Constructor: David and Karen and Paul Steinberg
Relative difficulty: Medium-Easy (for me, a brutal four square section ... and, once I worked that out, a cakewalk)
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THEME: Fractions— The word "HALF" (in three Down answers) is replaced (over two squares) with a fraction representing"HALF" (in order: 4/8, 2/4, 1/2); in the Across answers, the numbers in the fractions function as letters (e.g. "-four-,""-eight-," etc.).
Theme answers (Downs / fractions):
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Huge "aha" with this one, though it doubled as a huge "D'oh!" because once I got the gimmick (after much staring and quizzical head-tilting) I realized I'd been reading one of the clues wrong. For me the most vicious part of this puzzle was the fact that DECAF fit perfectly at 17D: Coffee with less kick. The second most vicious part was the fact that HIKE fit at 19A: Increase the intensity of, and the third most vicious was the clue on SHELLS (14D: Racing boats), which I thought were SCULLS (Is That A Thing!?!?! ... oh, %#$&@! It Is!! Cruel). I could see that 16A: Not up to us wanted to be OUT OF OUR HANDS, but with DECAF and SCULLS wanting in on the action, I had OUT O--ANDS and couldn't visualize how any of that was gonna work. And underneath that I had H--N for 19A: Increase the intensity of and no idea what I was supposed to do with that. Kept trying to pull GHANA (5D: Major exporter of gold and cocoa) but GHANA wasn't ghana go anywhere, so... yeah. Eventually I decided it was a "FOUR" rebus, somehow, and I shifted SCULLS to SHELLS. This allowed me to finally see the "8" in HEIGHTEN, right under the "4" in OUT OF OUR HANDS, but I still had this dumb moment of "Wait, if it's DECAF ... how does 4 over 8 equal "DE" ... D = 4? E = 8? This isn't some phone keypad thing, is it ... no, that doesn't work. I don't get it, why would you put HALF over CA- ... oh for &^#$%'s sake." It's coffee with less kick, not no kick. So ... HALF CAF. Allow me to repeat: D'oh! After that, the rest of the puzzle (and I still had a long way to go) was a breeze.
I wonder if solving on paper would've made this easier. I think I could've maybe visualized the whole number rebus aspect a little better with pencil and paper. But as I say, once the "half" gimmick dropped, there wasn't much left to this one, except to discover how the remaining "halves" were going to play out, although at that point I guess I didn't know they were all going to be halves. I suppose other fractional amounts were still possible. But I at least knew to look for number rebuses in the Across answers, and it's not too hard to see the number in PETITS FOURS, which helped me change NOT SO BAD (?) to the much better NOT 2/4 i.e. HALF BAD. And then I came at TOP 1/2 i.e. HALF from above, with the TOP already in place before I ever looked at the clue, so no problem there—just needed to see what numbers were going to be involved, and ATONED made that clear quickly. I think this theme is ingenious, even if it meant that the puzzle played really, really unevenly (much struggle up front, virtually none thereafter). The fractions are handed gracefully—more gracefully than I require, frankly. No need to make your rebus gimmick this symmetrical, but if symmetry's your thing, here you go. I was definitely looking for another HALF somewhere in the grid, but I guess the choice was made to keep it simple, symmetrical, clean—so those NE and SW corners are allowed to remain fraction-free, and since they're more than solid, I appreciate that. Love the chili pepper over LIBIDO (hot!), and I love the colloquial quality of "GOT THAT?" I don't loveTAKE A CAB, but of all the EAT A SANDWICH-type answers, TAKE A CAB is probably among the best, in that it actually seems like a legit standalone phrase. So we've got a very clever theme and a highly polished grid. Good enough for me.
See you tomorrow.
Relative difficulty: Medium-Easy (for me, a brutal four square section ... and, once I worked that out, a cakewalk)
Theme answers (Downs / fractions):
- 17D: Coffee with less kick (4/8 CAF, i.e. HALF CAF)
- 26D: Pretty darn good (NOT 2/4 BAD, i.e. NOT HALF BAD)
- 47D: Inning part when the visiting team bats (TOP 1/2, i.e. TOP HALF)
Theme answers (Acrosses / letters):
Word of the Day: PETITS-FOURS (40A) —
- 16A: Not up to us (OUT OF OUR HANDS)
- 19A: Increase the intensity of (HEIGHTEN)
- 37A: Doctor's reassurance before a shot ("IT WON'T HURT")
- 40A: Small, fancy confections (PETITS FOURS)
- 60A: Made amends (ATONED)
- 63A: Reliable, to a lender (CREDIT-WORTHY)
A petit four (plural: petits fours, also known as mignardises) is a small bite-sized confectionery or savory appetizer. The name is French, petit four (French pronunciation: [pə.ti fuʁ]), meaning "small oven". // In 18th and 19th century France, gas ovens did not exist. Large brick (Dutch design) ovens were used, which took a long time to heat up to bake bread, but also to cool down. Bakers used the ovens during the cooling process, taking advantage of their stored heat, for baking pastry. This was called baking à petit four (literally "at small oven"), a lower temperature which allowed pastry baking. // Petits fours come in three varieties:
- Glacé ("glazed"), iced or decorated tiny cakes covered in fondant or icing, such as small éclairs, and tartlets
- Salé ("salted"), savory bite-sized appetizers usually served at cocktail parties or buffets
- Sec ("dry"), dainty biscuits, baked meringues, macarons, and puff pastries
In a French patisserie, assorted small desserts are usually called mignardises, while hard, buttery biscuits are called petits fours.
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I wonder if solving on paper would've made this easier. I think I could've maybe visualized the whole number rebus aspect a little better with pencil and paper. But as I say, once the "half" gimmick dropped, there wasn't much left to this one, except to discover how the remaining "halves" were going to play out, although at that point I guess I didn't know they were all going to be halves. I suppose other fractional amounts were still possible. But I at least knew to look for number rebuses in the Across answers, and it's not too hard to see the number in PETITS FOURS, which helped me change NOT SO BAD (?) to the much better NOT 2/4 i.e. HALF BAD. And then I came at TOP 1/2 i.e. HALF from above, with the TOP already in place before I ever looked at the clue, so no problem there—just needed to see what numbers were going to be involved, and ATONED made that clear quickly. I think this theme is ingenious, even if it meant that the puzzle played really, really unevenly (much struggle up front, virtually none thereafter). The fractions are handed gracefully—more gracefully than I require, frankly. No need to make your rebus gimmick this symmetrical, but if symmetry's your thing, here you go. I was definitely looking for another HALF somewhere in the grid, but I guess the choice was made to keep it simple, symmetrical, clean—so those NE and SW corners are allowed to remain fraction-free, and since they're more than solid, I appreciate that. Love the chili pepper over LIBIDO (hot!), and I love the colloquial quality of "GOT THAT?" I don't loveTAKE A CAB, but of all the EAT A SANDWICH-type answers, TAKE A CAB is probably among the best, in that it actually seems like a legit standalone phrase. So we've got a very clever theme and a highly polished grid. Good enough for me.
I feel like some contingent of solvers are going to have trouble with PETITS FOURS, either with not really knowing what they are, or not knowing how plural French spellings work, or ... something. But I don't see much else (outside the entire theme concept!) to give solvers too much trouble today. There are hardly any proper nouns from pop culture (of any era). In fact ... there are none? I mean, SPOOFS is clued via "Airplane!" and "This is Spinal Tap," and I guess you could consider POOH"pop culture" if you wanted, but this puzzle just doesn't have trivia of the sort that is likely to leave anyone generationally baffled (see yesterday's BEASTIE BOYS, lol). My mistakes were all fairly petty. I wanted UTAH before UTES (18A: Salt Lake City team), which left me briefly wondering why a chair might need UGANDA (11D: Something a chair needs = AGENDA). I wrote in LEST for some reason at 22D: "Should that be the case ..." ("IF SO...") (four letters, "S" in place ... it seemed plausible in the moment). 32A: Grammy equivalent is a wicked clue, in that you're sure to think "award" before "grandmother."NAN came as a surprise there, but luckily crosses were easy. I liked the clue on DESELECT (8D: Turn off, digitally) because "digitally" seemed to work in two ways ("online,""with your fingers"). I don't really get the HOW and YES clues at the end (66D: Good question / 67D: Good answer). That is, I don't know why they're "good." Is this some kind of meta-commentary, like "HOW does this puzzle even work?" and "YES! I finally figured it out!"? Maybe you have better ideas. Let me know.
It's a new month—time to highlight the best NYTXW puzzles of last month (two themed puzzles, and one themeless). So here it is, the Best of May 2023:
- Themed: Catherine Cetta, "SAY CHEESE" (Mon. May 8); David J. Kahn, "CAPITAL / GAINS" (Thu., May 4)
- Themeless: Spencer Leach (PRIDE PARADE / POLE DANCE / PROMO CODE / BORED TO DEATH) (Sat., May 13)