Sunday, April 7, 2024

Lots of fun, and a good Sunday BRAIN(TT)ER. Thanks, Tracy!

If you’ve been wondering how Will Shortz is doing, he emceed the ACPT this weekend: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/hkysa7xy" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/hkysa7xy</a> I think there’s about 45 minutes of video before he shows up. He seems to be recovering well.

So the theme was EEZPPZ since EEONDOWNTHEROAD was a gimme to me. But oddly enough another theme could have been Trivia I’ve Never Even Heard Of (but maybe should). TABOURET, VOILE, STAYMAN, PUENTE, ENSOR,SINEBAR, EMILIO and ANTIHERO (as a Taylor Swift song) as a start—a long list for me for a Sunday. If I were like many commentators lately I suppose I would just say it’s the worst puzzle ever and blame it on the editors in Will’s absence. Instead I’m going to chalk it up to one of those days the constructor just has a wider experience than I do in those areas, or else dug further in their word bank to make a really tight clever theme work. So I'll just be grateful that today I got to learn a lot of new things and managed to get through the puzzle regardless, admittedly having to run through the alphabet a few times.

This is a beauty of a puzzle that was a complete joy to solve. More on that later. Someone in yesterday's comments mentioned Casey Kasem (thinking of him instead of Ryan Seacrest) and that's the only reason I knew it. It pays to read Wordplay! I don't remember who it was, but thank you. I had to get CINC from the crosses because I only know POTUS to be Commander in Chief. The sad part is that I then stared at CINC thinking it was some americanized version of the French "cinq" and, of course, I could make no sense of it. I shrugged my shoulders and carried on. It was only after seeing the letters again in the column that it hit me, and then a huge head slap hit me as well. Doh! It made me smile to see MEAN for "intend" since that was my entry yesterday, before "hope." It's really interesting how "hope" or MEAN can stand in for "intend" but in slightly different ways. English is a phenomenal language, with all its twists and turns. As I started out by saying, I enjoyed this beautiful puzzle to the max. At each Double Duty entry, I stopped to take it in, in awe of the mind that created it. The whole solve was a joy, from start to finish. Thank you, Ms. Gray, for this veritable gem!

Fun puzzle. I'd never heard of a sine bar but now I know it's the sine qua non for measuring or setting angles. But I guess I've just gone off on a tangent.

A just-right chaser to yesterday’s deep dive. Coursing through Tracey’s puzzle was like tubing down the river, engaged, relaxed, and happy. There were lovely answers that surprisingly, to me, have never shown up in the 80 years of NYT crosswords – ARE YOU UP, A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES, BLACK EYED PEAS, USE IT OR LOSE IT. Other new answers (there were 11 in total) included NY YANKEE, QUESO DIP, and SEIZE THE MOMENT. New answers mean new clues, all sparking the grid, keeping things interesting. I liked seeing CLAM up, and my ear worm for the day is “Life is a TABOURET, old chum”. WETHE is a lovely dook. Plus, there were some areas of resistance that satisfied my brain’s work ethic. Ahhh. Thank you, Tracy. This was the BBs knEE for me today.

What a lovely puzzle to COMPOO! Et tu, emu.

Late to finish today... I'm of two minds. First, I loved the theme and how the double clues worked. Cracked that early and had a fun time finding those answers. Filled the puzzle pretty quickly, but with low confidence. Then, my second impression is that there are WAY too many natick or natick-ish crosses in this puzzle. If I don't know the name of a particular kind of stool or the name of a particular artist, I have a square I need to run the alphabet for. One of those isn't really a problem... but if you add in the following proper name crosses you have a problem: Iraqi city / Jewelry brand name Curtain fabric / metrology tool name Gymnast surname / apple variety name Musical notation name / Obscure Japanese vegetable And those are just the ones that had me scratching my head. I'm sure things I took for granted were a challenge for others. When you have 3, 4 or 5 of these crosses, you end up needing to get lucky or run the alphabet for hundreds of combinations. Sure, you can infer that 33D is either ALI or ALY, but that multiplies the number of alphabet runs by 2. 18D is probably a consonant, so again, it isn't 26 letters to try, but we're already up to 40+ and we have 3 more trouble spots to include. If you don't know either of the words, just just have to run the letters.. there is no puzzling out the name of a city you don't know and a brand name you don't know... you need to just try all the vowels. Not impressed.

Well, that was a big change from Saturday. Hopefully commenters have had time to calm down. There seemed to be record numbers of angry solvers for a challenging Saturday puzzle. Those who complained that "intend" did not equate to "hope" got their preferred "mean" today. Todays puzzle reminded me of a ditty that my mother used to recite: YYUR YYUB ICUR YY4ME (Too wise you are / Too wise you be / I see you are / Too wise for me) Something to amuu the emuu...

A cleverly-constructed Sunday puzzle that was fun to do.Thank you!

What good is sitting with a back on your stool? Let your back ache all day. Life is a Tabouret, old chum, Sit on the Tabouret.

Not only do I LOVE rebus puzzles, I cannot wait for each Thursday morning in anticipation that it may be a rebus. A Sunday rebus is a super welcome bonus!

On a scale of 1-10, my enjoyment level for Ms. Gray's grid maxed out at 20! Lots of fun!

Though I wouldn't call this puzzle "fast-paced", it was a BREE after yesterday's slog.

After the AGONEE some suffered with the Saturday puzzle… I hope there were no further MALADD with this fun Sunday. Cheers y’all.

Great clue for FARM. Nice Sunday rebus! Not too crunchy, not too sweet. And, I swear Joel is messing with us. Is TIVO making a comeback, or what? And yesterday the debate over “Intend” - HOPE Today, “Mean”- INTEND! SEACREST yesterday, KASEM today! And CABOOSES. I’m sure there were more. I don’t know what the intention is, and I certainly don’t mind. But curious if they’re repeating answers to build confidence in newer solvers? Reminds me that ages ago, the Oreo of the puzzle was Oleo. Could barely go 2 days without it. And Arabian seaport was practically required as a clue. It’s interesting to me, anyway. I’m sounding old. CC out.

The beach's webpage is a site for shore eyes. (It's a great place to surf.)

Very clever, Ms. Gray. If there were a vote, I'd say the II have it. Fairly EEyPPy. I had a little trouble only in the NE, where I had to change highiq to IQTEST, realize that 25A isn't S___ ON (two words), and pull ENSOR out of the back of my mind to resolve the Naticky crossing with TABOURET (a TIL for me too).

My appreciation for this Sunday puzzle. (GG)LOUISEITSTHE(BB)KNEES cc: emu handler

A welcome respite, I must say! Clever gimmick and fresh fill, SIX themers!, and a couple of new words. What's not to like? (Okay, a tiny nit: for 20A..."Light-weight curtain fabric"....this was the perfect opportunity to force SamE to acknowledge NINON--which I stitched up for front-room drapery back in the day. Oh, well.) Just had breakfast pancakes; I had suggested to DHubby that addiing shredded coconut and pecans to the batter would be tasty. The first bite was quite a surprise: he didn't chop up the pecans. Would have made a good April Fools' gag. New to me: TABOURET and WAVE SKI. Not likely to encounter the latter, but I've used a TABOURET often, all unknowingly. Two new words in Japanese! Domo arigato. For the bird's name that begins with a silent letter, Tracy, one day would you please, please use PTARMIGAN? CINC was of course an instant gimme. On the road down to Honolulu, you passed a little sign as the highway approached Pearl Harbor; it read: CINCPACFLT --> (That little memory is taking up much-needed room in my brain...) Second day for CABOOSE(s)....Hope we've seen the back of that one, now. Adieu, mes amis!

Meet James ENSOR Belgium's famous painter Dig him up and shake his hand Appreciate the man --They Might Be Giants, 1994 <a href="https://youtu.be/NA0FJ3akfUs" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/NA0FJ3akfUs</a> Fun puzzle, although the Ensor/tabouret intersection would've been tricky without this lovely song.

Well, I'm not sure that I had a rollicking good time, but I got through. It is an impressive puzzle. I got the rebuses, mostly from the fairly easy double letter down crosses, E.g. NYANKEE for 72D. But 74A ending in ...THEYY made no sense to my brain. II think I expected the rebus to be identical in the crosses. Although I think I've maybe encountered and not understood similar rebus crossings in earlier puzzles. I will get smart someday (wishful thinking). The rebus comment is not a complaint, The rebuses were very clever, much more interesting than YY across and down in what I cited above. Now I understand rebusdom a little better. I did find some of the trivia (my take, not necessarily anyone else's) obscure. But I'm no purist and after I've filled what I can I'm happy to use DuckDuckGo for inspiration. Generally a lookup makes an entire area clearer. And looking at a map of Iraq and following the Tigris looking for a city that satisfied my crossings was pure joy - I really love maps. And for lookups I draw the line at those spoilsport NYTimes crosswordd clue results. Final thought: I will probably enter ALI for Olympian ALY many more times, did it before, did it today, will certainly do it next time.

Super fun and very clever--after a very tiresome Saturday grid. I was especially happy to see Casey KASEM show up today, as he had been my first thought yesterday, for the answer that turned out to be Ryan SEACREST.

I hope(intend?) we can all agree that if you only watch one reality show set in a Florida tattoo parlor, it should be "Miami Ink"! ("St. Pete Pigment" is a close second) Very fun theme! Took me about half the time as yesterday's puzzle(which, sorry, I loved). EMILIO Pucci seemed like a name I'd soon forget until I googled "Pucci print" as @sotto voce yyly suggested. Wowza! Why has nobody made an odd-couple sitcom about Pucci and James Ensor sharing an atelier?!?! Too cute! No, wait! Even better: they're coproprietors of a tattoo parlor! *cc himself out*

Yes, I ran the alphabet at Ensor/Tabouret. Just glad that was the only one.

What an awful slog. Please never inflict another puzzle like this on us again.

My times solving the Saturday and Sunday puzzles won't reveal the full story. I spent far less time on the Saturday, as I began cheating right away, and cheated twenty seven times. However, I loved spending time on the Sunday puzzle. Even so, I got it all filled and didn't hear the music. I was able to find two of my mistakes on my own, but couldn't detect the third, so I brought up the answer pdf. Alas, I'd spelled the Iraqi city as 'Samaria', but TIL, there's two cities with a similar name. 'Samaria' is in the West Bank of Palestine. This was a fun puzzle. I hope to see many more puzzles from Tracy Gray.

For me, the contrast of Saturday and Sunday puzzles makes each that much more enjoyable. The context of the progression of all past puzzles enhances the present experience. The flow of challenge and ease. The variations in creative ideas from the constructors. I really appreciated the comments yesterday. Some so edgy and raw. Great insights into what makes an effective puzzle. It all brings me to see more than I might have on my own.

Tracy, thanks for the much-needed confidence boost after yesterday’s debacle. I always enjoy that aha moment after you are certain of an answer but it doesn’t fit. The frustration followed by the lightbulb 💡 is the mental workout I’m here for. EONDOWNTHEROAD indeed! This time it happened in two varieties, which was unexpected and welcome. ARTICIRCLE and MIAMINK had me flummoxed until I realized a second game was afoot. Side note — living outside the city in Portugal is a real delight. I have had to learn the language and customs, which makes it all the more interesting. However, you won’t find an OMELETTE anywhere! The typical Portuguese breakfast is a pastel (pastry) with coffee. That’s it! The only American breakfast I eat is made in my casa. 🤣. The Portuguese lunches and dinners are quite tasty, though!

This was a rare case of me figuring out a theme on my own, so a nice surprise. That being said... Yesterday we had CZARISTS and today a TSAR. Are the editors trolling us on purpose?

Yay, a doable Sunday. For reasons too boring to relate, my brain is a little overwhelmed right now, so getting the theme early on felt like a win. Like Caitlin it was the BLACK EYED PS that pinged the lightbulb. Working out the others was a lot of fun. Yes, it was as crunchy as I’d expect for a Sunday, but knowing the theme was such a help. As always, the many US centric names and products were the sticking point, but the crosses gave me enough for an educated guess most of the time. I stuck with Casey, as in Casey Jones, at 96A for too long. I remembered the tv show from childhood, perhaps it had started on radio?🤷‍♀️ As 72D and 99 D were complete naticks it was a good a guess as any. Ditto 123A. I had ‘lit a fire’; it’s a no-no here, other than in designated fire pits. The one clunky sounding clue to my English ears was CIDERY. Is that genuinely what they’re called in the US? Here in Somerset, the home of cider production in the UK, they’re called cider barns, or just fruit farms. I’m lucky enough to live in the middle of a large apple and pear orchard. In the next month (if the storm winds ease off) we’ll be surrounded by blossom. It’s an incredibly beautiful sight. Crossword complete, the dog and I are off for a blowy, muddy walk around said orchards. Current wind speeds are around 45 mph, enough to whip your raincoat about. Ugh.

Thank you Tracy Gray for double the fun puzzle. I really enjoyed all the clues and solves, specially the Blackeyed PP's. I had a few look ups, I don't know sports folks names, but the rest just flowed. I had every letter except the "r" in tabouret/Ensor not knowing either one. The double y in the southeast corner was another fun one. After yesterday's extremely difficult puzzle (I was determined to finish and think I had to look up every other word...geez laweez someone is very smart and it's not me. Hopefully I'll retain some of what I learned for next time). Thanks again NYTs and cheering on Mr. Shortz in his recovery! Tomorrow is the big solar event here, so lots of extra excitement afoot. Have a great day all.

What a fun puzzle! We nailed it in a bit over 45 minutes. Nice rebus action, and some good puns. I chuckled at the inclusion of Taylor Swift, Black-eyed Peas, and Encanto all in one puzzle – bit of recent pop hit history. Hope Mr. Shortz is recovering well. Yes, I notice a difference. No, it's not the end of the world, nor of my subscription :-)

It took me most of the morning to recover from 28A... I just don't know why CLAMicide is OK in these puzzles. Other than that -- a good puzzle, and a very easy theme that should keep some of the whining about rebuses down. Very approachable.

SEACREST Saturday; KASEM Sunday. CZARISTS Saturday; TSAR Nicholas Sunday. Saturday, a lot of complaints about the puzzle's difficulty; Sunday, no doubt there will be complaints about rebuses. This one took me half the time that the Saturday one did, and I hardly had to slow down anywhere. You CAN have, and you CAN enjoy, harder and easier puzzles.

Quelle surprise! CABOOSE - again! I’m not even going to go through it again: it’s so clear that these puzzles are NOT submitted by different people around the country and edited for months and … odd words keep popping up on consecutive days and then disappearing again for years. It’s a sweet facade … but I’ve grown rather fond of the idea of the one guy who writes them all and gets paid daily in cash (and retreats to his favorite watering hole with his three best friends JB, JD, and sweet GR, etc.) [See my previous comments on the subject.] Never forget ARHAT. Pull my other leg, NYT! LOL

Great Sunday puzzle — the theme was very nicely executed and satisfying to uncover, but also pretty easy to pick up on (though IMO it would have worked just as well sans rebus). I felt a bit Naticked in the NE corner at Puente and Ensor — and this was compounded by the dictionary trivia “tabouret”, which makes me wish some crossword influencer would use their platform to coin a new term for such a Natick subtype. That said, neither Puente nor Ensor seems obscure, so I don’t think this was a proper Natick…just an attack on me, personally. I’m also tempted to nitpick about “CINC”, as I’ve only seen “CIC” used *within* the military. But maybe that’s just me? Anyway: that was a great weekend pairing, kudos to everyone involved!

Is there a way for me to put a hold on my streak until Will Shortz comes back? I don’t mind hard puzzles, when they’re fun. I think it might be better for me to just move to a different puzzle universe.

Ugh. I finished with no hints or lookups, but gods above was this a viciously Natick-y puzzle. I sussed out the gimmick right away and blitzed through the vast majority of the grid, but at the end I had to waste a whole lot of minutes playing the plug-in-arbitrary-letters game in a few spots in order to get the win. I'm not complaining that there were answers I didn't know in this grid, but some of the crosses were needlessly, nastily obscure. Just glad I'm done and can move on to more enjoyable puzzles.

Liked this one a lot! If I had gone to see "The Wiz" even once like everyone else has, I would have been able to make I'VE EATEN fit at 1D from the get-go. But I never could stand all that shrill caterwauling from the woman with the green face. So I didn't know EE ON DOWN THE ROAD. What made it even harder to see was that I had "THE ROAr", not "THE ROAD". SErenE instead of SEDATE for "Calm" -- and I wouldn't give it up. I had less trouble not knowing ANTIHERO -- which came in on its own. I don't listen to Taylor Swift either -- can't stand all that endless caterwauling about her relationships-gone-bad. And even though I've never heard of, much less listened to the BLACKEYED PP, I have heard of a TEACUP POODLE. I'm pretty sure that's where I picked up the theme. By then ??ITORLOSEIT was already filled in and everything fell into place. Very enjoyable -- with wonderfully well-chosen theme answers at both the Acrosses and the Downs. I always love it when the Acrosses and Downs play differently in a rebus puzzle. Gives it a special je ne said quoi. Great job, Tracy!

Today was my first time figuring out a rebus without help. And I figured out all of them. Back on March 18, I commented that I was considering giving up on crosswords to concentrate on painting portraits: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/3tpr74?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/3tpr74?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a> But Eric Hougland of Austin TX gave me the exact encouragement I needed here in a comment when I needed it: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/3tq13h?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/3tq13h?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a> And I'm almost finished with a complex double portrait watercolor commission too. -`♡´-

Easy and breezy and fun. Until I ended with an error. Was it the way I entered the double letters? No, I had an extraneous L in LITTERED. Oops. And today I learned about a TABOURET.

Finally a rebus I can solve! :D Really enjoyed today’s puzzle!

This was a fun puzzle. I enjoy rebuses when they accompany a theme, and these worked really well. I figured there had to be some sort of trick when “black eyed peas” didn’t fit, and I got “seize” the moment from crosses so it all clicked into place rather nicely. That said, certain number of the non-theme clues, like the past couple weeks, seem to really lack the wit, elegance, and tautness that I associate with the Shortz era. I don’t know that it’s made them that much more difficult, on the whole, but they have been notably less fun for me. I know Mr. Shortz’s time as editor is finite, and I wonder if we will see his like again on the NYT crossword. I hope he is recovering well (not for the sake of the crossword, just for him as a human being).

I enjoyed this puzzle. It was plenty hard but fun, which is what counts for me. The rebuses were extremely clever.

What a contrast with yesterday’s puzzle. Saturday I had perhaps my slowest time ever (and that despite a couple look ups). Sunday I had one of my fastest Sunday times ever. I liked the double letter trick, and enjoyed much of the rest of the Sunday puzzle, especially hip place for a drink as a clue for FLASK. Now if only Saturday had been a smidge less opaque and Sunday a little more challenging, I’d have doubled my pleasure. Why oh why don’t these constructors calibrate their puzzles to my particular solving level?

Finally, a puzzle I could sink my teeth into, finish, and enjoy. As a veteran solver, I've been so distressed by the horrible turn the end-of-week puzzles have taken, so this was a breath of fresh air. Thank you, Tracy!

I wanted Casey Kasem yesterday but I got him today!! Yeah!! I said it yesterday and I'll say it again, keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the (crossword) stars! I guess to give you some insight into my life, the only words I could come up with to go with joint (word with joint or jam) in the midwest, was either gin or pain. 🫣 Neither of those went with jam, for which I could only think at the moment of Julia Andrews beautifully singing "Ti, a drink with jam and bread.... " So, all in all, it was a fun experience even my brief and silly lapses. Very fun puzzle and a cute theme! I figured it out with BLACK EYED PP. I sailed pretty well through without any lookups or helps in about 2/3 of my average time. Had one error at the end because I didn't know either the ENSOR or TABOURET... I figured all the rest out from the crosses but where the two of them crossed I plopped in an L and thought that sounded okay. I kind of figured that was my error when I didn't get the happy music, so I tried an R. Huzzah!! Thanks for a fun Sunday puzzle!!

Looking at several editorial oddities, I think you all miss Will Shortz

After the difficulty with Saturday's, this one was a relief. Discovered the rebus with the BLACK EYED PP answer, and that also helped with the tiny dog answer. Some of the other theme answers dropped in immediately because of the rebuses, which sped the solve along immensely. I lucked out with my guess for 17D/35A, and did think that was a bit difficult for a Sunday, but you're bound to run into a few things you don't know in a puzzle like this. I did pick up some trivia that surprised me, in that the Santana hit "Oye Como Va" was a cover of a composition by the 'King of Timbales', Tito PUENTE. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpAXzTpANNw" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpAXzTpANNw</a> Nice puzzle, Tracy, and thanks!