Always get excited when I see Erik Agard’s byline but this one left me kind of cold, or at least lukewarm. Didn’t have the sparkle I expected. Most exciting part for me was when I was working my way, downs only, through the upper middle section and had _ARR_ET and thought, “Oh, I’ll bet that’s HARRIET Tubman” because this is an Agard puzzle and it has to include at least one black female activist. See also AJDRE Lorde at 11D.
But, of course, I screwed up the other famous black woman entry at 35D ANITAHILL. Knew exactly who he wanted there, could even picture her in my mind but could not, for the longest time give her a name. I even had the 2 long downs beside her filled in and couldn’t guess the letters that would join them. That is until I sussed out MEXICANAMERICAN and MOESHA based on word recognition more than anything else and then it tumbled.
My other rough spot was at 32D, where I confidently typed in TAXEXpatS. Is there such a thing? There should be. But I couldn’t justify BLpGHT at 54A so I ripped out the pat and corrected to TAXEXILES and got the congrats.
Shouldn’t 17A be CANTHOLDACANDLEto?
So, a solid grid with some good long answers but I just wasn’t as thrilled by it as Rex was. Can’t win ‘em all.
The gunk meter is a made-up number posing as objective analysis. Just say you didn’t like it, it’s fine.
Right there with you on Ian and Paul and the original HIGNFY, though I knew they could only mean the US version. I tried it for the entire first season, but although it got better, it can't overcome the restrictions. I remember Amber going off on a GOP rep who was just lying through his teeth - at which point they cut to commercial, and she spent the rest of the show chastened, bc comity trumps both comedy and truth. It's the American way.
What a treat - Erik in the NYT on Tuesday - or any day :)
Great story! I am so glad to hear your Mom and Dad robins were successful in getting the family off. My husband and I had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of baby robins in a nest in the crook of a downspout that we could see through our large back windows and the babies hatched. Suffice it to say I was traumatized when I was unlucky enough to actually witness a red tailed hawk swoop in and grab the ENTIRE nest and carry it to the nearby river side. I tracked the path until I couldn’t, but saw none that might have dropped out. Prior to that I had sucked up info. Since they lay one egg every one or two days, the babies come out of the nest in birth order so your last little guy out of the nest was the last egg laid. So I guess our two tales show how beautiful nature can be and how ugly it can be.
I was lucky enough to have a robin nest in full view of my kitchen window this spring and went through the same process watching the comings and goings. No jackhammers thankfully, but I did have to go out and water the flowers occasionally. I’d wait until I saw the parents fly off and those babies would hunker down and sit like statues while I was nearby. Like you, I was shocked at how quickly those little buggers abandoned me and couldn’t help feeling a sense of loss.
This will be short as I'm having a cancer scan. I should have listened to the Canadian canards about eating Cancun pecans I guess.
I amused myself in the same way that@Rex did with his Raisin Cain when I noticed my typo from putting in PoS as the partner of ty.
That online publication of Vox Media was originally quite profound, but has become noticeably less so over time. I guess it's true that the first CUT is the deepest.
Ever since Ms. DeArmas became famous, we've been seeing MOANA in the puzzles.
It goes without saying that I liked this puzzle. It's Erik f***ing Agard after all. Thanks for a delightful Tuesday.
Surprised that no issue was taken with the second can in candycane having a distinctly non-toucan-ish pronunciation
My biggest satisfaction was getting CAN'T HOLD A CANDLE just off the CANT.
My favorite clue was for SCRAMBLED. I've always had a soft spot for Cryptic-style clues.
Mussels and clams have shells. Tacos are shells. Doesn't PIE have a crust? Wouldn't you break your teeth if it had a shell?
DOANA and MOESHA didn't throw me because they were fairly crossed. I consider ANITA HILL a much more interesting figure to build a clue around than Kerry Washington. Erik does love his pop culture -- but happily there wasn't too much to contend with here.
I thought TOUCANS was a cute revealer. I didn't notice the two CANs while solving -- though I might have if I'd really been looking. Enjoyable puzzle.
Throwing in a nominee name for Vertical Stacks - Uprights.
Roo
@Anon 9:48 That comment is inaccurate, unwarranted and rude. You have no basis upon which to draw that conclusion. Talk about making stuff. At least Gary takes the time and effort to contribute in a positive manner (while you are an anonymous troll).
@Beezer: OMG! What an awful thing to witness! I’ve seen songbirds snatched by hawks, but never an entire nest. I know it’s part of nature but still painful to watch
No ALE, no ALOE, no ATE, no ANTE, no OTT, no ORR, no ORC, no ORE, no OREO, no ERIE, no ERA, NO ERR.
Sorry, Eric, it is the universal law that every puzzle the element contained in every single puzzle, inclusing at least four words from the above list. This, then, is not a puzzle. Pure and simple. And I am shocked and dismayed that the NYTimes even considered it, much less accepted it.
Even worse, this pseudo-puzzle bought lavish praise from Michael Sharp for the mere price of a shout-out at 42A.
What is this world coming to?
Easy and easier than yesterday’s for me. No costly erasures and THE CUT. was it for WOEs.
Cute/amusing, very low on junk, with a couple of fine long downs, or exactly what @Rex said, liked it a bunch!
Can't help but feel like there should have been a place for something like 'dance popularized in late 1800 French cabarets'
Amen, amen, @East Coaster. Exactly what you said.
https://www.amazon.com/pie-shells/s?k=pie+shells
I saw that the first two theme answers were two words each starting with C, and my heart sank -- I hadn't even noticed that they each actually started with CAN, which would have pointed me to the Moulin Rouge. But the actual revealer was so much better, and made the whole puzzle.
The clue for 30-D would have been good in a cryptic, but in a straight puzzle it would have been better if some other word had been scrambled, IMO.
My only question about SATURN is how sure we should be that the astronomers have really all the moons of all the planets -- making the clue "known planets" would have fixed that.
@Barbara S -- Your wonderfully evocative comment makes me feel once again an emotion that I, a lifelong New Yorker, have too often experienced on this blog: Nature envy. You see, I have to walk to my Nature in Central Park. Nature doesn't come to me. And it certainly doesn't hang around for weeks and months at a time, revealing itself slowly in fascinating stages and progressions.
But wait, it gets even worse. Now @Beezer and @Whatsername are chiming in to reveal their own similarly dramatic and enviable Nature experiences. Does everyone but me have their own private backyard aviary? Should I now have triple Nature-envy? Sigh.
BTW, @Barbara S -- Margaret Renkl has made an entire career as a NYT columnist writing about Nature and the change of seasons. It's her "beat" -- the only subject she writes about. The Times gives her a lot of space. You're just as good a writer as Margaret is; maybe you could parlay your first-hand observations into a column somewhere or even a memoir-type book? Just a thought.
Yes, the term is TAX EXILE. A pity, because I've always thought Tax ExPat had a better ring and rhythm
Bundle is apt. I was thinking fence; wall is too omnidirectional.
Clue and answer are comparable: "pales in comparison [to]" = "can't hold a candle [to]."
Quite a TuesPuz. 74-worder, so lotsa longballs to suss out. Always-cool E/W puzgrid symmetry. Primo puztheme revealer.
And, as a bonus, CANTHOLDACANDLE(TO) also ended up bein a TO-Can't.
Buckets of no-knows or near-no-knows, at our house: HALAL. one-F BFS. MOANA. MOESHA. THECUT. NOMS. NUMERO [mostly just a spellin challenge]. AUDRE. ANITAHILL, at least as clued.
Didn't take the P-word bait, on that 6-in. HEELS clue. har
staff weeject pick, of 23 worthy candidates: PLS. Admired its well-encoded clue of mystery, TYVM.
Nice weeject stacks, SW, SE, & S central.
some fave stuff: MAGICSHOP. SCRAMBLED & its clue. ELEMENT clue. THATSOK. REX gettin to make the puz.
Thanx for the workout, Mr. Agard dude. So good, we'd think U do it for a livin. @RP raised a neat point ... did U use AI, to help fill up yer puzgrid?
Masked & Anonymo5Us
... ah, yes -- the ins and outs of [no-AI] runtpuz construction ...
"Innards and Outtards" - 7x7 12 min. themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Thank you, Nancy. I missed the beautiful meta clue for SCRAMBLED.
MOESHA was fairly crossed--but it seemed obscure to me. A 90s sitcom on a channel I've never heard or (UPN). But maybe that's just me.
I assume everyone knows that "Raisin" Cain is currently the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Wow, I never paid attention to the theme, as I try to race through on the early week days. The theme is fantastic which is the cherry on the top of this fun, vibrant, multicultural puzzle. Is there a Tuesday hall of fame? If so, I nominate this masterpiece.
The Little Engine That Could was a childhood favorite of mine. Now, Agard has come up with a grown-up story: The Little Dancer That Could.
I had DOANA too because I had NOD instead of the correct answer NOM
Had to stop filling in this puzzle to come here and, as a guy who had a draft card, was 1A, and lottery number 86 shout at the top of my lungs, once again: THERE ARE NO GIs AND HAVEN'T BEEN SINCE THE EARLY 1970s!!!!! GI stands for "General Inductee" and nobody's been inducted into the armed forces of the USA since then. We've have a "volunteer" armed forces since then (aka a Mercenary armed forces with far too low pay).
Somebody tell the gatekeepers of puzzledom, please. You can't make a puzzle without GI? Try "doctor who provides colonoscopies" or something. Maybe, "US soldiers of ye olden days" or "guys pressed into service for US wars and mostly dead now"
Some comments:
(a) I love this blog ... everything from birdwatching to judge-bashing ... it's like reading a novel every day!
(b) This was a really good puzzle. Had a couple of blips as I couldn't figure out B[?]S crossing [?]ILA (never heard of either) so had to run the alphabet to avoid a DNF.
(c) I am half-way through the Lollapuzzoola x-words that I downloaded yesterday. Well worth the $25 ... makes me realize I'm not a brainiac that I like to think I am ... consider me humbled.
Stay out of the heat, everyone ... it has to cool down some time.
Agree!
That's good!
This was so enjoyable. I just happened to work my way down the lefthand side, which led me to TOUCANS and allowed me to fill in the long theme answers early and easily. Clever clues included the SCRAMBLE scramble, "Like some R's and oats" (ROLLED), "He or I but not she" (ELEMENT). Had to think for a moment about "Tres o quatro" . . . wanted to perform addition or subtraction as usual, at first. Appreciated all the long vertical answers (I like @RooMonster's terrm for these—Uprights). In general, just a really fun puzzle!
How about a Picket Line
Wow, Barbara S! I just want to add my praise for your terrific account, so compelling and well-written. I loved your "empty nesters" conclusion. I don't know whether you're a professional writer IRL, but you certainly could be.
And no, Nancy, you're not the only one who lacks ready access to Nature outside your window. I live on the fifth floor of an apartment building, with nature visible only from afar.
“Ty” partner to “pls”?? What do these two Abbreviations stand for? (I assume pls = “please”, but “ty”? (“ to you”?)
"I'm not gonna try it—you try it!"
"Let's get Mikey - he hates everything".
"He likes it! Hey Mikey!"
(Quaker LIFE Cereal ad from 1972
Two quibbles. It’s on Oahu not in Oahu. And Chicanos are Mexican American Californians. Not other states.
Stuck on this one for so long! (And it's a Tuesday!). Had NODS and NUMERI for 29D and 19D. Led to DIANA for 41A which seemed plausible, as Wonder Woman's real name.
We had Carolina wrens build a nest in between the sceen and the glass in one of our upstairs windows. It seemed like a great place. Being close to the house would keep it cool on hot days and warm on cold nights. Snakes would need to scale 15' of brick to get there - possible, but not easy.
We watched joyfully from hatching to feeding, but then one evening we heard a lot of noise coming from that room. Two baby wrens had gotten up into the top part of the window, between the regular pane and the storm pane. They seemed in a bit of a panic as they kept trying to go up to get out, and needed to go down.
That window has been stuck for years, so we couldn't even open it to let them fly into the house, catch them, and release them outside.
Mama (or possibly Papa) wren just sat on the outside sill hopping back and forth and looking (anthropomorphizing here) distressed.
We figured we had two choices. We could break the glass, letting them into the house, catch them, release them, and then repair the glass. Or we could go to bed, hoping they would find their way out, and if necessary break the window in the morning. We chose the latter, and by morning they had figured it out and were gone.
We still got to see both parents and young for about another week, before they all disappeared. So, we know very well that feeling of emptiness when they are gone.
But take heart - you have a good location for nesting, so they - or others - will probably be back.
"thank you"
I don't agree with your second comment; the term "Chicanos" does not apply only to those in California. I'm from Arizona and there are many Chicanos there.
Please and thank you
PLS = please. TY = thank you.
M&A Help Desk
Not sure where you got that piece of historically inaccurate and untrue information. I recommend looking up the usage and history of the term - a term whose origin seems to precede Columbus' arrival in the Americas. And it certainly has never had a specific and exclusive tie to California, unless by some group in California that recently decided to appropriate it for themselves hundreds of years after it was first used.
Spot on re Oahu, though!
Bob Mills
Yes, nominees. I was thinking NOdS at first but the cross said m.
Andrew Z
About Justice Thomas. So true. With Alito a close second.
Thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle and your blog entry added extra joy. Wouldn’t usually think too much about a Tuesday. Fun clues plus interesting trivia. Yes we can can.
The Tribe Called Quest video, dang! Song never gets old. Such a good throwback.
Lots of hip hop but never watched TV in the 90s. Not Seinfeld, not Friends. Moesha was the one clue I got really stuck on.
Thanks for the excellent write up!
My biggest hang-up today was FILA. I didn't know a HALAL cart was a thing. Most of the food trucks around here are all about the pork. BFS wasn't coming to me. Yes, FILA now does look vaguely familiar but it certainly didn't come to mind as a sneaker brand.
Even with that holding me up and solving online, I did this in Tuesday average time, at 7:35. Pretty easy for an Agard puzzle!
I see others thought of CANCAN as an alternate theme revealer. TOUCANS is much better, unexpected and more colorful.
Thanks, Erik Agard, nice Tuesday puzzle!
Barbara S.
Loved the uniclues
I had trouble with BFS also. I thought well not Bae so a simplified Bo (for beau) ? Don’t remember seeing BF in the puzzle before. BFF often but not one f. But I also vaguely remembered FILA.!
Gary
Did you notice that Barbara S had a go at Epstein in a Uniclue? Great minds etc
Agree with East Coaster & Nancy though this Anonymous wasn’t as nasty as some
Z used to calculate % of ppp.
It is generally agreed here that too much of it can ruin a puzzle because it is all wheelhouse dependent.
Bundle is OK, but for me a "sheaf" is more vertical. OTOH. I think "stack" is just fine.
There’s nothing unwarranted or rude about it. Do you even know what “troll” means? The whole gunk meter is made up. It ascribes a number, but it’s made-up. It’s just one person’s opinion. It is not objective. The criteria belong to one person. You people have your little clubhouse and you police it like fascists, weirdly intolerant of anyone who disagrees with you.
Anonymous 11:58 AM
Origins of slang can be very tricky
as people often invent origins after fact. GI is one of those cases G.I. was stamped on metal Army equipment even before WW I apparently meaning galvanized iron. Eventually soldiers noticed and began to apply it to other military related things. The public called soldiers in WWI doughboys but more so after WW I soldiers (who were NOT drafted) were called GI’s. There was an official reference to GI as a slang term in 1935 well before the WWIi draft was instituted. By that time people had forgotten galvanized iron and invented other origins such as government issue. I think general inductee was one of the later inventions. So technically GI did not mean inductee or drafteeBut the vast majority to which the term applied to were draftees so your association makes sense.
I will say that I don’t remember the term being used during the Viet Nam War but I was draft eligible only for one year when the draft was being cut back and I had a high number in the very early’70’s.so what do I know. Anyway to my ears GI sounds less and less appropriate as the decades passed after WWII. So you are wrong about the origins of the term but maybe right that it is a stretch to use it after the early seventies.
Also my Dad was a GI in WW II and a disabled vet (right lower arm, left thumb) He died at age 101 in 2019. That’s what GI means to me.
I wouldn’t call you fascists, but the little clubhouse thing is 💯
Anonymous 1:14 PM
Ty = thank you.
I never use it myself.
Yes, Agard’s is a good puzzle, yes, lollapuzoola puzzles are fun (and hard!)
Rex and others noted that Erik had Black women among the PPP.
I note that he chose the word ChicanA which in Spanish means Mexican American Women. Usually with a general clue like that it would be ChicanO. so he did it deliberately. As to the complaint about California only, they are still Mexican Americans, even if a subcategory as you assert. That is common aspect of crossword answers.
Didn’t like the puzzle quite as much as Rex but it was a good one. TOUCAN as the revealer made me laugh. That was a highlight.
Agree that the most difficult cross was BFS and FILA Good buddies for a short time? a better clue for the first one?
@Barbara S. 7:53 AM
🤣 Epstein's client list. Great job. I am of the opinion we'll never see that list, but I would assume there isn't really a list. I assume it's the world's most pathetic contact list in his phone.
Oh my. Looks like I've irked another Anonymous. {yawn} As a reminder, 🦖 doesn't put my ideas on the final exam. Reading me is a choice. Most people on Earth don't.
For @Anonymous 8:50 AM, I count up the proper nouns such as people, places, and products because it's fun. Proper nouns are fine if you know them, but if you don't, well, let the alphabet soup of crosses begin. As @dgd 4:58 PM said, it's wheelhouse dependant. A puzzle like this dazzled 🦖, and he's right, but it's jam packed with trivia. If you know it, you think the puzzle is clean, but if you don't, it can be a slog.
This is a great thread. Thanks.
@Beezer, @Whatsername, @kitshef. Enjoyed reading all the other bird stories, yes, even yours, @Beezer. In past years I've been a devoted watcher of the Cornell Lab's red-tailed hawk cam, and I know their chicks need to eat, too. But, yikes, it's pretty tough to observe the demise of a bird family you were emotionally invested in.
@Nancy, @Juanita. Thanks for the kind words and encouragement. I can understand your nature envy, @Nancy, but NYC has lots of engaging compensations!
Again we see the artistry of constructing an early week puzzle that keeps me on the edge of my seat for the entire show. I may not have liked it quite as much as @Rex, but I liked it a heck of a lot. Very clever theme and an equally clever revealer, this along with two great spanners and the stunning down "Stacks" really made this one pop.
I'm in awe of symmetry of any kind but today it really shines - any puzzle that makes me repeatedly think, "How does he do this???" is high quality in my book.
One short, interesting struggle with (of all things) 61A. had SHE, then HER and finally the correct HIM - all this took about 20 seconds as the crosses came to the rescue but it was a curious thing to wrestle with.
Very, very good Tuesday - more like these please Erik!
OMG - you need to text more - LOL
Post a Comment