I'm mourning a recent death in my family; grief shows up in a lot of ways, and one of them has been in not really being up for or able to do puzzles (or really anything that involves mental focus.) This puzzle broke through the haze and brought delight; I'm grateful!
@Swift Hi, I've been in a very similar boat this month was a very deep loss in my family. I get you!! It's been so, so very hard!! Offering my deepest condolences to you! May you find peace in puzzles and in all other ways! ❤️
@Swift Grief is tough to go through; I'm glad that this gave you a glimmer of light and hope that you and your family may continue to deal successfully with the effects of your loss.
@Swift I'm so very sorry, Swift. Twenty years now from my brother's suicide and I still find myself weeping upon reflection. Joy was swept away from even the simplest things for a time. Take heart, as it slowly returns, though in a different shade. How good that the fog has begun to clear.
Remembering the recently deceased Andre Braugher who played Captain HOLT. One of his many hilarious deliveries was a scene after he'd given up trying to be intellectual and had resorted to playing videos games, namely the NYT crossword app. "It plays a little song when you solve it as if you've just learned to potty" [victory jingle plays...which means he solved it mid-rant!] "Yes, yes, play me my dunce's tune!"
@Justin This is wonderful. I love his portrayal of Captain Holt.
@Justin I super love that scene! I think of it often when the music plays for me! What a great actor!! The first time I watched the show, I wasn't doing the crosswords yet. I only started about 9 months ago. All of Amy and Holts' references to Will Shortz were lost to me but now I appreciate them immensely! 99!
@Justin I've never seen Brooklyn Nine Nine, but I loved Andre Braugher in Homicide. Sod to hear that he'd passed away.
"Hello, yes, I'd like to report a serious Natick cluster in the Sunday puzzle today." "??" "There I was, beginning to enjoy the clever & original theme, savoring some of the excellent misdirecty clues, when I got sucked into the vortex of the central middle southeast section & it sorta dampened my enjoyment of this puzzle." "Ma'am?" "Yes well I know it's sorta nitpicking, haha "nitpicking" some "Naticking", that almost rhymes or something *clears throat* anyway I concede that this could be one of those YMMV things where I just never heard of KNoX or KNEX or TONEMEs & I kept going back & forth between NOTEGUSTO & NOLEGUSTO & NODEGUSTO & such & although I love Andrea Braugher & knew he was in "Brooklyn 99" I had no clue of his character's name & was trying HOLT HarT etc, & THNEEDVILLE threw me for a bit but it was really that Central Middle Southeast section that got me actually running sheepishly to google (even though I'm still counting my streak) tentatively confirming that YEET was right, & that KNoX was indeed a construction toy (which is what drove me to google "sound unit for Asian languages" & find TONEME (not TONoME or TONodE or TONotE) which d'oh makes sense as it rhymes with phONEME & anyway, for me the experience of this Sunday puzzle was marred by that Naticky centralish section. I see from the 50 comments so far that that's not the general consensus & people really liked it, but that's my take on it. And I just had to express that." "Ma'am, this is a Wendy's"
@Becca *Andre Braugher, not Andrea Braugher. Autocorrect is part emu emu, Bruté
@Becca I had trouble figuring out TONEME, too, although I eventually realized it probably had something to do with TONES, so I settled on a T to cross the still-undiscovered TEEN POP. I didn't have difficulty in the second half of the word, since "-eme" is a common suffix for linguistic units such as morphemes (units of meaning), graphemes (letters and meaningful letter combinations like sh and ch) and phonemes (sounds).
I got it from the crossings, so it wasn’t a problem, but “Thneedville” does not appear anywhere in the original Dr. Seuss version of The Lorax. I know this because I read the book on repeat to my toddler recently. For those familiar with the book, the thought that the land of Truffula Trees and Brown Barbaloots would be called “Thneedville” (presumable after the dirty Onceler’s destructive product of commerce) is offensive!
@Tim Okay, glad to see this, I thought I'd gone crazy. Looks like maybe they added it to the movie version, which I'd blissfully forgotten existed. As perfect a kids' book as has ever been written.
Searching for my lost vegetables has me beet, but I know they'll turnip somewhere. (They just radished into thin air!)
@Mike It's nice that you carrot all, but don't stew about it too much, you don't want to leek tears all over.
@Mike Sorry that I don't have anything punny to add, but if you're still in search of your lost vegetable, may I suggest that you skip the Moody Blues (they're still 'In Search of the Lost Chord') and consult Frank Zappa. He will assure you that you can 'Call Any Vegetable': call it by name, and the chances are good ... that the vegetable will respond to you. Rutabagas for the emus?
A clever theme and quite an enjoyable solve. Congratulations, Spencer, on a fine debut. If you receive any criticism, I encourage you to ... “Muster one’s courage?” SHOW THE STEEL
What a breezy sunday puzzle for our 4 man crew at the fire house 🤠
@Ladder 22 I learned to love the NYT crosswords looking over my dad's shoulder, who was on the job for the FDNY from the 60s to the 90s. I can still smell the smoke. Be safe, bravest.
Finished. All squares filled. No star. Flyspecking doesn’t work when it’s an *entire* block. I had written agAIn at 1A in the first five seconds of solving. My (don’t be jealous ) *brilliant* mind was apparently fine with the well-known corporate gALES department. And who hasn’t heard of nAMASCUS? I sometimes wonder how I get through my days. My husband made powdered doughnut holes that smell divine. Brunch is not til 10. I got to say, “Did you DUST THE BITES?” I could not have had a less serving (or amused) audience. Really enjoyed this puzzle. Solid, fun, fresh, and whimsical. Brava!!
@CCNY * less deserving ( or less amused ) audience* editable comments pleeeeeeese. Emus?
@CCNY I had instant AGAIN, too, but there is no such thing as an A BAR, so I was saved.
@CCNY that should be *bravi (?), no? (bravo would be for a he) Spencer is a they, it seems, from the column. Let’s respect that & not inject gender where it’s not necessary. Seems kinder.
At first I had Lego for 74D but was delighted to change it to KNEX. I still have mine from when I was young and love taking them out to build with my kids whenever we visit my parents’ house.
@Rachel For that, I had "KNOX" which makes wooden train sets, i.e., perfect "for a budding enginneer". Fixing that was my last box filled...
“What Paul McCartney was told when he asked what role first made Sally Fields famous?” WHY, SIR, THE NUN Emus, feel free to block this.
@Puzzlemucker -- Hah! Biiiiiiiiiiiig hah! Et tu, emu.
“Watch out for that icy patch, right outside the door where only yesterday it was a lovely spring day in Maine, but now look what we have!” MIND THE FREEZE Yeah, Spencer’s ad hominems were better. See y’all back here Monday, on *the best puzzle day of the year*!
'Screws the titans' made me laugh out loud which rarely happens to me with a crossword puzzle. Loved the theme and rest of the clues too.
Charming theme, with its wordplay. I, who love wordplay, adored this. I found it fun to try to guess the theme answers with as few crosses as possible. I also liked how the answer set didn’t have a same-old, same-old feeling. There were 14 answers never before used in the 80 years of NYT puzzles, including the theme answers, yes, but also lovely answers such as GREEN SPACE, NO ME GUSTA, and THNEEDVILLE. There were also five answers used only once before, including THE DEAD SEA, IT’S A ZOO, and PISSARRO. Lots of pop here. Freshness and wordplay – for me, pings of pleasure throughout. Thank you so much for this, Spencer!
In all of my 53 years of doing NY Times crosswords, this ranks as one of the top debuts. Smart and fun. Hope you contribute again soon, Spencer!
This *was* a fine Sunday offering, and a first Sunday from Spencer ... after three Saturdays. Total Debut Latest Collabs 4 5/13/2023 3/31/2024 2 Sun MonTue WedThu Fri Sat 1 0 0 0 0 0 3
This felt harder than usual to me. It’s probably my slowest Sunday time in months. Starting off with agAIn for 1A certainly didn’t help. Then there was the wacky theme, which I didn’t fully get until I had 80% of the grid done. (I typically skip the Sunday puzzle titles.) At least it helped me get CITES THE SEE. Then there were the unusual answers THNEEDVILLE and AULII. With the former, I knew all the crosses were right except possibly SPuNk; once I ditched that, I was able to get SIRE. REDACTED eluded me; I could only read “Struck out” in the baseball sense or the metaphorical sense based on that. Never heard of Sea ISLE City.
@Eric Hougland I had similar issues.... Especially thinking of struck out in a way other than baseball or like striking out with a potential love interest. Also never having heard of Sea Isle City. I did really enjoy the puzzle overall though and I hope you did too!! 😊
@Eric Hougland I also was slow off the blocks on this puzzle. But I'm most curious as to your usually skipping the Sunday puzzles. Of course that's completely fine but it was surprising to me and I'm wondering what's your rationale.
Oof that was hard, but so much fun. If I can refer back to yesterday’s puzzle, dare I say the fun element was what was missing. (No disrespect intended to the constructor). Again, there was so much I didn’t know that was US specific, but that of course is half the fun of solving as an International. Plus I’m learning so much Spanish. I stuck with organ for HIHAT for too long, which held up that corner. Ditto sear for CHAR. The bottom right was a total Natick; NES? STAN? HOLT? And I’m guessing DEW is a make of fizzy drink? BUT, I did know TONEME and BJÖRK (always picture her wearing the dead swan dress), so, you know, not a total idiot. Loved the theme, made me chuckle once I got it. More please.
@Helen Wright Mountain Dew, now stylized as Mtn Dew on its labels, is also advertised simply as DEW. One of its slogans is "Do the DEW". It's a citrus-flavored drink made by Pepsi that occasionally is also offered in other flavors. It's well-known for its high caffeine content and bright green color. A diet version is available. In the UK, a similar product is called Mountain Dew Energy. (The original product was introduced briefly in the 90s, but didn't catch on there.) The term "mountain dew" originally referred to moonshine, or homemade whiskey or similar distilled beverages. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Dew" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Dew</a> (I had ORGAN at first, too.)
@Helen Wright I had BJORN in there for a while, and even after I changed the N to a K, I pictured a man.... I hear the Muppet cook going BJORK BJORK BJORK!
I turned to my teenage daughter for help with Taylor Swift and Brooklyn Nine-Nine answers. She’s always delighted to have me lean on her areas of expertise. Loved this puzzle, fun theme, good clueing, just crunchy enough for my taste.
(Second try) [Electronically send a head shot?] FAX THE FACE Et tu, emu.
TIL: YEET Bet I encounter it twice more this week. Not counting its ‘absolutely coincidental’ re-appearance(s) in the daily xword puzzles. Just like ARHAT. Give me a break, NYT.
@Clem my teenage kids taught me YEET a few years ago. I think it's a fun word to use.
Except that "arse" is NOT "git's equivalent across the pond". They mean completely different things.
@Wes No they don't. They can both mean an unpleasant person.
@Wes Also the link for that clue in the Wordplay column doesn't explain anything. Also as an American I've never heard "git" used in this way.
Trying to understand HONOR THE DEW. Donner the hue? Calling Dr. Spooner. Too many weird words and for pity's sake NO MORE ASSES OR ARSES. I can't say I loved this one at all. Found the humor lame overall. So very many young 'uns lately--it's wearing thin.
@Listening "Do the honor(s)" as in would you "do me the honor of being my best man" or similar.
@Listening In my family, "would you like to do the honors?" was how my dad offered someone a chance to use his fancy electric knife to carve the turkey. I'm pretty sure we used it in other contexts too - maybe passing out the Christmas presents - but that's the only one I remember for sure. I'm a fan of lame humor in crosswords, myself. It's the only kind I have much of a chance to get. Any time I can get the aha moment, even if it's a groaner, is a good time for me.
Very fun, the theme was humorous. Plus, the answers fit for today’s holiday quite well. CITES THE SEE, DAMASCUS, CHRIST. I completely fell for bEATS THE BEETS. Realised I was wrong. HERBAL tea following the beets was pretty fitting. HBO SHOW was a good step away from max. I really liked how every section could be worked out on its own, with the crosses. ITS A ZOO took me the longest.
[Covering a bruise with a Band-Aid?] SEALING THE HIT Et tu, emu.
I just want to say that this is my single favorite set of clues and answers I've ever seen. Maybe it's because the creator is closer to my age than usual, but a bunch of these made me smile or laugh out loud. YEET, EAT THE RICH, SCREWS THE TITANS, along with a few pop culture references that I actually knew - I really loved this. And the theme wasn't a stretch that only makes sense when you're done, almost no crosswordese, this was just delightful.
When I got to SCREWS THE TITANS I recalled TIGHTY RIGHTY from days of yore (five or six days of yore ago) and gave this puzzle a swipe right, hoo boy! It was a rich jumble of a puzzle, at times with easy fill and other times bumptious and ornery, a whitewater feel and with a few bruises awaiting the solver, not your elegant kayaking on Lake George. Ah, the Python program. It reminds me of when digital cameras replaced film cameras; my professional photographer friends all disdained the new cameras and the lack of darkroom hands-on work involved, just as audiophiles upheld analog records in the face of CDs, etc. Sooner or later most of them come around to the Dark Side. But the argument still goes on, and will for generations. I assume it makes the fill easier but who can replace humans for the cluing? I'm sure no-one wants google's Gemini to try its hand. I mean, gah! So we can say the cluing is where the creativity lies these days. Of course, Python offers a range of options and I imagine that the better the constructor the more there is a give-and-take in the choices of words, which is why I feel fine in applauding Pissarro, Cat Burglar, Eat The Rich, even the horrible Thneedville: the constructor put them there, not some program, and I'm a fan! It's pretty organic, or more accurately, 80% cotton, 20% rayon. "Press the Meat" -- sounds like what a vulgarian like LBJ or Nixon would have called campaign meet-n-greets. Pressing the meat...
@john ezra Over years I had collected some thousands of LPs. When I could no longer find replacement parts for my wondrous linear tracking turntable, and there were no longer turntables to be found in any of the shops, I sold or gave away that huge collection I had been lugging around for years. Now that things have rebalanced a bit, I find myself slowly reassembling that lost collection (some treasures never to be recovered, alas). All because vinyl is clearly superior to any other available medium in the ears of this audiophile. Just pull out Solti's recording of Mahler 8 on vinyl and you will immediately recognize the point. The poverty of sound from streaming services makes howl in anguish and frustration.
¡ME GUSTA! Took me awhile in some particularly tricky (for me) areas and lots of deleting some of my original answers (lego instead of KNEX, again instead of I SAID, guppy instead of BETTA, etc.) but it was all fun! A no-lookups gold star!! (Although, not knowing KNEX or TONEME, I did have to find my error when there was no happy music. I figured it might be there b/c I'd guessed TONoME and KNoX b/c I just didn't know either way. I hope no one forces me to choose a favorite of the theme answers but once I figured out HEAT THE BEATS (after trying bEAT THE BEETS, which had me chuckling but didn't make sense), I enjoyed filling out the others fairly smoothly. A small victory: it took a while but I remembered HI HAT at 11D from earlier puzzles. Huzzah!!! Maybe one day it'll come quickly but I struggled with that little section mightily. I didn't know the NJ city, never heard of eboys or goth girls, wasn't sure if it was ESO or ESe, and had a hard time not thinking of struck out as either baseball or got turned down. But I persisted and earned my gold star! I was also pleased to remember YALIE from a previous puzzle! And I really enjoyed a lot of the non-themed longer answers too. NEATO, indeed! Btw, checkers is banned in our household because my darling husband and I cannot agree on the rules (i.e., he cheats!) He grew up with Honduran rules, and I with (the proper) U.S. Midwest rules. We otherwise get along swimmingly! 😊
Absolutely delighted by this puzzle, though I know some solvers will wish to YEET it over the back fence. Had one unfair cluing advantage having grown up on NJ's barrier island, but still was blinded for far too long by thinking fiery matches were HeTDATES . My sincere apologies to the sexuality and gender theorists in our community.
I'm not the fastest solver but 2:23:20 seems like a really long solve time. So I must have dozed off for 1 or 2 minutes.
coloradoz, Or changed time zones? emu proofing?
@coloradoz It took me over 2 hours today. The last hour on a single word--which was in the figure caption at the top of the column. (Gnash teeth).
It's disheartening when some old friends appear in the puzzle (Camille PISSARRO, Joan MIRO), and you know the company that cleaned up on the market courtesy of COVID was CLOROX, and the funny rearrangements step up to make you laugh (CITE THE SEE, PRESS THE MEAT, SCREWS THE TITANS were favorites), and you grit your teeth and google a some unknown actors (fair's fair), and do everything you can think of to finish the puzzle, and still have to take the humiliating peek to find a couple of words that I still reject—TONEME and KNEX—well, those two NO ME GUSTA. This was the hardest Sunday puzzle I've ever struggled with; I'm glad it's done, but I do see what a blinking feat of construction it was, and I thank you for it, Spencer Leach. Bumpy ride though it was, I'm glad I found the SPINE to finish it.
Christ, Pieta, Dead Sea, Holy See, thanks for the Easter touches.
"We shall never ever swallow each other! Unless, you know, we're kinda hungry.) -The Python Code
Well, first I had to get over the shock of seeing a NYT Sunday puzzle with the exact same title as another NYT Sunday puzzle with the exact same title -- a puzzle that is especially HART TO MY DEER. For those of you who don't remember it, here's the link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/23/2022" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/23/2022</a> But while this one is very similar in concept, there's no overlap in the answers -- so I guess no harm, no foul. Did I like this one? As far as the theme answers went, yes. They were clever and well chosen -- my favorite being CITES THE SEE. The less said about some of the fill, though, the better. The worst area -- the area I couldn't finish -- was the Asian sound unit crossed with the Brooklyn Nine Nine police captain crossed with the toy game for budding engineers crossed with the Spanish phrase. I might have "finished" the puzzle if I'd cheated, but why bother? The pet fish bothered me too, but at least that was in a section where I could get everything else. Bottom line? The editing really shoulda been BETTA.
Nancy, I am truly surprised that your erudition and language skills did not let you finish without cheating the area you chose not to finish. I would have expected BETTA. SRSLY.
@Nancy I had the B, so I entered BETAS (misremembering) and that gave me fits for a bit. But I knew the Spanish phrrase (4 yrs in HS) and figured out the TONEME. That wasn't the toughest for me.... I was slowed by my efforts at 35D, where I tried A MINUTE MORE and other iterations.
@Nancy HOLT and TONEME was my personal Natick too. I'm bad with names in general, and didn't know the other word but once I finally guessed it, it made perfect sense, so hopefully it will stick until the next time I need to know it. I hadn't encountered KNEX before either. Here in Az I have lots of incentive to learn Spanish and lots of occasions to practice, reading billboards at stoplights and so on, so I'm always happy to see a bit of Spanish in the puzzle.
I noted “raise the alarm” at 22A, so knew how the theme was going to work. Still lots of work to be done, but all of it fun. One of the most enjoyable Sundays for a while. Not too easy, I always need some help, but very satisfying. Looking forward to more from Spencer.
Fun, and done in less than an hour while watching the goldfinch swarming the feeders on my deck. They're turning yellow again - spring is near! Kudos to the author for his innovative thinking - and his sense of humour. (We did have to google New Jersey's city, as neither of us has ever heard of it ... sorry about that.)
Me gusta mucho! Got my dunce music. RIP André Braugher.
@Roger André Braugher--what an actor. And what a voice! If he'd made an album called "André Braugher Reads Ikea Instructions", I'd have bought it and listened to it regularly.
Tough Sunday. I was sure something was wrong with THNEEDVILLE and/or AULII, but no. My mistake was with KNoX/TONoME. End of a streak ... Clever theme! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The NYT crossword has taught me so much about Taylor Swift against my will. Someone please make it stop…
Fun puzzle and theme today. What took me the longest time was thinking that the garnet was the birthstone of either June or July, leaving me stuck on _EU. Lego before KNEX, Shall I before THATSO, and a near-Natick (maybe call it a parallel Natick) with THEARCHER and THNEEDVILLE. Good start to the day. Oh, and while we're at it, did anyone else have a terrible time with Friday's Strands? It probably too me an hour and a half.
@Jack McCullough I had CNEX earlier......those came along after our son (a born engineer if ever there was one) was deeply into LEGOs and we never got him any KNEX. He also had a set of Meccano --something I believe his grand-dad had coveted as a youngster. Legos, with their little people, were more engaging. When our son graduated into rocketry, he sent a crew of Lego-men into the wild blue yonder......and we couldn't find them or figure out where they had landed. Months and months later, I was on the tractor, mowing, and spotted a flash of color: it was the rocket with all on board. PhysDau and I bore them up the hill in a basket, humming the Dead March, and restored them to their rightful home.
@Jack McCullough If I remember correctly, I needed two hints for Friday’s Strands. In the first week of that game, I didn’t need any hints. Now, it’s a bit harder. Maybe they’re just better at coming up with vague or ambiguous titles, but I more often need a hint to understand the theme.
@Jack McCullough I used 3 hints on Friday's Strands, just couldn't seem to find a way to dig French loaner words out of my brain. I'm finally getting comfortable with Connections (usually) and do that and Wordle every morning; jury's still out on whether I'll add Strands to the routine. If it keeps taking me so long I'll have to skip it, or move it to evenings with the crossword when I'm not doing anything useful anyway.
No hablo Español. (Thanks google translate!) Sorry, but I just don’t, never have done and unlikely to start soon. This means that I will often face a couple of clues that, by default, either rely on crosses or require guessing/googling. My rudimentary French (and occasionally German) get me through another handful of clues each week, but presumably these cause similar issues for others who ne parle pas Français or sprect nicht Deutsch. My Finnish is pretty good, I know there are about a hundred times more Spanish speakers in the world than Finns, but surely the frequency of clues in other languages means I’m due a ‘Summer in Helsinki’ any day now, right? I’ll keep waiting…
@Stephen Don't hold your breath... Emus Will not Come to the rescue.
@Stephen Sauna and Nokia seem to show up with some regularity.
@Stephen I'm surprised we don't see SUOMI more often; it is after all 60% vowels.
I'm not getting any cleverness from the theme sadly, which made this much more of a slog than it would have been. Glad it seems to be mostly well received though
The Nintendo 64, not the Super NES, was the GameCube's direct predecessor.
It gave me a moment's pause too, but 'predecessor' doesn't always have to mean the immediate predecessor.
This bugged me too. I get that it's technically correct, but I'm wondering why they would choose this clue from a crossword construction perspective. It doesn't really work as a misdirect since "Nintendo 64" doesn't fit in the grid at all (and isn't Super). Maybe "Nintendo 64 predecessor" would be too easy of a clue since it includes "Nintendo"? Or maybe it violates the "no answer words in clues" rule even though it's just the initial in the answer?
Spencer Leach, that was tough. But enjoyable and terrific theme. Congrats on your first Sunday puzzle.
WOW, indeed. This may be the last time I print the Sunday puzzle on a single page. I was using a magnifying glass to read the numerals. (I have already admitted it's time to have the cataract surgery.) The solve took forever because I was having to go back and forth repeatedly, kept losing my place (needed an extra arm), etc. Sheesh. However: caught on at the 'smashburgers' for PRESS THE MEAT (after thinking PRESS THE FLESH)....and went back to correct HARVEST BEETS (since that wasn't funny)..and then off to the races. Last into the grid: IN RE because of the pesky THNEEDVILLE. The later Dr. Seuss books were clumsy, preachy, and boring, so I never read those to the kids (and hence, never read them at all.) After yesterday's puzzle and today's SCREWS, the NYT has officially shed its pretensions to grace and propriety, I'd say. Whatever. (I don't care, in the great scheme of things, just commenting on the sea change. THE DEAD SEA...not THE ARAL SEA.)
@Mean Old Lady I put off the cataract surgery for a long time but when I finally had it done, I was so glad I did. Night driving was miserable. A bonus was my bad eye is now actually correctable with glasses - before, they just matched my good eye prescription. Good luck with it when you're ready to take the plunge.
@Mean Old Lady grandson went through a big Lorax movie phase. (Thanks, Daniel, for that answer!) I had cataract surgery a year ago. My distance vision is better. Couln't afford the one that corrects both. Recovery was fine. RECOMMENDATION: See if your opthalmologist can order you the two types of eye drops combined. I had to pay for them - $60 - but SO much easier.
@Mean Old Lady As has already been mentioned, even if you had read the later Dr. Seuss books to your kids, you wouldn’t have run across THNEEDVILLE. You’d have to go to the movie theater. The cataract surgery is a no brainer IMHO. You will be amazed at the bright and vivid colors when that yellow dullness is suddenly lifted. But do give a lot of thought to what diopter to aim for in the new intraocular lenses. I was always very near-sighted, but had great close-up vision even in later years. That all went away with the new lenses.
Late to the party. I finished this early this morning but then had a long, busy day. Anyway - nice Sunday puzzle; figuring out the trick was, of course, the key and that made this a mostly enjoyable solve. Back on a one day streak. We'll see how long this lasts. ..
What’s this? My favorite Taylor Swift song in the NYT crossword puzzle? Thank you for the fun solve!
Really loved this puzzle! I’ve completed hundreds of NYT Sunday puzzles, and this one was a first for me regarding this level of enjoyment. I sure hope we see more of Spencer’s puzzles because I didn’t find a single example of making up words or terms, or twisting the meanings of the language until it’s unrecognizable.
Couldn’t stand the theme of this particular crossword. Reversing the order and relying on wordplay feels like it’s making things difficult without any real creativity.
Cute puzzle. Would solve again.
This puzzle was a shear delight, I loved the witticisms. I admit to six cheats, but for me on a Sunday, that's a reasonable amount. I can't say I'll remember the 'sound unit' for next time, or the police captain on a show I never watched, for example, but I didn't mind looking them up. I hope to see many more puzzles from Spencer Leach!
Thank you Spencer, for an enjoyable Sunday puzzle! A bit of a Natick with sound units and toy brands, but easy enough to run some vowels through the paces. A little easier than a typical Sunday, perhaps? (16 minutes under my average). A terrific theme presentation, though.