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Pertaining to hair / WED 1-21-26 / Classic P.O.W. movie starring Steve McQueen, with "The" / Polarizing punctuation choice / Transaction on an online marketplace / German steel city / Inflation measures, for short / Like government bonds and Uber drivers / Spar on a sailing boat
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Constructor: Ginny Too and Avery Gee Katz
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- Lee has a hot bowl of ___ to start his day (14A: CONGEE / 15A: OATMEAL)
- Says ___ to his neighbors, then heads on his way (37A: NIHAO / 39A: HELLO)
- With gossip and beer over Friday's ___ game (65A: MAH-JONG / 66A: BRIDGE)
- Life across the ___ is much the same (17D: PACIFIC OCEAN)
: of or relating to the hair or a hair : hairy (merriam-webster.com)
• • •
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The fill in this one gets pretty rough in places. The grid is carved sections that are loaded with 3-4-5s, and those sections (all of them constrained by theme elements) occasionally get ugly or rough. The suffix -ICAL is truly awful fill, but I have some sympathy there, as MAH-JONG's immovable presence was always gonna make that SW corner a tight squeeze. The "J," as well as the "H" placement, really restricts what you can do down there. But the ugliness in the SE I understand less. Both longer answers there feel at least semi-awkward. EBAY SALE ... those do happen (50A: Transaction on an online marketplace), but I don't love that as a standalone answer, any more than I'd love AMAZON SALE or BOOKSTORE SALE or whatever. And EPA LABS? (45D: Govt. sites for testing pollutants). I am sure those exist (or existed—does the EPA even function any more? I assume by this point it's just been converted into an arm of the petrochemical industry). But I don't think anyone would ever use EPA LABS in their puzzle unless software suggested it. PSIS as clued is absurd (just admit you've got a plural Greek letter on your hands) (60A: Inflation measures, for short). ESSEN is the capital of Crosswordeseville (everyone thinks it's OSLO, but it's ESSEN) (54D: German steel city). You've also got the partial ABU down there. It's not great.
The hardest part for me was the NIHAO section in the west, partly because HELLO also ends in "O" (so that's what I filled in when I got the "O"), and partly because I only barely know the word PILAR and certainly couldn't recall it without help from crosses. Also, in that same section, the clues on PLOTS and EARS were both hard. I had EPEES instead of PLOTS at first (40A: They might be foiled). Aren't EPEES also called "foils?" They're both fencing weapons, anyway. As for the clue on EARS (43A: All ___), pfft. No idea. Could've been DONE, GONE, OVER, RISE, who knows what else? I also continue to believe that the Italian excuse is spelled SCUSI, not SCUSE, so that caused a bit of a hang-up, as did RATABLE, which ... wow, what an ugly "word" (8D: Like government bonds and Uber drivers). Everything is RATABLE if you try hard enough. Things are rated all the time, but RATABLE, however real a word, is borderline nonsense.
Bullets:
- 19A: Like those local to Universal Studios Japan (OSAKAN) — weird to divide your grid into Asia on one side and North America on the other, and then have the OSAKAN somehow living on the International Date Line.
- 42A: Like the villain at the end of a "Scooby-Doo" episode (OUTED) — somehow this doesn't quite feel like the right word for what happens in "Scooby-Doo." UNMASKED is the mot juste here, I think. OUTED is defensible, but off.
- 4D: Bird with a plume that, ounce for ounce, was once worth more than gold (EGRET) — ah, the despoiling of the Everglades in the service of ladies' fashion. Love to start my morning with the wholesale slaughter of animals. The clue makes the EGRET plume sound kind of mysterious and romantic. The reality is somewhat uglier. "By 1900, more than five million birds were being killed every year, including 95 percent of Florida's shore birds" (wikipedia).
- 51D: Spar on a sailing boat (SPRIT) — this is one of those words that continually gets me into trouble in Quordle (the 4x Wordle game I play every morning after Wordle), because your letter choices will really look like the answer's gonna be STRIP, but ... there's always the possibility that SPRIT lurks in the shadows, waiting to ruin your guess.
- 26A: Polarizing punctuation choice (SERIAL COMMA) — better (or also) known as the Oxford comma, it's the comma before the conjunction in a list of things. The NYTXW does not use it. I know because I have typed out more revealer clue lists than I care to remember (you know, this sort of thing: "... as seen in the answers to 17-, 26-, 46- and 64-Across"—no comma after the "46-"). I should add that I love this answer, best thing in the grid besides The GREAT ESCAPE, which is maybe the best action film of all time (I am normally immune to the alleged pleasures of quintessentially "guy" movies, but I watched this last year and it's honestly a perfect action film, filled with incredibly likeable actors—Steve McQueen and James Garner?! Bullitt and Rockford!? I'm in) (46A: Classic P.O.W. movie starring Steve McQueen, with "The")
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122 comments:
Never thought of Bullitt and Rockford paired up in "The Great Escape" but I agree - unbeatable.
It seems like left-right symmetry would've been more apt for this theme.
I definitely agree with "good idea, poor execution." I didn't even realize that the four lines were a poem until Rex pointed it out. And for the reasons stated, it's a lousy poem.
16 minutes for me last night (but I was really sleepy, so probably could have done it in 12 if I were awake). Enjoyed the puzzle more than @REX did, I'd give it 3.5 stars I think. Main issues: I never actually put together the whole poem (never realized the clue for PACIFICOCEAN was the final line). I had absolutely no idea that the oxfordCOMMA had any other name. Confidently filled that in and had to be painfully separated from that answer by all the crosses. Loved being reminded of those final scenes in Scooby-Doo where the villain is OUTED. Had a Typo (put in AiRIES for AERIES at first), which added to my time. I agree with OFL that ESSEN is the manufacturing capital where all our crosswordese factories are actually located. Pretty generous uses of the S.... But all in all, a very clever puzzle! Thanks, Ginny and Alex!!! : )
Easy-Medium but not very enjoyable. I had many of the same issues as @Rex, particularly OSAKAN (19A).
* * _ _ _
One overwrite, cpIS (Consumer Price Indexes) before PSIS for the inflation measures at 60A
One WOE, CONGEE at 14A
Oxford fit and really threw me off; I was wondering if OSAKeN could be spelled that way, since RATed__ was then 8D. But I finally remembered that it could also be called a SERIAL COMMA and finished up. I had a hard time with this one and didn't even realize it was a poem until @Rex pointed it out--I was going around the grid out of order. Meh for me.
Noticed just now that this was a 15 x 16 grid. So that made it a little longer than normal too....
I think the (poor) poem in the clues is just a bonus, the theme should be judged (how you see fit) as identical clues giving Chinese/Taiwanese answers on one side and their North American counterparts on the other, divided by the Pacific Ocean. The point of the theme isn't a poem.
And sorry--thank you Ginny and Avery! I apologize for missing your name the 1st time, Avery
Never caught on to the poem concept, nor the significance of the placement of PACIFICOCEAN, though I did assume "Lee" was Chinese from the cluing. Needed a cheat to get the NIHAO/PILAR cross. Clever theme idea, but a subtle revealer might have helped.
You’re correct, the Italian apology is either scusi or scusa.
Shouldn't the Asian clues have been on the East and the North American clues on the West??
@anonymous 6:50 SCUSE this was a big huge cluing mistake , its Scusa or Scusi (or Scusate) , there is no Scuse.
My quibble, but I’d refer to the “corny poem” as its Irish counterpart, the limerick. But that’s another ocean to cross,,,, perhaps.
Yes, scusi is the formal command form of the verb, scusa the informal. SCUSE actually does exist: it's the plural noun meaning apologies or excuses. Definitely not correct as clued in the puzzle.
No
When apologizing in Italian, there are several options. Simply saying “scusa” is fine. Alternatively, a bit more formal with “mi scusi” or “scusami”. While arguably and archaically, one could say “tante SCUSE” to mean “many apologies, I mostly see “SCUSE” as primarily meaning “excuses”.
Last letter in: changing I to E in SCUSI/E. Grr.
I believe the Italian word is misclued. It should be “Italian apologies” (plural), and then it’d be fine. “Scusa” is the word for excuse, which is pluralized “SCUSE.” Rex and Anonymous 6:50 are correct that one actually says “scusi” or “scusa.”
A very languagey puzzle overall—and most of my friction came from needing almost every cross on the Chinese side, and some of them (e.g. PILAR and AJA) were pretty rough.
Or, for those with Western leanings, Josh Randall and Bret Maverick!
That’s not a limerick. It’s not even close.
Hey All !
UPSET at that little UPSETS section. Yikes. PILAR? What in tarhooties is that? First I'm hearing of it (at least as far as I can remember, which you should know by now, ain't very far!) NIHAO I figured, but the spelling was iffy. And the clue on PLOTS? Plotz! I had riOTS, as my UNPEGged currency was UNREGulated.
Also, SCUSE, but thought it was spelt SCUSI, ala Rex.
So a fail. Completed puz, but errory (that should definitely be a word!)
Thought Theme a bit strange. Didn't seem the "poem" until pointed out by Rex. Thought they were just sayings unrelated to a rhyme/poem. And across the PACIFIC could really be any country. Heck, it could've been Hawaii. But, apparently those are Chinese words, yes?
Too bad Cal Ripken Jr didn't write a BIO called I CAL, would've been a better clue.
Found out THANOS and ULTRON are both six letter Avengers enemies. Are cities RATABLE? As in, able to sustain RATs? Didn't know the ole Oxford COMMA is also known as a SERIAL COMMA. Or is it?
Shaky pitch? - SPIELS TREMBLE
Ones who worship a fast female runner? - LADY MILER LIEGE
Enough GOO outta me.
Have a great Wednesday!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
My favorite part of this puzzle was its HOMEY feel, pointing out that we share so many basic feelings and habits with everyone else on the planet.
Emphasizing our commonalities simply feels good. My heart smiles when reminded – as today’s puzzle reminds – that even faraway people, such as those across the great BRIDGE of the Pacific, are so much in so many ways like we are.
I am grateful, then, for not only a fun solve, Ginny and Avery, but for the deeper layer of feel-good you created. Just a lovely way to start the day. Thank you!
And let's not forget ACROSS THE ATLANTIC, where people hit loo while McQueen and Garner (and Coburn and Bronson) hit the bathroom, the legendary actors Richard Attenborough, Gordon Jackson, David McCallum, (Illya Kuryakin) and Donald Pleasence - who acted in 244 films and television shows over the course of his career. I can't imagine keeping track of all those royalty checks.
1 star, maybe. I absolutely hated this puzzle. Bad theme, bad theme clues, bad fill.
Robert E. Lee was not, as far as I know. Chinese. Lee is also an Anglo-Irish name, derived from Old English and Irish words meaning "clearing", and now variously spelled Lee, Lea and Leigh.
And a spectacular score from Elmer Bernstein! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85vYBoiLpuE&list=RD85vYBoiLpuE&start_radio=1
Just to pile on, Pounds per Square Inch is already plural, you just can't add another S to it. As Rex said, use the Greek letter, or maybe 'K-Pop singer and his clones."
We also have a Spanish city at 6-D separated from France at 10-D by the Pacific Ocean, rather than the Pyrenees. Or maybe it's men (SENORES, SIR) separated from women (MME, LADY) by the same ocean.
Somehow I don''t think of BRIDGE as a game you play while you drink beer. I don't know about MAH-JONG.
It always bothers me when they use "italian apology" and the answer is "scuse". "Scuse" would be "Italian apologies"!
Liked it more than Rex. Elegant theme and I think well built with a wonderful revealer. Agree that the overall fill was clunky.
Laura Cantrell
POTHEADS is a little frumpy. SERIAL COMMA is flat as is EBAY SALE. GREAT ESCAPE is the name of the park that used to be Storytown in Lake George. Liked the CONGEE - OATMEAL pair.
Neighbourhood of Infinity
Enjoyable Wednesday morning solve.
Away with us he's going
The solemn-eyed:
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside;
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast
Or see the brown mice bob
Around and around the OATMEAL-chest
Think of the middle as the Pacific Ocean. Asia is on the west and North America the east of the Pacific. Makes sense to me.
“There once were two guys named Lee / Who lived on both sides of the sea …”
I stared at the grid after solving, and picked up that we had a sort of “east meets west” type theme going, and then I thought that PACIFIC OCEAN may have been intended to be a reveal of some sort. I didn’t get the poetry aspect until I read Rex. Another of the many NYT themes that are too cryptic or convoluted for my taste (although I will admit, we have had much worse - at least I came close with this one).
I think some other editors would have exercised more care around NIHAO. Crossing it with PILAR and a foreign word or phrase, while par for the course from Shortz, indicates to me that he doesn’t care very much for less advanced solvers (and today is only Wednesday).
Interesting clue for SPIELS (“practiced pitches”). It seems like something Erik Agard would have liked.
Through a miracle I finished the puzzle with my greatest difficulty in the NIHAO/PILAR section and guessed at the O in NIHAO. I had forgotten about the PACIFIC OCEAN fill but at some point gathered the theme was Chinese-American, but found it odd that a reference to Japan in there. And yes, I know the Japanese eat a form of CONGEE, but I think the name Lee is primarily Chinese (also Korean) and I THINK MAHJONG “invented” in China.
I am impressed with the idea here but it was a bit of a solving slog for me. Luckily I don’t know enough about Italian to have gotten bent out of shape about SCUSE.
Rex "conceptually, structurally, visually...admired it". Until the very last bullet (which featured Bullitt), that was about all he had to say positively about this puzzle. But I think it supports his splitting the difference between "ok" (three stars) and "uh-uh" (two stars).
Our Webster's version cites "Pilary" (relating to hair) but not "PILAR"; that made for a wild guess finish with NIHAO an unknown and uncertainty between ESTOS and ESTaS.
Also never noticed the "poetry" until reading here.
Had never heard of Kirsty MacColl or that song; but it made us think of "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed, which is an all-time favorite.
I liked this, didn’t notice the poem and, when @Rex pointed it out, didn’t care about its shortcomings. True, the placement of OSAKAN was a bit unfortunate, but I’m doing what @Rex always says is legit in the face of a good theme – I’m forgiving and forgetting the grid's/cluing flaws. Also – I don’t think the poem implies that our two Lees are spending their entire Fridays playing MAH JONG/BRIDGE. I think they greeted their neighbors on the way to work, then wound down their weeks with friendly Friday evening games. At least, there’s nothing to stop you from interpreting the poem this way.
I had a near-malapop. I put in “achy” for SORE at 18A, only to find ACHE as the answer to [Pine] at 57D. I’ve never seen an Avengers movie, yet knew ULTRON – it’s odd how things out there in the world permeate the brain without your knowing. Was mildly alarmed by the puzzle’s definition of PILAR: I once knew a woman named PILAR and was suddenly worried that her name translated as “hairy,” but – phew! – the Spanish name PILAR derives from the word for pillar. Hands up for being a fan of THE GREAT ESCAPE. An archaeological excavation a few years ago uncovered more of the tunnel network.
Thanks for a clever puzzle, Ginny Too and Avery Gee Katz!
PSI- Pounds per Square Inch
Love this song and the W.B. Yeats poem. Here's an alternate version. I believe Loreena McKennitt set the Yeats to music.
If that is in fact the case, I think we’ve had about a half dozen mistakes so far in 2026, and we’re not even out of January yet. They must have some really good lawyers over at the Old Gray Lady green lighting these bogus clues. It’s kind of sad that they ask us to fill in foreign words but can’t be bothered to insure that they are at least accurate.
Why? Just repeatedly asking that about his puzzle. Why with these forced answers and clues? Why to the specifics of half of them? And why all this bad fill and of-cluing in the service of a poem you would read to a 1st grader? The infantilizing of the crossword continues.
I think she'll forgive you, because remembering TOO KATZ is harder than remembering only one.
Afterward, Lee is violently deported across the PACIFICOCEAN after being OUTED by Lee, who has joined ICE.
Robin: Hey Batman. Wanna go see the GREATESCAPE with me tonight?
Batman: But I'm wearing the GREATEStCAPE! Feel it .... SATEEN. And it's reversible! Got an ASIDE and another side. Looks good with POLOS and really on any OCCASION.
Robin: Maybe I'll ask Alfred.
@Rex's main gripe today, that this is bad poetry, reminded me of the funniest @Rex critique in the bunch a years I've been reading him. It related to the puzzle built around the game "Clue". As I recall it, @Rex ranted about a lack of character development in the puzzle. Take a chill pill @Rex. This is a puzzle. It is developed around a unique theme that in a mere 7 non-scanning clues takes you through the respective days of two people who share a name and a routine but are separated by the vast PACIFICOCEAN.
I would give the theme five stars, and to me, the theme is always way more important than anything in the fill. Thanks for a really enjoyable and different solve, Ginny Too and Avery Gee Katz.
You forgot about RUPAUL. 1/2 point here.
I remember another puzzle from a while back where the left side was American words and the right side was British words meaning the same thing. I'm pretty sure it was divided by Atlantic Ocean which made more sense in that context.
I grew up very close to Lake George and knew Storytown well, and now it's the Great Escape? Is nothing sacred?
My experience exactly.
Easy-Medium, but only because I treated it as a themeless and didn't bother trying to sort out the theme. There's a school of thought that says you didn't really solve the puzzle until you've also mastered the theme, but such understanding is not what the software is looking for (obviously), and so my own benchmark for completion is just the happy music, and it's nobody's business but my own how well I've understood the theme. Some days it doesn't seem particularly worth putting it together; today I said [subvocally] "eh, let me not bother; I'll let Rex tell me", and that was the right decision, because my reaction was "Sure. Is that it"? Little to no enjoyment in today's theme.
Some of the fill spelled nearly the RUIN of this puzzle, or at least TOOK out a lot of the pleasure. RATABLE I'd rate as terrible; it's an ugly word (I look at it and think "rats") and also a fairly useless word. You could live your entire life and never feel a need to use it, not even for a millisecond. Then there are the POC ("plurals of convenience") like PSIS and EPA LABS and POLOS, which emit a whiff of desperation. There seems to be more than a fair share of plurals: BIOS, TORSOS, POGS, POTHEADS, SENORES, and there are still some more to go. Then you have ICAL and ULTRON -- surely these bring down the pleasure another notch or two.
Some of the entries are good. There are all sorts of fun examples that illustrate the pros and cons of the SERIAL COMMA. The GREAT ESCAPE is a good movie. AJA is a good album. The best thing about the theme is PACIFIC OCEAN, which cleaves the puzzle so nicely into east versus west -- or should it be the west-east division?
ICE, you can go away for now. Maybe don't come back for another ten years, and then only in crosswords, unless you clean up your ETHNIC profiling act (for starters). But for now I can barely stand the sight of you.
I'm going to have to sit down and unravel this clue for UNPEG. Right now I have an uncomprehending look on my face.
I think that's more than enough for now. I'll check in later to consult with Gary's GOO Gauge.
This struck me as an odd sort of theme. I saw the obvious theme clues - without ever noticing they rhymed - and kept looking for some kind of hint or revealer to pull it together. Eventually I saw that’s what PACIFIC OCEAN was intended to indicate, juxtaposing the English word on the right side of that ocean from its counterpart on the left side. I understand the visual, but it sort of made my brain cringe since we traditionally think of America as the West and Asia as the East, the opposite of how they appear in the grid.
Like everyone else, I started off with SCUSI at 1D - a minor glitch compared to my less than GREAT success with CONGEE, ULTRON, UNPEG, PILAR and NIHAO. Notice I opted out of the SERIAL COMMA there, before this morning known only to me as an OXFORD. While others may very well change my thinking, first reaction is a clever concept but a frustrating solve.
Glad to find out that I'm not the only one who missed the poem entirely. This was a speedy solve and I had PACIFICOCEAN in before thinking much about whaSt was going on on opposite shores. so at that point it seemed completely random. Made sense eventually.
I know I've seem CONGEE in puzzles but if you asked me what it is, no idea, Put in SCUSE without really thinking about it and now I feel uneducated. Scusi. And RATABLE? Yuck.
I know PILAR as a Spanish name (hi @Barbara S.) She lived three floors down in our apartment building in Madrid and was a great family friend and soccer fanatic. Once I walked in on her watching a Real Madrid game and she was more or less standing on her head in her armchair. I made some crack about that being a little excessive and she said "You should see my sister!"
Always a good crossword day when you have AERIES and ESSEN in the same puzzle. Hi guys.
OK Wednesday by me. Interesting construction and idea, GT and ACK. Good Theme and A Close Knit bunch of themers. Sorry I missed the poetry, and thanks for a fair amount of fun.
There are three different fencing blades: epee, sabre, and foil. Fencers, and maybe even those who watch fencing, likely have a favorite between sabre and foil, but in my completely correct opinion, the only people who should prefer epee are pentathletes and crossword puzzle writers.
Well. I was really enjoying the chewiness of this puzzle, but I didn't grok the theme at all, so had no idea that 37A should be a Chinese greeting. And I've never heard of PILAR, so the NIHAR/PILAR cross, not to mention UNPEG, did me in in that section. And in the southeast, SPRIT/PSIS did me in. So a challenging Wednesday for me, after being proud of myself for getting the NW corner right off the bat. I do agree with Rex that SCUSE should be SCUSI.
As an Italian-American, this triggered me.
Seriously, though - this is an awful miss in a puzzle that couldn't afford one.
Never have heard/seen the word PILAR other than as a Spanish female name. However, based on the word depilatory, describing a hair-removing product like Nair, which used to be advertised quite a bit, it was guessable.
I can at least identify with Lee on the OATMEAL, my usual breakfast choice. It gives me a reason to add fruit and nuts to my diet (plus fiber). My neighbors are far enough away that we're more likely to toot our horns at each other than yell HELLO. And BRIDGE - I thought it should be poker.
This was "hard for a Wednesday". And rather strange - some of the best fill was unrelated to the theme.
I appreciate the effort, so thanks, Ginny and Avery.
As a dabbler in many languages but master of none (even English) I had no trouble with SCUSE (I guess I recalled it wrongly by ear from my youth in an Italian neighborhood) but enjoyed today’s education in proper Italian. As wobbly as some of the puzzle is, I think it deserves a lot of credit for the concept and construction. For some reason, even though I’ve watched the game played many times, I had trouble coming up with the “J” in MAHJONG after picking my way through the rest of the puzzle.
Wow, everyone here is a sailor? You all new the word SPRIT? And PSIS? This Wednesday puzzle definitely challenged me.
Can someone explain UNPEG for "Let float, as a currency"?
"Gossip and beer" during a BRIDGE game? Hah—more like gossip and tea or sherry, I'd say!
SCUSE me while I kiss the sky-Jimi Hendrix
Pilar was played by my dad in Scrabble, two challenges but NOT ME, I grokked the "root" thinking of "depilatory"!
@Anon 8:10AM. Bob Mills was not, as far as I know, suggesting that the surname Lee is always Chinese. While we're on the topic, Lee is also a common surname in Korea. The only way I was certain it's not meant to be Korean here was NIHAO.
I missed the poem too, but that's just made me like this more. I thought it was a nice antidote to current divisiveness actually. Daily routines held in common on both sides of the pacific, what's not to like? And he's Lee, which works on both sides. Better choice than, oh, Ralph. Throw in some madams and ladies, some senores and sirs, and we all can see we're basically all the same. And wouldn't it be nice if our greatest spats were over use of the oxfordCOMMA? Perfect Wednesday, and put me in a good mood. Thanks.
for tht 10:35: Thanks. Why Anonymous came to that conclusion is beyond my imagining. Robert E. Lee?
@tht the Surname Lee is typically Korean, the Surname Li is Chinese. Nihao is not Korean, but Mandarin Chinese.
I agree! I really liked it too. Yesterday it seemed the commentariat agreed Tuesday was good but I didn’t vibe with it. I wasn’t surprised to see my opinion in the minority, as that’s increasingly been my experience with this community over the past few years. But just goes to show you, everyone is different.
Bullitt...the greatest movie car chase ever.
I haven't a clue what this was all about. I solved as a themeless. Yesterday was the same for me - I hope this doesn't continue :(
Thanks for pointing out how excellent the puzzle really is, Egs. Spot on.
I let Rex tell me too :(
@Anon 11:00 AM. It looks as though you may have misread what I wrote, which is that NIHAO [a transliteration from Mandarin Chinese] is how I knew this particular Lee was *not* Korean. (By the way, both Li and Lee occur as transliterations of 李.)
The only way I see that the cluing for PSIS could be rescued is on the off-chance that a measurement of pressure in units of P.S.I. is also called a "PSI", but I've never heard of that, and anyway it'd still be an awful thing to have to resort to when there are better options. It's so bad that I'm not even going to bother looking it up.
I thought the K-Pop singer was Psy, though.
When a central bank removes the official exchange rate for its currency and allows it to float allowing markets to determine it’s worth, it’s unpegging the currency.
Medium for me too. callABLE before RATABLE was a very costly erasure. Also ULTRON, OSAKAN, and PILAR were WOEs.
I had no idea what was going on until after I finished and I never realized it was a poem (I’m still not sure it is).
Interesting/clever idea, liked it.
Agree. You can’t have two foreign words crossing. Just lazy construction.
Bobby Jr claimed yesterday that the old food pyramid with Fruit Loops "at the top" has caused America's obesity problem. (Hilariously delusional notion.) Nonetheless, I'd say that OATMEAL for breakfast is definitely not typical for Americans.
When I saw Steve McQueen bouncing that ball against a wall in The Great Escape I decided he was maybe the best physical actor of his generation. So compelling, and gone way too soon.
Scuse me while I kiss this guy!
A currency is often "pegged" to a second one (often to the U.S. dollar), meaning its value is expressed in the second currency's unit. To "unpeg" is to reverse the process.
This is how it made sense to me. I liked the theme, but had trouble in the NIHAO area too.
I guessed it from knowing the technical term for goosebumps: “piloerection.”
Real different puztheme. I'll give it points for that. Was pretty sure an OSAKAN was doin the stuff in the western themers, but was kinda confused why RUPAUL was workin the eastern ones.
And didn't pick up on the rhyme scheme angle, probably due to one of the verse's lines bein somewhat sneakily hidden in a lonesome Down answer.
And then there was that there formidable no-know squad: CONGEE. ULTRON. SCUSE. SERIALCOMMA. RATABLE. NIHAO. PILAR. UNPEG.
oofers.
staff weeject pick: ICE. @RP: M&A'd prefer a Number of Days Without ICE watch. Just sayin.
faves: GREATESCAPE. POTHEADS. TORSOS clue.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Ms. Too & Katz darlins. Confusin but nicely memorable. And thanx, for the extra row.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
p.s.
runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
No Vampire Weekend video??? But it's apt! Apt!!!
https://youtu.be/P_i1xk07o4g?si=N5TAKEIWHSZEg_cO
Yeah, rough crosses for NIHAO there with the hair thing and the spanish vocab. Perhaps I should know the difference between estos, estas, and estes by now, but I do not.
I’m surprised, Rex, that you didn’t comment on the central answer, ICE, especially given that your mom is part of a protest (go, Mom!). It took me less that two minutes to come up with alternate answers for that section. Basically: change FOE to FEE, BIN to SIR, ICE to ECO, and GOO to GTO. The new downs go from AONE to AERO and BIOS to SETS. Just a thought.
Exquisite music today. Thanks SV and B,
Hi, Rex. Loving the blog as usual! Given your leanings and your mom's protest -- go, Mom! -- I'm surprised you didn't want to abolish ICE from the central answer of the puzzle. It certainly stands out despite its diminutive size. And it's quite easy to get rid of it. I quickly came up with...
Change FOE to FEE, BIN --> SIR, ICE --> ECO, and GOO -- GTO. The down clues in that area change from AONE to AERO and BIOS to SETS. There might be even better replacements, but that was what I came up with in no time.
This went pretty fast -- 11 minutes -- and realizing PACIFIC OCEAN was separating the pairs of answers was really nice. But the answers themselves were a bit dull. Then, like many of us I didn't realize the clues were a poem until I read Rex, which actually makes the theme better. So in the end: thumbs up!
The Great Escape was a great movie, but spoiled somewhat by one fact: they based it on a real event but decided to make many of the prisoners American, whereas in reality it was mainly British and a lot of Canadians. (Wikipedia: "The film omits the crucial role that Canadians played in building the tunnels and in the escape itself. Of the 1,800 or so POWs, 600 were involved in preparations: 150 of those were Canadian".)
Oh, and I am a huge fan of the SERIAL COMMA. Sentences which skip it look clumsy and ugly.
Someone will speak up if I'm wrong, but when currency is UNPEGged it isn't based on anything real. We used to base the dollar on our gold at Ft. Knox but now it's not.
I hate it even more now that I know that it is supposed to be a poem including the clues... DNF at the P_lar/N_hoa cross.
Never heard of SPRIT, and have done some sailing... got it 100% from crosses...
Saw The Great Escape as a 12-year-old in 1963, and it remains high on my list of war movies. Seeing the young McQueen in the clips felt like seeing a young Harrison Ford.
If it makes it any easier, there's no "estes" except for the park in Colorado. As far as estas vs. estos, have to wait for crosses.
I used to play a weekly bridge game with three guys (I’m female) and beer definitely made a regular appearance. One of the guys got married and now he doesn’t play as often.
Beer is definitely an option at the bridge games I play in.
There's a poem? I did finish, but for me it was a tricky Wednesday.
Have to wonder if RATABLE and PILAR would be accepted in Spelling Bee. I'm occasionally baffled by words that the Spelling Bee editors reject.
Puzzle played more medium/difficult for me. In addition to the NIHAO/PILAR section, my NW corner had lots of empty cells (no Steve McQueen tossing a baseball against the walls of those cells). Couldn't come up with the Chinese breakfast option and SPIELS as clued was a WOE, given its clever misdirection of suggesting past tense.
@Egs, Loved your riff on greatescape and your take on the puzzle.
You’ve compelled me to look up the Fruit Loops thing now but…I don’t think OATMEAL is a bad answer (especially in cold weather) plus it similarity (visually) to CONGEE. Keep in mind…I do not eat oatmeal. My reasons are juvenile, but whatever.
Thank you all. Tim Carey: That makes me feel a little better...I guess!
Haha…I’ve gotta say that in this day and age I CAN envisage beer with bridge. However…and as usual…I COULD be wrong…throw in Joy Luck Club…(as if that makes me right), I picture women playing mah-jong, so maybe I’d think of wine? Ok. Women DO drink beer and MEN probably play mah-jong….
To each his own. I much prefer a theme-less with good fill to this great theme bad fill puzzle. Multiple plurals in Spanish, incorrect Italian answers, Pilar (wth?), psi's, EbaySale,... Do love The Great Escape, what a cast, I read the book as a kid at night with a flashlight under the covers.
To unpeg a currency it must first be pegged i.e it's value is fixed (or convertible) at a set ratio to another unit of value such as gold or the $. It's pretty archaic economic principle though a few small countries still do it. The official rate is usually way lower than any private transactions so it is fairly ineffective.
Didn't really know sprit, bowsprit yes from Horatio Hornblower & Aubrey-Maturin novels.
Yikes! All I know is…”who mentioned Robt E Lee?” (Not Bob Mills) and I agree with @Bob and @tht. I’m now looking back and possibly revising my feelings about puzzle toward more positive. My only “hitch” in theme was whether it was more specifically Chinese, rather than “Asian.” I’ve decided I don’t CARE! It was an excellent stab at a great theme that many of us, unfortunately, couldn’t wrap our brain around.
Mike Scott followed this up with his paean to Yeats a few years later with a full album full of his works put to music including the somewhat obscure but fantastic Let the Earth Bear Witness.
@Pablo - I grew up just southeast of Albany but my folks had a small A-frame in North Creek near Gore - fond memories of Storytown.
OK, probably gonna get slack for this, but ... The chase in Bullitt is not the best ever. Granted, it was good, but there were repeated shots, as in two of the same scenes edited in. No bueno. Best consistent, non stop long chase is in the movie Ronin. Check it out.
Roo
@pablo
Thanks, but I don't take any points for RuPaul, just as no points for partials, ala ROOM. Although, he/she is Fabulous! 😁
Roo
Ick. Ugh. Couldn't we have Gimmick-Free Wednesdays?
I thought this a very good Wednesday puzzle - loved the double clues, though I don’t know Chinese. All names were gettable without google. I had no idea it was a poem :-) Like many commentators the hardest part was the NIHAO section. I too think it should be SCUSI . But enjoyed the puzzle, thank you!
Great Escape comments
I was 10 or 11 when it came out. I probably saw it on TV. but am not sure. I do not remember the ending. McQueen was a great actor
But what I have read about is the actual “great escape “ which inspired the movie.
It was almost all British POWS and 75.or so successfully got away from the camp. However, it had a very tragic ending. By this time in the war, aaaround 1944, Hitler himself had become incensed by pow escapes even though very few actually got out of Germany. Almost all the 75 escapees were captured. Often , Hitler tried to avoid having his fingerprints on war crimes. But not on this one. He interviewed, ( normally, the extensive German POW system handled such matters). He ordered the murder of these prisoners. Fifty were taken for a car ride and shot in the back on the side of the road, to justify the shot while trying to escape lie I think the German POW system to its credit refused to do the murders, and some of Himmler’s minions did it. . At that point, the remaining captured prisoners of the real great escape were allowed to live. as Hitler’s anger had been sated.
Since I learned about this tragedy, I haven’t been able to see the movie
Southside Johnny
I don’t agree with your evaluation of what are “mistakes”. I find that almost all of the alleged mistakes are not. Commenters rely on the first or second listings in dictionaries, professional vocabulary etc when Shortz bases answers on popular language but also rarer meaning of words. His puzzle, his rules
Scuse does mean apologias or regrets. The editors might have thought that close enough for crosswords.
Did this remind anybody of the old (and I do mean old) Burma Shave roadside ads? Sequential signs in verse. Last one says “Burma Shave”. One I remember was 5 signs divided thus: Don’t take a curve/at 60 per/ or we might lose/a customer/Burma Shave. As kids we loved to spot those silly things. I remembered the Burma Shave ads after coming here and finding that I totally missed the poem!
The solve had some nice pushback, so I bounced around the grid. I had trouble in the NW immediately. I was pretty sure 1A needed something about ads, but blanked big time so could only think “tosses”. No joy, so I moved over to the NE, and found it easy. It gave me OATMEAL so I went back with my crazy idea that “maybe Lee eats CONGEE in the west”, but since I had no idea what ultimately became ULTRON, and had already entered achy for SORE (which overstayed its welcome!), the NW was still a problem. The oxford COMMA also caused a problem because I was certain of both it and ESTOS at 23D. But since I had the S and the I from PACIFIC, I groveled around until my brain came up with SERIAL. This kind of early week experience makes me so happy I am not a speed solver. Loved the challenge.
After the initial theme set, I did wonder at first why Lee kept doing the same thing on the west and east - culturally. My memory kept firing, and I kept thinking that way back (a decade or more?) we had a puzzle that had a vertical central divider (an Asian mountain range? river?) that used the West-East theme. I will try to find it. Might not have been a NYT puzzle or it might be a figment of my imagination. If this idea has appeared before, I want to take another look. Anybody recall this?
Had all the fill been Monday easy, and if I were a solver who typically tries to solve left to right/top to bottom, I might have noticed the poem. But, after the first theme set, I only looked at the last phrase of the clue to see what similar thing the blank required.
Great job, Ginny and Avery. It was pure fun to have to struggle a bit early week. I would enjoy seeing the concept again, both the sequential poem and the divided grid. Most Wednesday puzzle enjoyment I’e had in a very long time!
Love your stuff every day @egs. And you really added your special sauce today!
@anon 9:26AM THANKS!! I just posted and am going through the comments. I remembered one from way back that I thought was more similar to this one with transliterated Chinese and parallel English. Maybe I was recalling the Atlantic Ocean one. Going to try to figure it out, or it will be stuck in my mental “in box” forever bugging me.
@tht, hand up here for “go see @Rex.”
@Teedmn, I had poker for a hot second, and BRIDGE made me chuckle it just seemed so odd. Some of the variations of poker are much more like MAHJONG (and its bazillion variations) than BRIDGE.
@Anon10:13AM I only know SPRIT from crosswords and my love of sailing ships and books. Most of the time (I think) we see bowsprit, which is a pole that extends outward (rather than upward like a mast) from the bow of a sailing vessel. Its use allows for a wider sail to be employed (think wider triangle, not necessarily taller) or as a place to attach an anchor. The clue was a bit factually misleading, I think.
And all the real sailors in the neighborhood, please feel free to correct me!!
@thfenn, what a lovely thought - “an antidote to divisiveness.” Thanks.
Sorry, not Bullit and not Ronin. The right answer for Greatest Car Chase Ever is: What's Up, Doc?
La vida al otro lado del Océano Pacífico es muy parecida.
Kind of fun imagining another dude living across the ocean living the same life as me. I hope he's happy.
Sometimes I use an Oxford comma and sometimes I don't. I'm that kind of person. I think it's okay to go both ways punctuationwise. I fear the tyranny of the punctuationists.
❤️ AERIE is my 8th favorite word.
😫 PSIS. RATABLE.
People: 2
Places: 3
Products: 8
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 5
--
Gary's Grid GOO Gauge: 24 of 77 (31%)
Funny Factor: 2 😕
Tee-Hee: OUTED POTHEAD.
Uniclues:
1 Robots on reefer.
2 My head.
3 The nests where they hold prom.
1 ULTRON POTHEADS
2 EARS GOO EMPIRE
3 OCCASION AERIES
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: What you wear to the docks. ANTESCUBA KILT.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@ CDilly52: a SPRIT is typically a spar that extends upward at an angle from the mast to support the upper aft corner of a four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged sail. That's different from a "bowsprit" which is specifically a spar that extends forward from the stem, and is used as the lower anchor point for triangular foresails. But in either case it is a "Spar on a sailing boat" so the clue is accurate.
I found this one on the challenging side. I did catch on to the whole east meets west thing toward the end of the solve, but I didn't notice the poem (for the reasons @Rex mentioned) until I came here. It also didn't click that the PACIFICOCEAN was somewhat a revealer dividing both Lees. That's kinda neat.
I think I appreciate the spirit of the puzzle more than I enjoyed the solve. Some very solid fill along with some iffy stuff but the concept itself I thought was was very impressive. I also thought it was executed better that @Rex did.
Clever stuff Ginny and Avery. Maybe not 100% my cuppa, but good, solid puzzleness. Thank you!
Kristy MacColl has the voice of an angel and was taken from this earth far too soon. Avoid my lecture — google and listen online 💜
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