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Whiskey portion of a boilermaker / TUE 4-14-26 / Cincinnati trio? / "Just so you know," online / Chatted via Teams, say / Tail-less cat breed / Locale of a lab rat / Defense grp. since 1949 / Automaker with a six-star logo / Done with boozing / Lederhosen typically end above one / Board game set in a mansion / Count in the cereal aisle
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
Constructor: Mark Diehl
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
I rarely say this, but I don't understand how this puzzle got accepted. The theme is completely uninspired. I mean, you get a couple of nice-ish phrases out of it (the first two), but ... AEIOU?! That's it? That's your revealer?? Just ... the vowels themselves? ABSTEMIOUS has all the vowels appearing exactly once, in order, is that interesting? (A: no). TRADE DISCOUNT? MACRONUTRIENT? AMBIDEXTROUS? GATHERING CLOUDS? HALF-SERIOUS? (these were all actually used in previous NYTXW clues for AIEOU). I just don't get it. Like, I don't get how this "theme" was deemed special enough to run. I feel like I must be missing something, some hook that elevates this above what it appears to be, which is just ... answers with the vowels in order. That's it. End of story. It's baffling. It's not bad, it's just not ... enough. Not sophisticated enough, not clever enough. The fact that these answers have this one feature is, at best, a curiosity, a polite "huh, interesting." As for the fill, it's mostly stale, with little to offer in the way of genuine interest, and the cluing is plain and straightforward. SNATCHED UP and ON THE WAGON are perfectly solid long Downs, but the rest of it is really quite dull, and loaded with overfamiliar repeaters. AAHS AWW NTH IMED INHD and on and on, including the always hateful but somehow undying (if not UNDEAD) IRES (no one says this) (32A: Angers). I can't think of when I've had less to say about a puzzle. It's just not giving me ... anything. Not even truly terrible stuff, or weird stuff, new stuff. It's just bog-standard puzzle stuff that (with the exception of APPLE ICLOUD) feels like it was made decades ago. In fact, I thought, "surely this has been done before, in the olden days." And in fact, yes. At least twice (in '96 and '03) puzzles have had theme answers where every vowel appears just once, but not in order (!?), and then one other time ('07) there was a puzzle (a Sunday-sized puzzle) with this exact theme. Identical. Even uses one of the same examples ("watering trough"). On the one hand, the theme hasn't been done in almost 20 years, so who cares? On the other hand, yes: Who Cares?
- "WHAT'S NEW WITH YOU?" (16A: "Been a while! Any updates?")
- HASHES IT OUT (26A: Talks through a sticking point, say)
- APPLE ICLOUD (44A: Online storage option since 2011)
- WATERING TROUGHS (57A: Ranch fixtures for livestock)
A boilermaker is either of two types of beer cocktail. In American terminology, the drink consists of a glass of beer mixed with a shot of whiskey. In England, the term boilermaker traditionally refers to a half pint of draught mild ale mixed with a half pint of bottled brown ale. // The American cocktail originated in Butte, Montana in the 1890s. It was originally called a Sean O'Farrell and was served only when miners ended their shifts. // When the beer is instead served separately as a chaser, that is often called simply a shot and a beer. In Scotland, the serving of a half pint of beer alongside a "wee hauf" glass of whisky (one-quarter gill, 36 ml) is called a half and a half. [...] There are a number of ways to drink an American beer chaser:
- Traditionally, the liquor is consumed in a single gulp and is then "chased" by the beer, which is sipped.
- The liquor and beer may be mixed by pouring or dropping the shot into the beer. The mixture may be stirred. If the shot glass is dropped into the beer glass, the drink can also be known as a depth charge. (wikipedia)
• • •
I had almost no trouble at all with this one. My biggest hangup came from an early wrong answer, when I wrote in MAZE instead of CAGE at 21A: Locale of a lab rat. After that, only a few answers gave me even a moment's hesitation: USE ON, which I had originally as RUB ON (30D: Apply to, as an ointment);"OH, DANG," which is one of those arbitrary exclamations you have to piece together from crosses (20A: "Oof, that's rough"); and IONIAN, which I simply didn't remember (45D: ___ Sea, body between Sicily and Greece).
Bullets:
- 38A: Force of habit, for some, in brief (OCD) — Kind of a weird clue. I guess the idea is that you take the generic phrase "force of habit" (which is not in any way OCD) and imagine it literally? Like, OCD is a "force" behind certain (often debilitatingly) habitual behaviors? Don't love it.
- 47D: Cincinnati trio? (ENS) — a "letteral" clue—the clue refers to the "N"s (ENS) in the name "Cincinnati."
- 51D: "Just so you know," online (FWIW) — "for what it's worth."
That's all for today. Sorry. I told you I didn't have anything to say about this puzzle. It's just not giving me anything to work with, or even be curious about. I do think it's kinda funny (in a wry, ironic sort of way) that SHOT (43A: Whiskey portion of a boilermaker) and BREW (49A: Batch of ale) both cross ON THE WAGON. I'm also now amusing myself by imagining Count CHOCULA's Tinder bio: "UNDEAD, UNWED." But I think I'm done entertaining myself, though. Gonna try to go back to sleep. See you next time.
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84 comments:
What Rex said - my experience exactly. There has to be better offerings than this.
Tough Gnarl
After dealing with that ODIOUS center stack of garbage headed by KAYO I should have cut bait. Today’s word of the day is SCORCH.
Wicked Little Critta
On to Wednesday.
The Fall
Easy. Normal Tuesday. Liked it a lot more than OFL did.
* * * _ _
Overwrites:
ash before YEW for the bowmaker's wood at 7D
My Teams chat (9A) was dMED before it was IMED
I had my 21A lab mice in a @Rex mAze before they were CAGEd.
IRkS before IRES at 32A
WOEs:
DOUG Ross from ER at 12D
Actress GIA Scala (59D)
Rare case of disagreement with ~RP, here.
Ok, the theme isn't fascinating, but the cluing is peppy, the long entries are fun, the grid architecture is open and airy and the constructor's feat of coming up with the themers is kudos-worthy.
And most importantly, the solving experience, for me at least, was very pleasant.
Couldn't really ask for much more on this sunny Tuesday😎
It happened again...I finished the puzzle (with an alphabet run to get CHOCULA) No music. It might sound paranoid, but am I the only person who experiences this?
The puzzle was heavy with Gen-Z popular culture, so it wasn't my favorite.
Lewis, is that you? JK—I agree that this was a fine puzzle. I generally ignore themes and am happy to get some clever clues and a couple of fresh answers. Just the thing for this cloudy, drizzly Tuesday morning. 🌧️
My favorite supervocalics:
Mozambique
Port-au-Prince
Sequioa
Supervocalic
Crossing UNWED with UNDEAD was unwise.
I loved it!(he said facetiously)
Well, talk about range. Mark’s last puzzle, in February, was an uber-low 62-word Saturday, with eight answers of 11 letters or more – all of them NYT debuts! It was tough, too.
Today’s puzzle hit the other end of the difficulty continuum, but I made it tough by trying to guess the revealer. I jumped through hoops – looking at the first letters of the theme-answer words, looking at first words, last words, looking for hidden words – until I finally uncle-ed.
When I uncovered the revealer, I just shook my head in amazement over how something can be right in front of my eyes, and I just don’t see it.
What I did see as I solved were colorful theme answers (well, maybe not APPLE ICLOUD, but look at the others!). APPLE crossing SEED made me think of Johnny, and FROZEN abutting WATER made me think of ice.
Mark, word-nerd me loved this theme, and congratulations on your 79th Times puzzle. Please, keep the streak going, and thank you!
is your volume turned down ?
did you spell neap with two e's?
Hey All !
Interesting and tough place to put your Revealer, as it has to work directly with one Themer, and indirectly with another Themer, causing tough-to-get-clean-fill ness.
I liked it. Crossword puzs are wordplay, right? This Theme plays with vowels. In order. Is it facetiously done? You decide. 😁
Liked it overall. No OH DANGs here.
Sometimes, THE use of THE is THE big problem in THE structure of THE sentence.*
*THEISM
Welp, hope y'all have a great Tuesday!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
“Aeiou!” he cried facetiously. Why???
It wasn’t bad, and not everyone has the “oh I’ve seen this puzzle before” ennui engrams that OFL has. The theme was fresh to me, just more “look what I did!” construction appreciation than helpful in solving.
¿Qué hay de nuevo contigo?
Oh brother. We seriously could use a better puzzle pretty soon. The gunk is the best part of the puzzle. Not even a hint of a sense of humor.
I like zombies, so UNDEAD was a highlight. I wasn't a fan of Chocula's cereal, but he always seemed nice.
I live in the southwest and salsa is required by law here and never once have I ever heard anyone talk about its ZEST. Maybe that thar salsa in New York City is zesty?
❤️ UNWED/UNDEAD. AAHS/AWW.
People: 6
Places: 3
Products: 6
Partials: 5
Foreignisms: 0
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 20 of 74 (27%)
Funny Factor: 0 😫
Uniclues:
1 Result of a power outage at the mall.
2 Immortal Turk.
3 Christine's sidekick.
4 When you post an AI drawing of you looking like Jesus and then say it was you looking like a doctor and your cult members are like, "Sure, I will worship that dude."
5 Native nixing Negroni.
1 FROZEN SANTAS
2 UNDEAD IONIAN
3 ODIOUS SUBARU
4 DR. NO THEISM
5 MAYA ON THE WAGON
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Santa's helper loses his summer tan. ELF SEMI-PALER.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’m new-ish, a few years into doing the crossword daily, and I don’t remember ever seeing KAYO before… is this just another way of saying KO?!
Wow, a grid that put Rex to sleep (and he still does Mondays, although he skips half of the clues to make it interesting). I guess he looks forward to the themes more than I do.
I just couldn’t see ODIOUS today - crossing something arbitrary like OH DARN didn’t help, and I didn’t drop in KAYO because I was kind of hoping it wasn’t the answer as I consider it an abbreviation.
We could probably characterize this puppy as serviceable or workmanlike and just leave it at that - fine for a Tuesday.
This. I disagree with Rex that every single day must be a brand new radical solving experience. This is a perfectly workmanlike Tuesday, done well. 3 stars. They can't all be amazing new concepts that have no precedent in NYTXW history, it's been decades.
Very strange. FWIW, I have never experienced that. If every eligible square has been filled in, then either I get a message congratulating me for finishing successfully, or I get a message that there's a mistake somewhere.
So while it might seem a little insulting to ask, all I can think of to ask is: are you sure you've filled in every square? (I know that my eyesight does not improve with age, and IIRC you may be about twenty years older than me.) Is your clock still running when you thought you were done?
I didn’t think it was easy. I completed it with not knowing the theme.One of those puzzles without joy nor fun. No 🎈for me.
Yes
OH DANG, actually.
Toughest answer for me was DOUG, the character on ER, which I have never watched. That's because I had IMEt for "chatted on Teams." I do not use Teams much but sometimes someone else wants to, so I'm a little familiar--and it seems to be for online meetings, an alternative to Zoom, rather than an instant messaging app. I wanted e-MET, but I was pretty sure of IN HD (appalled, but sure). So there I was looking at TOUg, and decided it couldn't be. IMED indeed. As I say, I don't use Teams much, so I guess maybe it has a chat function. Come to think of it, so does Zoom, but nobody would call that IM.
Ha
Yes. Are you implying it's not OK?
Perhaps, in your area, the zest is yet to come?
Accepting uncle as a verb (for which, thank you!), did I uncle when my sister had her first child? Or was she the uncle-er and I the uncle-ee?
On the other side, my wife has five sisters. When Kathy became the first of the six to have a baby, can we say she established an aunt farm?
Medium. I think I was a little slow this morning, so a slightly worse than medium time for me.
Apparently Rex found it ODIOUS. I didn't particularly. My own brand of word-nerdiness includes liking these little items like "facetious" or "abstemious". (Or if you're of the "and sometimes Y" school, then you can tack on an -ly to each of those.) What's the longest vowelless string you can think of occurring in an English word? -- that sort of thing -- sure, give 'em to me, I love puzzles of all sorts. (Rex, are you sure that AMBIDEXTROUS and MACRONUTRIENT have been used in prior puzzles, to exhibit examples where all five vowels appear exactly once, in order?) Anyway, I found Rex a tad dogmatic here ("is that interesting? (A: no)"). My own inclination would be just to take the theme as a given and then see how good you can make the themers. WHAT'S NEW WITH YOU and HASHES IT OUT are very good in-the-language phrases. I wish Mark Diehl had kept the level that high throughout (APPLE ICLOUD is not as wonderful). But there's an enormous literature on creative responses to language constraint games (see for instance Oulipo), and one could judge the puzzle that way, how creative you can make the response, even for such a simple(-minded?) theme. I think I can see my way clear to awarding a whole extra star, on that basis. It wasn't great IMHO, but I certainly didn't think it was as terrible as Rex thought it was.
MANX must be one of the XMEN, no?
What do lederhosen typically end right before? Divorce.
SEEDER: The traaditional Paassover meal for Jews whose keyboard keys sometimes stick.
Was it REDDING who wrote Dock of the Bay? O TIS true.
Re: WHAT'S NEW WITH YOU. Two psychics run into each other. The first one says: You're fine. How am I?
What you should do to show you enjoyed a funny text: DOHA
Hoy! Who got out on the wrong side of the bed this morning? Thought this was a bright and easy puzzle—could have been run on Monday based on difficulty. Though it took some inventiveness to come up with the theme, but then I’m a relatively newbie. Loved UNWED UNDEAD to describe Count CHOCOLA. Never considered his marital status before.
This theme may have been used before, but if was, what? a month ago? I probably wouldn't have remembered it, so OK by me. The themers seemed pretty random so the revealer was a nice combination of aha! and doh!
Very easy, met DOUG and GIA but those we re the only real no-knows. I don't have a BMW but I do have a SUBARU, lots of those around here. I have gotten into one that wasn't my own twice already. And I recently found out that SUBARU is what the Japanese call the Pleides (sp.?) so that was a gimme.
Nice enough Wednesdecito, MD. Maybe Didn't blaze new trails in crosswordom but a pleasant solve. Thanks for a reasonable amount of fun.
I will never not be annoyed by anything that forces a binary between marriage and singlehood. I'm very not single, have been with my partner for 12-plus years, and we are UNWED and always will be. (And don't get me started when people insist that having kids is "starting a family." I have no kids and am part of a family.)
There's a growing group of solvers that are demanding more of this type of theme. They're known as the Vowel Movement.
I'm inferring from Sunday's puzzle that worshipping Texas Hold 'Em is THEISM.
Any one notice that OCD and DCO sit one atop the other smack dab in the middle?
What's truly amazing about this puzzle is that, outside of the themers, no answer contains each of the vowels only once and in alphabetical order. Perhaps this is the "hook" that @Rex is missing. Stunning. Thanks, Mark Diehl.
In sync with Rex about this one.
The two-letter words in prepositional phrase answers can be so arbitrary. But does "Apply to, as an ointment" mean USE ON and not Rub In? You rub ointment IN (to) your whatever. Clue/answer mismatch, IMO.
And I equate OH DANG with me screwing up, whereas "Oof, that's rough" as observing someone or something else. But when "OH DANG" is the answer, I really just shrug.
Rex's first sentence ("...I don't understand how this puzzle got accepted.), along with @Lewis's observation that it was the 79th one published by this constructor, made me wonder. Does someone with such a large volume of acceptance receive an inside publication track? The logical next question from Rex is "weren't there other puzzles submitted that could have been published?" (on a Tuesday, for that matter).
Both spanner phases were interesting enough, but telling when my absolute favorite thing was CHOCULA as the "Count in the cereal aisle". My first job was in a supermarket and it was when Count Chocula and its "cousin" Frankenberry came out. Not sure I (or my kids) ever ate either; when you read the ingredients label, you'd say "Oof, that's rough".
@Liveprof 8:40 AM
I think they're saying it's a little syrupy.
For tht 8:11: Once in the recent past, I made the mistake of not reviewing the completed grid. Not this time. Thanks for the input.
I understand Rex's frustration. This could've run on a Monday. But that's the NYT's fault, not Mark's. I hope you've recovered from the harsh review, Mark :)
@Bob, what you are experiencing does seem odd. Like, @tht said…if I fill in every space I get a notification I’ve made at least one mistake. Try clicking the “settings” button (looks like a wheel or gear) and maybe play with the setting buttons toward the bottom. There are ones that say “play music,” “show timer,” etc. Ok. I’ve never done this myself so I don’t know what would happen, but have you ever clicked the “pencil” button? Maybe you aren’t “ complete” unless you undo the pencil. Maybe some of your prior settings got messed up when you had your email fiasco.
So, finding words and phrases that use all the vowels just once, is hard enough, but it can be done. I’m thinking of the GENIUS AT WORK in MOZAMBIQUE who AMBIDEXTROUSLY ate CAULIFLOWER, played the TAMBOURINE, and, while thinking of JULIA ROBERTS and the FOUNDING FATHERS, wrote with a FOUNTAIN PEN.
But, getting the vowels in words and phrases just once *in order* MAKES IT TOUGH, and I believe it would make for an involving LATE-NIGHT HOUR activity … okay I’m only saying this HALF SERIOUSLY, please don’t TAKE IT OUT on me!
Haha…I hate the music so turn it off, but “Congratulations” still pops up…or if something is wrong when I’ve filled in all squares, a message pops up that I have “at least one mistake.”
Easy puzzle but bloody hell! I really don’t like words like “SHIV” or “SHOT” to greet me in the morning. Poor puzzle indeed
Haha @Liveprof! I suspect that SCORCH would be the descriptor for salsa in Gary’s “neck of the woods.”
Maybe your phone is on mute!
In office settings people chat (IM) amongst each other, not just video meetings. Ie…you might have an office friend on another floor…you say “interested in lunch” or “btw, you should try this new show on Netflix.” Keeps your email inbox from having non-business communications.
Gen Z popular culture? What? Apple iCloud? That predates Gen Z by about a year. Count Chocula? Been around since th early 70s. Barely anything at all here that opted oblivion to the last 50 years should cause any issues.
Just started and I've got AAHS, AWW, DMED, INHD. Hope it gets better.
Strange, I thought the pop culture was all old stuff. You had ER, Dr. No, Otis Redding… maybe Frozen? That’s even riding the Millennial/Gen Z line. IMing and FWIW are also way older than Gen Z (I was using those both back in the old AIM days!).
My first thought on finishing the puzzle was "what the f was that" which quickly morphed into "I really gotta get going on my goal of submitting a puzzle because truly it is possible"
Agreed. Never heard anyone ask for "zesty" salsa in the NE, SE, or mid-west, or on any of my other travels.
That said, thought this was a perfectly fine Tuesday.
I kind of suspected that Rex would not have warm and fuzzy feelings about the puzzle but yikes. I must have been solving for some time now because I did think that there had been a past theme that used the vowel run. I just solved as a themeless and when I got to the reveal, thought hmmmm…nice enough.
I actually thought Rex would blast APPLEICLOUD. I use it, but figure non-Apple users might think “oh c’mon!”
Like others (even Rex, I think)…workman-like puzzle, albeit a tad on the easy side, even for a Tuesday.
Knowing the theme was hardly a help. All it did was help you know that a few vowels existed and their relative location to each other. It should not have been enough to make or break the solve. I figured it about halfway through and don't think it helped me much at all.
SIGH - I misinterpreted the reveal clue, understanding "in order" to mean "consecutively," and not surprisingly came up empty in my search for a theme quintet. So the revelation of AEIOU was both a letdown and a pleasure (I like getting faked out by puzzles...mostly).
Ran a python script on Jeff Chen's word list that found all possible phrases that fit this theme in 20 seconds: Ran a python script on Jeff Chen's word list that found all possible phrases that fit this theme in 20 seconds:
GATHERINGCLOUDS 15
PARENTINGGROUPS 15
TALKEDTHINGSOUT 15
WATERINGTROUGHS 15
WHATSNEWWITHYOU 15
ABSTENTIOUS 11
APPLEICLOUD 11
BATTLEITOUT 11
FACETIOUSLY 11
HASHEDITOUT 11
HASHESITOUT 11
HAVEITROUGH 11
MAKEITCOUNT 11
TALKEDITOUT 11
Tougher than usual D-O Tuesday for me. Usually when I get a few apparent themers I can infer the next few, but I couldn’t see any connections. I don’t read words as merely letters, which is probably why I don’t enjoy doing anagrams. So looking for A,E,I,O, and U is just not something I would think to do. But it all worked out and some of the longer entries were pretty good, so OK.
Got into a kind of panic when I encountered the doubled up Ws in 16A but decided to plow through - I sorta liked AWW and was certain about YEW -and it worked. Was actually kind of fun, as were the other themers.
I don’t have a lot of positive things to say about the fill, especially IRES. I never saw this supposed “word” before I started doing crosswords and it was hate at first sight.
I’d just like to take a moment to say that never, ever in my life have I ever said OH DANG. I’m more of an Oh sh*t kinda guy. Oh crap, if I’m trying to be polite.
I'd like to see a puzzle with theme answers having AEIOU but in a different order each time. Revealer is, of course, VOWELMOVEMENT
@Bob Mills You're not crazy no music intermittently happens to me, too. Probably something to do with the browser you're using.
The theme didn’t bother me as much as Rex, but I can see where he is coming from. I had a bigger issue with this fill - a lot of ugly words and crosswordese. DCON, KAYO, IMED, IRES, NODES, NEAP, AAHS. I cringed a bunch while solving.
Agree totally with @Rex. I was wondering if today would be 1-star day. Not quite, but it will be “go to the archives to work a decent puzzle” day. Maybe I can find one without INHD, DCON, OCD, NTH, NEE, AAHS, IRES, RUTS, NODES, SANTAS. And without MATES clued as plural “Chess defeats.” SIGH.
If the theme and fill are lacking at least punch things up with interesting and fun CLUEs, not the dull stuff we had to wade through today. Well mostly dull - sometimes ODIOUS. Let’s see, what’s a good way to clue CAGE? Oh, I know - we’ll give solvers an image of animal abuse! What fun!
Side-eye to HASHES IT OUT in the 3rd person singular - not very likely to encounter that outside of crosswords.
I did learn something interesting. I started to write deism then realized it was THEISM. Looked them up - thought I’d share this from Dictionary.com: “Deism holds that a god must exist, based on the evidence of reason and nature only, not on supernatural evidence. Some deists believe that a god created the world but is indifferent to it. Theism holds that there is one God who is still actively engaged with the universe in some way. Theists do not reject supernatural evidence.”
I also learned what a SHIV is. Maybe interesting but certainly not fun.
Hmm…I decided to look for more nyt puzzles by Mr. Diehl. Seems to run on Saturdays mostly, with some Mondays and a couple Fridays - at least since 2018. Think I’ll check one out that @Rex liked.
Was sure kept in suspense, at our house, as to what the puztheme was gonna be. The good ol' Vowel Movement theme mcguffin. Can see why @RP might not have been thrilled, star-wise.
staff weeject pick, of a mere 9 choices: AWW. Is its clue in French? Or just in cutesy-twangspeak?
Only a Q short of a pangrammer. Seems fair, given all the vowel hype.
some fave stuff: CHOCULA [schlocky cereal dude]. OHDANG. ONTHEWAGON. UNDEAD zombies. Lotsa U's.
Thanx, Mr. Daeiouhl dude.
Masked & Anonymo9Us
p.s.
runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Thinking 3D would be SNAppED UP created my only excitement today when it turned out to be SNATCHED instead. This was a very straightforward theme.
FYI didn't fit at 51D though I think it fits the clue better than FWIW, FWIW.
Mark Diehl, thanks!
Easy. This felt tougher while I was doing it but it ended up on the easy side for me.
No WOEs and no costly erasures but a fair number of fat finger typos.
Solid Tuesday theme with a couple of fine long downs, liked it more than @Rex did.
Here's yet another reason I come here morning after morning-- even when Rex wakes up (at an UNgodly hour) on the wrong side of the bed (to which he is destined to return), we get Count CHOCULA as UNDEAD & UNWED. OH DANG, I lol'ed!
Well, this was definitely... one of the puzzles of all time. I like supervocalics, but not so much as a theme. First two theme answers were great. Needed a more exciting 3rd or 4th to give the puzzle some ZEST. Didn't hate it overall. Hats off to Mr. Mark Diehl - 79 publishes since 1984? OH DANG! (my favorite entry)
I didn't mind it. And LOVED seeing Count Chocula, my favorite cereal as a kid. (My sister was partial to Boo Berry.)
I didn't even try to solve down clues only; congrats @Les on your success. About halfway through I was thinking: what the heck is the theme here? Finally 62 across came along... I never would have guessed without it!
Actually I don't mind this theme for a Tuesday; it was just fine. Hands up for having FACETIOUS(LY) as my favorite vowels-in-order word (is there a word for that?).
Several typeovers: CALF before KNEE, SPRINT before STRIDE, INCA before MAYA (when INCA didn't work, it took me ages to think of another 4 letter central American group). And several short Unknown Names: DOUG DCON GIA DOHA! (Hey!... "unknown" has a "trio" of ENS... my spell checker is always telling me one of them is missing.)
I agree on FYI v FWIW. I know…a fine line…but somebody had to say it!
Good one Les. Agree in general, but I confess I’ve said DANG OR DANGit. Probably when kids were around. Anyway…it made me think of friend of my Dad’s (when I was a kid)…sometimes (if they discussed politics) he’d blurt out “horsefeathers!”
Ah! I guess the experience is different when accessing on browser v the app.
The consecutive vowel thingie is pretty basic and as others have shown there are quite a few examples of words and phrases that fit the bill. Yeah, definitely early week stuff.
There's a bit of a constructioneering (™M&A) tutorial here on how to make potential themers work when the base phrases don't do the job, to wit, HASH IT OUT and WATER TROUGH
I grew up in rural Tennessee and my grandparents still had a working farm. A TROUGH was a long, narrow, vee-shaped wood structure used to feed the pigs. After the scraps from that day's meals were collected, my grandmother would say "Anoa Bobby, take this bucket and go out there and slop the hogs". A much larger concrete structure was used as a livestock WATER tank.
Ditto Ted. Easy medium , no big enjoyment but no turnoff. Maybe liked it because I was always partial to Count CHOCULA!
Your sister would only be an uncle-ee if she endured hours of hard labor then begged for the C section
Whimsical Tuesday puzzle - I liked it a lot more than Rex did. Never heard of DCON though.
The best AEIOU song is sung by the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland.
“U, who R U?”
KAYO is very old fashioned slang, might have seen it in sports pages in the 30's
Disagree with Rex! A pleasant and light Tuesday with a bit of resistance.
Might have been quite a feat if a Y followed AEIOU in one or two of the theme answers. It's a crime - a dastardly and reprehensible crime - the "sometimes y" is so easily forgotten and discarded in discussions about vowels.
Mainly, what OFL said. And honestly, kind of a downer after a couple gems last week.
We had so many answers we have seen very recently: IMED, ETON, SIGH, IRES (just ick), SENSE, STY. And we had some oldies: DOUG Ross, OTIS Redding (but I adore him!), STY (worthy of this repeat, we’ve seen it so often). Then, if there’s one category that irks (yes, that’s the real answer instead ofa IRES) me every DANG time, it’s the “Name the letter(s)” clue. And the “Look! all the vowels!” theme is ancient. Finally, as OFL mentioned re good old ASTA, we are now firmly in the “Frozen Era.”
Now that I’ve pretty much trashed today’s oeuvre, I want to recognize our very prominent constructor, Mark Diehl. He’s had what, over 50 (likely more) puzzles in the NYT alone, lots of other puzzles elsewhere, and he compiled the current best selling Crossword Dictionary (among other things). So, props, Mr. Diehl. I respect your work, have enjoyed your puzzles at least since the mid-80s (when I added your name to my “list” - I just checked) and easily forgive today’s oddly basic and certainly unoriginal offering. The editors could have made some suggestions for improvement, so their laziness isn’t your problem.
My favorite part of this solve was HASHES IT OUT. It made my brain start (oddly, crazily and certainly surprisingly) spouting out ideas that just might have the makings of a very spicy theme. Could be food-related, or even more interesting, something about punctuation and diacritical marks? Or both, with some cross-pollination of food and grammar? I am not a constructor, so I leave my kernel of an idea to those who are. As for Mark D, I truly look forward to his next one.
And I leave those here with a rerun of one of my earlier musings about the seemingly deliberate (and very personally disappointing) editorial/managerial decision to reduce the difficulty level of the NYTXW. My question: Are the editors reaching out to well-known constructors soliciting easier puzzles and including in the solicitation the strong suggestion that easier puzzles will very likely (and quickly) be published?
Hmmmm.
Tomorrow is another day.
Hi, @L E Case! (1:04 PM) I’m a 1950s era Trix rabbit girl, myself. The tag line, “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids,” became a really bad joke once it surfaced. The punchline was “Silly rabbi, kicks are for Trids!” I’m pretty sure others of us might recall it.
Yea, zero Gen Z pop culture references in this grid.
Yep!
Thank you all for the kind wishes yesterday on the birth of my grand daughter!
Well, I found this to be a perfectly fine Tuesday, while it may have lacked some sparkle and depth, it worked for me. I'm a sucker for spanners and we have two here that work well enough and the long downs are nice phrases. As @Rex pointed out, ONTHEWAGON crossing BREW and SHOT, well that was a lot of fun.
I thought @Rex might rate it a bit higher as there was a cocktail involved today :o) and I loved his Count CHOCULA Tinder reference! That had me laughing out loud!
Thank you Mark for this and for so many others, please keep them coming.
Just had to come here to say that I was not fooled by 1D, Mini maker...!! Oh no... Shortly after I bought my first MINI in 2003, I got a letter from BMW saying "Dear brand new BMW owner."... I guess they still hadn't sorted out how they were Ahandle the whole branding thing.
Oh - was there a puzzle? I'm afraid I must agree with OFL that it was a meh theme.
But let me dwell onA the high points: The aforementioned 1D, and SUBARU is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. Don't know why it made me happy to learn that, but it does. (Though I grew up calling it the Seven Sisters...)
what Gen-Z stuff????
Agree. I am more annoyed by the nth repetition of Erie, opt, Ari, etc. - which I feel appear twice a week.
Most people in this comments section are 70+ and many have no firm idea where generations younger than them begin or end or which parts of culture belong to which. They know lots of stuff I don’t know though so I don’t mind that much. As long as they’re not insulting. Younger gens call everyone over 50 “boomer” so it’s not like ignorance doesn’t go both ways
@PH, thanks so much for looking up Mark’s staggering number of published puzzles. R-E-S-P-E-CT!
Totally agree w/ Rex on this one. Theme was a dud.
That happens to me with the new MIDI puzzles. Never happens with the full puzzle, thankfully.
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