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Luxury brand known for its Rome-inspired designs / WED 11-4-26 / Magazine with "Decor" and "à Table" offshoots / She "dances on the sand" in a 1983 Duran Duran hit / Magical ally in "Argonautica"
Wednesday, November 4, 2026
Constructor: Peggy Sue Marlin
Relative difficulty: Hard (10:27)
THEME: ITS NOT A GOOD SIGN — "That spells trouble!" Literal signs that describe bad situations
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: HAIM (Rock band founded by three sisters) —
- SORRY WE'RE CLOSED for [56-Across on a store]
- OUT OF SERVICE for [56-Across on an elevator]
- EXPECT DELAYS for [56-Across on an interstate]
Word of the Day: HAIM (Rock band founded by three sisters) —
Sometimes I write a puzzle and complain about an entry like STAHL or ASTA or ESSO and commenters here tell me that I just have to memorize it and move in. Today I am here to tell you that y'all have to memorize HAIM. HAIM is going to appear in puzzles for the next decade, so let's all learn a little bit of info about them and commit them to memory.
Haim, stylized in all caps as HAIM, is an American rock band, based in Los Angeles, composed of three sisters, Este, Danielle, and Alana Haim. The sisters grew up in a musical family, and began playing instruments from an early age. [wiki]
• • •
 |
| I truly thought, until tonight while solving this puzzle, that the second letter in this brand name was a V |
I loved the chatty tone of this puzzle! People like to praise themeless puzzles when they have multi-word, conversational entries. I think they are harder to use in themed puzzles, so it is more of a treat to see them here. I really wanted the revealer to be "that's not a good sign," but since the word "that" was used in the clue, I knew that wasn't possible. (I'll have to take your word that the third theme answer is accurate, I haven't driven on an interstate regularly in years.) The entries here are a perfect example of how to utilize a word that has two meanings in the revealer-- "sign" meaning symbolic omen and "sign" meaning a physical display.
The chatty tone continued in some of the clues. I've been writing crossword clues for about seven years now (compared to a lot of people, that's not very long by the way!) and learned that in newspaper puzzles, I should aim for concise, tight phrasing. Clues like [A cyclops has one] or [A secret message might be in this] sound wordy to me. But I also think that as the Crossworld begins to contain more and more digital-only puzzles (where succint-ness matters less), wordier clues are spreading. Do you notice these types of clues, like I do? Or do they sound normal to you?
Bullets:
- [Lines at a supermarket checkout, for short] for UPC — This was new to me! UPC is apparently another name for a bar code, hence "lines"
- [She "dances on the sand" in a 1983 Duran Duran hit] for RIO — The song is about the city, which they personify, but it reminded me of a discussion that I had with a friend about how there are so few traditionally female names that end with an O and so few traditionally male names that end with an A. (We didn't count things like Jonah or Noah.)
- [Sourdough starter?] for ESS — The answer is a spelled out letter S, which "starts" the word "sourdough"
- [Foot joint sprain, familiarly] for TURF TOE — Totally new term for me!
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77 comments:
Easy, partly because (hi @Malaika) I knew UPC, TURF TOE, RIO, and HAIM. Plus theme answers were pretty obvious.
What I did not know were BULGARI, STEEL, HERA, and MEDEA
Costly erasure - toRID before LURID
Smooth and fun, liked it.
I did this while watching the returns. A fine evening for democracy!!!
First from uk 🇬🇧
Another cute early week theme. I didn’t have as much pushback as Malaika - ran right through the grid. The spanning revealer was the highlight - although the internal reference from the other themers was a bit much.
The STEEL Wheels
Overall fill was fine. URSA MINOR, AS WE SAY, TURF TOE, LURID are all solid. I have a friend who proudly uses the term MAN PURSE all the time - I don’t love it but it was a gimme. Seemed like a lot of product placement here.
Meat Puppets
Pleasant enough Wednesday morning solve.
Brand New ‘64 Dodge
UPC = Universal Product Code. Never heard of Nucor and STEEL was the last thing I filled in, but I enjoyed the rest of the puzzle. I, too, knew of a murse but hadn't heard "MAN PURSE" used by anyone ever in real life, even though that's what murse is short for.
Cleanly filled grid – check. Notable because at 54 theme squares, which is fairly high, it takes skill to have hardly a whiff of junk in the box.
Clever theme – check. Wordplay in the revealer. Lovely phrase in the revealer. And a revealer that perfectly describes the theme answers.
Zing in the box – check. The first theme answer has appeared once before in the 80+ years of Times crosswords, and the other three are NYT debuts.
Answers from many areas – check. Arts, science, sports, geography, mythology, and more.
Spark in answer – check. NO YOU, LURID, EXERT, WHET, FUDGE, AS WE SAY, and the happifying CLINK.
Enough bite to justify Wednesday – check. At least for me – I wasn’t coasting through this.
Your debut puzzle, Peggy Sue, countering your reveal, is a very good sign of puzzles to come. Congratulations, more please, and thank you for a sweet outing today!
Call out to AGER (53D), the surname of Jamie, from my neck of the woods, one of the first rep-to-dem House flips to be called yesterday.
Enjoyable Wednesday workout. Had trouble finishing in the SE because I had DRINK and SOTOSAY. I pulled both out and saw ELLE and CLINK and got that NEWCAR smell!
Had fun doing this last night while election watching.... Fun theme, not too hard, didn't know the RIO song, forgot the end of BULGARI, enjoyed the signs.... EXPECT DELAYS is one of those portable signs that they can make say anything with the orange light bulbs. Loved this, thanks Peggy Sue!
Easy-medium for me. Enjoyable puzzle overall.
Reminded me of Telegraph Road (Dire Straits)
"From all of these signs saying, "Sorry, but we're closed"
All the way down the Telegraph Road"
Hey All !
You know what else spells trouble?
T-R-O-U-B-L-E. 😁
Interesting Theme. Seems more TuesPuz-like (I know, I know, the people who complain about the people who complain about puzs being on wrong days will come out!), but still.
Not too many hold-ups. Last letter in was the H cross of HAIM/HERA. Potential Natick there, although I don't think there's another Goddess (Divine protector in the clue) with ERA as an ending. Crossed also by MADEA (which was my second -to-last letter in) also could be an issue.
Uniclue:
"A toast to the North Star constellation!"
URSA MINOR! CLINK!
OK, one more:
Opticians who fancy fancy watches?
BULGARI EYE DRS
I see old crossword regular TSETSE is back. Bad fly, but good to see the word, it's been a bit. Liked the XMEN/XBOX cross. Also, for some reason, liked the UTAH UTES cross-reference.
Good ole CAPN Crunch makes an appearance, the cereal with many NUTRIENTS. 😁
Enough FUDGE outta me. Hope y'all have a great Wednesday!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Last night’s election results and today’s puzzle : 🎈🎈🎊🎊
Hard for me. Never heard of Argonautica. Or HAIM. Or BULGARI. Or Nucor. And NEW CAR smell is anything but nice.
And I think the puzzle conflates "It's not a good look" with "That's a bad sign".
And murses, yes. Man bags, yes. MAN PURSES, no.
Had nectar before new car. New car much better. Love the Haim/Taylor Swift song “No Body No Crime.” Happy Wednesday all!
Crossing “Haim” with “Hera” seemed unfair because I have not heard of either of those answers. For a Wednesday it seemed quite obscure.
Triple Natick today. MEDE? - ?RE? - ?AIM
I sounded them out but the cluing did nothing for me. At least i’ve heard of HERA. But MEDEA…isn’t that a movie franchise? I guess my esoterica knowledge is missing this branch of classical mythology.
The second time in the past 24 hours I’ve been happy to see AGER!
Coach's note to player being cut from the roster: There's NOYOU in team.
When Tom asked his girlfriend to spend a year in Italy with him, she rolled her eyes. He took it as ANNO, if not ANEW.
What's needed for an Orthodox minyan in Rome: XMEN.
Nemo's friend worked out so diligently at the gym, he could barely recognize hunky DORY.
*******
On SORRY WE'RE CLOSED, the late Mitch Hedberg has a very funny bit on a dry cleaners place he walked by at 3 am that had a "Sorry we're closed" sign on it. He felt no apology was necessary. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqPRmETBg4o)
Who says that only XMEN carry MANPURSES?
I was once raided by the DEA on a tip that I was using cocaine in the soaps I was making. "LYES, all LYES!" I screamed as they dragged me off.
If you are sticking your foot in your mouth on land and sea, you may have a case of Surf Toe-N-TURFTOE.
If RANAT is really a synonym for [Charged], I'd have to say that Mrs. Egs RANAT a lot of stuff at LULU Lemon the other day.
Thanks for the wonderful write-up, Malaika, and thanks for a really fun debut puzzle, Peggy Sue Marlin. AND THANKS FOR THE RESOUNDING MESSAGE, VOTERS!!!
TIL that "Argonautica" is the actual title of the poem about Jason and the Golden Fleece; not aware of that, I assumed falsely that it was a modern animated movie about the same events. On top of that I had forgotten that MEDEA was a sorceress. She is more famous for killing and chopping up her children, but I guess she is a "helper" before that. So the interlocking HAIM/HERA/MEDEA chain was tough. I finally decided there was no other Greek goddess with ER mid-name, and ran with it from there.
The imaginatively named UTAH UTES was tough too, as clued. And I thought I didn't know what Nucor made, but then realized that I did. So all this obscurity was bringing me down; I needed to lean back and let myself enjoy the puzzle. I was up late last night for some reason, which may have been part of my problem.
As Malaika depicts, the brand is actually BVLGARI, but I guess we're supposed to think we're in ancient Rome, not being built in a day because there were no Us available.
But this puzzle had me at the constructor's name. I'm guessing her parents were fellow Buddy Holly fans.
Drink before CLINK tripped me up.
Corporate brands sprinkled everywhere here. Note just BULGARI / NERF / XMEN / CAP'N but in the clues for POST / STEEL / ELLE / DORY, even MEDEA / HERA ! Is this product placement ... or just what America has become?
didn't feel hard even though my time was slightly over average. good puzzle.
Haim crossing Hera crossing Medea! Got me, too hard!
Knew Hera but not HAIM, but the crosses were easy.
Nice reference Twangster! I too thought of Telegraph Road.
Yes, tough for a Wednesday. Lots of classical allusions.
But Medea struck a chord for me--she killed both of her children by Jason just to punish him. Perhaps the Greeks knew about post-partum depression. Even a hot topic today.
But all of that took place in the land of Colchis, near present-day Georgia. And the source of our drug colchicine, of great benefit in gout and maybe other diseases.
I love it when a puzzle takes my brain to distant shores.
NATICKED at 25 across and down
This was cute. Fun theme that had some whoosh to it and some nice fill - "Chatty", as Malaika pointed out. I'm a sucker for that kind of tone so this hit my sweet spot.
I did have some trouble spots, I'd like to think I'm fairly musically savvy but I have never heard of HAIM, I'll have to check them out. And I'm not familiar at all with Argonautica, so that whole HERA/MEDEA/HAIM neighborhood was a mess for me and I had to run some letters to clean that up. The Marvel world, Middle-earth and gaming will forever stay far away from my sphere of knowledge as well, but the crosses for all those were so fair that I can't complain.
I learned today that "Here's looking at you, kid" was adlibbed, so that was fun. Who knew? Well, not me.
I have heard the terms, MANPURSES and TURFTOE, I've experienced the latter and it's no fun. It is fun, however to see it in a grid, nice fill!
Some other cool entries like LURID, NEWCAR, LONGRANGE, and NUTRIENTS added to the experience. So this was a good time all around.
If you knew Peggy Sue, you'd really like her puzzle debut!!
Thank you for this Peggy Sue, I enjoyed it and hope to see more.
you say RIO and i see a band in bright clothes sitting on a bowsprit. the reference is to the rio grande aka "that river twists across a dusty land", which i get to cross multiple times when visiting relatives outside albuquerque.
Eso significa problemas.
Did this while listening to election returns so it took longer than expected. I was being delayed by hope. Been awhile since I had that feeling. Luckily IOC helped me remember there's still plenty of suck left in the world. There's a Wikipedia page dedicated to Olympics scandals. Quite the organization. They make World Cup Soccer look like nice guys.
Straightforward solve with those long theme entries. There is a giant amount of Gunk, so plenty of trivia to bring the Wednesday NYTXW-ness to the table. Nevertheless, overall it was nice. The MATH clue was my favorite.
You can get the new car smell back with the right cleaning products. Probably helps to have less French fries in the car too, but having less French fries makes leaving your house too sad to drive anyway.
Gunkometer--
People: 8
Places: 4
Products: 12 {really not a good idea}
Partials: 7
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 33 of 74 (45%)
{Over the homeland of the Gunkovites, election results poured in from Gunkville to Gunkopolis to Gunklevania with a tsunami of appreciation for this puzzle and it's trivia. Mayor Gunk again expressed his appreciation for the NYTXW editorial team.}
Funny Factor: 3 😐
🔥 Ooh-la-la! 🔥 LURID.
Uniclues:
1 When the sun hits you in the eyes while driving your Styrofoam car.
2 Vitamin W (whoop ass).
3 When Mr. Sweatpants goes for the bomb.
4 Sad summary of sobriety.
5 When you boink your Little Dipper, amirite?!
1 NERF HWYS GLARE
2 X-MEN NUTRIENTS
3 LONG RANGE EARL
4 WASN'T ALE LIFE
5 URSA MINOR CLINK
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: One stabbing boys wearing skirts out west. CAL KILT FENCER.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
agree
Haha, yeah considering NEWCAR smell is the off-gassing of volatile organic compounds…not so nice!
Isn’t it the Penguin who has a cane? I don’t recall the Riddler having any particular props….
Did you know there's a T in Tsunami? As in Blue?
An Argonautica clue, a book or movie I've never heard of, crossing another Argonautica clue, crossing a band I've never heard of, pretty rough stuff for a Wednesday.
DNF. No chance with BULGARI, HAIM, HERA, MANPURSES.
This puzzle was evidently in my wheelhouse because it was a faster than usual Wednesday for me. Maybe my brain got buoyed by the blue wave…who knows!
Even though I knew this since I live in Indianapolis, I wonder how many people would know RCADOME? The Colts have played in Lucas Oil Stadium for 16 years, but maybe hard core football fans know due to the Peyton Manning years.
I had to chuckle Malaika at your BULGARI comment because that would be so like ME!
Fun puzzle Peggy Sue Marlin!
Ditto, and I’m unfamiliar with Argonautica so DNF an otherwise easy puzzle.
Way too many proper names. They used to be forbidden; if this is any sample, they're now out of control.
HAIM?? Learn something every day. Throw in HERA and MEDEA and, for me BULGARI in more or less the same quadrant and you've got a fine mess. The H had to be right for HERA but I was happy to check it with the completed puzzle and have it be correct.
I'm with @Roo in smiling on seeing old friend TSETSE back after a long absence. Not just TSE, either. The whole thing. How ya been?
Didn't know Nucor and didn't find it an especially appealing clue for STEEL. I forgave the constructor somewhat when she also included NEWCAR. NEWCAR and Nucor. Nice pair.
I liked your themers and the revealer today, PSM. Pretty Sweet Moment when I filled in ITSNOTAGOODSIGN. Congrats on the debut and thanks for all the fun.
Way to go America. About time we woke up.
I solved this as a really good themeless then realized it was a really good puzzle with a theme. I enjoyed it a lot & had to tell myself to 'slow down.' Thank you Peggy Sue & congrats on your debut :)
Figured Rex would downgrade an otherwise fun solve by cataloging the junk (or Gunk, @Gary's domain). Quite a plethora of names, products, and potential Naticks (if one didn't know MEDEA and HERA; crossing HAIM).
If I were rating this, today, channeling @pabloinnh ("Way to go America. About time we woke up".) I'd give it five stars based on my mood alone. But maybe downgrade to 4-1/2 as Florida's apparently still sleeping.
If U knew
Peggy Sue
Then U'd know why my nanoseconds feel blue ...
Actually, cute puztheme, tho not too apt a match for the good signs we just beheld during the midterm election returns.
But, EXPECTDELAYS was real apt, to be united up with that there BULGARI/HAIM/HERA/MEDEA/STEEL string of no-knows.
We popped the cork on some champagne this mornin -- built some tasty mimosas. Toasted prez Donald Lame Duck, for his help in totally flippin our state to blue. Tasted so extra good. Sooo ... we're feelin mighty blue, Peggy Sue!
staff weeject pick: ESC splatzed in next to key-cousin CTRL.
fave stuff: The bravery of wedgin NUTRIENTS & LONGRANGE in closely amongst them central themers. Also enjoyed the symmetry of MANPURSAMINOR.
Thanx for signin us up, Ms. Marlin darlin. And congratz on yer feisty TuesPuz debut. Buddy Holly'd be proud of U -- and of Lubbock's state!
Masked & Anonym007Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
An auspicious debut puzzle for a bright morning in America! Kinda heavy on the Proper Nouns, but pretty much in my wheelhouse, so no complaints. I'm hoping to see more work from Ms. Marlin.
Sorry, not hard. NW downs went about as fast as I could type. Which made long crosses trivial. 3 min faster than Wednesday average for me
The theme was just fine. But that's about the only good thing here; I don't think I've ever seen this many names. Gary J's count adds up to 24, including 12 products. And unnecessary names in the clues for ordinary words like PIER and CANE. (I had a CAPE for the Riddler.) Yeesh.
Way to go, voters! We took it back!
@RooMonster 7:29 AM
I stared at BULGARI EYE DRS forever and * pfft * nothing. Once I saw GARI and thought I could work the GARY angle my side trip was never going to lead to the giant ball of twine. Great job.
Hear, hear!
Hah!, @kitshef & @Beezer. You're both right. It's a horrible smell, really, but when you buy your first *new* car, i.e., not a hand-me-down, not a 10 year old vehicle from from a sleazy dealer on the east side of the city, not a piece of junk that you only purchase because it's the only thing you can afford, that off-gassing smell is the smell of success. Yes, it is overwhelmingly plasticky, but it says "I've arrived".
Having said that, I love that my truck smells awful to most people. it took me about 3 weeks to replace the *new car smell* with the smell of cigar smoke. I am old and I plan to drive this thing until I die. I treat it as a mobile cigar lounge. There are benefits to this; I do not have to drive other people around because they hate the aroma. It's my world and, well, you could always take the bus.
Weirdly, a few years ago, when a tree fell on it during a windstorm and I had to deliver it to a body shop for about 3 weeks to get it rebuilt, it came back smelling like a mixture of bubble gum and cotton candy. Is nothing sacred?
History of the World, Part I is a very funny movie; my wife's favorite line in the film is in a scene set in ancient Rome where one character says "You are nuts! N-V-T-S nuts!"
Seconded
I thought the antiquing substance must be AGAR, and that meant the giraffes' necks featured something I'd never heard of. And for all I knew, the Riddler's prop could have been a CApE, so the giraffes ended up with something called MAPAS. Yeah, not great. But...THE BLUE WAVE!!! Now that's great.
Easy except for the trivia crossing trivia crossing trivia at 25A, 25D, and 36A.
Doesn't seem unfair to me, because what other divine power would end in ERA? HERA appears in puzzles quite often.
So wanted NEctAR, but couldn't make it work.
Thought it was easy. Had BUGATTI at first...a luxury brand but an automobile. Cute they didn't know UPC was for bar code. Any football fan hears TURF TOE on a regular basis.
Imma gonna hafta disagree on RIO. It is about a woman named Rio, not the city. At least that's how I see it, and I bought the album when it came out and saw them in concert so I was a Duran Duran fan in the 80's.
Yep, but my guesses clicked.
Good Wednesday puzzle - enjoyed it. All gettable from crosses even though I didn’t know Utah teams or Argonautica. Thanks for the write up, Malaika!
@DAVinHOP and Anon 1:03. Yes, way to go voters! But watch out because that maniac has 2 more years to vent all his anger, and he still has veto power.
Kitshef
You are right that NEW CAR smell is essentially not a good thing but for most people for decades it has been ( maybe less so now). I remember having a positive reaction to it years ago. Some psychology process. Anyway it is a thing and however illogical it is a valid answer.
Argonautica is a reference to Jason and the Argonauts in the Greek myth which you may have heard of.
Got to this one late in the day here in AZ and tripped over the HAIM/HERA cross and the NEWCAR-SYKES pairing—really kicked myself for not getting CLINK! Otherwise found this a fun puzzle with catchy themers. MANPURSE was relatively familiar from various things I’ve read in magazines and online.
Anonymous 8:03 AM
As another commenter just said before to someone else HERA can’t be part of a natick it is in no way esoteric. Hera has appeared often in this puzzle and is crosswordese. Also for older generations it is a gimme. My point it is in no way esoteric which is of Ancient Greek origin. BTW.
Michael
I can’t see a clear reference to Greek myths as product placement.(Argonautica is the name of a poem about Jason and the Argonauts, his sorceress wife Medea, and the main Greek goddess Hera.
Beezer
Didn’t know the DOME but got RC from crosses so at my age ( 74) it had to be RCA and the rest from a D cross.
pabloinnh
FWIW
US Steel (a name going back over a century) was bought out and became Nucor. Part of the nasty games Wall Street plays. I only know of it because I read the Times business section Not surprised it’s unknown to most.
MARMEE
Wow! Very late to the daily commentary - too busy dancing around and swimming through the blue wave!
Really enjoyed this puzzle, congratulations Ms. Peggy Sue on a stellar debut.
I do fairly well with figuring out words with only a few letters but didn't know HAIM though knew HERA from an accounting program I used many years ago. I also know Natick as only about 15 miles southeast of here.
MEDEA also a known. Didn't know NUCOR but able to fill in.
I had fun with this puzzle but the giddiness may have different causation. Have a good evening all.
I liked the puzzle. In my wheelhouse so names I didn’t know were taken care of by crosses
The controversial HERA HAIM Medea area. I knew them all. But I am sorry Hera is not esoteric nor is Medea. Gary shows a lot of names which could have been reduced in the clues.
I thought that also! (But I didn’t check after solve)
Haha! Thanks @Les for reminding me (pre-environmental law, with science thrown in due to that) of “the sweet smell of success”! Totally true! Agreed!
Haha! Thanks @Les for reminding me (pre-environmental law, with science thrown in due to that) of “the sweet smell of success”! Totally true! Agreed!
WTF is an “Argonautica”?
At Beezer 10.10 am All smells are volatile organics, whether perfume or noxious vapor. No idea what “new car” smell consists of but there is no reason to automatically (sorry but irresistible) assume that they are toxic. When hydrogen sulfide gas smells sweet you are in trouble
Hard? More like Easy. Haim is pretty well known
The suggestion that smells are all organics is not correct. Your own post mentions hydrogen sulfide, which is inorganic. Ammonia is another example of something that's inorganic but definitely has a smell.
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