My first gold star on a Thursday puzzle! Woohoo! The theme hit me about half way in once I figured out SPOT replaced SIXTEEN. The other two easily filled in and made the crosses move quickly. A fun puzzle!
@Steve congrats! Warning: those gold stars are addictive.
What do you think? Do the extra visual cues in this puzzle enhance or detract from your solving experience? Please let me know in the comments. Daniel, I would have liked to have tried it as you submitted it, with no little circles. To me, that would have been a Thursday.
@Barry Ancona I think it was a clever idea overall, but the visual cues made it way too easy. Without the cues it still may not have been terribly difficult for a Thursday, but it would have at least given me a bit of pause
@Barry Ancona Once I understood the trick, it helped a lot. Because I was wondering what they were there for and why I got AREA FIFTY ONE, instead of area codes. I’d take this format over a rebus any day.
@Barry Ancona For myself, I generally prefer having to ferret out the trick without the visual cues. I especially enjoy spotting a rebus that hasn’t been signaled. Truth be told though, many tricks fly right over my head, and I’ve solved plenty of puzzles with answers that I know are right even though I don’t know why. Most of the time I don’t object to the cues, as I know so many solvers are discomfited by answers in puzzles that don’t make immediate sense, and I’m all for making sure the universe of happy puzzlers keeps growing.
@Barry Ancona I solved this without using the visual clues, as the crosses filled in everything. I generally tend to ignore visuals and wait till it's complete to fully grasp the theme, unless I hit a wall and have to stand back and think. So to answer your question, they didn't help with the solve. But they were very clever nonetheless.
@Barry Ancona I solve on my iPhone and my version had no circles. (We often miss out on the fun features and cues, like the Zamboni driving out on the ICE ICE ICE ICE ICE after finishing the Sunday a couple weeks ago.) Not having the curs added a little confusion but once I figured out one of them, it was pretty easy to get the others.
@Jamie Sounds like you don't have "overlays" turned on in the app. Check your settings.
@Barry Ancona I think it would have been a little too arcane without the circles.
@Jamie. On the iPhone, when in the puzzle, in the settings menu there is an option “Show Overlays”. Switching this on will show all the little gimmicks. P.S. those little yellow circles certainly helped on my iPhone where the entry numbers are almost invisible.
@Barry Ancona Agree it made it far too easy. After initially seeing that SWEET SPOT didn't fit, the crosses made it clear that it was SWEET SIXTEEN, which I just assumed was an Americanism for the sweet part of a baseball bat. Then noticing that 16 was highlighted, I went ahead and wrote in TWENTY TWO and FIFTY ONE to the other theme answers, and eventually completed the other themes without even looking at their clues, thus completely missing the trick! Bit of a shame.
@Barry Ancona The extra visual clues were unnecessary and should not have been there, especially on a Thursday. It just made it obvious, especially with SWEETSPOT.
I did not get the trick until I got stuck on the third theme answer and then noticed the highlighted numbers were spelled out in two of the answers. Perhaps I would have gotten the trick without the visual clues, but as it stood, I completed the puzzle in average time.
@Barry Ancona Once I figured out the trick by solving SWEET SIXTEEN and SPOT, I paused to admire the cleverness of the puzzle's theme. But then, I was able to put in TWENTY-TWO and FIFTY-ONE in the other long clues, which felt like it made the puzzle a little too easy for a Thursday. That being said, there were more than enough tricky clues and misdirects to keep it interesting.
@Barry Ancona there are people who want to know up front if there's a rebus so they can avoid the puzzle, and in contrast there are those of us who love figuring out that there's a rebus. I continue to suggest that there be a "hints" option--no circles or shading for those who want the ultimate challenge, and then the option to turn on the hints for those who want the help (or the warning).
@Barry Ancona I found the puzzle really easy, but I liked the visual of the little circles - it piqued my interest!
@Barry Ancona I definitely would have preferred it without the cues. I look forward to Thursdays because I have to figure out the puzzle within the puzzle. The cues made this too obvious for my taste.
@Barry Ancona Luckily, if you printed the puzzle shortly after it was published the grid you got didn't have the circles. It really was a very satisfying "aha!" when I got the theme. I just tried printing it again now and it automagically gives you the printed-version PDF, which does have the circles.
Happy SWEET(forty) to me! A fun puzzle to kick off my quickly crossing over the proverbial hill. I personally am never one to complain about a puzzle being too easy, but prefer to pat myself on the back for a good solve, and congratulate the constructor on an enjoyable creation.
Great puzzle! It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out the relation between, e.g., "sixteen" and "16", even though it was staring me in the face. Yes, the little visual circles were a great idea. Thank you, Daniel Bodily, though I do have a hard time believing that that's your name. At any rate, bravo!
@Manhattan Apparently something was missing from the printed puzzle! Little visual nothings on my page! Sigh.
@Mean Old Lady I’m sorry they were missing for you. If the numbers (just the numbers, not the entire square) are not circled with a yellow background, please drop a note to <a href="mailto:NYTGames@nytimes.com">NYTGames@nytimes.com</a> so they can tell the print team.
@B But they work there! I am sure there are plenty of people who work there who need to check and make sure the paper looks right, and the crossword people should probably be among them
@Manhattan I see the little circles on all the print versions. Maybe they fixed it.
God morgen! I haven’t even attempted to begin with Thursday’s trickery, and am saving that for the plane. So in keeping with Wednesday’s theme (especially since it is still Wednesday where I’m headed), here were my favorite things about Oslo. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. Two more days would’ve been ideal for getting to them all or at least more of them. Sight: the view of the city and the water from the roof of the opera house, which you can improbably scale like a low-grade iceberg. Smell: the air, which is remarkably clean and just the right amount of humid. No doubt helped by how ubiquitous public transportation is—we didn’t need to get in a car once. Taste: smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for breakfast at the Sommerro Hotel. I think the whole trip was worth it to me just for the salmon. Hearing: whatever that man was belting out at the Jul Vinterland near the Oslo Peace Center. I’m not sure what it was but I doubt I’ll ever hear it again. Feel: this works better than “touch” here anyway, as I was mainly wearing gloves, but more importantly didn’t feel nearly as cold as I thought I would, as the temperature hovered right around freezing the whole time. Pretty mild given the latitude and the month, I think. Ha det for now!
"I think I can hit a home run!" "Bat's the way to do it!" (These puns are in full swing.)
Mike, Patiently wait for the right pitch. Those trying to hit four-baggers can be choosers. (Not that I need to tell the all-time leader in puns-batted-in.)
@Mike You're da bomb! This one will make your "Greatest Hits" collection. Some peanuts and crackerjack for the emus...
@Mike I must admitt, those pitchers don't amound to much when you get base-ic, but it strikes me that you must not be chicken if you fowl out. You kneed to shoulder the blame.
To the editors: This triumvirate of answers was too simple in my estimation to make it a Thursday puzzle. To the constructor: Thank you. Always thank you. I enjoyed it. I always enjoy the puzzle whether I’m successful or not. Thank you constructors- keep them coming!
@ID I agree! Way too easy for a Thursday, but still such a fun puzzle!
It always makes me feel good when I struggle with the clues and find the "tricky clues" section starting with how none of the clues were tough..
@Jim Whoops, sorry! All I can say is that I’ve been doing this for a really long time …
@Deb Amlen First, I don’t know how to send in a comment so no idea if this will send properly. Second, I solved in 20 minutes but still don’t get the theme nor the movie connections. Brain gap I guess.
This puzzle hit the old SWEET SIXTEEN of solving fun. It delivered its aha moment right to my AREA FIFTYONE. There was just that moment when I had to CATCH TWENTYTWO before returning to earth with the trick. (That’s after I corrected my initial impression those were little smiley faces.) 😀
@Cat Lady Margaret I thought they were lottery balls at first.
Who knew that tubas "BOOM"ed ? Timpani and other drums boom, perhaps an electric bass guitar can boom, but a tuba? Maybe an OOMPA, or OOMPAHPAH, or a BLAT, or maybe even a SPLAT, but not a BOOM! Not buying it.
@TMD I think the clue meant it’s a “boomer in the band” because of the booming quality of the instrument’s sound, which makes sense to me at least… 🤷
@TMD Well I tried MICK and PAUL and ERIC and PHIL but none of these worked...
@Gary Ha! Tuba was just an answer the other day so I figured it was going to be tuba again even though I also thought more of a bass drum for the sound.
@TMD Hand up! I wanted DRUM but it was aleady unlikely. As a former HS Band member, I will say we had Sousaphones instead (easier to carry) and baritone horns, but no TUBAs. They do not boom. They seldom get any glory. We had 78 records with the story of "Tubbby the TUBA" when I was small....Señor Pizzicato led the orchestra. (Please note tilde.)
Connections is delightfully different today. If you don't normally play, today might be a good day to check in.
@Nancy J. Though, with it being classified as 5/5 difficulty and 58% failure rate, maybe not
@Nancy J. The concept might be interesting as a different sort of game, but isn't Connections meant to be a word game? There are far too many possible words per picture.
@Nancy J. Different, yes. Delightful, not so much. After making three mistakes, I got a hint from some website that allowed me to see purple. I had the right idea for blue, but misinterpreted one of the drawings.
I enjoyed it a lot. It might not have been terribly difficult, but that’s why we have the weekend puzzles. What I like to get (and got) on a Thursday is a fun twist. I agree it didn’t need any more cues to get the idea.
If "Hang Ten" is serious air time, then surely "Catch Twenty Two" is even more serious air time. And if a typical bat is 32 inches, then the middle 16 inches is likely its (quite large) sweet spot, its "sweet sixteen." Contorted thinking got me that far, but couldn't process the two-digit area code "Fifty One" till I remembered with joy: +51 is how I call my friend in Lima. Mulishly, I tried as hard as possible to disregard the little yellow numbers, and I sorta wish that, even if they had to be there, that they weren't conveniently located right next to their themed answers. We are all rugged individualists in these parts, no matter who we are in the real world. That said, the NW was the devil for me, and I truly enjoyed Balayage. Next time I go to the salon I'm getting a mani-pedi-bali. (Only problem with balding is that it diminishes the usefulness of balayage treatments, but that's the only problem).
Except that "hang ten" of course is a surfing term that means to curl all your toes off the edge of the board, and has nothing to do with being, say, ten seconds in the air on any kind of board... "D'oh!" (I always hit submit way too soon, gotta learn to, uh, hang ten before doing so...)
@john ezra I thought the way you thought for the first two and then wished the same about the little yellow numbers; so I ignored them for the third and finished the puzzle as themeless because Thursdays are Deb and I enjoy reading her explanations. (I have a sweet spot for hers because when I started doing the puzzle daily it was her encouragement and help in the column daily that got me to 7 days a week with no lookups!)
This was not a novel theme, and it was much too easy for a Thursday puzzle. A disappointing 2/10 for me.
@George It was pretty novel to me, and I enjoyed it. Can you direct me to where in the archives I might find similar puzzles? I agree that my solve time suggests the clueing was on the easy side for a Thursday.
Answering the constructor: it didn’t need the highlighting. The aha moment would have been enhanced. A clever and entertaining puzzle in any case. Thanks.
As I’ve often acknowledged, I am not, and never will be, a speed solver, so it was nice for once to have a Thursday solve closer to a SWEET SIXTEEN than in the AREA of FIFTY ONE! It’s been awhile since I’ve had a PB time, so I am enjoying it, rather than wondering why this one was so easy! PJS was a gimme for me, at this time of year, and seems to be a rather recent phenomenon; when I still had kiddos at home I might have gone the route of matching Christmas Eve jammies, but when they were young it wasn’t really a thing. I chuckled to think that tradition might seem creepy to some— I would have said corny was more apt!
Well... actually just a bit surprised that almost everyone found this unusually easy. I was appropriately puzzled for quite a while. Worked things out from the crosses, but I was just close to finishing before I stopped and pondered and - the trick finally dawned on me. That was a nice 'aha' (or, "oh, of course") moment. And of course I had a puzzle find today. Might be appropriate for today. Anyway - a Sunday from March 13, 1983 by Edward Marchese with the title "Openers." And that title was essentially the only 'reveal' in the whole puzzle. Some clue/answer examples: " ... GETTING ON IN YEARS ... " : GOODBYEMRCHIPS "BUCK DID NOT READ THE NEWSPAPERS ... " : CALLOFTHEWILD "CALL ME ISHMAEL" : MOBYDICK "GRANTED: I AM AN INMATE ... " : THETINDRUM "IT WAS LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT" : CATCHTWENTYTWO And there was no reveal other than the title of the puzzle. Don't recall seeing another like that. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=3/13/1983&g=116&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=3/13/1983&g=116&d=A</a> I'll shut up now. ...
I really enjoyed the puzzle! It didn't contain a lot of America-specific trivia that I don't recognize, so it's one of the few thursday puzzles I was able to solve on the day it comes out, without looking up every other answer. I didn't get the theme completely until reading the explanation, but had fun nevertheless!
IGA's name is Świątek, not Swiatek. It seems disrespectful to misspell a person's name. I suppose having accurate and respectful clues about Slavs is still not the NYT's thing. I've never heard of a family having matching PJS - the idea sounds quite creepy TBH. That was one of the most arcane clues I have ever seen in these puzzles. The theme was interesting and gettable - I caught onto it quickly and it helped me complete the puzzle, which always feels better than only understanding some convoluted gimmick after reading the column.
@Andrzej The matching PJs is a Christmas Eve/Christmas morning thing for many families. Generally flannel with some kind of holiday theme. Not arcane here.
@Andrzej It’s an American English puzzle with anglicized answers. Every other day there’s an answer like “ANO” in the place of “año”. And in Spanish believe you me those words mean two very different things.
@Andrzej The spelling in the clue is consistent with the rest of the newspaper. More accurately, it is a transliteration. For example, you will see “Swiatek” in the sports section. How would you suggest that the NYT present Russian, Arabic or Hebrew names?
@Andrzej Family matching PJS took me the longest.... And I have family members (extended, I add to distance myself) who do it and post on social media, send for holiday cards, etc. It's a whole thing. My experience is that it's usually a winter holiday thing. On the one hand, what was it the other day, AS YOU DO, on the other hand, I incline toward your creepy assessment even though it's not really arcane here.
@Andrzej The marks are generally not understood and/or ignored by Americans. I understand that the Polish letters in today’s name are very different than the ones in the puzzle. There’s no way 99% of Americans would know how to form those letters even if we knew they existed. Also, the crossword puzzle format here doesn’t allow for accent marks. Today’s puzzle had a Portuguese word written as SAO when it is actually spelled são. The other day, there was OLA when the correct spelling is olá. There are other words, such as those for grandparents, which would really cause a stir! Grandma is avó while grandpa is avô. The marks do change word meanings but the American puzzle format will probably never include them. We have to just roll with it. Also, imagine (just for kicks) if pronunciation came into play! ARROZ in Spanish is pronounced vastly differently than ARROZ in Portuguese. Same word, same meaning, same spelling but entirely different pronunciation! I hope you have a great day 😊 PS: We do wear matching PJS for Christmas in our family. 🤣🤣🤣
@HeathieJ I think it's still ok to actually say that wearing matching PJs is a Christmas thing.
@Andrzej Regrettably, you’re right and it’s an intentionally disrespectful choice. In a baffling decision I can only imagine was a compromise between writers who wanted to spell correctly and aging editors resistant to change, the New York Times manual of style allows diacritics only in words and names from French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. Also, only diacritics that are common in those languages can be used in the paper.
@Andrzej Welcome to Americana! Spending the holidays in Brazil, or Brasil, if you prefer, where accents are everything in the Portuguese language, but not so much in our everyday English language. If you have been a a nice boy during the year, may Santa Claus be kind enough to you and yours to leave a pair of matching Grinch PJs under your tree on Christmas morning.
@Andrzej I understand omitting diacritics from answers. But its completely disrespectful to get the names wrong in clues. Particularly when they regularly use accents in clues to imply a word is in French/Spanish
@Andrzej - Nowadays, on my phone, the letters of the Polish alphabet are fully available to me without installing a Polish font. This was not true fifteen years ago. The Czech letter ý and Welsh ŷ are even more recent in their inclusion, as are the letters ħ, ď, ë, ļ, ğ, and so many more. The underdot letters (a, e, t, d, r, etc. with a centered dot below) used in many languages are still not available. Editors have to consider the systems that will realize their product when it gets syndicated to other publications, or uploaded on different platforms. The simple fact is that not every mark is available to everyone. The New York Times - not just its puzzle pages - spells Erdoğan as Erdogan. It just does. It uses Izmir, not İzmir. It just does. Brzezinski has never been spelled Brzeziński in an American newspaper. Practical, yes. Disrespectful is in the eye of the beholder, it seems.
@Andrzej Did you ever notice that Barry and Andrzej don't post at the same time? Hmm.
@Andrzej Likewise on the matching PJS here in Scotland. I resisted the answer for quite a long time, because it seemed disconcerting enough to be that first unsettling moment in a horror film: "Woah! They all have matching pyjamas! DO NOT SPEND THE NIGHT HERE!!!"
@Andrzej Regarding, clothing below the PJs- " Semper ubi, sub ubii"
I wish I were asleep but since I'm not, here goes.... Cute and enjoyable puzzle! No numbers or shading would have elevated the difficulty but this is perhaps a nice, gentle introduction to tricky Thursdays for newer puzzlers! Thought the clues for SWOOP and MANTRA were extra clever! Very much enjoyed the Harry Potter reference and even just attended Harry Potter trivia today, or maybe it was yesterday... But as much as I love the HP book series, I'd have been equally happy if NEWT was clued as, "What the alleged witch in Monty Python and the Holy Grail allegedly turned a villager into. (But he got better)" ☺️
I solved today's puzzle in x minutes Had there not been the little yellow circles, I would still have solved the puzzle in x minutes, but spent the next x minutes (and possibly x hours) trying to figure out what it all meant. Now what am I going to do with all that free time? Sign me up on Andzrej's Team Świątek. If I can figure out how to type it, so can the Gray Lady. (Pronouncing correctly it might be a different matter.) ON THAT NOTE, I have no problem with entries in foreign languages, but mucho arroz en una paella, all in one quarter, seems a bit . . .mucho, doncha think? (OTOH, my local fusion trattoria serves a mean matcha latte.)
@Bill - I tried responding earlier, but whatevs. It’s not about what NYT can write, print, edit. It’s about maintaining viability after syndication, on multiple platforms, through an infinite number of variables. The front page of the NYT writes about Erdogan visiting Izmir, not about Erdoğan visiting İzmir. This is not a crossword editing issue. It’s not an issue at all. The Czech government meets in Prague, not v Prazu. In American English Warszawa is Warsaw, like it or not. In Polish papers Paris is Paryż. I wonder how very upset Andrzej gets every time his Polish newspapers call it Paryż instead of the _proper_ name Paris? Answer: NONE!
Deb is correct that some people will find this too easy for a Thursday. I understand that many peopl wouldn’t agree, but in about 50 years of doing NYT crosswords, I am finding the later week puzzles to be getting too easy! We can’t all like every puzzle, and I think it’s fair to have harder puzzles at the end of the week. I don’t do the Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday puzzles, so I don’t get 7 puzzles a week either. But I want a challenge on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, please.
@Elyse G I'm only a solver of about 5 weeks, not 50 years, but I can see your point - the early week crosswords seem to be simply synonyms, which is gratifying for me at this stage, since it is the great NYT! The difficulties for me are over trivia - TV, sport and brand names of cakes etc and slang. I think a good clue involves some thought about the words and their intrinsic meanings.
"Mind repeating that?" for MANTRA - brilliant!
I think the hardest part was realizing how this wasn't a terribly tricky Thursday puzzle. My brain kept looking for zebras. Nice to just enjoy and not struggle.
@SJ Demo Amen! I often skip Thursdays, or stumble through them, and having to the revealing squares in frustration! This was actually fun!
So how do I get to be a crossword tester 🤔
@Tem If you find out, let me know! I think Jeff Chen is (or at least once was) a tester, because I seem to remember him alerting the team to the fact that a seemingly innocent answer in a grid he test-solved could be interpreted as a slur--an alert they let slide, which led to a *lot* of comments.
Olá! Most of my entries on the first pass were correct, which they usually are not on Thursdays. I got hung up in the expected places — “Why is it AREAFIFTYONE instead of area CODES? 🤔” and NEWB instead of noob. Then I worked through it pretty quickly for a fast finish. Like others, I was waiting for the other rebus-adorned shoe to drop. When the theme was straight forward, it was a bit of a relief. I think we’re in for a head-scratching weekend with this relatively easy Thursday puzzle. Enjoyed it MUCHO, Mr. Bodily. You were a SÃO for not making it too difficult for us.
@Pani Korunova I heard you admonishing me in my head when I realized my San needed to be São for Brazil.
@Justin Haha! I’ve become quite the scolding school marm! It’s just that Portuguese is like Avis — they have to try harder! I feel like I’m the PR person for their language 🤣
No matter how long I live, I will always be a NEWB when it comes to sports talk, except for a little basketballese, but even then, I'm often reduced to just hissing SICEM! I did learn a bit of skateboard tonight and corrected my meager baseball vocab—I thought SWEETSPOT referred to something on the ball, not the bat, and the food fills gave me a bit of help, with ARROZ and TRATTORIA and LATTE (kind of a food). I'm a little worn out, what with listening to the Warriors game while I solved the puzzle. The Warriors lost—just by one point, but it might as well have been ten. ONTHATNOTE, my heartfelt thanks, Daniel Bodily, for lifting my spirits. It was just the puzzle for tonight—hard spots and SWEETSPOTS in equal measure, and it held my attention when I needed a break. We'll be waiting for your eighth.
@dutchiris Well there’s a nice little meditative nugget. When a cylindrical bat hits a spherical ball at an intersection where their diameters meet along the same hypothetical plane through which both moving objects are passing at the moment of impact, are they connecting at the sweet spot of the bat or the ball? (It’s both, I guess.) But, since the bat is what’s in your hand and in your control, and a perfect connection leads to that sweet, sweet feeling of no vibration of the bat, just pure pop, it’s natural to think, “there, I found the sweet spot in the bat.”
Ignore last comment. Hit Submit by accident. Oops! D'oh! I worked in software for four decades and never heard of programming in R. Good to know. I hear pirates are very good at it
@Mr Dave Similar amount of time tickling keyboards for me and I’ve programmed in C and R (briefly). So it was even more of a forehead slapper when I finally got that one near the very end!
@Mr Dave statistical language, like S, different than T.
Clever and enjoyable! Merci!
It's nubes not newbs! I loved it, but I am curious what it would have been like to solve it w/out the circled numbers. Or maybe even if SPOT hadn't been right by SWEET. Swapping the placement of 19A and 52A would have been an easy fix for that. (Though not for the constructor who would've had to completely redo the puzzle.) I almost got chosen as a test solver, but for some reason I failed the psych evaluation. (Too many cross words?)
@ad absurdum I've never seen, heard of, or even contemplated spelling it "nubes", and it's not one of the variants @Grumpy pulled from "Webster's" (I assume Merriam) a bit below.... Funny how everyone carries their own "head canon".... ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Nice. I had to read the column to understand 1A (Strike one= pose) and I thought novice gamers were usually NOOBS rather than NEWBS. Fun and quickish for a Thursday.
I enjoyed this one; the coin didn't drop until near the end.
I really enjoyed this puzzle. I think a Thursday best for me, and this one was a lot of fun throughout. The cluing and fill were both clever and funny. Notably, for the first time ever, I managed to fill in the second and third themed answers without reading the clues or using a single cross. Once I got “Sweet 16” and noticed the highlight on 16A, I checked the other two highlighted numbers. ___ 22 could only be one thing, and ___ 51 could only be one thing. So, I confidently filled in the other two spanners. It felt really satisfying to figure out such long answers that way. A fun, funky, and fast Thursday. Thanks, Daniel Bodily!
I absolutely loved this one. Shading would have worked, but I really enjoyed the “aha!” moment I got due to the novel little yellow dots (in the app version). This felt very fresh and clever.
Simply have to put this out there. One fell SWOOP. Even if it’s been shared already, it’s worth doing it again… (very short) <a href="https://youtu.be/4f91IankqwA?si=9XbzffihIOlU4VGR" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/4f91IankqwA?si=9XbzffihIOlU4VGR</a>
@CCNY Fantastic clip! Thanks for sharing.
....and not a rebus in sight. (I hope everyone can see the teeny circles.)
@Barry Ancona It’s trombone arms for some of us.
@Barry Ancona They saved the rebuses for Strands today.
@Barry Ancona But rebuses galore over at Connections…great Thursday treat! Reminds me of when they had emojis last April Fool’s Day.
@Hardroch I enjoyed the hell out of Connections today, although I got not one answer 😂
For me, the highlighted numbers made it too easy. For a Thursday I would have preferred no highlighting and more time thinking “huh?”
Nothing like the NYT Xword to build your Spanish vocabulary. Fun puzzle, but not overly crunchy for a Jueves.
And now a quick comment about yesterday's comments: It was amazing how many people complained about the Mini answer of LIRE. And how many of those people repeated the same discredited complaint that LIRE in the plural ruined the clue. It's as if no one ever reads the prior comments before plonking down their own. As if it were a novel complaint that hadn't already been answered. Pretty much everyone who complained missed the point. Yes, you do say "The currency of Italy before the euro was the LIRA" (singular). But "currency" can be used in more ways than one. Not just to name the unit (in the singular), but also to refer to any amount of cash. "There's a pile of Italian currency on the table. I count a million LIRE." Those LIRE are old Italian currency. End of case. LIRE has been in the (main) puzzle many times; 23 of those times, "currency" has been in the clue. Apparently, the editors (and it goes back to Farrar in 1951) are fine about cluing LIRE in the plural with the word "currency". And they are not wrong. At the same time, the singular LIRA has also been clued using the word "currency" 37 times. So you just have to get it on the cross. At least I have to admire the adamant certainty in the tenor of the complaints!
I want to be a test solver, that would be so fun! I thought this was an incredibly clever theme. But like some others, I would have preferred it without circles. Since the concession was made to include circles, perhaps 16A, 22A and 51D could have been dashes instead of straightforward clues. Understanding the theme may have been more integral to the solve in that case. Or, maybe that's just a crazy suggestion.
@Anita Great idea having dashes for clues. That would have been puzzling and appropriate for Thursday. I vote for you as a test solver!
@Anita Totally agree! That would be an awesome Thursday…you get my vote for test solver.
No complaints here. TBH I often skip Thursdays b/c of the oblique clues and the various other challenges thrown in! But this one was fun! I caught on to the "sweet sixteen" right away so it was pretty much smooth sailing from there! My time ended up being *half* my average for Thursdays!❤️
That was fun! Lots of great new clues for not-so-new answers. I really enjoyed this. Cute theme too.
For me I appreciate any meta-puzzle that includes clue numbers in the answers, not in the clues. At 25A "Beautiful Mind Director Howard": my synapses just connected directly from that clue to "Happy Days" - completely bypassing the name of the director/actor who tie them together, and it took great mental efforts to figure out why "Cunningham" (i.e., "Howard Cunningham," father of Richie, played by RON Howard) didn't fit. And neither did Opie :) Either a symptom of my coffee deficit, or a clever clue designed to befuddle the brains of people who watched the show fifty years ago. Or both.
All the puzzles this week seem easy, or I turned suddenly smart overnight.
Great puzzle and Deb's column today was a delight. Everything she knows about football she learned from cartoons, heehee :-) Just imagining, which cartoons was it? Was it perhaps the recurring theme from Charles Shultz Peanuts column... with Charlie Brown attempting over and over to kick a football while trying to trust Lucy's promises that she really, really was going to hold the ball up this time, and not trick him again? Good grief! he would say after he sailed through the air and landed flat on his back. Enjoy! <a href="https://www.gocomics.com/blog/3688/charlie-brown-s-greatest-misses-every-peanuts-football-gag-comic" target="_blank">https://www.gocomics.com/blog/3688/charlie-brown-s-greatest-misses-every-peanuts-football-gag-comic</a>
I print out the standard layout which did not have any little circles or shading to give the game away. Even without that, I thought this was pretty straightforward. SWEET SPOT is such a well known term, and having just fillled in SPOT, I could see what was going on too early.
I managed to complete the puzzle without understanding the yellow numbers or some of the answers. Didn't get the 'theme' at all until I read Deb's explanation. I thought it was quite tricky for a Wednesday - and then realised it's Thursday. Oh dear - that was a real 2-Down moment!
@Puzzled Brit Same here. Puzzle construction is hard enough without having to incorporate a theme, and sometimes I wish puzzles without themes were allowed to creep through on regular theme days, just because the convention seems to necessitate more and more abstract themes just to meet the requirement. That being said, I did enjoy the puzzle, and it is quite well done.
@Jeff Z Wednesdays are occasionally non themed, as are Sundays
One of those ones where I have no idea what the theme means until I read it on the article. American football, baseball and golf clues always stump me so as a tennis fan I was happy to very eagerly fill in IGA Swiatek. A rare gold star Thursday for me so I'm happy :)
@bayonetta Does your nickname here have anything to do with a certain video game character? It's been bugging me for days so I just have to ask.
Struggled in NW and never did understand the theme, but still finished under my Thursday average by a good bit. My only gripe — not exclusive to this puzzle — is that I’ve been gaming for years and called a noob many times, but have never seen NEWB except in a crossword. Seems a bit forced.
I think when the term first appeared it was NEWB, which then morphed to "noob," which further morphed to "noobian." You then had the term "owned," meaning prevaiing over someone decisvely, which resulted in the common typo "pwned," which in turn got adopted over the earlier form and subsequently respelled as "pooned." All of which combined in the phrase "pooned like a noobian."
For Daniel Bodily’s question: “What do you think? Do the extra visual cues in this puzzle enhance or detract from your solving experience? Please let me know in the comments.” I enjoyed the yellow circles. It was very satisfying when the mystery cracked.