Well, slap my knee and boop my nose! That was a fine puzzle!
I feel bad for any future solvers delving into the archive and encountering a “Tik-Tok” star clue, long after the “star’s” fifteen minutes are up.
@Joe It would be the same for us going back to the puzzles of the 40s, 50s, or 60s. We might be able to solve some of the clues, but those referring to people or events of the day might be next to impossible to decipher. Hopefully the crosses would help.
@Joe Is that really much different than doing an old puzzle now and finding a clue about someone who starred in a TV show that ran for one season 40 years ago? That’s just a factor of trying to make the puzzle a little bit timely. (And no, I didn’t have any idea of who LOREN Gray is.)
I tried to think of a word to play in Scrabble, but I racked my brain. (And tiles to go before I sleep.)
@Mike It's not just the horse that thinks it strange.... ....the tiles nowadays are plastic.
@Mike Guess you were at a loss for words. 🎱
At first it felt a bit cheap that the triple letters only applied in one direction, but then I realized: when playing Scrabble, the Triple Letter square only applies to the first tile that crosses it. If a subsequent word crosses that square, triple letter points don't apply because the first word already covered up that square. Bravo constructors!
A theme inspired muse: So, there I was in the mall eatery, the oDD Duck with a meal before me including, pad sEE Ew, a cage-frEE Egg, GuineSS Stout, and a taLL Latte, and, should there be a spill, some ScoTT Towels squares, that I always keep handy. In the background, some JeFF Foxworthy was playing, lovely comic effect to counter the daily dour content I get on my dead-trEE Edition of the Times and cNN News, to counter my ever-present feeling that it’s a zOO Out there. Am I weLL-Liked? Do I still believe there is hope for frEE Elections? Do I have a decent skiLL Level in anything? Do I look good in dreSS Shoes and a fuLL-Length tux? Will I ever paint a stiLL-Life? Do I exhibit playoFF Fever? Well, in aLL Likelihood, to all this, I say, I gueSS So. WeLL Looky here – a glaSS Shard on the floor! Shall I set oFF Fireworks by reporting it to the authorities, who may, perhaps, cut oFF Funding or levy a stiFF Fine? Or should I at least threaten to, unless I get some complimentary food – frEE Enterprise? Nah. I think I’ll just stand and regale the room with a baSS Solo. And if they don’t like it, weLL La di dah!
@Lewis I was wondering last night what other possible theme answers there were. Thanks for providing some examples.
Lewis -- my joy has trebled after reading your post! Bravo! Triple bravo! Three deep booming bravos from the emus!
If I was a boulean operator I would NOT use King Arthur NOR Gold Medal, only Gompyo OR Beksul. (This is actually sound advice: I'm a recent convert to Korean flour: they grow a stunted, "cripple" winter wheat, milled very fine, and baking with it is a revelation, the breathy lightness of it, no resulting gluten lassitude at all, a proto-wheat that harkens back to the beginnings of agriculture, 8000 BCE, consumed both on Mt. Ida and by various Egyptian gods. End of sermon, tik-tok here we come, I'm gonna be the next great Flour Influencer, move over Loren whoever you are). I'm enjoying the Boolean battle royale that Steve from Salt Lake started about NOT vs NOR (I had NOT at first, but not at last), and I can only hope that a tableful of jolly mathematicians sated on burgers and brewskis, joins in the melee. No cosets will be cosseted in that thread, let me tell you! Well, I scrabbled a bit to finish this one, but not that much; the Scrabble idea was delightful, and as well executed as one could expect; it would be a fever dream to hope for one that functioned the way Scrabble does, with the triple word pointage applicable in BOTH directions. And I bet Enrique and Matthew tried to do that at first and found it impossible to cross triple letter clumps. But a valiant effort, and I appreciate the dark blue with crenulated border, just like Scrabble. And P-O-I-N-T spelled out, bonus! Consistent little jests and cleverness in the cluing, double bonus. Dmitri Mendeleev, triple!!!
@john ezra Absolutely love your “Flour Influencer” references and, actually, your full commentary as usual. Just felt I needed to chime in that in the wee hours of the morning yesterday I made a (quite uncharacteristic for me) post regarding my prediction for the most recommended comment of the day. I went with Gary K who had been out with Oberlin math profs the previous evening for dinner at the Feve discussing COSET as a “Mathematical subgroup”. Seems your comment eked him out. Nice. Not to take anything away from Gary K , whose comment remains a classic, but felt I should tip my (humble) hat….
Looks like today's winner for "clue and answer pair most commented upon, incorrectly, as being wrong" goes to.... ding-ding-ding-ding! NOR! Yes, it is a Boolean operator. Maybe not one YOU use in YOUR favorite coding language, but it is, in fact a Boolean operator. (Please note that although Boolean operators are used in coding, they are not exclusive to coding, and they predated coding by many decades.) There is a whole world beyond any one person's narrow experience - and in today's world, there are wonderful search engines where you can double-check what you think you know about. And if you check on this, you will find, that NOR is, in fact, a Boolean operator, whether you personally use it or not. Maybe not one of the basic operators, but a derived one, which does not equate to it not being an operator at all...
@CaptainQuahog For some reason, I heard your comment in the voice of Bill Kurtis. Just me? I wish I could recommend this once for each post complaining about NOR and every other incorrectly identified "wrong" clue. It gets so tiresome when, even after it's pointed out that the clue is correct, posters just double down and continue to say otherwise. It's just so easy to check things these days....
Some people enjoy parades. Others enjoy raining on them. But I suppose that’s neither here NOR there. TESTY commenters sometimes amuse me, but mostly I find them tiresome, especially when, as is so often the case, their comments are ill-informed, if not ill-intended. I solved the first half of this puzzle in a near stupor after a late night of joyful celebration. I solved the second half this morning in a near stupor after awaking long after my usual hour (plus one). Despite being so logy that seeing a crash of RHINOS running past my house would not have drawn more than a muttered “Huh” from me, I enjoyed this puzzle heaps. Reminded me of a good old-fashioned Sunday in the best way. Congrats and thanks, gents!
This QUIZ (22) was a WHIZ (15), It was JAZZY (33) and ZIPPY (21). Some weeks are QUIXOTIC (26), Some weeks can be TRICKY (15). So this week, with THANKS (13), And a few happy YIPPEES (14), A tip of my CAP (7), To MATT & ENRIQUE! (And get well soon, Mr. Shortz!) (and apologies to Mr. Anguiano for the dodgy and fairly awful rhyme 😬)
(This comment may only make sense to someone who solved on paper.) In my entire history of doing the NYTXW, I can't remember ever having a more profound reversal from highly negative feelings to highly positive feelings mid-solve. Oh, was I ever hating this puzzle! Look -- you already know that I can't stand the squooshed squares one gets in a 16x15 puzzle -- squares that leave me no room to write in my own letter. You also know that I'm put off by annoying tiny little circles that look confusingly like "O"s when I want to write in my own letter. So I'm saying to myself today: "Don't those stupid NYT puzzle editors know that these bleepin' blue squares are MUCH TOO DARK to allow me to see the letter I'm writing in? I mean really! And then I hit the "TRIP" of TRIPLE LETTER SCORE and the scales fall from my eyes. So THAT's why that shade of blue looked so familiar! Aha!!! Scrabble!!! And, yes, it would have been a weaker puzzle if the blue had not been that precise shade. I went from hating this puzzle to absolutely loving it. Great "Aha!" moment. Cleverly chosen themers. Nice and crunchy before getting the trick and enjoyably whooshy thereafter. You're forgiven NYT. Your choice of blue was necessary and correct. No, I still couldn't see the letters I wrote in, but...I coped. It was all in a good cause.
(This comment may only make sense to someone who solved on paper.) Nancy, A number of online solvers reported difficulty seeing the letters they entered in the blue squares (which are the same color blue as in the Magazine.) All in a good cause indeed!
It took me 50 minutes but I managed to solve the puzzle completely unaided, which is rare on a Sunday. Managing to do it all on my own felt great 🤩. I have only a vague knowledge of Scrabble (it's not a particularly popular game over here, and I have never played it, even though I've intended to give it a go for at least the past twenty years), so I was slow to get the theme, but when I did it really helped me with completing the fill - given how ridiculously inapt I am at deciphering NYT puzzle themes, this was a rare and welcome thing 😃. Also, I truly appreciate how intuitive the sports team name was this time - bless you, HAWAII ISLANDERS 😃. Among the things I learned today - googling the stuff I got from crosses, after completing the grid - was RADON. I was only vaguely aware of its existence, and I did not know any link between it and house hazards. Apparently Polish construction and building safety law recognizes the issue, and we have legal limits for RADON levels in buildings, but given our construction techniques, the problem rarely materializes in real life - our houses usually have basements with concrete slab floors, or sit on such slabs even if they have no basement, which apparently largely prevents RADON contamination, unlike popular American crawl spaces.
Inept, not inapt, d'oh. . . . . . Ept emu.
@Andrzej When I go to Warsaw one of these months or years (at this rate), I offer to play scrabble with you. I think I have my board here with me in Europe from the US 😁.
Enrique and Matthew came up with an elegant puzzle today. Well done!
I would not say I'M TOO OLD FOR THIS NOW (THE HORROR), but I was starting to feel like ODD MAN OUT and NEEDY, since I don't play computer games, so I ASKED KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS and she said, HAVE A BRUSCHETTA and don't get so TESTY. I was fine after that and finished this monster with no look-ups, a miracle. Enrique Henestroza Anguiano and Matthew Stock, you know how to craft a Sunday puzzle and it was a relief to have a challenge that was worthy our time, full of crafty clues, and one that few are likely to complain about (don't quote me on that). Thank you!
Negative Boolean operator, ironically, is *not* NOR. It’s NOT. cc: emu handler
@Steven NOR is absolutely a boolean operator. A value can be neither/nor which has applications that NOT doesn't cover especially in coding
@Steven NOR is absolutely a boolean operator. A value can be neither/nor which has applications that NOT doesn't cover especially in coding
@Steven NOR is absolutely a boolean operator. A value can be neither/nor which has applications that NOT doesn't cover especially in coding
Overall, I found the fill-in to be smooth but with enough resistance to happify my brain. The triple-letter theme seemed, to me, to highlight the actual double-letters in the grid, of which there are just about 20. I loved the comforting vibe of the HOT TUB, SWEET CORN, and BRUSCHETTA. I also liked the fauna mini-theme: ASPCA, ANIMAL, HERON, STEER, GOATee, BEE, EMUS, LION, RHINOS, and SNAIL. I adored using the triple-letter gimmick to help crack theme answers – that was très cool. And I liked the pop of the seven theme-related answers – only one of them (IN-APP PURRCHASE) has ever appeared in the NYT puzzle before. A sweet jaunt in the box, therefore, for which I’m eminently grateful. Thank you, Enrique and Matthew!
@Lewis Are you not “EMU”-nently grateful?
I did half the puzzle last night and, despite catching on to the trick, found myself lacking in taking pleasure in the solve. I was staring a lot at the entries with missing letters, and blanking out. So I set it aside and returned to it this morning. Night and day! The second half fell into place, joyfully and, unfortunately, *too* quickly. I hadn't been consciously aware of how tired I was yesterday and that *that's* what had been getting in the way of my enjoyment. Sometimes we just don't realize that it's our own disposition that gets in the way of the pleasure of the solve. Now rested and awake to what happened, my final verdict is that this was in fact a sublime puzzle, of which half was wasted on my own lack of energy, clouding my perception. Now I'm really sorry I missed out on the whole fulfilling experience this puzzle was designed to afford. To the constructors, my apologies and my solemn promise to not even start on the solve, unless I'm rested, next time I see your names in the byline of a Sunday grid! Thank you for this puzzle and for the embedded nudge. ;-)
@sotto voce I’ve often wondered about the puzzles that I didn’t enjoy and thought that maybe if I had done them at a different time, my reaction would have been different. Thanks for the reminder to set aside the ones that you’re not enjoying.
@sotto voce Sleeping on it might’ve been part of what helped. I’ve certainly seen what seems to be some unconscious solving that goes on when I put a difficult puzzle aside and come back to it later or the next day.
@sotto voce This happens to me quite a bit, esp with Thurs and Fri. If I’ve had a particularly mentally exhausting day at work, my brain just doesn’t have the power to perform the gymnastics required by these puzzles. This has now happened often enough that I try to recognize it, and rather than start angrily “hate filling” the puzzle, I put it aside for the next morning. There have been numerous Saturday mornings, where after struggling to finish the previous day’s puzzle, I jump into the current day’s and start moving thru it; the clues just clicking for me.
I loved this puzzle! From the nose boops to an actual phrase in (grammatical) Scottish Gaelic, this puzzle could have been customised for me. It was also my fastest ever Sunday. Tha mi sona gu leòr an-diugh!
Decent puzzle but... "I'm too old for this now" is not a thing. And G-Rated reconstructions of well known PG-13 rated phrases are also not a thing.
@MC "I'm too old for this now" racks up nearly 36,000 results on google. How many results do you need to make something a thing in your rulebook? For your second objection, g-rated reconstructions etc. are you talking about "Very sexy" ----> SO HOT? Or some other combo? Why does your rulebook say this is not a thing? Jus
Enrique and Matthew are extremely talented crossword constructors, but-someone has to say it-not SO HOT at Scrabble. I can't believe they wasted so many blue squares on single-point letters. Like most of you here, I can't name more than a hundred TikTokeurs off the top of my head, so fortunately it was an easy one. Emu nor emu.
ESTAR or not ESTAR -- that is the question: It took 25 minutes to cut the Gordian Not in this puzzle. What can I say? My Spanish is not SO HOT. Fun otherwise.
@LBG Ha, ha! But since you mentioned it, the Hamlet line is translated into Spanish as "ser o no ser". The verb meaning "to be" in the sense of existence is always ser. ESTAR is generally used to indicate condition, so the two verbs can show distinctions in simple fashion: Juan es guapo. John is handsome. (He's a handsome fellow.) Juan está guapo. John looks handsome (today)! Hamlet is contemplating suicide. He's debating whether or not to end his existence. Ser o no ser.
My favorite kind of crossword is one that is challenging, entertaining, yet possible to solve without outside help (so I don't feel like a dummy). This puzzle was all of that, plus it incorporated one of the best board games ever invented. I thoroughly enjoyed today's solve, with only one small hiccup. My knowledge of Spanish is limited to it's relationship with French, so I had to go through several variations before I got the right answer and completed the puzzle. Estes? Estat? Estan? ESTAR it is!
@Janine This one was made much worse by the fact that NOT is a much more common boolean operator, so if you didn't know Spanish, there was no way of guessing that estate didn't fit... In the end I just had to check puzzle, because everything looked fine even on the third read-through
After struggling with the grids through the week I was slightly dreading the Sunday behemoth. What a delight then, to find a clever, entertaining, amusing grid that wasn’t impassable. It helped that I got the trick/theme early with the always splendid Ms SCOTT THOMAS. DH and I used to have a long running Scrabble championship going between us. It always made me TESTY that he was the better tactical player, but with ‘meh’ entries, whilst I would craft beautiful linguistic links but lose the game. His competitive streak is clearly greater than mine. Hey ho. Good Sunday puzzle. Thank you.
I’m saving the clue in 5D for future use. Like this: I hear a deep booming call. (Of course, there are always new folks who haven’t yet figured out the emu gag. They will just think I’m strange.)
@Cat Lady Margaret If the NYT asks you about a bird in any large capacity it's probably an emu
@Cat Lady Margaret, I was thinking, finally a real live emu! I like your idea for the future.
"Nattering nabobs of negativity" (Spiro Agnew) You just don't see (or hear) the word nabob anymore.
@R.J. Smith All this talk (not nearly just you, RJ) is making me tired. So I asked the Google box “Is nor a Boolean operator” And Google said this <a href="https://computerengineeringforbabies.com/blogs/engineering/nor-gate#:~:text=Boolean" target="_blank">https://computerengineeringforbabies.com/blogs/engineering/nor-gate#:~:text=Boolean</a>%20expression%20for%20a%20NOR%20Gate&text=The%20NOT%20function%20is%20represented,the%20output%20Q%20is%20true. And don’t tell me it’s not negative! It is the negative form of “or.”” And I am no expert in absolutely anything I’ve just said, but the interwebs knows a thing or two.
@R.J. Smith The Times’ late great William Safire wrote that phrase, i believe, during his original career as a GOP speechwriter.
Four months of learning Scottish Gaelic finally came in handy for a crossword! A great puzzle, tapadh leibh! :)
Our (soon to graduate) grandson is participating in a Robotics tournament this weekend which has absorbed 110% of my attention. But managed to complete yesterday's puzzle last night which was a proper workout. Bereft of any usable pdf options this morning I solved today's online. A fine offering which I would have much preferred to do on paper but that is due to my fumble finger inexperience with navigation that made it a tedious experience. Guess I've finally entered curmudgeonhood. For those who might be curious, here is a link to the tournament: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfQy-WtjwEM" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfQy-WtjwEM</a> Our man leads team 7110 and is likely to make the playoffs.
SPOILER ALERT: This comment has spoilers about last Sunday's puzzle. It's getting harder and harder to figure out how to express what the rules are with these tricksy puzzles. Last Sunday, when we had the "Countdown" puzzle, we were telling people you couldn't put a number rebus in those squares because the words had to make sense down as well (so TENTDRESS had to be rendered TTDRESS, with TEN hanging down, because if you put a rebus in there, the down answer would read "TENEN"). So today, we have a square that reads triple letter across, and single letter down. So a new solver could ask, why is that allowed? It's not TEPPPID, after all? Sigh. I guess the rule is that there IS no tule.
@Steve L correct….there are no rules….specifically when it comes to the “trick” of a puzzle with a theme. In cases like these it’s specifically about giving us a novel way to get to a solution…Where we might go “huh…that was new” At the zoo they put fish in a block of ice for the polar bears to make it interesting for them. We as solvers are the polar bears at the zoo…And each novel puzzle is a new way to give us our treat and keep us interested.
Thank you, Messrs. Anguiano and Stock, for an amusing Sunday puzzle. I play too much computer Scrabble, but I didn’t pick up on the significance of the blue squares at first. For 31A, I had TOO OLD FOR THIS NOW (with the O’s each in a separate square), and I thought that was a strange way to truncate that lament. (I had skipped IN-APP PURCHASE because I don’t play video games, but I recognize the phrase from non-gaming apps.) When I saw the revealer, it all became clear. And I too enjoyed seeing KRISTIN SCOTT-THOMAS in the grid. I can only think of three or four things we’ve seen her in, but we’ve always enjoyed her performances. (Nice tie-in to Friday’s puzzle: She’s part of the wonderful ensemble cast in Robert Altman’s “Gosford Park.”) I’m impressed that y’all found six solid answers that had the repeated letters you needed. I’d be curious to know what got left out.
don’t wanna jinx it but i’ve been on a roll this week. finished this one w zero googles and beat my average by 20 minutes!! 👏👏👏👏 fun!
@richelle Oops. Every time I utter even the tiniest hint of pride about how my crosswords are going, the crossword gods just KNOCK the Holy Hell out of me.
KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS? Renee ELISE Goldsberry? Tomato BRUSCHETTA? What's not to love? Here's Ms Goldsberry with her sisters. <a href="https://youtu.be/POHVE9uCNAY?si=hOVYsTH3tFR_DPOi" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/POHVE9uCNAY?si=hOVYsTH3tFR_DPOi</a>
@Vaer including the xword-friendly Phillipa SOO. Thanks for that clip. You sent me down the rabbit hole--I had to see Satisfied as well.
@Vaer Loved her in “One Life To Live,” long before “Hamilton”.
CNNNEWSHEADLINE crawl for Sunday, March 10, 2024 - DAVE experiences BRAN blowout in SPACESUIT: THEHORROR! Vermont SNAIL fails attempted escape from HOTTUB: MAPLEGLAZE. NYC driver who can ignore HONKS, and ROLL past a rude GESTURE: ODDMANOUT. ABBA fan with BUSINESSSENSE sells TSHIRTS with TRIPLELETTERSCORE x3: MONEY MONEY MONEY
Really clever theme, and a very impressive feat of construction. And of course a nice long solving workout for me. Actually caught on to the trick fairly early but still got stuck for a bit in a few places. A couple of side notes: Thought the constructors (or maybe the editors) missed an opportunity with the clue for ABBA. Why? Well... will note that the most recent clue for that was: Group with the hits "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" and "Money, Money, Money" Seems like it might have been a nice touch in this puzzle. Also couldn't help but think about an old TV series - you know with all those HAWAIIAN I'S. (Somebody will get that). ...
@Rich in Atlanta Oh - off topic late 21 letter answer that dawned on me - inspired by the clue for 33d: OPENTHEPODBAYDOORSHAL Never been in a puzzle and not in the Xword Info lists. I'm done. ..
Whew! Breezed through, had a ball playing a game in a puzzle. Crunchy spots filled themselves in with crosses. Wavelengths? Synced. Last letter to fill in - the R in NOR. No music. No star. Fly-specked over the puzzle at least five times. Almost looked at the answer key… Then… KRISToNSCOTTTHOMAS/LoON. A loon?? I was okay with that several times?? I’m blaming daylight savings time. I truly dislike it. Very much. Fun fact, Coldplay’s Chris Martin’s (great?) grandfather is to blame for the ridiculous clock changing! Ergo, I blame Chris Martin for my typo. It’s only logical. And I loved this puzzle. Fantastic construction with saucy clues. Triple thumbs up 👍 👍 👍 !!
@CCNY I got hung up in the same place, except I had LEON. Sure, an Egyptian goddess of war would totally turn into some guy named Leon.
@CCNY you’ve conjured visions of a haunting battle cry for the goddess of war in the early hours. Not terribly scary, perhaps - but certainly would disrupt the sleep of the opponents.
@CCNY You’re close! Chris is the great-great-grandson of William Willet, an English golf enthusiast who came up with the idea in 1905. Seems he was frustrated at darkness ending his evening golf outings. Unfortunately, he never got to enjoy the earlier tee-times as he died a year before DST was enacted there in 1916. See: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/43rkapp2" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/43rkapp2</a>
Solved it despite a comically dumb brain fog moment: Even after getting the trick fairly early on with INA(PPP)URCHASE and IMT(OOO)LDFORTHIS… (didn’t get the NOW until later) I still somehow convinced myself 65A was doubLELETTERSCORE. Even more egregiously, I resisted putting C(NNN)EWS… in 84A despite the gimme clue because it had 3 Ns in the square. Finally I realized that it had to be TRIPLE…, and went back and counted the P’s and O’s … D’oh. I’ll blame Daylight Savings Time even though that obviously has nothing to do with it whatsoever. Thanks Enrique and Matthew for an entertaining Sunday.
Today I learned that double and TRIPLE have the same number of letters and it took me embarrassingly long to realize that I had the wrong one in the grid. Fun Sunday puzzle especially after a back breaking few days!
@Sean Also had double for quite a while, pleased that I fell to it, and finally realizing how sloppy I was to not think it through.
I filled in THE HORROR with the voice of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.
@Grant Same here! Not once since that movie have I ever been able to not think of that when I read or hear THE HORROR.
Took an extra 20 minutes going back through every answer before finding it's not NOT/ESTAT but NOR/ESTAR 🫨
@Scott I had exactly the same experience, right down to the 20 minutes. I wish I'd paid a little more attention in Spanish class when I was 13.
@Scott Same here. More like 25 minutes for me. ... ... (Hello emu, I see you.) (I really, really do.)
A fun and clever puzzle! Thank you to the creators/editors. I don’t often solve the big Sunday puzzle without a bit of googling, but this one cruised along to the finish line unaided after I (fairly quickly) figured out the deal with the dark blue squares. It was helpful that there were only two main actresses in the English Patient (a fave movie) and as Juliette Binoche was clearly too short, once I made KST work, the other triple letter clues fell nicely into place.
One, two three <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An1-ntyBcz8" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An1-ntyBcz8</a> I'm guessing there'll be a slew of comments about how to enter the non-rebus in the app. Maybe I'm the ODD MAN OUT but I enjoyed the puzzle. Fill feels fresh, not gluey, not overly loaded with names or sports trivia or other common bugaboos that make folks TESTY. Triple-letter entries are not a dime a dozen, kudos to the constructors.
This one flowed from pencil to paper with no hiccups yielding my fastest Sunday ever. I briefly pondered NOR/NOt, but even with my very limited high school Spanish knowledge ESTAt looked more like it was related to state, so ESTAR it was! That the constructors managed to find 6 themers with the required triple letters is impressive.
NOR for "Negative Boolean operator" seems fine to me. The truth table for OR is TT T TF T FT T FF F and the truth table for NOR is TT F TF F FT F FF T That is, NOR is equivalent to NOT OR, making it the negation of OR. Then again, ESTAR was gimme for me.
@Xword Junkie Corre Agreed. NOR tests for whether all inputs are “negative” (false).
I must have been in a fog as I did this one because I made a lot of boneheaded missteps. I tried honeyglaze before MAPLEGLAZE, Gregor before DMITRI (must have confused Mendel and Mendeleev), and doubleletterscore instead of TRIPLELETTERSCORE (inexcusable as I come from a long line of Scrabble players). Eventually, I worked it all out and found lots to like. KRISTINSCOTTTHOMAS was the key to unlocking the puzzle for me. I’ve been enjoying her performance in Slow Horses of late. Her scenes with Gary Oldman are terrific.
After getting the dreaded "so close", it took me a bit to figure out "estaR" instead of "estas". And for goodness sake, NOR made a whole lot more sense than "nos", especially seeing as the clue did not indicate a plural. Enjoyed the puzzle. The title made me think the theme would be pool-related, but, yaay Scrabble.
@Amy I'm sure that someone else has pointed this out but NOR is not a boolean operator in math or programming, since math doesn't care about English grammar. But I suppose there is a non-technical sense to the meaning of boolean, so...
@Amy I'm sure that someone else has pointed this out but NOR is not a boolean operator in math or programming, since math doesn't care about English grammar. But I suppose there is a non-technical sense to the meaning of boolean, so... [EDIT] Never mind! NOT(OR) = NOR. Didn't know that.
A most satisfying solve. The best kind when you think it's going to be impossible ... until it isn't. My only negative is ESTAR/NOR. That's my BOOP on your two noses, Enrique and Matthew, but affectionately so as your puzzle is just too good to diss in any way. What a wonderful Sunday morning!
@Johanna Figuring out it was NOR rather than NOT took me longer than the rest of the puzzle put together, more than doubling my time. Even though I have used NOR often enough in logic statements that it should have been a no brainer. Don't know Spanish, though, so didn't catch it until I went back and flyspecked each and every square. Left me humbled.
Any bets on whether the Monday puzzle makes it three GOATEEs in a row?
Help! My entire fill is correct. (I’ve checked it now, twice, against the solution in Amy Reynaldo‘s blog.) But the official Times app on my iPhone will not indicate completion. On the rebus, I originally tried putting in the triple letters (e.g., PPP). That didn’t work, so I just put in the single letters. That didn’t work either. Anyone have any idea as to how to get this to work?
@Greg In NYC I don’t think you have a problem with the mechanics of the rebus…single letters work. I think your have a problem somewhere else and are going through the puzzle too quickly and missing the letter you need to correct.
@Greg In NYC. On my iPhone app I have completion using only single letter entries. This suggests that you have some other error hiding on the tiny screen. Almost certainly not the dreaded 0/O since numerals aren’t visible there.
@Patrick J. PS. I would suggest using the list view so as to be able to see each word more clearly. Play careful attention to vowels in three letter words. Emu
A surprisingly intuitive Sunday for me. Really enjoyable and fun—thanks to both the constructors!
One of my favorite puzzles to date! Zero look ups but didn't feel too easy. Bonus: no frustratingly obscure crosses.
Goodness gracious! I skimmed the first few Comments and there is (except for our polite Canadian, Moops,) a distinct air of discontent and grumpiness. Is it the sleep deprivation caused by the (arrgh) change to DST? I print out the puzzle (but not in color)--so the 'blue' was dark gray and several times had me thinking I had hit the end of the line, so to speak. I compliment the NYT on the new, darker numerals on the grid, even though I ended up taking off my glasses and solving with my nose almost touching the page. I hit upon the gimmick at once, alas--I wanted a little more of a tussle--and even though I've never actually made an * IN-A PPP urchase* I am pretty sure that knowing this makes me "tech-savvy," yes? I had a nice time and feel sorry for those who missed out on the fun. I do miss my 'Solving Buddy,' but it's good that PhysDaugter feels good enough to be back in her own home. On with the show!
@Mean Old Lady A lot of Comments posted between my reading some entries and the publication of this note....so I am glad to see more compliments for the puzzle!