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Five train in Brooklyn / THU 1-29-26 / Like a listening device made out of a paper clip, a plastic straw and seven Lego blocks / Busiest French airport not serving Paris / Bum's place in a bar / Michigan's historic 1991 basketball team, familiarly / Texter's declaration of affection / Villain portrayer in "Rocky III" / Clubber ___, "Rocky III" villain
Thursday, January 29, 2026
Constructor: Kit Sheffield
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG (20A: Expand => GROW = "G" ROW (i.e. a row of "G"s))
- SORSORSORSORSOR (37A: Sadness => SORROW = "SOR" ROW (i.e. a row of "SOR"s))
- TOMORTOMORTOMOR (52A: Day after today => TOMORROW = "TOMOR" ROW (i.e. a row of "TOMOR"s)
to make, form, or repair (something) with what is conveniently on hand
Angus MacGyver, as portrayed by actor Richard Dean Anderson in the titular, action-packed television series MacGyver, was many things—including a secret agent, a Swiss Army knife enthusiast, and a convert to vegetarianism—but he was no MacGuffin (a character that keeps the plot in motion despite lacking intrinsic importance). In fact, so memorable was this man, his mullet, and his ability to use whatever was available to him—often simple things, such as a paper clip, chewing gum, or a rubber band—to escape a sticky situation or to make a device to help him complete a mission, that people began associating his name with making quick fixes or finding innovative solutions to immediate problems. Hence the verb MacGyver, a slang term meaning to “make, form, or repair (something) with what is conveniently on hand.” After years of steadily increasing and increasingly varied usage following the show’s run from 1985 to 1992 (tracked in some detail here), MacGyver was added to our online dictionary in 2022. (merriam-webster.com)
• • •
And then there's the fill, which is a little on the weak side. It's not just that the grid is built in such a way that we get a lot of short stuff, it's that the short stuff is too often OOF-y. That "X" may be the most unnecessary and costly "X" I've ever seen in a grid. A partial pharma answer???? (GLAXO-) crossed with a partial French phrase?????! (À DEUX). Yeeesh and yikes. I feel like the (understandable) commitment to MACGYVERED created a kind of tight situation, as did the fact that the grid is built in such a way that the G---O pattern (where GLAXO is now) is immovable. It cements the first and second themer together. You cannot change that "G" or that "O" and so ... options get very, very limited. Thus, you get this very MACGYVERED solution. GLAXO / À DEUX is the equivalent of ... trying to build a listening device out of a paper clip, a plastic straw and seven Lego blocks. Crazy emergency move. Just somehow not as cool as anything MacGyver ever did (probably—again, never seen the show). There had to have been other options (?). Not much else made me wince outright, except "I DIG," which crosswords have falsely caused us to accept as a thing people ever actually said. Also, I've never heard "Capisce" used as anything but a question ("Capisce!?")—as merriam-webster dot com says, it's interrogative ("used to ask if a message, warning, etc., has been understood"). No one would say "Capisce" to mean simply "I DIG" (just as no one but a caricature of a beatnik on TV would say "I DIG" at all). The last real wince was that NETS clue (66A: Five train in Brooklyn). I think it's trying for a subway pun (???). I don't know why that clue doesn't have a "?" on it. The only way I can make sense of the clue is to read it as referring to the Brooklyn NETS, a professional basketball team. Since professional basketball teams have five players on the court at any give time, I think that's where the "five" comes from. Presumably, these five players "train" (in the sense of workout / practice) in Brooklyn. So it's "Five (who) train in Brooklyn" (!?). Tortured syntax on that clue. (If the clue is somehow not basketball-related at all, you'll let me know, thanks)
Bullets:
- 31D: Bum's place in a bar (STOOL) — "Bum" is your ass. Well, someone's ass. Don't mind asses in the puzzle at all, but trying to make us think of "bum" in the pejorative sense of a down-and-out alcoholic, that I could do without.
- 28D: "Toodles!" ("I'M OFF!") — I wrote in "I'M OUT!" at first. "I'M OFF!" is better. Except it's still bad because it means you've got two "I'M"s in the grid (see 46D: "Leave this to me" = "I'M ON IT")
- 33A: Folie ___ (À DEUX) — probably should've defined this phrase earlier, for those not familiar with it. It's a French phrase (literally "madness for/of two") that refers to shared delusion or psychosis—people who do crazy things as a pair that they would (probably) never do on their own.
That's all. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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146 comments:
Loved this puzzle, Kitshef! And congrats. Unfortunately, I DNF'ed it. I agree most of it was pretty easy, but I saw "Love, love, love" and plopped "AmORE" right in and never questioned it. Had no idea about the Folie ____ clue, so the cross didn't help me. I figured the problem was in that corner somewhere, but I just couldn't see it. Funny how once I'm reviewing the grid for my mistake, at least 1/2 the time I just can't see my problem. Oh well. Congrats again, and thanks for a clever Thursday morning theme!!! : )
Long time reader, first time poster posting first! Good morning, and thank you all!
Déjamelo a mí.
All those Gs started showing up and I just laughed. Took until the end of the puzzle to understand why. Fun revelation. A nice OHO puzzle.
We are living through an age of folie à plusieurs and I kinda wish we'd get our act together. We need a GONG-of-life to ring on society. GONGGGGG, "Okay everyone, I know it's been a little crazy around here, but we're all gonna straighten up and stop acting like a pack of hyenas. And if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all."
❤️ MACGYVERED.
I think I might have another kidney stone this morning because my spine is feeling like it's trying to exit my body, either that or my wife made me a poison frittata last night (and I wouldn't blame her with the way I run my mouth) so I needed a 4 am cheering up and this fit the bill. Thanks @kitshef.
People: 7
Places: 5
Products: 4
Partials: 5
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 23 of 76 (30%)
Funny Factor: 2 😕
Tee-Hee: Moistens.
Uniclues:
1 Sound heard prior to a hangover.
2 Great Clips.
1 GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
2 DOS MARTS
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: 1. Helps with hacking. 2. Gets you high if you drink the whole bottle, allegedly. 3. Tastes like a poisoned iced tea. 4. Who doesn't like a slime? 5. It's neon colored. 6. Whatever the closest store is to your house, they probably carry it. 7. A pimply-faced boy running the self-check-out is required to inspect your identification if you try to buy it. 8. Those caps are not coming off unless there's a kid in your house. 9. Not one person has ever read the booklet of warnings and directions it comes with. 10. And to repeat, it gets you high if you drink the whole bottle, allegedly. COUGH SYRUP TOP TEN.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Great work Kitshef, I enjoyed it enormously. Congratulations.
Congratulations to debut constructor Kitshef...I caught on to the trick with tomorrow-tomor row and went from there, needing one cheat for the MCGYVERED/ADEUX cross. Great achievement to find so many words ending in "G" that made sense with the crosses.
Congratulations @Kitshef! Great debut puzzle!!
Easy, ignoring the theme clues. Cute theme.
* * * * _ (would have been five stars if it had a little more "bite")
Overwrites;
@Rex lyon before NICE for the French airport at 17A
At 28D, I said "I'M Out" rather than "I'M OFF"
When I break down in tears I cry before I SOB (39D)
dIsc (or dIsk) before MINI golf at 60A
No WOEs.
I had the same problem, but I questioned other spellings elsewhere in the puzzle. Finally, I looked at the clue again and changed AMORE to ADORE.
Love the puzzle! SLOG SLAG SWAG: a nice trio. Also like the OOF/GRR combo, and how the FAB FIVE (Go Blue!) worked with the NETS. Totes agree with Rex on the theme too. Well done!!
Yep, me too. Did not help that the moment my eyes landed on Love, love, love Pharoah Sanders began belting out “Love is everywhere” in my headphones. I was in the big big love zone, and you know, that’s amore…
Nar. Clever!
Unfortunate on Five train in Brooklyn clue and FABFIVE answer to have the Five already in a clue, and in a basketball-specific clue at that.
Other than that, wow, I did not think this puzzle was easy. Felt appropriately Thursday-ish to me.
Fastest Thursday solve ever! Hate hate hate the clue for NETS.
Going into my quest to publish a puzzle, I envisioned the three parts of construction as follows:
- Coming up with a theme would be essentially just a flash of inspiration.
- Building the grid and filling it with as little junk as possible would be work – polishing and reworking until you get it right.
- Cluing would be fun, and would be where your ‘voice’ as a constructor would come out.
The first two were pretty much correct. The third was not. Of the 76 clues today, only 26 were mine. I’m sure for regular constructors there is not so much editing, but a lot of the time spent on cluing was for naught as it turns out.
Some of the changes were minor alterations. For example, my clue for 14A was “First lady’s husband?”, which was changed to “First lady’s partner”. But many are significantly different. Most changes I am sure were for the better (the atrocious clue for NETS excepted).
Well I finished it (with one cheat for Folie A DEUX and another for the Simpson’s dude in the SW), but I didn’t fully grasp the theme until Rex explained it.
Rex thought the fill was easy, but I would characterize it as just about right. I felt like it put up some resistance but there was enough there that I could keep moving and at least get comfortable with the repetitive theme answers.
Congrats to @Kitshef. Definitely an unusual take on a Thursday theme. It was a fun one to parse together.
That’s interesting that they accepted your puzzle and then changed two thirds of your clues. I’m curious - are you willing to share what your original clue for NETS was ?
I liked the puzzle theme a lot but thought the clueing for the non theme clues was very straightforward and made it too easy. But reading people’s comments, it seems like I got lucky with this one being on my wavelength
Congrats, @kitschef! What was your clue for NETS? And is Rex right on the basketball explanation? Because it makes no sense to me!
Congratulations, Kitshef!
Way to go @kitchef - elegant theme and well filled all around. I tend to agree with the big guy that it slanted less than Thursday level difficulty but that’s a wheelhouse thing. The three unrevealed spanning themers are the stars here.
Man of Constant SORROW
The theme is restrictive to the grid but the two long downs are both top notch. Some of the short stuff inside is rough - OOF, DOS etc but overall the fill is solid and smooth. I liked the misdirect on the Nets as I spent a lot of time designing and working on the 4 and 5 train.
Let It GROW
Enjoyable Thursday morning solve - looking forward to more from our buddy in the future.
TOMORROW Is Forever
Hey All !
@kitshef
Well now I know where you get your BlogName from ...
Laughed at your Cluing predicament. I'm often fascinated how/why/who-thought-they-were-so-mighty-as-to-completely-change-clues that the clues are so radically changed. As a constructor myself (although my rejection pile is pretty high 😁), I know it takes time and creativity to come up with clues that would work perfectly fine. Only to lose your "voice" to someone else's voice.
Took a minute to figure out what in tarhooties you were getting at. Got the SOR ROW first, couldn't figure it out. Then got the TOMOR one, said to myself, "Ah, it's a ROW of TOMORs, TOMOR-ROW!" Then still took a second to attach ROW to SOR, thinking it might be something else. After the ole brain finally saw SOR-ROW, was able to fill in all the G's in the first one. Had the last six G's in, but had trek for SLOG and LANe for LANG messing up the (as Rex so eloquently said) G string.
Nice to have a FRONTFRONTFRONT seat to your puz. Made me FURFURFURFUR an EYEBEYEBEYEB at first, but solved on the straight and NARNARNARNAR.
Oh, and thanks for throwing in some F's! (Although FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF would've been awesome! 🤣)
Hope y'all have a great Thursday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
The theme is fabulous.
First, while it was easy to fill in, it still left a capital-R Riddle to figure out – what do those answers mean? I’m sure I’m not the only one who exulted when the answer hit me.
Second, in a 15-wide grid, those theme answers are limited to one-letter, three-letter, and five-letter repetitions. What a terrific touch to have the theme answers, from top to bottom, go in that order.
Bravo, Kit, on that, and high props for those colorful long downs – LESS IS MORE and MACGYVERED.
There were other pings of joy that serendipitously showed up. SLOG and SLAG. Symmetrical corner alcohol clues. The rare sighting of a 15-letter palindrome. STOOL echoing yesterday’s LOOTS.
I was also highly inspired, after reading your notes, to learn that you kept on, didn’t turn away, even after 30 puzzle rejections. Wow!
Your debut, Kit, pushed many happy buttons, and thank you for that. Regarding your puzzlemaking future, I see by your name a definite UPARUPARUPARUPAR!
Sweet to see DERRY/AREA sharing the grid with what sits on the STOOL.
Bravo, Kit! A most entertaining Thursday. When I saw all those Gs stretching across the grid, I had absolutely no idea what was going on, and frankly had to stare at the finished puzzle for a while before the penny dropped.
Thursday is typically my least favorite day of the week, and I usually complain when there are non-words in the grid, but today is a big exception to both. A good brain teaser, and those rows of partial words are actually lovely to look at. Congratulations!
Whenever I hear Mcgyver, I think of the SNL Magruber skits where the hero always fails with his rigged solution. 🤣. PS Another day without a Star Wars reference (4th day?)
Nice job, Kitshef! As a confirmed non-Gen-Xer, this was trickier for me than it was for Rex, but it was all pretty gettable once I gave in to the undeniable fact that the themers were repeaters rather than rebi (is that the plural)? No idea on Macgyvered, I vaguely thought that was a cartoon dog detective (which is now see is McGruff. Well, that’s close.).
It’s fascinating that they changed that many of your clues. Please please please tell us how we can see your original version!
Exactly the same. AmEUX seemed ok to me.
"Fifteen letter palindrome" - hah!!
My original clue for NETS was "Brooklyn's pro sports team". My biggest (but not only) complaint about the clue used is that the NETS are not just five players. NBA rosters are 15 people (17 if you count two-ways), and all of them train.
Back for a day to say how much I loved this puzzle by my blog pal, Kit.
My "Aha Moment" was huge. And it didn't come until the TOMOR-row -- which is exactly as it should have been. The G-row baffled me completely -- though having worked on a Cryptic puzzle at one point with Kit -- which, alas, wasn't accepted by the NYT -- I was looking for a Cryptic-like trick, because Kit is a Brit and that's the sort of puzzle he cut his teeth on at a formative age.
But I still didn't see it. I sensed it at the SOR-row, but it was the TOMOR-row that nailed it for me.
This is SO original, so clever and so imaginative! I will write it down on my list for P-O-Y. I just loved it!
I did have to semi-cheat to finish it. Having never heard of MACGYVERED, and missing the C, I had to make sure that 17A was NICE. I had LA?G for the Rocky III villain, typed into Google "Lang in Rocky III" and was thrilled when "Clubber" filled in. That's much less of a cheat then typing into Google "Clubber villain in Rocky III" -- yes? Please tell me it is.
Congratulations, Kit! Very well done!!! But where's the photo of you that I was hoping to see at xword.com?
Dang. I was hoping for Lewis panning.
I have no idea how xwordinfo gets photos of authors. I've certainly never been asked for one.
A long time reader first time poster. Ca somebody please tell me where the themer “gently down the stream” was? I got the puzzle and identified that each row was just missing the word row. But only when I read the blog did I see that the theme was “gently down the stream”. It doesn’t show up anywhere on my puzzle. What am I missing?
The Times seems to have forgotten to include the title of the puzzle in the app! Still solved it, but I had no inkling of the theme till I came here. Overall fun though, if easy.
Nice puzzle! Congrats, Kit, and I’m fascinated to learn that so many of your original clues were changed. I found the puzzle harder than Rex did. I hardly ever watched the Simpsons and usually don’t know things Simpson-related, and also paid no attention to any Rockies after movie #1. Really liked LESSISMORE and MACGYVERED. Also, fun theme!
I liked your puzzle too, Kit. But Nancy: Coming back regularly to remind people you quit the blog isn’t really quitting the blog. Just suck it up, admit you overreacted, and come back.
It’s just Rex’s description—not an official one
Congrats Kitshef, amazing achievement!
Enjoyed the puzzle, although I didn’t understand what was going on with the theme until directly after I finished the full puzzle. The repeating patterns on the three theme rows did help move solving forward a bit.
The clue on NETS was what held me back from finishing the longest.
Hi Nancy. It’s nice to have you back. Hopefully you’ll stop in on a more regular basis !
I have an early appointment this morning, so will let everyone else discuss the puzzle. Just wanted to say congratulations to @kitshef on a sparkling debut. I’m not sure I would have the perseverance to keep at it after more than two dozen rejections, but I’m glad it paid off for you. And BTW, don’t be in too big a rush to clean your garage. I did that 10 years ago when I first retired and now it needs it again.
Well done overall Kit. I’m with you on the First Lady cluing. Although I guess I’m in the minority on the Nets issue. Your original clue seems fine for, say, a Monday. But Thursday clues ought to ramp it up a bit. As for the 5 vs. 15 players issue, again, at times we all get caught up in the “that clue does not exactly match up with the answer”. In my experience, that’s part of the art of crosswording — sussing out what the constructor is getting at and understanding it may not be literal.
What a special treat to read the experience of a constructor! This makes my morning!
This puzzle needed a lot more polishing to be worthy of its creative and interesting theme. I'm surprised to read that so many of the constructor's clues were changed, because some of the cluing was very poor. I still don't understand the NETS clue, and the "'Too many cooks spoil the broth' principle" for LESS IS MORE is terrible; for one thing, you would say FEWER cooks, not LESS cooks, and fewer cooks doesn't clearly illustrate the concept of less is more. Then you have NICE listed as an airport, IDIG for "Capisce," ADEUX crossing GLAXO, two different Rocky clues, etc., etc. I think it could have been an excellent puzzle, but it just made me go GRR....
Didn't understand the theme until I saw Rex's explanation. I like it! Nicely done, Kitshef.
Hey, @kitshef – well done! And how’s this for an OMEN: you made your debut on International Puzzle Day!
I thought the theme was clever, although it took a moment to process. I initially made the “trek” mistake at SLOG, so didn’t immediately see the unbroken line of Gs. Ditched “trek” pretty quickly, thinking that [Arduous journey] should start with an S to make the answer to [Jokesters] plural. And then when SORSORSOR… began to form in the middle row, I thought, “Yes! SOR-row and G-row.”
One amusing error I made was to think [Jokesters] were dAds. (Well, they often are, with regrettably cheesy results.) Liked the subtle nod to one of our blog compatriots in LESS IS MORE. And smiled at the opening picture of tippling in a LIMO and the closing resolution to give up alcohol for LENT.
Well, @kitshef, you did it. And I hope this is the first of many.
I seemingly only come here for Italian complaints but "capisce" is "he/she understands" not "I understand". It would be capisco for this cluing. They can't keep getting away with this!!
For Anonymous 8:21 "Row, row, row your boat...gently down the stream."
The NYTIMES does not publish the theme for daily puzzles (at least in the print version)
Bravo, Kit! Very inspiring - maybe I’ll dust off that little folder of puzzle ideas and develop one now! I love ADEUX crossing GALAXO, that kind of weirdness that can only show up in a crossword, and as Rex mentioned a MACGYVERing out of a tricky situation.
I'm curious as to what level of difficulty you were thinking of when constructing and clueing? The original NETS clue made me wonder if you thought this was going to be an early week puzzle, and the editors decided to move it later in the week, requiring more difficult clues?
I'm in the "well done you crowd" for our guy @kitshef. Way to go.
The repetitions made this very easy, Started filling in G's, had the whole row, but WOE? Then came two SOR's with a "sadness" clue and the jig was up. More SOR's and then repeated TOMOR'S and the bottom was easy too and done before I wanted to be.
Nice to see INIGO, from one of my favorite books/movies, remembered GLAXO eventually, fond memories of the GONG show, IGOTIT before IMONIT and I know Ned but not Rod and today met TODD. Otherwise no real problems.
Interesting to find out how many clues were changed. I guess it's worth it to have your crossword published, but I think it would bother me.
Hearty congrats on the debut, KS. Please Keep Submitting similar efforts and thanks for all the fun.
As a pun, that’s just asinine.
DNF’d on LANG and completely empathize with Nancy. Without LANG could not get LIMO and MACG. Was staring at partially complete themer ROWS when I tried to imagine the “G”’s as a kind of stutter and suddenly realized what the trick was. I wondered about some of the cluing, especially the NETS clue. This puzzle theme was likely irresistable to the editors and depending on the cluing could probably have landed anywhere from Tuesday to Thursday.
In your write up, you reference “The Holy Model Rounders’” Pete Stampfel and Peter Jackson! Are you a fan of the duo and director or was it just convenient to use them?
I’m amazed that Rex comes up with these most mornings! This reminds me to mail in my yearly offering:)
Didn't get the happy music at first, but then realized that I was completely out to lunch on [Expand] when I put in the familiar GGGGGGGGGGBGGGG. But once I got it, I just smiled and said "Nice G-string, @kitshef!" Apologies for repeating what @Rex already pointed out.
Nice shout out to Les S. More. Now we know that his middle name is SIS.
Fill was definitely in my wheelhouse. Nothing too HIGHBHIGHBHIGHB for this PLEB. Since my life is a FOLIE A une, it was only logical to take the next step.
Tremendous debut @kishef. I hope that your memorization of the periodic table is going as well as your constructoring. Being of my generation, you're probably familiar with Tom Lehrer's song "The Elements". It might be helpful.
And I very much look forward to your future puzzling and commenting (I love today's opening -- "Fastest Thursday solve ever"). Congrats and thanks, Kit Sheffield.
I assume you are being “fac-isce-ous”. I think that term has jumped to English by now as mobster-speak for “understand”. (Did that start with the Godfather, or earlier mob movies?) Maybe we should just spell it capeesh to avoid any confusion…
Solved in better than average Thursday time with absolutely zero idea of the theme. Never saw Macgyvered, just from crosses. The Y V was troubling till it all clicked.
Another bravo here, Kit. And revealing insight re the editing/butchery of your clues.
LOVED Macgyvered (though needed crosses to get the spelling right).
LOVED Rex's initial thought that the first "ROW" might be G-string.
LOVED your commentary re your quest; you succeeded with minimal junk, but unfortunate reality re the cluing.
Agree with Rex that on the whole it was on the easy side for a Thursday, but a very fun solve.
Egs, from the other day, your morning routine of waking up and observing eagles-en-aerie, then coming up with delicious puns is one of the few I must say that I envy!
I was a little shocked how many people had trouble with Clubber Lang. I guess Rocky movies aren't as iconic to everyone as they are to me. I think MrT only has about ten lines and I'm guessing I could recite then all. It was his first acting role.
I’m a leading edge Boomer so on paper this was decidedly out of my wheelhouse. But I did know about MacGyver from recurring SNL skits, which moved things along for me and I was able to finish. I never grokked the theme until Rex explained it and was also a tad peeved about the puzzle in general…until I learned that Kitshef was the creator! What wonderful news! I am always thrilled when a fellow blogger’s work gets published. Congratulations!!!
Oh, and that Nets clue didn't land with me either.
Congratulations on a very creative theme, @kitshef! I caught on to the theme easily, but some of the fill was harder for me than for Rex since I don't know Rocky, MacGyver, Todd, or much French. And I wish they had kept your cluing, because that Nets clue still makes no sense to me. But all in all, I thought it was an appropriately Thursday-level puzzle and fun to tackle!
As a regular solver this is interesting (not to hijack this thread. And congrats on the debut!). So, I agree your original clue is too easy for a Thursday (Mon/Tue appropriate), and that the published clue isn't very good. What I find fascinating is the level of change to the clues the editorial team does, eliminating the voice of the constructor (which even more than the answers is where the fun, interest, and idiosyncrasies of a good puzzle lie). I wonder if this is a large factor in why we see more interesting/fun/challenging puzzles at AVCX or The New Yorker, for example (as well as their broader range of acceptable clues/answers)?
Do you mind saying how many clues were changed for legibility (the first lady, where the idea is yours just a word altered) and how many entirely? This is pretty illuminating (to me at least).
Congratulations @Kitshef! Looking forward to your next one!
@kitshef -- xword has hundreds and hundreds of constructor photos. Just the women alone add up to 248, as you'll see in the link I'm attaching (you need to scroll down and down some more before the photos appear.) At the time I was asked to furnish one, I sort of thought it was required to send in a photo in order to be published. I wonder if that changed when Jeff Chen left xword.info.
A "colorful" aside about Jeff Chen. I sent him the photo that's up there now and he emailed me to say that he didn't like the top I was wearing. That the "red" wouldn't photograph well and could I send another photo. I didn't know what on earth he was talking about. My top isn't red, for one thing. You might call it coral or you might call it salmon, but it's certainly not red. I replied that I liked that photo and that I wanted him to use it.
If you want a photo on your constructor comment next time, maybe you could email Jim Horne and ask him about it? Of course, you also may not care.
Here's the link I promised:
Link to xword photos
I read it as G-string.
Oh…i see what you did there 🤣🤣🤣
As a relatively newbie i adored the puzzle. I did it very quickly only having to check Todd and how to spell MacGyver (never saw the show, and, based on thr reviews, thankfully never saw the movie). I found it relatively easy but didn’t get the “rows” until Rex’s explanation.
I enjoyed starting off with a drink in the limo, plopping down for another on a barstool and finishing by giving up the booze for Lent.
Technically, in Italian, "capisce" mean "you understand." "I dig" would be "capisco," with an "o."
Rex's word, inscrutable, certainly describes my feeling towards today's theme until TOMOR[ROW] slapped me in the face. Faced with a row of G's, I didn't automatically think G[ROW]. I did all sorts of things with G's but "grow" never came to mind. (G-force, 15 G's, etc.)
Although my husband could give MACGYVER a run for ingenuity so I'm well aware of the character, I'm never certain of the spelling so the NW was a source of angst for a while.
Kit Sheffield (@kitshef), thanks for the mind-bending Thursday puzzle!
Congrats @kitshef!! NICE job. Got the trick at SOR row. Laughed at MACGYVER. Great to see one of our own in action!
So THAT'S your real name!
Congratulations @Kitshef! Gotta say that you had me stumped there for a while especially with all the Gs & INIGO but a great puzzle & thank you!
Congratulations, @kitshef! Clever and original theme. Really didn't have a clue what was going on even after the G-ROW and SOR-ROW were installed -- I trying playing around with SORSOR... thinking maybe it needs to be read as a necklace of (OR SO)s that wraps around cyclically. I had to wait until TOMOR-ROW before the light began to dawn.
Other than that, it was a pretty quick puzzle -- much faster than an average Thursday. I'll mostly chalk it up to a wavelength thing. But then as has been pointed out, the cluing may have a lot to do with it, and boy howdy did they ever edit the bejeesus out of the clues, taking over -- what was it? -- about three quarters of them? I often think about trying my hand at crossword construction again, and maybe trying to get one accepted at the NYT, but then the thought of my baby being manhandled by all those grubby editorial paws seems a little... dispiriting. I had no idea the editing was *that* heavy.
I thought Rex's review was fair for the most part (and I would not have wanted to be in his shoes this morning, reviewing the work of one of the prominent participants of his blog). And I thought he was hilarious on the matter of I DIG being clued by "Capisce". It brought me right back to the episode of the Sopranos when Tony brings a retinue of mobsters over to Italy, including Paulie Walnuts, who is excited to be back in the land of his ancestors -- but he speaks virtually no Italian. So he's at an outdoor cafe, enjoying a morning coffee and, happy to be at last among his "peeps", raises his cup of espresso in a gesture of salutation to the locals at a neighboring table and addresses them thus: "Commendatore" -- a word Paulie picked up from a previous conversation and thought he understood. It makes no sense at all, and they regard him briefly with puzzled looks before returning to their conversation. He takes it as a snub and, full of resentment, mutters some imprecation under his breath at them (it might have been something like "goddamn cocksuckers"). It's a funny isolated little moment, and likewise it's fun to imagine someone misusing "capisce", in a misguided attempt to pass themselves off as a real Italian. "Capisce." [ummm...] "Okay".
Happy Thursday everyone -- and I'm happy for you kitshef and hope you enjoy this day.
Great way to sneak in Desolation Row. Now I'm going to be listening to it at least 20 times today.
LOL. Kitshef, you not only debuted with a brilliant puzzle but also won the comments in only seven words! Congratulations!
Fun puzzle. Different kind of trick but once you figure it out lots of squares just fill themselves in, making it fly by too quickly.
Liked the two long downs. Never watched the television show but certainly know what it means to MacGyver something. And what’s not to like about, out LESS IS MORE? (Though I personally think this maxim refers to the result rather than the number of participants.)
Also liked WAGS crossing WING IT. Spontaneity is important to wit.
Folie A DEUX was kind of nice in its rather frightening way.
Nice work @kitshef. More, please.
Loved this one! So many people had a hard time with Folie ADEUX, but since I'm an X-Files nerd, I got it right away.
But as mobster-speak it would be second person, you instead of I.
Ha!!
Great puzzle! Plus got to listen to Desolation Row nice morning.
I came here to see if I'd missed something because I thought it kind of a dumb theme - and very easy once I realized about dropping out the "rows".
Unlike most of the commenters, I liked the clue at 66A. I wasn't going to know the answer no matter how it was clued, But I caught on quickly that it referred to a basketball team and liked the trickiness
Congratulations to you, @kitshef, and thanks for an enjoyable solving experience. I started to notice that there were a lot of Gs in the 4th row down, but they were intermittent, with blank spaces between them, so I wasn't sure if it would be the whole row, or maybe cycle with some other letters. I've never seen a Rocky movie, so 1-D could just as easily have been LANe (switching one Superman love interest for another). But I eventually saw the row of SORs, and then confirmed it with TOMOR. That helped a lot, because now I could put in the rest of the Gs without needing the clues. I'd never have been sure of that LANG otherwise.
And I wasn't sure of the TODD/DLIST cross until I came here, although TODD did seem more likely than TODb or TODc.
I liked the pair parts of the face, NASAL and ORAL, not so much the crossing of ORAL with ORATE.
Fortunately, I know where Bamako is; I was almost stuck at that point, and MALI helped a lot. As for NETS, I never saw the clue.
That row of TOMORs somehow reminded me of this other bit of TOMORROW wordplay.
I almost forgot, but I think M-W is wrong about a maguffin is. I've always seen it used to characterize an object, not a character -- like the Maltese Falcon, which could be replaced by many other things (a fragment of the True Cross, a Vermeer painting that was considered lost, etc.) without changing the plot. Wikipedia seems to agree with me, but I haven't done wider research.
Easy-medium. It was obvious from the start that something odd was going on but I didn’t really “get it” until after I stared at the grid for a while post-solve.
I did not know FAB FIVE and A DUEX. I did know TODD.
Costly erasures - IMOut before OFF and ILu before ILY.
Clever and tricky with some fine long downs, liked it a bunch! Great debut Kit!
Same.
Congratulations @kitshef! It was very, very fun to solve! (…or maybe I should just ”!”s)
Great puzzle @kishef! I’m on the road and in a different time zone but wanted to get my kudos to you as soon as I could. Oh…I need to see if @Les has commented on his presence in the puzzle! 😀
Congratulations @kitshef from another random anonymous lurker! I enjoyed it, but it was over far too quickly. Maybe make the next one a little harder? Heh
Ditto to noni
Definitely a likably different puztheme ...
BRAVBRAVBRAVBRAVBRAV, @kitshef!
Pretty smoooth solvequest, for a ThursPuz. But ADEUX/GLAXO did get the NANOseconds actin like there was some ThursPuz difficultiness, at our house.
staff weeject pick: ILY. Also known as: {Three daily doses??}. honrable mention to ROW, tho.
fave stuff included: MACGYVERED. FABFIVE. LESSISMORE. LANG+MRT mini-theme. STOOL clue. LIMO clue. And probably a lotta neat @kitshef clues that they got rid of.
fave Geez-word: WINGIT.
Thanx for quite a row of a ThursPuz, Mr. Sheffield dude. And congratz on a primo debut. The puztheme almost cried out for additional puzzle rows.
Masked & Anonymo1U [s]
p.s.
Runt puzzle news:
puzcrowd server helmsman @r.alph has granted M&A's runts a partial reprieve: He will try to keep it runnin from 9-9 CST on Mondays.
sooo ... M&A won't have to switch over to makin NYTPuzs, after all. [whew] The runts will see yah next Monday.
I think I'm going to print out these comments and mail them to Will Shortz. Editing should make the cluing better, not worse. That clue for NETS is just awful and incomprehensible.
What’s the past tense of “wing it”? Like, if you improvised yesterday, what did you do?
Very much agree with RP. Fun “Aha” moment with the theme; too easy for a Thursday. Congrats kitshef!
@kitchef, thank you for a theme that kept me puzzled!
I filled in the grid fairly quickly but didn't understand the repeated Gs, SORs, and TOMORs - that is, I thought we were dealing with a missing "O" sound....but Go Go Go...didn't fit with "Expand." Hmm.... So, I looked forward to the reveal that would enlighten me, but then saw that, alarmingly, I was running out of reveal space at the bottom. NOPE, there was none. Fortunately, with another review of the grid, SOR-ROW flashed into mental view, followed, aha, by GROW and TOMORROW. Loved the 1-3-5 progression and the Shakespearean trio of TOMORROWS!
Congrats, Kitshef! Wonderful puzzle, which I enjoyed enormously. Like Rex, I preferred GSTRING FOR 20.A, but the ahas! this one produced were great fun. The MACGYVERED clue had me spinning my wheels, but really cracked me up when I broke it. Happy guess on the X crossing, but, otherwise smooth sailing, outside of the challenge of the ROWS. Thanks, so much!
I finished (always a triumph), but being a dimwit I never realized about the rows. Never mind, I enjoyed it hugely! Thanks, @kitshef!
Thanks for the song! -- new to me (if old, generally). Made my brain hurt trying to parse it.
Family vacationing in Hawaii, so very late to the "receiving line," but had to add my congratulations to @kitshef. Well done!
Unfortunately, I fell victim to the AmORE/ADORE, GLA?O/ADEU? in the west. Those crosses were not in my wheelhouse, nor my wheelBARBARBARBARBAR.
There's an old children's song that starts with "Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream."
@jberg. Agree with you about the M-W maguffin thing. It's a thing - a plot device - not a person. And I wonder about this obsession with the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Were all American kids issued a copy of this in middle school? There are other dictionaries.
This was a fun theme that I did not get until I hit the TOMOR row. As Rex said, it is maybe a bit too easy for a Thursday but I'm sure Kit didn't get to pick the day. It would have been a perfect Wednesday. Nice work Kit!
I hate Unknown Names, but occasionally one will pop up that makes me smile, and today it was MACGYVERED which I got instantly from the clue.
My MacGyver story: in November 1987 I had just moved to Vancouver to work in an architect's office. One day we arrived at work to see the street right in front or our office was totally closed, and an enormous film crew at work. Someone said "Hey, it's MacGyver!" They spent the entire day filming a couple of scenes; one involved squealing car tires, followed by a shotgun blast, followed by Dana Elcar shouting "Where's the bomb squad?" They must have filmed that 20 times, and we were on the second floor so we had a perfect view. Squeeal, BOOM!, "Where's the bomb squad?", over and over. It was entertaining but we sure didn't get much work done that day.
To borrow from Lewis:Thank you for this.Please construct more.🎈🎈🎊🎊
@kitshef, congratulations!!
I loved this theme!!! No complaints at all, except maybe to pile on to the NETS clue.
I loved learning about folie ÀDEUX.
After all this time, never knew you're a Brit. Question, then... I thought"bum" was more of a Britishism, so thought the clue woulda been "Bum's place in a PUB"...
Super clever, fun solve, and interesting insight on the construction and approval/ editing processes.
(A little bird told me to check in on Rex's take today... So glad I did.
Howdy to all my xword buddies.)
I'm just imagining the complaints if the constructor had worked Gwyneth PaltPaltPalt into the puzzle!
Well done, @kitshef! This one sparkled for me!
Capisce means Do YOU understand? IDIG would be “capisco.”
Thank you so muchfor not posting that awful Tomorrow song from Annie.
Oops, I meant to type "I hate Unknown Names, but occasionally one will pop up that I know and makes me smile, and today it was MACGYVERED".
Had MAguYVERED at first and could not figure out why GGuGGGGGGGGGGGG was a thing.
I'm used to having to squint at the clues and make allowances for wacky phrasing, but "Five Train in Brooklyn" is, as Rex says, tortured syntax--and nearly indecipherable. It's such a stretch it's not even clever, it's just bad. I second the person who said they're going to send the comments to Shortz.
Great puzzle Kit, loved the MacGyver clue as well as the trademarked puzzle pair of midges & adages. Did not like the clue for less is more, (I'll mentally blame Will), the adage implies you need 1 person in charge to have success. Gilding the Lilly means less is more.
Love I am a Man of Constant Sorrow, prefer the Stanley Brothers version, Allison Krauss also has a goody (Soggy Bottom Boys as well)
Just a hunch, and I'm winging it here, but you probably winged it.
I'm just a little worried that the clue comments are taking on a life of their own, so I wanted to reiterate that most changes I'm sure are for the better. The editors know their audience, and have a style that people are familiar with. My way is not always the best way.
I winged it.
Conjugation of Italian verb capire: capisco, capisci, capisce, capiamo, capite, capiscono.
and here all this time I thought you were some kind of chef who really loved being in the kitchen!!!! Nice to see your name in the paper! : )
If the clue for NETS referenced the number of a subway train (4 or 5), I agree it was brutally unfair to anyone living outside Brooklyn.
@Kitshef You ROWS to the occasion!
@Tita, thanks for checking in. It’s good to hear from you!
If you have ADEUX/GLAXO in your grid as a constructor, it is time to scrap the idea and start fresh.
Great puzzle, thanks kitshef! I was able to complete it without google even though I didn’t know MACGYVERED or LANG or TODD. Had to come here for Rex’s explanation of the long answers, and to understand NETS as weirdly clued. Spotting the repeats did make the solve easier! Loved Gary Jugert’s folie a plusiers
Finished, but had to come here for explanation....like-DUH!
Hey @kitshef! Great puzzle. Question about the LANG -> MRT connection, were they originally connected via clue or was there an intention to not link them together? My uncultured brain didn’t know that MRT played LANG, so it was more of a fun fact afterwards when I looked it up. Sometimes constructors use a “actor who played x-across”, curious if that’s the route you went or if it was editorialized.
Great to hear from you again, and howdy!
@Stephen Burling - I had somehow missed that both LANG and MRT were in the grid. I would have either cross-referenced the clues or gone with another LANG, but this was NYT preferred way.
I just dropped back in to apologize for my typing errors above. When, in junior high, I was offered a list of electives, Drafting, Poewr Mechanics, Metalwork, and Home Ec all sounde more fun than typing. As you cna see, I've made some poor choices in my life.
@ kitshef
MAZEL TOV!!! Great puzzle.
@Les, typing was the best elective ever. I took it in 1976; not only did it come in super useful when computers came along a few years later, but also the class was mostly girls.
Tita, oh my gosh! How nice to see you.
Anonymous 8:43?AM
To be critical of your overly critical comments, we are discussing a crossroad PUZZLE with tricks and humor, not a grammar exercise. (That’s why they are called clues). Such grammatical “errors” as you seem to fixate on, are par for the course in crosswords Les is More is a great answer.
Liked the puzzle. Ignored the theme at first but did notice the repeating g’s and looked for repeating patterns in the others. That made the puzzle much easier for me. Maybe the editors thought the downs should be very easy to help people get the trick? Anyway the acrosses did offer more of a challenge. I can’t remember when I got the row concept but I did before I finished it. Enjoyable. Wish I got to see more of Kitshef’s clues
Congrats @Kitshef! I loved this puzzle! What a brilliant idea for a theme. I actually got the happy music and had no idea what was going on. But the most fun I have in a solve are those few minutes of scratching my head, tilting my head, squinting a bit and feeling my brain slowly make sense of things. And then AHA! ROWS!!!! Very cool.
Much like @Rex and others, I saw the Gs keep coming and then just hoped things would work out. And they did.
I actually loved MACGUYVERRED! Never watched the show but I guess it's been etched into my brain from watching any kind of TV a couple of decades ago.
Thanks so much for a very satisfying Thursday. And thanks for sharing some of your constructing experience with us. Congrats again on the debut and I hope to see many more from you.
Very enjoyable puzzle Kitshef - especially that moment when I looked at the completed grid and finally realized what all these repeating letters were doing there. Thanks!
Yes, @Les and @jberg, I agree M-W should not be the final word.
Paolo's back on Jeopardy!!!!!
I don't really see the reason for all the hate - the NETS clue was one of the best I've seen in weeks!
@Lewis - 15 letter palindrome: jeez ,what a mind!
i rarely comment, but wanted to chime in that i really liked this puzzle. didn't find it as easy as rex did, and very much appreciate the fun and refreshing zest. more please!
@Okanaganer. Why do you think I opted for Home Economics?
In so late to congrat @kitshef on this fun puzzle – and this applies to me: 'this puzzle is awfully, terribly, exceedingly Gen-X-coded.' Yep, thanks, breezed thru it, MAC_Y? Say no more.
Also just learning that OP is a UMich grad like myself – class of '96 here, Theater & Drama :) Never saw the Fab Five nor a single football game because theater nerd.
Congrats, kitshef! Helluva debut. 3 spanners today, in contrast to the 6 themers yesterday. LESS IS MORE? (Not a dig, I did enjoy Kevin Curry's WED puzzle.)
I'm unfortunately a Millennial by most definitions (no offense to other Millennials (not that'd they'd care)), but this was also a wheelhouse puzzle for me. Many childhood memories watching The A-Team and MacGyver with my brothers.
Mr. T deep dive: he changed his legal name to Mr. T (middle initial .). While solving a 1994 NYTXW in the archives, I came across "Mr. T's last name": TERO. Google says he was born Laurence Tureaud. Digging deeper, apparently he shortened his last name to TERO after his pastor father left the family when he was 5. He later changed his first name to Mr to command respect, after seeing members of his family referred to as "boy." Fellow Chicagoan, did charity work his whole life, apple-picked with Conan O'Brien. Great Guy in my book.
Nice review and comments, and grateful for the much needed pick-me-up this week... :)
Just curious @kitshef - do you have a British connection? My husband, who is British, (I'm American) was noting how there was a series of clues/answers that had a British bent to them - he loved "midges" and "slag" (almost as much as he dislikes them in real life.) Great debut puzzle!
Except that SLAG is smelter waste, not mining waste, and a clue of Capisce means YOU DIG or YOU DIG? Foreign language translations need to have clues edited by somebody who knows the language.
JimG
Sofia guy
You have a point.
If Americans actually use the word, they would use the Americanized dialect form capeesh. The various dialects of Italy are actually different languages from standard Italian. It was an odd choice, probably by the editors.
kitshef! I am jealous.. loved it! had no idea what was going on. especially all the Gs. I got the happy music and stared at it for a solid minute before the theme emerged. a huge AHA moment for me, and that is the joy of crossword solving right there. Thank you, my friend and congratulations !!!
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