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Emblem with an Ojibwe name / THU 10-15-26 / Overzealous fan, in modern slang / Bygone org. for the Houston Oilers / Southern California city with a Spanish name / Classic cartoon dog with the catchphrase "You eediot!" / Hipster of times past / Card that's the source for "blue mana" in Magic: The Gathering / Platform for Duck Hunt, in brief / Actor Stephen of "V for Vendetta"
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Constructor: McKay Fritz
Relative difficulty: Far Too Easy For a Thursday
Theme answers:
- COMET (9A: ___ ball) [Fireball]
- GUARANTEED (20A: Sure ___) [Surefire]
- LAMBASTED (37A: Put under ___) [Put under fire]
- TRUCE (64A: Cease ___) [Ceasefire]
- DRAGONS (1D: ___ breathers) [Firebreathers]
- MATCHES (11D: ___ starters) [Firestarters]
- HEARTH (46D: ___ place) [Fireplace]
Brea (/ˈbreɪə/ BRAY-uh; Spanish for 'tar') is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States. The population as of the 2020 census was 47,325. It is 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Los Angeles. Brea is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
The city began as a center of crude oil production and was later propelled by citrus production. It is a significant retail center, including the Carbon Canyon Dam, Carbon Canyon Regional Park, Brea Mall and downtown Brea. The city has an extensive public art program that began in 1975 and has over 140 artworks placed throughout the city. (wikipedia)
• • •
 |
| [5D: "Metropolitan Life" author Lebowitz] |
Yes, a starter pistol does, technically, FIRE BLANKS, but you'd never use that phrase to describe how a race starts. Further, as the clue says, it's "a" race, one, singular. You would never FIRE BLANKS, plural, to start a race. You fire once, right? Who's firing off multiple rounds to start a single race?? Is that a thing? Maybe I don't watch enough racing sports. Since you take "fire" away from the theme clues, why not go with "FIRE AWAY!" as your revealer? That way, my puzzle doesn't end on a weak-sperm note (not one of your more pleasant notes).
The toughest part for me, besides my initial struggle with DRAGONS, was the four-letter stuff at the middle of the grid, specifically BREA and ASAP. The former is a completely unremarkable small city I've never heard of, despite having lived in Southern California for four years. The only way anyone really knows BREA is from the La BREA Tar Pits (located not in BREA, but in Hancock Park) (currently closed for a two-year renovation that started in July). The clue on BREA was completely useless. 34A: Southern California city with a Spanish name? You know what California city has a Spanish name? All of them!! OK, not all, but scores of them, for sure. You could've at least said it was the Spanish name for "tar," or mentioned anything, anything at all, that was BREA-specific. But no. The clue basically tells you "this is a non-place that we're cluing this way only to avoid mentioning the tar pits, even though that's the only thing anyone knows about BREA." Pathetic. The other four-letter problem I had in there was ASAP. I had STAT. I hadn't realized that was a kealoa* until today. I had the "A" in the third position (from STAN) and chose wrong. The weirdness of BREA made that error a little harder to suss out than it would've been otherwise. This is literally the totality of my "struggle" today. Oh, wait, I also "struggled" with SITES (52D: Plots). Any place might be a "site." [Plots] looked like a verb. I needed crosses. They weren't hard to come by.
Bullets:
- 17A: Bygone org. for the Houston Oilers (AFL) — Because the Houston Oilers are themselves "bygone," I interpreted this as [Org. for the bygone Houston Oilers] and so wrote in simply N.F.L., which the Oilers were a part of until 1996 (after which they moved to Tennessee). I forgot the A.F.L. ever existed (perhaps because it ceased to exist before my first birthday).
- 24A: Frighteningly monstrous sorts (OGRES) — why is "Frighteningly" here? [Monstrous sorts] will do. "Frighteningly" adds nothing but bulk to the clue.
- 8D: Emblem with an Ojibwe name (TOTEM) — only recently put together that "Chippewa" and "Ojibwe" are the same thing. I grew up hearing only the former, probably because of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. It's where Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) is from in Annie Hall. Also where Jack Dawson (Leonard DiCaprio) is from in Titanic.
- 45D: Tabloid that's one of the 10 highest-circulation papers in the U.S. (NEWSDAY) — weird, I had no idea NEWSDAY was a "tabloid." Perhaps because I know them only for their crossword, which I only ever solved in syndication, in my local paper. I can't say I've ever seen a copy of NEWSDAY in my life. "As of 2025, Newsday is the sixth-largest circulation newspaper in the United States with a print circulation of 67,300" (wikipedia). Man, that number seems so small. RIP print.
That's all for today. See you next time.
*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] => ATON or ALOT, ["Git!"] => "SHOO" or "SCAT," etc.
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82 comments:
Cool trick - rough grid. I had the same reaction to FIRE BLANKS as Rex - and a good chuckle. All the themers work but nothing stood out. It was easy for late week.
LIPS Like Sugar
Far too many threes - I guess the theme is the constraint. Yesterday SOT - today ACNE - I hate those for fill. ACADEMIA is rough. I don’t equate NEATO to groovy. NEWSDAY is the home of the great Stan Newman as Rex mentions - it’s a tabloid due to the size of the paper.
Winter Hours
Enjoyable enough I guess - but I’m looking for something a little crunchier for a tricky Thursday solve.
SPEED Of The Sound of Loneliness
Yes, Tuesday-level easy, even without paying attention to the theme until I was done. The themers just filled themselves in from crosses.
And yes, yes, FIRE AWAY would make a much better revealer.
IIRC, tabloid is just a paper that doesn’t have a fold (like the NYT or WSJ does). They don’t have front page articles, just front page headlines/images.
Rex perhaps knows this, but for the benefit of all, tabloid in reference to NEWSDAY (and strictly speaking in print journalism generally) is a description of its format (as opposed to a broadsheet like the NYT), rather than its editorial style. It has won two Pulitzers this century, for it's editorial cartoons and for reporting on the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, and has won 14 in total. The connotation of tabloid for sensationalism is a downstream result of the editorial style of many papers in that format.
Just what a Thursday should be: mysterious until you figure out the trick and easy thereafter.
The two-part blank fill, though easy, required some brainwork. There was virtually no crosswordese (NEATO excepted) and the clues were fair. One of my favorite puzzles.
Well, I love riddles. One reason is that the good ones almost always stump me. My brain just seems to have a hard time doing that kind of thinking.
Still, my persistent brain works and works at trying to solve good riddles, and when, finally, I uncle, and receive the answer, it brings a huge aha because I put so much effort into it – looked at it from so many angles. I feel I’ve been gotten good and fair, and it’s a sweet wow experience all around.
And thus today, with the Big Riddle as to what went into the blanks. Oh, I worked hard. I refused to uncover the revealer, and tried every which way to crack the riddle. And then, when the grid was nearly filled in, the answer hit me. Well, even better than being gotten good is a successful riddle-crack.
Yes, I will be walking a bit taller today. Thank you, McKay, for coming up with a simple and elegant concept that drove me mad for a bit, and brought a huge "Yes!!!" Congratulations on your debut, and more like this please!
Another sweet moment? Uncovering ECLAIIR. I haven’t had one in many a year, and remembered its flavor, as though I had just taken a bite into one.
For over half the solve I kept wondering when the theme would show up "Cease " and "sure" were sufficient clues for TRUCE and GUARANTEED in and of themselves. As for my confusion over DRAGONS and LAMBASTED I just assumed it was just my normal not getting the clue which of course it was. Part of the problem is missing word clues are so common I didn't notice how many there were. The other problem is the lack of resistance. You just work around the unknown answers until the crosses give you enough letters that you get the mystery word just by recognizing it. Discovering the theme any sooner probably wouldn't have made much difference solve wise and Without a revealer I wouldn't have known there was a theme.
Hey All !
Apparently, the ole brain is FIRing BLANKS today, as I didn't get the Theme one iota. Just solved without knowledge of why certain answers were what they were, yet still managed to finish error free.
Read Rex, said Aha, you have to add Fire to the clues, said, "Hmm, OK", and continued on my merry way.
Liked the open corners. Themers make sense, now that I know the ruse. Nice puz, although not AGHAST over it, more like AFLAT.
Some writeovers, nye-DEC, maxIMIZE-OPTIMIZE, bOcci-COMET.
Too easy Uniclue:
Result of stopping in 1970?
AFL HASNT TITLE
(Funny when you Goog AFL, the Australian Football League pops up! So, still a thing.)
Here's another:
Where the terrorizing felines end up?
CAT GIBE ISLAND
Enough from me, lest I make one ORNERY.
Hope y'all have a great Thursday!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Did you get the answer for 4D? You look like you've seen AGHAST.
Online list of ophthalmologists: SITES for sore eyes.
What should I do with these barges? TOTEM.
OK, and what about those small wheatfields out back? Weed 'em and REAP.
I remember the AFL fondly. The Jets were the Titans back then and played in the Polo Grounds. You couldn't get tickets to see the Giants, so I was thrilled to be able to go to Titan games. We had Namath soon enough, but little did I know then the years of torment I would face as a Jets fan later.
I'm going to comment first, then read Rex and the rest of you, so I can react directly to the puzzle. This was tough for me, even after I figured out the theme (which I got about half way through from the COMET/MATCHES cross when I realized what how I was starting that race). But I was still hung up on a lot of wrong answers: maxIMIZE before OPTIMIZE (well, the clue does say 'make the most of,' not 'make the best of') was pretty easy to fix. But I was stuck on the idea that "Put under fire" was something like roASTED, toASTED, or maybe broASTED--none of which fit, but they came close enough to keep me fixated on cooking. AFc before AFL; and something like brouhahA or hoo-hah before HOOPLA.
And of course I had no idea about "Magic The Gathering" (good grief) or that ! -- but those were easier to figure out than LAMBASTED (which I liked once I got it!) No idea about NES either, but it's a crossword standard.
I did enjoy the puzzle, after my long struggle.And I learned something -- I would have guessed that Cicero was about a century before Mark Antony. We read some Cicero in high school Latin, but we never talked about his historical context.
OK, now to read the rest of you.
I'm not a great solver, but I got the seven themers from the crosses, without having understood that FIRE was standing on the blanks. The fill should have been much harder.
ABACI and OBI and REA and DRE and ASAP and NES and ETTE would like a word
I worked with a poor soul who has many tens of thousands of dollars tied up in Magic The Gathering Cards.
He assured me more than once that the value of the cards was de facto intrinsic and their vslue would never fall.
The Titans existed from 59 to 63. They were the Jets for longer time in the AFL. They also played in Shea for more years in the AFL than at Coogans Bluff.
The V for Vendetta clue is my most niche kealoa. Both Stephens REA and FRY are in the movie.
Slowed down a bit by having NEGATIVE rather than NEGATION, but what really had me in trouble is that I don’t know Stephen REA, but V for Vendetta also features Stephen FRY, who I know from the PBS airings of Jeeves and Wooster in my youth, and knew was in that movie. I really did not want to give up on Jeeves.
I’m surprised that Rex gave the puzzle three stars. I tried to like it but I couldn’t. No 🎈for me.
A comet (9A) is not a fireball. It’s an iceball.
“Meteor” would have made more sense—but of course that’s six letters. Anyway, this puzzle was blah got a Thursday.
Not a true kealoa since they don’t share a letter in the same position but I know what you mean 😀
When I was growing up I didn't understand why old men still seemed upset that the Dodgers left Brooklyn for LA.
Now I'm an old man who still hasn't gotten over the fact that the Oilers left Houston.
Recent things that have made me feel old:
1. Someone referring to me as 'That guy with the grey hair over there' [Isn't my hair still brown?]
2. Today's puzzle referring to Ren and Stimpy as a "classic" cartoon
I have a hearing lisp. Every time someone says a word with an "s" sound, I HEARTH.
People who make a din must be DINNERS.
Rom-coms starring Ms. Ryan made MEGAHIT.
Subtle question it is, young Jedi, whether a Star Wars reference OBI constitutes.
To the extent that FIRE can be cool, I thought this was a cool theme idea. Agree that the fill wasn't thrilling, but overall a fun time. Thanks, McKay Fritz.
But has the answer ever been FRY? I love Stephen Fry, so no disrespect to him, but V for Vendetta clues always seem to be answered REA. So frequently so that a few days ago I actually committed to learning/remembering that it's Stephen REA not RAE (for some reason, I have never had a problem remembering that Issa's last name is spelled RAE not REA, but Stephen Rea would always have me writing in R__ knowing it was either AE or EA [kind of like writing in __AR and knowing it will either end up TS or CZ]). Today was my first ever confidently entered REA!
As every Jets fan believes, Namath sold his soul to the devil to win that Super Bowl.
In a rarity for me, I solved on my I Pad today and timed in at 23:13. I don’t know if that qualifies as fast, slow, or somewhere in between. I usually print it out.
No no no. You LIFT that barge. If you TOTEM, they're bales.
Tell me a SoCal city that doesn’t have a Spanish name?
I caught on right away with GUARANTEED meaning sure ____ so I knew I was looking for "thing", as in "sure thing". Didn't help that i read ______ breathers as just "breathes" so DRAGON breaths (more misreading) was plausible. Then I promptly forgot all about my "thing" theory and just solved without worrying what was in the blanks, even had FIREBLANKS, which is OK with me, before the light finally came on with cease_____ and _____place. I mean, really. I think I'm still foggy from a flu/Covid shot yesterday.
Otherwise OK. Learned something about NEWSDAY and that there's a BREA out there, My boys played Magic but no clue there for me. Seeing LEST is like sighting a rare bird. Where ya been?
Nice enough if too-easy Thursday, MF. My Fixation on NEATO means a half-star deduction, but thanks for a fair amount of fun,
PS-My wife and I had our first date 60 years ago today. Some memories do not fade.
That's a helpful comment. Thanks.
Tote that barge, lift that bale. Please don't mess up the Old Man River lyrics.
I didn't find this as easy as Rex did; I didn't understand what was going on until I actually filled in FIRE BLANKS, and that allowed me to understand the answer GUARANTEED, which I knew had to be right but hadn't understood. I filled in the NW last, once I put DRAGONS in, and then it went whoosh whoosh whoosh.
The clue for ERASERS was nice (Useful tips for writers?). All in all, this was just fine for a Thursday.
I just gotta, because it comes up so often, as someone who grew up when NEATO was a thing and then became not a thing: it keeps getting clued as (in this case) "Groovy" or other hipper terms that replaced it. It was specifically NOT in any way "groovy" when that term (mercifully briefly) became a thing. As with all such terms (e.g. "rad" "phat" etc), the second they are replaced by the current one, they are immediately relegated to the status of relics that no longer signify what they used to mean but now mean its opposite, because currency with these terms is everything and it turns on a dime. Which is kinda their whole point..
Well, I’m with the folks who found this not so easy, mainly because my brain went on holiday and didn’t pick up the theme until I had most of HEARTH filled in, then big AHA moment and sigh of relief. On the other hand, any puzzle that offers ECLAIRs starts my day off sweetly.
I was excited to feel like I was on the same wave length as the constructor! Not thinking this is a Thursday - my time might let one think so - 7 hrs plus. I was up late and fell asleep! LOL
All I know about Ren is remembering my stepson's devotion to him and Stimpy. Stepson now in mid-50s so I'd call it classic!
I enjoyed the puzzle, thanks McKay for enjoyable solve and congrats on debut!
Have a tremendous Thursday and stay warm with predicted temp drop - I'm in New England, saying first hard frost is on the way.
Interesting. I’ve been a football fan since the Dallas Texans became the Kansas City Chiefs but never knew that the Jets were once the Titans. I got to see Namath at Arrowhead in 1974, quite a thrill for this young single girl at the time.
It gets worse. Soon you’ll see someone who looks familiar and wonder who that old person is … then realize it’s someone who’s younger than you are. 😳
Hello New England from the southern Midwest. Our forecast says “scattered frost“ so I’m probably covering my few remaining tomato plants which still have blooms. Much as I hate to let go of summer, it is nice to see Fall finally arrive.
We had "British actor and broadcaster Stephen" for FRY pretty recently, but I don't think we've ever had a V for Vendetta clue for him.
Gotta agree - kinda easy for a Thursday but at least it wasn't a rebus.
Belated Birthday wishes for Penelope, Rex :)
Thank you. This irked me too
Once again, finished and only then got the theme. I like a theme that I can use during the solve, and when I'm on a timer it gets overlooked
I wouldn’t call it an easy one, but I had a relatively smooth time of it. A little bit of resistance until the theme became clear, which pretty much opened the door for the BLANK areas. It helped that the revealer specified understanding seven “clues,“ and I knew to look for the trick in the clue rather than the answer.
I did notice there was a good bit of trivia but not so much or so arcane as to be an obstacle to finishing. Aside from the well done theme clues, there were others which were noteworthy - READ LIPS, BRIE, DINNERS. Very nice debut, McKay Fritz, and thank you for a pleasant Thursday solve.
Um, does Bakersfield count as SoCal?
Early on, I got that DRAGONS were FIRE breathers, but I assumed that GUARANTEED equaled "SURE thing" (hi, @pabloinnh), non-parallel though it is, and wondered how the constructor might arrange "fire thing" into a theme. Happily, the COMET - MATCHES cross gave me a hard enough nudge to understand that FIRE was needed throughout. I enjoyed picking up the rest, especially LAMBASTED. I had the same reaction as @Rex to the reveal and appreciated his rant about BREA. Otherwise, I liked the cross of the fearsome DRAGONS and OGRES and GRECO- to go with the Roman CICERO.
Yup. Before starting the puzzle, I did my end-of-summer closing the 12 storm windows on our sunporch, my dedicated solving spot.
Fun fact, when you say "The La Brea Tar Pits", if you translate the Spanish words, you are actually saying: "The The Tar Tar Pits."
Brea is a great small city in Orange County and when it built a Civic Center in the 1970s, it included a library, a theatre, an art gallery and an events plaza, as well as established what is one of the largest and oldest public art programs in the state. But Rex is right—there are hundreds of cities with Spanish names in California. Throw us a lifeline, constructor! 😆
Cool puztheme, with themers scattered all over tarnation, with their word lengths from 5 on up. Different. Like.
M&A solvequested the right half of the puzgrid first. This led to the mysteries of COMET/MATCHES clues early on, but also led down to the theme revealer, which turned on some ahar lights.
staff weeject pick: EID. har. Mainly cuz its clue in our printed version said: {Rama dan's end}. Immediately grew curious about the life history of Rama Dan.
primo weeject stacks, NW & SE, btw. That toughie NW stack was what shooed M&A over to the right puzgrid half, tho.
some fave stuff: ECLAIR, of course. ORNERY [like little @RP, evidently?]. ACADEMIA [very friendly fill -- got er off just the startin A]. OPTIMIZE. CAT for Fritz the Constructioneer.
Thanx for the blankity-blank good time, Mr. Fritz cat dude. And congratz on a superb debut. Feel free to FIRE off another one, soon, maybe with a few extra U's [they get so little vowel respect, yah know].
Masked & Anonymo2Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
I don’t know how many times I’ve encountered Greco-Roman and never gave it a second thought. Totally, for the first time I actually thought about it and realized that Greco means Greece. Duh - It’s a bit of a miracle that I can even solve Tuesdays and Wednesdays sometimes.
I didn’t have much fun in the SE . The dinner / grace pun fell kind of flat for me, as I tend to think of dinners more as events, then “things”, but close enough. Other than the big four in the NT, most of what I know about the other books in the bible I’ve garnered from Xwords, so I needed crosses there. Similarly, a somewhat interesting piece of trivia about NEWSDAY that I’ve forgotten already. Add in EID and REA (who may not even be the only Steven in the movie) and at the end of the day we have a giant bowl of MEH there. But fine - it’s solvable, even if it’s not very interesting.
Was nobody stumped by Eid
I'm so disappointed when an eclair has whipped cream filling rather than pastry cream.
My solve experience matched Rex's from STAT to ASAP.
Yes, easy. I got to the reveal about a third of the way through this one which made the rest pretty whooshy.
I did not know AFLAT, NEGATION, and ISLAND.
Costly erasure - Goad before GIBE
Not much junk, fun theme, liked it.
“Far too easy for a Thursday” is easy for you to say! I failed to get any fills for the seven “fireblank” clues, so never understood the theme. Came here for a starter tip and the rest flowed like water.
IBM is a given, 4-letter SoCal place names starting with B are very rare, and BAJA is not a city. That settled it for me,
Agree as to the easy factor; way under our average solve time, and that was without getting the theme as quickly as Rex did.
Pretty sure that Rex considered the theme, in theory, praiseworthy. But being offset by the inconsistencies he pointed out, and the mostly short and uninspired fill, landed it on three stars. And generally "meh" for a Thursday, so tough to advocate for either an upgrade or a downgrade.
Didn't get 53A as a "?" clue; aren't SINEWs close to their respective bones? Or do I need a remedial anatomy lesson?
Liked READ LIPS, which helped us move on from Dem (before LIB) for 40A. Just me, or does remembering "Read my lips, no new taxes" conjure a simpler time when the country had a chief executive with whom one could disagree but not wish imprisoned.
One of those puzzles where I raced through to completion without ever getting the theme. Had to go back and see ‘what just happened there?’ . Cool puzzle I guess.
Jeesh, almost as many as do: Long Beach, Irvine, Oxnard, Whittier, Torrance, Hawthorne, Glendale Burbank, Van Nuys, Anaheim Lakewood, Lancaster, Pasadena (Chippewa/Ojibwe), to name just a few.
Wish I read the blog when I first completed the puzzle this morning so this could be nearer to the top, but the Wisconsin comedian Charlie Berens did the most amazing Titanic voice-over called “If Jack Dawson Was Really From Wisconsin.” It’s hilarious to anyone who has spent significant time in the upper Midwest (my first job was in Green Bay). I remember that Jack Dawson was from Chippewa Falls exclusively because of this clip. I’m sure if Rex had ever seen it he’d have included it in the post because of his ORNERY sense of humor. To anyone who watches it, you’re welcome.
Riverside. But it may be Inland Empire & so not SoCal
This had a dreadful start with the stack of 3 letter names DRE, REN, and NFL. But it got a lot better and as Rex said went pretty smooth and quick. When I realized 20 across was GUARANTEED I thought: oops, editing error on the clue! Then it happened again, and I thought: oops, Thursday, it's a tricky theme, not an error! Just over 11 minutes which is kinda quick for Thurs.
I briefly took exception to the clue for TOTEM.... surely the west coastal natives invented totem poles? Ah, but TOTEM without the poles is a different thing.
Typeovers: ANNE Leibowitz before FRAN Lebowtiz (oops... it's Annie, and she's a photographer), and CAESAR before CICERO as the Mark Antony rival.
National City, California. Second oldest city in San Diego County.
This is exactly the reason it took a long time for me to grok the theme. There's no fire on a comet, just gas jets (although I guess they do occasionally fall into the sun and "burn up"). I could see that the answer had to be "comet" even if the clue made no sense.
Enjoyed the Pat Benatar link. She and husband Neil Giraldo are still performing (and still married since 1982). Saw them a couple of years ago on PBS "Austin City Limits". It's available on YouTube. They looked healthy and happy and had great energy. Due to all the horrible mass shootings that have happened since the song first came out, they no longer perform "Hit Me With Your Best Shot".
I had this thought, too. I'm not sure NEATO and "groovy" ever coexisted or meant the same thing. They certainly weren't used by the same cohort.
Sounds like the editors were cometose on this one.
This made me work. I have memories of similar themes where the trick is in the clues rather than the answers, "turning a crossword convention on its head", as @Rex so eloquently pointed out. I have a perfect track record of either failing to grock the theme at all during these enterprises, or *finally* figuring it out only after looking at a completely filled grid. Maybe this one will be enough to help me spot the trick earlier next time it presents itself. With that, it was a nice *aha* moment when it all came to me.
Noting to complain about, while a bit easy (other than the theme for me) for a Thursday, I had fun with it. I thought the themers were just fine, and some other longish ones were nice. I always liked the work ORNERY, so that was fun, and LOADSUP as clued made me chuckle. I have countless memories of either friends or relatives coming back to the table at some affair with enough on their plate for me to thank them for bringing enough for the whole table. The death stare that I got back was something to behold. OPTIMIZE pleases my eye as well.
Maybe one small nit; while I always say that short fill doesn't bother me all that much, the NW and SE corners didn't exactly fill me with joy today. DRE, REN, REA, EID, etc... it was a bit too much all bunched up together...
Tricky game today, McKay! Much respect, thank you for the ride, it was NEATO!
Newsday is in tabloid format as opposed to a broadsheet. I don’t believe the clue is using “tabloid” to refer to the paper’s editorial content.
Not easy for me. I really enjoyed this Thursday puzzle. I started to do it as themeless. Needed the revealer to fill in most of the blank clues and then whoosh. Clever! I had no idea about the low sperm count interpretation - must be a guy thing!
TIL about CICERO and Marc Anthony, so that was fun too. Thank you, McKay.
And happy birthday month to Penelope!
There was a time when men who had had vasectomies wore lapel pins with IOFB, which stood for I Only Fire Blanks.
Okay Rex doesn’t like the puzzle much.
Fine. But to google fire blanks and pick the one out of four sites that agrees with him is a bit unfair. Well that’s what I saw when I googled. He chose the “Free Dictionary “ which has an emphasis on popular language But the reveal clue is not limited to popular language. To my ears, the clue & answer are fine
Andy Freude
Fire away leaves out blanks which is relevant to the theme. And despite what Rex says. I think fire retains its literal meaning.
Maybe it’s a generational thing?
A comet is an ice ball, a meteor is a fireball…
Kind of like The Los Angeles Angels.
Especies monstruosas y aterradoras.
FIRE BLANKS is the kind of wrongly awkward phrasing I usually love, but oof, not today. I wish they had left the blanks off and maybe just italicized the clues.
Kind of weird having 🦖 talk about motility first thing in the morning. That feels like an after lunch conversation.
Abacus is a word in English. You can add an -ES and it's plural. ABACI is a word from URDU meaning "yo mama."
MAXIMIZE v. OPTIMIZE.
I tried to fit in CRAZY TOWN for [Professor's world].
Super weird to me there are any publications with any circulation at all. I still receive Pianist Magazine, but mostly for the centerfold.
ORNERY is on my favorite word list between LUGUBRIOUS and SAVVY.
❤️ Fire breathing dragons.
Gunkometer--
People: 5
Places: 1
Products: 6
Partials: 7
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 22 of 74 (30%)
Funny Factor: 3 😐
🔥 Ooh-la-la! 🔥 Foxy.
Uniclues:
1 My former girlfriends' assessment of me.
2 Why you're in a coma under a bridge.
3 Minime.
4 Mamdani's lap.
5 Party on.
6 Where fire meets fire.
7 That feral cat you finally brought inside.
8 Dot on a map where feline stand-up isn't about bipedalism.
9 Wan course of study at Kenobi College.
1 GUARANTEED CAD
2 OGRE'S MEGAHIT
3 CICERO NEGATION (~)
4 LIB STAN EDEN
5 OPTIMIZE HOOPLA (~)
6 DRAGON'S HEARTH
7 ORNERY REFUGEE (~)
8 CAT GIBE ISLAND
9 OBI ACADEMIA
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Dance I do to attract the scraggly leftovers. DIVE JIGGETY JIG.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Question:
Are Thursday puzzles getting easier.
Thursday is the hardest I normally try, but I can get through them pretty quickly.
Going back a few years in the NYT App, I struggle somewhat.
Have fun with Pierre, glad you got tix. He won't play it (I know because I asked him to) but you can find "Merrily Kissed the Quaker" on Youtube. It's the one that made me into a fan many years ago.
Are we going to ignore the fact that a comet is a ball of ice, not fire….
Loved the theme! Medium for me. Took me longer to spot the theme but had fun once I did.
Caesar like Mark Antony wanted to be dictator and rule. Rivals. Cicero was anti dictator, not a rival but an enemy.
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