Sunday, March 17, 2024

This is just brilliant! To create a puzzle with eight tourist attractions appropriately located in the NORTHWEST, NORTHEAST, SOUTHWEST and SOUTHEAST sections of the grid and have them be symmetrical is a masterpiece of construction. And then to have a Schrödinger revealer too…. totally awesome! Congratulations, Simeon. An outstanding puzzle. By the way, FOUR CORNERS is perfect.

Whoa. I’m not done with the puzzle yet, but I need to come here to comment. The striptease of this puzzle’s central revelation is one of the most masterful constructions I’ve seen in a while. First I had “the southeast,” then “the southwest” (“are there Everglades in the southwest?”), and then I realized that we really, really were all over the map. A puzzle for the ages. Bravo!

An overly-elaborate feat of construction often goes hand in hand with the unfortunate byproduct of being a slog to solve, due to all the less-than-ideal fill that is usually needed to pull off the gimmick. Not here, though. Wow. I've been solving the puzzle here every day for about a decade now, and I can't recall a better example of an amazing construction combined with tons of fresh clues/answers. I am in awe of this puzzle. Just an amazing job, all around!

In my opinion, the best Sunday of this young year. If this is the map, Simeon Seigel is the legend. cc: emu handler

The expert cartographer is so good at explaining maps. What a legend! (I had a lot of latitude with this one.)

Dang! Tiredness prevented me from spotting the Schrödingericity, even after I noticed it could be HOUSE or HORSE. Rats! Phooey! I feel I cheated myself out of that layer of genius. Oh well, still fun to admire it afterward. Maybe I’ll redo this puzzle 10 years from now. OFFERTORY reminds me of one of those funny church bulletin howlers that made me cry with laughter the first time I saw it: Parishioners should note: the bowl labeled “for the sick” is for monetary contributions only.

Absolutely brilliant puzzle! Oddly enough, my initial guess at 69A (with only OLD FAITHFUL filled in of the theme entries) was UNITED STATES. As it turns out, that was the correct geographical location, but so many AHA moments to come along the way. First of all realizing that both NORTHWEST and NORTHEAST fit (I tend to solve from top to bottom), and then discovering that SOUTHWEST and SOUTHEAST also fit. I thought I had discovered it all until I read the column and realized that the locations were all placed in their appropriate geographic location. I am in awe! Oh, and of course my favourite clue/entry was "Person living in London"/ONTARIAN. Thanks for the gimme!

Face palm after reading the column!! I started at the bottom of the grid and, exactly like Catlin, got EPCOT CENTER and EVERGLADES. Naturally, I filled in THE SOUTHEAST for the revealer. I meandered all over the grid, and as I filled in the other themers, my rationale was that all of them were *really* in the Southeast because location can be relative. Mr. Seigel had not specified Southeast of what. Gosh, I feel like such a dork. And, to be honest. I'm a bit sad that I missed out on the awed feeling during the solve. But awed, I am. Even after the fact. It's a tour de force of astounding brilliance. Mr. Seigel, you said you're thrilled to have this off your back after all these years. Thank you for putting it on ours. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Way off topic, but happened to come across an old joke that I thought wordplayers might appreciate: A priest, a pastor and a rabbit walked into a clinic to donate blood. The nurse asked the rabbit: "What's your blood type?" The rabbit said, "I'm probably a Type O." Hi emus. ..

I was ready to complain about certain locations not being in the region I originally filled in, until that next level of brilliance clicked. This might be an all-timer for me (granted, I haven't been solving for much time in the first place). Really took me on a journey, thank you Simeon!

I admit that at one point I was getting a bit grumpy about some of the gluey fill: SLIER (yes I know it’s technically correct but then so is MERER and APTER), IRAIL, HIVED, TEENER, …. But then it dawned on me that the theme attractions were in different parts of the country. THEN I realized that the revealer could go four ways. And to top it all off, the attractions were located in their respective quadrants. At that point, all grumpiness melted away. A four way Schrödinger? Wow. Just — wow. If you can pull that off, can do whatever the hell you want in the rest of the puzzle as far as I’m concerned. Nice one Simeon. Thanks for the mindbending.

I got this one, but I really didn't *get* this one until I read the column. I'm really glad that I get to share our planet with people as smart as Simeon Seigel. Bravo!

I mean… what can you even say? Pretty simply, this is the most masterfully created puzzle I’ve ever had the privilege of solving. Thank you and bravo to Simeon Seigel. Once I get my gold star I’m always so eager to read the column and hear from the commenters that I often skip over trying to puzzle out a theme, and that was the case for me this evening. I wish I had spent more time trying to figure out why some of the locations referenced weren’t in THE SOUTHEAST. I would have been blown away if I had grasped this theme without the columns help… Although, I’m sure it would have been tough for me to see, plagued, as I am, by “right blindness” (a crosswording affliction where the solver is so convinced an answer is correct they become blind to all other possibilities.)

The first attraction I solved was 4D (CRATER LAKE), which - combined with a bit of confirmation bias due to my location - seemingly made 69A a gimme as THE NORTHWEST. Rather than question that logic as I solved the other locales, I rationalized that the constructor must be referring to the north(ern)/west(ern) hemispheres, and was content to leave it at that. It was only when reading today's column that I discovered how much I'd missed. To be not only epically myopic, but also to have deprived myself of enjoying what may be the best revealer I have yet seen, will go down as one of the great facepalm moments I have experienced in my time as a solver.

Mr. Seigel had me guessing as to what the revealer until the very end of the solve. That's a fancy curveball, throwing in four rebuses to cover all four quadrants of the grid -- and the country. Bonus entries appearing in the correct quadrants are San ANTONIO in the SW and ONTARIAN (crossing NIAGARA FALLS, no less), in the NE.

So fun! I’ve been doing the NYT crossword for years and today is the first time I’ve felt compelled to comment. Thank you for the best hour of my week.

Reminds me of a favorite Schroedinger puzzle from a few years back where the revealer could be either STARWARS or STARTREK but this one is genius level.

I never caught on to the clever trick at the center of this one. Despite noting that either HOUSE or HORSE might fit, I settled on HOUSE, and never considered the other potentially ambiguous down clues or the possibility of a rebus. I ended up identifying THESOUTHEAST as the answer for 69A, even though it made no geographic sense and completed the puzzle none the wiser. I feel like I’ve done the constructor an injustice by solving in such an oblivious manner. OTOH, if the puzzle had not accepted a one letter answer where the rebus was appropriate, the comments section would have been excruciating to read.

Wow! Witty, challenging, fun. This is why I do crossword puzzles !

Wow. Just wow. I didn't get the theme until I read the column, but my gosh. This is masterful. Congratulations on a great puzzle.

What a sensational Sunday debut! Thanks for the road trip!

I been to 4 county fairs, 3 pie socials, 2 country hoedowns, and 1 monkey gas-passing contest, but I ain't never seed nothing like this. Wow

Fifteen letter answer that dawned on me this morning: PUZZLEOFTHEYEAR Anyway - quite a workout for me, but managed to finish it and... never caught on to the various possibilities in the reveal. I went with THENORTHWEST passage, even though I could see that that didn't really work with some of the theme answers. This is just... beyond amazing. ..

Anyone complaining needs to touch grass. This was a cool, thoughtful puzzle and was a joy to argue through until completion with a 10,000 foot view.

Got it but clueless to the end until I read Wordplay. Brilliant! One of the best.

I rarely comment, but today I just have to say Bravo. One of the most clever puzzles I can remember.

I’m solidly in the minority on this one as I found it clunky and not very fun. I spent the whole puzzle wondering what weirdness I was going to have to struggle through with 69A only to have it solve immediately when I put in the final letter. A theme that requires me to read the blog to understand isn’t one I generally enjoy.

Holy cats! I am in awe as well. Easy solve, but the brilliance of the gimmick eluded me until I read the "Wordplay" explanation. Now I can't stop shaking my head in wonderment.

I'm in awe of this puzzle. Up until now my favorite was BOB DOLE/CLINTON, but this tops that in my book.

Pure genius! I had to read the article to get the finer points, and man o man, they are impressive. I’m sure the names celebrities will be glad to be in this puzzle- I’m looking at you marc marron. Count me in for puzzle of the year. Loved it

Absolutely amazing! When I finally figured out what was going on, I was in awe.

I'm really tired now, but I'll relate that I did this puzzle on my phone while hosting a family dinner when the meal was taking a little longer than expected to cook and I could fit it in while participating in conversation. And I correctly figured I'd be too tired to do it properly once the gathering was over. It's too bad that I had to give so little attention to such a good puzzle. I filled in THE SOUTHEAST with nary a thought of it, and figured that eventually, I'd figure out why all the theme answers were considered in THE SOUTHEAST. Imagine my surprise when I realized that it was a Schrödinger puzzle! And the four quadrants of the nation could all fit in 69A.

My gosh this was clever! As a non-American I’m often learning awesome US factoids every day to complete these, but I got usaSOUTHEAST and the Floridian fills (went there when I was twelve, so saw both those sites!), but was then absolutely bamboozled to find NIAGARAFALLS and other non-SE locations came a-cropping up! Read the column with relief that my geography is not as bad as I feared, and that this is instead an absolutely genius puzzle! The layout, trickery, and some great clueing and fills along the way make this a contender for best-ever in my books. I cannot imagine how difficult this would have been, but nary an OREO nor an EMU nor any other convenient gimme in sight to make it work. Phenomenal, thank you!

Didn’t get the Schrödinger aspect until I read the column. Absolutely amazing creativity. I’d say the most brilliant crossword construction I’ve ever solved.

A day without a rebus is like a day full of sunshine.

This was a gorgeous puzzle. So, so good. The satisfaction once the theme/trick of the puzzle hit me was excellent.

What you said, all of you. This is Schrode Sunday at its finest. Before I quite dinged the Schrode, I had THE NORTHWEST as answer. Lady Liberty came up: how could she possibly be in the Northwest? Well, she's in the Northwest Atlantic I suppose. And Niagara Falls? In Northwest New York. It all made sense until the Everglades, which is only NW of Key Largo. Then I finally Schroded. But that was a real dinger of a puzzle! Ah, Groundhog Day. Eerily, the film gets better with each watching. There are whole swaths my kids can recite at the least bit of encouragement. Including Ned Ryerson greeting Phil (Bill Murray) -- sorry about the ad that precedes it... <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqSYC_vwhDg&ab_channel=Movieclips" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqSYC_vwhDg&ab_channel=Movieclips</a>

I did my Dad thing. I thought I knew where I was going and refused help. Once I got to EVERGLADES and EPCOTCENTER I was convinced I was in “FLORIDASTATE” rather than THENORTHWEST and I carried on driving in the wrong direction. I finally arrived the NIAGARAFALLS after a big diversion. i could have saved a lot of gas.

New to comments and newish to the puzzle, but couldn't sit on the sidelines anymore after this one. W-O-W, that was spectacular. Now I am going to dig up the Nov 5, 1996 Schrödinger election puzzle.

Great puzzle, but as an ironworker's daughter who typed up work contracts, it was always I-beams, never I-rails. But thanks for the memory of a special time for me and my dad.

I had 69A as THE NORTHEAST, biased as I live in MA, so until I read the column I thought maybe the sites were all in the Northeast of some area, so the Everglades are Northeast of the Keys for example. But that would be silly since everything is northeast of something I suppose. After reading the column my mind was blown. Just amazing. Before I read it I did notice the sites were situated on the grid according to their true geographic location. A tour de force from Simeon Seigel!

Wow! I had no idea a Schrödinger puzzle was a thing. Brilliant, just brilliant. Oh, and fun! Congratulations Simeon Seigel!

A puzzle for the ages! I loved it! My one teeny tiny nit to pick: AETNA doesn’t have a diphthong in it. It has two consecutive vowels, but not two consecutive vowel sounds (within a syllable). Unless I’m just pronouncing it wrong?

Every aspect of this puzzle—the ‘quantum’ element, the theme rows and columns, the clever clues, the collaboration with the editors, and the fact that it was the Sunday debut for the constructor—make it an instant classic. Bravo!

For me perhaps the most impressive puzzle I’ve ever done, and so much fun to solve. I am sad that I didn’t notice that the places didn’t all fit the SOUTHEAST, which is what I had at 69A, but so impressed when I got to the column and saw the whole trick. Thanks for a wonderful time spent on your terrific puzzle, Simeon.

Very clever when looking at it at the end, but very frustrating when in the middle of it. (TEENER? SLIER?) Mixed feelings on this one. It's impossible to disagree that it's an impressive construction though!

Kicking myself. Could see that the revealer was a directional reference. However, with flies, in my part of the world if it isn’t a HOUSE fly it’s a blow fly. HORSE flies just aren’t on my radar. This locked in SOUTH. Then EPCOT had me thinking that maybe DisneyWorld had some replicas of all these other major attractions. So, SOUTHEAST it became. My apologies to the constructor and Schrödinger.

Wow, just wow. I never would have gotten it without reading wordplay. Very nicely done. Pet peeve...110D As a civil engineer, I have never used nor even heard of the term IRAIL, neither TRAIL, TBAR, nor IBAR.

I was wondering what I would have to do with the map of the title to get this to work. I thought I was SET with 70 Down, but "Word before fly" at 56 Down let Schrödinger's cat out of the bag. Thanks for the time and effort to pull this one off, Simeon Seigel! emus are on another continent

Wow - what an impressive accomplishment! The fireworks photo is an appropriate accompaniment to such a brilliant puzzle.