Any chance we can get today's answer key? Thos is yesterday's.
The SUNK COST FALLACY of the puzzle constructor - as imagined by a solver: “Aargh, I’ve been toiling on this thing forever. I’m fully committed to my idea of having all the across entries appearing backwards, and all the down entries having one rebus component each. Also I love those puzzles where answers turn a corner or go loop de loop. Also, some cute grid art is a must. Also, diagonal symmetry.” Two years later… “I can’t give up now! I’ve worked so hard on this.” Another year… “If only I could think of a good revealer to tie it all together. I’ll just keep at it a little while longer.” HERE LIES our constructor. They were really getting close.
@Cat Lady Margaret -- Very. very funny and oh-so-true. And as a bonus: Through the means of your excellent satire, you actually explained to me the reasoning behind the SUNK COST FALLACY theory -- something I hadn't understood at all from the clue.
@Cat Lady Margaret -- Very, very funny and oh-so-true. And as a bonus: By means of your lovely satire, you managed to make clear to me the faulty reasoning behind the SUNK COST FALLACY in a way that -- at least for me -- the clue didn't. Now I actually understand what a SUNK COST FALLACY is.
If it weren't for SUNK COST FALLACY I would have given up today, but once I got that far I just couldn't give up
@Henrik Hah! The precise opposite. How apposite. Well done.
Congratulations on your NYT debut, Mr. Judge! I found it more challenging than many recent late-week puzzles, but fun all the same. Thanks!
@Eric Hougland same. Well above my Friday average, but nonetheless a fun puzzle.
Woke up sad. Bunch of dreary, rough stuff going on in my little world. Needed something to get me out of bed. Hoped for a Friday that twisted, turned, tested, taught, and tried me. And I got it. Shocked when the gold star and music played. But this is precisely the feeling that keeps me coming back, picking up the puzzle every morning for decades, to begin my days. I needed this today. Thank you, thank you, Mr Judge. Please, let this be just the beginning of your CLASS A cruciverbalizing.
@CCNY Sorry to hear that you woke up sad. I have a few issues that are causing the same rotten thing for me. Glad you got what you needed to help your ennui, etc. Thanks for the post. It helped put my woes in perspective.
Ryan Judge gives me hope for the future of crosswords. This was a struggle from start to finish, which is what Friday should be as far as I'm concerned. I had 29 erasures, which, if not a record, comes close. There were few gimmes, so I had to crank up the intuition, logic and educated guessing to get this done, and that's the most rewarding type of solve for me. Thank you, Ryan. I really enjoyed this, and hope to see your name again soon.
@Nancy. J Nancy, you are so good at this! What a puzzle solver you are! Loved your fun post! emu food more emu food
Friday level that was just right for me. I didn’t dance through it, nor did I trudge. Smiled at a good number of clues, had several sweet ahas, dredged some answers out of long-unvisited brain areas, and had an area that I couldn’t break open suddenly flash fill. In a post-solve scan, I liked seeing EDGES on one, and IN ECSTACY flying high (that is, ELEVATED), not to mention the PuzzPair© of I’M DONE and ATE UP. Had a “What’s a “sesamest?” moment (Hi, @Bill!). I liked the serendipity of MOES so close to DOH. Was impressed with the pllethora of double-L’s. I loved BELLY OF THE BEAST in the belly of the grid, and I loved being misdirected by [Some Olympus offerings, say]. Just a grab-bag of lovely on top of satisfying my brain’s work ethic. An outstanding experience, and all this on a NYT debut offering. Do keep at it, Ryan, please – IMO, you’ve got the knack. Thank you so much for this!
Not a good day for me. The clueing was not on my wavelength for the most part, and the amount of trivia clues was excessive. I had to look up so much stuff that in the end I enabled autocheck just to not get a gold star, because the number of clues I googled was just too high for that star to be fairly earned (on the other hand though, after 8 months of doing these puzzles, I still consider trivia-heavy grids unfair themselves).
@Andrzej After going well over my self imposed 1 hour time limit, I turned on auto-check too. Found the whole puzzle challenging, but in the end it was the NW corner that KOd me.
Paul Bunyan FELLED many a tree and John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" felled many a reader: a 1950 survey of literary critics by Columbia University Press crowned it "The world's most boring book." Whereas the Paul Bunyan book I had as a kid wowed me with its tales of the giant at his lumber camp, with a dozen cooks strapping whole slabs of bacon to their shoes and skating around a skillet the size of an ice arena to grease it up and make Paul Bunyan's enormous breakfast, which would have required many a hen to lay an egg. And let's not forget Babe the Blue Ox, Paul's faithful companion: it would have taken a lot of grub to fill the belly of THAT beast. I mean, those two ATE UP. And to the puzzle, loved those long crossing spanners! I hesitated entering "Humane" because "society" wasn't capitalized, and I still feel ambivalent about that, as well as by Dr. Martens; that would be like someone referring to 6th Ave. as the Avenue of the Americas. You're never gonna hear it. Similarly, Sesame St. niggled; I like to see Street spelled out, same as Deb & "Dr. Who." (I was also advised never to call San Francisco "Frisco" but there's Ryan in his notes calling it that, so it seems we have evolved). But these are trifling quibbles. For a junior at CMU (go Pittsburgh!) to debut an elegant Friday with tuple-stackers in all four corners including My Sharona (oh God, it's replaced Rama Lama Ding Dong as my earworm du jour, must put on Adele's "21") is a beautiful thing. Go Tartans!
@john ezra Everything I know about Pilgrim's Progress comes from skipping over the references to it in Little Women.
@john ezra, That's what was bothering me about Society! That clue is technically incorrect. And I don't see why "throwing good money after bad" had to be in quotation marks (in the puzzle of course, not here). It makes it seem like it's about making that comment rather than about actually throwing good money after bad. The editing used to be far more precise.
A challenging and CLASS A puzzle with quirky clues and cool, calm and collected fills. Each time I uncovered one, it seemed to have been standing right there in front of me the whole time, arms folded, grinning. A tough, but very satisfying trip—somewhere between being IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST when I was struggling and IN ECSTASY when I finished it. Thank you for a beautifully constructed puzzle and a dazzling debut, Ryan Judge. You and your parents have reason to be proud!
@dutchiris I like your "cool, calm and collected fills." A perfect description of the overall feel of Ryan's grid. Very seasoned, very smooth. I was surprised to find out it was a debut, and by a college junior, no less.
The John and Paul clue required sifting through a bunch of options (my two favorite uncles being one I could easily discard, though their last name did fit), and the nearby Papal Bull put me in mind of popes. John Paul I was only a pope for 33 days in 1978, but my grandmother had been in Rome when he said a papal mass and brought me home a prayer card of his, not knowing it would become a rare item just a few weeks later. He took his name - the first ever two-parter - to signal his intention to pull the conservative and progressive factions, represented by his predecessors John XXIII and Paul VI, together again for the health of the church. He also is unique in that the “I” - his regnal number - was part of his chosen name. His successor John Paul II chose his name as a pledge to follow that lead. —— I looked up the Wikipedia article on the Isle of Ely and found it a very interesting read. Lots of history. Also, very crosswordy: Ely comes from eely, because a lot of eelers eeled in the fens and mires, eeling for eels and elvers.
Nice workout. Great debut. Thanks, Ryan Judge. Loved the “John and Paul” clue. And the little center stack of TOTO and ARGOS. Speaking of dogs, we didn’t have enough diapers to change around here so we added a pup. A ten week old golden retriever named Woods. You should see him. Pretty much the cutest little dude imaginable. Lots of barbie costumes are likely already in the BELLY OF THE BEAST. Unlike ARGOS, Woodsy will not wait for me at home. He will be a TOTO and join me on many epic adventures. Have a great weekend, everyone!
@Striker “You should see him.” I agree: we should. Add Woods as your avatar! What a great name, by the way. Congratulations on the new bundle of love in your life.
@Striker Excellent name for the not long to be wee pup, as Sam said. They're a lot of work, but have fun. Training is a must, of course so that Woods is pleasure rather than a burden. It hurts my heart that these magnificent animals have such short lifespans. We try to make the most of it.
Man…that north east corner was a beast…but I’ll take it…a win is a win.
Felt a lot harder than it turned out to be? I think. Yup. Each section gave me some resistance but some of the long entries bailed me out, which is often the case (and always appreciated). But that only addresses degree of difficulty. Degree of enjoyment was not quite sky-high (it is a crossword puzzle, after all) but definitely Eiffel Tower-high. Lots of fun from start to finish.
@Deb, Proofreader’s note: your description of 4D (COATS) refers to yesterday’s constructor, Simeon Seigel. Perhaps an unintended loop-de-loop?
Fun ways to substitute IN ECSTASY for “Sky-high” and vice versa: “Hey, Bruiser, how do you feel after winning the Super Bowl? “I’m IN ECSTASY” Barry White: Baby, when you lie down next to me I’m, I’m . . . sky-high* *If Barry sang it, he’d probably make “sky-high” sound sexy.
I thought it was "Doc Martens," vs "Dr. Martens," and this gave me some hesitation. Otherwise it was a fun puzzle. My Dad always humorously called our local skating arena a "skating ring," as opposed to a "skating rink."
Congratulations on a lively and lovely debut, Mr. Judge! It was a tough one for me but also terribly enjoyable once everything started falling into place. DR. MARTENS tripped me up (thankfully not literally) because I've only ever called them Doc Martens -- ever since the 90's when I had them on my feet and watched "Singles" the movie on repeat, and listened to Pearl Jam and Nirvana continuously, and visited Seattle for the first time (when downtown was a sleeper, and Starbucks was new to me, with a door on almost every Seattle corner but still a few months away from opening its first on the East Coast.) Great memories brought about by a great puzzle. Thank you, Mr. Judge!
When the chicken farmer tried stand-up, he laid an egg. (He got a brood awakening.)
@Mike The club owner wasn't able to re-coop his losses either. He had to sell off some of his emus.
@Mike If fans didn't flock to his shows, he shouldn't squawk. Just imaging all the chicks waiting back home.
@Mike You, sir, are the CrossWorld Gizzard!
Just a straight oof for me. I know I'm not great at the crossword, but do you even get the feeling your brain and the constructor's are so fundamentally different that you could be speaking a different language? Elasticity. I need it. :D
Aargh. Spent a while on this puzzle this morning, but I'm just not on Ryan's wavelength. NW and SE corners both being resistant. But I know if I come back to it later this afternoon and sink more time into it, I'll likely be able to finish. That's my Sunk Crossed Philosophy.
This would have gone a lot faster for me had I not been hell-bent on cramming CHCHANGES (Bowie) into 61A. (Since it crossed well with BEATLE at 44D, which was also wrong.) This was a tough one, despite many of the references being staples of my generation—having grown up with SESAME ST and endured high school in my DR MARTENS. Very nice start to the weekend.
@Mia My first thought there was "My Generation" but of course that did not fit.
This was a sprightly puzzle with two delightful long spanners. My only complaint is that after completing it late last night I went to bed and couldn’t get MYSHARONA out of my head.
This was one of those that I was actually surprised to finish 😅; was absolutely baffled by the John and Paul clue, so that corner was my final standoff. Anyway, very impressed that it was a debut—and another college-aged constructor, wow! (For the most part, my extracurricular activities were, let’s say, not resume material.) Count me as one who’s never heard the shoes called by their formal name. I was almost left out of that trend, since they don’t come in half sizes. Finally, though, I caved for an irresistible dusty green pair of Mary Janes a half-size too big—largely since I was able to get a friend’s store discount. As expected, their cuteness couldn’t quite make up for discomfort, so eventually they went to Goodwill. If only I’d kept them until after having kids; they would’ve been perfect…
@Kate I had trouble there as well. Even worse, I had a perfectly good answer once I got the B. John and Paul were both BEATLEs.
Welp, a spectacular Fail for the MOL.. The NW corner (despite a lengthy list of possibles for the Downs and then more possibilities for the Acrosses) knocked me for a loop. Not that it was all that difficult. Stumping me, I mean. I had no clue about the accursed shoes, and there were too many moving parts with all of my fanciful guesses. So I googled the shoes. Pfft. I'm looking back over the tattered, ink-spattered page, margins full of "run the alphabet" lists, circled clue numerals, boxed clues, and over-writes.....oh, great, here's another Major Natick with 49D/61A....but I just now got it. I learned SUNK COST FALLACY. Makes sense. Speaking of SUNK COST... It's almost 11 a.m. I had big plans! A nap. Brushing my teeth. Chatting with the cat. Opening a new box of kleenex. At least I managed to file my nails. I hope I just had an unusually rough puzzle day and that everyone else hit a home run!
@Mean Old Lady Have you ever successfully opened a Kleenex box without tearing the cardboard? I’m like 1 for 100 over my life span …
Glad I'm not the only one who thought what the heck is a SESAMEST? Could it be something from medieval times? I was picturing some kind of striped tent with Punch & Judy shows. Loved the puzzle, great debut!
@lhwp I keep being reminded of yet another roadblock....I never parsed that one (and of course 'puppet' did not evoke Kermit and Gonzo.) The more, the merrier!
@lhwp I’m so glad I’m not the only one! I was trying so hard to make the answer SEASHORE for Punch and Judy, but the crosses ruined that idea! When the crosses all left me with SESAMEST I thought, well, must be slang from the youth! It took me an embarrassingly long time to parse out SESAME ST. Terrific fun, amazing debut!!!!
@lhwp It's Sesame St, as in "Sesame Street" - a puppet show.
I can't see the circles... ...and I don't understand the theme. What is wrong with this puzzle? Nice one, Ryan. No BULL. What will Fact Boy say about Seattle slew? Remember the Thrifty competitor.
@Barry Ancona, funny last line! Took me a sec ...
As threatened again: Probably the strangest puzzle I have ever, ever encountered. A Sunday from August 19, 1979 by Ronald Friedman with the title "Strip Tees." (would note that this was his only puzzle in the Times). The trick in the puzzle was simply to have answers with all of the T's omitted. As an example: Clue "Obsolete." Answer: OUOFDAE So the implied answer would be OUTOFDATE A couple of other examples of the ones that I at least figured out: "Pagan" : HEAHEN "Bikini adjectives" : ISYBISYEENYWEENY ...and one that took just a bit of pondering: "Popular refrain" : EAFORWOANDWOFOREA And one that took MORE than a bit of pondering: "Playground item" : EEEROER Don't think I would have had a chance in heck of solving that one. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=8/19/1979&g=115&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=8/19/1979&g=115&d=A</a> ..
@Rich in Atlanta Really enjoyed the vintage 2/2 puzzle you recommended yesterday—thanks! Largely because it had not a single emu;-).
Ryan Judge, your first seed entry put a huge smile on my face, and your second almost cost me a streak, but in the end, actually opened up some of my other problem areas, so all’s good. (Never heard of the phrase, but erasing my 2 guesses while in the early throes of solving – “fallout, then “failure” – put me IN ECSTASY and the rest fell pretty quickly.) And Deb, thanks for suggesting a new “puzzle within a puzzle” – trying to guess a constructor’s seed entry! I also loved the clues for METADATA and BAKE SALE, too … Over my average for the day. but hey, it's a Friday Look forward to more from you, Ryan!
@Snowfly How do you know which entries were his seed entries? Just askin. Need to go back to Constructor Notes which I hadn't read. If all is explained there, please ignore this question. emu food more em food
Hello, the answer key is still linking to an older puzzle
@Mu Yes, you're right. It's yesterday's puzzle. Sigh.
@Mu Whenever this happens, and it does happen with some regularity, just go to xwordinfo.com to get the correct solution. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=2/2/2024" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=2/2/2024</a> !!!!
I was wondering if it was just me who found this puzzle super challenging! I thought I was losing it. Then I read that the constructor is a math major at Carnegie Mellon, and suddenly I felt a lot better. It took me longer than usual, but I love challenging puzzles so this was enjoyable for me. TGIF!
I never heard of lots of answers in this puzzle and I loved it! Pays to remember: What I know < What I don't know And Lots of what I know ≠ Lots of what others know And Puzzles = Puzzles
@JB If nothing else, the last few years of overindulgence in crossword puzzles have reinforced that “What I know < What I don't know.”
Yes. Oh yes. This was an excellent Friday puzzle. Ryan’s name didn’t sound familiar, but I’ll remember it from now on. As I jumped back and forth around the grid, trying to fit all the pieces together, I found myself muttering in admiration: “Who is this masked cruci-ader?” Usually the Friday puzzle is just the stepping stone to my favorite day of the week, but tonight it stood alone and shone. Thank you for a real treat, Ryan.
Judge not, lest.... ... where was I? Oh yeah, tough one for me. Had to google some complete unknowns, but then just a lot of pondering and working the crosses and managed to get there. Ended up being an enjoyable workout. Couldn't help but note the odd similarity of TOT, TOGO and TOTO. Just a coincidence of fill, I guess - I don't think we're in Kansas any more. A couple of remarkable puzzle finds today. I'll put one in a reply, but I'm going to put the other in a separate post. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Sunday puzzle from January 1, 1989 by my heroine* - Frances Hansen - with the title: "New Years Message." Just can't imagine how she came up with stuff like this. Anyway - four theme answers, all 21 letters: IHADPLANNEDTOBEPOETIC BUTIDRANKALITTLETODDY SOEXCUSEMYUNAESTHETIC HAPPYNEWYEAREVERYBODY And, she managed to build that without any other answers that were not in some other puzzles. Just amazing. *I guess you could call me a 'heroine addict' - and no, that's never been answer. Other puzzle will be in a separate post, as threatened. ...
I thought this was a great puzzle Ryan! Too many nice clue/answer pairs to name just one. However, I loved seeing “sunk cost fallacy.” I often tried to use poker as an analogy to explain it in a work situation. Turns out, some people aren’t good at poker either. Great debut!
@Warren What’s that song Kenny Rogers sang? You gotta know when to hold ‘em / You gotta know the sunk cost fallacy . . . (I think that was his first draft)
Answer key link is to yesterday’s puzzle on my end
I loved this challenging puzzle! The SE corner was the last to fall. I had RAINcoats at 56A and I swapped many incorrect down answers in and out. A lovely challenge. Thanks!
Spoiler on « Solo act » . . . . . . . . Very disappointed that the answer was not « Kessel run » :) Thanks for your fun creation, dear constructor.
@JF Bertrand I knew I'd have to take it out, but I couldn't help putting in "shot first."
I enjoyed this one! Clever and fresh with a noticeable lack of junky fill.
@Julia Also I’m just so proud of myself for throwing SUNK COST FALLACY in there without even first checking to see if it would fit.
This one was a work out for me! I realize this is 'end of week' clueing but shouldn't 29A "society" be capitalized?
@TMD I thought the same thing about the capital S. I refused to enter HUMANE for quite a while, for that reason.
TMD, Not every humane society has the name Humane Society. Think ASPCA. don't think emus
Congratulations on a killer debut, Ryan Judge! I hope and trust there will be many more from you. This one was HARD for me, but commensurately so satisfying to finish. Many visits and blank stares till light dawned, in pretty much every quadrant. When I got the "admire your puzzle" prompt, I actually did.
Link is to the Thursday answer key.
Gail, Here's the answer key if you need it. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=2/2/2024" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=2/2/2024</a> Actually, it's the answer key whether you need it or not. emu
This was a pretty tough Friday for me. The NW corner was brutal. I would never have thought of the answer to 1A without the crosses. I gave up on that section after "doc martens" wouldn't fit. The clues were so slippery, the answers falling through my fingers just when I thought I had them in my grasp. But I had SUNK COST into this puzzle, so I kept on plugging away. Eventually I had enough filled in that things started to make sense. I went back to the dreaded NW, and the crosses helped me finish (once I remembered Olympus was a camera brand). I ended up turning to Google for a couple of unknowns. Tough, but fair... I struggled but really enjoyed the challenge. :)
What a miserable slog. Calling an ice rink an "ICEARENA" should be a CLASSA felony.
@Dan I suppose the Islanders just opened up the USB Rink at Belmont Park. Or that place above Penn Station is a rink. !!! !!!
@Dan - the closest private rink to me is the Penobscot Ice Arena. it's in Brewer, Maine, in case you want to fact-check me. I suggest you hop right on the horn with them and let them know they are committing a felony. I am sure they will appreciate your feedback.
Dan, You will have to drive across or walk across the Hudson, but you don't need to go far... <a href="https://www.mccannicearena.org" target="_blank">https://www.mccannicearena.org</a>/ emu pairs
Regarding Ryan's two seed entries, it seems to me that BELLY OF THE BEAST is a fairly common expression; I'm not sure everyone would agree that SUNK COST FALLACY is quite as well known. I got it on crosses, and those top left niners were also tough. I only got DR MARTENS because I'm aware that the brand exists. The clue might just as well have been "Footwear brand." For Solo act, I didn't think of cups, but I did try Han Solo, and after that, Napoleon Solo. However, I don't think of actors when I think of MONOLOGUE; to me, that's a soliloquy. MONOLOGUEs are the province of comics and late-night hosts. IN ECSTASY does mean "Sky-high", but it didn't come to mind without several crosses. And it didn't help that one of them was ENMITY, when I had guessed ANIMUS. And I'M DONE off just the Doc's D and the N of NATS was a fortunate guess. Never heard of the Isle of ELY, although I have heard of Ron ELY, who played Tarzan a long time ago. Elsewhere, I opted for ASTA where it was supposed to be TOTO, but TOGO put me right. (And TOGO, too??) Of course, like probably everyone else (especially those who had the B from NBC already), John and Paul were BEATLES, not BUNYANS. I wasn't familiar with John BUNYAN, and seems to me to be rather obscure. MYRA, MY SHARONA and PURIM might be very obscure for some, but they were gimmes for me. All told, it seemed pretty challenging for a Friday, but a good, solid workout.
"I wasn't familiar with John BUNYAN, and seems to me to be rather obscure." Steve, You probably didn't read "The Pilgrim's Progress" in Hebrew School. Those familiar with John BUNYAN may not have had PURIM as a gimme.
@Steve L - as a data point, I've surely heard SUNK COST FALLACY at least three times as often as BELLY OF THE BEAST. I too started with ANIMUS, ASTA, and BEALTLES, and immediately got your gimmies. MY SHARONA made me smile, and treated my mind's eye to a ten second recap of my 6th grade year.
Excellent Friday puzzle, especially the two long entries. Northwest last to fall. One nitpick on the column, though. The link the solution points to Thursday's puzzle.
Such a fun and crunchy puzzle — somehow managed to get through it in near average time, but I had to earn every second of it! Perfect Friday: made me sweat a bit (in a good way), without threatening to swallow a good chunk of the morning (something I can only afford on Saturday). More like this please!
Either that was a genuinely challenging Friday puzzle, or Felsina lied about the alcohol % in the 2016 Rancia (in which case, it sure hides it well.) For me it was the west side, rather than the NE that challenged Paul. Regardless: nice puzzle! Well done, Ryan. My kiddo - a big fan of Monday puzzles and Spelling Bee - says Carnegie Mellon is her top choice, though she's got six years to change her mind.
Got to exercise my Spidey sense again solving this puzzle, which is always fun. A couple of things threw me. Like many, didn't think the shoes were DR. MARTENS, and I thought Odysseus's dog was named ARGO, no S, possibly because friends had a dog named ARGO. I knew John or Paul were unlikely to be Beatle-adjacent, but kept on trying to do something papal there, no BULL. Nice debut.
An excellent job. Kudos to the constructor! This was one of those you had to chew on for a bit. No tricks no fancy stuff just clever half truths and misdirections. Very fun!
"I'm a big fan of bagels with poppy seeds, bits of onion of garlic, and all other vegetable motes sprinkled upon them, but, given my druthers, I will always choose the SESAMEST one off the platter." (Total rhetorical fabrication--in truth, I dislike anything which can fall all over my lap; besides, they're only on the topside. Give me a good whole wheat or multigrain, please.)