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Coolness, in Gen Alpha slang / MON 6-1-26 / High-waisted fashion trend of the 1990s / Physiques that aren't quite perfect / Superfan's ticket purchase / It measures audience feedback / Pouncing predator / Southernmost country in Central America / Reality show starring the "Fab Five"
Monday, June 1, 2026
Constructor: Kenneth Cortes
Relative difficulty: Easy (solved Downs-only)
Theme answers:
- MOM JEANS (3D: High-wasted fashion trend of the 1990s)
- DAD BODS (4D: Physiques that aren't quite perfect)
- "I'M THERE!" (9D: "Sign me up!")
- "QUEER EYE" (10D: Reality show starring the "Fab Five")
A clap-o-meter, clapometer or applause meter is a measurement instrument that purports to measure and display the volume of clapping or applause made by an audience. It can be used to indicate the popularity of contestants and decide the result of competitions based on audience popularity. Specific implementations may or may not be based on actual sound level meters. Clap-o-meters were a popular element in talent shows and television game shows in the 1950s and 1960s, most notably Opportunity Knocks, but have since been supplanted by other, more sophisticated, methods of measuring audience response.
Today, various digital implementations exist across different platforms. Mobile applications for iOS and Android offer portable measurement, while specialized browser-based tools or PC software provide solutions for live events. Some free-to-use software, such as the "Applaus-O-Meter", provide full features without advertisements or in-app purchases, often including event management tools like integrated timers. (wikipedia)
• • •
The Downs-only solve was a breeze, which was nice, for once. The last thing I needed was a catastrophic failure to ruin the good vibes of this puzztheme. I did have some trouble parsing APEXAM when it was just APE-AM. I was like "the ape is doing what now? APE JAM? is that something?" But once I got out of there it was smooth sailing all the way to the end. ADMONISH off the "A"! (37D: Give a tut-tut, e.g.). SEASON PASS off the "S"! (29D: Superfan's ticket purchase). CLAP-O-METER off the "C"! (30D: It measures audience feedback). HAT STAND off the HAT, even though my whole brain was like "the term is HAT RACK!" (39D: Place to hang a fedora). I couldn't miss. That is, I couldn't miss until I could. At the very end. The very very end. I ended up at the last clue: 53D: Pouncing predator, and ... uh oh. The answer was not, uh, leaping out at me, and all of the crosses had multiple possibilities. PO-E = POKE? PORE? POPE? POSE? Was it ABIT or ABUT? SOLE, SOME, SORE? SEER or SEAR? But more importantly, what four-letter predator pounces? Finally I was like "hey, what about PUMA? That works. They pounce. Feels ... wrong, but give it a try." And so I did, and ... no "Congratulations" message! What!? "What the hell?! That has to be right!" And it was. See if you can find what I had wrong:
Bullets:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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- 12D: Dated (OLD) — had this as SAW for a second, then noticed that that gave me QUS URA and ENW in the crosses. Very helpful when *every* cross is a fail. No chance you're gonna mistake your dumb answer for the correct one.
- 46D: Southernmost country in Central America (PANAMA) — shall I tell you about my brain's insistence that, and I quote, "there are no Central American countries that start with 'P'!" To be fair(ish), I was actually looking at an answer that started "PL-" because at that point I assumed that MUSC- was MUSCLE (it's MUSCAT) (48A: Capital of Oman).
- 52D: Thin woodwind (OBOE) — brain: "FIFE!" I mean, he's not wrong, but as with SAW (above), those letters just didn't check out.
That's all for today. Hope it's a joyful day for you. See you next time.
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- Westwords (Berkeley, CA, Jun. 14, 2026)
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102 comments:
14 wide - attractive grid layout. The theme is the theme - congratulations to the constructor. Overall fill felt trickier than yesterday’s debacle.
The JAM
Like the vertical themers and the explicit declarations or MOM and DAD. Doubly revealed is neat. A lot of shorts but limited glue. It’s well filled.
Belle and Sebastian
Pleasant and sweet Monday morning solve.
PANAMA Red
A puzzle is worth five stars because the constructor said he was homosexual?
Came here just to check that I interpreted this right. Congratulations to Kenneth the constructor!
I had "CAME OUT AS GAY" before "...ON TOP" and that threw me for a little bit. Daring, bold, brave, and fun. Bravo!
Today’s Monday puzzle is the kind of puzzle that reminds you why Mondays exist in the first place: not merely to be easy, but to be joyful. A genuinely funny, weirdly moving, beautifully constructed little thing that somehow manages to be breezy and audacious at the same time. The revealer—CAME OUT ON TOP—lands with a click so satisfying I actually laughed, because the shaded letters literally spell out “TOP” and simultaneously reveal a deeply personal, unabashedly sincere joke about triumph and identity. Ridiculous. Heartfelt. Very funny. Somehow all at once. This is EXACTLY the kind of Monday ambition I want: a puzzle with personality that still remembers to be welcoming.
And the fill! So much Monday fill is content to quietly perform its civic duty and disappear. Not here. AURA for Gen Alpha “coolness” made me laugh because it sounds simultaneously ancient and impossibly current, like teenagers accidentally reinvented mysticism. DYSTOPIA lounging there in the middle of a Monday grid as if existential collapse is just normal breakfast-table vocabulary? Wonderful. CLAPOMETER! A word that feels fake until suddenly, humiliatingly, you realize it has always existed and you are the problem. SEASON PASS, QUEER EYE, MUSCAT, MOTOWN—the whole thing moves with this buoyant confidence where every answer feels just lively enough to keep the grid humming without ever tipping into chaos.
But what I adored most is that the puzzle is genuinely, unmistakably funny. Not crossword-funny (“aha, a pun happened”), but funny funny. The reveal is a joke. The concept is a joke. The shaded squares spelling out TOP is a joke! A visual gag! A tiny theatrical flourish! Crossword constructors are often so terrified of earnestness that they hide behind cleverness; this one just walks right up and says: here is a smart little stunt and also maybe a little heart. And somehow it works perfectly. Smooth solve, charming idea, actual delight. More Mondays like this, please. A little silly. A little sincere. Completely winning.
No, because it’s incredibly original. I doubt anything like this theme has ever been done.
My five favorite original clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. A little sun? (5)(4)
2. Cue ... or queue (4)
3. Semi professional? (8)
4. Perpetual homebody? (5)
5. What may begin at the end (9)
DWARF STAR
LINE
TEAMSTER
SNAIL
AFTERLIFE
My favorite encore clues from last week:
[Kind of a drag?] (4)
[Smoke, perhaps] (4)
MAIN
CURE
I like how the highlighted words – MOM, DAD, I’M, QUEER – are not hidden or masked within the answers they’re in. That is, the answer that MOM was in, wasn’t, say, MOMENTOUS.
No, MOM means “mom” in MOMJEANS, DAD means “dad” in DADBOD, I’M means “I’m” in I’M THERE, and QUEER means “queer” in QUEER EYE.
It makes the theme all the more powerful and moving.
When you got my heart involved, as well as my brain, you made the experience memorable and special. Thank you so much for this, Kenneth!
Similar experience to Rex’s - solved downs only, and when I inferred the revealer, I thought, “Oh, cute.” Then when I read the across clues my jaw dropped. Except that at my first pass, I had gotten only DAD and QUEER from the shaded squares. I really was wondering how those two were going to fit into a theme.
I also read the constructor’s notes after solving, which I rarely do, to see if he really was using the puzzle to come out to Mom and Dad. Kenneth, please find a way to let us know tomorrow how it went!
Nowhere near as easy a downs-only as Rex’s. I struggled on a lot of the downs, and I also failed to get happy music at the end. My problem was that I thought 14 across was APEcAM - as in a camera in the jungle or at the zoo that you can watch chimps or gorillas on. AcE didn’t really make sense for “cut out” and I didn’t notice that APES was already there. But … it CAME OUT right in the end.
44D atones
Yes. What Trevor said. This is what every Monday puzzle aspires to be. Congratulations, Kenneth Cortes!
Really like this one. Lively theme and revealer, interesting clues and fill, fun construction. Deserves much praise for its inventiveness. The only thing that slowed me down was not remembering DASANI. For some reason, DYSTOPIAN was an immediate instinctive answer…
Congrats to the constructor on an ambitious puzzle and for their ability to do what they did in the context of the solve. If I wanted to be picky it did feel a bit tricky for a Monday for me. Double down on what @Lewis and @Trevorthefosterdad had to say.
Wonderful ! That is the reveal of the year so far, and it sets a very high bar, so I doubt that it will be bested this year. The “aha” moment could not have been any more enjoyable for me.
I thought it was a touch more difficult than recent Mondays, perhaps due to the several segmented areas with limited access. For example, I hadn’t heard that meaning of JAG before so I had to trust the crosses, and there weren’t many. So a home run of a theme / reveal and a slightly tougher solve made for a successful and enjoyable Monday, at least for me. Well done, Kenneth.
Bob- did you even read the write up? Or did your biases and preconceived notions already poison your opinion about this puzzle before you came here to see Rex’s rating?
For a second, be open and accepting and try to imagine being in this constructors shoes. Try to forgot all the MAGA bullshit that has been spewed by our leaders and imagine a word (ie, the real world) where things aren’t binary options. You’re the type of person that makes this constructor’s action in publishing this puzzle courageous.
Enjoyed it and the revealer.
Are the black boxes supposed to be a picture or represent something? Seems like it might but I can’t figure it out. Doesn’t seem like a rainbow but is there some hidden image there?
Hey All !
Devil's advocate here ...
OK, fine, said constructor came out to the parents, however, how does making a puz of it justifiable? They are many people submitting puzs that get rejected, but this one gets published because? Pride month? He begged the editors to publish? A friend of the editing crew? It just seems misplaced to be in a national newspaper. Why couldn't you just have made a puz and given it to just your parents? And isn't it IM GAY, not IM QUEER?
Could someone who is pregnant make a national puz saying so?
Hopefully that won't tarnish your image of me, but it all seems a bit odd. Curious as to all y'all's thoughts.
Puz is also 14 wide, has closed off NE and NW corners, plus closed off South Center area. Left/right symmetry. The fill was good, nothing too drecky (maybe INU).
Easy MonPuz. Good on Kenneth to get published, my little ADMONISHment aside.
Have a great Monday.
No F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Brilliant theme -- funny and emotional at the same time. I loved it, even if I did have "CAME OUT ahead" before ON TOP.
A couple little nits about the cluing -- seems to me fruit preserves should be JAMs--although now that I write it down, I realize I would never say "fruit preserve," so I guess that's OK. RYES is a bit awkward, too, although we've seen it before.
Those 3X3 boxes in the top corners were less than ideal, but the theme was pretty constraining, so I'll take it.
Serious question: what are MOM JEANS? I've heard of them, but never actually seen them -- or at least never known that was what I was seeing. The same goes for "dad jeans," "boyfriend jeans," and all the other types I can't remember at the moment. Is there a guidebook to jean types? It's driving me crazy.
He could have made the exact same puzzle without telling us he was really coming out to his parents, and you would have thought it was a perfectly fine puzzle (unless you’re a homophobe, which I am sure you’re not). But adding in the revealer clue that he really was coming out to them just pushed it over the edge on the delight scale for me.
QUEER is a more comprehensive term than gay. It includes people who are bi, trans, non-binary and more.
Solving acrosses only, it was definitely more like a Tuesday than Monday, with DYSTOPIA and in particular AURA needing quite a bit of work to sort out.
I'm kind of the opposite of Lewis in that I found it disappointing that none of the theme words were hidden - they all mean the exact same thing in the clued word as they do in the key phrase.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't imagine this is actually how the constructor chose to come out to his parents. They are hearing this at the same time as millions of NYTXW solvers?
Never knew MOM JEANS was ever a fashion trend. I always thought that it was a pejorative. Obama wore them when he threw out a wobbly first pitch at All-Star game in 2009.
A well deserved 5 stars! Congratulations, Kenneth!
Dad bods ARE perfect
Ophthalmologist's concern: QUEEREYE
DYSTOPIA: Dreadful alternative to dattopia.
What is said in a non-pluralistic society: Not an if, an and, or ABUT.
Caesar's famous quote from The Stutterer's Shakespeare: Et et TUTU Brutè?
Nice @ Southside! I didn’t have to wait for Robyn… :)
Got done, went back to look at the shaded squares, skipped right over IM, and spent too long trying to establish a relationship between MOM, DAD, and QUEER, even though I had the revealer filled in. Major face palm when I finally put IM into the equation. Now that's a revealer that knows how to reveal. I do agree with @Wanderlust and @kitshef in wondering if this was the actual first time his parents heard of this.
Liked the fill, only no-knows today were INU and ALAN as clued. I'm more familiar with an applauseometer and would probably say season ticket for a fan before a SEASONPASS, which is what we buy for our ski area. THEE or THOU? Easy with crosses. ADMONISH and DYSTOPIA spiced up a Monday.
Very nice Monday, KC, and I hope this new Knowledge Can only improve your family's ties. Thanks for all the fun.
@jberg…with respect to your jeans question. It’s a bit of “you know them when you see them.” If a woman or man is concerned about um, looking sexier in jeans…usually when young, they tend to wear more stylish/form-fitting jeans. MOMJEANS and jeans for DADBODS tend to be less focused on fashion and more on comfort. (a bit “baggy” or shapeless)
Kenneth, your parents will love you and might not be surprised as you think.🎈🎈🎊🎊
I think I saw something on my “news feed” about MOMJEANS in style right now for young women. Perhaps today’s MOMJEANS are just jeans that are “out of style”?
Rex is overtaken with all things queer.
I see what you (all) mean about “first time” and given the backlog of puzzle submissions, he might have had to wait quite a while. For this reason, I wonder if he had them work the puzzle right before or at time of submission.
Guilty
A very brave, clever and tidy Monday. A solve that a seasoned crossworder would enjoy as much as a novice.
At the get to, I thought "Oh cute, MOM and DAD are lovingly side by side, let's see where this takes me". It wasn't until the very end that I actually saw what going on! That not only takes a whole lotta courage, but some very smart constructing as well.
I thought most of the fill was Monday solid. I learned a new word for coolness in AURA, and I very much appreciated the cluing for ELON today. The in-the-language of the revealers was also pleasing. All that with the long downs, SEASONPASS and CLAPOMETER, made for a fun solve.
Thank you for this Kenneth, I'm hoping this turns out to be a joyous occasion for you and your family. I know we're all routing for you!
And now on to Hugh's Monday Haiku:
DADBODS or MOMJEANS
If SOME of our SET grow OLD
We CAMEOUTONTOP
I cooked up my usual stew of unsavory humor but decided I'd rather not step on Kenneth's toes with that junk. I'm just so glad that you got this opportunity to do this thing your way, Kenneth. Congratulations.
Can you explain what you mean by the shaded squares spell out top? Do you mean (what I thought it meant) that the coming out happened on the top of the puzzle?
Excellent review by Rex and I just wanted to add that I loved the sparkly entry CLAPOMETER, especially for a Monday.
Kenneth, I loved your puzzle!
@anonymous 8:58: Not that there’s anything wrong with that. He owns it at least. I noticed he stopped hating on Will Shortz after Will came out.
Used to be being "woke" was a good thing, aware, sensitive, tolerant, etc. But, wait, it STILL is a GOOD way to be.
At last, a puzzle that is truly FABULOUS!
SNL had a good explainer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aVxNH6iN9I
Can someone point me to where I can find a downs-only version of the puzzle, with no across clues visible, either to print or (preferably) solve online? Of course, I can just cover up all the across clues, but I expect there's a better way.
DNF on a Monday, sigh. The clue "Touch", 56A, meant to me a small amount so I entered A BiT. I even looked at PiMA, the cross, and thought, "It must be clued as the cotton." Did I bother to look at the clue for 53D? No. Too bad, that would have made my ERROR obvious.
June 1st, first day of Pride Month, so the theme is very apt. Thanks, Kenneth Cortes!
Bob, I cannot imagine how much you have to contort yourself to fit inside the tiny little box that's been built around the possibilities of what your life can be. I sincerely hope you find the freedom and happiness that you deserve.
I thought this had a smile-inducing, light-hearted feel to it. "Hi MOM and DAD. I'm home. What's for dinner tonight? Oh, and by the way, I"M QUEER."
Nice segue from QUEER EYE down to OCULAR.
The needle on my CLAPOMETER did drop back a tad when 39D
"Place to hang a fedora" wasn't HAT rack. I guess SEASON PASS gets a pass because "ticket" is in the clue. It did peg back out on DYSTOPIA.
Loved the puzzle! Very fun and sweet.
Is there still work out there for stenos? It seems very yesteryear. Which would be my year, and I learned a little stenography back in the day and had a job briefly where a bigwig man dictated letters to me.
For Anonymous 7:08: I have no idea what "preconceived notions" you're talking about. Approximately 9% of the population is estimated to be homosexual or transsexual...that's about the same percentage that is left-handed. This is 2026, not 1926. Homosexuality ceased to become controversial decades ago.
Roo, Well said and I agree.
I solved Downs-only and didn't notice until reading the blog that the actual constructor was the one who CAME OUT ON TOP. That's actually amazing.
SAW for [Dated] isn't a dumb answer, it's a byproduct of the crossword-solving brain on what I like to call "overthinking themeless mode". Happens to me all the time, no matter the difficulty level of the puzzle I'm solving.
I had noticed the thing both @Lewis and @kitshef already mentioned—that the shaded squares were not “hidden” between different words in the theme answers. I wondered if that would count as a flaw for Rex, as @kitshef thought, and I was kinda torn—Rex has conditioned me to appreciate that kind of hiddenness more than when a multi-word answer includes one of the hidden words, but on the other hand I genuinely liked them as answers to different degrees. Maybe since it is consistent across the four, it’s okay? And maybe, to add to @Lewis’s delight about that very aspect, there’s something appropriate for a “coming out” puzzle about the message being in plain sight all along?
Would any regular readers of the blog have imagined that the first 5-star review on Rex’s blog since the star era began (November, right?) would end up being on a Monday? I enjoy the unexpected.
On the tough side for me, more of a Tuesday.
I did not know ALAN and AURA, CLAP O METER took some crosses, HAT rack wouldn’t fit, hEE before YEE…a tad tough for a Monday.
A delightful/clever kick off to Pride Month with plenty of sparkle, some fine long downs, and no junk, liked it a bunch or what @Rex said!
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #1118 was mostly an easy Croce for me. Good luck!
As a queer man I have to ask what f’n world are you living in Bob? Homosexuality and queerness in general is criminalized in a lot of the world, and dangerous in even more of it. The most powerful man in the world, and his richest man in the world toady are obsessed with making our lives hellish. You are telling on yourself and your ‘preconceived notions’ with this gobsmackingly ignorant comment.
Nice!
I agree with everything you said, and very well-stated.
Sir, this is a Wendy's
I thought that also @JJK. Even court stenographers use recording devices these days, although for awhile (before I retired) they recorded and used the stenograph machine. Some may still, but I wouldn’t know. I never felt comfortable “dictating” legal briefs, motions, etc so once word processing was available, I typed my own documents. (Subject to proof-reading) Luckily I was “of an age” that I found it an improvement for me since I didn’t have to awkwardly verbally correct my words or when I decided on a different train of thought/argument. Many attorneys who were much older could not make the transition. At any rate, in my office the admins (early in my career called secretaries) had MANY other things they were responsible for AND keep track of, so I think it was a win-win situation in our office.
Well-crafted Pride Month OPENer.
Also interestin: 14x15 E/W symmetry puzgrid with a nice big black blob hoverin in the upper half.
staff weeject picks: MOM & DAD. Altho, in readin the constructioneer's comments, it sounds like family and friends already had heard the announcement, before he made this puz.
some fave stuff: DYSTOPIA. CREEPY/CLAPOMETER. SEASONPASS. MOTOWN. TUTU. Possible M&A b-day announcement: MOM DAD IM OLD.
Thanx, Mr. Cortes. Nice job.
Masked & Anonym007Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Thanks bob for the stats. Your last statement would be great if true. Maybe tell that to the current administration and or most republicans. Better yet - maybe go check out former VP Mike Pence’s great state of Illinois where conversion therapy is pushed. Unfortunately there are plenty of people still out there who don’t agree with the “not controversial” part about being LGBT+ (by the way I am not part of the LGBT+ community but feel the need to point this out as I’ve seen friends and family members affected by people who don’t like “different”)
p.p.s.s.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Pina ___} = COLADA.
fave no-know: Shiba INU. Nice to know yah, doggie. Watch out for MU'S CAT, tho...
fave reparsable meat: APEX AM.
M&Also
TrevorTheFosterDad, I don't understand what you mean by the shaded squares literally spelling out "TOP". Could you please explain?
Absolutely delightful! I’ve got a permasmile going a mile wide. Great way to kick off the month. Many thanks Kenneth! I’ll be passing it on to friends and family.
It's really sweet to solve today's puzzle! Happy Pride Month!
@davidb 10:01 am; I use Across Lite so I do this:
- open the puzzle while averting my eyes from the left side
- click the first down clue so it will be shown instead of 1 across
- drag the edge of the across clue box to the left until they are hidden.
It only takes a couple of seconds.
I thought the theme was ambitious and surprising, especially for Monday. But it never occurred to me that it was Pride Month which is a real nice extra. (In my defense, I was solving it last night when it was still May.)
I tried doing it down clues only but gave up, so it must have played harder for me. But at least it made it seem there were not too many names because I missed half those clues!
Speaking of names, second time in 3 days with both NAST and ANN as answers.
Rex is referencing the "shaded squares" (not black boxes). I had no idea either, but when you click on the CAMEOUTONTOP line it will highlight the MOMJEANS, DADBOD, IMTHERE, and QUEEREYE. Personally, I didn't think the trick was all that stupendous, but the fill was pretty decent I thought. One thing though, if this puzzle were actually an authentic vehicle to reveal LGBTQ+ status, I'd find that slightly surprising considering the constructor has been going by They/Them pronouns for quite some time.
What an insanely clever feat. The constructor should indeed be proud!
Sorry- meant state of Indiana. Not Illinois…
Mamá, papá, soy queer.
Well, there you go. Pretty sure MOM and DAD already knew.
❤️ YEE. CLAP-O-METER. TUTU vs tut-tut.
People: 4
Places: 3
Products: 4
Partials: 4
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 16 of 71 (23%)
Funny Factor: 2 😕
Tee-Hee: Maybe a good day to leave my inner fifth grader at home.
Uniclues:
1 What Sir Ren Faire does in a joust.
2 Where "I never said that" comes from.
3 Mom and pop's disconcerting mom and pop.
4 Phrase heard when the beauty queen caught on fire.
5 Phrase heard (for good or for bad) upon entering a bear bar.
6 What skiing monkeys buy in the summer.
7 Adage suggesting white men will have way over informed and highly dramatic opinions about all things liquor related.
1 JABS THEE
2 STENO ERROR
3 CREEPY GRANDS (~)
4 DRAT! SASH SEAR (~)
5 DAD BODS ... YEW!
6 APES' SEASON PASS
7 OLD RYES TENET
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: The kid might be horribly sick from an easily preventable problem, but at least he's horribly sick and chemical free per sectarian zealots. MEASLES MIXED BLESSING.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Except, perhaps, sapiosexuality ;-)
Tolerance and openmindness are not exclusive. They are universal values.
You have been on a roll lately. I agree 1118 was easy, but I finished with a one-letter DNF at the cross of 46A and 47D. The actual letter there was my third guess.
@davidb - this may be to complicated, but if you convert the puzzle to a .puz file (I can tell you how to do that if you need it), then you can go to http://puzzlecrowd.com:8080/CrowdSource/ , upload the .puz file, and choose to solve downs-only. Or across-only. Or a couple of other fun ways.
Plus - and this is huge for me - it does not evaluate your solution when you fill in the last square. You have to actually tell it you are done.
Openmindedness
Ignoring the theme I found it a very good puzzle with many good long answers and little dreck. It was slightly tougher than the vast majority of Mondays. So those 2 factors make a very strong puzzle. I found the theme well done and the revealer was excellent as well. But liking a puzzle or not is a very subjective measure. I do get a hint of clueless about queer people from your post, so maybe interrogate your preconceptions?
I’d love it if someone announced they were pregnant via national crossword puzzle. Not sure what the issue is.
Never encountered that meaning of aura, good to learn some new slang.
To all who said I was living in ignorance, a few "givens":
1. A whole month (June) is devoted to homosexuals' pride
2. Gay and lesbian parades are commonplace in New York and elsewhere
3. An openly gay man (Pete Buttigieg) is a potential presidential candidate
4. Homosexuality is au courant in TV sitcoms and Hollywood films
5. Gay and lesbian couples adopt and care for children without stigma
None of the above was possible 50-60 years ago
Printer broke had to solve on the phone, which I really don’t like. Keep hitting the wrong letters, and I find the navigation unintuitive. Nevertheless I enjoyed this very fine Monday puzzle.
I hope one day we get to the point when we are truly both tolerant and even unaware of someone else’s nationality, religion, race gender or sexual orientation - when it just doesn’t register as important in any way and the person is just another person. Imagine all the people living life in peace
Did the constructor say anywhere that they came out WITH the puzzle? I just read it as "the constructor of this puzzle came out", not doing so using the puzzle.
It's a great puzzle with a great message, but I don't think it deserved Rex's first-ever five-star review. With that said, I'm glad Kenneth was able to share this message and have the puzzle published on June 1, and it's lovely that Rex and his wife had such a strong emotional reaction to it.
Thank you to @Rex and @pabloinnh - somehow I didn't read the entire clue for43A so missed that this was an actual announcement and that the reveal was really a reveal. I can only repeat what others have said - both funny and moving at the same time. Happy Pride Month!
I found this hard as a down only, but I was having fun so I gave in and looked at across clues. Very nice statement by the constructor on Wordplay.
Take the L Bob. None of what you’re saying changes the fact that queer people are demonized and denigrated by sizable portions of the country and are always in danger of having their rights revoked and history erased. Your mini lectures are condescending and ignorant. You would do well to just listen. But you don’t seem like the type.
@SSJ, I agree with your award for the "revealer of the year".
.
@JJK, my wife and I solved in the car (with me driving) and when the answer was likely STENO, I made a grunt of sorts that got my wife to ask "what's wrong?". I said "Steno?...who uses a steno any more?" She said "What about Della Street?" (we are big fans of Perry Mason). And I said "Della wasn't a steno, she was...AWESOME".
But a minor speed bump in a terrific ride of a puzzle.
And as for that one word, it's ironic, to me, that STENO harkens back to an era when the theme, underlying real-life message, and even creation of this puzzle was verboten.
Nobody else passing through Natick on the way to Japan and Oman crossing?
Dr. Random, being obsessed with the RP so-called (by me) Ratings Era, I can't tell you the shock I had when seeing five gold stars today. We knew it was an inevitability, but a Monday?!
Bob, the point that people are making that you seem to consistently miss, either out of stubbornness, bigotry (which I hope is not the case with you despite your history of making these kinds of comments here, including questionable race-related comments) or wearing willful rose-colored glasses, is that it is still EXTREMELY dangerous for LGBTQ+ people in the world to simply be who they are, and they have to live with a constant threat of being assaulted either verbally or physically. Coming out publicly like the constructor did here can lead to intense discrimination, both online and physical/verbal hate and violence in the real world, and especially in the United States that kind of discrimination and hate is being amplified by our current government, so it is extremely brave for him to do this in such a large public forum.
One of my best friends is non-binary and is currently transitioning, and they have experienced intense discrimination for their appearance and voice (thankfully no physical violence but they have been called homophobic slurs both online and in person and I know how hurt and overwhelmed they can get at times). They also solve the NYT crossword every day and they were very moved by this.
Just because there's more awareness of LGBTQ issues and people does not translate to someone coming out, especially in such a dramatic and public way, being an insignificant act or one that isn't worth celebrating and, indeed, not being proud of them for their bravery. I hope you can understand this one day or at least understand why people here, including Rex and myself, are so moved and impressed by this crossword.
@kitshef re: Croce - Living in the southwest was helpful for 47d
Standing O! Hit me right in the feels. Never thought I'd see the day when Rex would rate a puzzle ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. (I'd print that s*** out and frame it.) Congrats Kenneth! 🌈
(Thanks @CDilly for the reply yesterday. Always enjoy your stories.)
Hugh
Come out on top
Great line!
Beezer
Liked you comments about STENO
I passed the bar in 1974. and I like you was never comfortable with dictating. My mind didn’t work well with writing a letter orally. Even dictating to a tape, which I did, in the beginning. was awkward I agree using it computer was a much better solution!
Bob Mills
Very little in this world is permanently settled. Toleration in much of the world has been greatly reduced in the last ten years.
In the US the incumbent wannabe dictator received more than half of his votes from born again Christians. The religious leaders of these voters have succeeded with great help from Trump in overturning Roe v Wade and have explicitly turned their sights on overturning gay marriage in particular and other rights for gays in general. Their first target is the T in that crossword letter string. Trans. That has been hugely successful. Trump has been a great help to them. The religious right is not going to stop there And Trump and whoever replaces him in the part needs their votes.
There is another fight coming.
Hungry Mother
MUSCAT
I am old. So I heard often enough the name of a Sultanate, Muscat and Oman which included Oman & the UAE( broken up in 1970 ) So when I saw Oman I immediately thought of Muscat . ( filed in the same place in my brain).
My impression after reading all the comments is that the constructor was maybe celebrating coming out to his parents and they probably already knew. Either way:
Excellent Monday puzzle. I never do any crossword downs only. I found it fun to do
Interesting point. Didn’t notice Rex stopped criticizing Shortz by name as Whatsername I think yesterday he criticized “the editors”
@Anon, 5:36PM, so well said. Thank you. Things looked more promising in the last decade and a half, but not so much lately and it makes me sad. My older brother was isolated by being gay. Until quite late in our adult lifetimes, legal protections did not exist. The workplace was more often than not hostile (and not just to gays). He struggled with depression throughout his entire adult life. When he did come out, our parents refused to accept him. No more did they brag to others about his Mensa membership, his scholarships to Harvard and Georgetown or his gazillion other accomplishments. In fact, they rarely mentioned him at all. I was the only family member with whom he had a relationship. I was also the only person police officers could find to inform me that he had taken his own life.
I’ve been a Pride activist since before Pride Month existed and a charter member of my local PFLAG group. Since moving to California, I have found so many opportunities to celebrate and support all of humanity, and I take my brother’s spirit with me. In June though, I focus on the LGBTQ+ community by sporting as many wild rainbow colors as possible, and attending as many events as I can. This puzzle brought me to tears, both happy and sad.
Five stars for me as well. The creative, clever and downright brave theme touched me very deeply. As a person “of a certain age” - i.e. on the older end of the Boomers, I have personal experience with the varieties of pain occasioned by coming out. I am so glad that so many millions of people have worked so hard to mandate equality at law, and I am outraged at the overt “backsliding” going on these days.
My older brother was gay. I understood early on that he related to people differently. By junior high, I knew it had something to do with the way he related to others from a gender point of view and in 8th grade started to hear the hideous jokes and language aimed at “the queers.”
Having been the only family member who maintai
Anon 8:54AM, I join you in hoping the very same things. Being of an age when that was not likely (and certainly not my family experience), I cheer your bravery, and wish you a long life full of 💗 and joy.
Five stars for sure for me as well. Kenneth, that you chose to come out to MOM and DAD as well as the millions of folks who solve this puzzle brought me so much joy, and I admire your courage. I would bet they already knew. Congratulations and best wishes, Kenneth. And please keep making puzzles!
This was clever, fun, had some great clues and a couple toughish spots. It has everything I want in a puzzle and more! Best Monday in ages. And an extra heaping helping of emotion. Soon as I finished and took in all the theme layers, it brought me to tears. I expected a Pride puzzle, but this was a whole celebration!
My older brother (just 2 years my senior) came out to me when I was working on my Senior Thesis at Illinois and needed to visit the Library of Congress. He was starting his 3L year at Georgetown. At the time, I was unaware that just before school had started, he had gone home specifically to come out to the parents. It went very badly. In the blink of an eye, the pride of the family became invisible and totally estranged from everyone but me.
His experience with me was the opposite. I’d known he was gay for years, but was waiting for him to tell me. He did the day I arrived for our visit.
When I got to his flat in NW, he looked ill. We had planned to go out. He was so pale I thought he might want to cancel. He said no but asked me to sit down because there was something he had to tell me first and we’d need to talk. I blurted out, “Well, if you’re finally going to tell me you’re gay, congratulations, but I’ve known forever and you can’t possibly think that makes any difference!” We went to two fabulous mostly gay bars that night and had the celebration he deserved.
Happy Pride Month everybody!! Peace, Love, Parades and Parties!
Nice story, good you were there. Just as an aside, I feel sorry for all parents who are told something very important to their child at the same time, and in the same way, as the masses. I hope that was not the case.
TrevorThe FosterDad - well said! And congratulations and thank you on being a foster Dad.
Ok but a real missed opportunity to say “came out as a top.” Just kidding! Happy Pride!
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