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Cardinal's honorific / THU 10-2-25 / Selfish cry before an evil laugh / Eye, slangily / Half of a noted crime duo / Only video game to sell 300 million copies / Asian city one can view within Instagram? / Literary detective whose final case is in 1975's "Curtain" / One of four awarded to Bill Nye
Thursday, October 2, 2025
Constructor: Aidan Deshong
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- PROMINENTLY / HOMINEM (17A: How something distinctive appears / 4D: Ad ___)
- HIS EMINENCE / "MINE, ALL MINE" / NOMINEE (25A: Cardinal's honorific / 26D: Selfish cry before an evil laugh / 44A: Part of a list at an awards show)
- FAMINE / MINECRAFT (22A: Shortage of a sort / 24D: Only video game to sell 300 million copies)
- MINESWEEPER / IMMINENT (62A (see above) / 53D: On the horizon)
- UNDERMINE / DETERMINE (69A: Sabotage / 49D: Figure out)
Minesweeper is a logic puzzle video game genre generally played on personal computers. The game features a grid of clickable tiles, with hidden "mines" (depicted as naval mines in the original game) dispersed throughout the board. The objective is to clear the board without detonating any mines, with help from clues about the number of neighboring mines in each field. [...] Minesweeper is a puzzle video game. In the game, mines (that resemble naval mines in the classic theme) are scattered throughout a board, which is divided into cells. Cells have three states: unopened, opened and flagged. An unopened cell is blank and clickable, while an opened cell is exposed. Flagged cells are those marked by the player to indicate a potential mine location. // A player selects a cell to open it. If a player opens a mined cell, the game ends. Otherwise, the opened cell displays either a number, indicating the number of mines vertically, horizontally or diagonally adjacent to it, or a blank tile (or "0"), and all adjacent non-mined cells will automatically be opened. [...] A game of Minesweeper begins when the player first selects a cell on a board. In some variants the first click is guaranteed to be safe, and some further guarantee that all adjacent cells are safe as well. During the game, the player uses information given from the opened cells to deduce further cells that are safe to open, iteratively gaining more information to solve the board. [...] To win a game of Minesweeper, all non-mine cells must be opened without opening a mine. There is no score, but there is a timer recording the time taken to finish the game. (wikipedia)
• • •
 |
| [you can see my "OLA!"-for-"'ALO!" mistake there (36D: Spanish phone greeting) |
Once I got the theme, then the puzzle got briefly fun, in that I realized I could use the numbers to find all the "MINE"s. That is, I got to actually play MINESWEEPER for a little bit. Again, haven't played it since the very early '00s, probably, so the logic of it all was not fresh in my head, but it came back to me. Unsurprisingly, the puzzle got a lot easier after the revealer. In fact, there's nothing very tough about it at all ... once you get the gimmick. Before that, you're apt to fumble around a bit. In that sense, it's a typical rebus, but in the sense of giving me actual gameplay, it's definitely an elevated rebus. The fill overall is no great shakes, but I still largely enjoyed the solving experience, particularly the back end.
Aside from having the vowels in my [Spanish phone greeting] switched around, I didn't have many more real mistakes. I thought Malbec might be DRY (or even SEC) (65D: Like Malbec wine = RED), and I couldn't figure out exactly what the clue was getting at at 71A: Output of a social media algorithm (FEED) (I was looking for something plural, because of "output"). So that insignificant SE corner weirdly gave me more trouble than anything besides discovering the rebus. There was not a lot of ambiguous or misleading cluing, no tough "?" clues to see through. Wanted MOWED immediately for 20A: Leveled the playing field? and saw right through the AGRA trick (33A: Asian city one can view within Instagram?). I never saw the clue for TEN (55A: Pin number?). That "?" clue seems a little bit harder than the others. There's a TEN pin in bowling. Actually, I now realize that the clue is merely asking for the total number of pins in a bowling frame, not the one pin called the "TEN pin," though I guess the logic works either way. I grew up with SEE'S candy and I do not remember "butterscotch" at all. Just chocolate samplers. Weird. Oh, and I had no idea Bill Nye had patents. Also, not sure why I care, or why you don't tell me what at least one of them is if you're going to bother to mention them, but whatever. Crosses got me to PATENT easily enough. (One of Nye's PATENTs is apparently a ballet slipper!)
Further notes:
- 39A: Writer Zora ___ Hurston (NEALE) — Zora NEALE Hurston's story Spunk has been adapted to the stage and is being performed by Yale Rep starting tomorrow (Oct. 3). I'm going to see it later in the month, along with Les Liaisons Dangereuses (the kid's working on Liaisons).
- 61A: What might prompt someone to close a window (UPDATE) — so, not a glass window. A software window. Very window-heavy puzzle, this one (35D: Features of some windows = TINTS)
- 66A: Eye, slangily (PEEPER) — more 1920s than 2020s slang, but sure
- 7D: Half of a noted crime duo (CLYDE) — The other half being Bonnie, obviously. One of my very favorite movies. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway at peak hotness. Crime was never sexier. Plus Gene Hackman! Gene Wilder! The amazing (Academy Award-winning) Estelle Parsons! I'm due for a rewatch. Think I'll put it on my next Crime Fiction syllabus.
- 28D: Moolah (KALE) — only in crosswords. And again, maybe in the 1920s? (origins: 1902). Speaking of word origins, look for a new Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (12th ed.) out later this year (11/18/25), as well as Stefan Fatsis's new book on lexicography, Unabridged, out later this month (10/14/25)—Fatsis is perhaps best known as the author of Word Freak, all about that game with the TILES (6D: Scrabble rackful)
That's all. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld [Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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121 comments:
Solved in the app and didn’t have numbers in the black squares…. hmmm. Just had to blindly figure out how many mines there were!
@Rex found the East easy, I brain f*rted my way through it. Overall, the puzzle was Easy-Medium: Easy except for the east, which just didn't click with me.
Overwrites:
it is before yeah at 1A
3D: AGe before AGO
sOHO before NOHO at 18D
No WOEs.
Got the rebus early, ignored the numbers until I got the revealer, then LOLd loudly. I agree with OFL, finding the rest of the MINEs by MINESWEEPER logic was fun. Nostalgic and fresh at the same time. Bravo!
“Classic computer game whose players avoid hazardous items in a grid”? Eight letters? Obviously MSPACMAN.
16 minutes for me--did it late last night--so probably medium. Loved the clever rebus and bringing minesweeper into the puzzle! That was a lot of fun. I figured something strange was going on when HOc ,wouldn't fit at 4d. Enjoyed seeing CLYDE, MINEALLMINE, and MINECRAFT. Thanks for a very creative Thursday rebus, Aidan! : )
Plenty of opportunities for me to stumble and bumble, which I unfortunately took advantage of. My first stumble was right out of the gate, as I just did not get along with that clue for YEAH. I had not heard of SEES Candy, and thought I was missing something there. I also had a couple of self-inflicted typos, which caused me much angst with the crosses.
I also didn’t have any numbers in my grid until post-solve, which was probably a blessing in disguise, as I tend to way overthink Thursday gimmicks already. I’m kind of grateful that I was able to hold my own in spite of my clumsiness today.
Today I learned about MINESWEEPER and perhaps, finally, that it’s TEHRAN and not TEHERAN.
Absolutely loved it. It has to help that I love MINESWEEPER (or should I write *SWEEPER?). But if you don't know this game, then I imagine the puzzle could be quite baffling/frustrating for you. In that case, I RECKON Rex explained adequately what was going on.
And my kids (well, they're grownups now, so my offspring) loved MINECRAFT, so there was something in it for the whole FAM. See, that's how I typed in the rebus for FAMINE: I just put an M for every instance of MINE. The NYT software knew what to do with that.
Not a difficult puzzle otherwise. Very fairly crossed, to help one win the game.
Rex mentioned Stefan Fatsis in his write-up. I loved his book Word Freak -- he's an excellent writer by the way -- and I've long nurtured a fantasy of getting really good at Scrabble, pretty much ever since I read it. (Not sure I'll ever face up to that mountain, though.) Fatsis is mainly a sports writer but took on an assignment to write about the game as played at the elite levels, and in the process got hooked himself, so much of the book is about his personal thrill of victory and agony of defeat in his journey to getting good at the game. His daughter Chloe, in her early to mid twenties I think, plays at the very top levels and surpasses him in this regard, so he must be one proud Papa.
(If you don't know but are curious about what Scrabble looks like at these levels, you might check out any number of YouTube channels, for example Mack Meller's. I can almost guarantee you'll be gobsmacked by the speed and knowledge and mental power on display, as he walks you through his thinking process.)
As for the first poster, my grid didn’t show the numbers until I finished the puzzle. They appeared with the mine symbols. So they were no help in solving as they were for Rex, but it was still pretty easy. I never played the game, so I’m sure they would have only confused me anyway.
No numbers if you played the newspaper grid.
Figured the PIN number clue was ten as in wrestling. Didn’t think of bowling. Don’t know why as I hate wrestling and love bowling.
I wanted HOC, figuring that maybe the gimmick involved skipping a square in the long Across answer. That's why I didn't immediately fill in MOWED. I got the rebus from HIS E[MINE]NCE.
I solve on an interface that doesn't show graphical shenanigans like the numbers in the black squares, so I had to come here to see why the revealer was specifically [MINE]SWEEPER.
A good thing you didn’t need to be part of the Minesweeper crowd to finish this otherwise entertaining puzzle. I had had my doubts that I could ignore the numbers, which was mildly annoying, but glad they were helpful for those who play that game.
No numbers on my grid, but picked up the theme at MINE ALL MINE, which let me go back and fix the mysterious PReisTLY for 'how something distinctive appears' (don't ask how I rationalized that one), and then it was just a matter of keeping a peeper open for additional MINEs.
Enjoyed it.
Yes! Jeepers Creepers! Keep a recording of that old song. And loved the evilness of MINEALLMINE. Took forever to figure out the theme, but the similarity of potential missing sounds in PROMINENCE and EMINENCE ultimately gave me a foothold. I knew the game name MINESWEEPER but never played it so the numbers were never a factor in my solve, which therefore took forever.
I’m bummed that the numbers didn’t print for me. Puzzle was fine but I might have enjoyed it more with the numbers. Also, it’s kind of inexcusable that the numbers didn’t show in the app.
Easy once the rebus trick becomes evident. I knew HISEMINENCE, so everything fell into place after that. Impressive construction.
I would like to remind everyone that Aidan is 19, and also that he has a terrific sense of humor – you will agree with me if you look at his picture on XwordInfo, and it’s well worth a look. ( https://www.xwordinfo.com/Author/Aidan_Deshong ).
My biggest TIL today? The game Minesweeper! Somehow, I missed that phenomenon, and I’m sorry I did after reading the comments from tons the grateful and nostalgic commenters on WordPlay today.
Despite that, there was still, for me, a huge heap of puzzlejoy. I loved those numbers in the grid. Before filling in the first letter, they hooked me, and I couldn’t wait to see why they were there.
Then, after filling in the last letter, still, what a riddle to crack for Minesweeper-ignorant me! I kept trying to figure out their significance, and let me tell you, that kind of riddle-attacking work is what my brain lives for. Oh, it never did figure it out, but man, the trying was divine.
Two more things – Standing O for the clue [Pin number?], elegant and saturated with wordplay. Plus, what a superbly built grid!
More, Aiden, more please! This was a jewel, and thank you!
Hey All !
Didn't know what the numbers meant, at first I thought they meant to take letters away from the answer on either side of the number. Then I found the MINE Rebus, and decided to just ignore the numbers, and solve as a regular Rebus puz. Got the Revealer, but never having played MINE SWEEPER (although I'd heard of it), the numbers meant precisely nada.
Thanks once more to Rex for 'splaining the Theme. Did like the drawn in MINEs at the finish.
EAR as Balance aid is strange. Is that supposed to be a musical EAR? Always think SEES Candy is spelled CEES.
Interesting puz today. Thanks for the head scratching, Aidan.
Have a great Thursday!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
It's either way, but I expect TEHRAN is the more common spelling these days.
We are going to Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Rep as well! What a great plug. What day are you going Rex?
I’d heard of MINESWEEPER although never played it, so while the numbers meant nothing to me, I figured out the rebus and enjoyed the puzzle.
Friday Oct 24 I think
me, too! it was kind of thrilling when they all appeared at the end, but i also sort of wished i’d gotten to play!
Danish with a capital D threw me. I was expecting something strange like Finnish... I thought the big D would preclude being a pastry. Am I overthinking it?
Bill Nye also has a patent for a device on a 747 as he was a mechanical engineer at Boeing. He was a comedian on the side and somehow ended up on a local show in Seattle called 'Almost Live'.
I really enjoyed today's puzzle. Maybe also because my wife was a really good minesweeper player (and might still be).
Bonnie and Clyde
Clyde and Bonnie
They’re gentle like rain
But strong as salami
Gimmick. No theme. Ugh. I wish NYT would stop doing this.
Thought of BADAIR bfore update.
I’ve always seen Danish pastry capitalized. I can only speculate that it can be traceable back to the country of origin. Open to other explanations though.
Pretty run-of-the-mill rebus, slowed a bit by the expectation that the numbers meant I was supposed to do something other than just fill in the rebus square. I guess my only objection is that if you never played Minesweeper that aspect of the puzzle is going to be totally opaque to you even after getting the solve,, so it's kind of annoyingly niche in that respect. "You don't get it? Too bad! You're not One of Us!"
For one who has never ever seen a MINESWEEPER grid, it became apparent soon enough that, for some reason known only to the cognoscenti, the numbers translated into "ine" - and then get on with it.
Having heard of MINECRAFT but not MINESWEEPER and having no numbers on my print out, this played as a straight MINE rebus which I saw immediately at ADHOMINEM crossing PROMINENTLY. I decided to use a star for the rebus instead of trying to squeeze all the letters in, good idea. Looking at the blog I can see that I should have been trying to draw an actual MINE. Oh well.
Only WOE today was SEES . SEES and PEEPER in the same puzz is nice, but I was disappointed that OFL didn't make some mention of PEEPER as a term for a detective in those old crime novels. "Get yer hands up, PEEPER." Stuff like that.
ALO may be a Spanish phone greeting but in Spain you pick up the phone and say "Diga' (speak) or Digame (speak to me) which is an imperative and when you find out it's your friend you switch to the informal 'Dime". I think ALO is more of a New World thing. Note to OFL--"hola" needs an h to be "hi". Without the h you've got "wave".
Nifty rebus today, AD. Avoided Detonation but I did find all the MINEs. Thanks for all the fun.
If you love minesweeper, I recommend checking out the Hexcells series, it's a nice, relaxing escalation of the concept (I've only played the Infinite one)
Nice to see that NYE has moved into ORR, OTT and OREO territory in that we have to come up with increasingly arcane clues to get to the obvious. Or just use 12/31.
I had _ALE and had the same response as Rex when I RECKONed it must be KALE. A lot of the stuff people complain about as being only in crosswords, I have actually heard IRL, but not this one.
I remember playing MINESWEEPER late at night at my in laws, only to be embarrassed to be up at 2:30AM still trying to get a fastest time. Had to remove it from the computer…
I loved the mid solve discovery experience and thought this was a construction feature that was worth it. Not too much junk, if less than stellar fill.
A faculty lunch discussion involved deciding which technology we don’t need to teach anymore bc of improvements. Slide rule came up, only to be outdone today by the abacus. Seems like the essay might be next…
I don't think the capital D precludes the pastry. Whether written as "danish" or as "Danish" -- either is okay -- think of it as a short form (synecdoche?) for Danish pastry. I imagine the timeline was "Danish pastry" --> "Danish" --> "danish", so the capitalized form came first, and eventually people relaxed and allowed the capitalization to be dropped.
Had SOHO before NOHO..... No 1's or 2's on my grid, wouldn't have helped anyway
MINESWEEPER features in the Weird Al Yankovic song “White and Nerdy”
Solving on the iPad, I could see the numbers, but was sure the mines would turn into some graphic post-solve. Alas, no:(
Speaking of mines, I found myself right up against one last night.
True story. It was dark, I had a flashlight, and I was returning from taking out the garbage, when from behind a large bush a huge bear appeared. We were suddenly face-to-face, two feet apart, both totally surprised. (Bears and humans co-exist in our neighborhood; we usually keep our distance from each other.)
I’m still laughing over how I reacted – and it was pure reaction; I had no time to think – I stood tall, arms raised overhead, and I kept repeating frantically and earnestly to the bear, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
Then it aped me! It stood tall and raised its arms overhead as well. After a moment, the air suddenly felt safe, and we each went our own way. Thank heavens this mine didn't explode.
And out of such moments a life is made.
¡Mío! ¡Todo mío!
Eek, those bombs popping up kinda scared me. Fun puzzle. I sort of remember the game. I think it came on every PC back in the day and I played it a few times. Gaming isn't my thing really.
Dating is apparently not my thing either as it came as a complete surprise to learn first dates are at cafés. I'm supposed to impress a woman with a latté and a scone and conversation? I'm doomed. Hopefully I'll never need another first date.
That clue for AGO was a new level of painful. And since when do we capitalize pastries like a danish? I presume that's why we take dates to cafés for the capitalization conversation before things get serious.
I rode one of those e-scooters once and it was pretty fun. Of course there's the getting run off the road and cracking your skull on the curb that's a bit off putting.
People: 8
Places: 4
Products: 7
Partials: 5
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 25 of 78 (32%)
Funny Factor: 2 😕
Tee-Hee: MOANS. PUPU.
Uniclues:
1 Five.
2 Why my belly looks like it does.
1 GOES INTO TEN
2 BEARCLAW GONE
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: What Jewish woolly mammoths eat on Christmas. MASTODON LO MEIN.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What the hell? I thought I was responding to @Anonymous 8:21 AM. That's what I meant to do, anyway.
Holy crap! That sounds scary.
Minesweeper was the cause of my first ever repetitive stress injury! I played so much in college that my right wrist got messed up. Now I mouse left-handed and work a desk job, every aspect of which causes a slew of repetitive stress injuries :(
I thought for sure this was another rebus I'll just be frustrated by. But 4D HO(MINE)M was my tip-off. So, aside from having to go back to find my typo as usual, I did enjoy it & thank you, Aidan :)
Well, that was fun. I was all set to get indignant about a puzzle being based on a video game, but even I knew MINE SWEEPER. However, I have no idea what’s involved in playing it. Does one sweep away rocks? Copper? Gold? Oh numbers, you say? Well, my printout had no numbers which was not the slightest problem since I would’ve had no idea what to do with them anyway. And it had zero impact on my solve. Still a very enjoyable Thursday.
One little irk. Although I can see how it can be interpreted to fit, 34A seemed technically inaccurate to me. The clue specifies “among” others, while the abbreviation ET AL is defined as meaning AND others, generally implying a list of others to follow.
Glad you’re okay! We have one bear that comes down from a small stand of woods in our neighborhood. Suffice it to say I’d probably freeze if we came face to face. The dogs in the area don’t take kindly to the bear’s arrival on their turf and will usually bark until he or she departs. Nature is really amazing, isn’t it?
Same here! First time I haven’t gotten “post-solve” magic with my “congratulations” on my iPad…
I seriously think I might have had a heart attack!
Ah, the new online dating world. Yes…these days cafes and coffee shops allow you to assess a person IRL and politely “escape” if necessary. None of that “I’ll pick you up at your place” biz. I wonder if going on a “blind date” with another couple even exists anymore?
Well, I had half the fun, i.e., spotting the hidden MINEs, but. missing out on the other half, i.e., having any familiarity with MINESWEEPER. I got the rebus from 4 Down: with HO in place the only "ad" phrases I could think of were "hoc" and "hominem" and saw that the latter would work with PROMINENTLY. I liked the non-symmetrical placement of the MINES, which made ferreting out the rebus squares more interesting. I also liked BEAR CLAW leading into EAT AWAY.
I don’t know nothin’ about whether the majority of the fill was meh but I loved working this puzzle! Yes, at one time in my life I spent time doing the semi-mindless activity of Minesweeper and my husband was a little jealous of my times. Like, “what?” do you have to be in interested in warfare to do well at it? I will confess, it took me more than a couple of “mine” rebuses before I caught on that it was actually mimicking the MINESWEEPER concept.
I've never seen, much less played MINESWEEPER. I've never seen, much less played MINECRAFT. The numbers meant nothing to me and I actually found them rather annoying. But I loved the MINE rebus and picked it up when I had to substitute HIS E[MINE]NCE for the just plain EMINENCE I'd had in there. It was then confirmed by HO[MINE]M. Suddenly I also had the vexing and mysterious PRO[MINE]NTLY. I found the rebuses at the bottom easier -- but by then I already had the trick.
Throw away the baffling and confusing numbers and this would be a NO[MINE]E of mine for Puzzle of the Year. Outstandingly embedded rebus. Hard and rewarding.
Never played the video game in my life and didn’t have any numbers showing. But neither had any bearing on my solve, just another rebus to me.
Loop-shaped canals in the inner ear contain fluid and fine, hairlike sensors that help with keeping balance.
Well I guess you had to have played MINESWEEPER - which I didn’t - to know what was going on here - which I didn’t. Got the congratulatory message but still don’t know why those numbers were reversed into the black squares. What’s going on here? And now I’ll have to wait til morning to find out. Gee, hope I’ll be able to sleep.
It was still a pretty engaging puzzle, even if I didn’t fully understand it.
Liked answers like REGALE and MOWED and most of the themers. And who knew the “detestable little creep”, Hercule POIROT was still waxing his ‘stache and solving murders into the 70s?
Was kind of put off by MINECRAFT crashing MINESWEEPER’s party.
Never been interested in electronic games so bit of a slog. Once I realized it was a rebus with his eminence got a little easier.
Can someone explain the answer to Spanish phone greeting, shouldn't it be ola? Why is it backwards?
RE: Danish pastry question. Capital "D" is correct, because Denmark is the original source. Same with English muffin or French toast.
No MINEstrone in the puzzle but a can of it in my cupboard.
Don't know MINESWEEPER and didn't have numbers anyway, so solved it as a straight rebus. And a very pleasing one. Found the first MINE early at UNDERMINE and spent the rest of the time prospecting for others.
Loved it! Genuinely laughed at the end when the mines appeared on the app, well done by the NYT tech team and the constructor. Super enjoyable Thursday.
On the tough side for me because I’ve never played MINE SWEEPER nor seen a screen with the game on it so I had no idea what the numbers were doing or how to approach the grid. I did eventually figure out the rebus after some wrong starts but it took a while.
Costly erasure - me too for oLa before ALO
Not my wheelhouse but I did like it, especially after reading @Rex.
I had a similar hilarious automatic reaction to a monkey that climbed through a window and startled me awake. I jumped up waving my pillow overhead and roared like a lion! The monkey fled. I guess it felt over-powered compared to your bear.
If you check the box that says “newspaper version,” the numbers will print. When there’s anything unusual, like italics or symbols in the clues or grid, that usually works for me.
Welcome back ! We all missed you !
What a scary - but FUNNY story, Lewis. It kinda reminded me of Jane Goodall (RIP) & her chimps :)
Yikes! The oddest thing I’ve ever encountered while taking out the trash was an armadillo, and it nearly gave me heart failure. I can’t imagine encountering a bear but I would probably react just like you by saying “I’m sorry.“ Isn’t it amazing though, how well the animals adapt to life among the humans - so much more so than the other way around.
So happy to see you back!
Hello dear lady and welcome back. Hope you’re feeling much better and leaving that nasty virus in the dust.
Come to think of it, I accidentally walked into a spiderweb yesterday, one of those beautiful orb weaver creations. I try to avoid them, but the sun was bright and I just didn’t see it. When I realized I had knocked it loose from its anchors, I turned around to the scurrying spider and immediately started saying I’m sorry, I’m sorry! 😄
@Nancy 10:44 AM
Hope you're doing well. I've missed you and your feisty-ness.
Forgot to say I absolutely loved MINE ALL MINE. Simply brilliant! That was icing on the cake.
I believe ALO is a form of greeting specific to answering the phone.
Ditto!
From Grammarphobia.com:
Q: I’m never sure about how food names are capitalized. Is it “Waldorf salad” or “waldorf salad”? “Swiss cheese” or “swiss cheese”? “French fries” or “french fries”? And so on.
A: The one thing we can tell you for sure is that the generic noun in these dishes—the “salad,” the “fries,” and so on—is lowercased.
But should the other part of the name be capitalized if it’s derived from a proper name, like “Waldorf” or “French” or “Caesar”? On that point, dictionaries and usage guides disagree. In some cases, their policies have more holes than swiss cheese.
We’ll start with the argument against capitals, which can be found in The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.):
“Personal, national, or geographical names, and words derived from such names, are often lowercased when used with a nonliteral meaning.” Note that the manual emphasizes the word “nonliteral.”
For example, the editors write, “the cheese known as ‘gruyère’ takes its name from a district in Switzerland but is not necessarily from there; ‘swiss cheese’ (lowercase s) is a cheese that resembles Swiss emmentaler” but doesn’t come from Switzerland.
Thus the manual’s list of terms derived from proper names includes these lowercase examples: “brie,” “brussels sprouts,” “cheddar,” “dutch oven,” “frankfurter,” “french dressing,” “french fries,” “scotch whisky,” “stilton,” and “swiss cheese” (not made in Switzerland).
The Chicago Manual doesn’t specifically mention the salads named for the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and the chef Caesar Cardini. We assume from its guidelines that Chicago would recommend “waldorf salad” and “caesar salad.”
The style guide acknowledges that while it prefers to lowercase proper names “in their nonliteral use,” some such names “are capitalized in Webster’s.”
Sure enough, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.), like the online Merriam-Webster Unabridged, has entries for both “Waldorf salad” and “Caesar salad.”
M-W Collegiate doesn’t seem as consistent here as the Chicago Manual. For example, the dictionary lowercases “napoleon” (the pastry gets its name from Naples, not from the emperor).
It also lowercases “crêpes suzette” (named after a real Suzette), as well as “brussels sprouts” and “french fries,” but notes that in these cases the parts derived from proper names are “often cap.”
And in one rather baffling entry, the M-W Unabridged has “Baked Alaska,” with “baked Alaska” given as a lesser alternative. (Why the folks at M-W would prefer to capitalize “baked” is beyond us.)
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.) leaves us scratching our heads, too. It capitalizes the first term in “Brussels sprouts” and “French toast,” but lowercases “french fries” and “caesar salad.”
Our former employer, the New York Times, recommends in its style guide that “crêpes suzette,” “napoleon” (the pastry), “brussels sprouts,” and “baked alaska” be lowercased. But it capitalizes the first word in “Bavarian cream” and always capitalizes “French” in food names (“French fries,” “French dressing,” “French toast,” etc.).
The conclusion? If you want to be consistent, pick one route or the other: (1) Always capitalize food terms derived from proper names, or (2) lowercase them when there’s no longer a literal connection.
In the end, there’s no right or wrong here. This is a stylistic issue, and if lexicographers can’t agree, the rest of us shouldn’t lose sleep over it. Bon appétit!
Glad to see you back!
Exactly my experience.
I got it with a lot of cussing. I used to love rebuses, but it’ll be awhile before I love them again.
I too did not have numbers. In my case, they never appeared, not in the version on the NYT site nor in my printout from that site. And like you, I'm glad they weren't there. I'd probably have spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out what the numbers meant, rather than just proceeding as if they weren't there.
I got to this late; I'm teaching a class this semester, and had to scramble to get today's ready. I did enjoy it, especially the way the rebus kept surprising me! I've often said rebuses shouldn't be symmetrical, but my first reaction is that there should be a rebus in TINTS to match MINE ALL MINE. The I didn't expect it in FAMINE, and didn't expect there to be none at all East of MINE ALL MINE. I liked the paired MINE-based video games, as well.
Agreeing with Less S More above: having MINECRAFT bugged me a bit, doubling up on the computer game with mines. Then it made me wonder if Rex was going to critique the way the “mine” wasn’t hidden within a word like it was in most of the others. Then that briefly made me worry that he would critique MINE ALL MINE for the same reason, and that would be unfortunate since I really like that one. But I guess at least both of those “mine”s are different from the kind that blow up underground.
But despite that bit of overthinking (I guess I read this blog too much!), I really enjoyed this puzzle. Probably my vote for the best Thursday of the year so far!
I've taken to printing the puzzle in large type, as it's hard to read the answer numbers in the tiny squares in the printed paper, and that did not have numbers in the black squares either, so I'm just learning about them now. I guess if I knew the game it would have made it more fun.
I removed Tetris from my computer about 20 times, but it didn't help because I still had the floppy disk it came on.
Very happy you are back!
Yes, it's really nice to see you!
This was a challenging puzzle for me, even after I figured out the rebus. I'm unfamiliar with the video games, but I really enjoyed solving this, even though I didn't understand the 1s and 2s in the grid until I read Rex's writeup. MINEALLMINE made me smile. I duh-ed on AGRA, and I couldn't remember Zora's middle name. So the midwest part of the grid was the hardest, and the end.
With no numbers on my printed-out version of the grid, there was nothing to jog my memory about playing Mine Sweeper. I used to play on my PC at work when bored. I remember there was some way to click around that would make all of the tiles reveal, can't remember how that worked, but I would do that and when it worked, it was cool, but it usually lead to hitting a mine. Oh well, reset the game and start over.
I got the MINE at HIS EMINENCE, which helped me go back and fill in PROMINENTLY. I enjoyed finding and exposing the mines. Thanks, Aidan Deshong, for the Thursday rebus. Sorry I couldn't participate fully in the solve using the Mine Sweeper rules.
Growing up my favorite candy in the world was See’s Scotch Kisses - marshmallow center surrounded with soft butterscotch. So much so that I’d get them special in my stocking every Xmas.
I feel like I could house about a dozen of those right now but I’d probably slip into a coma after 2.
When I saw [MINE]SWEEPER at 62 across I thought: I've played that, haven't I? But then I figured out what the numbers mean and realized: never played it; I'm probably thinking of Battleship. No numbers in Across Lite, but I saw them on the web page and took a screenshot for reference. Decent Thursday theme.
Excessive names are my bete noire; there weren't too many here but there was a bit of annoying nameification. 13 down SEES does *not* need to be clued as a product!! 52 down GRAPE does *not* need to be clued as a product!!!! Grrr.
What @Gary said!
I played on my laptop using the NYTXW app, and the numbers showed.
Is Aiden meant to be Andy from Toy Story in that picture???
What is TIL?
Yes, indeed. Welcome back.
I would go to your App store and see if your app needs updating
For those wondering about ALO, it is one of those things that really is only used when answering the telephone. Face-to-face you would use 'hola'.
Sort of like here where we say 'hello' face-to-face, but 'ahoy-hoy' on the telephone.
Bonnie & Clyde is a very good movie, not sure about sexy, more sexual disfunctiony. Rex listed Gene Wilder being the cast and I was surprised and skeptical as I had no memory of his performance. Googling proved Rex correct and me memory deficient, Gene Wilder is in the comic relief scene. This was a very good puzzle, 2 thumbs up.
I played this in the App and didn’t get the numbers. It turns out that if you set “Show Overlays” in the settings, you get the numbers, and the “mine” squares turn into little bombs — maybe you get the bombs after you complete the puzzle? I am so disappointed that the I didn’t get the numbers when solvers! Without them, the revealer only seemed partially apt.
SEES still makes them. They now call them Scotchmallows.
I just looked it up. They're different. Scotchmallows are covered with chocolate.
@Anonymous 2:23 PM, it means "Today I Learned".
BAR before EAR - balance aid. I’m old.
Hi all! I was able to figure out this puzzle, but not the minesweeper icons. Help! Please?
Back without even a warm-up round to get into midseason form! A couple of late week puzzles last week that seemed up your alley; maybe you were solving but not commenting?
Never mind! I figured it out! How very cool!
@Lewis 9:36 AM
Holy moly! Glad you are okay.
Interesting. I play on iPad app and got the numbers, but my “mines” didn’t turn into the the the “mine bombs” even when I successfully completed it. Ah well.
I join the chorus of joy at your return!!!
Lewis, you probably had better ways to deal with any daily stress than using Minesweeper to “decompress.” For me it took the place of “Om” or some such semi-hypnotic mantra.
Well, knowing absolutely nothing about either Minesweeper or Minecraft, and being baffled by the numbers in the grid, I ended up ignoring them. I solved this as a fairly easy rebus (once I figured it out), got the techno-explosions at the end, and came here to read what OFL had to say and hopefully grok the theme. But I didn’t quite. Next I read the NYT column by Deb Amlen and learned about the theme and the 1s and 2s and their “adjacency” to the “mines.” Confusion not completely allayed. Whoo, I really had to stare at my completed grid and finally go back to junior high geometry class.
Here’s where I feel honored to be able to praise a dedicated teacher. Mr. Evans was one of the best I ever had the good fortune to meet and even better fortune to learn from. He convinced me to just wuit stewing and to take on trust that the product of multiplying two negative numbers is a positive number. And I still do, but couldn’t explain it if my life depended on it.
Math still baffles, scares and challenges me when I find I must use some. If the education gurus had known even half of what they know now about learning disabilities in the late ‘50s, I might have been a veterinarian instead of a lawyer. No regrets, just saying.
Anyway, after staring at the completed puzzle armed with everything I knew during the process as well as learned post-solve, including remembering that the common point of two sides of a triangle joins its “adjacent sides,” I understand the theme much better. I now understand that in the game (not the puzzle) the adjacency is important because I surmise that it alllows the player to keep from exploding a bomb and losing the game. Thank you @Rex for your graphic of the actual MINESWEEPER game.
My nit is once the solver knows that the rebus squares are all the same, and sees that the numbers are somehow close to where the rebus squares go, she can easily find them. Nit #2 for some Minesweeper aficionados may be that none of the mines explode. For grid art lovers, I can see the attraction of putting the rebus in the wrong place (possibly next to the square with the number?) and having that portion of the grid “explode” or at least be erased. Not my cup of gunpowder, but . . .
So, thanks, Mr. Evans! You gave me enough confidence to try. With your continued help, I “tried” all the way through trig and made it because your classroom door remained open to me after I moved on to high school. Thank you also for understanding that I just could not make it through calculus. I have used the math I thought I would never understand many, many times (most recently in trying to prove to the architect of my new “tiny house” that my demand for a kitchen peninsula would indeed work without making the plumbing impossible).
And huge kudos to Aidan Deshong. First, for being admitted to Harvey Mudd! What a wonderful achievement. And of course for cresting this complex theme that clearly entertained and, in my case, allowed me to learn new things. Since I can attest to the adage that nothing you ever learn is wasted, I’m sure my new understanding of both MINESWEEPER and MINECRAFT will prove valuable in the future. And I do love a Thursday rebus, so thanks for that.
And for anyone who actually read this, I hope my ignorance of the theme components and the challenges created thereby entertained. Please support our public schools and their underpaid yet dedicated teachers. I’m going to see of I can play MINESWEEPER.
Yay, you're back! You were missed.
I retired 12 years ago but seeing how many people either didn't see or chose to ignore my comments on ALO VS. OLA vs. hola and how phones are answered in Spain made me feel like I was right back in the classroom "teaching" Spanish. Thanks everybody.
I usually dislike Thursdays but I enjoyed this. This was fresh and cool
@CDilly52. I always enjoy reading your posts but please excuse me if I decline to take up MINE SWEEPER. Have fun.
Speaking as a teacher of mathematics, this is a bit moving to me to read, because in fact you evince many of the qualities needed to do mathematics at a higher level. Forget trig and calculus for a moment. Your post shows me good reasoning skills and also the stubbornness required to think things through. You'd probably be a good player of Minesweeper, fundamentally a game of pure logic. The fact that you practice law is additional evidence that you are well practiced in the art of constructing valid arguments, which is the bread and butter of mathematicians. And you must have some geometric sense if you can see clearly see how the kitchen peninsula is not a problem.
So while I accept your saying that you suffer from a "math phobia", the math you were fed as a child is nothing like what math really is, which is the rigorous study of abstract patterns. This goes far beyond the sorts of symbolic manipulations which may have frightened you. It may even be that your math teachers except for Mr. Evans didn't properly understand the subject themselves.
A mathematician friend of mine thought he would be a poet when he was younger, but one day he was indiscriminately leafing through the stacks, picked up a book about "modern algebra" and began reading page 1. It was like no mathematics he had ever seen before. No sines and cosines, no derivatives and integrals, it was a land of pure abstract concepts. It was his first taste of real mathematics and he was utterly captivated.
So glad you’re back. And I had the same solving experience and got the MINE at the same place.
Always happy to learn. Thank you for teaching!
This was a beauty! Enjoyed it thorougly! Thank you!
@CDilly52 5:56 PM and @tht 9:02 PM
Love this.
@pabloinnh 6:59 PM
Digame (speak to me) seems so bossy!
Welcome back!
@pablo My Spanish-English dictionary agrees that aló is mainly S American usage.
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