When it comes to this puzzle, I can digit. (These puns come in handy.)
@Mike As a pun-hater, I'm giving you the finger.
@Mike Your entry today has a nice ring to it -- no need to give you any pointers (which is true as a rule of thumb). Go lay an avocado-resembling egg, emus!
@Mike I think Dan from Alexandria has contacted a hit man. He's willing to finger you for the hired mobster. I thought he was exaggerating, but then what he said had the ring of truth to it.
If I’m being honest with myself, I’m really not smart enough for puzzles like this, but I still enjoy flailing away at them. Thank God my times aren’t a matter of public record.
@John Keep on keeping on and you will feel stronger and wiser. Time is not the most important thing here, but enjoyment should be. It's quite amazing what you learn from the clues, the answers and the comments provided on this forum. Keep at it - keep your mind and spirit and imagination open and most of all relish what you accomplish along the way.
@John I also struggle often. On clues that are about individuals I have no idea about, I like to look them up and read about them. I don’t consider that cheating, but learning! I get so much out of it.
I’m impressed that the digits appeared in order.
Wwwoooowww! Here I was plugging along thinking the letter repeats were random and getting a bit cross about it -- not unlike when I fat finger a text. Then comes the reveal and how wrong I was. Clever theme. I enjoyed sticking with this one.
"What are we going to do tomorrow night, Brain?" "The same thing we do every night, Pinky. TRY TO SOLVE THE NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD."
@Katie Wow, had never heard of this Toon... (our kids were too old for it, I guess) and I was thinking it referred to The Rats of NIMH...or were they Mice? [I remember Huckleberry Hound fondly from The Fifties. Didn't recall YOGI Bear (thinly disguised Berra with his lingistic slips) but got it off the Y.] Watched the clip that our Canadian neighbor linked for us. (See below...)
Opera strikes again. I was convinced the Puccini cross was 'lets lie' and it took me way too long to figure out my error even though Malama seemed off. Oh well... I guess opera is to me what sports were to a number of yesterday's commenters!
@Aaron I had "lets lie" as well. "Malama" didn't *seem* right to me, but it wasn't until I had filled in the whole puzzle and didn't get the victory music that I knew I needed to go back and give it a second look.
@Aaron I live for opera and sports clues. Pop culture, especially rappers can be my downfall without a lot of help from the crosses.
@Aaron Same here—I even managed to double-err, believing the former president had gotten a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) rather than an MBA, yielding the even more perplexing “dalama.”
Wow that was such a neat solve - loved how it worked in the app. Two thumbs up!
I’ve done the puzzle for over 65 years, most of the time successfully, but it’s become a stupid exercise in trying to parse a not very interesting cuteness. For me at least, a good puzzle should be a lexical challenge, in which you would burrow into the etymological roots of the language rather than play around with linguistic foibles that are estranged from reality. I’m saddened by this lack of regard for common sense.
@PR Betz The puzzles you enjoy require knowledge and memory, and I enjoy them as well. Many of the puzzles with tricks require lateral thinking, and that exercises my brain in another valuable manner. Lateral thinking helps us figure things out that we haven't been exposed to yet. I think of it as the survival TALENT.
PR Betz, The "linguistic foibles" in this crossword are very much a reality, and the theme makes complete [common] sense. NYT Crosswords have engaged in various forms of "cuteness" for most of the 65 years you've been doing them. Sorry you didn't find this particular iteration enjoyable. Did you enjoy the [themeless] Friday and Saturday puzzles?
@PR Betz as the youth would say “OK boomer”. You don’t enjoy this type of puzzle and that’s fine. That doesn’t make it “stupid” or imply a “lack of regard for common sense”. I’m sure there are venues that cater to the type of puzzle you prefer. Maybe seek those out. Many enjoy the extra level of puzzling found particularly in the Thursday and Sunday puzzles - they have been this way for many years. If that’s not you, maybe try something different on those days. I understand aversion to change, I hate when things I have got used to change, but when it happens, I either roll with it, get over it, or switch to something else. Sure I might gripe about it, but I realize it’s just personal preference. 😊 .:.:.:.
Sorry but IMHO this one was more annoying than fun. No matter how clever the reveal, if it doesn’t function as an actual crossword puzzle during the solving, it just feels unsatisfyingly gimmicky.
Like some others, I was momentarily thinking the duplicated letters would lead to "double blind." But the puzzle title and TTHHUUMMBB 22A got me going in the right direction. Then the last few "digits" fell into place easily. And it brought my streak to 1,600 days.
@Michael Weiland Congrats on a magnificent streak! . . . . . Emus are toasting you as well!
I very much enjoyed this puzzle, maybe because I figured out the "Double Digits," and when THUMB jumped out at me, I went looking for the embedded words. I admit, however, that I didn't realize they were our fingers! (Face palm. I think my brain was already short-circuited from the difficult solve.) And in order? Incredible construction, Mr. Karp! Two THUMBS up! I also thought the fill was rich and interesting, and some of it wasn't in my knowledge base, which means I needed some look-ups (oh, ERITREA, you and Asmara always trip me up.) It also means I have homework, and I do love a puzzle that gives me homework. Thank you, Mr. Karp. It's been an absolute pleasure!
I found this puzzle fun, and like our columnist and others, my two favourite lab rats were the key to tasting and eating success (re. BA) in the theme. Finding good clips online is something I am poor at, but Pinky and the Brain have some marvellous political satire that I recommend for citizens of a certain country south of here, or anyone who still has a sense of humour about such depressing things. Other P&theB story (did I already do this here? apologies if so): My daughter, while an early talker, was struggling as I helped her put on a mitten. “My brain is stuck” she said a couple of times. You can already see it coming I’m sure, but it took me, without context, a while to discover she had learned the name for her littlest finger, but the popularity of the cartoon in our house had somehow convinced her that the other most commonly named and opposable digit was… the brain.
This one gives a partial taste: <a href="https://youtu.be/CNZA6yGGOYc" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/CNZA6yGGOYc</a> (names have been changed etc.) admiral emu
@JohnWM Aw, that's so sweet. I mentioned upthread that I watched and enjoyed this show in my mid-20s. This was mostly due to my then-husband (who was four years older than me) being really into kids' cartoons for some reason. Besides Animaniacs we watched Doug, Rugrats, Rocco's Modern Life, etc.
Because I call them “double blind” trials, I first thought the doubled letters there indicated a missing “double” in the answer. “But why are only some of them doubled”, sez I. Later, after more staring, it was, “ohhh, fat FINGERS”! Good delayed aha. I’ll be ready for that double blind theme someday.
CLM, I was looking for the double too. There are single-blind experiments, of course, but the trial in which I enrolled in December 2020 was definitely double-blind. Broke the blind in January 2021, but that's another story. N.B. You may want to visit the archive and try (or retry) October 31, 2019.
@Cat Lady Margaret Yep, my first theme entry, confidently, was BLINDBLINDEXPERIMENTS. I thought I was being *SO* clever and perceptive. Of course I had to trash most of that entry. It's a good thing...who needs a cocky Pezhead?
Least interesting Sunday theme ever. Congrats.
Torn on this one. As with some other posters, I had concluded the doubling was pretty much random (fat fingered in the middle of phrases) and I was ready to dismiss it, but then after solving the puzzle the revelation showed me what I'd missed..... ...and I'm just not sure whether or not it was actually GOOD? Maybe people who "got" the full effect, as the Wordplay author seems to have, can let me know if the whole experience was clever or merely tedious for them too.
@B Took me much longer than the usual Sunday. (Double bogey or worse on my personal scale.) Had to resort to the "sleep on it method" and once again it worked. I had already filled in the humble pie entry and upon restart, the TTHHUUMMBB jumped out as a double digit and the rest was smoothly processed. I'd say clever. Shoulda, coulda spotted it immediately.
@B I got that some letters were doubled, but never realized they spelled something so I was delighted when I filled in the last letter of the puzzle and the digits revealed themselves. Very clever puzzle! (Much better online than on paper is my guess.)
One of the rare puzzles where I got the revealer very early, which helped me fill in the theme answers, which helped me with the rest of the puzzle. Loved that TIARA dropped down from KATE. Didn't love how long it took for the lightbulb to go on to get TIARA. There are mammals besides platypuses that lay eggs? And for you paper solvers, remember you can go to xwordinfo.com to see the FAT FINGER effect. Well done everyone.
@Vaer yes. Echidnas are also monotremes. And adorable. And the source of the idea for the niffler in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them!
What are we going to do tonight, Brain? The same thing we do every night. Try to find the blasted typo in my NYT crossword solve. NARF! Such a fun puzzle. What an accomplishment!
@Will EGAD, Brain! I'm currently on that boat. I have a typo somewhere (ha! the irony, eh?) I'm carefully reviewing 41A - "Go (for)" and my R's & I's in 76A which may be affecting 63D - "One might be raised on a farm".
My cracking this theme happened in a perfect storm. The fill-in before that point had been halting and slow due to no-knows and lovely vague and oblique clues, and even when I had completed many squares, I hadn’t fully filled in any of the theme answers. I had figured out parts of them, knew some of their complete answers, and even understood that some of the letters would be doubled (due to the title and too-many-squares-for-the-answer) but hadn’t figured out which ones. Then, crosses gave me RRIINNGG and PPIINNKKYY, and I saw the meaning of “digital” in the title and FAT FINGER in the revealer (which I had uncovered), and with a "Wow!" understood the conceit, and began to tackle the other theme answers. Then the moment came when I realized that the fingers in the theme answers were actually in order -- and my jaw dropped. It was explosive. Not just a “how clever” or “very very good” reaction, but the same feeling I get at those rare moments at performances where I burst into a standing-O without even thinking, out of amazement and joy. Doesn’t happen like that often for me in crosswords, so this was memorable. Just a superlative outing for me today. Thank you so much, David, for putting this one together!
I have been an avid fan of the NYT’s crossword puzzles for years. I look forward to the Sunday puzzle every week and usually start solving at 3 pm on Saturday and finish on Sunday. Today’s puzzle was so unsatisfying and disappointing. The theme and answers were a reach for the normal solver. The recent puzzles aren’t fun for me anymore. I really miss Will Shortz.
This was an entertaining puzzle that I found to be somewhat more difficult than the average Sunday. For a time, I was distracted by the seemingly random doubling of letters in the key entries, only to discover the error of my ways.
Agghh! This one did me in! I had two fatal mistakes making sense to me - not knowing Huckleberry Hound, YORI seemed perfectly reasonable as did a 4 and 6 point STAR…hmmm…and then, while maybe IRONON hipster t-shirts seemed better than IRONIN hipster t-shirts, IRONIN seemed perfectly reasonable alongside SIN as a solve for [I know it’s wrong]. Two great traps! Defeated, off I go into the night. It was a fun puzzle, though!
@JoeS Knew YOGI Bear, got SIC, didn’t know Bacardi logo. I know both Cellini and Bellini as artists but figured a brunch cocktail was more likely to involve celery than bell peppers. Had Bacardi associated itself with rats, I would never have completed the puzzle. Anybody ever drunk a Bellini?
@Clem Yup, it’s like a mimosa, but made with peach nectar instead of OJ. It’s a nice variation, but I prefer the original. (Something about the acidity level, perhaps?)
@JoeS echidna and tab took me forever. i’ve never heard of either. then i had a mistake with tio instead of tia which took me a LONG time to figure out.
I didn’t even realize the “digital” twist until the very end. What a cool puzzle!
Wow, I feel dense. I got all the double letters but never saw that each set of doubles spelled a word. Pretty tricky - I still am amazed how some of the constructors come up with this stuff. This is one of those.
Absolutely hated the theme until I finished and saw the fingers revealed. Now I retract my hate. Very clever.
@Dave Twenty six cheats, and I couldn't figure out the logic of why some letters were doubled, while others were not. Until the animation at the end. Yes, it's clever.
@Dave big fan of public hate retraction. go you. ;) was about to hit "submit" and then wondered if the short msg combined with the word "hate" would kick the emus' nest. 4:15pm EDT
Really annoying to me. I look forward to the Sunday puzzle every week. This type of puzzle spoils the fun
@Maggie McC -- Curious, not judgmental here. Can you be a little more specific about what you mean by "this type of puzzle"? Et tu, emu.
What fun! Did not see that coming until I put the last letter in. What brilliant minds!
We worked our fingers to the bone on this one. Thank you David
Did… did this puzzle just flip me the bird??
It took me a while to figure it out, and I was so frustrated until I did. This is a puzzle that’s worth sticking with when it gets tough. I’m impressed!
The double digits are arbitrary and in no way reflect the typos that fat fingers produce. Disappointed in this and so much else about the NYTimes recently.
@A B Church I thought that at first too, until realising the double letters are only on the parts that spell out a finger name (digit), hence the double digit. Really clever.
@A B Church They don't reflect the typos that fat fingers produce, nor are they intended to. It's an alternate way of interpreting the words "fat fingers," or a "hint" to solving the puzzle's theme, as the revealer suggests.
The Sunday puzzle seems to get a little dumber every week.
yay puzzle. I come to praise "Pinky and the Brain". For those of you not familiar, it was part of a major animation renaissance at Warner Bros. thanks to Spielberg. Like the old Warner cartoons (Bugs et al.) it works on multiple levels, so parents can watch it with their kids without being bored, and kids can go back and watch as adults and catch new meanings. Brain's voice is modeled on Orson Welles (go ahead, you cannot unhear it). In one glorious episode Pinky and Brain have to go to the studio for a looping session (how insane is that?!) and it's largely drawn from Orson Welles' notorious studio melt-down recording a voiceover for a Paul Masson wine commercial. I won't link here, but all is searchable. Lastly, in every episode at some point Brain asks "Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?" and Pinky responds with a total non-sequitor. In our home neither of us can say "I think so" without both of us then saying "Brain". And I will include a link to 80 of those. ;) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og2nUdtKncE" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og2nUdtKncE</a> Zero Mostel might be my fave.
@Bob T. When I was a kid, I was lucky to be friends with Liz Holzman, <a href="https://shorturl.at/lzMBp" target="_blank">https://shorturl.at/lzMBp</a> The whole family was fun. Her dad worked for Shell Oil and they moved a lot for his job. But for a brief time, they lived in my town and they went to our church, the Unitarians. Liz and her sister Carolyn had made, by hand, all the animals from Wind in the Willows.
@Bob T. Poit!!!!!! Narf!!!!!
That’s not a crossword puzzle at all - so disappointing for a Sunday puzzle. Not a good start to this Sunday!😄
@MikeH You have every right not to like this or any puzzle. But to say it's not a crossword puzzle at all--that's just bizarre. There have been three puzzles that have had double-height letters (9/1/19, 4/25/21. 7/2/23); three that have had double-width letters (11/26/20, 1/24/24, and today); two that had some of each (9/6/12, 4/5/23); and one with 2x2 squares (4/4/13). Many of these were quite recent, with the most recent before today's appearing in January. The theme for that one was LONG JOHNS, and the stretched words were GLENN, LEWIS, ADAMS and ELWAY. With so much precedent, clearly this is a trick that has been seen before (although perhaps not by you). But it's a real crossword, and an innovative one at that.
Finished puzzle. I expected double letters in the themes, but they were not consistent. I didn't see the fingers imbedded in the answers in order no less until I read the write up. Very impressive
My greatest pleasure in solving puzzles is the challenge to stretch my capacity to see patterns that are not obvious at first glance. Today's offering was a REAL stretch! The stretching I am referring to is the ability to bypass the logical mind and, with concentration, reach the level of the intuitive mind. I have found that the main ingredient in achieving this leap is patience - waiting for a pattern to emerge. Also, thanks from an admiring Canadian.
George W. Bush disliked being called "Junior" and made efforts to correct this misnomer. He was not actually a "Jr." because his full name is George Walker Bush, while his father's full name is George Herbert Walker Bush
@Ted - I’ve met both of them. Different as night and day, publicly and privately. One of them a decent enough human being…
@Ted kinda-sorta on topic: In the mid-90s, right before I left Texas, W was elected governor. At about the same time, plans were under way to honor the elder Bush by naming a tollway after him. To avoid confusion about whom it was named after, it was dubbed the President George Bush Turnpike, mercifully shortened to PGBT by most. They did not rename it following the 2000 election (I guess “the PGHWBT” would have been too much of a mouthful for drive time traffic reporters). Maybe it’s doing double duty as a tribute now?
Absolutely masterful! I am awed by this stunning puzzle! What a perfect way to start a Sunday!
Wwooww! Today marked three consecutive years of completing the puzzle and what a doozy it was 😅 I joke with my kids all the time about my fat fingered text messages and this just had me laughing throughout. Wweellll ddoonnee, David Karp!!
I'm amused by commenters rants, because a week ago or so, these were among those complaining about puzzles that make you put two (or more) letters in a single square (rebuses). Here is the exact opposite. making a single letter spread over two squares. I think it's time we all learned to think outside of the box! I find both approaches equally valid and challenging. Besides, the puzzle's title "Double Digits" clearly points out that one should look for doubled entries.
After getting the theme entries, I confidently entered FATFFIINNGGERRRSS into the revealer — and then spent a very confusing ~10 min redoing the whole southeast corner ! Definitely let my fat ffiinnggeerrss get ahead of my brain on this one - but a very fun and satisfying solve in the end!
50 minutes into solving, I was about half finished and thinking that I might not be able to solve it completely. I knew the long answers had something to do with fingers. And then, the light bulb came on! “Pinky and the Brain” gave me the clue that all letters concerning the fingers and thumb were doubles. 15 minutes later, the music played and I was done in my usual 60-90 minute timeframe for the Sunday Special. A sincere “BRAVO!” to David Karp for a tricky and most rewarding solve!
@Prof. Toru Tanaka Your comment about "the fingers and thumb" made me wonder, how many people consider the thumb a finger. and so we have ten fingers, and how many consider the thumb something other than a finger, so we have eight fingers and two thumbs. Discuss amongst yourselves.
I hated every minute of this until I solved it and saw the theme emphasized.
Please please please keep the gimmicky stuff to Thursday and let us have a regular (if larger) one on Sundays?
@Kevin Sunday puzzles have had gimmicks forever–did you, perhaps, start solving only recently?
I ask you: is this a nit, more than a nit, or not a nit at all? Re: 5A To me, a "near success" is not a success. When I TASTE IT, I anticipate success, not near success. I may be near success, or I may anticipate success, but "Anticipate a near success" doesn't sound right to me. Does it sound right to you?
Barry Ancona, Definitely at least a near nit is what you have hit on there. Good catch, don’t drop it. Reminds me of “health & safety” jargon I saw in the day, in which you would report an actual accident, or a “near miss” which was I guess like a work place jump scene or something (?).
@Barry Ancona I agree it sounds odd. The only thing that really makes sense to me is that the particular phrase being referenced tends to be used as a retrospective look at a near success. "I was so close I could taste it," right before everything fell apart.
I didn’t enjoy this puzzle at all. I did not think it was clever. Was it meant to be a joke?
Hey, everybody, look at me, I'm a crossword builder. 107 across is gsygobhrtdtbfftinr I'm hilarious because this is what you get when your fingers are one to the right on your keyboard (or something like that, it was painful to type)!!! I'm hilarious!!
I for one am tired of the gimmick laced Sunday puzzles. Please quit publishing them.
@pjfin I disagree wholeheartedly. I found this puzzle quite enjoyable, and after looking at the headline of the associated wordplay column, the theme was not that hard to suss out. Cross clues led me to the topmost theme entry, and when I realized that the fingers would be coming in order, the rest of the theme was a breeze.
@pjfin Agree! Hated this one, even after I figured out the gimmick it turned out to be inconsistent.
TIL why the Bacardi logo features a BAT. From the brand' site: "The iconic Bacardi bat logo came about when Doña Amalia, the wife of our founder Don Facundo, spotted a colony of fruit bats in the rafters of the first Bacardi distillery in Santiago de Cuba. Symbolizing good health, family unity and good fortune, she knew the bat was the right choice to symbolize Bacardi."
@RI guy Beyond that, bats are the primary pollinators of sugar cane, so quite essential to Bacardi's success.