.png)
Call to cruisers, for short / WED 10-7-26 / Bygone company whose website has been revived as satire / Sly reply to "You can't possibly know that!" / Patterned fabric
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
Constructor: Ben Zimmer
Relative difficulty: Hard!! (20:02-- most Wednesdays take me under 15min)
THEME: DO A DOUBLE TAKE — Theme answers are pairs of words. One word has two of the same letter removed to form the other word.
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: GRABLE (Pinup icon Betty) —
Hi squad! Welcome to another Malaika MWednesday! I thought this puzzle was hard and I don't think that I often say that. I am trying to crystallize what made this hard. I think it was the entries in the grid. Upon closer look, this grid only has 72 entries in it! (The fewer the entries, the harder it is to fill the grid.) And, nine of them are theme entries. (The more theme entries, the harder it is to fill the grid.) And, the theme entries cross! (When areas of the grid are dense with required entries, it is harder to fill the grid.)
- TRUE BLUE for [Staunchly loyal]
- "Take" the two Us to make TREBLE
- SATURDAY for [Popular date night]
- "Take" the two As to make STURDY
- RAIN GEAR for [Macs and wellies, e.g.]
- "Take" the two As to make RINGER
- ATLANTIS for [Aquaman's domain]
- "Take" the two Ts to make ALANIS
Word of the Day: GRABLE (Pinup icon Betty) —
Elizabeth Ruth Grable (December 18, 1916 – July 2, 1973) was an American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer. Her 42 films during the 1930s and 1940s grossed more than $100 million, and for 10 consecutive years (1942–1951) she placed among the Quigley Poll's top 10 box office stars (a feat only matched by Doris Day, Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand, although all were surpassed by Mary Pickford, with 13 years). The U.S. Treasury Department listed her as the highest-salaried American woman in 1946 and 1947, and she earned more than $3 million during her career.
• • •
Sometimes I get on my high horse and say "Just because a theme is impressively tough to construct doesn't mean it should be a puzzle." Well, not today! I clocked this theme as impressively hard to construct, but I don't know that it's obvious to the majority of solvers. (Chime in though!) And the revealer is so, soooo good. I do think it's worth it.... I thiiiiink. I'm like 90% sure it's worth it. There were aspects of this puzzle that felt a little irrelevant-- why did it matter that the entries crossed? Why did it matter that the letters U, A, A, and T, were "taken"? Why was the revealer phrased like that, when DOUBLE TAKE could have worked just as well? But nevertheless, I think it was worth it.
 |
| The Internet tells me this horse is called Do A Double Take |
I have had the experience of hearing a phrase when I'm out in the world touching grass, thinking that it could be a revealer, and then trying to think what it would actually literally mean for it to be a revealer. And I have also had the experience of a revealer and the associated mechanism appearing in my head fully formed like the birth of Athena. This puzzle strikes me as the former, but I wonder what Ben's brainstorming process was like! I think there are a lot of ways to interpret the phrase "double take."
Some of the harder entries for me were partial, or had partial energy. ALB, ARE SO, LIE TO, RACE IN, OH BUT I DO, EATS AT, TIDED, NO TAR, KEEP TABS, EASE INTO, TOSS OUT. I wonder if the grid could have been updated to have a couple more black squares (and thus, entries) to avoid this. (Fwiw, at a cursory glance that does not seem possible!) Stats about a puzzle often betray the core vibe of it. Standard specs might claim that a longer entry is better than two three-letter words, but I would prefer having known entries like "cat" and "leg" over tough-to-parse stuff like KEEPS TABS.
Bullets:
- [Dolly Parton vis-a-vis Dollywood] for THEME — I don't know why this clue rubbed me the wrong way. It's correct! It just felt a little dehumanizing. Like she's a costume instead of a person. I was looking for an entry here like "inspo" or "namesake"
- [___-famous (reel popular?)] for INSTA — Ugh I would have looooooved to see this not as a partial!! I want [Reel popular?] as a clue for "Insta-Famous"!!! This is referring to the fact that vertical videos on Instagram are called "reels"
- [Well-manored men?] for EARL — Fantastic clue! Perfect for a Wednesday.
- [Musical artist with the fastest video to reach one billion views on YouTube] for ADELE — I was absolutely shocked by this stat! I knew she was popular, but wow! This was for the music video for "Hello" which came out in October 2015.
- [Hall with a self-titled daytime talk show] for TAMRON— This was completely unknown to me. I needed every cross for every letter.
P.S. My boss Andrew told me that his brother reads all of these. Hi John!! Feel free to tell your brother that I am intelligent, charming, well-spoken, etc etc. Whatever moves you.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️:
Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)] =============================
📘 My other blog 📘:
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️:
📘 My other blog 📘:
- Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)
Save And Share :
90 comments:
Wonderful! Sweet theme, beautifully realized. The fill was fine. Bravo!
Definitely a confusing theme. Why not “take” the other double letters in three of the four themers? (i.e., the E’s in TRUEBLUE, the R’s in RAINGEAR, or the A’s in ATLANTIS)
I’d like to imagine there’s more going on here, but like Malaika I’m left wondering, why take U, A, A, and T?
Dollywood is THEME park, which, by definition, is an amusement park that is designed around a central concept or person (i.e.: THEME). There is nothing dehumanizing about the term - especially since, in this case, it was Ms. Parton herself who created and designated the theme (i.e., Dolly Parton") around which the park would be designed.
On another note, TOTALS are not "wrecks beyond repair." Many vehicles with this designation certainly can be repaired. TOTAL is simply a determination by an insurance company that it would be cheaper to pay a pre-determined cash value for the vehicle to the insured person than to pay to fix the car. It is a financial decision - not a decision about the integrity and fixability of the vehicle.
the puzzle is brilliant in every way the reveal is too - spot on review you're correct. thanks Malaika - and don't think 20m was too long it was worth the effort!
Yeah I hated the Dolly THEME clue a lot. It’s technically correct but she was way way way more than merely the THEME of that place. One of the hardest answers for me because the clue just didn’t track. Liked the puzzle overall, though. (7-something on my phone which translates to probably mid 4s at my regular setup—normal Wednesday for me, but it felt harder)
Great Puzzle, I agree with Malaika on everything.... definitely tough for a Wednesday. Thought it was a bit lame until I realized the 2 letters were the same in each corner, so it really is a DOUBLETAKE. A couple comments... I don't think of being reproved as especially gentle.... yes, more agreeable than being reprimanded, but still being corrected. Also, impressive to get those 4 longs crossing both the central revealer and a themer. And the symmetry is also impressive. Great! thanks, Ben!
Faster than average Wednesday. Really liked the themers. Good puzzle but I winced at NEATO and AMT.
Guy, you’re right in the insurance context. But if you read wrecks as a verb, TOTALS is a very common (non-technical) term for “wrecks beyond repair”
I think 'wrecks' works as a verb here - one 'TOTALS' one's car.
Well analyzed. Agree totally. Was hard
Do I love word quirks? OH, BUT I DO. And seeing a new word formed by taking the same letter twice out of another word – four times! – thoroughly filled my word quirk quotient.
Do I Iove wordplay? OH, BUT I DO. And DO A DOUBLE TAKE brought a sweet and satisfied smile.
Do I love nifty construction? OH, BUT I DO. And fitting four of these pairs in the same box – having them cross! – not to mention having the last letter of one of the long theme pairs abut the first letter of another – twice! – and still fit in a 13-letter revealer and make everything fit symmetry? Very, very impressive to pull this off.
So, I mightily “Huh!”-ed, and “Wow!”-ed, along with the pleasure of filling in the squares, and left the puzzle thinking, “Ain’t crosswords grand!?!” Thank you for making this, Ben!
Solved as a themeless Malaika - so for me not worth it. Too dense for a midweek grid - the overall fill suffers from the theme constraints. The revealer is fine.
The Connells
If you have to start with SRO - HEH - APB it’s over from the beginning. Agree that THEME is brutal here. NO TAR, TIBIAE, GRR, ALB - not worth it. I always hate to see SOT and the snickering clues for ACNE.
DRAG The River
Just not worth it for a Wednesday morning solve.
ADELE
A rarity: an architectural accomplishment that’s also fun to solve. Quite a few overwrites, such as bEAn before MEAT. The only major WOE was the talk show person, whose name I’ve already forgotten.
Another hand up for wincing at the Dollywood clue. And my impression is that the park’s THEME is not so much Ms. Parton herself (although there is a replica of her coat of many colors on display) as it is a celebration of east Tennessee culture/lifestyle. Maybe someone here who’s actually been there can confirm?
Outlier here, I suppose, as I thought the theme was a mess.
Why are the Us taken from TRUE BLUE, but not the Es? Why are the As taken from RAIN GEAR, but not the Rs? Why are the Ts taken from ATLANTIS, but not the As?
SATURDAY/STURDY is the only one that really works, but even then 'double' most often implies consecutive letters. Going from RUBBLE to RULE would be a double-take.
This would have worked better as a themeless.
Didn't know Betty GRABLE, so I wrote aRABLE, figuring aRR was valid as a sound of frustration.
Hey All !
How dare you take away @M&A's U's! 😁
Interesting idea. Neat find in four pairs of words to take away two (of the same, no less!) letters from a longer word to get a cromulent shorter word. Agree with Malaika that having all that Theme crammed in makes it waaaay difficult to fill, cleanly especially. But nice job on this one.
No watcher of regular TV, daytime or nighttime, so TAMRON Hall was a whoszat?
Nice job, Ben. Good crunchy WedsPuz.
Hope y'all have a great Wednesday!
No F's - GRR!
RooMonster
DarrinV
I was also tripped up by the Dollywood clue. I wanted owner (technically co-owner) or creator, or founder --: something with more active energy.
We visited Dollywood when I was a kid and I had a great time. My parents saw Glenn Campbell perform, while I opted to watch a blacksmithing demonstration instead. Oops.
I thought it was a clever theme, well executed. Average since time. The down themers were gimmes once I had the crosses, which helped.
I also had no idea who TAMROM Hall was, but she's earned two daytime Emmys. The more you know ⭐☄️...
Surprised that Malaika called it hard. I breezed through it rather nicely and I'm definitely not an advanced solver. Liked the revealer. TIBIAE? Not TIBIAS?
Country that bans cigarettes: NOTAR Republic.
Enthusiastic cacophony: Gung-ho DIN.
Carnivore's assignation: Meet MEAT the meat mart.
A subtle Shakespearean reference to the theme?
Double double TOILE and TREBLE
Nah. Probably just coincidence.
********
Enjoyed the wordplay, and thanks for the writeup Malaika. Your boss is lucky to have you on board.
My original clue for THEME was "Feature of crosswords like this one," fwiw!
You surprised me. I didn't have to use auto check or reveal letter. I loved it.
Fantastic puzzle. One nit. I don’t recall Alberta having the abbreviation Alb. Maybe our Canadian friends can straighten me out.🎈🎈🎊🎊
Just under average time, though it did feel like it took longer. Same as Malaika, not exactly sure why it played so hard. Most of the theme answers were gimmes (ironically not THEME at 5A), so it was mostly short stuff that held us up.
Solved without regard to the theme and didn't get the shaded squares' relevance until completed. Nine theme answers; plus vertical stacks of 7-8-8 in the NW and SE corners. Impressive, but at a cost of SRO-HEH-APB and ANO-BUT-SOT, respectively (GRR).
RE the hate (including from a Rex cameo) over the Dolly-Dollywood clue, I didn't have the same initial reaction, but there are plenty of other ways to clue THEME. In fact, given its placement (top center of the grid), the clue could have evoked "DO A DOUBLE TAKE" as the (4A) of the puzzle. How? That's for a real constructor; but how's "36 Across, vis-a-vis this puzzle"? If anything it might have made me need to notice the theme before finishing the puzzle.
It seemed easy to me; once you understand the theme, it really helps you fill a lot of the grid, especially since you have shaded squares. Being old helped, as well. I remember a scene in a movie about the Navy in World War II which had a Betty Grable pinup on a locker to help set the historical period. SRO is kind of old, too (though common in puzzles); I don't think fire codes allow standing-room at theaters today.
I never heard of TAMRON Hall (I could only think of Arsenio), but I did like seeing TAMRON in the grid with ENRON. I'll have to check out the satirical website, I only know it from the financial scandal.
Well if it's not really LOL it's MEH, I thought. Not a flying start, but an easy fix. The Dolly=THEME doesn't seem right to me either, FWIW. Side eye to TIBIAE.GAH before GRR, another easy fix.
I do know TAMRON Hall from ads seen during news programs. !2-year old me does an inner giggle every time I see the name though.
I'm wondering what the over/under age is for solvers knowing Betty GRABLE.. No problem here.
I thought this was ingenious and the "why these letters" never occurred to me. Finding pairs of word like this is impressive.
Very nice Wednesday, BZ, But Zero tolerance for two answers, viz., NEATO and ARESO (and any other "playground retorts") Otherwise just great and thanks for all the fun.
Nice Puzzle Ben. Just missed because of that alb/ toile cross.. c'est la vie.
Agreed, difficult for a Wednesday
I had no shaded squares so no theme for me. Oh well. It played about normal for me otherwise
Hmm. Seem to be more and more clues that are clever by half and in trying to be misleading just end up being largely inaccurate. A good clue is oblique and correct, not just awry. Makes you go Ah, not ugh
Since it was clued as sly response to I had it as oh but do l which caused a spot of bother!!
Was the Pythagorean Theorem being gently scolded when Euclid's students REPROVED it?
Back in my days of labor, space was getting tight in our soda vending machines at work so we voted not to KEEPTABS.
A Wisconsin competitive runner might RACEIN Racine.
Publisher to Editor: This article is so important that I don't want you to edit it. I don't want you to double edit it. I want you to TRIEDIT it. Capische?
For those asking why these letters (A,A,T,U), they obviously are an anagram for ATUA, the gods and spirits of the Polynesian people (per Wikipedia).
I thought this was a great idea, great construction, great puzzle. Thanks, Ben Zimmer. And thanks, for the guesty Malaika. Glad to see that Dolly as THEME was the editors and not the constructor.
"Why did it matter that the letters U, M, A, and T, were "taken"? "
Malaika, you might want to change this to U, A, A, and T. M wasn't taken, unless you call today's entry an Alaika Wednesday.
Canadian here. I’ve never seen this abbreviation. It’s either AB or ALTA
I had a hard time with the RINGER / RAINGEAR corner; for the longest time I had nothing but GRR in place and the GEAR part of RAINGEAR. I knew for sure that the pin-up star Betty G____ was someone I had seen in crosswords, but as I wracked my brain, the only thing that came to mind was GARBO, which didn’t fit. After everything eventually worked out, GRABLE and all, I looked up Greta GARBO, and sure enough, I learned about her from crosswords as well.
TAMRON who? Hand up for Arsenio! Solved without using the theme but enjoyed catching on once I finished. The puzzle seemed hard as I pecked my way through it—the only whoosh was ATLANTIS—but found I finished in slightly less than my average time for Wednesdays. Had no problem with Dolly as a THEME tho this answer did take me by surprise as I worked it in from the crosses. ENRON was a nasty disaster. Took some good/innocent people down with it. Before they crashed, I was part of a team studying them for competitive reasons and we could not figure out how they were actually making money with the various deals they had—as it turned out of course, they weren’t.
Looking back on it, it doesn’t seem like there is a lot that would gum-up the whole solve and increase the difficulty level. It’s probably more like death by a thousand cuts (did I just bastardize Billy S, or was it a mere mortal that I may have misquoted there ?).
Anyway, take the NE. INSTA may be a stretch if you don’t do much with that particular app. I’m not enthralled with the clue for ROTIS - which is sort of like insinuating that Ciabatta is a “puttanesca complement” - Will could have, and probably should have, done better than that there. And at this point it’s on us if we aren’t on the lookout for the signature NYT Latin / plural gimmick re items such as TIBIAE (note, if you are a newer solver, get used to that, you will see it again).
So it’s difficult to criticize the construction, which checks a lot of the boxes. Was it enjoyable to solve - it wasn’t bad, for me at least (YMMV).
Took me 18. About 3 above my average. And
I’m not as good a Malika usually. Not even sure what the problem was. Just was a slog
Hey, I got the theme today! After the revealer, I looked at TRUE BLUE crossing TREBLE and went "aha". This didn't help me at the ATLANTIS/ALANIS cross. I had ALANIS in place but, but there are two A's in ALANIS, I was vaguely confused.
TAMRON? IBM is doing cloud stuff? mOILE, vOILE, ah TOILE. That center section was my last to fill.
Ben Zimmer, this was an interesting use of circles in the grid, thanks!
Standing with you in the outlier field.
Agree with Malaika the puzzle was quite difficult for a Wednesday. I ignored the shaded squares and solved as a themeless, but then didn’t immediately see the meaning of the revealer post solve either. Now that it’s been explained, am glad I didn’t spend any time trying to figure it out.
🎉
Got the southeast corner rather quickly, and spread out from there. After about an hour break, I came back to it and finished it off rather quickly. I didn’t like the Dolly clue either. I put in owner first as did many others, it seems
Liked the comment that a car can be totalled and still be repairable, but Joaquin's. Dictum is still in effect. They're clues, not definitions.
Old Canadian here. I grew up using Alta. Now it's AB. I found this page that lists ALB as a French version. Don't think I've seen it in real life, but I dson't get a lot of mail addressed in French.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/92-195-x/2011001/geo/prov/tbl/tbl8-eng.htm
Thanks for that info, Ben. The editorial clue was the only true clunker in an otherwise fun and admirably constructed puzzle. Bravo!
On the tough side for me too. The NW was last to fall. REPROVED and OH BUT I DO took some staring. I also solved it as a themeless and did some additional staring to grok the theme.
I did not know TAMRON
Costly erasure - boAs before DRAG
Reasonably smooth grid, subtle theme, liked it.
I thought this was a terrific puzzle, solved it easily without rushing, in 13 minutes, and felt so happy to be appreciating three (M, Tu, Wed) good puzzles in a row.
I honestly don't understand the problem with taking out the U's in one phrase, taking out the A's in two others, and taking out the T's in a third. The approach was the same, and so clever! And I have seen much, much worse cluing than the one for the Dollywood THEME. Y'all are being unreasonably picky. I loved it. Thanks for a delight, Ben Zimmer!
Found this one pretty easy (solved in 5:55), but there were definitely a handful of generational references that could have stymied relatively younger solvers!
I highly recommend a visit to Dollywood. Beautiful setting and a replica of the little house where Dolly was raised. The proceeds help support her children’s book project. The hotel features quilts and other examples of Tennessee culture. There is live music in the theater. Dollywood is a major employer of local residents.
was not really hard. my only hangup was I thought she was Tamara Hall, not TAMRON. I liked it. great construction. chill Wednesday
The fill on this was the worst I've seen in a puzzle in 10 years. Truly awful. The abbreviations, prepositions, old gunk... horrific. Not remotely worth the payoff for such a mediocre theme.
Guy is 100% correct.
Total is a great example of a verty useful word corrupted by folks who don’t fully understand it.
Begs the question has sadly suffred the same fate.
Pretty neat puztheme idea and semi-apt revealer. I say semi-apt, because some double-letters don't get taken. Caught onto the theme mcguffin pretty early, and fillin in the revealer was a near gimme. Plus, fillin in the double-took themers was mostly doable, without even lookin at their clues.
INGE pops up, if U totally double-take on RAINGEAR, btw. Just sayin.
Was concerned, when I saw them U's bein dropped in the NW themer pair. But that wasn't to be continued. sooo ... ok.
Can't really say this WedPuz was "hard!" What makes em hard at our house is usually the no-knows. Only near-no-know today for m&e was TAMRON, and got er to pop back into my brainpan, eventually.
staff weeject pick: HEH. Had an interestin clue. Altho ... the puztheme would probably insist that {LOL lite} = O.
fave stuff included: OHBUTIDO. TOSSOUT [Better clue: {86}]. TRIEDIT clue. That TRIEDIT's symmetric(al) TRIMMED would get trimmed to TRIED by the puztheme.
Double-thanx for the fun, Mr. Zimmer dude. Or should I say Mr. Zier ue?
Masked & Anonym007Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Nice, puzzle. I didn’t find it hard, a little faster than average Wednesday. Got a smile from the revealer. Great finds for theme answers!
I liked "KEEP TABS," it is at the right place between length and ease where a couple different options could fit (like "KEEP EYES") and that's part of the fun of doing the crosses to see if you're right or not. I would prefer a puzzle of nothing but KEEP TABS, compared to a puzzle with a single ARE SO.
Another day getting axed. 😥
Had a great time with this puzzle.
@Anon 8:37 am, another Canadian putting hands up for not liking ALB, although I think I have seen it... maybe once in 50 years.
@Gary J, just try reposting as anonymous?... maybe a problem with your web browser or your account settings?
Well I thought this was pretty well done. Yes those two narrow corners are ugly -- SRO HEH APB ANO BTU SOT -- but the theme was fun enough. And hardly any names... yay! All in the bottom, and all Known Names: ADELE, REDS, TAMRON, GRABLE, ALANIS. (We'll just ignore ALB for now.)
It would have been really cool if the crossing themers could have shared a clue. But that is really asking a lot!
A while ago, for some reason I tried to make a word ladder that counted down from 10 letters to one. I came close!:
STARTLING
STARLING
STARING
STRING
STING
SING
SIN
IN
I
That's the way words borrowed from Latin (and often Greek) that end in -a are pluralized (-a singular, -ae plural is from Latin). Your probably most familiar with it regarding spines: one vertebra, two vertebrae, three vertebrae, etc.
Antennae and larvae are also common. In some cases, even when the -ae plural used to prevail, -as has crept in (e.g., even most mathematicians probably say formulas instead of formulae, although formulae is certainly still acceptable).
I really liked this one. Didn’t really care that the removed letters (UU AA AA TT) had no particular significance. I’m not trying to decode the Rosetta Stone here; I’m doing a Wednesday NYT crossword puzzle. It was fine. Clever, even.
23A TOTALS has been discussed by a few commenters, but always in terms of vehicles, which were not mentioned in the clue. I have been involved in many non-vehicular totallings in my lifetime. Some were my fault, some were nature’s fault, some were by design (and kind of fun).
Trickiest section for me was in the DRAG, ALB, RAIN GEAR section in the SW. I had RAINwEAR and ALB is not an accepted abbreviation for the province just east of me so DRAG was a bit of a mystery. Using ALB for Alberta is like using VIR for Virginia or WAS for Washington. I think not. I understand that the constructor and the editors ended up with ALB and tried to do something other than “priestly garment” with it but you can’t just make sh*t up.
Otherwise, much fun.
Why are you getting repeatedly "axed"? I know you like to dig into controversy but could you, without repeating whatever may have been "offensive" in the post, try to explain to your fans what's going on.
But the clue was asking about the person, Dolly Parton, not about Dollywood, the theme park. I had the exact same reaction to this clue/answer pair as Malaika did. I wrote in "owner" at first, then when I realized that wouldn't work, was really confused about what it might be. I also was trying to think of a five-letter word synonymous with "namesake" for a long time until the crosses finally filled it in for me.
I thought this was a particularly hard Wednesday too! My time was 21:29. I think I'm a slightly slower solver overall than Malaika is, because whenever she publishes her time, mine is usually like 5-10% longer.
I thought many of the clues themselves were off and therefore hard. Why is doing a double take reacting with "exaggerated" surprise? If it's a genuine reaction to a legitimately surprising thing, I wouldn't call it an "exaggerated" reaction. Toile is always patterned? Who knew? Assays? I liked the clue on Earls, but I put "lords" in first, and had to work my way out of that into earls.
I also don't understand how losing the pair of random letters constitutes doing a double take in any sense.
I'm surprised at the ado over the clue for 4A THEME. Dolly was the driving force that renamed the park in 1986 from "Silver Dollar City" to "Dollywood". She wanted it to create local jobs and to celebrate her Tennessee heritage.
Maybe the editorial change to the constructor's clue was to commemorate Dolly's life and recent passing (August 25, 2026). I bet she would have been pleased as punch to see her name in the NYTXW.
Here's a quote from dollyparton.com: “I can remember looking up at the Hollywood sign the first time I was in L.A. and thinking I would like to change that H to a D."
She had a great sense of humor and never took herself too seriously as illustrated by her quote "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap."
@Les, I'm dying to know more about "non-vehicular totallings" which were "kind of fun". Sounds like another good anecdote?
I'm lying out here too.
I did solve it as a themeless. Then when I looked back and did the single take (because I hadn't TRIED IT first during my solve), I found it quite a mess also.
Hey, Ben. Excellent puzzle. I remember you from days at Visual Thesaurus. This was fun to solve.
Very good Wednesday puzzle, thank you. And thanks also to Malaika- glad you found it hard because it made me think twice!.
I didn’t think of the theme as taking 2 letters. For me it was just a DOUBLETAKE in the sense of using most of the same letters for the second word. Thanks Ben for your own clue for THEME. I had asses before MULES briefly. I did not know ALANIS or TAMRON but got them from theme and crosses.
Anonymous 5:17 AM
The puzzle has a complicated theme. Many of this type do not spell anything out. Often because it becomes impossible to do it without destroying the puzzle, even with a computer assist. Too much pressure on the puzzle as reviewers say. I really liked the theme.
ran across an amazing bonus puzzle oct 1 ny times about Bob Dylan - wonderful creation by Kate Jensen/Christina Iverson edited please share! https://www.nytimes.com/games/bonus/crossword/monthly/2026-10-01
"I would prefer having known entries like "cat" and "leg" over tough-to-parse stuff like KEEPS TABS."
Nope. No no. No. No no no. Difficulty is NOT a bad thing. It may not be welcome to some solvers, but the "make it easier" crowd has held too much sway over the past ~15 years.
"Cat" and "leg" have Monday to run wild. Tough-to-parse is the spice of life. It deserves a Wednesday presence!
Gary is forever slandering the editors pf the puzzle and the Times itself.
Sometimes he goes after peole whi correct his errors of fact.
What he thinks is amusing is frequently gratuitous snark.
Rachel
My exact experience. owner to crosses filling in THEME. But Guy has a point. Maybe the clue could have been worded better.
Guy TOTAL means a lot of things. It has quite a looong entry in dictionaries. The insurance meaning is only one specialized area. It makes perfect sense that outside of insurance law it has a literal meaning. It is in no way a “corruption”. So complete destruction is among the many meanings of the word. Abd it is in dictionaries.
As a retired lawyer, I have long since given up complaining about how rob is used.
Les
ALB to paraphrase Anoa Bob was an abbreviation of convenience. But for me I immediately thought of Alberta because hey I am an American and Washington wasn’t going to work ( And the Latin dance sealed it) As Z used to say, sometimes knowing too much slows you down.
I didn’t use the theme in the solve at all. I thought the puzzle was very easy away from the theme answers and harder around theme So at most a medium, although my medium would be an eternity for Malaika. I liked the theme once I read the explanation and thought the gunk was justified by the theme. I am rarely bothered by clues but I didn’t like the one for THEME. Maybe if the clue was reworded?
I thought the revealer was excellent.
Another indication of how old I am. How so many, (obviously) younger commenters don’t know the name or know it only from crosswords. Wow. BTW you need to adjust the income figures from word of the day by 20 times to get the modern equivalents.
Nobody was axed
I like CAT and LEG. I like when my CAT rubs against my LEG. It’s nice.
I really liked this puzzle; tough but doable.
@Rex Parker6:43 PM
Thanks boss, that's helpful. I was pretty sure I've been staying in bounds and it was probably something to do with Google. I'll try using a different browser and see what happens.
You’re generally an auto-approval, as is true with all regulars. Gotta be abusive or wildly off topic to get axed.
@okanaganer. I see I was a bit sloppy in my phrasing. Sorry for the confusion. A vehicle was involved but it was not the victim. Imagine that you have just purchased a property with old, rickety out-buildings (sheds, etc.) and you have a brand new tractor …
We make the world less nuanced, not more, when we insist that words used to people fail in any way to express what we value most about them. If she wasn’t the theme for her own park then no other venue has a theme either, be it for a real person or a cartoon animal. Not for one second did it occur to me that these clue answer might be trying to suggest she was less than a person. This is a terrible habit we’re falling into, and the end result will be an impoverished vocabulary.
Thought this was solid. In hindsight, it doesn't look bad, but was about 120% of my average time. Vaguely realized that one theme crosser was a shortened version of the other crosser, but didn't see the 'double take' part of it until afterwards.
@Les, I'm imagining you demolishing rickety buildings in slow motion. Nice! Is there video?
I thought this was a great big bowl of fun! I didn't find it particularly hard but kept thinking throughout the solve that this must have been a doozy to construct. What a great idea for a theme! What kind of nimble, creative brain comes up with this stuff?! Well, obviously Ben's brain does, and I'm glad it did!
It's late so I won't rehash much of what's been said and I'm not sure who's still around to read this , but I liked everything about this. Absolutely great revealer for a great theme.
I had a similar reaction to the Dolly clue and was very happy and grateful that Ben chimed in.
I'll get on my soap box for a quick second to say that my POV is that these are puzzles and not dictionaries. If a clue doesn't define its answer perfectly, big deal. If it's inferable and it's good fill, all is good in Crosslandia.
Ben, thanks for this. Would have loved to be a fly on the wall when you were thinking this up!
would be quite a 'hat trick' if this beloved blog could connect with the NY Times crossword community - the amount of energy spent on media coverage that doesn't help develop one's mind and intelligence is staggering in proportion to what those of us who love words and their meaning do to be here. I think the NY Times should pay Rex.
Because you're taking two letters.
I just don't get the theme!!! Maybe I'm an idiot. Can someone please explain it to me like I'm 5 years old, because I completed this relatively easily, paying no attention to any so- called "theme!"
One's FIRST NAME in my world is one's given name, like Dave or Suzie. Not one's original surname. I thought about NEE a couple of times and rejected it for that reason. That was the part I could not solve. Sigh.
Post a Comment