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Black Sabbath guitarist Tony / SUN 9-6-26 / Loudmouth's lack, perhaps / Vegan brand with the logo of a cow wearing a fake mustache / Fandom identities often with fluffy tails and ears / Dog hybrid with thick, low-shedding fur / "Rock of Ages" or "Stand by Me" / Lincoln Laboratory operator, in brief
Sunday, September 6, 2026
Constructor: John Kugelman
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: The Lighthouse (see 39A) —
When a puzzle relies heavily on visual clues, I always assume it's trying to distract me from the fact that it's either bad or essentially boring. I don't think this one was either bad or boring, but the puzzle falters a bit, both because the illustrations are silly / cartoonish without being that funny, and (more annoyingly) because the movie titles are widely (widely!) varying in terms of how recognizable / iconic they are. I watch a lot of movies, but ... The Lighthouse? You want to put that on the same plane as Flashdance, Men in Black, The Dark Knight, etc.????????? The Lighthouse made ~$18M in 2019 ... it looks like it was well regarded and got some awards show recognition, but still, how in the world can you justify putting that title in this puzzle? Also, A Shot in the Dark??? Unless you are a huge Peter Sellers fan and somehow know that that is the second installment in the Pink Panther series, I have to imagine you were either shrugging your shoulders or else confusing this movie with the much more famous / much better Audrey Hepburn / Alan Arkin movie Wait Until Dark (as I was, briefly). I'm also not entirely certain how famous House of Gucci or Kingpin are (the latter is very well known to me, but I am the right age for a '90s bowling comedy by the Farrelly brothers). Looks like House of Gucci did pretty well, but honestly, until I looked it up, I thought it was a TV movie. All the other movies are massive hits and classics, so they work fine, but when four of your ten movies are, UMM, less than legendary, that kinda makes the theme seem desperate. LOL I only realized just now that the Bad Boys in this puzzle probably refers to the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence movie (a big hit in 1995 that spawned three sequels)—before this realization, I was thinking, "Are people going to remember that? That's pretty early Sean Penn...."
 |
| FLASH [DANCES WITH WOLVES] |
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| THE LIGHT[HOUSE OF GUCCI] |
 |
| THE LION [KINGPIN] |
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| BAD [BOYS DON'T CRY] |
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| A SHOT IN [THE DARK KNIGHT] |
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| TWELVE ANGRY [MEN IN BLACK] |
Word of the Day: The Lighthouse (see 39A) —
The Lighthouse is a 2019 film directed and produced by Robert Eggers, from a screenplay he wrote with his brother Max Eggers. It stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as turmoiled nineteenth-century lighthouse keepers stranded at a remote New England outpost by a violent storm. The film has defied genre categorization in media, leading to multiple interpretations from critics.The idea of The Lighthouse originated from a script based on Edgar Allan Poe's incomplete short story "The Light-House", which was written by Max. Eggers researched for source material and developed the plot from a nineteenth-century legend of an accident at a Welsh lighthouse. The Lighthouse draws visually from photography of 1890s New England, maritime-themed French films from the 1930s, and symbolist art. Principal photography took place in Nova Scotia, Canada, beginning in April 2018 and lasting slightly over a month. It was shot in black-and-white, with a nearly-square 1.19:1 aspect ratio to express the lighthouse's vertical orientation and isolation of the characters. Mark Korven developed the film's score, evoking the sounds and mythologies of the sea.
The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States by A24 on October 18, 2019. It grossed over $18 million, against an $11 million budget, and received critical acclaim, with particular praise for the direction, visuals, and performances of Dafoe and Pattinson. Among its numerous accolades, the film was nominated for Best Cinematography at the 92nd Academy Awards and the 73rd British Academy Film Awards. (wikipedia)
• • •
[co-starring ESAI Morales!]
Speaking of things I'm not getting—how does [Pushing off] mean SENDING? Is this some kind of businessspeak I don't know? Gen Z-speak? I can't make it work. I know "pushing off" as a kind of personal foul in basketball, as well as a term for setting out from shore in, like, a rowboat or canoe or something. Also, maybe it means "deferring." But SENDING? You got me.
Names galore in this one. When your entire theme is proper nouns, you really start to notice when they pile up in the fill as well, but pile up they do: TAFT ANG ANYA GOETHE ELO E.L.JAMES AOKI EMMA MILO IL DIVO and, most hilariously to me, someone called IOMMI!?!?!?! I'm LOL'ing because it seems somewhat obscure (legendary Japanese director Yasujiro OZU continues to glare from the sidelines) and it looks insane and if you are a constructor, you can see how IOMMI is a total desperation move, born out of the very unfortunate placement of two themers (39A and 62A), which results in an I---I pattern that is virtually impossible to land cleanly. IAMBI? IT IS I? IRANI? IRAQI? You lock yourself into very few, very poor options right away when you position your themers this way. IOMMI is maybe the most ridiculous way I can think of to make I---I "work," largely because I have no idea who that is. This is IOMMI's debut NYTXW appearance. You don't say!!! I (sincerely) hope the Black Sabbath fans among you were thrilled to see his name. Someone should be.
- 58A: Dog hybrid with thick, low-shedding fur (SHIH-POO) — I find all the dog hybrid names (soooooo many now) really truly embarrassing. Just get a mutt from the dog shelter, or, like, a regular dog, like a lab or something, yeesh. Speaking of portmanteaux ... FURSONAS (85D: Fandom identities often with fluffy tails and ears). That was a toughie for me. I think I tried FUR SUITS at some point. And in case you somehow needed yet another portmanteau, there's the gratuitously portmanteau clue on FUN (85A: Word combined with "-fetti" in a portmanteau). And if, at that point, your portmanteau pouch requires even further stuffing, there's a hunk of INCOGMEATO for you to chew on (75D: Vegan brand with the logo of a cow wearing a fake mustache). If I left a portmanteau off this list, please, I beg you, don't tell me.
- 55A: "Fifty Shades of Grey" author (E.L. JAMES) — totally forgot her name and wrote in E.L. JONES :(
- 82A: Bird store supply (SEED) — makes sense, but I left that first letter blank for an awful long time, thinking it might be FEED (because of the concept of a "bird feeder"???). The "S" cross, STOP, was pretty toughly clued (82D: Sign of the cross?) (because you might see a STOP sign where roads "cross").
- 105A: Quite the head-turner? (OWL) — love it. Hurray birds, hurray this clue.
- 40D: Slangy "very" (HELLA)—so ... not HECKA, then? (see 49A from Friday)
- 22A: Noteworthy (NAMABLE) — uh ... hmm. What? I can "name" lots of things. Hardly any of them are actually "noteworthy." NAMABLE is something a wordlist barfed up.
- 76D: ___ ball (rubbery toy) (KOOSH) — once I got KOOSH, I realized I do, in fact, know what they are, but it still took me forever, largely because the only "rubbery toy" I could think of that starts with a "K" is a KONG toy (dog owners know).
[Come on, look at this buddy! Gio! So patient. Give him his Kong! Labs, man. You can keep your SHIH-POOs...]
- 120A: Follows the first rule of improv (YES-ANDS) — so we're verbing this now? I guess we're verbing this now. Can't say I love it.
- 62D: Jason Seaver or Ward Cleaver, notably (TV DAD) — Ward Cleaver was the dad on Leave it to Beaver. Jason Seaver was the dad on Growing Pains, played by Alan Thicke.
- 10D: 9-5, say (HRS) — OK, puzzle, if you insist...
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112 comments:
@Rex: I think the first movie in 23A is FLASHDANCE, not The Flash.
Easy-Medium, but a slog. Solving on a tablet, I couldn't make the picture clues large enough to make sense. If I'd read the note I'd have solved in Across Lite, but somehow I missed it.
* * _ _ _
Overwrites:
TWIN top before TWIN SET for the 12D combo.
My 106D fortified stuff was mIlk before it was WINE.
WOEs:
I hadn't heard of either 39A movie, THE LIGHTHOUSE or HOUSE OF GUCCI (I'm not a big moviegoer)
Guitarist Tony IOMMI at 44D (I do hope he has a son named Tommy).
53D DJ/producer Steve AOKI.
SHIH POO at 58A, although I shouldda guessed, since they're cross-breeding poodles with just about everything. I went to a zoo once. There was only one animal, a small dog. It was a shih tzu.
The movie KINGPIN at 62A.
Simon Cowell's group IL DIVO at 65A.
Both movies at 68A (BAD BOYS and BOYS DON'T CRY).
Vegan brand INCOGMEATO (75D). Initially tried INCOGnEATO.
Fandom identities FURSONAS at 85D.
I resisted NAMABLE at 58A because it was unNAMABLE.
Bad and Boring
As any faithful reader of this blog knows, 47 across is spelled ANYWHO!
I liked it pretty well, agree with @REX on the plusses and the minuses. I had 3 crosses that gave me headaches and I actually had to look up IOMMI's name to finish the puzzle.... so a DNF for me. But the movies were fun to figure out from the pictures! My 3 spots were IOMMI crossing UMM (I thought maybe it could be URM or UHM), ILDIVO crossing MILO (thought it could have been an R or and N), and the 2nd "O" in KOOSH (crossing COE), though that one seemed inevitable in the end. TWELVEANGRYMENINBLACK was the highlight for me.... thanks, John K!
but the clue uses a picture of The Flash....
Of course the *movie* is FLASHDANCE (I refer to it by name in the writeup) but the guy in the superhero outfit dancing with those wolves is THE Flash (at least formally).
I didn't like this as much as @Rex did. AOKI was a total WOE for me; I had AmKI (which could be someone's name) and SHIH-POm for the longest time. I mean, it's possible. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ YAk for YAM, but that was clearly intended by the constructor/editor as misdirection. Consider me misdirected. I found this one more of a slog than anything, although I am both a big Pink Panther fan as well as old enough to know who Tony IOMMI is without any trouble.
So, not only did John have to come up with mashup movie titles, but he had to find those for which clue pictures could be made. After all, what kind of picture could be made with, say, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN MAN?
That made coming up with theme answers one layer more difficult. Add to that, he had to come up with three pairs of theme answers, each with the same number of letters to fit symmetry.
Bravo on that!
I loved learning that there is no single word for “please” in the Danish language. But don’t think Danes are impolite. Post solve, I learned there are Danish phrases with that meaning, such as one that translates to “…be so kind as to”.
And man, it was fun trying to guess the theme answers with as few crosses as possible just from the pictures.
John, this is your ninth puzzle so far this year, four of them Sundays, and all of them with themes. You have a remarkable creative mind and a blazing work ethic. You have entertained me often, including today. Thank you sir!
I never really like these picture rebus themes - although even though the clue graphics are still quite basic they’re light years better than the stick figure type stuff they used to try. Rex nails it with his comment about a trivia based theme loaded with non-theme trivia laden fill - I found this a slog.
BOYS DON’T CRY
A SHOT IN THE DARK KNIGHT brought a chuckle at least. I see EURAIL as a portmanteau also - not sure why they are all in there but none are appealing.
Sir Patrick Spens
The big guys summarizes the fill nicely. Easy enough I guess - I liked the TAFT quote and love Tony IOMMI. EL JAMES topped with ELO and crossed with MILO is an utter mess. Didn’t we just have IL DIVO last week also?
Dimming Of The Day
This was work - on a holiday weekend.
Daniel Johnston with the phone vocals - Yo La playing - WFMU greatness
Tony Iommi is a legend. Well known to guitarists and metalheads.
Ugh. So many fake cutesy words, and the picture clues were indecipherable small,on my giant iPad.
Been wondering for years when Tony IOMMI would show up!
Agree with Iris. Plus, too many names. Horrible.
I figured "pushing off" was like a boat from a dock.
I must take issue with your implicit disparaging of "A Shot in the Dark", which is the only genuinely great comedy among the Pink Panther series. It is relatively obscure to a normie today, though., for sure. (Also, agree that "Wait I til Dark" is terrific stuff.)
I thought NAMABLE was kind of ugly/lame.
And SHIHPOO crossing with some guy's unusual name was a low blow.
I loved it!!! But then again I'm not on your guy's level. It was fun for me with just the right amount of challenge.
Tech fail as moving around the grid was sheer agony for me, but I think the puzzle was otherwise pretty good. ILDIVO/MILO cross was brutal, but I think that was the only issue.
Have not seen The Lighthouse , Kingpin, or Boys Don't Cry. Not sure why I never saw that last one.
[addendum: It turns out I did see Kingpin, but it was very foregettable. ]
Inner me: " 'Crossover Films'... oh god please tell me we aren't doing movie titles whose names overlap."
[glances at clues]
"Oh god, with cartoon rebus clues."
And predictably I'd never heard four of the movies.
SHIHPOO, ELJAMES, an AOKI that isn't ISAO, IOMMI, TWEE, ANYA, ILDIVO, FURSONAS
Yeesh.
Solving on my nice big desktop pc with a big monitor, the clues were STILL tiny and hard to see. As for the movie titles: I have never seen A Shot in the Dark, but the "shot" was easy to infer from the (tiny) picture, and The Dark Knight was a gimme. Similarly, I've watched The Lighthouse, but even if you did not and don't remember it exists, the clue was blatant. "Well, that's a lighthouse..."
IOMMI is a legendary guitarist for perhaps the most famous metal band ever, the band most commonly credited for creating the genre. I realize that’s not going to resonate with much of this audience, but IOMMI is HELLA (not HECKA) important and worth knowing. With all those vowels it’s kind of surprising his name hasn’t surfaced sooner.
I opened it up and saw the hieroglyphs where the clues belong and felt the air slowly seeping out of my balloon.
I don’t watch many movies anymore so THE LIGHT HOUSE OF GUCCI didn’t mean a thing to me - and even TWELVE ANGRY MEN IN BLACK didn’t really register as the cartoonish clue doesn’t evoke memories of either picture.
It’s a long day when you have no interest in the theme and you bump into NYT signature items like the clue for LATINAS, which looked like it was written in a completely different language, and as Rex mentioned, when your word list doesn’t feel well and barfs all over your puzzle, Shortz is fine with that as well.
It’s at the point where I stop by out of curiosity to see what the Times conjured up (which is sometimes similar to the way people slow down passing a traffic accident) on my way to visit the LAT, the WSJ, or Evan at the WaPo where I consistently find crosswords that are more enjoyable than I find in the (digital) pages of the Old Gray Lady.
I’m with Iris and Norm. The names and cute words felt both childish and too hard (for the wrong reasons).
On the other hand, I did like learning about the nonexistent Danish word for “please.” I had the impression that Danes are unusually polite, based on watching a fair amount of Danish TV. (“Seaside Hotel,” anyone?) Watch a few of those shows and you’ll pick up that “thank you” is “tak,” which the characters say all the time.
Hey All !
Yes sir, Rex, Tony IOMMI is quite well known in the Rock world. Been around for a minute. Not a Sabbath lover here per se, do like a few of their songs, but a good guitar player, in a band that's been around for some time.
Neat idea for a puz. Getting pictures for the normal cluing. I'm sure it was easier to draw out the Themers than to come up with written clues for them. Took a bit to figure some out, not look at pic and auto-fill, which is nice.
As big and tough-ish as this puz is, I still beat my FriPuz time! What a bear that one was.
Neat drawings, Glenn, nice puz, John. Good fill for a lot of squares taken up by the Theme.
Hope y'all have a great Sunday!
Six F's -FUN!
RooMonster
DarrinV
Just don’t like visual clues :-(
I had one letter off and could not find it for the longest time – even while looking at the answer key! Finally turned out I had PURSONAS instead of FURSONAS.
Yes! One of the original creators of heavy metal and sludge rock (Master of Reality album).
In Across Lite, there are no visual clues, but (e.g.), 23A is a URL followed literally by "Depiction of "the Flash" dancing with two wolves." Wow, that was a stumper. The top third was crazy easy but the middle slowed me down a lot. The bottom was okay. Dunno why but A Shot in the Dark was a gimme for me. I guess I was the right age when it came out.
Huge Black Sabbath fan, and I beg to differ with Rex's assertion that Tony IOMMI is an obscure name. Perhaps not as famous as his bandmate Ozzy Osbourne, but certainly not an undistinguished figure in his own right!
I have to stick up with the movie as the films are not obscure! The Lighthouse and A Shot in the Dark were not blockbusters, but they are well-known films -- and I'm not a Pink Panther aficionado. They are certainly better known than Aoki. The sad fact is that we don't watch as many movies as we used to, so movie titles are starting to become trivia knowledge. Off to the movies to see "The Marching Band" tonight!
Glad to see Rex flag "Namable." I thought is was a poor clue/answer and was hoping it got called out.
Not sure a “huge Black Sabbath fan” has perspective on this. He seems to be a big name in a relatively smallish (and aging) fandom. Probably a lot like Rex’s beloved OZU (though I have at least heard of OZU). Of course IOMMI’s appearance and Rex’s comments mean IOMMI knowers/fans are going to come out of the woodwork today, but even his fans have to recognize that his fame is pretty niche, right?
I watch hundreds of movies per year and I have never heard of THE LIGHTHOUSE. Some movies are more memorable/relevant than others. Rex is right that that one is an outlier.
Am I the only one who got hung up on 68A because I was sure the wailing men in dark clothes were holding skulls rather than wearing them, and therefore they were all Hamlet? Just me? Okay...
For me, he resonated more than most of the other names. Guess I'm weird!
That's some zoo. Was there an entrance fee?
Why did Hamlet never go hungry?
There were always some Danish in the castle.
Alright. IT'S ON. Some of y'all must be bitter for the bit huh? Didn't you ever learn BAD BOYS DON'T CRY? Or at least to have some TACT?
SHOOT, it's a sunday for chrissake, it's supposed to be the day to let creativity shine and this one did so in great [...]GUCCI fashion. It's also completely in line for there to be many other portmanteau clues, as the very theme is [movie] portmanteaus. In that regard, it's a total BOP. At least 4 stars from myself.
Knowing the movies themselves is not mandatory, you can easily take A SHOT IN THE DARK[...] if you suspend your disbelief for a moment and see the pictures as the other kind of rebus - aren't you crosswordheads supposed to be used to wrangle weird wordplay from context in "say" and "?" clues?
As a specific callout, I'm DANG surprised so many of you, Mr. Parker included, don't know THE LIGHTHOUSE [...] for the gem that it is. It's got two very NAMABLE actors, it's written, shot and presented in the style of TWELVE ANGRY MEN[...] and you must have had to LIE FLAT and purposefully avoid any media exposure in the last 6 years to not even know it existed. It achieved significant cultural relevance as a beautifully minimalist breath of fresh (old?) air amidst all the marvelslop and musical oscarbait that hit the big screen EN MASSE in the same period. Give it a go, even if it is meant to be a hard watch, I'm sure you'll find it SWEET.
Ok, RANT over. Have a wonderful sunday!
I liked this puzzle a lot. However, my eye sight isn’t so great anymore and it was hard to see the pictures.But I thought it was clever.🎈🎈🎊🎊
I'm honestly surprised that you didn't know The Lighthouse, since you're such a movie guy! Maybe it feels bigger in my memory than it was in reality because it's such a film that was made to appeal to me specifically. But I absolutely recommend watching it if you haven't seen it. Great performances from both cast members, gorgeous movie, tense atmosphere, bonkers progression.
ELJAMES and ILDIVO acrosses connected by a MILO down is pretty rough. And yes, lol at IOMMI, from a Black Sabbath era dude and moderate fan.
Agree!! Rex was generous!
@rex if you haven’t seen the movie The Lighthouse I think you would like it? Super weird but Dafoe and Pattinson are great, it looks great, but mostly the use of language in that movie is really interesting.
IOMMI could just as easily been IOHMI for me. Even if I had heard the name before. And as far as hesitations, I gravitate toward UHM long before I think UMM. In other words, a brutal cross. Deep into the town limits of Natick for me.
I didn’t have a problem with including less well-known movies, but there is no such thing as a “bird store”!
"the clue for LATINAS, which looked like it was written in a completely different language" looked like? It's straight up easily intelligible Spanish, even for this gringo, for "women from Panama and women from Puerto Rico"
Did this one on line where I could enlarge the pictures, not always a whole lot of help.
This was one of those puzzles where I was thinking "I'm not going to know this even after I get it all filled in". Today's examples: ILDIVO, FURSONAS, INCGMEATO, TWINSET, IOMMI, AOKI, SHIHPOO, and the GUCCI symbol. Throw in a few names that were semi-familiar, and I have to say that this was not my favorite Sunday ever.
I did like seeing EURAIL, as I wasn't sure that was still a thing. A year after we got married my wife and I did a six-week tour of Europe with our LLBean pup tent and a EURAIL pass. Good times.
FURSONAS? I had to reveal the F - I had gUNFETTI, picturing it coming out of a cannon-like shooter (maybe along with some T-shirts? Nah).
And I totally didn't see that the LION KINGPIN had his feet up on his desk nor did I see the cigar - I thought his feet depicted a computer screen on a desk, sheesh. I do love the movie KINGPIN though, it's so over the top, but right, Farrelly Bros.
Also I revealed the L of MILO crossing IL DIVO (never heard of that).
Other than those no-knows, I agree the puzzle was pretty easy and I enjoyed the theme, ridiculous as it is. Thanks, John Kugelman!
I'm just gonna say yes to IOMMI, and if you don't think A Shot in the Dark is one of the funniest movies of all time I'm sad for you. Also has a badass theme song.
I had FANBOYS for several minutes before I finally came up with BADBOYS, mainly because the guys in the illustration looked more like FANBOYS to me (and it is the name of a 2009 Seth Rogen movie).
My current band, the Spychotics, specializes in spy movie themesongs, and Mancini's theme for SITD is great! Also, the scene where Clouseau mistakes an opera singer for a woman screaming in distress makes me laugh so hard I can barely breathe.
Because I love movies and I liked the graphics, I enjoyed the puzzle. I got tripped up on the “SHOULDA” and “YESANDS” cross. The “shoulda, coulda, woulda” phrase didn’t occur to me and I’m probably the last person who would ever do improv so I needed an Autocheck to fix that one.
wrong. It's ANYHOO
Love the name IOMMI for its sheer obscurity. Is it pronounced I OWE ME, as if you’ve put too much in your Amazon cart but deserve a shopping spree for the week you’ve had? I went with it and got the happy dance. This was fun because why not the mass appeal of a movie theme on a holiday Sunday? Add the wacky pictograms and it was a solid winner for me.
Name ANYWHO mini-albums.
Quadrophen and Tom, for two.
I think most fans of rock and roll know who Tony Iommi is. He’s as about as famous as a guitarist as they get.
I enjoyed this one and found it medium challenging. Some of the answers were over my head but I continue to improve and learn. And that pleases me.
> I (sincerely) hope the Black Sabbath fans among you were thrilled to see his name. Someone should be.
I actually did! Filled in instantly
Rex's comment on IOMMI, FURSONA, and YES ANDS reminds me what different demographics we are
I think the day with HECKA was the day the comments were broken, but since you brought it up again I can tell you that HECKA really is a minced oath for HELLA, at least in Oakland. Both my kids say it, and I believe they picked it up from school. Regional? Definitely. But absolutely real!
I’m curious if the Lincoln Laboratories clue was a “Natick” who don’t live in Massachusetts? It’s two towns away from me and I know a bunch of people who have worked there but I don’t know if it is nationally known.
Not to mention that it's an alternate spelling to the more common "nameable".
Slog! With Naticks galore! Clued oddly!
I usually get to puzzles later and so my reaction falls outside of time relevance, but I made my way through this disaster in time so here we go. I hated this puzzle. Beyond pairing many movies I’ve never heard of to create inane pairings, the pictograms that clue them were just bad and unintelligible. I guess the Flash dancing with wolves was at least accurate and represented two reasonable movies, but just an image of a lighthouse projecting a Gucci symbol I can’t even see for two movies I’ve never heard of? Come on. And the worst part was that despite some pretty dreadful fill I still finished easily. Got a few downs and thought well I guess the lighthouse fits, whatever that is. I couldn’t parse Bad Boys Don’t Cry from the image. Are they bad because they have skulls on their shirts? (Barely able to see in the print edition). And they are crying, but I guess xing it out negates that? It’s neither clever nor amusing. For the last one I just got some downs and wrote in Twelve Angry Men in Black (again, at least movies I’ve heard of) and then looked at the clue and said sure, whatever. In print the little guys could be a chorus? I certainly couldn’t see their facial expressions to determine they were angry. This one goes in my all time worst bin.
Rex, I really think you would love The Lighthouse!,
Outstanding performances.
Easy- medium except for tracking down a typo.
Major WOE - IOMMI - nothing is inferable about that name.
Most costly erasure - EbaY before ETSY
The graphics were cute but too small to be very helpful…e.g. I couldn’t tell that the 12 men were angry, it was hard to make out the GUCCI logo…not helpful. Fortunately the movies were mostly familiar.
I agree with @Rex on this one.
The SE went much better for me when I changed TWELVE ANGRY MENoNnites to TWELVE ANGRY MEN IN BLACK! And as a member of the over 75 cohort, I can say with confidence that A SHOT IN THE DARK is as iconic to me as any of the other movies used in the puzzle. Peter Sellers at the top of his comedic game.
Recapping the rest of the weekend puzzles, I weirdly found the Friday puzzle fell into my personal "easy" range (under 25 minutes), while the Saturday turned out to be "medium/challenging (over 40 minutes).
I saw from the title it was going to be a movie mash-up puzzle and got a little TINGLE of anticipation of wacky clues. But no.
I didn’t have any trouble with the theme answers once I had some crosses, even though I hadn’t seen four of them. The PPP in the fill got tiresome. I thought Rex was too kind to this puzzle.
My only laugh this morning was from the write-up – “so we’re verbing this now?” re YESANDS.
Thank you Rex for 20 years of explaining themes and answers that went over my head. And for helping me understand why some puzzles don’t deliver. And for entertaining links and holiday pet pictures!
My friends and I routinely text each other that Maria Gambrelli is innocent!
Both are accepted in the NYTimes Spelling Bee
I would have thought by now someone would have pointed out those aren't simply skulls on those t-shirts, that's the Punisher logo. It has been appropriated by a lot of very bad law enforcement types who completely missed the point of what the comic book character does.
Just dropping in to say Tony Iommi is very much puzzleworthy. He invented heavy metal- full stop.
Maybe it's me. I come here to be entertained - not tortured. (pretty silly visuals I might add). And every square (or pretty much most of the squares) were torture for me. Not even enjoyable. And I don't even care enough to find my typo. I don't know what (once again) is going on at the NYT. I've had enough gimmick puzzles especially in a Sunday grid. Please make Robyn W. come back - any day of the week - please!
@SS Johnny I couldn't agree with you more. I've expressed disappointment in the puzzles of late numerous times here on Rex's blog..
The Old Grey Lady - & STAFF - is showing her age - & that's NOT a good thing :(
Claire spells it that way. It’s a nonsense word so I think ANYHOO is appropriate, but if you search it, anywho is considered as an acceptable second.
I’m assuming that Rex didn’t mention OPENAI simply because he so recently denounced AI DOCTOR, or maybe just not to give the devil more advertising by taking up real-estate on the blog, but it did make me grumpy. The parent company of my students’ go-to when they want to avoid critical thinking? Maybe I’m just especially grumpy since I’ve already had four AI conversations on gimme assignments, two weeks into the semester.
I actually really enjoyed FLASH DANCES WITH WOLVES—definitely my favorite of the set. For some reason the absurdity of it tickled my funny bone. To each her own.
I only knew FUNFETTI because there was some grocery store brand of “icing in a can” called FUNFETTI.
I thought the puzzle was fun! My only gripe was NAMABLE for the reasons Rex said, and had gone with NotABLE until I looked at downs and knew the gaping thing HAD to be MAW.
I did this on my phone last night and. the cartoon clues were much sharper than the one in today's actual magazine.
I couldn't tell you a thing about the movie "A Shot in the Dark" other than my vague awareness of it being the title of a movie. It wasn't a problem as it's also a common phrase and the cartoon makes it OBVI. "The Lighthouse " may not have been a blockbuster but it is recent and I read at least one review.
ILDIVO was a complete unknown but MILO Minderbinder is one of those fictional names that sticks with you. The same goes for Major Major.
No clue on IOMMI but it was another one of those mysteries to be smoked out that kept the fill interesting.
Putting an S at the end of YESAND was cringe inducing.
Friday is still the best puzzle of the weekend so of course that's the day the comments were messed up.
I came here specifically to make the same points. A Shot in the Dark is THE Pink Panther movie. It is a stone cold classic. Check it out!
I was gifted a bird feeder last Xmas and am now a regular at a "bird store". Wild Birds Unlimited. I think it might be part of a chain; there are at least 2 stores with that name in my area. Feed, seed, feeders, baths, books, charts, you name it they've got it, as long as it's for the birds.
Anonymous summed it up best. Bad and boring. What a slog. Out of my areas of interest, and the new terms I "learned" I've already forgotten. Bleh.
Three stars is a very generous rating for this stinker. It's a cross between a trivia contest and a children's placemat puzzle. I ended with a typo that I honestly couldn't be bothered to go back and find.
I’ve never heard of it, but with a cross in place, I figured MIT seemed plausible for a laboratory connection. It’s like getting an obscure animal fact clue and assuming that they just need you to fill in EEL.
Ditto @beverly c’s thank you to Rex. Not only for his comments but for drawing together this ever-morphing group of commentators. I thought the inertia plus crosses were enough to identify even the least well-known of the movies, but the number of names clued made the puzzle tougher than trudge Dave bee.
About a third of the way through this one I realized it was a PPP slog of an ordeal and spared myself the rest of it. Of course, I could binge read past issues of People Magazine and maybe have A SHOT IN THE DARK at this puzzle, but I think I'd rather stick needles in my eye. Again, Kurt Vonnegut famously said of that rag: "[It's] not about people, it's about crap." What a fitting title for today's puzzle!
I had to solve this on my phone, struggling to make the app switch from across to down and vice versac ugh. So just a few comments:
I just figured The Lighthouse was an adaptation of Virginia Woolf— no idea about the other movie., but it worked for me. I’d never heard of the Gucci movie, though. If it’s like The Endless Thread I want to see it.
The FURSONAS/FUNcetti is ridiculous. Also, it should be “fursonae. “.
I only call a plant or animal is hybrid if it’s a cross between two species; but the dictionary doesn’t back me up, so I have to accept that.
Luv puzs with cartoons ... I oughta do more runtpuzs with em. Only puztheme drawback, at our house: the pictures were so small that we would miss out on an important detail now and then. Like the skulls on the bad boys' shirts, or the money bucks on the lion's desk.
Knew most of the flicks, which is pretty good since we don't go to many movies anymore. Almost half the movie theater time gets eaten up by previews and ads, nowadays. Definitely knew more older flicks than newer flicks, in the puztheme answers.
Overall, an enjoyable, different solvequest. And yep, the obscure names did pinch on the nanoseconds now and then, I'd grant.
staff weeject pick: ANG. Only fair that the pick be flick-related. honrable mention to UMM, tho.
Absolute fave thing: INCOGMEATO. A no-know but neato.
Thanx for the film-flam, Mr. Kugelman dude. Did U do them cartoons? They're great, but please draw em bigger, next time.
Masked & Anonymo9Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Back from Pennsylvania, hence the late post. Largely agree with Rex although I thought he would've thought the idea of annealing one movie to another would be unimaginative. We do the print version of the puzzle, and the pictures were difficult to see.
Lots of PPP detracted from this puzzle, including some crosses. We've actually passed MIT's Lincoln Lab in the past few years when we've been up that way.
BTW, why are all the posts italicized? Is it just me?
Conrad, can you take a screenshot with your tablet? That's what I did with my iPad and then expanded the photo to understand what I was looking at.
Wait Until Dark is great but so is A Shot in the Dark. Widely considered one of the best comedies of the last century, 4 stars in the Leonard Maltin book. Also, if you consider yourself even remotely a cinephile but get weirdly annoyed about the inclusion of a critically acclaimed movie by a well known modern filmmaker that came out 7 years ago, not sure what to tell you.
It always feels lazy on the part of the puzzle's creator when all of the difficulty comes from names. This was a trial & error slog with no fun to be found anywhere.
Always love when people come here to scold others for their gripes about a puzzle. Does it make you feel better about yourself?
Nicely done, with the overlapping titles and rebus clues, but not much fun to solve. I mean, TWELVE ANGRY MEN IN BLACK doesn't pack much zing. If the clues are going to be cartoonish images, I'd expect more hilarity in the in the entries. (In case @John Kugelman is reading and thinking, "Fine, YOU try it," fair enough.) ANYHOO, let me turn to the TWIN SET! Ne''er was there a better "uniform" for classroom teaching. I knew the spring semester was almost over when I could make the switch from wool to cotton - usually, late April in these parts. (I know, I complained about the uncle being dull...).
@pabloinnh. I had a lot of trouble with the pictures, too. For some reason, perhaps user stupidity, I couldn't enlarge the them and couldn't, therefore, see the expressions on the faces of those men or make out the Gucci logo.
I also did not know IL DIVO, FURSONAS, AOKI, or INCOGMEATO. And what a dumb term that is! It sounds like this is disguised meat. Just off. why do makers of vegetarian products try so hard to evoke "meatness"? I am a carnivore. Strike that. I am an omnivore who favours meat. But 2 or 3 days a week I will go out to the garden and grab a tomato, a cucumber, and maybe some peas and bring them to my table. Maybe add some cheese and crackers (not ZESTAS). A fine vegetarian lunch that includes nothing that pretends to be meat.
I for one am thrilled to see Tony Iommi get a mention in the NYTXW. He was the backbone of Black Sabbath!
I eventually got so sick of the squirrels & rodents I swapped the feeder for a bird bath. Costs nothing & way more fun watching the different bathing habits
No one scolded here—just shout-outs to a great artist. You, on the other hand . . .
Hated it the moment I saw it, but went into it anyhow (how, not hoo!).
The ANYHOO/IOMMA/PAN bloc was my DNF.
Set a PR for Sundays with this puzzle. 23 minutes. Found it really really easy.
Agree with most- not my favorite with just too many PPPs and obscure ones at that.
Natick at MILO crossing ILDIVO. Mino and indivo seems okay to me.
Also didn’t see anyone comment above but how can SAYHI be clued as “initiate small talk, say”. Isn’t that an egregious error that editor and designer missed?!? Or am I missing something tongue in cheeks right the clue. This clue alone made me think 2 star puzzle at most.
How about "Orr" as the guy with an alternative? Took me forever to see that.
Verbing weirds language!
I wondered the same thing. I thought the answer couldn't be in the clue?
The cartoon clues aren’t meant to “evoke memories” of the movies being clued, they’re meant to be a rebus for the words in the title. The cartoon clue for TWELVE ANGRY MEN IN BLACK is literally a drawing of twelve men who look pretty angry and are dressed in black. How much more straightforward can it be? Did you think the Flash was in FLASHDANCE? Or that anyone actually danced with wolves in DANCES WITH WOLVES?
Too many itty bitty little words...
Minced oath?
My first name is Richard but I legally changed my last name to IOMMI because I wanted to be like Tony.
Soy una tonta.
Names crossing more names and more products. Gunkorama approved. The theme was cute. I liked the drawings.
❤️ FURSONAS.
😩 NAMABLE. UNITER. YES ANDS.
Gunkometer--
People: 16
Places: 5
Products: 15
Partials: 11
Foreignisms: 8
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 55 of 138 (40%)
The skies open up and gunk poureth from the heavens soaking the Gunkites of Gunkville. And the Gurus of Gunk rejoiced.
Funny Factor: 5 😐
🔥 Ooh-la-la! 🔥 HELLA. A TINGLE.
Uniclues:
1 Really cute unicorn suits made by legendary future-trash manufacturer.
2 Internet rumor about birds sleeping horizontally.
1 BONNY TYCO FURSONAS (~)
2 EGRET LIE FLAT FALLACY (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Musical reminding parents to send snacks to school. PTA GORP OPERA.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Rex’s “Easy-Medium” was absolutely impossible for me, between the too-small pictures and the portmanteaux and names names names. Not fun at all.
He is definitely cross-worthy, surprised this is his first NYTXW appearance.
Had SHEOT for SHOOT, as in "shee-yot," as in a slang use of "sh*t" that I used to use in my youth. Don't know if that's common or just in my neck of the woods. Never pondered on how to spell it... also, I'm one of the few that really dug "Iommi." Anything that blends Black Sabbath and nerdery is something to cherish
Maybe I missed it, but has no one noted a clue with “SAY” in it that has an answer thay includes “SAY”? Isn’t that a major foul?
95% of this puzzle was straightforward and fun. Remaining 5% was a total slog and highly irritating.!
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