My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Looks to sell (5) 2. It's often playing games (4) 3. Scrolls from right to left? (6) 4. Plant matter? (7)(3) 5. Having had a few bites, say (5) SHOPS ESPN TORAHS URANIUM ORE ITCHY
Lewis, It is good to see you posting more regularly again. I hope potable tap water will back before long ... and Asheville and environs will build back stronger.
Lewis, I enjoy reading your favorite clues! I'm not sure I understand "looks to sell"= SHOPS. With "looks" and "SHOPS" as verbs, it seems that it would be "looks to buy" rather than "looks to sell." Are "looks" and "SHOPS" both nouns in this case? If so, I'm not sure I understand how a "SHOP" is a "look." Help, please!
@Lewis The pictures of the devastation we are seeing on TV are mind boggling, but the people of Asheville are showing such courage and determination that you will bring your beautiful town back again and it is bound to flourish. Side note: Every time I see the name "Asheville" I think of Thomas Wolfe, born in Asheville 124 years ago this month. "Look Homeward, Angel" is an extraordinary novel, a favorite.
@Lewis #4 is still a clunker because you won't find ore at a nuclear plant. It's like cluing fertilizer with "bakery matter".
I enjoyed that Kane and sled showed up in the same puzzle.
I reckon that’s the most difficult Monday I’ve seen in a while. Definitely well over average. Maybe I’m just distracted by the Niner game. It was fun. Thanks, Neil Padrick Wilson!
@Striker I was not distracted by a game (my teal is awful, as they have been for many years), and found this puzzle too puzzling for my liking for a Monday.
Sweet! And rife with costume ideas for Halloween: the pirate could fashion a peg leg from aged pine oars. There are sleds for your Citizen Kane costumes: just write "Rosebud" on them and you're set. And there are cautionary notes: it is perhaps better to dress up as Ariel or Nemo rather than invent a character of your own, better a naked lie than an ill-dressed lie, such as a lariat-twirling cowboy in a top hat, or a diva playing viola, or a CBer in an Opal. Those costumes are full of plot holes. A real costume may be banal, but just think if it rains while you're out trick-or-treating, and all those cottonballs you glued to your face for Lincoln's beard get wet and start to ooze down your chin in one messy pap, a pool of rainwater dripping from the brim of your top hat, won't you start thinking "This is not so fun"? Another cautionary note, one that sends chills down my back, is ruble crossing with USA, which is what our currency may be in the future, if certain people have their say. That's why I'm dressing up as the sky. I can just see my neighbors' eyes dilate as they ogle me when I come ringing with my candy basket in hand. "Who or what are you trying to be?" they'll ask. Blue, I'll say, pure azure freakin' blue. Blue through and through. True blue, amigo, true blue. Sky blue.
@john ezra Ain't nothing wrong with a cowpoke twirling a lasso, amigo! 😊 More treat than trick!
@john ezra Thanks for spoiling “Citizen Kane” for me.
@john ezra "...which is what our currency may be in the future, if certain people have their say." Name names. Which person wants the ruble to replace the dollar or Russia to rule over the US? Otherwise, this is just more internet crazy-talk.
@john ezra "B" for brilliant. A Blue Note with so many plot holes... Love Azure Blue...but Cobalt is my best blue. so fun!
@john ezra In my experience, more divas are found over in the violin section than the violas.
This book on the history of glue is a paste of my time. (But I'll stick with it.)
@Mike I'll bet that about covers it. More to the contents than just flour and water.
I'm sure this will be old news to many of you, but Elmer's Products, Inc., the manufacturer of Glue-All, was founded in 1947 as a subsidiary of the Borden dairy company. It's mascot, Elmer the Bull, was designed to be the mate of Elsie the Cow. Love in the grocery aisles. The original glues were based on casein, a milk product (and not, as I had long assumed, the boiled-down carcasses of superannuated dairy cattle); although Elmer's Glue-All was an all-artificial adhesive from the very start. But TIL that the company founder, Gail Borden (1801-1874), was not only the inventor of sweetened condensed milk, but a major player in the Texas War of Independence. So many interesting rabbit holes this morning!
@Bill I’m glad to learn that Elmer himself wasn’t used to make the glue. On a slightly related tangent, it took me forever to realize that the brand name College Inn was a play on the word “collagen”.
I don't think I've posted about this here, but whenever I think of Elmer's glue, that staple of my later elementary school days, I harken back to the time before it displaced what we used to use in those halcyon olden days: LePage's Mucilage, with its rubber dabber. <a href="https://justuseglue.com/history-of-lepages-glue" target="_blank">https://justuseglue.com/history-of-lepages-glue</a>/ I laugh whenever a member of the younger generation states that "moist" is the most disgusting word they've ever heard. I nominate "mucilage."
@Times Rita Yes, I remember those gross mucilage applicators--imagine sending kids to school now with a glass bottle of anything--and those little tubs of glue with a plastic paddle that you would use to spread it on the paper. Why did it take them so long to come up with Elmer's Glue and, even longer, glue sticks?
I found this Monday puzzle delightfully breezy. It was a welcome relief after the hard weekend puzzles. I hope to see more puzzles from Neil Padrick Wilson.
Today has been a very puzzling day for me in that I completed the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday puzzles all today. I had a jam-packed day of fun yesterday and never got around to doing the puzzle. Happily, since I completed it before the Sunday puzzle, I still got a gold star. I don't know if there's rhyme or reason to when it's too late or what order you do them in, but I'm glad of it because I made it through Saturday's puzzle with no problems... I earned my huzzah and in better than average time. I actually found Sunday to be tougher for me than Saturday this week. My trickiest spot was in the middle top... With IKEBANA and OBES. Neither of which I knew, so I put in OlES and had put in FINal on the first go-round instead of FINIS and missed that it filled out Serena incorrectly. I let aKElANA fill itself out. When I looked at it again after not getting the happy music, I quickly corrected SERENA and then had to take a stab or two at where IKEBANA and OBES crossed. All good though! Enjoyed the cute themes for both Sunday and Monday! It was so much puzzling that I am blurring what clues I enjoyed in each but I did think it was a good weekend and a good start to the new week of puzzles. It's certainly not been a very productive weekend but it was quite the opposite of today's 8D. Cheers to a new week, all! 🍸🍸
@HeathieJ Yes, that cross was a bear. I was fortunate that I was able to dredge "OBE" out of some dark recesses of my mind, and when I had cleaned all the dust and rust off of it, I realized it was some sort of British sign of distinction.
@HeathieJ @Francis For the record: OBE – Officer of the Order of the British Empire, is the second rank of the order and is the one that those who have performed very worthy service are admitted to. The holder uses the letters OBE after their name, for example Miss Jane Smith OBE. Here's a link describing all the ranks of the order: <a href="https://royalcentral.co.uk/features/insight/a-guide-to-the-order-of-the-british-empire-21224" target="_blank">https://royalcentral.co.uk/features/insight/a-guide-to-the-order-of-the-british-empire-21224</a>/
Two later-in-the-week clues on a Monday, rare and wonderful to see: • [European ___ (Anguilla Anguilla)] for EEL. This teaches newer solvers that the un-gettable is gettable, because EEL’s crosses are Monday-easy. • [Unenjoyable, to put it mildly] for NOT SO FUN. “… to put it mildly” made me think that the answer would be a word that exaggerates the meaning of “unenjoyable”, but no – "... to put it mildly" is literal! A terrific misdirect, but still gettable because, once again, it’s Monday-easily crossed. This hints at the rewards that come as the puzzles move through the week, when not all clues are simply definitions of their answers. Bravo on these, editors and Neil! Neil is no stranger to indirect cluing. Two of his five puzzles are themeless, and here’s an example of his cluing acumen from one of them: [Hearing aids, in brief] * (three letters). One thing I liked about today’s puzzle was that post-solve reverie where I was imagining all the masterpieces a kid could make with the four theme-answer items, from a paper-plate faces to lovely non-specific pastiches. You pushed my happy-button with your puzzle, today, NPW. Thank you so much for that! * PAS
@Lewis Anyone who speaks a Romance language would find the EEL clue a gimme. To put it mildly. !!!
Pap is a new one for me. Was working so hard to make pea work. Fun puzzle overall.
@Todd Reading Sam’s linked PDF on pap and panada was horri-fascinating.
I'm with Justin. Without comment, Sam posts a link to this long, detailed, from-a-world-far-away treatise on PAP which I, like Justin, found strangely fascinating. A wild surprise for those who clicked, and a testament to Sam's remarkable talent for keeping her column fresh, unpredictable.
The puzzle said I had a mistake and I spent inordinate amounts of time tryng to find it, reading the puzzle upside down and backwards and could not find it. I came to the column and tried the peek subscribers can take at the solution. It was the same as my solve. Finally, I closed the NY Times site and went on to other things, resigned that my new baby streak had gone the way of my 2.5 years streak. When I came back, the puzzle showed the gold. No idea what was going on, but I'll take the win.
@dutchiris I'm finding some strange things in my puzzles today as well. I went to do the mini and it asked me to create an account. It does this often. So I just closed out, and went to another game from the beginning. I'll get to the mini later. I also had pages fly by while I watched (I'm on a laptop). I think it's practicing for Halloween.
Can I get a show of hands how many people refer to their pets by one name..?
@Aaron I would be interested to know how many of you out there who own one or more pets would count one for each of them in responding to a government census that asked the question: “How many family members live full time in your household?”
@Aaron I usually assign a single, but unique, name to each of them. Referring to them all with a single name just isn't specific enough... you call it, and this whole menagerie shows up, looking expectant.
@Aaron One name? Ha! My dog goes by: Rocky, Rock, Rocker, Rockstar, Officer Rockford, The Officer of Love, Boo, Boo Boo, Boo Boo Man, Boo Boo Baby, Boo Rock, Booskin, Bobo, Monkey, Monk, Monkey Man, Monkaroon, Monkarooney, Rooney. I’m sure there are more. Those are just the ones in regular rotation.
I would say macaroni is a pasta, not a noodle. I’d ask the Italians in my neighborhood but I want them to like me. I wonder which has been listed more frequently- emus or eels?
Sarah, Macaroni is a pasta. Since most macaroni is tubular, in the U.S. it is often called a macaroni noodle. See also pool noodle. Eels appear more frequently in the puzzle -- 479 to 226 -- emus more frequently in the comments.
@Sarah When I was a kid, there was no such thing as pasta. We called all varieties no matter their origin noodles. I think pasta became a thing in the eighties.
@Sarah I know a Sicilian who refers to all types of "pasta" as macaroni.
@Sarah My cat’s name is Macaroni, because he is just a little noodle, but a small voice in my head whispers “pasta, not noodle” every time I call him. (Naturally I was delighted to see his full name in the puzzle today!)
@Barry Ancona I have never heard the phrase "macaroni noodle" before, and I'm a boomer who has lived in the U.S. all my life. Maybe it's regionally common somewhere?
RE: 1D - I've never seen "pawpaw" spelled "papaw". Am I missing something?
You are only missing that it is an accepted variant spelling. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/papaw" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/papaw</a> Now let's discuss how all of us pronounce it.
Anguilla anguilla Free with your NYT subscription, you have subscribed to EEL FACTS.
Like Sam, I too was curious about the strange combination of items to put together with Elmer’s Glue. So much so that I Gluegled those items and found someone had already come up with make-believe rainclouds. You glue many cotton balls to a paper plate (or to a number of paper plates) and then thread pipe cleaners through a series of painted macaroni and attach the string(s) to the paper plate(s).
@Strudel Dad The derived artwork sounds like a job for AI ;)
The clue [totally wicked] was another of those awful/delightful misdirections, especially near Halloween. I should have picked it up as a live in the Boston area where practically everything is “totally wicked.” But I never could get out of the ghoulish mood to reach RAD which is not in this older man’s vernacular.
I thought pawpaw was the correct spelling.
@Diane Helentjaris You can take your pick. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pawpaw" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pawpaw</a>
Nice puzzle, except that it is spelled "pawpaw" (the fruit), not "papaw" (Appalachian for grandfather). This threw me off enough to become the last word I filled in.
@Gabrielle, this threw me off as well. It felt like an obvious enough error that I hoped to see it addressed in the article here.
Dang it! So eager to try that "lasso all those three-letter answers first" gleaned from yesterday's posts. Filled 'em and forgot 'em until - 32A. Family member in the middle of the grid stubbornly named POP. Who knew it shoulda been YIP, you guessed it, a PET Well, in our clan that's what everybody called him. Besides, what do I know from eels?
@Whoa Nellie 🙄 same POP PET delay What a nice gift from @Jim from Ottawa yesterday Should be reposted sometime 😃
Rosebud! Where was I. Oh yeah - nice Monday puzzle. Just a bit on the slow side but really enjoyed catching on to the theme when I was done. Puzzle find today was inspired in a roundabout way by MACARONI. Anyway... a Sunday puzzle from July 2, 1995 by Alex K. Justin with the title "Happy Birthday, America!" One short down answer that referred to other answers was: COHAN. And then there were three 21 letter answers. BORNONTHEFOURTHOFJULY THESTARSPANGLEDBANNER IAMTHEYANKEEDOODLEBOY And a whole bunch of other 4th of July related answers. Don't recall seeing many other puzzles with so many theme related answers. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/2/1995&g=110&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/2/1995&g=110&d=A</a> ...
@Rich in Atlanta Thank you for today's ear worm: Yankee Doodle Dandy will be in my head all day... well, maybe with It Was Mary, which I also love from that movie. I just love that movie. :)
I know it's very common, but when did SO MUCH FUN become SO FUN? Every time I hear it, which is now the only way it seems to be used, my grammatical hackles stand on end. No one seems to use MUCH in that phrase. Or have I been wrong all these years?
@Times Rita I’m with you. However, even the editors of Merriam-Webster have joined the cabal against us.
@Times Rita I'm sure that your comment will be one of the funnest ones posted today! (Ducks and runs)
Such a sweet theme, though of course I’ve not come across ELMERS GLUE so that needed the crosses. Takes me back to the weird and wonderful creations my kids used to bring home. They all had to have their moment of fame stuck to the fridge door.
Very fun Monday puzzle! I needed some childhood nostalgia today. Not only the crafting theme, but also the pirate costumes and sledding on snow days. Lovely to take a moment and look back.
Enjoyed the puzzle! But mostly want to brag that I got Letter Boxed in 2 words for the first time. Ever since one of y'all posted that you'd heard it was ALWAYS possible, I'd been feeling inferior. But I didn't try hard till today. Maybe because a 7-letter word leapt right out, so I could say "Look, you ought to be able to find a word for the other five!" Especially gratifying since my birthday was a few days ago and although not a "milestone" one, pretty darn close. Still have a few of my marbles. (BTW when I was playing marbles we didn't have a TAW. And no ring--just a hole in the dirt playground that we gouged out with our heel.)
@RozzieGrandma Pots! I used to love to play that game. Best marble game ever. The only problem was that my elementary school playground, in arid Colorado, was tough to dig holes in. And when a really great hole was dug, it was used exclusively by the cool kids, so I had to go find some stupid highly sloped hole about an inch deep. And congrats on your letter-boxing!
@RozzieGrandma Congratulations on your Letter Boxed coup!
@RozzieGrandma I played marbles, too, but slightly after the ring era. Pots was what we called it. Congratulations on your Letter Boxing. Emus, can you please let this through? Swear to God I'm not calling anyone names, there are no bad words, and I'm not saying anything political. Please?
Mushy food for babies: PAP ? I’ll be thankful for any explanation. One more thing… who’s ELMER? Thanks
@Ιασων Sam’s link about pap in the article will give you more detail than you need. As for Elmer’s, it’s the ubiquitous glue of American school classrooms. And Bugs Bunny’s foe, but I think that’s unrelated.
Even the Monday puzzles are getting hard for me, but as most don’t mind I won’t grumble.
Nice monday puzzle. I only wish Neil Padrick was allowed to keep his macaroni penguin in the puzzle. <a href="https://seaworld.org/animals/facts/birds/macaroni-penguin" target="_blank">https://seaworld.org/animals/facts/birds/macaroni-penguin</a>/ He stuck a feather in his hat And called it macaroni
Wow… TIL pap, not to mention pap boats, pap warmers, and pap spoons that one could blow into the mouths of babes (presumably)! Who knew there was so much pap that is no longer part of our lives…
@JM Sometimes you hear/read "pap" referred to as in "the pap that is served up as news these days." Or some other reference where pap is some kind of yuk or mush. No? Well, it is still used that way occasionally, but I am short on time and not able to search out a reference just now. But that is where it hails from, the very pureed mush that infants are fed before they have teeth.
Since when are sled considered "toys"?
@Dave I'm sure all those survivors of the 1925 diphtheria epidemic in Nome, Alaska would agree with you!
@Dave I took it as a toy within the context of the way the clue was worded (used on snow days).
@Dave Kid's sleds are sold in toy stores.
It was very interesting to see the posts about American grade school craft materials. On my side of the pond, I was always bemused by the use of, or should I say recycling of, the humble toilet paper roll in virtually all of my children’s school craft projects. I once possessed a complete set of TP rolls disguised as anything from Easter Rabbits to Santa Clauses and many things in between. All brightly festooned with their fair share of dry macaroni and finger paint and usually glued to a paper plate (Pritt, no Elmer’s). This always put me in mind of what Freud had to say about the origin of the creative impulse. This is an emu challenge. Emus will know why.
@Rusty Wheelhouse When I was in the second or third grade, we made "jewelry boxes" for our mothers by stacking used popsicle sticks. To get ready for the project, we were told to look for trashed popsicle sticks laying around convenience stores and ice cream shops. So I picked them up off the streets out of trash cans, etc. Very hygienic.
@Francis Truly frightening thought. I hope you get your stats back.
CBER was not my favorite
Mark (and Sam), It is not as popular as it once was, but CBER for [Truck radio user] is still very much an IRL thing. <a href="https://www.freightwaves.com/news/what-happened-to-cb-radios" target="_blank">https://www.freightwaves.com/news/what-happened-to-cb-radios</a> <a href="https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/06/24/cb-radios-not-yet-obsolete-veteran-truckers-say-theyre-still-useful" target="_blank">https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/06/24/cb-radios-not-yet-obsolete-veteran-truckers-say-theyre-still-useful</a>/
You had me going on MACARONI NOODLES for “elbows in the grocery store”(!) but all came together nicely. Emu
Ah craft project memories. I have an egg-crate-and-pipe-cleaner ant that my son made 30+ years ago. Her name is Anty, and she sits on my TV stand. The jar I remember at the doctor's office was full of lollipops. 🍭🍭🍭 Happy Monday!
@Amy Lollipops was my first thought too! Happy Monday to you as well!! ☺️
@Amy - probably Dum-Dums ? cream soda was my favorite
A pawpaw is not the same as a papaw. At all.
JC and Gabrielle, This came up yesterday in the comments. Here's a shortcut to the thread: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/42khd1?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/42khd1?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
I can't accept PET as a family member. I have a dog. Nice doggie. Loyal, friendly and true. I have a family. Not always that nice, friendly or true, alas. But that doesn't mean a dog is a family member. I wouldn't really wish that on her, anyway. My dog has a family. I am not in it.
@Asher B. A misanthrope after my own heart. I think it was Mark Twain who said that humans are the only animals that blush. Or need to.
Hey emus. I tried to write a very nice, nostalgic reply to RozzieGrandma about playing marbles. That's all I wrote. That and a congratulations to her. Apparently, though, the emus thought it shouldn't be allowed. Can the puzzle team PLEASE give us some indication of what the hell is going on concerning what is denied and what will be accepted? The "quiz" from a while back was useless. There was not one poster who could relate that "quiz" to what happens in real life. I want you to tell me exactly what was wrong with the post I made. I'm sure I'm speaking for everyone one of the PAYING posters here when I saw that we have all been utterly stunned by posts simply not appearing.
Francis, Haven't you figured it out yet? The emus can only tell you how they moderate when they are actively moderating. They are not trying to explain how the filter works or what the algorithm looks for at any time, and I doubt the emus who communicate with us know -- or have a need to know.
@Francis I wrote what I thought was a fairly non-controversial (if moderately unappetizing) comment about beer-boiled pap being blown into a baby's mouth yesterday that never showed up, but I'm not at all convinced it was rejected on the merits. I think sometimes things just fall into the ether. I'm posting this at least half out of curiosity about whether it will stick (like pap?).
@Francis I would guess the nyt is using an off-the-shelf comment filter because it would be too costly to write their own. They probably don't know what's going on inside it. FWIW The only post I've ever had blocked had the letter eff followed by the letter U. (Because I was trying to spell an entry )
@Francis Sorry that I'll never see that post. I'd been going to post a long nostalgic one about marbles and 4th grade myself (happy times!) but clearly emus are triggered by the merest mention.)
@Francis A ton of my comments on controversial news events never get published(although sometimes I’ll find one that makes the same point) because I guess the whole entire world is commenting at once. Not sure what’s happening with your marble comment. You know what I never found a similar comment about, though? “Joe Biden just has a stutter.” But yes saving it separately if you love it is a very good idea.
This elementary school SLP thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. I use a lot of these crafty items when I co-treat with the OT in my building or just have fun creating while learning with my students. I always look forward to the beginning of the week puzzles when I am confident I can solve with a minimum of look ups, and today was no exception. I got a laugh out of 64A mainly because it grossed my husband out, he doesn't like goat cheese or that articular root veggie! Thanks for persisting, what a crafty, fun way to start the week!!
Wondering what to make from all those paper plates, cottonballs, uncooked macaroni, and pipe cleaners? Consult Gerry Fleming's *Scrap Craft for Youth Groups* (1969; ISBN-10: 0381970159): "Here are craft projects that can be made by youngsters at a cost usually ten cents each (1969) or less - a treasure trove for group leaders. The secret is to use scrap and items that cost next to nothing: rags, discarded broomsticks, cardboard, newsprint, rubber bands, old socks, etc. All projects are designed for 8 to 10 year olds to be capable of them. The combination of simplicity with economy makes this an invaluable book for Cub Scout den mothers, church group leaders, camp counselors, playground directors, teachers, parents and every other leader responsible for recreation in small or large groups of children. Illustrated." Of course, the primary use of Elmer's Glue was smearing it on one's fingertips, letting it set, then peeling it off and seeing the imprint of one's fingerprints. Forensics for eight-year-olds. *** Why, O Why, Aimee, did you never record a cover of "Convoy," accompanied by va. and pfte.? Or if you did, not post it on youtube? Too much of a diva?
@Bill My wife was working with some high school seniors the year "Convoy" was a big hit, and there were more students than you might expect who chose as their yearbook motto "Let them truckers roll, 10-4".
Our PETs (definitely family members) have many names - mostly cutesy variants of their real name but still :)
Totally wicked - ? RAD ? What age of solver are you directing the puzzle to? Way too slangy.
@C. O'Connor Speaking as a Gen Xer, I found it to be way bitchen.
@C. O'Connor Totally tubular! And, yeah- we kids will now get off your lawn. 🙂
@C. O'Connor This is a Gen X term and as much as it stings, we are no spring chickens anymore.
@JH Yep! If only the young kids were still saying things like totally rad. 😂😂
@C. O'Connor I'm 76 yo and I got it. It's the TV show actors and movie directors I'm totally lost on.
@C. O'Connor Seemed totally normal to this Gen Xer.
58a? Ah, gotcha! Like ULU or Humbrol. Not so convinced about beetroot and goat cheese. I prefer a good full Lancashire like Mrs Kirkham's myself, a combination I inherited from my grandparents, but it takes all sorts.
@Rosalind Mitchell Beetroot! Did someone order the hotpot? No, ta. Fancy a chippy tea, luv? <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=33VsH8GlSvA" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=33VsH8GlSvA</a>
A post solve lookup on PIPECLEANERS yielded the TIL's . . . . . . Chenille stems for crafts! . . . and the Hewett and Booth company, who still make them for smoking pipes is based in Huddersfield, UK, aka "The Place To Make It". Good fun and thanks.
@John Carson When I was a child, pipe cleaners were such a ubiquitous craft item that it was a long time before I realized that their original purpose was to, um, clean pipes.
It's very clearly a lion mask for halloween. Duh.
What a fun puzzle, loved it, glad you persisted!
Apparently in retaliation for my criticizing the emus, the NYT has now removed all my statistics. All my times. My averages. My streak. Today's puzzle. All my archive solving. Every bit of it is gone. I'll contact support, but this can't be a coincidence.
@Francis See my response on your other thread.