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Cliff formed by a fault / THU 5-14-26 / Ruthless Athenian lawgiver / Prolifically posting about one's kids online, in a neologism / Member of a sluglike "Star Wars" species / September to April, in the oyster industry / Penultimate Greek letter / Biblical locale guarded by a flaming sword / Trellis piece / Alternatives to hourly wages / Former small-sized G.M. cars / Heather genus that's also a woman's name / Ancient book of divination
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Constructor: Simeon Seigel
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
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| [45D: Member of a sluglike "Star Wars" species] |
Theme answers:
- STANDING [WATER] / [WATER]MARK (19A: Prime breeding environment for mosquitoes / 20A: Impression on some fancy sheets)
- ON THE [WATER] / [WATER] CANNONS (24A: At sea, say / 27A: Powerful fireboat gear)
- RETAINS [WATER] / [WATER] WINGS (43A: Gets bloated, say / 45A: Pair for a pool)
- RAIN[WATER] / [WATER] PITCHERS (48A: What collects in a puddle / 49A: Things often getting free refills)
The kithara (Greek: κιθάρα, romanized: kithára), Latinized as cithara, was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. It was a seven-stringed professional version of the lyre, which was regarded as a rustic, or folk instrument, appropriate for teaching music to beginners. As opposed to the simpler lyre, the cithara was primarily used by professional musicians, called kitharodes. In modern Greek, the word kithara has come to mean "guitar"; etymologically, the word guitar derives from kithara. (wikipedia)
• • •
I've seen H2O puzzles before. This one is interesting / original because of the way the molecules bridge two different "WATER" answers. Again, I really wish there were some rationale for this bridging that could be expressed in revealer form. It would make the whole theme make much more sense. As is, H-O-H just seems like an architectural flourish. Who cares? Worse, you get a lot of actually fairly dull WATER answers. Like ... that's a lot of WATER, and hardly any of the answers are taking that WATER in an interesting direction. At least WATERMARK gets us out of a liquid form for a little bit. But otherwise, the WATER is just ordinary WATER. All wet. I will say, though, that the fill on this one is more interesting than usual, and lifts the puzzle somewhat out of boring territory. I mean, I don't *love* "R" MONTHS or PER DIEMS (plural), but at least they have a little flash, a little energy, a little sass. See also SHARENTING, a portmanteau that makes me cringe, but at least the puzzle's trying to keep things interesting (11D: Prolifically posting about one's kids online, in a neologism). And then it throws a KITHARA at me at the end, that was unexpected! I had the KI- and absolutely no idea what was happening. "Did ... did the KEYTAR give the guitar its name? I must have that backward." Indeed.
I do not eat oysters and know about the "R"-month thing only from crosswords—not because of the answer "'R' MONTHS" (4D: September to April, in the oyster industry) but because of "'R'-LESS" months! That's right, RLESS is a thing you used to see in crosswords to describe the months that oysters are out of season, when you're not supposed to eat them. Hmm, looks like RLESS is still alive and well and I've just mentally blocked that fact out. Ten appearances since I started blogging, though none for about five years now. I imagined RLESS as a relic of the Maleska days, but in fact RLESS has been used almost exclusively in the Shortz Era. The one pre-Shortz appearance (1989) actually clued RLESS as [Like speech in New England?]. Anyway, if you had no clue about the connection between "R"s and oysters, now you do.
Bullets:
- 25D: Had to have right away (NEEDED ASAP) — NEED ASAP would be a clunky and awkward answer, so NEEDED ASAP ... yeah, that's worse. The one clunker among the longer non-theme answers today. I keep reading it as NEEDED A SAP. [Yearned to con someone]?
- 1A: Cliff formed by a fault (SCARP) — I think I know the term "escarpment." But SCARP definitely gave me trouble today. I'm sure I've seen SCARP in crosswords before ... [checks database] ... yes, I have, a handful of times, but not for about five years. I got the "SCA" easily but the last two letters eluded me for a bit, in part because "ALL ME!" (not a thing people say) kept giving me "RM-" at the beginning of 4D: September to April, in the oyster industry, and that seemed impossible.
- 13A: "My fault entirely" ("ALL ME") — cannot imagine this as a standalone phrase. "That was ALL ME." "It's ALL ME." Maybe. But the standalone phrase is "MY BAD." "ALL ME" sounds more like you're bragging about an accomplishment than taking responsibility for a screw-up.
- 55A: Broadcasting giant with hundreds of stations (I HEART RADIO) — technically the whole thing is one word: "iHeartRadio." "iHeartRadio is owned by iHeartMedia, which was rebranded from Clear Channel in 2014" (wikipedia).
- 10D: A peeling that's appealing? (POTATO SKIN) — I mean ... if you like POTATO SKINs, I guess they're "appealing." Weird clue, though. "Appealing" doesn't really get at ... anything. I'm not sure the pun here is worth it.
- 3D: Palindrome on an Italian restaurant menu (ALLA) — crosswordese, and a gimme. I do not like this answer, but I do like that the puzzle decided to get a little inventive with the clue by linking it to the other culinary crosswordese palindrome in the puzzle, NAAN (39D: Palindrome on an Indian restaurant menu). Nice little echo there. Makes the crosswordese go down a little easier.
That's all for today. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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30 comments:
17:16 for me Wed night, so I’d call that medium for a Thursday… Saw the angles in the grid and KNEW it was water…. HOH. That worked with TITO Puente (one of my faves….), PITH and __NO and LATH and IMO…. But I couldn’t get it to work on the acrosses at all. I even briefly thought maybe the revealer (62A) might be esTER instead of water, cause…. But then I looked around some more and realized it was going to be “water”-MARK and “water”CANNONS and then I was off to the races. Liked “NEEDEDASAP” and POTATOSKIN and even learning SHARENTING. Thank you, Simeon, this was fun!!! And thanks for resetting our StarWars counter back to 0! : )
Cute theme - but as the big guy mentions the reveal is less than splashy. The construct is neat - although after STANDING WATER - WATER MARK we get free letters further on.
DUST of Daylight
Overall fill was late week tricky - I liked it. KITHARA, ICHING, TIME TRIALS all solid. SHARENTING is unfortunate and Rex covers NEEDED ASAP. Not sure modern oyster farmers adhere to the R MONTHS rule.
Third RATE Romance
This was an enjoyable Thursday morning solve.
I am SMITTEN
I'm the real thing
Super-Easy. Got the theme as soon as I saw the grid.
* * _ _ _
Two minor overwrites, Um NO before UH NO at 14D and tgi Friday before GAL at 57A.
One WOE, KITHARA at 42D.
The part that annoyed me was the NYT app. I was thinking Thursday = rebus and dutifully entered "WATER" into all the H circles, got no happy music and went looking for typos for however long. Nope, all they accepted was the H, so I lost time on the first entry and then on the trying to figure out where I was wrong and then on fixing them. And then after all that, there was not even a clever animation in which the molecules all turned into water splashing or something.
I had the water molecule pegged before a single entry. No resistance. Boring. Back into the archives so I can finish my morning coffee.
A per diem is NOT a daily pay rate, but rather an amount provided for living expenses. Not an alternative to hourly wages.
Tao is not a Confucian "way", Daoism and Confucianism are two separate philosophies.
RARELY have I hated a puzzle as much as this one. So many clues more appropriate for a (bad) Saturday, so many answers I hope I never have to type again.
Anyone else drop in OSSO for 3D?
Pretty easy, because of all the free letters from the theme, and this despite completely unknown to me IHEARTRADIO, and nearly unknown HUTT. I mean, I did know about Jabba the HUTT, but have no idea how I knew he was slug-like.
I get DRACO mixed up with Procrustes, the guy with the iron bed, so I searched the web for him--and could find only references to someone from the Harry Potter world. I had to search for "draconian" to find him.
I'm thinking NAAN ALLA vodka might be an interesting dish--and as a bonus, vodka is Russian for 'little water,' so it could go into a theme answer set with smaller circles.
I'm no Chinese philosopher or student thereof, but I'm pretty sure that TAO is a Daoist concept, not a Confucian one.
OSSO had me flailing up top
But of course, WATER as rebus wouldn't work with the downs... especially the one where the H is in the middle of a down, like I CHING
TAO is simply the Mandarin word for way, which is why it's in quotes for this clue; Confucianism also certainly refers to a 'way' (道, TAO), even if the word carries different connotations than Taoism.
Revealer could have been something like 'water over the dam', and the grid could have had little pictures of dams in the black squares.
As usual, the grid art fails as the angle in water molecules is about 105 degrees, not 90 degrees.
Bad clue for TAO. Not really anything to do with Confucius.
Looking forward to our punsters take on NEWS CREW.
Surprised me too when T(D)aoism was linked to Confucius, but, well, it’s on the same continent. Is that close enough for crosswords? And then I blew the ICHING answer, not to mention KITHARA and SHARENTING. Had the same momentary confusion as Rex with regard to HOO vs HOH but that was easily fixed. Once had a lot of business contacts who were big oyster fans so had heard a lot about RMONTHS, but that had faded far back in my memory banks.
An appropriate puzzle for a rainy morning, redeemed by Rex’s musical choices. Is there a sillier looking instrument than the keytar? And that Ella recording has some amazing scat singy-ingy-inging!
Does no one else object to "Gal Friday" for Girl Friday?
I’ll see your WATER and raise you TITO PUENTE.
https://youtu.be/EC-ht8-FrIw?si=0PnYyPc9lgJdkeX4
Hey All !
Too bad couldn't get WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE somehow in there as the Revealer. 1) Too long. 2) There's no "bridge". Ah, well. Maybe the Kevin Costner movie WATER WORLD?*
Funnily, had wAter in at 48A before grokking the Theme. Figured it out at the HW of HUTT next to NEWS CREW. Let out a Huh?, then erased HUTT, finally seeing WINGS, and said, "Oh, the H must be WATER, along with those O's, that means the other circled square is another H. Let's see if it is WATER also. It is!" (Have I mentioned that I talk to myself a bit? 😁)(IM OK, really)
Anyway, got easier after that. I'm sure the fill wasn't too easy to do. And there's only 34 Blockers. Impressive.
Enough from me. Time to get THE H out of here.
Hope y'all have a great Thursday!
*OK movie, but a little long. Also like his The Postman. Man, that was waaaaay too long, 3 hours, and did not need to be.
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
Indeed, and it stayed there for some time before I decided it had to be wrong. The NW corner played a little weird.
One of my fasteners rusted away so I had to get a NEW SCREW
The problem with puzzles like this, in spite of any other merits it may have, is that once you get the gimmick - which, in this puzzle, is obvious very early on - too much of the puzzle becomes merely filling in the blanks - like an exercise you'd give a 3rd or 4th grader.
It’s both.
I think this was the best puzzle this week for solving pleasure. It was smooth with some bumps that made it interesting. The theme was solid and well executed. Yes, having WATER was gratuitous but not egregious. Only real dislike was SHARENTING.
SGLOVE? No, SMITTEN
Aren't you Mrs. Lennon? UHNO.
Where can I park at the ballgame for under $25? CLOT
A Russet, to a Yukon Gold: POTATOSKIN
Replacement for an old nail: NEWSCREW
NORSE: An RN in Oslo.
If you get right down to it, both are offensive to women, but as an oldster, I’ve heard both.
I almost want to say, "objectively, not that hard". Actually I do want to say that, to add to Gary's list, but honestly I'm not sure I'd agree with the "objectively" -- these things are almost never objective. Anyway, after getting the idea, it was a question of whether the water entries would include any downs, or whether the O atoms would be in on the fun. Not hard to figure out.
SHARENTING, yuck. Some attempts at puns or portmanteaux do not leave a good mouth feel with me. I wonder if anyone has tried "karenting", as in a mom who habitually raises a ruckus anytime her kid gets less than a good grade. That's about as good as sharenting, IMO.
I agree with Rex about NEEDED ASAP being awkward. That one has a kind of "ate a sandwich vibe" that, well, isn't great. Some of those long downs don't do it for me (also sort of agree about PER DIEMS).
I am regularly amazed that Rex homes in right away on correct answers starting in the NW (see that screenshot). The NW was for me the most perplexing section. Why did Rex put in ALL ME right away, even though he comments later something seems off about that -- why didn't he put in "my bad" right away instead (as I tried). How does SCARP come to him right away, even though he said that looked ODD as well (and despite the ill-starred-looking RM... coming down). How is it that ALLA goes in right away, instead of say "osso"? It's his inerrancy that really gets me. Putting in STANDINGH right away is also impressive, although Rex's command of chemistry is a bit less impressive. ;-)
Okay, that's all for now. I must shove off. Have a good one.
Liked this much better than Rex but it was very easy to solve once the theme was grokked.
I guess my only comment on SHARENTING is that it is out there IRL and I think the portmanteau is apt. I guess these days all parents are proud of their kids (like the old days) but they figure people don’t HAVE to look at posted photos (unlike the old days where SOME people would stand by you as you go through the photos…and comment)
Anyone else singing:
“Tato Skins got baked potato appeal,
‘Cause they're made with potatoes and skins that are real!”
No? Just me?
According to Simeon’s notes, he turned this puzzle in without any circles. Had it been published like that, the revealer WATER would not, as @rex asserted, have fallen flat. Without the circles, it would have been clued something like [Caret-shaped compound depicted four times in this puzzle], and had I not figured out what was going on, it would have set me on an aha-filled journey, ending in a cloud of wow.
Without the circles, the reveal is perfect.
Without the circles, IMO, this puzzle is consistent with the sterling quality of all Simeon’s others.
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