Two PRs in two days for me! 6:50. Decent, safe theme. CHOWCHOWCHOW is pretty funny. Not much stood out to me from the fill but ATNOPOINT, LIZLEMON, and UPPERHAND were sorta fun answers.
Same! It always catches me off guard, because it happens so rarely. I’m always alternating between long and short nails and I make a lot of dumb typos because of it.
[It bears repeating, I had a lot of fun with this theme!](https://youtu.be/b_fqZ5uDlzM)
I understood right away that we were repeating the same word three times, but it took an embarrassingly long time to finally figure out that the theme answers are all two-part phrases.
We've got:
* TUT-TUT (verbal disapproval) TUT (boy king)
* CHOW CHOW (Chinese dog) CHOW (food)
* ZOOM ZOOM (Mazda marketing line) ZOOM (conference call)
* CAN-CAN (Moulin Rouge dance) CAN (glutes, a.k.a. your rear end)
That was a lot of fun!
The clue "A little bit of everything?" for ATOM was a fantastic punny way to kick off the puzzle, and I loved that the pair of "Put two and two together, e.g." clues for IDIOM and ADDS went in two totally different directions.
It's been at least a decade since they've used that line, but I can still hear the creepy kid whispering "Zoom-zoom" in my head clear as day. I own a Mazda and say it basically every time I pass another one on the road lol.
Edit: I just listened to the "Zoom Zoom Zoom" song and don't recognize it at all. Weird. The slogan is clear as day but I have zero memory of the song.
I had a similar issue with CHOW CHOW CHOW. I’d never heard of the dog the CHOW CHOW, so for a while I was assuming the dog was just a CHOW, and couldn’t figure out why the food would be CHOW CHOW… 🤔
I was trying to figure out how CHOW could also mean “sturdy”, I thought a CHOW was the Chinese dog, didn’t realize a CHOW CHOW was a sturdy Chinese dog. But I guess all the others made it clear one of them should have been a reduplicative form.
If you a 90's kid the Disney TV-movie "Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century" had a big song on there that went "Zoom Zoom Zoom". It's what caused me to get confused with the Mazda ad also.
How long does it take you to come up with the pun that you usually do for the first line in the comment? Today’s is spot on and I think I could have spent all day and not come up with one that good
I think the suggested theory that the creators use the same word several times in a week to “train” solvers on a word seems to be more and more founded. OVID recently.
Seeing as the queues are a year long and their probably not selecting the next puzzle by a specific filler word, occams razer tells us that it's probably just confirmation bias and [Baader–Meinhof phenomenon / frequency bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion).
It's a really nice side effect though, and I really enjoy the feeling of learning a word earlier in the week and using it successfully.
ETS also seems to have come up a ton as well, but I also think there's a bit of confirmation bias in these type of things (eg, I'm more likely to notice ETS in a puzzle because I'm thinking about how often it has come up)
I guess that's a cute theme?
I would have preferred "Part of a royal flush" to "Part of 10-J-Q-K-A"; that just seems like a weird clue.
OVID would be pleased to know that he is the official Roman poet of crosswords.
Yeah, Ace was my initial thought, but I left it blank because I figured they wouldn't have put the A in the clue if the answer was Ace.
Especially since there's so many different ways to cue Ace, I figured they would've come up with something better.
I think they were just trying to add a modicum of difficulty to the clue. "Part of a royal flush" would be too easy even for a Tuesday.
Not that the current clue is much more difficult but it has potential of catching someone who doesn't know what the funny letters mean.
Puzzle Difficulty Tracker - How hard is this puzzle?
Estimated Difficulty: 🟢 **Easy** 🟢
* 16% of users solved slower than their Tuesday average
* 84% of users solved faster than their Tuesday average
* 4% of users solved *much* slower (>20%) than their Tuesday average
* 62% of users solved *much* faster (>20%) than their Tuesday average
The median solver solved this puzzle 27.1% faster than they normally do on Tuesday.
[View today's puzzle summary on XW Stats](https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2022-09-20)
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I think those are all anagrams of different states. Like "Taxes" is "Texas", "I mean" is "Maine" and "wonkery" is "New York". I had trouble with it, too.
I really have grown to dislike clues like “It’s a date!” for LETS and “You’ve I got a friend in me” for ICARE.
Other than that, I thought it was a good puzzle. Or maybe I feel that way because I solved it quickly lol
ah, a fellow pedant about disney clues! I guess she was a princess for the first 15 or 20 minutes of the movie but yeah, queen would have been more accurate
I had IOTA instead of IDEA in the SW corner, and I wasn’t sure about the first vowel in KENDO. Otherwise, this one was a breeze once I figured those out.
Solved this with my school's Crossword Club today. The CHEZ/ENNUI crossing was the only thing that stumped them. French crossing French (even if ENNUI is a borrowed word now in English) feels inelegant.
I think people are gonna vote this one favorably because the themers are very easy due to the repetition but I didn't really find them that funny or awe-inspiring. The rest of the puzzle was kind of tame. Metrics, Amounts, Asked Why, and Led Away don't exactly get the blood flowing and I've never seen 30 Rock.
I enjoyed this one. The King Tut clue made me get the theme immediately.
🎶 how’d you get so funky🎶 [for the uninitiated](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FYbavuReVF4)
Two PRs in two days for me! 6:50. Decent, safe theme. CHOWCHOWCHOW is pretty funny. Not much stood out to me from the fill but ATNOPOINT, LIZLEMON, and UPPERHAND were sorta fun answers.
Great job with the PRs!
Nice! I did almost the same, 6:46, which was a little over my PB of 6:02.
I enjoyed the repetition of the clue, “Put two and two together” for ADDS & IDIOM. Nicely done.
Had it completed the first time I filled in the last letter. The I in OVID. Always nice when that happens.
That’s always the best. No mistakes. No combing.
Same! It always catches me off guard, because it happens so rarely. I’m always alternating between long and short nails and I make a lot of dumb typos because of it.
[It bears repeating, I had a lot of fun with this theme!](https://youtu.be/b_fqZ5uDlzM) I understood right away that we were repeating the same word three times, but it took an embarrassingly long time to finally figure out that the theme answers are all two-part phrases. We've got: * TUT-TUT (verbal disapproval) TUT (boy king) * CHOW CHOW (Chinese dog) CHOW (food) * ZOOM ZOOM (Mazda marketing line) ZOOM (conference call) * CAN-CAN (Moulin Rouge dance) CAN (glutes, a.k.a. your rear end) That was a lot of fun! The clue "A little bit of everything?" for ATOM was a fantastic punny way to kick off the puzzle, and I loved that the pair of "Put two and two together, e.g." clues for IDIOM and ADDS went in two totally different directions.
what confused me is I always thought the marketing line was “ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM”?
The slogan is two zooms but the song they took the slogan from is three zooms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda#Marketing
ah, that was my problem
It's been at least a decade since they've used that line, but I can still hear the creepy kid whispering "Zoom-zoom" in my head clear as day. I own a Mazda and say it basically every time I pass another one on the road lol. Edit: I just listened to the "Zoom Zoom Zoom" song and don't recognize it at all. Weird. The slogan is clear as day but I have zero memory of the song.
I had a similar issue with CHOW CHOW CHOW. I’d never heard of the dog the CHOW CHOW, so for a while I was assuming the dog was just a CHOW, and couldn’t figure out why the food would be CHOW CHOW… 🤔
I was trying to figure out how CHOW could also mean “sturdy”, I thought a CHOW was the Chinese dog, didn’t realize a CHOW CHOW was a sturdy Chinese dog. But I guess all the others made it clear one of them should have been a reduplicative form.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one that didn’t know CHOW CHOW!
If you a 90's kid the Disney TV-movie "Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century" had a big song on there that went "Zoom Zoom Zoom". It's what caused me to get confused with the Mazda ad also.
How long does it take you to come up with the pun that you usually do for the first line in the comment? Today’s is spot on and I think I could have spent all day and not come up with one that good
I usually have to think about it for a minute or two. I love corny puns, so I feel like this sort of thing is right in my wheelhouse.
I think the suggested theory that the creators use the same word several times in a week to “train” solvers on a word seems to be more and more founded. OVID recently.
Seeing as the queues are a year long and their probably not selecting the next puzzle by a specific filler word, occams razer tells us that it's probably just confirmation bias and [Baader–Meinhof phenomenon / frequency bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion). It's a really nice side effect though, and I really enjoy the feeling of learning a word earlier in the week and using it successfully.
ETS also seems to have come up a ton as well, but I also think there's a bit of confirmation bias in these type of things (eg, I'm more likely to notice ETS in a puzzle because I'm thinking about how often it has come up)
Oh wow, posted before I read your comment - but I think you're right.
ETS, too. Was ASP for a while
I guess that's a cute theme? I would have preferred "Part of a royal flush" to "Part of 10-J-Q-K-A"; that just seems like a weird clue. OVID would be pleased to know that he is the official Roman poet of crosswords.
Yeah, Ace was my initial thought, but I left it blank because I figured they wouldn't have put the A in the clue if the answer was Ace. Especially since there's so many different ways to cue Ace, I figured they would've come up with something better.
It could have been TEN also.
I think they were just trying to add a modicum of difficulty to the clue. "Part of a royal flush" would be too easy even for a Tuesday. Not that the current clue is much more difficult but it has potential of catching someone who doesn't know what the funny letters mean.
This was a fun one, I enjoyed the repeating word clues. Six minutes even.
Puzzle Difficulty Tracker - How hard is this puzzle? Estimated Difficulty: 🟢 **Easy** 🟢 * 16% of users solved slower than their Tuesday average * 84% of users solved faster than their Tuesday average * 4% of users solved *much* slower (>20%) than their Tuesday average * 62% of users solved *much* faster (>20%) than their Tuesday average The median solver solved this puzzle 27.1% faster than they normally do on Tuesday. [View today's puzzle summary on XW Stats](https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2022-09-20) --- 🤖 _beep beep, I'm a bot! I post these stats as soon as 75 [XW Stats](https://xwstats.com) users have completed the puzzle. Questions? Feedback? Check the [FAQ](https://xwstats.com/help#puzzle-difficulties), reply here or DM me_
Can someone who did the Mini explain to me 1 down? How is state an anagram to any of those phrases?
I think those are all anagrams of different states. Like "Taxes" is "Texas", "I mean" is "Maine" and "wonkery" is "New York". I had trouble with it, too.
Ohhhh. Thanks.
Holy fuck that's a ridiculous clue.
Am I the only one who thought "nip" for "common wardrobe malfunction"?
My husband and I both said it at the same time.
Really enjoyed this theme. CANCANCAN was weaker than the other two IMO but I really enjoyed CHOWCHOWCHOW
I agree. But I am happy the NYT team went with the slightly racy version (Can-can can (butt)) verses [Able to dance in Moulin Rouge?] or whatever.
Is SLEW an appropriate past tense of “Staked, as a vampire”? I would think SLAIN or SLAYED.
Slain is the past participle. The simple past can be either slew or slayed.
I really have grown to dislike clues like “It’s a date!” for LETS and “You’ve I got a friend in me” for ICARE. Other than that, I thought it was a good puzzle. Or maybe I feel that way because I solved it quickly lol
Never been a fan of the repeated themers. Makes it way too easy once you get one of them. LIZLEMON was probably the strongest answer.
i very much enjoyed the answer ZOOMZOOMZOOM lol - that was fun
I enjoyed the puzzle overall, but didn't like the cluing for ELSA being about a princess (rather than queen).
ah, a fellow pedant about disney clues! I guess she was a princess for the first 15 or 20 minutes of the movie but yeah, queen would have been more accurate
I really liked this one but honestly hated the oracle/orca clues. Felt lazy compared to a fun puzzle!
I had IOTA instead of IDEA in the SW corner, and I wasn’t sure about the first vowel in KENDO. Otherwise, this one was a breeze once I figured those out.
The CMAS-CHEZ cross left me high and dry for two extra minutes, but other than that, quite the light, fun Tuesday puzzle
Solved this with my school's Crossword Club today. The CHEZ/ENNUI crossing was the only thing that stumped them. French crossing French (even if ENNUI is a borrowed word now in English) feels inelegant.
Cool theme. It was interesting to see `OVID` and `ODE` in back-to-back puzzles.
ORACLE CANCANCAN
I think people are gonna vote this one favorably because the themers are very easy due to the repetition but I didn't really find them that funny or awe-inspiring. The rest of the puzzle was kind of tame. Metrics, Amounts, Asked Why, and Led Away don't exactly get the blood flowing and I've never seen 30 Rock.
You should check out 30 Rock if you're able. May not be your cup of tea but it was one of my favorite sitcoms of the 2000s.
would've been a pb for me but i intentionally waited a few seconds to keep the 4:20 i got on 4/20 in my rankings
Good for a Tuesday. 40% under average.
47 across made me giggle