.png)
Men who marry later in life / SUN 10-12-25 / Low-pitched jazz instruments for short / Lampshade-shaped candy piece / Barista's flourish / Green or black African menace / Classic car that shared its name with a planet, informally / Online shorthand meaning "Victory!"
Sunday, October 12, 2025
Constructor: Michael Schlossberg
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- MINE ALL MINE / NOT FROM C[ONCE]NTRATE (23A: Boast accompanying an evil laugh [120 sec.] / 28A: Words on a juice carton)
- FENNEL BULBS / TO WHOM IT MAY C[ONCE]RN (41A: Licorice-flavored vegetables [32 oz.])
- GALILEO GALILEI / STAND [ON CE]REMONY (83A: Scientist who spent his last years under house arrest [8 qt.] / 89A: Observe the expected formalities)
- WENT FIFTY-FIFTY / C[ONCE]DING DEFEAT (105A: Split something equally [24 in.] / 112A: Waving the white flag, so to speak)
1.1821–A newly married man; esp. an apparently confirmed bachelor who marries. [< the character of that name in Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing.] (OED)
• • •
The most annoying part of the solve, for me, was the proximity of BARISAXES (?!!?!?) (25A: Low-pitched jazz instruments for short) to the little scissors / dotted line icon in NOT FROM C/NTRATE. Since the "BARI" part of BARISAXES is proximate to the icon, I thought the "TONE" had been cut out of the answer for some reason. Having never ever (ever) seen the term BARISAXES in my life, this assumption seemed reasonable. Obviously there is a missing "TONE," and then there's a little scissors icon there, so ... I guess the "TONE" got cut too. Only ... no. BARISAXES is just a word. All on its own. Nothing (formally) but. Obviously the "TONE" of "BARITONE" has been lost in the shortening, but that has nothing to do with today's theme. Mere coincidence. The other thing I had no clue about was BENEDICTS (as defined). If I ever knew that term, I forgot it. Do people use it? Does it have any contemporary currency? Maybe it's got some kind of prominence in some quarter of the pop cultural world that I'm unaware of? The term comes from the character Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, but did not become a general term for "confirmed bachelors" who finally get married until the 19th century. If it has had any life after the 19th century, I haven't seen it.
Miscellaneous:
- 4A: Words that might precede "Out, darned Spot!"? ("BAD DOG!") — this is doubly weird. First, the Macbeth quote is "Out, damned spot!"; why in the world would you bowdlerize it? And second, why in the world are you yelling "BAD DOG!" at your dog? The dog's not bad. Yelling at your dog only scares your dog. And yelling judgmental phrases (as opposed to commands the dog can understand) is basically useless. You're not helping. Calm down.
- 36A: Lampshade-shaped candy piece (ROLO) — I don't know that I laughed out loud, but I did find this clue funny. "Lampshade-shaped" is exactly right. Unexpected yet precise phrasing. Nice.
- 101A: Buddhist riddles (ZEN KOANS) — probably the fanciest answer in the grid. Feels fresh, looks great. A "Z" + "K" answer ... not easy to come by. Well, there's KAZOO, and KAMIKAZE, and ZEKE and KAZAM (or, as we saw earlier this week, ALAKAZAM) ... but somehow this one is better than all those.
- 1D: Green or black African menace (MAMBA) — got this quickly. "Black MAMBA" was Kobe Bryant's (self-ascribed) nickname, so the snake's name is familiar to me for that reason, and the "black" in the clue really tripped the answer. MAMBA helped me get rid of my very first and very wrong answer at 1A: Common sight near the entrance of a mall (I had ATM (?!)).
- 12D: Classic car that shared its name with a planet, informally (MERC) — me: "Four-letter planet, gotta be MARS! Wait ... there's a classic car called a MARS? That sounds ... wrong." MERC is short for Mercury, which was a make of car. Didn't know the whole make was classic. I feel like Mercurys were around fairly recently. Yes, they were: "Ford announced the closure of the division in 2010" (wikipedia).
- 38D: "Charlotte's Web" author's inits. (E.B.W.) — Elwyn Brooks ("E.B.") White. Never really noticed how his initials are, as crossword clues often like to say, "apt" (an anagram of "Web"). Would've been apter if W.E.B. Du Bois had been the author, but still, pretty apt.
- 60D: Barista's flourish (SWIRL) — I'm not a barista and never have been, but SWIRL seems pretty remedial as barista flourishes go. I usually get some variation on a fern leaf, which is at least slightly fancier (and, if you're in NZ, apt!)
- 64D: Name found in "whole milk" (EMIL) — why? Why would you do this? It's not even apt! Try harder.
- 41D: Online shorthand meaning "Victory!" ("FTW!") — "For the win!" Used to see this more ~ten years ago than I do now, but it remains a thing.
- 101D: Company that owns Words With Friends (ZYNGA) — got it, but spelled it ZENGA. I blame JENGA.
That's it. See you next time.
P.S. hey, it's spooky season (boo!), so if you are a fan of horror movies and crosswords, or you know someone who is, or you're not a fan of horror movies but enjoy crosswords and want to learn something, consider picking up Nightmare Crosswords: Puzzles to Die For by puzzlemaker Adam Simpson. "50 Fun and Challenging Crossword Puzzles Packed with Horror Trivia." I am a huge movie fan but not a huge horror fan, and yet I still loved solving these. They're entertaining and well made. Get this book for yourself or some horror/crossword fan that you love. And if your loved one is more a Word Search person (no judgment!), Adam's also got a book out called Nightmare Word Search. I can't vouch for the word searches, but the crossword book is very much worth your time.
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️:
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️
- Finger Lakes Crossword Competition (Ithaca) (Sat., Oct. 18, 2025)
📘 My other blog 📘:
- Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)
Save And Share :
91 comments:
Easy Sunday.
Overwrites:
I misread the 22A clue as "Bill in a Chihuahua shop" and wrote in peso even though I think all Mexican pesos are coins. It was "Bull" and TORO.
I really wanted the 25A low-pitched instruments to be BAss SAXES, to the extent that I briefly took out the unassailable SPIN ROOMS at 13D
chEsts before STERNA for the 26D pressure points
My 65D matter prefix was Alma before it was ANTI. And I grumbled because ALma isn't a prefix, it's a separate word.
At 101D I thought the Words With Friends company was ZiNGA before ZYNGA
Food before Fare for the Chow at 106D
When I cry in frustration I say Grr, not GAH (113D)
My 121A across-the-pond John was ewAN before he was SEAN
WOEs:
Had no idea that TOE TAPS (31D) were part of Pilates, nor that they strengthen the core
BLAIR at 75A
BENEDICTS as clued at 75D
I know ZEN and I know KOANS, but needed a lot of crosses for ZENKOANS (101A), which still looks like an alien race from the planet Zenkoa.
Definitely on the easy side for me... I'm a slow solver, so Sunday's are usually over 30 minutes, but I did this last night in 25 mins flat. Agree with @REX that basically the only thing in the whole puzzle that zings is the revealer. The whole thing exists to serve that one turn of phrase. But the answers don't cohere enough or connect with each other enough to keep your interest. And I agree too on the dupes--only one of those themers manages to use the measurement in different ways or spread them across two words. Although I will never complain about a puzzle with GALILEOGALILEI in it!!!!!! Thanks, Michael.
BARISAXES
Rex too harshly criticized this. It is very much a thing. I’m sure anyone who was a band geek or is even remotely interested in band music would not have had trouble with this.
And I don’t even like saxophones, let alone the baris.
100% correct - there are no BAD DOGs. I think the big guy sums it up pretty well today. We have a functional theme - but one that lacks any nuance or flash and the overall fill struggles. The revealer is the best entry in the grid.
Bauhaus
Doubling down on BULBS today. ROXANE x BARISAXES? BENEDICTS x BLAIR? There’s some truly oddball trivia today - not the good kind that you want to know - but the grating kind. I like WEE LASSIE and ZENKOANS and SLEEKNESS are cool.
Tones on Tail
Wind howling from the east and water starting to pile up in the bays - this Sunday morning solve gave me no comfort from the storm.
Love and Rockets
Those scissors were cool. They acted as phantom rebus squares containing ONCE. You could only see that word in your imagination rather than crammed into a square. A symbol in a crossword grid between squares? – I don’t ever remember seeing that before. Just a brilliant stroke, IMO. High props, Michael!
Also, props, sir, for pulling this off at all. Are you kidding me? Nine theme answers, all with lengths in double figures? Four instances of theme answers abutting for four squares? Finding four ONCE-embedded answers to be symmetrical with the four double-circle answers? Wow!
I’m guessing you measured more than twice in making this work, Michael!
In your notes you lamented over the handful of gluey bits in the grid, but, IMO, those were easily outweighed by the stellar strokes that created a most lovely riddle-filled solve.
A famous ZEN KOAN is “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” But what your puzzle evoked from me, Michael, is the sound of two. Thank you!
A BARI SAX (two words in real life) is absolutely a thing. Only in a very formal listing will you ever hear BARItone in full. In a band, "the SAXES" refers of course to the whole section, but the individual varieties are altos, tenors, and BARIs. Virtually always.
A Natick for me was the ZENKOANS / ZYNGA cross. No idea about the Z. Had to go through the whole alphabet before the app congratulated me on the solve. Ya always learn something new from crosswords!
Name off? Ash?
No scissors on my grid, so I had to figure out the ONCE locations, which I am pretty sure made it more fun.
Are there KOANS that are not ZEN KOANS? Is that a repetitive redundancy?
A day when I enjoyed the puzzle while thinking the theme was poor.
I assume there was a reluctance to cross "damned" in the clue for BAD DOG with DAMNS in the grid at 7D, but using "darned" in the clue ruined the whole concept.
Surprised Rex didn’t call out the wild Natick of ZENKOANS and ZYNGA. Two completely unknown (to me) words that can’t even be parsed logically. That first letter of both could be anything.
Last letter in: the B in BLAIR, correcting cLAIR, and thus cENEDICTS, which at the moment made about as much sense as BENEDICTS.
And put me down as a lover of BARI SAXES and their players. My favorite thing in the puzzle today.
What? ZEN is a “Buddhist” concept, and “Buddhist” is in the clue. So That “Z” can easily be parsed logically. It’s ZEN (space) KOANS.
I kinda liked how the measurements could be considered in different "realms:" distance = feet, time = min, weight = pounds, volume = gallins. I wonder if this was done on purpose.
tc
tc
I liked it. Got all messed up because I had MEASURETWICECUTting, convinced that the scissors were placed to illustrate "measure twice before cutting". Nevermind that I had the adage wrong, or that the scissors are nonsensically on the line below. Spent a lot of time trying to sort out how 'once' being cut related to the theme, but happily proceeded without clearing up that mess in my head.
I realize YAWi, CHIn, ROLg, and tAKDESK should've sorted me out sooner, but still took awhile. Honk before BEEP was hard to let go of too.
But a nice, lazy, kind of entertaining start to what will be a dreary day, so all good.
You don’t ‘examine’ atria for arrhythmia unless something is going really, really wrong. Kind of a terrible clue.
At 1A had "cop". Thinking Paul Blart.
Hey All !
Got MINE ALL MINE immediately, it was just in a puz not too long ago. Then hit the Revealer, and immediately wrote the answer in. Thought this puz would be a pushover after getting those, but it still put up a decent fight. Knowing to double the circles, made getting some of the Downs easier. But the ONCE cuts were still fun to ferret out.
Good fill, having to work around a bunch of Theme. Each Themer sits atop/below the other for a few letters, further making filling the puz difficult.
Pretty neat puz, I for one liked the little scissors.
If you reverse SPINROOMS into ROOMSPINS, you'd clue it as, "Laying down after too much partying effect." Pro-tip kids, put one foot on the floor as you're laying down, it stops the ROOMSPINS. Sometimes experience pays off ...
Have a great Sunday!
Oh, and speaking of books, go grab Changing Times by Darrin Vail at Amazon or barnesandnoble.com 👍
Eight F's - What a TREAT!
RooMonster
DarrinV
Rex too harsh on this one. I thought it ingenious.
Same here!
“Benedict” still had some currency in society columns in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Which is to say that it was moribund.
No little scissors in AcrossLite, which is both good and bad. Also never heard of BARISAXES and it took me a little while to accept that that’s really a word/thing. Agree about Emile. Mostly an innocuous and easy puzzle with some weird answers/clues and some good ones.
I found this one of the easiest Sundays ever. Acknowledge OFL’s criticisms, but felt both the concept and the execution were quite appealing overall.
A sad-looking man walks into a bar. Tender asks what’s wrong. Man replies “I just found my wife in bed with my best friend.” “So what did you say to your wife?” “Honey, I want a divorce.” “And what did you say to your best friend?” “BAD DOG!”
BENEDICT, as clued, was a word in my "word-a-day" calendar that I used a year or two ago....
Wanted to point out how the measurements could be considered in four different contexts: distance = feet, weight = pound, volume = gallon, time = minute. Wonder if this was intentional?
Shouldn’t 97A be facilitate rather than facility?
I thought it had some cleverness in the clues: Bull in a China Shop = TORO:)
Mostly, it went by really quickly. I got that the doubled letters were units of measurement, but didn’t figure out what was missing from the scissors until post-solve, at which point it was DOH HAHingly obvious and immediate.
As others have mentioned BARIs are always referred to as such. It would be a dead giveaway of being a NEWB to call one a baritone saxophone, as much so as saying the complete saxophone. Granted, BARISAX does look strange on the page.
ZEN KOANS, two great things that go great together, like Reese’s
Why on earth would someone name their child BENEDICT, if this is the known meaning? And with it being the poster child for traitor. Way to set your kid for success! I guess it worked out well for Mr Cumberbatch;)
If you recite the items on a list, then you name off the items on that list. Ash as in ash tree.
Our guest commentator Rafael Musa had a Saturday puzzle in the LA Times yesterday. He is also a guest on the podcast Rex mentioned “Crosstalk”. Kind of fun to hear voices and personalities of the names we recognize and “know” here.
Oh Rex,
What do you mean, you don't measure gallons, pounds and minutes?
Maybe not with a tape measure, but with scales, and measuring cups, and timers.
We also were not cutting with saws. I thought the theme was great fun.
Sorry you didn't get any fun out of this.
Sorry you didn't see the fun in this puzzle
I loved the clue for 22A Bull in a chihuahua shop. It made me smile to read it. Made me laugh (at myself) when I finally "got" it having tried for all too long to make it something about dogs.
And I struggled Over 11A crossing 108 D because I knew what the answers were supposed to be , but they wouldn't fit - of course because I knew wrong. ( How did the New York fire department get to be FDNY instead of NYFD?)
All of my dogs understood "bad dog" and "good girl" (neither of which necessarily shouted) as well as they understood Heel, Stay, Down, and Come and the queries "Do you want to come in? (the answer sometimes no) Do you want to go for a walk? (the answer always YES)
I smiled at that clue as I did 22A.
Solved it in the magazine for a change. Figured out the trick early, and filled out the grid with two Naticks (EBW and SWOON). I enjoyed the puzzle, especially in comparison with recent Sundays. MEASURETWICECUTONCE is elegant as a carpenter's idiom and also as a revealer.
I can't name a Taylor Swift song, and I struggle with rappers and pop signers. So I will enjoy BARISAXES today and contemplate constructing a puzzle with the themers taken from Harry Carney, Jack Washington, Charlie Fowlkes, Gerry Mulligan, Pepper Adams, Gary Smulyan, and others.
Was hoping for a leisurely stroll around the grid today. I thought we might be dealing with a rebus for a while. Then I “sort of” cracked the code on the gimmick, but got all screwed up trying to figure out where to put the TONE from BARITONE.
A lot more work than I anticipated, and I couldn’t find my secret SPY decoder hat to boot, but held my own at least.
I absolutely loved ZENKOANS - it’s so quintessentially NYT !
Why do some puzzles inspire curiosity in me while others don't? There's not always a reason you can put into words. But this puzzle inspired zero curiosity in me and I was extremely bored with the process of filling it in. So that when I saw -- sort of -- what the "X"s were leaving out, I thought: "I don't actually have to do all that, do I? I mean, I can drop it right now, if I want to, can't I? I've sort of gotten the theme closely enough, haven't I? I see the pattern of the "CON"s, et al, don't I? Everything else will be just tedium, won't it?"
So I dropped it about a third of the way through. Hope that won't Cx anyone too much.
Gerry Mulligan!
I liked this but agree the theme was not as cohesive as one might like. More later.
What a concept, to conceive a concert of words concealing ONCE, as if from a sconce-lit brain. I toast you, Michael, with a limoncello!
I hired an ESL carpenter. What a disaster. He got the "measure twice" part, but he cut eleven times.
Those of you who decry product names in the puzzles must have thought that ORECK and DYSON sucked.
A baseball-playing friend of mine is nicknamed named Out (at least the umpires always called him Out). He loves acid but Out DAMNS pot. He's also developed a love of talking birds while stuck in the MYNA leagues because he'll ENDGAME after game with no hits.
Fantastic theme idea. Thanks, Michael Schlossberg.
Can also confirm this is a thing.
Source: my partner who is a professional bari sax player
Got the double quantities theme instantly with MINEALLMINE, flew down the West Coast, knew the reveler from long experience with (rough) carpentry, finally ran into the little scissors but it still took me almost all the themers that had cut out ONCE before I caught on. I mean, really. So an unnecessarily delayed aha!, but a very nice aha! anyway.
TIL BENECICTS and ZYNGA, also BLAIR, how do you do? Also a word for Amish RITES that makes a certain amount of sense if you think about jumping over a broom, I guess.
Today's blasts from the past are OLIO and SOU. Welcome back, old friends.
Some time ago one of my (I'm supposing) better comments earned me a FTW from dearly-missed Joaquin. That was a one-off, and I still miss his commentary.
I liked your Sunday very much, MS, My fault that it took so long to Make Sense to me, and thanks for all the fun.
Agree…should’ve quit earlier than I did.
Didn’t find any fun,generally dislike gimmicks anyway.
Give me Words that cross each other,that’s all please..
Found at least half the theme fairly quickly: as soon as I had BAD DOG and its crosses, and saw MIN in circles, it was immediately clear that the circled groups in answers are doublings. It didn't take long to get to the revealer, which revealed the other half of the theme, and it's off to the races.
My "race" however was slowed up by little things, such as having BAss for far too long instead of BARI, Food instead of FARE, and iOTa before MOTE. And then not seeing the very bland verb WENT before FIFTY-FIFTY, before lots of crosses were in place. ZYNGA was a WOE, even if ZEN KOANS was easy. (I can't resist pointing out that KOAN is its own plural in Japanese.) I played around with NegaTES (and even refuTES) before NO VOTES. The very last thing I put in was the B in BENEDICTS. Part of me is relieved that Rex didn't know whether or not this is current slang; it certainly is unknown in any form to me. For all I know the B could have been a C; maybe the kids morphed the B to a C because... memes and whatnot. I don't know, I give up trying to follow it all.
So all in all, the theme was easy (and then not too thrilling), but my time seemed to indicate MEDIUM-ish difficulty. There was something old-fashioned about the puzzle: NEATO is something The Beaver or his brother Wally might say, BAD DOG is from an era when child-rearing and dog-rearing were more punitive than is recommended nowadays, TO WHOM IT MAY C(ONCE)RN is practically obsolescent, WEE LASSIE sounds to me hackneyed and stereotyped, I can just picture the cartoon Scotsman, and Rex says that BENEDICTS came into its own in the nineteenth century (so may have been "NEATO" back then).
A little delightful misdirection where ENDGAME refers to chess. Of course they're counting on you to have the more copulatory meaning of "mating" in mind, and of course I took that BAIT, but then trying to interpret END GAME into that context got to be creepy/cringe-y, until chess saved the day. "Mating" is short for "checkmating", and the word "checkmate" is actually from the Persian or possibly some mix of Persian and Arabic. One explanation is that it derives from the Persian "shāh māt", meaning "the King is helpless". There's more to chew on at here at Wikipedia.
Yes thank you!! The Bad Dog answer totally bothered me for the exact same reason
Well. After Rex and some of the comments…to flip a saying…I come here to praise Michael Schlossberg, not to bury him. I found this puzzle one of the best Sunday offerings in a long time. I usually don’t really need to have witty theme entries when the theme itself is so clever and makes you want to figure it out.
As for Rex mentioning the “cutting” with the “measure” entry….no. Not only are they all measures that appear twice (abbreviated) but the clue gives you the “twice’” factor, i.e two minutes = 120 secs. I confess, I didn’t see the “cutting” of the “once’s” until I was near the end of the puzzle…I had filled in the letters and thought…hmmm….I’ll work THAT out later. Part of that problem was my reluctance to call a Mercury a MERC, and at one point thought I would fill in the missing “ury” somewhere but realized after a bit…no.
Funny that Rex chuckled or laughed out loud at the ROLO/lampshade biz. As I’ve said in past, I don’t think I’m a curmudgeon but I never actually laugh or chuckle at puzzle answers. I WAS glad to see that yes, indeed, a ROLO DOES look like a lampshade. At least “traditional” ones.
As for “Out darned Spot!” And the “bad dog” comments, am I the only one (who has had 2 wonderful dogs in my adulthood) who sometimes raised their voice a little above normal with sternness and said No! Bad!, and also have crooned GOOD loudly? It’s not like we can use a calm rational lecture to convey that maybe putting your paws on the cabinet and grabbing (meat) is inappropriate…
I have to say, the whole “across the pond” threw me even though I did put in Sean first. I mean…if France is included you can add Jean, too. And then I thought…well John is John in England, so maybe there is another four letter word for loo or wc…🙄
Brain was really really slow this morning. Took me a while to get the full impact of the theme because my mind was stuck on the carpenter idiom and overlooked the literal interpretation of the revealer. Even though not a lot of laughs have to admire the construction feat and imagination that went into it. I can see why this puzzle has generated so many widely different reactions…
I understand both of them, just never heard either in usage. What is specific about using ash wood to make furniture for restaurants?
So did I.
Yeah see since KOANS isn’t (to me) an inferrable word, I didn’t see them as being two words. So the Zen part didn’t jump out at me. Had it been something like ZEN BOOKS, that to me is gettable. But written crossword style without the space, no way to know that Koans is a separate word.
First of all - THERE ARE NO "BAD DOGS!"
So I guess you can infer from my opening statement how I felt about this puzzle. It reminded me a lot of a couple of Sundays ago with KIT KAT when I spent much of the day on & off trying to figure out where I was going wrong (to put it nicely).
Today's puzzle with the little "x" s drove me crazy like KIT KAT. Finally solved it but gotta say it wasn't much fun :(
Medium, mostly because it took some staring to figure out how fit ONCE into the “cut once” phrases. BARISAXES also took some staring…it just looked wrong (Hi @Rex).
BENEDICTS and ZYNGA were WOEs.
Liked it a rad more than @Rex did but he makes some valid points.
Most arrhythmias arise in the atria
Agree with you Anonymous
I enjoy, and actually look forward to, hearing you bitch about puzzles I find bad, but I thought you were too rough on this one. I thought it was fun and clever.
Ditto what Rex said about BARISAX and BENEDICTS. Too much bad fill. Like an ORECK or a DYSON it sucked.
Mama skunk had little'uns, named In and Out. In was out one day and mamma couldn't find him so she sent Out out to bring In in. Not two minutes (120 seconds, see 23A) passed when Out came in with In. "How did you find In out there so quickly?" sez mamma skunk. "Easy sez Out: In stinked".
ONCE again I got the warning that my solving platform wouldn't support the graphics and "the solving experience may be compromised." As usual, I ignored this and after finishing the puzzle, I went to the NYTimes version and hit reveal, only to see some Xs where the ONCE was cut. Thanks, @Rex, for explaining that they are scissors. I'm glad I went my own way instead of settling for a theme-revealing nothing burger.
I think I got the middle revealer before noticing the FTs in 105A. After that, I at least understood the theme. I must say there were some tough answers for me. BENEDICTS? I haven't heard that term. MERC cars, yes, I know of the Ford MERCury but didn't know they needed to be abbreviated. I hadn't heard of BARI SAXES and first had alto there and then wondered if ONCE should fit in there somewhere, and now have Googled to see that it's a misspelling of baritone saxes according to the AI answer that came up first. Bah.
On the other hand, I liked the aha I got seeing the Shakespearean misdirection of the clue for BAD DOG. Also the "Hold dear" clue for HUG and the "When mating typically occurs" for END GAME (chess, har). I got to change 21A twice, from toot to honk to BEEP. I came up with ROXANE Gay with just the NE because I always enjoy her pieces in the NYTimes.
So there was lots to like in this puzzle. Thanks, Michael Schlossberg!
I thought the theme was great, - and echoing others here - with its very clever reparsing and illustration of MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE, four different sorts of measures, and inclusion of GALILEO GALILEI. For me, the theme never palled; I had fun from top to bottom.
That's why most people call them ZENIGMAS
I'm with Rex on BENEDICTS
Agree on BENEDICTS. Why couldn't this be clued less obscurely as "Sixteen Popes".
This WWF addict thought the company was JENGA, so ZEN KOANS was a long time coming.
And "measure twice . . ." was for tailors.
There are no planets named Mercedes!
Top of your game today @egs!
Roo
I think a cross is a Natick only if it's uninferrable to the solver in both directions. It's no surprise that Rex didn't call it out, because he knew ZEN KOANS in the horizontal direction and didn't think it obscure (just "fancy"), so it probably didn't occur to him that it could be a Natick.
Yeah, I'm not sure I understand well how the specificity of restaurant furniture (as opposed to baseball bats, say) really adds much to the clue. There are lots of different wood used for that or any kind of furniture. My best guess is that ash is a durable hardwood that is relatively inexpensive, so I'm sure it's a popular choice for many restaurant owners.
Second time recently for mine all mine & second time I've really wanted it to be Donnies coal mantra, mine baby mine. Well that's about how he looks at everything isn't it?
Only stumbles, natural concentrate helped by a couple of obscure downs & the Z never having heard of zynga .
I’m sorry Rex didn’t enjoy this puzzle. I thought it was one of the more fun Sunday puzzles in quite a while.
Can it be possible that there are NO bad dogs?? Are dogs not human, after all??
HH
Couldn’t get the music Sundays are tedious to find one letter wrong my rock band was slam you know the one who play at the Rave for the people in the Mosh pit
Bit there is one name MERCury. Get in the orbit.
If I may ... for all you non-automotive people on this list - and there seem to be a lot of you - the (Ford) Mercury was often referred to as a MERC. It was rarely seen outside of North America. In Great Britain MERC was the short form of Mecedes-Benz.
Shame on you @Richie Rch for assuming everyone else spent, or misspent a decade or two watching Top Gear.
Mexican pesos worth more than 10 are bills now. Only coins are 1, 2, 5 and 10 pesos.
Double-puztheme-mcguffin xword. 4 of each type of themer. Ambitious and most cool.
@RP: M&A knows a BADDOG. Have a good friend who adopted this pooch, which she has now had for several years. Despite workin lovinly with it, it still does not like humans. It does sorta like protectin her, but still will also nip at her, occasionally. Dog's name is Tangle, but M&A has nicknamed it Mangle, after it tried to take my hand off, but was blocked by a car window.
Not the dog's fault that it is bad, tho ... probably was mistreated by BADHUMANs, as a pup.
Anyhoo ...
staff weeject pick: Hard to nail down just one out of 39 choices, but reckon I'll go with: THE. Most common English word, and evidently hot stuff with the French, too boot.
some fave stuff: Theme revealer. WEELASSIE. BENEDICTS clue [and new term, to m&e]. ZENKOANS [sounds like an ice cream store treat, in India, or somesuch]. EMIL clue [M&A kinda likes them word search clues].
Thanx for the double-fun, Mr. Schlossberg dude. Nice job.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
... and now, what U probably haven't waited for, much ...
"Worth the Weight" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
It is interesting that Rex often critiques the solving enjoyment and overlooks the incredible effort and skill that has to go into creating something as complex as this theme. While finding most of the theme answers pretty easy to get, I was astounded at how many examples of this old saw (cutting once) the author could come up with. I did find the southwest tedious to complete, partly because I so strenuously object to most clues for "DORK," an annoying word to start with, but so often describing people with deep technical knowledge and interests. Without us DORKs you don't get the NYT Crossword BLOG, for starters.
Anonymous 7:51 AM: Thank you! I agree one does not really "examine" the atria.
I also felt STERNA for "CPR pressure points" was a bit of a stretch. IMO, it feels forced to use the (quite uncommon) plural of "sternum".
Finally, I admit a little confusion with C[ONCE]DINGDFEAT. I initially wanted C[ONCE]DINGVICTORY but of course that does not fit. If you lose, don't you concede victory? Turns out, there is some debate here:
https://stroppyeditor.wordpress.com/2025/03/26/folding-and-conceding-the-logic-of-the-rules-in-our-heads/
For those of you in the region, be safe in this Nor'easter!
ARGH! As soon as I saw this game posing as a crossword puzzle I almost decided to skip it. But I've never skipped a NYTXW in 40+ years of solving them. So, I held my nose and went in.
I began to get the theme -- i.e., somethings being cut -- with the SAX. But I had the same problem as Rex. Never heard BARI- in my many years of involvement with music. I have several friends who play that instrument. They don't call it that.
And no classic cars named Mercury either!
Yesterday was a slog for me but today, solving on a cell phone, I breezed through in 21 minutes which is a very quick Sunday (for me).
Didn't know Zynga or Benedicts but it didn't matter because of crosses.
Had to stop midway to pull in my dog who was barking.
This has been discussed all up and down this comments section but this seems a good spot to jump in. You say "BARIs are always referred to as such. It would be a dead giveaway of being a NEWB to call one a baritone saxophone". However, I spent over a decade trying to teach my self to play saxophone - alto, in my case, but I listened to and read everything about anything related to saxophones in a jazz context. (Big Gerry Mulligan fan, have listened to and liked Gary Smulyan.) Never ran into the word bari to describe a baritone.
So I looked up and, yes, it's a thing. But it's not, as you state, "always" a thing. While looking it up I ran into a YouTube channel called SAX where a very charming, knowledgeable guy talks - you guessed it - saxophones. In one 20 minute video he compares 5 professional quality horns and calls them baritones countless times. He uses the term bari once when discussing the tone of the LeBlanc, he says "perhaps some you bari players out there enjoy that feeling of kind of chasing the sound".
So, again, no disputing it *is* a term, but why? Say it out loud - baritone saxophone. It rings. It's melodious in a way that bari sax is not. Why shorten it? Reminds me of people who shorten the lovely word guacamole to the very ugly guac. Sounds like somebody just stepped on a very large slug.
I talked my wife into doing this one with me whilst we enjoyed, on the patio, the nicest day in Central Florida since last spring. Cathy said she thought the puzzle was challenging, but fair. I thought it was a hoot and lots of fun. I rarely get my wife to join me on anything other than Spelling Bee, Wordle, Connections, and the Mini. More of that!
Imagine if we lived fellow humans as much as dogs. What a world that would be.
Thank you so much, Rex — I’m genuinely honored by your kind words! Your blog has been a daily read of mine for years, so seeing Nightmare Crosswords mentioned here means a lot.
For anyone curious, the books Rex mentioned are:
🧩 Nightmare Crosswords — Horror Movie Puzzles to Die For
🔍 Nightmare Word Search — Uncover Hidden Horror Movie Quotes
Both are available on Amazon — perfect for spooky season solving! Happy solving!!
I definitely agree with you. It was a chore.
Yes indeed ! I surely hope the creator of today's puzzle does not berate his pets. This clue really upset me 🐶
Had a monster day Saturday so didn't get to the puzzle until very late (11:30 pm PDT). Should have just left it until morning, but ...
I feel for the people who didn't get the scissors images. i saw them but did not, for some reason, see the little perforations, so I couldn't figure out how far to cut. This is what fatigue will do to your brain, and its unreliable friend, eyesight.
So kudos to the constructor. Sorry a lot of it was wasted on me.
Today's BADDOG and yesterday's GOWER reminded me of Steve Miller's pet. He even wrote a song about him: My Dog GOWER.
A friend was the personal assistant to the ZYNGA founder's family for a few months. Awful people but that helped me get it right away.
This was one of my least favorite Sundays in quite a while.
Loved it, because I’m not jaded and I have much respect for constructors, or anyone creative for that matter. I couldn’t figure out the mating time clue/ENDGAME (I’m not a chess guy and was thinking of the mating that’s more fun). After I had my aha moment, I wasn’t getting the confirmation so went through everything again- had Firth’s and the good astronomer’s names a bit misspelled! Overall clever and enjoyable.
Today is such a wonderful example of why I find grid art distracting, unpleasant and today absolutely infuriating. And yes, I have visual problems. Caused by autoimmune disease but it is what it is and on most days, I can make the grid size large enough to see everything without distraction. Today, however, I could not discern the dotted line of the scissors from the black grid lines and thought the “cut” went all the way up the section of the puzzle where the scissors were placed.
Just because you are able to do something, should you? Today, I say no.
Happily, the problem only interfered twice. Like @Rex, the first one seemed to work if one “cut” the “tone” from BARI SAXES, thus reinforcing my incorrect visual assumption, except by then, I had completed ARMS and BEEP above the BARI SAXES and those answers didn’t need a “cut.” So I said some bad words, ate another slice of fresh pumpkin bread with cream cheese (made last night) and forced myself to go back and figure it out.
I just have to say it: the puzzle did not need the scissors! I have solved many puzzles with omitted letter themes, and yes, the reveal uses the word CUT, and scissors do cut. Yep we “cut” the word ONCE, four times. Why use a picture? When I was putting the NOT FROM C[once]NTRATE in my answer, the scissors spoiled what little theme mystery existed today. Not only did I instantly connect the scissors picture to the end of he theme phrase, CUT ONCE, but I’m also going to be mentally hearing the phrase on my OJ carton as NOT FROM CwunCENTRATE -likely for a long time.
I did not hate the puzzle, just the “grid art thief” that stole any joy I might have had while working to figure out the theme. I really enjoy our constructor’s work, especially his Sundays. This is not the sparlkiest Michael Schlossberg offering in memory, but his kids gave him a great theme idea that was well executed. I would love to know how long it took him to find four familiar and familiar-ish phrases that would allow the solver to “cut once.” Of course I know there’s a way to do that electronically, but still, good idea, well executed, and I imagine lots of folks enjoyed the cute little distracting, unnecessary scissors. I’m done now. Sorry to everyone I have offended.
This raises the question, is the purpose of the puzzle to entertain the solver or show off the talents of the constructor? Ideally, both; and whether one favors the first or the second is a worthy and never-ending debate. I didn’t care much for this one but to each her/his/its/their own.
Hey c'mon...the theme was exactly as stated..it was original and well executed...a workable puzzle with no real naticks. Kudos!
Post a Comment