.png)
Focus of Gandhi protests / TUE 3-10-26 / 8-pointer in Scrabble / Mediterranean dish whose name can be translated as "pampered daddy" / Bizet's "Habanera," for one / All-time best-selling female rapper worldwide / Version of a car model / Sol's sister, in Roman myth / Eddie who voiced Donkey in "Shrek"
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Constructor: Daniel Bodily
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (**for a Tuesday**)
 |
| [19A: "Star Wars" antagonist"] |
Theme answers:
- BRITISH RAJ (3D: Focus of Gandhi protests)
- FRESH OJ (45D: Drink that's just been squeezed, say)
- BABA GHANOUJ (17D: Mediterranean dish whose name can be translated as "pampered daddy")
- RADIO DJ (8D: One playing 45s, informally)
- NICKI MINAJ (32D: All-time best-selling female rapper worldwide)
Skopje is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultural centre of the country. As of the 2021 census, the city had a population of 526,502. Skopje covers 571.46 km2 (220.64 mi2) and includes both urban and rural areas, bordered by several municipalities and close to the borders of Kosovo and Serbia. [...] In 1912, following the Balkan Wars, Skopje was annexed by the Kingdom of Serbia. It became part of Yugoslavia after World War I and, following World War II, became the capital of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, one of its constituent republics. In 1963, a major earthquake devastated the city, after which it was largely rebuilt with international assistance. Skopje became the capital of independent North Macedonia in 1991. (wikipedia) // North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the north. It constitutes approximately the northern third of the larger geographical region of Macedonia. Skopje, the capital and largest city, is home to a quarter of the country's population of over 1.83 million. The majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people. Albanians form a significant minority at around 25%, followed by Turks, Roma, Serbs, Bosniaks, Aromanians and a few other minorities. (wikipedia)
• • •
Today's puzzle was another case of my liking the theme but not being exceptionally fond of the execution or the fill. There just aren't enough great longer answers ending in "J," so some of these come off as a little contrived. FRESH OJ also feels like you just slapped an adjective in front of OJ. Do people still drink frozen OJ? I think I heard recently that those cylinders of frozen orange juice concentrate (so familiar from my childhood) were being discontinued. Yep, confirmed. Anyway, if you do distinguish between kinds of orange juice, I believe the term is "fresh-squeezed." Also, RADIO DJ felt mildly redundant, as did BRITISH RAJ. Are there other RAJs besides the BRITISH RAJ? To be fair, none of today's theme answers sounded outright alien. They just seemed like common abbreviations with an adjectival modifier in front of them. BABA GHANOUJ and NICKI MINAJ both work great. I had real trouble with the spelling of BABA GHANOUJ. I knew the answer, but not the spelling. When I first saw the clue, I didn't understand the theme, and so that "J" ending, yikes. I think I must've imagined a "SH" ending? That's how it's pronounced (to my ears), and oh look, that's how it's most commonly spelled. Good, I'm not going crazy. Anyway, the "J" ... when I finally got it, I thought "oh, right. That spelling." But it didn't come to me straight away. As for NICKI MINAJ, she's a right-wing stooge now, so ... no (further) comment.
The fill on this one was on the weak side, largely because the grid is super-choppy and loaded with short stuff. IOTA ARIA ADHOC OFT AFAR ... that's quite a chain of repeaters. And there are more of them, everywhere. They really deaden the grid, though the longer Acrosses do give the grid some life back. That SW corner, though, is really rough. ON ZOOM ... my neck stiffened up just writing that. Wince City. Woof and oof. I DUNNO about that answer, man. Outside of the corner (the SKOPJE corner), I didn't have too much trouble anywhere except the NE, where writing in COURT instead of FLIRT (7D: Show romantic interest, in a way) really cost me some time. How much time? I dunno. Seconds? It's Tuesday, things go pretty fast no matter what the "relative difficulty" is.
Bullets:
- 36A: 8-pointer in Scrabble ("J" TILE) — pretty sure I audibly booed this answer. Cheap way to get your "J" in.
- 31A: ___ Owens (birth name of Queen Latifah) (DANA) — a good artist to listen to if you've ever had it up to here (with ... whatever):
- 58A: Apt anagram of BRUSH (SHRUB) — because they are similar types of plant, I guess. Although if you look up "brush," the word you will see is "scrub (vegetation)," not SHRUB.
- 6D: Version of a car model (TRIM) — this threw me because I think of TRIM as having to do with the aesthetics of the car (the exterior and interior finish), and that's correct, but something about the wording of the clue made me think the answer was going to describe a whole-ass car, not just the aesthetic. The clue's not wrong, my brain just couldn't process it.
- 27D: Comedian Bargatze (NATE) — an extremely popular comedian I've never seen. I follow some comedians on social media, so I'm aware of the phenomenon that is NATE Bargatze. But I couldn't tell you anything about him except that he is, as I say, very popular, and I think he doesn't really, uh, work blue. Is that still a term people use? Yeah, here we go: he's sometimes called a "clean comedian." He was the highest-grossing stand-up comic of 2024.
That's all. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️:
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️
- Grid Prix (Detroit, MI, Thu., Mar. 19, 2026)
- American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (Stamford, CT, Apr. 10-12, 2026) (registration closed!)
📘 My other blog 📘:
- Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)
Save And Share :
98 comments:
There is, or course, a reason that there is a Republic of North Macedonia but no Republic of South Macedonia - having to do with a 30 year protracted international dispute between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia (one of the many such disputes, some of them violent and resolved only after much blood shed, following the dismantling of Yugoslavia). Because Greece has administrative regions that use the name Macedonia (Central Macedonia; Western Macedonia; and Eastern Macedonia and Thrace) that are part of what is historically known as the greater Region of Macedonia, Greece protested that, by adopting the name Republic of Macedonia, the country was conceivably making claims of sovereignty over the three Greek regions. Thirty years of negotiations concluded in 2018 with the Republic agreeing to rename itself the Republic of Northern Macedonia. And now everyone is (relatively) happy.
Enjoyed it, especially the fact that the theme (and the revealer) helped with the solve. I had RickiMinaj crossing Dara before finding NICKIMINAJ/DANA (I'm not current on rap artists). Otherwise I found it fairly easy, the top half in particular.
A Möbius strip is not defined by lacking an END, it’s defined by lacking an orientation.
Puzzle brought back many happy memories of former hitchhiking, backpacking travels including what was then Yugoslavia; which was such a beautiful country.
People were hospitable, warm and inviting.
When I initially saw the j in babaghanouj, I too thought the j was for the sh sound. However, oj &
Skopje proved that to be a false assumption. Did think this was trickier than usual for a Tuesday, but really enjoyed the puzzle.
Ooh - NATE crossing DANA crossing NICKI (and throw an ENYA in the same section for good measure). Safe to say a good time was not had by all.
Many, if not most people have at least encountered BABA GHANOUJ in the wild - does that mean we want to struggle to spell it on a Tuesday morning (I know I don’t particularly care to) ?
I’ll even concede chalking up SKOPJE to a learning experience. Still, the whole grid gave off a forced and convoluted vibe to me. I do recognize that it was a dense, tough theme to accommodate, but to me it required too many concessions. Rex gave it a full three stars, which seems about right - definitely adequate even though it is not my cup of java.
North Macedonia because many people in Greece claim that Macedonia is part of Greece and cannot possibly be another country. This is the compromise.
Everyone should watch Bargatze in George Washington in an SNL sketch on weights and measures!
Never realized there was a theme. That can happen on early week puzzles when the revealer is a short answer, as today. Never saw the clue for J-LO as it all came from crosses, and would never have thought to look for a revealer there.
Only real holdup today was NATE. Never heard of him, and wasn't completely comfortable with DATA, but A felt by far the most likely letter there.
Don’t like that clue for END at all. It is true that a Möbius strip has no end, but that is true of any closed loop – Möbius or otherwise. Möbius strips are incredibly cool, and to highlight an aspect of it that is not interesting in any way does it a disservice.
Hey All !
Neat to have Themers end in J. Something not seen every day.
Some real good finagling of fill for it to come out clean. That SW corner is a good example.
Nice TuesPuz, Daniel. 42 Blockers, but that's OK. Gotta throw in a couple extra for that clean feeling. 😁
Have a great Tuesday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
J’s - alright I guess it works? I liked the vertical themers and the tiny little revealer in the far corner. Agree with the big guy that some of the themers were awkwardly formed - and had an SH prior to making the J leap.
VAMOS
Overall fill was fine - a littler eclectic in places and that works for me. SKOPJE, AD HOC, JUMP ON IT, FLIRT all solid. Learned DANA - been awhile for stalwart ENYA.
The Good Ship Kangaroo
Odd and scrabbly but pleasant enough Tuesday morning solve.
J. Geils Band
Yea, I was a little sad theywere no longer called FYROM (Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia). I think it was all about whether Alexander the Great was really Greek.
I got an odd feeling of pleasure at seeing "espy" (12-D) in a clue rather than as an answer.
I really worked to fit in BABA GHANOUSH, first dropping the first H and then, when that didn't work, deciding it could be BABA GHANOUs. That led me to steP ON IT instead of JUMP, and fraternity members being eEs (either because there might be a fraternity called Eta Eta, or because engineers are a fraternity--I was desperate.) Finally, I saw that the dangerous stick could be TNT, and the rest all fell into place. I think the J in GHANOUJ was my final entry.
Yeah, RADIO DJ is ridiculous, but I'll accept it for the sake of the theme, and the brilliant revealer.
TIL it's not NIkKI MINAJ.
...and foods! Must triple thumbs up this request. Rex, you must get tuned into the Nate, especially since his material has so many plays on vocabulary.
IOTA being “Something I can stand for” threw me. Even if you look at it as the first letter of the word for a Greek letter, it doesn’t work - P doesn’t stand for Psi, and there are no equations or acronyms I’m aware of that use “I” for iota… (Also, not being American, I was unaware of the TBS channel, so no help there.)
Nice geography/history lesson, Anjeze; and the J in your name coincidental to today's theme!
I know both Macedonia and Thrace have a place in Greek mythology. Appreciate the update!
Nate Bargatze hosted the Emmys back in September and it was generally a BUST. I like his standup in general. Appealing ordinary guy kind of stuff.
I didn’t see the themer JLO - it just filled in from the 3 downs, leaving me to wonder how we had a themeless Tuesday, granted with a suspect number of J’s. Hands up for BABA Ganoush spelling.
Multiple famous people with alt spellings of today’s NICKI, including host of the Golden Globes NIKKI Glazer.
I guess I should now comment on Oscars host Conan O’Brien, whose name I pronounced like the barbarian for way too long including multiple corrections from my kids (aah, getting older…)
NOIDEA before IDUNNO.
Time a little longer than the usual Tuesday. Perhaps Z could come back and inform us whether or not this puzzle Tuezzed.
Yeah, wild to create a puzzle with five theme answers ending in J. Rex gave three stars but thought most of the J endings were forced; they kinda have to be, no? I'm replying to you, Roo, cuz I'm curious whether a puzzle ever had a similar theme, but words ending in F. You would certainly know that!!
But...I'd personally have subtracted a half-point solely for the (marquee, no less) reference to that Trump-loving sycophant NICKI M. Could really, really have preferred to start my day without seeing her name. Is she going to SING about the glories of the war in Iran and her (mock) sorrow for the dead US soldiers, Iranian school children, etc? Bah!!
Perturbed by NATE crossing DANA and JTILE. That little section had me scratching my head for several minutes before I sorted it out, and I can't say the reward was worth the effort.
I was a sports and entertainment lawyer for many years and as a result ended up in Serbia , then Serbia Montenegro, to help the team which “owned “ the player negotiate a deal with the NBA team that drafted him and the agent who signed him. That resulted in repping the company and a ton of time spent in that part of the world. Head to Croatia which is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Belgrade is warm and the people are friendly contrary to what one might think. Leaving that aside , my reaction to the puzzle was almost identical to OFL but it played more like a Wednesday to me than a Tuesday. I am a terrible speller and detest the letter J.
can someone explain iota?
Major props for finding all those words or phrases that end in J. Can't be that easy.
I did (sort of) recognize SKOPJE after I had it filled in, meaning I've heard of it, but that's it. Agree with everyone thinking GHANOUJ ends with an sh sound, and OFL says that's acceptable. Also did his COURT/FLIRT thing. Total guess on the NATE/DANA cross but an A made the most sense.
I don't mind OFT for "again and again" but I don't think it's common except in a poetic or dramatic sense. "The good is again and again interred with their bones"? Don't think so.
Nice enough Tuesday, DB. Things like FRESHOJ and RADIODDJ didn't bother me, and since my wife and both sons are both J's that was cool. Thanks for a sizeable amount of fun.
Announcer A: I can't believe it. The Lakers called a time out during a great 3-on-1 scoring opportunity and now they're eating Fruit Loops!
Announcer B: Yeah, the stopped a FASTBREAK for breakfast.
How do you make a KEY into a game on ice?
ADHOC
You can't make Jello without JLO.
Nice theme. I thought the themers were good considering how little material there is to make them from. Thanks, Daniel Bodily.
At first, I thought what is a rare themed Friday puzzle doing on a Tuesday.Then , the JLO answer gave me the aha moment. A terrific solve.🎈🎈🎊🎊
Only a true misanthrope would find fault in Nate Bargatze. “And what will become of people of color in our new land?” “I believe you asked about the weather”. Lolol
The best SNL sketch in years
Queen Latifah has been a star since the early '90s. Maybe it's not "current rap artists," but just "rap artists" you're unfamiliar with.
Amazed at the people who haven't heard of Nate Bargatze. I don't find him especially funny, but he's *everywhere* (memorably bombed hosting the Emmys, starred in one of the funniest SNL sketches of the past few years, was in Super Bowl commercials, hosts a network game show, and the subject of multiple articles in the NYT and other national press). He's beyond where Jeff "you might be a redneck" Foxworthy was in the '90s.
DAVInHOP
Maybe more than a place in mythology. Macedonia gave the world a fellow named Alexander the Great for one thing.
The Balkans are a mess. Politically, theologically, and every other way. I wouldn’t care but they frequently louse up my score in the game Globle. (It’s awfully fun, definitely worth checking out). The object of the game is to find that day’s country. Incorrectly answers are described in their distance from the correct country. Getting adjacent to the country sounds like the next guess would be a tap in. But in the Balkans you’ve got places like Serbia which borders 8 countries. Or Montenegro which borders 5. As I said, a real PITA.
Well, lah-di-dah
Relieved OFL found this somewhat challenging. I finished with two mistakes and my stomach dropped with the realization I was about to have to Google things to finish a TUESDAY??? Luckily, the things I looked up (SKOPJE and how the heck to spell BABA GHANOUJSHJSH) were not my mistakes. I had JUMP ON IN at 65A (and ONTO looked entirely plausible at 62D, because I never saw the clue). More embarrasingly, I had SCARF at 44A and completely failed to clock that ASACA is not anything at all, or at least nothing that would show up on a Tuesday. Yeesh. I winced at ALOES and ON ZOOM and Ms. MINAJ and overall did not enjoy this much.
Minaj is hardly a current rap star. She’s been at or near the top of the charts since 2010.
I'd rate at 4 stars. Early week puzzles aren't usually this fun or interesting. I noticed the preponderance of J's but didn't really think about it and then hit JLO. Nice! Re: TRIM. TRIM level of a car includes aesthetics but is more than that, involving many features and options at each Trim level.
The letter 'I' can stand for iota...
Did it say "defined"? It said something it "lacks", which is both true and the primary property that most people who are not mathematicians would associate with it
I is both the English letter I and the Greek letter Iota. It absolutely works. Equations or Acronyms aside, I can be Iota as much as P can be Rho.
For me, this was a lot more work than the usual Tuesday puzzle. Contrary to yesterday, today I really needed to get the theme to figure out some of the "J" answers. The Quuen Latifah clue crossing the Bargatze clue alongside one of the Minajes (Is it Kylie? Or the other one? How do you spell both of them anyway???) was tough. Had to figure out many other things before I could make Step on it into JUMPONIT. All in all I felt like I labored over this puzzle. Maybe I'm just not quite awake this morning.
Hand up for evolving from “sh” to “J’ at the end of BABA….For some reason always thought of this as a Jewish dish and finally filled in BABA…because the crosses made it inevitable. Had to come here to understand why IOTA is the answer. I first threw in sLy instead of JLO even tho I was pretty sure he was not from the Bronx. And somehow I knew MINAJ even tho I could not put a song or face to her name…One of those mornings when blind instinct ruled over knowledge and the coffee was better than usual…Fun puzzle and fu write-ups.
Wrote some comments and got message that an error occurred in publishing. No way I’m going to try to duplicate what I said, will just say I enjoyed today’s puzzle, Rex’s comments, and the blog.
J's? Okay. I didn't know how to spell BABA GHANOUJ but figured it out.
WOES - NATE, SKOPJE. Interesting that Queen Latifah had such an ordinary birth name - otherwise, a fairly easy Tuesday & enjoyably quick even with Js. Thank you, Daniel :)
Yes, best!
https://youtu.be/JYqfVE-fykk?si=-W21GE-5c01EXM_E
BRITISH RAJ and BABA GHANOUJ were unexpected treats on a Tuesday (not that I knew how to spell the latter; I was in the "ganoush" group). Props to the constructor for seeing the potential in JLO and finding a way to make it work.
Can someone explain why "iota" is the answer to "something I can stand for"?
I know 2 meanings (tiny amount, Greek letter) for that word but neither seems to fit.
Was solving downs only but gave up when I ended up with SKOPJE at 70A and assumed I had an error I couldn’t fix without checking the across clues.
Nate Bargatze:
"When we saw The Sixth Sense, we just thought his wife wasn't talking to him for, like, a year. That made more sense to us than him possibly being dead."
Brush isn't _a_ plant, OFL notwithstanding. It's an area covered (usually thickly) with shrubs. At a minimum, mismatch in number between clue and answer.
On the tough side for me too.
…and me too for knowing the BABA part but not how to spell GHANOUJ…so the theme helped.
I also did not remember SKOPJE and did not know DANA.
More than a couple of pauses, liked it.
Um... yes. Yes there have been other rulers of various divisions of India and that is why there is a Hindustani word for them -- raj.
Very nice and crunchy Tuesday puzzle. Hand up for KNOWING BABAGHANOUJ but my first attempt skipped the H and stuck it with an S at the end. I knew it was wrong and probably should’ve just put in BABAG and let the crosses take over. No biggie, just a lot of needless deletions.
Yeah, I’m definitely a NATE Bargatze fan. Agree that his stint hosting the Academy Awards wasn’t stellar, but you gotta like his idea about keeping the acceptance speech time down tied into the Make A Wish Foundation. His humor is a little too low key (and kind) for that emcee gig…you know, you need someone like, um…Conan for that. 😉
Five J's! Six, if U count LENO.
Some tough no-know J-holdins, here and there. Definitely a feisty-ish TuesPuz solvequest.
Different puztheme idea, with a cool JLO trick. Liked.
staff weeject pick: JLO, of course.
some fave stuff: PRIMERIB & FASTBREAK ... them red herrings really challenged m&e to come up with the puztheme mcguffin, early on. TRIM clue of mystery. IDUNNO. SNARF. Not ONZOOM, tho.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Bodily dude. U did low-down good work.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
I'm using as an excuse for not parsing the clue for 45D that I was scheduled for a dental appt. and wasn't really on my solving game. Turns out I didn't even need Novocaine and my filling replacement only took about 10 minutes. Not pleasant but pleasantly surprising. So why did FRESH O_ not scream OJ? Because I didn't know SKOPJE? Probably. And I hadn't hit the J LO revealer yet. And I'm OFT an idiot.
I'm in the BABA GANOUsh group. I love good GANOUJ on pita.
xTILE before J TILE at 36A. Bomb before BUST. Overall, a typical Tuesday difficulty and a cute theme.
Thanks, Daniel Bodily!
Spoiler alert if you’re going back to NYTXWs from March 2022.
What are the odds that I was just reading about SKOPJE? I had followed a link provided by an Anon on Sunday (International Women’s Day) to @Rex’s blog for 3/8/2022. Among the posts was one by @Z addressing @Nancy “from last night” about cheating at Wordle. I was curious so I went to the previous day’s blog, where Rex’s Word of the Day was (drum roll) SKOPJE. It was a Monday, and a couple of the crosses were on the outskirts of Natick. (SWIRL/tWIRL and JUG/mUG.)
I thought today’s crosses left zero doubt even if you’re not up on your world capitals. Made SKOPJE a slam DUNK. Where I gave up was over in the region of DANA, NATE, NICKI and JTILE. Guessed wrong with DorA/rICKI and, not familiar with Scrabble values/terms, I was trying to find a word that might be worth 8 points. Or any word spelled J_ILE. Decided it wasn’t worth my time. Came here for edification and, as always, entertainment.
Cute JLO theme. Livens up a grid to have so many J’s. Mixed results in the execution. Lots of terrible threes. Side eye to the cluing for ONE PER.
Liked the puzz-pairs of OAT and OAK, AFAR and AJAR, TRIM and TRAM. Learned the meaning (and alt spelling) of BABA GANOUsh. (Interesting clue - “can be translated as pampered daddy.” Makes me wonder about other possibilities.) I always enjoy seeing RYE because it reminds me of the marina and @Z’s Placebo and Tentacle pub. (which was mentioned in the comments from 2022.) The END.
@DAVinHOP
Har! I don't track puzs like that. That would be a question for @Lewis. (He's on vacation with family.) If there was, I wouldn't remember regardless. 😁
But *pounds chest* respect from you for the F!
Roo
Anyone else have SCARF instead of SNARF? I’ve never heard of snarf and it didn’t help that I don’t do yoga for the crosser. Guess I need to learn my stretches…
I thought it was that it has only one side, unsure of the implication of "orientation"
Anyone else have SCARF instead of SNARF? It didn’t help that I don’t do yoga for the crosser. Guess I need to brush up on my stretches…
Love the Dana clue. And love your comment. Nate B's SNL skits re: founding fathers are worth watching.
Bob didn’t opine as to whether anyone was “current”. He said he isn’t current.
@Anon 6:32 am; I was a little disappointed in the answer too. The fascinating thing about a Mobius strip is: it only has one side!
Pretty decent Tuesday. I kinda noticed the terminal Js, but until I hit the "revealer" at 72 across I didn't realize it was the theme!
Hands up for BABA GANOUSH. I've never had it, but I've heard it, and I've seen it in print without the J. I did not like the double Unknown Names at DANA crossing NATE. And a problematic typeover at 59 down where I had FLOP for way too long.
Re SKOPJE and the Balkans (hey, wasn't that a very recent answer?), I spent a week in Croatia in 1987, and while some people were quite friendly and welcoming, I encountered a lot of rudeness and inexplicable hostility. In a cafe, I asked for cream for my coffee and the waiter swore at me. Hanging out on a girl's back patio in the evening, her neighbor started yelling things over the fence. Turns out he was calling her a filthy whore in Croatian! When the civil war happened a few years later I was honestly not too surprised.
Well, all I can say about this is...
Given that it was independently discovered by August Ferdinand Möbius and Johann Benedict Listing in 1858, it's a damn good thing the strip was named after Möbius and not Listing. Otherwise, I fear that most of us would go through life believing that its distinguishing and defining feature is that it tilts to one side.
ALOES are in bloom these days. They do well in hot, arid climates such as hereabouts in deep south Texas, aka Tex-Mex Land. There's even an ALOE farm in the area.
There's only one J TILE in Scrabble. Getting five of them in a single grid is some advanced, next level scrabble f***king (™Rex).
There's a bit of a secondary theme with some SPARE RIB and MISO BAHABANOUGAJ on a bed of ORZO and RYE sprinkled with THYME, an OAT and some SEA SALT.
Did you know that all edible SALT (NaCl) is SEA SALT? It's just a matter of when the evaporation that produced it took place. Until recently it was mostly from mines of SALT deposits from ancient SEAs that evaporated millions of years ago. They were pollution free back then. Now the trendy restaurant-speak SEA SALT comes from recently evaporated SEAs, the ones notoriously polluted by human activity. Get your RDA of toxic chemicals and heavy metals: Use SEA SALT!
Build you a fire with hickory, hickory, ASH and OAK
Don't use no green or rotten wood, they'll get you by the smoke
You'll just lay there by the juniper while the moon is bright
Watch then jugs a-filling in the pale moonlight
"Copper Kettle"
This is also where I had a DNF. I for IOTA was ??? I had Iowa. Not a TV watcher.
I guessed IOWA and WBS (Warner Brothers Station/System) made sense.
Anon, yes, Alexander was Great...and of course real.
My only flashback re Thrace was it was where Heracles was sent to perform one of his Twelve Labors.
Not necessarily shrubs; could be grasses or other non-woody plants or a combination.
Minaj spoiled it for me. Otherwise good. Radio DJs haven’t played 45s for decades. Also dated, “trim” for “version of a car model.” Very 1950s-70s. People generally differentiate among “options” these days. Maybe they were meant to be retro? Dunno.
Very difficult as a downs-only solve. Count me in as a misspeller of BABA GHANOUJ. I found it disturbing that, even though I had lived in Greece and travelled around the eastern Mediterranean, I could not remember ever eating this dish. A post-solve visit to Wikipedia sorted this problem for me. In Greece they make a variation of it - without tahini - and call it melitzanosalata, or eggplant salad. I ate it often. It’s how I learned to love eggplant.
@Anon 12:39 (and others)
NYT Crossword always uses SNARF for eating purposes. Only uses SCARF as a neck wrap. Took me a bit to remember that. Look out for it, as it will appear again.
Roo
Yeesh! While trying to discern the difference between BABA GHANOUJ and μελιτσανοσαλατα I tried to find out if the places I had met friends for the latter (and retsina) on many lovely evenings still existed. Not a good rabbit hole to go down.
We chose to settle in Naxos in 1978 because, from all the research we could conduct at that time, including various ferry trips out of Athens to judge for ourselves, we wanted to find an island that was not a tourist trap but was still a functioning community. We settled on an island of farmers and fishermen centred around the town of Naxos, which was once a Venetian port. There are not a lot of high profile ancient temples or sculptures there. Keep moving. Nothing to see here. Go to Mykonos.
But today I landed on “Naxos Greece 4K HDR walking tour”, produced in the summer of 2025 and I wish I hadn’t. I thought I might be treated to a stroll down our old street but I hardly recognized anything. No bakeries, no food shops, no community ovens, no necessities, just swarms of tourists milling about. There was even one shot that included a cruise ship in the small harbour.
I despair.
I also came here for help with that answer. Thank goodness for this blog! I could not parse it. But earlier responders explained that the letter 'I' can stand for iota--I'm guessing in formulas, etc.
I call foul on BABAGHANOUJ (or however they spelled it). Having a marquee location for a word that is transliterated into English, and therefore can be spelled in a dozen different ways, is not fair. (I have the same issue with NYT Spelling Bee deciding how non-US food-related words should be spelled. Really, I grew up eating PARANTHA but you decided that's not correct??)
Really really enjoyed this nice playful puzzle, thank you! I eventually figured out how to spell GHANOUJ - loved the reveal. Funny clues 1D, 23A and others. Loved the blog lesson on North Macedonia, and the Washington dream SNL sketch made my day!
British Raj was the name for the form of government imposed on the India nation, so a very apt description of the widespread protests.
My son biked from France to Greece and Turkey a few years and sent amazing pictures from Skopje. It looks like quite a city, architecturally.
Thank you for this lesson. My dear friend, Matt Nimetz, was the unpaid UN negotiator who worked for many years to finally reach the resolution—Macedonia stays with Greece and North Macedonia is a separate country. He was recognized by both governments for his perseverance.
No tengo ni la más remota idea.
This is a wonderful puzzle. I'm a sucker for vertical themes, and those J's hanging out down LO is hilarious. Such a good idea. Js are the best. And to specifically call out their Scrabbleyness is so smart.
Skopje looks like a nice town. All those towns in the Balkans look cool. I wonder if they tolerate Americans there.
I'm resolutely anti-eggplant, because it is so gross, except in babaganouj which is great. I don't know what else is in there, but it's magic.
And NATE is one of my favorite people ever.
People: 11 {but Nicki is in the theme and most of the rest are hiding in the clues, so we shan't grumble muchly}
Places: 1
Products: 7
Partials: 2
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 24 of 78 (31%)
Funny Factor: 3 😐
Uniclues:
1 How the aliens ended up with a train car in their spaceship.
2 Tasty video from the kitchen cabinet.
3 Dr. Seuss book about a sexy grampa on a trolley.
4 Fat boys saying, "How you doin?"
1 METRO BEAM
2 SEA SALT ON ZOOM (~)
3 I'M HOT TRAM POP
4 CARB MEN FLIRT (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: When there aren't enough shooting stars for a shower. METEOR RINSE.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Like some others have said, played a bit tougher than a typical Tuesday and I really enjoyed it. Coming up with that many "J" ending entries could not have been easy, so a couple of themers being a tiny, tiny bit forced did not bother me at all.
Enjoyed the later week level cluing for IOTA - needed the crosses for that one.
Learned some things: 1. How to spell BABAGHANOUJ! I never imagined a "J" there, so that was cool. 2. SKOPJE - no clue.
3. TRIM as clued.
I liked the long crosses. PRIMERIB, ENTRYVISA, FASTBREAK and JUMPONIT all fall really nicely and look pretty in the grid.
I was held up for a bit as I rushed to throw down NOIDEA at 18A ("Haven't the foggiest") and it took me way too long to let that go even with the couple of gimmes that crossed it. I also haven't the foggiest around SITH. I'm famously (at least in my social circles) ignorant on all things Star Wars. No other major delays.
This was a nice, crunchy Tuesday. Thank you Daniel for coming up with this!
I thought you were setting us up for a punchline: Why did the fresh O not scream OJ?
I give up. Because Johnny Cochrane objected? Because the glove don't fit?
Kitshef
Möbius Strip
“It is true that a möbius strip has no end”
Doesn’t that concede the answer is valid?
Jberg
Rex complained about Radio DJ also but there are dj’s in clubs and at some weddings for that matter so I think it’s okay
Anonymous 12:39 pm
Scarf vs snarf.
I would say scarf also but I have noticed that the Times puzzle prefers snarf. So I always try snarf first. Seven though I don’t like it!
Be on the lookout for it, because snarf will show up again!
note to be All Woke but I really don’t like the clueing of “New Zealand native” for MAORI. native carries a very particular and distasteful connotation imo
Liked the puzzle.
British Raj is a thing as someone noted not redundant
I also thought of a dj at a club or wedding when people agreed with Rex that radio dj was redundant
Nicki Minaj, the crosses got me the correct spelling of her first name. Had heard about the recent controversy but didn’t know the details. Maybe Minaj was caught up in some evangelical thing. If that is the case, she should remember white evangelicals are pushing white nationalism these days. Trump has done almost nothing for Nigeria People are dying there as much as anywhere else because of the drastic and abrupt destruction of USAid by Trump and Musk.
The clue is trying too hard to misdirect. I doesn’t _stand for_ iota, it _is_ iota. But close enough for crosswords.
Well, I am also today years old and learning about North Macedonia, and its capital, SKOPJE. I really do try to keep up with world geography in the Balkans. In my youth, “Macedonia” included a huge area east of the top of Greece. Thinking about this region today made me really wish I had kept every map of Asia and “The Balkans” that I ever studied.
A puzzle full of Js made me instantly think of a Sesame Street inspired commercial advertising its solvability. “Today’s jiggly, joyful, juggernaut is brought to you by the letter J.”
I can never spell BABA GHANOUJ correctly on the first try, and always have to decide “to J or not to J.” Seems as though newer references use the “ush” ending. I’m a fan of the “lesser used letters” myself, but it’s the H that messes with me.
Another “to x or y” situation is always the Dreaded Sn/cARF. Today we SNARF. I’m a scarfer myself.
One of my roomies freshman year and I decided that “Women scarf; fratboys SNARF.” We espoused that the difference is in technique. Women
are able to ingest food (even large amounts) very quickly, quietly and tidily. Fratboys, on the other hand eat rapaciously, loudly, and leave remains on their hands, faces and clothing. Our one absolute scarf/snarf rule was “A woman may only snarf if required to do so when engaged in epicurean battle or athletics (defined as unavoidable food fight or eating contest).”
I enjoyed that this one pushed back just a tad with a very Tuesdayish theme. The reveal didn’t surprise me, but is serviceable. I enjoyed remembering the Sesame Street”letter commercials” and our very erudite snarf/scarf distinction.
But I doesn’t “stand for” iota, it *is* iota. You wouldn’t say that Α or α “stand for” alpha just as you wouldn’t say j stands for j.
Just really didn’t enjoy this one. I doesn’t stand for iota which made it quite a hard clue to get, especially when crossed with a minor TV network. And Nate crossing Dana — some random comedian crossing the ‘secret name’ of a celebrity. Ick.
I’ve always heard “British Raj” said.
I’ve been to Skopje so that one didn’t throw me, but it took me a long time to figure out why “iota” is something I can stand for. Go figure.
It took me a long time to make sense of the clue, even after I had filled in “iota.”
Wow, I posted a comment at 1:54 pm, and it finally appears about 7 hours later? Rex, I was worried that something had happened to you!
From the August 25, 2020 write-up: “Slightly stunned that Serbia has the DINAR as its unit of currency, but yes, it's one of two European countries using that denomination (the other being North Macedonia, which I sincerely did not know was a country).”
RE: What I stands for - my take on it is that if there were a Greek version of an abecedarium, the page for Iota would read (in Greek), “I is for Iota” and the I would stand for….
My take on scarf vs. snarf: people snarf, dogs scarf. That's my observation of the NYT puzzle clueing trend. So far, following that rule has not led me astray.
@Liveprof, you always have the best jokes and I couldn’t compete. :-)
100% on the Nate/SNL sketch! Some week I honestly don’t think I would make it without SNL. I’ve been watching since the premier in 1975. Many summers we had to plan our camping itinerary to make sure we were close enough to a decent bar so we wouldn’t miss it!
Too many ambiguous clues and spellings - is it Court or Flirt? Nicki or Nikki? Bomb or Bust? Snarf or Scarf? XTile or JTile? I eventually got them all, but there were more of them than usual.
That crossing was a classic Natick for me - on a Tuesday! Otherwise pretty easy.
Post a Comment