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Prestigious academic journal since 1880 / SUN 2-8-26 / 1987 Dreyfuss/DeVito comedy / "Ecstasy of Saint Teresa" sculptor / Social media tribute to a celeb, say / Margaret Atwood novel with a love triangle involving a paleontologist / Nonprofit group behind Smokey Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog / "Uhh ..." to Brits / Werewolf on TV's "Wednesday" / Fine-grained wood in some woodwind instruments / Disney heroine based on New Orleans chef Leah Chase / BMW offering since 2000 / Canadian coin featuring a polar bear, informally
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Constructor: Chloe Revery
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- ELASTIC HAIR TIE (23A: Scrunchie, e.g.)
- PRINCE OF WALES (39A: Title for William beginning in 2022)
- THE AD COUNCIL (45A: Nonprofit group behind Smokey Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog)
- DIRECT ORDER (67A: Explicit command)
- SHOCKING PINK (87A: Bright shade similar to magenta)
- LIFE BEFORE MAN (96A: Margaret Atwood novel with a love triangle involving a paleontologist)
Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (UK: /bɛərˈniːni/, US: /bərˈ-/; Italian: [ˈdʒan loˈrɛntso berˈniːni]; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor, architect, painter and city planner. Bernini's creative abilities and mastery in a range of artistic arenas define him as a uomo universale or Renaissance man. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture.
As one scholar has commented, "What Shakespeare is to drama, Bernini may be to sculpture: the first pan-European sculptor whose name is instantaneously identifiable with a particular manner and vision, and whose influence was inordinately powerful ..." In addition, he was a painter (mostly small canvases in oil) and a man of the theatre: he wrote, directed and acted in plays (mostly Carnival satires), for which he designed stage sets and theatrical machinery. He produced designs as well for a wide variety of decorative art objects including lamps, tables, mirrors, and even coaches.
As an architect and city planner, he designed secular buildings, churches, chapels, and public squares, as well as massive works combining both architecture and sculpture, especially elaborate public fountains and funerary monuments and a whole series of temporary structures (in stucco and wood) for funerals and festivals. His broad technical versatility, boundless compositional inventiveness and sheer skill in manipulating marble ensured that he would be considered a worthy successor of Michelangelo, far outshining other sculptors of his generation. (wikipedia)
• • •
There was some fun to be had in the non-thematic parts of the puzzle. "ARE WE DONE?" is lovely, and I quite enjoyed MOONSHINE (50D: Drink from a tub?), though I'm not sure about the tub part. Is the tub a reference to "bathtub gin?" I don't think MOONSHINE and "bathtub gin" are exactly the same thing. They're both homemade spirits, but "gin" tends to have botanicals added. Still, "bathtub gin" is a kind of generalized term for home-distilled alcohol, which MOONSHINE is, so ... close enough, I guess. If the "tub" in 50D: Drink from a tub? refers to something else, one of you will tell me. I'm always happy to encounter liquor in my crossword, even if it's something I likely wouldn't drink myself (such as MOONSHINE).
[77A: 1987 Dreyfuss/DeVito comedy]
There are three UPs in this grid, which is probably at least one too many, even for a Sunday-sized grid (ANTE UP, ROLL UP, EASE UP). I think I've seen as many as four in Sunday grids before. If there are so many that I notice (or if, god forbid, two of the UPs are crossing), then that's probably too many. The grid overall seemed solid enough, with only a few answers making me balk or wince. FANVID was probably the ugliest thing, to my ear/eye. I refuse to believe in it. Sometimes you have to treat "words" like fictional creatures and just refuse to believe. FANVID is a horrid-looking little piece of fill. I'm sure there are fan videos, but FANVID, barf (unsurprisingly, it's a debut). Fan culture (esp. online fan culture) tends to be insular and putrid, so ... pass. Unfortunately, looking up FANVID has led me to discover the term "vidding," which ... I can't bring myself to go into. You can read about it here. Oh lord ... and now I've discovered YOUTUBE POOP (abbr. YTP, in case any constructor out there is interested in absolutely ruining one of their grids). See, this is why you should never look things up. You're better off not knowing.
I'm not sure I get why a COLD is a [Small bug?]. Is it because the virus is literally small? I mean, compared to, say, insects, or a rabbit or a microwave or a yacht or something? Bizarre. I get that ACNE can be found on your face, and it's hard (difficult?) to deal with (?), or maybe it's physically hard, but still, [Something hard to face?] doesn't seem like an apt description, even allowing for "?" leeway. There weren't many places I struggled today. Not for long, anyway. I confused the [Place for a shoelace] (EYELET) with the tip of a shoelace (AIGLET). I would never ever have thought of PEAR as a wood unless the crossword forced me to (as it did today) (30A: Fine-grained wood in some woodwind instruments). I misremembered BERNINI as BELLINI (which is a drink). SCIENCE was hard for me as clued (12D: Prestigious academic journal since 1880). The center of the grid gets a little ugly (ECIGS alongside ERM), but it didn't give me any trouble. I didn't know the Atwood title—that was probably the biggest hold-up for me, as it denied me traction in the SW (where I was already struggling with the erroneous AIGLET). But no part of this puzzle was particularly tough. It was mostly on the easy side of normal.
[44A: Money in rock 'n' roll]
["I feel a hunger. It's a hunger." Truly one of the greatest opening lyrics of all time]
Side note: my spelling and grammar check would like a word with Mr. Money ...
 |
| ["I feel hungry. I am hungry" — yeah, that's much better] |
- 35A: Disney heroine based on New Orleans chef Leah Chase (TIANA) — where Disney princesses are concerned, I have memorized a few common names that come up in crosswords a lot (MOANA, ELSA, TIANA), but I know almost nothing about them. I can barely name the movie TIANA is from (something about a frog? can that be right? ... [looks it up] ... ha, it's true, The Princess and the Frog!). Anyway, I certainly had no idea the character was based on a New Orleans chef. Leah Chase was a highly honored chef and TV personality known as The Queen of Creole Cuisine. "Her restaurant, Dooky Chase, was known as a gathering place during the 1960s among many who participated in the Civil Rights Movement, and was known as a gallery due to its extensive African-American art collection. In 2018 it was named one of the 40 most important restaurants of the past 40 years by Food & Wine." (wikipedia).
- 9D: Werewolf on TV's "Wednesday" (ENID) — pfffffffft I know that "Wednesday" exists and is one of Netflix's more popular shows. Isn't that enough? Are you gonna make me go two three four deep on the character roster? Is "Wednesday" the new Star Wars? (been a few days since we've seen a Star Wars reference, btw—amazed we got through a Sunday-sized grid today without one, good job, everyone).
["I write in my voice! It's my truth! It's what my followers love!" LOL OK, maybe I love ENID.]
- 4D: Trouble with Z's? (INSOMNIA) — once again, I understand the clue, but I don't get what kind of word play the clue is aiming for. What is "Trouble with Z's" supposed to evoke? Everyone knows that "Z's" refers to sleep (most commonly in the phrase "catch some Z's"), but what is the clue doing with its "?"? What pun is being made? You've just replaced "sleep" with "Z's"? Why? I don't know why.
- 69D: "Uhh ..." to Brits ("ERM ...")— to Brits!? Isn't it bad enough we have to deal with all of our own hesitation sounds, your UHS and your ERS and your UMS? Do we need imports?
- 96D: Set of nine dancing in "The 12 Days of Christmas" (LADIES) — gah, I tried to get this song going in my head but I was all over the place and could not retrieve the LADIES. There were Lords a-Leapin' and Maids a-Milkin' and Pipers Piping and Drummers Drumming and Five. Gold. Rings. But everything was coming to me out of order. LADIES is such a straightforward word, I couldn't find it. Add this to my SW woes. LIFE BEFORE MAN, EYELET-not-AIGLET, and this.
- 51D: Concert broadcast that celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2025, with "The" (OPRY) — needed a cross or two to get this one. I'm not used to seeing OPRY without "Grand Ole" attached.
[♫❤️ Iris Dement ❤️♫]
P.S. big thank-you to the reader who saw that I enjoyed Lagavulin and so sent me ... Lagavulin. Is it that easy? Do I just have to say things I like and they materialize? Chocolate chip cookies! Vintage paperbacks! Labrador retriever puppy!
P.P.S. Super Bowl today, which means only one thing to me—it's baseball season! Wearing a new shirt to get me in the mood:
[Available here—$8 from every shirt goes to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota]
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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112 comments:
The easiest NYTimes Sunday puzzle I have ever encountered - and not just a little easier, but by leaps and bounds. Finished in half the time of my typical Sunday solve.. Not one stumble or hesitation - and did not even have to read the entire clue for quite a few. Clues were straight-down-the-middle staight-forward with hardly any misdirection at all - though I did appreciate the bit of Thomas More cleverness, and the way ACNE was clued - not wuite misdirection, but clever.
Not blowing my own horn. Just quick shocked, actually, at how easy this was.
I agree with @Sammy. The puzzle was Easy. But it wasn't very satisfying. Not much "there" there. No wordplay and not much misdirection. It's hard to envision a more boring answer than 23A ELASTIC HAIR TIE or 45A THE AD COUNCIL.
* * _ _ _
Overwrites:
My woodwind wood was teak before it was PEAR (30A)
ROLL in before UP for the car arrival at 92D, mainly because I remembered ANTE UP at 22A and EASE UP at 61A
WOEs:
Needed every cross for Disney heroine TIANA at 35A
I didn't know the 96A Atwood novel LIFE BEFORE MAN, but I had enough crosses that it was inevitable before I read the clue.
Re the Lagavulin...
Drink it neat. No ICE!
I agree with @Sammy, this was the easiest Sunday puzzle I've ever done. 18 minutes for me, definitely a PB. It was harmless.... I agree about the theme not being so sparkly. Agree about SHOCKINGPINK being the best of the themers. But I love puzzles with BERNINI and MENLO and TIANA (esp. as clued), AREWEDONE right across the grid from MOONSHINE, and some hope for a better UTOPIA out there : )! @REX you'll have to tell us more about Lagavulin.... what makes it awesome? (don't worry, I'll look it up too). And I do love the show Undercover Boss actually... of the reality TV universe, it's the one I think has the best premise (even if not executed perfectly! kinda like this puzzle.... ). Thanks, Chloe, for a quick and breezy fun Sunday morning solve!! : )
Yup, the easiest Sunday for a long while. Close to a record time. Really dull both clues and answers. Monday lite. Unsatisfying in the extreme. I may as well go back to bed.
Yes. Half my usual time. Monday level easy. Nothing to figure out. Like getting underwear for Christmas. Not the sexy kind.
Never heard of UNDERCOVERBOSS, but okay.
69D’s clue should be “‘Um…’ to Brits.” (“Uhh…” to Brits is “Er…”)
Hit the third UP and knew the big guy would have something to say about it. And no, MOONSHINE is emphatically not made in a bathtub. It’s corn whiskey that’s sold illegally, i.e., without giving a cut to the guvmint. (Though nowadays there’s something sold legally that’s called moonshine, but I think the proper name would be “terrible, barely drinkable raw corn whiskey.” I suppose MOONSHINE could be used as a basis for bathtub gin, but that’s not what the clue was going for.)
Lots of issues with this puzzle. It was truly a wreck of a mess, despite being so easy.
One that annoyed me was a CIO being described as a "Tech company exec." EVERY company (beyond a certain size, anyway) has a CIO - not just tech companies. The CIO is the person who keeps all the technology humming and brings tech innovation to the C-suite.
OMG - enough of the circles already. Solved as a themeless - the themers require no connection to the revealer - no interest in identifying the hidden words post solve.
TIN MEN
DST, ATL, ERM, MUD, YOM etc - this grid is loaded with gluey short stuff. SHOCKING PINK is the highlight also the name of Neil’s backing band on We’re Rocking. Liked ARE WE DONE and HUMANE.
On the NICKEL
Levinson chased the greatness of Diner with his Baltimore films - not a big Dreyfuss fan so TIN MEN didn’t hit for me but I loved Avalon.
Cowboy PEYTON Place
It’s -2F this morning - I was hoping for a little something more warming and comfortable than this.
Bubbles - promenade streamline
A puzzle created by Chloe
Arrived while the weather was bloe
I was in the grid’s spell
When a giant tree fell
With a thump and I jumped like a joe
That’s a tight theme. I can see why Chloe had her theme set on hold for months as she tried to come up with a sixth theme answer (according to her notes). There are many words for kinds of bosses, but only a very few can tie words together in cross-worthy phrases. Props to Chloe for her persistence.
I liked the quartet of inner-rhyme words: DADA, HEHE, BERNINI, ÉTÉ, and wannabe ÉPÉES. I enjoyed uncovering two lovely g-words (GAUCHO, GAFFE). It was fun to see the schwa de vivre in the endings to TIANA, ENYA, DORA, TONYA, INSOMNIA, ANGORA, UTOPIA, OPERA, and ASIA.
I liked that ON EDGE actually isn’t, in this grid. And SNOOPS brought my mind to the Olympics, as SNOOP DOGG is quite visible in NBC’s coverage.
My favorite theme answer was SHOCKING PINK, where the hidden word and final word are both so colorful.
Congratulations on your first NYT Sunday puzzle after four early-week puzzles, Chloe. You pushed many happy buttons as I coursed through your puzzle. Thank you!
I enjoy every single puzzle and appreciate what goes into constructing one, but agree this one's theme was thin plus there were a lot of short (3- and 4-letter) answers. Yes, very easy puzzle.
Couple of comments:
- 39A, PRINCEOFWALES: I grew up around Philadelphia, and there was this jingle for Matt Slap Chevrolet, who billed himself as The Prince of Wheels.
- 12D, SCIENCE: I actually knew this one, since as a researcher, I get frequent emails from the AAAS (which publishes Science) to subscribe and join them.
- 88D: Yay, a shout-out to ham radio!
It's zero degrees F outside right now, yikes! Stay warm today, everyone.
¡Ay, destino cruel!
Hm. Well. I guess from time to time you need to fill out a puzzle you'd give to someone ready to graduate from the grocery store puzzles. An unfunny, fill-in-the-blank Sunday, but imagine what must have accumulated among the slush pile rejects.
So much gunk and almost all in my wheelhouse. Kinda nice to learn Kierkegaard's first name. Vexillologist is a new vocab word for me. Stared at [More ideal] for a long time after the solve before the penny dropped. Nice.
Owned a Mini. Turbo was awesome. Repair bills were outrageous. Switched to Toyota. It's called giving up.
I'm amused by loners being individualists. I think I am both, but society doesn't like to leave us be. They wanna fix you. I think a more apt (apter) synonym for LONER from society's viewpoint is butthead.
AERIES is my eighth favorite word.
For what it's worth, ENID is a major character on Wednesday and way better than the world's largest silo in Oklahoma.
People: 13
Places: 5
Products: 20 {that's a lot}
Partials: 9
Foreignisms: 5
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 52 of 140 (37%)
Funny Factor: 3 😕
Tee-Hee: TEABAG.
Uniclues:
1 Aggravate dominatrix. {Not smart.}
2 A Harley Davidson.
3 Breakfast of besotted champions.
1 INCITE UNDER COVER BOSS
2 LONER PORTABLE UTOPIA (~)
3 COLD MOONSHINE CEREAL (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: What makes it difficult to tell hoo from hoo? OWL GIN MARTINIS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hey All !
Isn't it AGLET? (Which will probably be said by a bunch of people.)
Nice puz. Rex in a mood today, it seems.
Not much to say today, so that's about it. 😁
Happy Sunday, and Happy Super Bowl, I guess.
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Not sure how long my book, Changing Times will be available, the publisher wants a fee to keep it out (not paying it), so grab it while you can! Search for Darrin Vail wherever you get your books online.
That's what I thought... and couldn't understand how the answer could be plural (ERS) - One American Uhh = 2 British ERS?
An easy, enjoyable Sunday puzzle.🎈🎈🎊🎊
Extremely easy. Finished well under average, on my phone, while talking on said phone for most of the puzzle.
I thought the theme was fine; I certainly had no issue with the themers or revealer. Still, not a particularly interesting or exciting puzzle.
I blew through this one in record time, and I suspect that I will have plenty of company today. It will be interesting to see how many complaints we get regarding the demise of western civilization (which, btw, really has nothing to do with the NYT crossword puzzle).
I don’t know anything about the Disney movie, but it was nice to see OFL’s shout out to the iconic Dooky Chase‘s in NOLA, still going strong after 80+ years.
Minnesota appreciates your support. Thank you 🫶🏼
Baffled by that clue for INSOMNIA. And for ACNE. The number of complete clunker clues seems to have gone from one per fortnight - the rate for years and years – to three or four a week over the past couple of months. And two today.
This will sure add fuel to the “puzzles are too easy” fire. My time was 75% of my previous fastest, not trying to go fast just solving normally.
so easy it was boring.
Agreed. Embarrassingly easy.
Same! Solved in 22:24, which was 21:00 faster than my Sunday average. I was expecting Rex to gripe about it.
I had KaBoBS, the normal spelling, which gave me TIN MaN, which seemed reasonable – and then Things Fall oPART, which seemed like a clever, punny title. So really messed up in that little area. As a Brit, I agree that ERM is alternative to um not uhh.
Came here to say the same, but looks like both spellings of aglet/aiglet are legit. Though my browser only underlines the latter as a misspelling.
I think a cold is a small bug compared to, say, pneumonia or tuberculosis.
I'm mad 'n Hegel.
Well I'm SORENKIERKEGAARD.
I was recruiting for someone to spend months without company, manning a lighthouse, when my car started making awful noises. I took it to the shop and when the mechanic asked how he could help me I said "Fix my car. And I'll need a LONER."
I'm looking for a woman who has been married and divorced and married again. You know - - AREWEDONE.
Continuing in the footsteps of Duchamp, perhaps ARTISAN ELASTICHAIRTIE.
As the cows say at sunrise, MOONSHINE.
Thanks, Chloe Revery.
Basically a very large Monday in terms of difficulty. Where have you gone NYT Sunday puzzle?
M-W favors aglet. Calls aiglet a variant.
@egsforbreakfast 9:11 AM
Say, "A re-wed one," three times fast.
I’ve seen “kabob” and “kabab”, I don’t recall ever seeing it spelled “kebab” (or hearing it pronounced that way). That was my one issue today, Tinman/Tinmen.
Came here to confirm that this puzzle was indeed the easiest Sunday puzzle ever. Was surprised to see an "Easy Medium" designation, as I flew through in 15 minutes without even giving it my full attention.
Once again this is a puzzle that doesn't require you to understand the theme to solve which is always disappointing. Only noticed the theme components when done - none of them particularly memorable or interesting.
Had to laugh at your BMW experience. I lived in Saudi Arabia for a while in the 70’s. Joke was that wealthy Saudi all had BMW’s for prestige but kept American cars for driving while the BMW’s were in the garage for repairs. When I retuned to the US I “bought American” but found US cars and service so bad I started buying Toyotas.
Much more like a big Tuesday (or maybe even Monday) than a big Thursday, which is how a Sunday should be right? Enjoyable yes but too easy.
@RooMonster: the clue is "Place for a shoelace" and you thread laces through EYELETs on the shoe; if the clue had been "Tip of a shoelace" or "Dealie at the end of a lace," AGLET would have been correct.
[Term coined in the 1990’s for when people develop emotional bonds with digital entities, such as virtual pets]
TAMAGOT(C)(H)(I) (E)(F)FECT
This was like a mash-up of a couple of Monday puzzles. I kept waiting to find that my obvious answers were wrong, and I had been tricked by clever misdirects. But, no, what a sad person might break into really was tears. Sad indeed. “Money in rock and roll” was the only chuckle, for me. “Payola” came to mind (that sure dates me) but obviously didn’t fit. “Eddie” was a nice surprise, but all told this was another disappointing Sunday.
As noted earlier in this blog, some strange clues and answers—not just misleading which is OK—but kind of off-tune…still, I finished this puzzle in about two-thirds my normal time for a Sunday without pressing. Probably shared the KeBAB/TINMaN error with a lot of folks. I don’t know how one would pull off a theme like this without the circles and still make it available to most solvers. The geniuses who reside here could handle it but probably not the ordinary solver, myself included.
We watch a lot of shows on Prime's Britbox channel. We turn the captions on, since it helps with the accents, hence I knew that "Erm" was the British hesitation sound. It's literally in every show.
Easiest Sunday in recent memory, not sure how long that is any more. Very few unknowns and I got all the way to the SW corner before I saw something that said "crossword puzzle!" to me. Hooray, I thought, AIGLET! But alas, twas not to be. So in went EYELET instead, with regrets.
Didn't know the Atwood title but it filled itself in, didn't know TIANA but was hoping that was it as we have a friend named TIANA, and hello ENID. Nice to meet you and learn there is something called "Wednesday".
I was lamenting the lack of challenge in this one and then I thought, well not everyone has been doing these things forever, and this one would be perfect for beginners, which we all were once upon a time, so I'll take that as my positive for today.
Congrats on the Sunday debut, CR. Suppose I Could Rant about this one but it was a spell of harmless fun, for which thanks.
Nice one, Lewis!! Here's my response:
So if they ever find a cause
For every trait that ever was,
And analyze each gene within
The genome underneath our skin,
They'll find that just one gene explains
The strangeness lurking in some brains,
That those who have a rhyming bent
Will strive for puzzles to invent.
It's true of Sondheim; Maltby too:
They'll pen a rhyme; they'll write a clue.
It's true of Lewis and of me --
A single gene, yes, QED!
If Ogden Nash and Larry Hart
In puzzle-making played no part,
We know that if they tried, they coulda --
So if they didn't, well, they shoulda!
Learned ERM from watching British procedural with subtitles.
Also agreed. Pretty much an oversized Tuesday
I actually finished it! Unusual for me so I’m not embarrassed.
Why wasn’t boss in circles? Easiest Sunday in some time
Why wasn’t boss included? Easiest Sunday in some time
I really wanted 23A to be *archaic* hair tie
Rex, your error of Bellini vs Bernini was not as silly as you made it sound confusing a drink for a sculptor. Both are actually Italian Renaissance artists, one better known for sculpture, the other for painting.
Yeah. Even in "the good old days," the NYTimes puzzle - though rather strict and predictable about the Mon-Sat difficulty progression - regularly varied the difficulty of the Sunday puzzle to make it accessible and interesting to solvers from various points on the difficulty spectrum, usually hovering around Thursday difficulty, plus or minus a day (or two). So no foul here - I just don't remember one that was this "Easy-Monday" easy.
Yes, it was easy. Untwist your knickers and enjoy your day. It's sunny in northern Michigan (far from a daily occurrence).
What annoyed me was cluing a 'boss' out in the open, whilst all other bosses are hidden
Given the theme, CIO (104D) as fill is a fatal flaw and should have been removed in the editing. At a minimum it could have been clued [A.F.L.-___] instead of [Tech company exec].
Very easy for me too. I had to back into the NW (BERNINI was a WOE and A BET was not obvious) but the rest was whooshy.
Not very costly erasure - ON me before ON IT.
Breezy and cute, liked it more than @Rex did.
I’ve recently started doing Sunday puzzles from the archive and am still in 1994. So far my times are often more than double what my current Sunday times are.
Right, especially when CTOs exist.
In the 30th year after the celebrated Jeremiah Farrell election day Schrödinger puzzle, the team names of the Super Bowl contenders offered an opportunity for a tribute puzzle, of sorts: SEAHAWKS/PATRIOTS WIN.
Alas it was not to be, which is a pity since this is likely to be the last Super Bowl before it becomes the Trump Super Bowl.
And also very boring. I’d say 2 stars, not 2.5.
I had Honcho for Gaucho for the longest time. A solid, if easy, solve.
I think Chloe deserves congratulations on her Sunday puzzle whether it was easy or not.
Congratulations, Chloe :)
Is that a DIRECT ORDER?
Knock knock. Who's there? ERMa. ERMa who? ERMa gettin' tired of these obscure Britishisms in my Sunday puzzle. Is NYC in the UK? If not for that one, I'd have given this puzzle a pass. Errr... maybe... nut ERM?? ERM..... NO!
Thank you for mentioning the Stumper yesterday. I managed almost all of it last night and the rest this morning. I often can't make any headway at all in those puzzles - the clues just stop me in my tracks - so this was a rare achievement and very satisfying.- besides being fun.
Agreed
Easy and tepid, with the exception of the outstanding embedding of KINGPIN in SHOCKING PINK and the very clever clue for UTOPIA.
Rex was going to like that the theme answers went across two words ( something I noticed with "kingpin" where she didn't stop with "king" ) and instead he knocks it because it doesn't go across three.
I enjoyed seeing the various words for "Who's in charge" appear in the circles and fold thermal reasonably interesting plus the phrase they were hidden in were all quite nice I especially like "Prince of Wales', "the ad council", "shocking pink" (tho I dont think of it as being much like magenta) and "life before man" ( a novel I'd never heard of )
Yeah it was pretty fast, but that's just fine with me since I normally find Sundays a bit of a slog. The theme was a bit underwhelming too, although I did learn today that William is the new Prince of Wales. Of course his dad was, all my life. (I still find it odd having a king!)
The clue writing baffles me sometimes. A short answer like OPRY requires the longest clue in the puzzle?
At 96 down, I tried really hard to remember what the "set of nine dancing" was. PIPERS?... no, they were piping, silly.
Sunny and mild here today. Snow flurries forecast for next weekend!... we'll see. Good luck, you all.
Me, too! Usually takes me most of an afternoon, but it’s now time for lunch , and I’m done!!
Only Natick is that I didn't know whether the movie title was TIN MAN or TIN MEN, and didn' know whether those "alternatives to gyro platters" were KABOBS or KEBOBS. Either would have worked.
Though it carries some local NYC news, the New York Times has not marketed itself as a local paper for quite a while; it's primary focus is national and international.
Apparently, I solved a Sunday in less time than this one two and a half years ago. That surprises me. Also surprised--very--by Rex's "Easy-medium" rating.
No, I think an aglet is different from an EYELET. An aglet is the plastic (or metal) enclosure at the tip of the lace, which keeps it together and prevents fraying. An eyelet is the hole in the shoe itself through which you thread the lace.
When the NYTimes closed the International Herald Tribune (which it owned) in 2013, it folded the operations into The New York Times, which began publishing an NTY International edition (which is essentially the same as the US edition with the same features but without local NY news, and reformatted a bit to highlight the international stories. A bit earlier, the NYTimes had merged its national edition (which did not include the NY Metro section) with the New York Region edition - and this became become one big happy newspaper for the entire country, and with the International variant.
@Iris. I was trying to figure out a way to describe my take on this puzzle.Too routine? Quotidian? But nothing I could come up with matches your underwear analogy. Yes, it needs more colour and lace and a some of your kind of humour. Thanks for the chuckle.
Same here. So it was a “typo” I couldn’t find without looking at the completed puzz.
Stop trying to make AIGLET happen!
I still like the image of a posse of GROUCHOS striding across the plains of Argentina with their cigars tilted rakishly upward . . .
Yes, Easy or Easy-Medium; pretty quick Sunday. I think I liked it a little more than Rex did, but I wasn't crazy about some of it. For example, THE in THE AD COUNCIL looks like a "the of convenience", and I didn't enjoy FAN VID either. Having OPRY and OPERAS in the same puzzle doesn't seem great either. But I don't think I agree that the nouns for "those in charge" should be constrained so that each word in the ambient theme phrases contain a piece of them: that sounds like quite a big ask. But perhaps I misunderstand what Rex was getting at.
On the other hand, we have MORE'S UTOPIA, and guest authors Atwood and Kierkegaard (SOREN), and BERNINI, so those elevate the puzzle somewhat (IMO).
When I started taking Latin in the 7th grade, we were taught how to say the Pledge of Allegiance in Latin. It starts off "Fidem meam obligo vexillo Civitatium Americae Foederatarum..." -- I've never forgotten it, so FLAGS was a gimme.
ERM is to "um" as "tut" is to "tsk".
Lots of discussion about EYELET. I think there's some confusion over parts of the shoe. An aglet is the thingie, typically plastic, that encases the tip of the lace to keep it together and prevent it from fraying. An EYELET is a hole through which you thread the lace when lacing up your shoes.
The clues for INSOMNIA and ACNE seem like they're trying to do too much to appear clever. For example, if there is some sort of double meaning to be imparted to Zs, then I'm not clear on what it would be. The best I can do for the ACNE clue is that it could be hard to look at your face if you're afflicted with acne, but that doesn't quite salvage it.
Pleased to see that resident LONER Gary Jugert didn't miss the TEABAG Tee-hee. Gary, dude, you don't miss a trick, do you?
Okay, that'll be all. Hope you find some athletic events today to suit your fancy!
@Anonymous 8:59 What's embarrassing about it? Maybe I'm missing something but the constructor's puzzle, while it may have been easy, was accepted & published on a Sunday -
Fastest Sunday in a long time for me...I didn't pay any ayyention to thee theme, just filled, filled, filled. The GAUCHO/HUMANE/OPERAS crossing in the NE corner was the only area that held me up for a bit.
I don't think "Sirenlike" is a particularly apt clue for SHRILL. I also don't think villains say HEHE; they say heh heh.
@RP: har. Nice shirt, dude.
Easy-ish SunPuz solvequest, all right. And The Circles made things even easier, for doin the UNCOVEREDBOSS words.
staff weeject pick: ERM - nice foreign grunt sound.
some faves: AREWEDONE. INSOMNIA. MOONSHINE & clue. "UP" mini-theme. BERNINI. ARTISAN & clue.
Thanx for the fun, Ms. Revery darlin. A real boss job.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
I tried something marketed under something like "Peppermint MOONSHINE", and I thought it was terrific. Very smooth and tasty. But that was just the name: it was store-bought and I'm sure it went through all the usual government CHANNELs.
There's another meaning of MOONSHINE, referring to some instance of foolishness or craziness; compare how the Latin "luna" is at the root of the word "lunacy". The word is used in mathematics as well ("monstrous moonshine"), with a similar provenance of meaning, but I'll let you look that up yourself if you're curious. (It would do no good attempting to say anything about it here.)
You and @tht mistook Roo's comment. He was commentng on the spelling of AGLET, which Rex talked about as AIGLET.
Rex - Besides Bellini the painter (mentioned ealier by a commenter), the perhaps more famous Bellini is the composer of such bel canto operas as Norma (1831), La sonnambula (1831), and I puritani (1835), Gorgeous operas.
Oh my god, Personal Best solve time, easiest imaginable cluing, how this was rated as “Easy Medium” is completely beyond me
I don't think villains abide by a code of laughter, but Bwa-ha-ha-ha! and Mew-ha-ha-ha! are popular options.
It's kabob at my place but Google AI has this to say: "Kebab" (or kebap) has Middle Eastern/Turkish roots and is common globally, while "kabob" is the more common, informal spelling in North America.
Never, ever saw kebab until I started doing crosswords.
I might add that if BELLINI were strictly a drink, it might have been accepted today in SB, which it wasn't.
Ha! I was just going to respond that! Yes, it was the spelling I was kvetching about. 😁
Roo
I checked at xwordinfo.com and ERM has appeared 19 times in the Times over the years. In the pre-Shortz era, it showed up 10 times between 1966 and 1976, always clued along the lines of "Fine fur: Abbr."
Then there's a long interim with no ERMs until it reappeared in 2017. Today marks its ninth appearance during the Modern Era. It is also the first time "to Brits" is in the clue. The other eight times clues were "Indecisive sound", "Sound of hesitation", "Uhh..." (three times), etc., with no Brit hint at all.
By the way, all 10 times in the pre-Shortz era, the editors were Will Weng and Margaret Farrar. It never appeared while the much maligned Maleska was the editor.
A literal zero-star puzzle. Even for what the NYT crossword has become, a Sunday this easy is shameless
@Nancy 10:18 AM
OMG Nancy! Brilliant.
I’m in the same camp. Like a big Monday. Circles added to the ease.
I had the same issue.
This was my record-fastest Sunday solve, so really surprised to see the Medium tag. Almost a too to bottom straight solve though I did use the revealer to fix the lasst themer. I thoroughly enjoyed that it wasn’t stuffed with names of obscure artists, places, and Greek gods.
Great to see your name again
@Carola, I did the Stumper today and got it all except 39A. There was no mention of that clue/answer at Crossword Fiend. Can you explain to me? Thanks.
Saying a puzzle is easy and that the cluing is straight-forward is not, in itself, a criticism of a puzzle, by the way. It's just a statement of fact. I bow to anyone who gets a puzzle accepted by the New York Times.
It's also worth noting that puzzles are edited, and clues are re-written by editors. The ease and straight-forwardness of the puzzle could have been a decision by the editor post-submission to turn tougher clues into easier clues, add circles, and make solving the puzzle not dependent upon figuring out what the gimmick/theme was. And keep in mind that editors are immune from prosecution as long as they take these actions in the performance of their official duties.
Love you, Gary!
Undercover bosses do NOT wear sexy underwear.
@OFL: Our early music group in Oregon with recorders, crumhorns, a hurdy-gurdy, a stringed instrument or two and voices is called PEARwood Pipers from our founding woodwinds.
Agreed, my best Sunday time by quite some way and not one I anticipate equalling again any time soon!
Anonymous 7:08 AM
About erm
I looked it up.
And all the articles said erm = um ( some else cited the OED).
My main point er, um, erm. are all not that far in pronunciation so usage will vary. A flat statement about language in a situation like that is usually wrong. Nothing wrong with the answer.
@Son Volt. Your mention of Levinson and Diner reminded me that there was a time when Americans made fine movies without blowing the entire budget on spandex and explosives.
David Febish. But tech companies have CIO’s do they not? The clue doesn’t say other companies do not have CIO’s. You just inferred that. Crosswords routinely have clues like this that are restricted. There is nothing wrong with the clue or answer I think the clue is written that way to make the answer easier. But again that doesn’t make it wrong.
I didn’t do my own post today (I got busy!), but I THINK the whole “aglet” thing arose from Rex spelling it “aiglet” in his post. So much so, that @Roo commented on THAT…then later someone thought Roo thought the EYELET answer was “aglet” and felt the need to correct him. (Not you…but the aglet/aiglet thing took on a life of its own. Btw…I really liked the “the of convenience” comment, and agree!
Coprophagist
Dnf because I forgot the exact movie title and spelled kabab. Oh we
Ok. It was a puzzle that was “easy for a Sunday.” I thought Rex did a good write-up. I think his star rating was accurate and I guess I “liked” it more than him. The thing about Rex is…I’m pretty sure he tries to write a critique that will help the constructor. I am amazed at how many people are SO critical of one of these puzzles when (unless they live under a rock) they KNOW the constructor will read it. (C’mon…Rex is popular) Oh. Lest I be misunderstood, I’m referring to “zero stars.” And let me clear. Take the “dumbing down, made for idiots, embarrassingly easy” (especially when it’s the larger grid Sunday) directly to the NYT…but do you REALLY need to “drop in” anonymously and out and out insult a constructor?
Hah
I just ordered the TEE @Rex features this morning and it ma be the highlight of my Sunday crossword experience. Very clever play on why at this moment it’s time for all ice to go!
I saw the corporate “stuff” right away and my hopes for clever were dashed so I moved on hoping for fun in the fill. I love the horrible puns and silliness of a Sunday the likes if which drive many (possibly most) solvers to, if not drink, often to eschew Sunday altogether. I’m all for whatever makes a solver happy. This is supposed to be fun, after all.
And alas, this one just left me feeling a bit tired - like a great deal f today’s fill. Nothing truly awful - the parade of UPs came close, but also nothing to being out even the tiniest chuckle. Fo me a chuckle-less Sunday just feels sad.
Overall though the dll and the theme did its job so, job done and on to Monday.
Gotta get the “Grandmas Locally Famous Sloppy Joes” (granddaughter’s tribute, not mine) ready for the Super Bowl, Puppy Bowl and Olympics. Not sure how to accomplish all that simultaneously but am told it’s possible.
May the World Peace vibe of the olympic games permeate the soul of every human being a be a true catalyst for hope and progress.
Anyone else have dictator before director? Made a mess of the downs before correction.
Where do you find the archive?
Borrrrrrringggggg!!!!!!
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