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Snackable seaweed / WED 4-15-26 / Veg out in a spa? / Indian P.M. of the 1990s / Genre for Blink-182 and Sum 41 / When and where, in slang / Toy inventor Rubik / Hunter's attire, informally / Tokyo-based brewery / Destination for Frodo in "The Lord of the Rings"
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
Constructor: Adam Wagner
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- MAKE A STINK (17A: Put all the bold letters in this clue together?) (bold letters = "odor")
- CREATE A MONSTER (Put all the bold letters in this clue together?) (bold letters = "brute")
- FORM AN ALLIANCE (Put all the bold letters in this clue together?) (bold letters = "pact")
- BUILD-A-BEAR (Put all the bold letters in this clue together?) (bold letters = "Pooh")
Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (28 June 1921 – 23 December 2004) was an Indian independence activist, lawyer, and statesman from the Indian National Congress who served as the prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996. He was the first person from South India and the second person from a non-Hindi speaking background to be prime minister. He is known for his role in initiating India's economic liberalisation following an economic crisis in 1991,[2][3][4] a process that has been sustained and expanded by every successive prime minister of the country. (wikipedia)
• • •
The ominous feeling actually started a little earlier, with that ASAP ASAHI SIA combo, but I was like, "maybe it's a fluke, let's keep going." And then immediately OPED EDAM and (ugh) Morse code DAH piled on, and I was like "OK, OK, yeesh" and I took the screenshot. If I stop to take that screenshot, it means I'm making a kind of bet that the whole grid is going to suck. I just want to document the precise moment at which I knew. And actually, I had no idea, because this grid was relentless. ASAHI SIA ASAP OPED EDAM DAH GIBE OBOE IBIS EEK ERNO NINO ANSEL ORO CNET RAO AMO AROD ARLO ALT and a bunch more that I'm not including because of the mercy rule. I know there can sometimes be a cost if you want to get in a bunch of flashy long Downs, and while I appreciate those Downs, I really do, the cost today was far, far too steep. Nice theme, nice long Downs, but dear god give some attention to the rest of the grid (which, after all, is the bulk of the puzzle).
But back to more positive things. Took me a while to warm to the theme, but the deeper I got, the better it seemed. It's a clever idea to begin with, having themers that describe what I, the solver, am doing. Then to have all the theme clues be the same, with only the boldness shifting from answer to answer? That's pretty neat work, to come up with a clue that sounds completely natural but that also contains the correct letters, in the correct order, to make four different variations of bolding make sense. And then the final answer actually makes nice use of the capital "P"—it's capital by position, but if the "p" had been lowercase, the clue simply wouldn't have worked. Gotta be "P" or else you just get pooh, which is not a bear: it's one half of a dismissal. I assume everyone knows what the BUILD-A-BEAR workshop is. If not, the phrase BUILD A BEAR is gonna seem awfully strange.
It was a pretty easy puzzle overall. Working out the themers was probably the biggest challenge. I got slowed down by the Morse code answer, duh could've been ... what's that other one, DIT? Yeah, DIT. The crossword is going to single-handedly keep dits and dahs alive in the popular imagination forever and ever, it seems. Nevermind that this pleases no one—until another meaning of DIT or DAH comes along, we're stuck. It's a minor inconvenience, so no big deal. Just low-key annoying. The one part of the puzzle where I got slightly bogged down was in and around CASE, which had a clue I didn't understand until after I'd finished the puzzle and thought about it for a bit (40D: Suit, e.g.). I was like "suit ... case ... yes, those two words go together ("suitcase!") but a suit is not a kind of case, what the hell?!" It wasn't til however many minutes later that the legal significance of "suit" dawned on me. "Suit" as in "lawsuit." A legal case. At least I think that's what the clue is after. If I'm wrong, shrug, I tried. Sorry. In the same vicinity as CASE, I had SKATE ROCK before SKATE PUNK (18D: Genre for Blink-182 and Sum 41) and no real idea about the front end of MT. DOOM (not a big LOTR fan) (44D: Destination for Frodo in "The Lord of the Rings"). Do you really abbreviate it like that? Does Tolkien? Seems oddly informal for something so horrible-sounding.
Bullets:
- 12D: Apt letters missing from ret__ement pl_n) (IRA) — hated this clue. You're already doing the whole "spell things using letters from the clue" thing in your theme! We don't need more. We truly do not. Let the theme be the theme and clue IRA in one of the infinitely available other ways.
- 4D: When and where, in slang (THE DEETS) — not a big fan of definite articles before nouns unless it's absolutely necessary, but here, I don't mind. "DEETS" is short for "details."
- 40A: Veg out in a spa? (CUKE) — this is pretty clever. Context:
- 15A: Musical instrument whose second syllable sounds like a part of other musical instruments (OBOE) — this clanked. First, I was trying to think what kind of instrument has an "O" (broke the syllable in the wrong place). Second, I just don't think of the "bow" as "part of" the violin. Obviously it's required to play the violin (not always, but for the most part). But it's a separate entity, not a "part."
That's all. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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114 comments:
Easy-Medium. Thanks, @Rex, for explaining why CASE works for the clue at 40D.
* * _ _ _
Overwrites:
gEe before EEK for the 9D interjection
At 37D I had OK i'm SURE until I realized that I'm was in the clue, then it became OKAY SURE.
WOEs:
The genre SKATE PUNK or either of the examples in the clue for 18D
At 45D, the clue for LAY LOW should have been present tense. I guess LAY can be past tense but I would say LAID LOW for "Tried not to draw attention."
With 45D in past tense (“Tried not to draw attention”) how does LAYLOW work? What am I missing?
LAY is the past tense of “lie”
It’s a weird phrase because in common usage the grammar is frequently incorrect, ie “lay” is used as *present* tense. But technically you LIE LOW, so LAY LOW is the past tense
The trick clues didn't work in the online printed version; no bolding of letters.
Medium-difficult for me. I had dIss instead of GIBE and had a lot of trouble in the top center section. And a lot of the cluing didn't land for me. SKATE rock before SKATE PUNK as well, and a bunch of others, but I did enjoy the theme and really grinned when I got to BUILD A BEAR.
Since on the iPhone app the bold letters were indistinguishable from the regular ones this puzzle was lost on me. The NYT ought to do better.
Gotta run but wanted to chime in. Tough for me for a Wednesday (like 17 mins) just cuz it took a while to get the theme, and cuz I barely have heard of BUILDABEAR. My trouble was all in the south.... Definitely puzzled over the tense issue with LAYLOW for a long time. Mordor before MTDOOM. Also couldn't understand the CUKE-spa connection. Thanks @REX for the picture, that explains it well!!!! Pretty unique theme, thanks, Adam!!!!! : )
Well, Rex, I for one have never heard of BUILD-A-BEAR, so that answer and that whole part of the grid was tough for me. Having some singer I don’t know right next to it certainly didn’t help, either. Not a lot of joy in getting it finished, unfortunately. And as a former oboe player who generally loves seeing that beautiful instrument’s appearance in a puzzle, I agree with Rex that the clue clanked.
I’m sitting here, shaking my head in amazement, looking at this theme. How did Adam come up with it?
A theme involving capital letters in repeated clues that make a word suggested by the answers to those clues – where does this come from? This is not low hanging fruit. This comes from a highly creative mind.
Then came the skill of fleshing out this theme. Coming up with a clue from which the four suggested words could be drawn. Coming up with four theme answers that fit the same pattern, that fit puzzle symmetry. So, mix high skill in there with the high creativity.
And here’s something else coming from such a mind – a new clue for OBOE, a word appearing in the Times puzzle more than 800 times. An angle none of the inventive bunch of Crosslandia constructors ever used before.
You rock, Adam. You bring meteoric spark to the box, and thank you a splendid outing with a generous helping of amazement.
Solved as a themeless as the app does not highlight the clue letters in dark mode. The concept is cute - but obviously not critical or even relevant to the solve as I went through this grid with no issues. I like SKATE PUNK, OKAY SURE and BONE TIRED.
Joni
Who mixes VODKA with TONIC when gin is available? THE DEETS, ROTO ROOTER are rough. Doubling down on the plurals with BONS AMIS was a poor choice. CLAMOR and SERENE are the words of the day.
Life At A Top People’s Health Farm
Pleasant enough I guess - going blind on the theme though made for an odd Wednesday morning solve.
The Stranglers
The "bold" letters didn't appear in the home printed version either.
Any puzzle with POOH is good by me.
SAKE, NORI, ASAHI are two (maybe three) Japanese edible/potable words too many. Part of a very international mix today along with Australia (SIA, GDAY), Spanish (NINO), Italian (ORO) Russia (TROTSKY, VODKA), Scotland (SKYE), Eastern Europe (LATKE), India (RAO), Hungary (ERNO) and French (BONS AMIS).
TROTS and TROTSKY are a nice echo.
Hand up for Mordor before MT DOOM. Checking my old copy of "The Return of the King," the title of chapter 3 of book 6 is Mount Doom, but the fold-out map in the back labels it Orodruin, with MT. DOOM in smaller letters underneath. I didn't reread the whole text, the description of Sam and Frodo climbing it mostly calls it "the Mountain." But the map is authority enough for me.
I get Rex's point about the short fill, but I didn't really notice it, I was having so much fun working out the theme--which I didn't understand until I saw Pooh in the last one.
Argh. I had FORMAL ALLIANCE instead of FORM AN ALLIANCE and couldn’t see the SKATEPUNK - which is a term I’d never heard of.
What an unusual puzzle. It was a pleasure to solve.( I also hesitated with the lay low answer) 🎈🎈🎊🎊
Also on the print out , yes I do it on paper, no bold, I m told I needed to print in newspaper form. So I did it as themeless
¡Santo cannoli!
Cute little theme and a nice, funny, and crafty little puzzle. Nice work everybody. I'm staring a difficult day in the face this morning, so I needed a pleasant jump start.
MAKE A STINK is straight up officially funny.
I've decided I don't like the word GIBE. I can't imagine using it in the real world.
Just saw SIA in an episode of Company Retreat and she really can sing.
People: 8
Places: 2
Products: 8
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 4
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 28 of 74 (38%)
Funny Factor: 4 🙂
Tee-Hee: A BREAST. [Brest besties.] BONE TIRED.
Uniclues:
1 Makes one serious joke.
2 Written suggestion for reducing tourism in Estes Park, Colorado.
3 One way to attract a boyfriend.
4 When you weary from freaking out about mice.
5 Best solution to our troubling political times.
1 CASTS AVID GIBE (~)
2 KISS ELK OP-ED (~)
3 EDAM ABREAST
4 EEK-BONE TIRED
5 METE VODKA TONIC (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: More than Comet pretty. AJAX PHOTOGENIC.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Looked fine on my iPhone app. Maybe see if you need to update the app?
Hey All !
Seemed the bold letters could've been a bit bolder. Tough to see 'em. Had to squint at the screen and tilt my head to discern them. Wrote them out on a piece of paper to help with the solve.
Speaking of paper, great clue on OPED.
Liked it. Maybe this was the TuesPuz that should've run yesterday. I guess it was deemed a tad too tricksy to be run on a Tuesday.
Suppose I need to take a point for MONSTER. Such a burden being this popular! Har. Unsure if combining that with the ROO in ROTOROOTER is wise. Seems like it'd MAKE A STINK. 😁
That gets me to 5 points. YAY ME!
Hope y'all have a great Wednesday!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
Makes total sense now. Thanks for the thoughtful explanation.
I didn't even bother looking at the bold letters once I figured out where itwas going. hardest thinks for me was skater punk. I was looking ska something. Then stared for what seemed like forever till the C in cuke made any sense.
Rex nailed it with his “bad vibes” characterization. This one has plenty not to like. It’s basically a potpourri of slang, foreign stuff and trivia, with a theme tossed in. Sorry, I know people enjoy learning and testing themselves by parsing together tough entries, but I’m tired of being bludgeoned by this stuff on a daily basis, I mean it’s everywhere.
ASAHI has so overstayed its welcome that it should be put on probation and threatened with a 90 suspension. Today it bumps up against THE DEETS and yet another one-named singer. The bad vibes began early.
Then we have BONSAMIS crossing NINO - yuk. Throw in some more stuff like EEK, OKAY SURE, and today we learn there is yet another member of the never-ending music “genres” with something called SKATE PUNK.
Speculation has been widespread (at least here) that the NYT is “dumbing down” the puzzles to “appeal to a wider audience” - today I only see a puzzle that’s not going to generate much enthusiasm from newer solvers, and may well continue to alienate old-timers like myself. Just no fun.
Easy-Medium is what I'd say as well. Somehow the plethora of three- and four-letter entries didn't bother me so much, certainly not enough to MAKE A STINK about it. The nice thing about the themers is that all of them resolutely avoid any eat-a-sandwich vibe, even though they have that exact grammatical structure.
I can't make up my mind whether I like BONS AMIS. I keep seeing little Japanese TREES there.
Unintentional hilarity: ANGLES. I suppose this is what many people think mathematicians do: things like add long columns of numbers, or multiply really big numbers, or, if you're a geometer, you measure angles. That's what you do. The thing is, many pure mathematicians would, when asked by another mathematician what they do, start with something like "oh, I'm a geometer" (they might modify that by saying e.g. "I'm a differential geometer", etc.). But don't say that at large to people at a cocktail party. They'll think you spent four years undergrad and five years writing your PhD thesis, only to wind up with some cruddy menial job where you're calculating angles all day.
It's starting to get WARM! We in Connecticut hit about 80 F yesterday. I think I'll try to get some sunshine in today. Hope your day goes well.
The English language has some weird quirks. It's amazing how many people from other countries learn/speak it.
In the print version the bold letters were also indistinguishable.
And, is there an unlimited number of ways to create a clue for OBOE?
Bold letters were indistinguishable in the NYT app. This basically made the themers unclued. Turned a Wednesday into a Saturday for me. No fun had here.
Solved without noticing what letters were in boldface. They weren't distinguishable on my device.
In hindsight, it would have helped the solve; but in the end the theme phrases became obvious without understanding the gimmick.
So "the worst fill...in a long time" balances out a "charming" theme and "some nice longer Downs" to merit three stars. Cool.
Only thing that stumped me today is the relevance of "IT'S ALIVE" and the shot from the hilarious movie Young Frankenstein (which I can't even type silently without correcting the pronunciation in my head).
Also on my iPad. And since I solve on paper, no bold at all there.
Agree!
I saw that SIA episode also, and it was very funny to see something so heavily produced in a company talent show context - I wasn’t sure I saw enough to tell whether she can REALLY sing. I think the wildest part of that show is how much the temp inserts himself into everything and is the first to chime in and offer advice. Like the last season, a really great bit of casting/choosing.
Your list of answers makes the puzzle look a whole lot better than RP’s list:)
Saw the bold on my iphone
Yes!!! it sucked because you had no idea what letters you were supposed to use...
Shouldn’t the ‘Cuke’ clue indicate an abbreviation?
On the iPad app, the bold letters were there, but hard for me to distinguish easily.
The C of the CUKE/CASE crossing was my last fill, and I didn’t understand either answer at the time. Blog is totally worth making a yearly donation for days like today:) That spa pic was a great aha moment. Perhaps I would have thought of it on a Friday or Saturday;)
DAH/DIT is one of my less favorite KEALOAS
I also wondered if ABREAST could be ASTRIDE - decided the former was less awkward by a step.
Interesting. I use an iPad using the NYT app and the letters were bolded.
I think that, while technically correct is best kind of correct in most cases, in a crossword puzzle it’s no bueno. Fine, laid low is an informal misuse of lie low past tense, but it is so thoroughly the modern common way to express this idea in this context that lay low sounds almost ridiculous. Should have clued it differently “kept a low profile with (tried to)” or something along those lines … just my two cents
The standard NYT printed version also shows no bold letters. The printed “newspaper” version does.
No bold letters on the printout, as others have noted, but for me at least this made this a lot more fun. Had to get most of the phrases from crosses and see how they related to the repeated clue, which they didn't. So four nice ahas! when the themers went in. Cool.
RAO and ARLO as clued were today's mystery guests, and SKATEPUNK? News to me. Sounds like a distant cousin of yacht rock.
Unlike OFL, I like seeing DAH. Back when I learned Morse code as a boy scout it was dits and DAHs and we scorned those poor saps who said "dots and dashes".
Finally warming up and heavy showers here yesterday, the grass is getting green, the buds are popping, and the crocuses are up. How people live where seasons don't change is beyond my poor powers of imagination.
Turned out that I like this one a lot, AW. A Winner for me, and thanks for all the fun.
When he wants to make a really good VODKATONIC, TROTSKY TROTS SKYE out of his liquor cabinet.
Exhausted friends: BONETIRED BONSAMIS.
What a Chicagoan has to show for multiple trips to BUILDABEAR: DAH BEARS.
I came running the other day when Mrs Egs screamed, "Holy cannoli! A mouse!"
I wish constructors would get with @Rex's program and use original words for their three and four letter fill. There have got to be tons of them out there.
Ingenious and very nicely executed theme. Fill was, unfortunately, known words. Thanks a bazillion, Adam Wagner.
Can someone please help me understand the clue for GIBE? ("He's very modest – he has a lot to be modest about", e.g.). I'm not getting it
So interesting. I also do the puzzle on the my iPhone app and I could see the bold. And this was at 12:30 last night. Technology. Let’s just give our lives over to it because it’s just so reliable.
Bold letters indistinguishable in the print from the NYT web site. Dits and Dahs, although somewhat obscure, are used every day by some amateur radio operators, even now!
Put all the Bold letters in this cLue togeTher. (Imagine the caps are bold)
FIX A SANDWICH
You don't want your EKG to elicit an EEK.
TROTS + SKYE = TROTSKY?
Can we add dog tired to BONE TIRED? That way, maybe the dog can get that bone.
As far as chowder goes it's CLAMOR corn for me.
Pete's Wine Bar specializes in Japanese varieties. Folks come from miles away for Pete's SAKE.
Sadly I am one of the, I guess, uneducated puzzle solvers - I have never heard of Build a Bear. Much more importantly, I couldn't differentiate the "bold" letters - so I ignored them and figured out the clues from the crosses. I did think the oboe question was at least funny -and a new way to ask about the ever-recurring oboe section. Pretty easy, overall.
For 6:54 AM: Agree, Mark: At 5 am my 84-year-old eyes don't focus well on minuscule variations in newspaper print. It's a Spelling Bee, not an eye-exam.
CREATEAMONSTER?
Well this was interesting. I print my puzzle using the ink-saver setting so there were no bold letters. But I decided to abandon caution, live dangerously and forge ahead without them. After getting the first themer, the others were pretty easy to figure out, so I don’t think they would’ve made much difference anyway. Not having the bold letters actually added a degree of difficulty and made it more entertaining.
Just out of curiosity, I looked at the app to see what the bold letters did say and was surprised at how faint they looked. Viewing on my iPad, it was very difficult for me to determine which letters were darker. A cool idea but technical execution wasn’t the greatest. Aside from that, I thought this was a very good puzzle and one I enjoyed. Thanks Adam, for a pleasant Wednesday solve.
It shows up if you print the Newspaper Version. But I always use the ink saver setting, so no bold for me either.
REX: " … until another meaning of DIT or DAH comes along, we're stuck. It's a minor inconvenience, so no big deal. Just low-key annoying."
Ha Ha--I get it--because you use a Telegraph Key to make the DITs and DAHs. Just me? Never mind.
I didn't love this puzzle. I've never heard of build a bear, so had to infer that one.
The creator tried real hard to clue OBOE in a new way, so I'll give them that, but I still didn't like the clue. I was also annoyed at the IRA clue, I didn't want even more letter parsing.
I had to look up what cannoli meant in Spanish. D’uh!
Common usage, by definition, is not incorrect. Past tense "lay" is essentially archaic at this point
Agree on the bonsa-i TREES. And yes, Loving the warmer temps. Enjoy!
If the boldface letters had been clearer to my eyes would have been a lot easier puzzle to solve, but in the end it was fun to suss out the themers. Took me forever to see the first clue was ODOR. For some reason DOOL did not make a lot of sense. Could THEDEETS be a SKATEPUNK band? Had a lot of trouble with the SE, but guessed EDAM, TROTSKY, and OREO and worked it out.
Solved as a themeless without any idea of SKATE PUNK, BUILD A BEAR or MT DOOM.
Definitely a different type of puztheme. Like different.
As for some other solvers, I did have a slight amount of trouble detectin the bold letters [in my printed copy].
And unlike @RP, I had more trouble with the longball answers than with the 3-4-5 ones. SKATEPUNK? BONSAMIS? GOTIME? VODKATONIC without the "AND"? etc.
Hard to complain about a fun puz, tho. Only 74 words and 34 blockers, so plenty of good long-ish stuff, too boot, I thought.
staff weeject pick: DAH. Better clue: {Had moved back to the west end??}.
some faves: CANDYBAR. OKAYSURE. ROTOROOTER. IRA clue [sorta a puztheme variation clue]. CUKE clue.
Thanx, Mr. Wagner dude. Boldly presented puztheme.
Masked & Anonymo2Us
p.s.
runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
For an extra Tee-Hee, we have KISS A BREAST. So close together, it's no accident!
BONE TIRED crosses A ROD. There's a lot going on today.
Didn't mind yesterday, but I found this one so annoying. Grating even. DIfferent strokes for different folks!
iPhone letters were SLIGHTY bolded, on a careful second look, but didn’t pop as much as they should have.
Medium partly because it took some staring to discern which letters were bold. They were there but did not jump out on my iPad app.
….also BONSAMIS, SKATE PUNK, and RAO were WOEs.
…and GIBE took some effort
…plus I didn’t figure out CUKE until reading @Rex
Cute puzzle but an annoying solve and @Rex is right about the fill.
That oboe clue drives me crazy for the reason you said. Grr.
Same.. very disappointing as the bold letters did not print. Only now does it make sense.
If you can’t read something on your iPhone there’s a good chance that “liquid glass” is at fault. Just sayin’.
Funny, I didn’t notice the plethora of crosswordese until @Rex pointed it out. Some of the ones he objected to I think are just fine, like ASAHI. It’s out there in the real world. I’ve had it and it’s not bad. ANSEL Adams is bad fill? I’d pluck GIBE out of that lineup too, and don’t be hating on my EDAM. I like Morse code so no issues with DAH. OBOE players are intelligent, interesting people as a rule. (Hi @Andy F!) I suppose that still leaves a fair amount of gunk, but the clever theme more than makes up for it.
Re the non-bold in the print-at-home version: I do the ‘Ink saver’ layout while Mr. A likes the ‘Newspaper version.’ Today my version didn’t have bolded letters but his did. So I checked his clue for FORM AN ALLIANCE to help straighten out my SKATEParK (doh) mess.
I had totally forgotten Brest was a place in France - fortunately had enough French to know BONS AMIS otherwise that could have hurt. Oh, according to etymonline.com there’s also a Brest in Belarus:
Brest - city in France, a Celtic name, from bre "hill." The city in modern Belarus is from Slavic berest "elm." It was part of Lithuania from 1319 and thus was known, for purposes of distinguishing them, as Brest Litovsk until 1921.
The Paris Brest, "round pastry filled with cream" is in English by 1981, said to be named in honor of the Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race that was held annually from 1891-1951. The round shape is supposed to resemble a bicycle wheel.
Thanks for a bold puzzle, AW!
Mimi L
Sorry to dredge up a contentious issue, but a few weeks ago, about a million posters (I'm hyperbolizing a bit) were up in arms that the word "punk" was associated Joan Jett; today, nobody is complaining about Blink-182 being referred to as punk? I've never heard a Sum 41 song (and didn't watch the posted video), but I'm guessing the same thing applies to them: Joan Jett is WAY more punk than either of those bands. I can provide details if people want, but if were going to complain about punkness, let's make it consistent. Blink-182 is NOT punk!
NW: Japanese brand name crossed with pop-culture name
N: French phrase crossed with a very labored cue for GIBE
Had no idea what CUKE had to do with being in a spa, and after that hideous illustration I'm not sorry I didn't.
*BLECCH!*
Also, still have no idea what it means to BUILD A BEAR.
Wow, big haul today!
Huge fail to the NYTimes game proofers and/or editors for completely botching this on the online platform and any others where the so called bold letters were simply not there. Bah humbug! You owe us all a free puzzle in reparation.
He had to stretch OREO to a cocktail I never heard of?
Look up Blizzard. There are so many blizzards -- completely different, and all just awful!
I really hated this puzzle. Gimmicks on Wednesday make me wish it was Friday.
The bold letters appeared in my home delivered version.
Yes, and it seems as if the appropriate letters could easily have been made bold
Across Lite didn't have bold letters in the clue, but it did put asterisks beside them. (Which is actually quite confusing and ugly, but it helped.) Until I came here and saw Rex's list of themers it never occurred to me that all the theme clues were the same phrase! That adds a bit of pop to it.
I finished with an error at LATKA crossing ARAS. Check the crosses, dummy!... actually that didn't help because an Olympian named Aras seemed quite reasonable. I had to click Reveal Incorrect Letters so see it; yeesh.
But my big objection was at LAY LOW. I just stared at it, thinking: it just has to be LAID LOW! No one says LAY LOW!... except Google Ngrams tells me they do. I don't care if it's technically correct, it just sounds so wrong to me!
The letters were hard to see even on my laptop.
Yup. Kinda no point or sense with online edition until I came to Rexblogspot.
lol 🙄 corReCt is wRonG and up is down and day is night, sure, Jan
I was prepared to dislike this when I hit the first theme clue - Oh no, taking bits of words and making new words; didn’t I rant about this yesterday? But they were interesting. Fun, even. I’m sorry to hear so many people had trouble seeing the bold type.
I did hate some of the stale short stuff. I’m with @Rex on the crappy clue for IRA and I was annoyed to have to choose between dit and DAT.
I surprised myself by dropping in MT DOOM off just the initial M, but that’s probably because I forgot Mordor existed. I’m not a Tolkien fan.
I had a couple of problems with 40A CUKE. (1) Do people really do that? And (2) cucumbers are not vegetables; they are fruit.
I liked it, Adam Wagner.
Lay is the past tense of lie. But by all means, please be mad about it. It’s entertaining.
Posted early, there was about a four-hour gap between comments appearing, mine was missing, so I'll see if anything happens with this one.
Meanwhile I'm pouting.
This old timer put in GIBE last. Very much an old term, seldom seen in my youth outside of The New Yorker. The most famous GIBE of all was Churchill’s about a Labour PM, a modest man who had much to be modest about.
I think the main reason that there were so many 3, 4 and 5 letter entries is that the grid has only 34 black squares which is very low for a themed puzzle. Wednesday puzzles have an average of 37.4 (xwordinfo.com).
The constructor says in his notes that he had originally planned to have a long reveal ASSEMBLE A TEAM but a friend recommended he axe that and just stick with the four theme answers. Here's part of Adam's constructor notes at xwordinfo: "Losing that fifth theme entry made this puzzle an absolute dream to fill. Without that added central constraint, I was able to crisscross the grid with more long down bonuses than I even thought possible. And I like all of them? I still can't believe I got away with this grid."
I have long advocated a move away from theme bloat to leave more room for quality fill. I think today's offering is a prime example of that kind of balance. Lots of lovely non-theme entries.
The theme answers and clues were remarkably consistent and precise. All the clues were worded exactly the same and all four themers started with a synonym for "assemble". Nice.
As usual, Lewis @7:09 eloquently highlights the puzzle's many pluses. I did wonder about his giving Adam credit for the clue never before used in the more than 800 appearances of OBOE.
To my ear "Musical instrument whose second syllable sounds like a part of other musical instruments" has Will Shortz written all over it.
I would be remiss not to point out the grid's prudent use of the plural of convenience. Rather than a deluge of POCs often seen, here there's only a precious few. One that did catch my eye was at 8D. A single "Brest bestie" would be BON AMI. The plural as clued "Brest besties" only needs one S whereas the answer BONS AMIS needs two Ss. Never seen that before.
Whew! All that typing. My fingers are BONE TIRED!
Well Les, first tomayto/tomahto on cucumbers being fruit, but yes…not only do they put CUKEs on eyes, but (and I’ve been in only a few spas) they also put them in drinking water pitchers because they are apparently “very hydrating.” Back to the fruit biz…I tend to have an unscientific way of categorizing fruits v veggies…which is…fruits are sweet and vegetables…not so much. But…you needn’t tell me the difference…I know it. I just don’t pay no never mind to it. ;)
One of these days I’ll figure out WHY people use Across Lite. I’m not GIBE-ing you…I truly don’t get it. I find the NYT app superior (I tried Across Lite several years ago). Is it because you solve through a browser?
I think it’s referring to a Dairy Queen Blizzard. Not my cuppa, but my husband sometimes gets them…
Metrognome…ur just gonna have to Google. See also (back in the olden daysCabbage Patch Kids) and Elf on a Shelf. You didn’t “build” a Cabbage Patch Kid, but there were multiple “kinds.”
Um. Hard to explain. Kind of humorous sarcasm in front of the person? Or maybe a little like making a joke at the other’s expense? I semi-think of it as “gentle humorous goading.” This does NOT mean I’m right.
Well @Whatsername…THAT’LL teach ya to try to save INK…😘
This was horrible. You absolutely can’t tell what letters are bold when solving on your phone
I do not know about build a Bear worksop so d I keep t looking for some other verb after I had the ld and thought "build" Enjoyed the other answers, and had some fun trying to think what they would be before crosses helped fill them in, but that one fell flat.
There were some very good long downs. I did not notice too much short "crosswords - probably because I need those to get the other answers.
But there was one clue, 15 A, that I thought was garbage. Too long and too cumbersome. Horrible clue.
The bold type was difficult to see and it did NOT print out. I prefer to print the puzzles and do them paper, but had to go back on line to see what the bold letter were for those clues.
GIBE in the sense of a taunt. "He's very modest" would ordinarily pass for a pleasantry about someone, but here it snarkily means how fitting that is, as his accomplishments are but modest ones.
I too saw no bold in my printed copy, but the puzzle worked well anyway. I enjoyed the familiar phrases and clever downs. TIL SKATEPUNK (!)
My granddaughter went to BUILDABEAR for her birthday present - she loved it!!
Can't help it -- I was raised on Morse code being "dots" and "dashes," and I still think of it that way. I can never get my
"Dits"/"dats"/"Dahs" straight. And dat's wassup wit dat!
Not hard at all.
A gibe is an insult, a small bit of mockery.
If the dog-tired … much to be midest about is too hard to plumb, there’s no hope.
No, Beezer, you're not JIVE-ing us. A GIBE is a tease or a barbed comment; to dissemble or to fool someone is to JIVE them. (And, of course, JIVE is also a kind of street slang.)
Mostly agree with Rex's take today, but also got my biggest laugh from his comment "I assume everyone knows what the BUILD-A-BEAR workshop is." Um, nope. Just one more fad that has, thankfully, passed me by. And I see from the comments that I'm not alone.
So just scrolled through again and there was my earlier comment in all its glory. Either I missed it (highly likely) or complaining had some effect. I always read all the comments which are frequently more interesting than the puzzle.
The lay low. discussion
Many comments I see
Present tense lie low Past tense lay low.
But present tense lay something down. Past tense laid something down
There is no way such a confusing setup can last in popular speech. So the rules are usually ignored. But here the puzzle goes for formal written English. Nothing wrong with that, in my opinion Almost a trick!
On the other hand , formal written English and popular speech are two different things. So laid or lied low is also okay.it is not up being down, it is just language.
Sun Volt
Rhetorical question I am sure
But I will answer it anyway
Many people do NOT like gin , hence vodka tonic. I happen to like both. So I have committed the alleged sin of drinking vodka tonic when gin was available. To each his/her taste buds. (Mostly irrelevant for me now since I don’t drink much anymore. Usually wine when I do)
Southside Johnny
Apparently the games app is very successful and a big money maker for the Times.So the Times has a very different opinion than you do. Maybe the many new subscribers have different tastes. I don’t like everything about recent puzzle trends but like it over all. I do likel foreign words. So we definitely disagree there
Oh, Beezer, I hate to do it, but that's not going to stop me … If cucumbers are "very hydrating" why would you put them in a pitcher of water, which is already quite hydrated, thank you. No. You add cucumber slices because they look pretty.
And, as for the tomayto/tomahto fruit/veggie thing, I'm pretty well with you on that. I just thought the clueing was odd. But I must say I'm already looking forward to this year's crop. My wife has installed a set of industrial style metal shelves with special lights in the conservatory and we are now looking at healthy seedlings about 2 to 3 inches high. I think it's going to be a good year. Cucumbers, tomatoes, beans and a bunch of other stuff I know nothing about because I chose not to go to the seed store with her. i hope she got carrots and potatoes.
I have to go out this week and visit some nurseries and look for an Italian plum tree (aka prune plum) to plant in our small orchard where an apple tree inexplicably died. Local lore says if an apple tree dies don't plant another one in the same spot. Sounds like superstition to me, but it gives me an excuse to plant a plum. I spent my first 7 or 8 years in a mostly Italian neighbourhood in East Vancouver wandering up and down the alleys picking these things off the trees that hung over the fences. Deep purple skins, delicate green flesh and tons of flavour. I am so looking forward to this. Ah, spring, the season of promise.
Sorry for the ramble, but it's spring.
@Mark another hand up for increased difficulty as a result of poor legibility. the letters were bolded on the app [was trying to solve on my iphone which i don't normally do, but i was bored at the laundromat and had already finished all the other NYT games] but i could not see which ones were bolded. had to wait till i got home and cracked open my laptop, where i could zoom way in on the clues to see. i enjoyed the theme but the execution was really abysmal because of this. [and i'm 42 and don't have any vision problems.]
-stephanie.
tht
Not sure bons amis sounds quite right to me either Technically correct but not quite right idiomatically is my thought. Close enough for crosswords I suppose. Maybe a stretch for Wednesday?
Anonymous 12:13 pm
I saw bold face in the app on my phone. Some didn’t. In print it depends on how it was printed, again according to the comments. The app has always been very glitchy. I wouldn’t say it’s a huge fail. Just the usual mess.
This one had me at hello. As soon as I saw the themers, I was excited to find out what was going on. As @Rex said, the theme is indeed charming, but also (in my humble) brilliant. I was amazed in all the ways @Lewis was. I didn't even notice any of the short fill as I was so distracted by the sheer genius of this. My reaction was different than @Rex, I thought the fun factor here was well worth the short stuff.
My knowledge of Lord of the Rings continues to be nil so MTDOOM took some crosses and did not mean a whole lot to me. BUILDABEAR was familiar enough so not too much of a hold up there, that was the one themer in which I was able to throw down at least part of it right away (BEAR). It took some work to get the rest.
All this with some nice long downs (Yet another cocktail for @Rex!) made this a heck of a Wednesday for me.
Adam, thank you for this! Color me impressed.
@Beezer, I solve on a desktop Windows computer with two HD monitors and a full keyboard. (You couldn't pay me enough to try doing it on my phone!) I go to the NYT puzzle page in Chrome, and the Crossword Scraper plugin allows me to download the .puz file. When I launch Across Lite, it fills my entire right monitor and I never have to scroll except a bit on Sundays. I find it wayyyy better than the NYT web page version.
Crossword Scraper generates .puz files from most online crosswords: New Yorker, WSJ, LA Times, etc, so I can solve them all in A.L.
That may be so, but then most of us have never listened to or even heard of Blink-182.
Speak for yourself. “Most of us”? Not everyone here is pop culture illiterate.
How out of touch are you people that youve never heard of cucumber eye masks? It isn’t new!!!
Rex included a link and still you’re whining. There’s no pleasing you. Wah wah wah.
You do not “hate to do it,” clearly.
What fun I had with this one. To be truthful, Adam Wagner had lots of fun with me. I’m a fan of Adam’s puzzles; seeing his byline cheered me. And I had a wonderful laugh at myself in the bargain.
The fill outside the theme is a tad dry, but I enjoyed breezing along and didn’t really care that so many answers were short and nothing really sparkled. In fact, many of the clues had a couple possible good answers and I picked the wrong one almost every time. Most of my solve time was spent checking the crossings and correcting.
The theme is what really got me. Not filling in the answers, but making sense of the answers as a cohesive theme. So, the first one, bold letters spelling odor easily led to MAKE A STINK. Each theme clue followed the same process, and I didn’t have any trouble with the first three. In fact, MAKE A STINK an FORM AN ALLIANCE were stronger entries, or to me at least, connected more directly (obviously?) to their bold words than did CREATE A MONSTER. But that didn’t really matter.
The good part, though was the last one where the joke was on me. The bold letters p-o-o-h did not instantly take me to the Hundred Acre Woods. They also failed to give me any sense of what all the theme answers had in common. I got BUILD A BEAR after a few thoughtful moments and with help from the crossings. And I got the happy music. So, I was finished and yet the theme made no sense whatsoever. I had no earthly idea what “BUILD A BEAR” even meant!
Since I had completed the puzzle correctly, I looked up “Build a Bear “ and discovered what it is and also that when the stores became popular, my daughter had just graduated high school, which accounts for my ignorance. OK, so what do all the theme answers have in common? It took me waaaaaay too long to figure out that the theme is really more of an assignment to see what each set of bold letters represented and fill it in. Just that simple. Bur for me, an exercise in overthinking, something at which I excel.
100% fun. I do love laughing at myself. Reminds me not to take the world so seriously. Thanks Mr. Wagner.
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