Did not love it. I think it was technically interesting...But i think the mechanics of solving it sucked the life out of it. Meaning...that having to search the clue list to find which Across had a word needed for a Down just was tedious and wasnt any fun. If it was possible to circle or highlight the relevant artists and squares which were needed in other parts of the puzzle it would have lower the "arrrrrghghhhh this is annoying" factor.
@Paul I totally agree. Normally, I’m a big fan of tricky puzzles, but this is 2-3 steps too far. Your suggestion that perhaps some entries could be highlighted is a good one. Also, I only ever work the xword on my iPhone, not having any other option. That has definitely contributed to my frustration. If the puzzle can’t easily be worked on mobile devices supported by the NYT Games app, then maybe the “tricky” factor should be toned down a bit.
@Paul Similar feeling here. It doesn't help that I don't take the extra step to get to the notes before solving, leaving me without a way to identify my error on MODEL A/t.
@Paul Yes yes yes, a thousand times yes. I got the trick early on, but became so confused by the back-and-forth of searching for the artists and stolen entries that I didn’t get to enjoy the solve. Most puzzles with paired entries will highlight both of them whenever one is encountered. I don’t know why that didn’t happen here. It certainly would have helped to mitigate the frustration.
@Paul It might have helped if the matching entries were highlighted both ways.
@Paul This puzzle was 'too clever by a half'. I didn't enjoy it at all. And, I'm not novice. I have a 1264 gold star streak.
First of all this said "paintings" rather than painters, so at first I was looking for titles of famous paintings. Finally solved it but overall a big mess and not fun at all.
@HC Tabak totally agree!!! What a slog
@HC Tabak Speaking logically, I suppose A painting can be a Monet, hence a Monet can be a painting.
I feel bad saying this, because I’m sure people worked hard to make this puzzle. But it was such an unpleasant experience that I need to voice my opinion: I really didn’t like it at all. I think part of the issue was that the across clues didn’t highlight the relevant downs. So, I was constantly trying to figure out which down was supposed to go with which across. On top of that, one letter in the across answers was irrelevant to the down which made it impossible to read. Then, while it was cute to run with the theme of “stolen” letters. The remaining across fills really should have been actual words. Just really something I hope to never see again. This was a bad idea.
@Selective Walrus — Why feel bad? It’s your honest opinion as a subscriber. Just because someone puts a lot of effort into something doesn’t put it above (well-deserved) criticism. This was one of the worst puzzles of 2024, IMO.
@Selective Walrus you perfectly described my issues as well. I kept having to scroll through every clue to try to figure out where the "painter" clue was that filled in the gibberish square I was trying to guess. Then just know that one of those letters is definitely wrong. I find it hard to believe anyone could solve this without help
@MDB Simply because someone put a lot of time and effort in, and was probably excited to get it published. I don’t feel great telling them that this was the worst puzzle I’d seen a in a long time.
@Selective Walrus I would get some of the answers and then they did not make sense with the stolen letters at all. He could have made this more straight forward, where the actual stolen letters fit clues.
I appreciate the hard work that went into this, but a crossword should not need that many instructions. Not for me.
@Jeff L. Do you really appreciate the hard work though? It went into what was an overly complicated puzzle, so convoluted in fact even the instructions given where impossible to understand (for me, anyway). It's ok to say one does *not* appreciate work that went into something, even if it was hard. Not all goals are worth reaching.
Really struggling with how the corresponding entries only highlight one way and not the other. It's taking me forever just to find the entry I'm looking for. Seems like a simple formatting thing that could have been fixed.
@Sarah Yeah, that forced me to resort to pen & paper to get it finished. Surprised it wasn't set up that way.
@Sarah I thoroughly agree - highlighting the entries when clicking on either entry of the pair would have saved a lot of time and annoyance
@Sarah Highlighting that works both ways would have made a world of difference. It wasn’t difficult to grasp the idea, but it was taxing to find which artist was removed from which gobbledygook answer.
@Sarah so much this! What a fail to not include this very simple and frequently used feature. In the end, I printed out the grid in order to help me solve it. Too much to keep track of in one’s head. Kudos to anyone who solve it on Their phone without also using a paper and pencil. Otherwise, very clever. But would’ve been better if the answers that had their paintings stolen had formed reasonable fill.
@Sarah Totally agreed. Two-way highlighting would have saved a great deal of annoyance and frustration and would have made this a much better solving experience. Really inexplicable they didn't use it.
This is probably an overreaction but this was hands down the most frustrating puzzle I've solved this year. I appreciate what the constructor was trying to achieve with the theme but the mechanics of it just didn't work for me. A lot of the fill was way too obscure and seemed like it was largely software generated. The multiple proper nouns and Naticks didn't help either. Lastly - the way the Notes section was worded (I assume by the editors) was more confusing than helpful and really made me question my proficiency with the English language. /endrant
@Rahul and it was made worse by those down clues with the extra letters, because the across didn't help you figure out what thec_ was supposed to be!
@Rahul I agree. The basic premise was simple.: you fill in the names of artists hidden in rebus squares. But the editor’s explanation made the effort seem much more complicated. Not the Times’ finest hour.
no internal logic. hated it. a painting is a painting and a painter is a painter and if the theme takes a paragraph to explain you're doing it wrong.
This was the holiday fruitcake of puzzles. While I admire the effort and cleverness that went into it, there is much too much going on for it to be enjoyable to those partaking of it.
@JBW what a great metaphor. exactly!!!
@JBW An apt metaphor for most people. I think I’m one of nine people in the country who actually likes fruitcake. Hated this puzzle, though.
I have a 1256-day streak going. About the only things in life I've done with equal consistency is love my child and breathe. I now have a new most-hated puzzle in this streak. In order to retain the integrity of the streak, I scrupulously avoid peeking or reading commentary until after I'm done - the only exception being the occasional spellcheck. Until today. What is meant by "unusual 'one-way' rebus"? Is this some newly invented rule that it's okay for clues to make sense in one direction while being rendered into meaningless gibberish in the other? Is it not the beauty of the rebus that it must make sense in both directions? I was so irritated that I relented, for the first time in almost four years, and read some of the commentary. Ms. Lovinger's assessment is incorrect, at least based on my mobile device. I filled in the cross clues (eg. ISINTO) based on her directive that "it should be entered as normal". Back to the puzzle, and upon completion, I received the "So Close" message. Only after I changed those squares to the makes-sense-in-one-direction-utter-nonsense-the-other rebuses did I receive the music and reveal. Maddening and ridiculous. One last rant. Miro, O'Keeffe, Monet etc are painters, not paintings. AN O'Keeffe or A Monet can be stolen; you would never say to the police, "O'Keeffe was stolen!" or they might ask if you meant to report a kidnapping. My streak may be intact, but this is the closest I've ever come to tossing it as no longer worth it.
@Haim Wright I know you're a good solver but I'm still impressed you managed to finish this. Respect! I just gave up after shrugging at all the rebuses I kept entering and deleting for the longest time.
@Haim Wright As many commentators have said, and I’ll say it again, it’s not a rebus, not a rebus, not a rebus. You steal the artist’s name (remove it) and a letter is left in its place which is checked by a phrase. You have to read the instructions or it won’t make any sense, I understand.
@Haim Wright Same here re streak, and yet the Answer Key did not provide the actual answers!
@Haim Wright The one way rebus thing is what’s killing me, especially for the people who enjoyed it and are calling it clever. It’s not clever, it’s lazy and cheap. A real insult to themed puzzles that are so carefully and elegantly created that everything just snaps into place. This was the exact opposite of those - clunky and messy.
I have solved 100s of NYT crossword puzzles, and that was the very first one I absolutely hated. If didn't have a 6-month streak going, I would have put down my phone and gone for a walk instead. I love when a puzzle (ahem, usually Thursdays) slices out a chunk out of an answer and drops it elsewhere in the grid. When the letters left behind spell something new, that's super fun! Having the leftovers be gibberish is less fun. Having to guess a random, unrelated letter to jam in there is not fun at all. Having to do this 10 times, because it's Sunday, is as much fun as doing taxes. And on top of it all, the clueing was way harder than most Sundays. No thank you!
About as much fun as a root canal, without anesthesia
Glad I'm in the majority here. Awful mechanics here since it was impossible to reference backwards. Even including the corresponding clue number would have been enough
Got through it, but never felt the satisfying "aha" from it. The missing back references or co-highlighting to show the corresponding artist fill when you highlighted one of the words with missing letters was a major editing mistake in my mind. Moreover, the fact that the "extra" letter in a couple of of the key fills was, itself, part of a tricky down fill (Model A or T? The C-What? Fems, Dems, THems, ...?? Wu-Tang??) and that you couldn't use the across fill to validate your guess, meant that decrypting the 10-letter "evidence" wasn't so much a punny reward for solving the puzzle as a necessary part of the punishment to finish it. This just seemed to be too clever by half. If it had been done without the extra letters for the "evidence," I think this would've been a solid puzzle. But one gimmick too many ruined this one for me.
@batech very well put. Between the proper nouns, overall clue difficulty and "evidence" rendering 10(!) answers gibberish, I don't even really believe the editors were able to solve this without help.
The constructor wrote in his notes “I was desperate to make those two phrases work.” For me, this should have been a sign that perhaps you were trying too hard. Things done from a state of desperation tend not to work out well.
@Someone the constructor was so desperate to 'add some diversity to the puzzle' that they sacrificed the quality and enjoyment of the final product? That sounds pretty much exactly right for the current cultural moment
@mary hartigan Yeah, should’ve been femmes. 😑
@mary hartigan I also remember it being femmes back in the '70s. The counterpart was butch. Not sure I'd use either term but apparently fem(me)s is acceptable.
Always up for a rebus puzzle. But it has to be consistent across and down. Unlike this one.
@Brian I don't understand why it must be consistent. There have been other puzzles in the last few years where they haven't been.
@Geoff there have been, and I dislike them intensely. No published style guides demand horizontal and vertical consistently. But fair play seems to require it.
@Brian NOT A REBUS !!!!
This puzzle would have been much better if both of the paired answers lit up when you clicked on one of them. For example, when you click on 92 across GOYA, 33 across WNKEES highlights. Why not also have it so that when you click on 33 across WNKEES, 92 across GOYA highlights.
@Rod D This is a good idea. And good to see constructive feedback vs. the 'this made me think too much so I don't like it' huffing & puffing in some other comments!
@Rod D 100% agreed. Constructive criticism on construction 👍
@Rod D Next time the Twins play the Yankees, imma totes gonna yell, “GO WANKEES!!”
Since comments are moderated for content, I’ll keep it civil and simply say that I solved it, but I did not enjoy it. In fact, I found it contrived, annoying and completely unsatisfying. I feel let down and maybe even a little angry 😂
@Bob White can you tell me/us what format for the 10 clue cells should be? I've tried every combination of clue letter, artist name I can think of and the puzzle doesn't "solve"
@Bob White FWIW, I followed the suggestion in the “wordplay” article and tried the Feb 17, 2019 puzzle - another rebus - and found it quite fun to solve. I particularly liked, after reading Mr. Kwong’s bio, the “Catch Me If You Can” clue. Nice Easter egg😊
It is very rare that I dislike a puzzle so much I no longer care about the solution. I appreciate the daring attempt but the execution was very clunky on many levels. The best puzzles on this conceal how hard they are to make. The glue needed to paste the theme together was glaring. This doesn't belong at the Met. It barely belongs on grandma's refrigerator.
@PokerGeek I was the same way. Didn’t care about the solve at all. Just a brutal slog.
It’s all been said before, so I’ll just add that this was the most unenjoyable NYT Xword I’ve ever tried to do. I got part of the theme but the fill-in letters made gibberish entries. I gave up and read the column. Still not finished. Yechh!
I am SO glad to have finished this puzzle. Because it was simply terrible and I want to put it far, far behind me. What a slog. This is everything anyone ever complains about regarding gimmicked puzzles (the ones I typically love), multiplied to the point of nausea. I dutifully filled in rebuses. That wasn't enough. I took the rebuses out. Surely the down answers had to make SOME sense and keep their letters. Maybe some kind of combo rebus? Slashes? I finally resorted to actually reading the little "i" thing about the theme, which didn't help. Finally after 3 flyspecking sessions I twiddled the right letter and I can put this shame of a crossword puzzle to rest. So much for the "Sundays are Tuesday/Wednesday level" guideline. This was an awful puzzle and I regret even starting it. Difficulty with zero joy. Challenging in the worst way, with unrewarding paths to unwind. I've heard similar criticisms of his movie (haven't seen it) so maybe this tracks. Please do not have this "constructor" back here. Self-indulgent in the absolute worst ways, providing nothing of value or entertainment to the customer. And now off to read some comments and see that everyone loved it. :) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@B I have never agreed with you more! I was so confused by the implementation of this puzzle's theme - I kept entering and deleting rebuses, and neither made sense. On top of that the fill was really bad in places - dozens of trivia clues, and some of them of the most arcane type for me: musical keys and sports. In the end I just gave up and revealed the puzzle. I've never had less fun dealing with a grid than today. I don't share your criticism of the constructor though: I don't know them, and I won't judge a person by one crossword puzzle.
@B I’m almost speechless. I…totally agree with you.
Yikes. I see at least one silver lining here: the next time a puzzle has a 59-word note explaining how it works, I’ll move along right away and save myself a lot of time and frustration.
In the immortal words of David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel, it’s such a fine line between stupid and clever — and once again, David Kwong has tried to be too clever and crossed it.
@Ken W. My husband and I frequently ask each other whether something is over the Tufnel/St. Hubbins line. And it usually is.
@Ken W. Excellent. I had to post a reply because I can only give you one "Recommend" click. :) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Easily the most irritating crossword ever.
Maybe I'm just not smart enough to figure this out, but this puzzle is beyond impossible for me. Not only is the trick so complicated (dare I say: convoluted?) I don't even understand the hint on the title page: on top of that, the puzzle is saturated with trivia. I've had 30 lookups, if not more, I've checked what I've entered so far, and I've used several reveals - but I'm still nowhere near figuring the puzzle out. I know I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I've never struggled as much with a NYT crossword as I am with this one. Could it possibly be a tad overcooked? I think I'll just reveal it, shrug at it and move on. So much for a bit of Sunday fun...
@Andrzej I agree, the amount of trivia in this puzzle is unbalanced, considering how complicated the theme is.
@Andrzej are you saying Mortimer SNERD is trivial? It's from well before my time, and I'm no spring chicken... Though I did manage to retrieve it from some kind of genetic memory cache despite having Spiel instead of SLANG in the cross.
@Andrzej As I mentioned in my comments, when themes are so involved and so complicated you have to sacrifice smoother fill. I agree the fill was more obscure than usual—I just think it is worth it for the very fun theme, but can see why you may not. And again I sincerely salute you for solving in your non-native language.
@Andrzej Finally we're on the same side. :) Though my issue wasn't with trivia but with the overwrought and joy-free construction and solving experience. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
I didn’t enjoy it at all.
What a gimmicky piece of you-know-what this puzzle was. So you're supposed to ignore the fact the downs need a letter that makes no sense in the across, except it's called CROSSwords. Quality matters, not novelty.
All crosswords are a waste of time, in a good way. This was a waste of time in a bad way. I knew I was in for it when I didn't understand the paragraph of instructions but thought I'd certainly pick up the idea on the fly. I never did. Please, never give us another one of whatever this was.
Yes, yes, very clever. Well done. Can we go back to actual crosswords now please. I really dislike being snippy and am always, without exception in awe of the constructors skill. Here comes the BUT: when you need to work this hard at simply deciphering the instructions, let alone solving the actual puzzle, then you’ve left all enjoyment/fun/satisfaction behind. I’ve done something this morning that I have never done before; I clicked Check Puzzle. I reckon I got 2/3 of the way there before I gave up, but I’m so cross with this that I just don’t care. Kudos to all who completed and/or enjoyed this. Hopefully normal service resumes to tomorrow.
@Helen Wright I completed it, but I only carried on because after spending SO long on it I felt I had to see it through. By the end I was past caring really, not fun... I am also looking forward to a nice easy Monday puzzle!
That wasn't a pleasure at all... First, let's just put aside the fact that the missing letters weren't "paintings" but "artists"?? Also the fill was bad, CRES as an abbr. on music scores is simply wrong, it's always CRESC.
@Gecko1111 Paintings are often called by the artist who made them, and in fact it is a frequent crossword conceit if you have plural artist names—for example “Some impressionist paintings”=MONETS. Think “The auction sold a Picasso today”.
If I ever cancel my subscription to the NYT crossword it'll be because of a trainwreck puzzle like this. I've got a lot of it finished but I think that I'm just going to quit. I despise losing a nice streak because of this tedious and nonsensical --- better not continue (emu).
@R.J. Smith Thank you for this. I fear the emu and will keep my thoughts about this Frankenstein monster to myself.
[Dr. Seuss mode on] I did not enjoy this puzzle. I did not enjoy it one bit. [Dr Seuss mode off] I agree that there needed to be both horizontal and vertical cross-referencing. I also feel that the answer key, which I looked at after finally solving, 30-plus minutes over my average time, was misleading. It’s not helpful to show the rebuses instead of whatever letter was supposed to go in the “missing” space of each Across theme answer. The xwordinfo key was much, much, much more clear, and reminded me why I pay big bucks for xwordinfo. Please do better, editors. This is supposed to be entertainment, not Torture.
This is, without a doubt, the worst constructed puzzle you have ever published. Even if you forgive the use of rebuses (which are always bad) the down clues Do. Not. Make. Any. Sense. Do better.
@Daniel Personally I prefer to punch above my weight; it's a really good way to advance my skills. The day I stop advancing I start to get old. So I play the hard games and get knocked down.
I'm a little more inclined to raise an issue with the tech guys on this one, as it would have been very helpful to highlight both the "painting" and the "stolen from" when working on either, instead of just when working on the "painting". It got to be more of a problem of remembering what went where than trying to get the answers correct. The concept was great, the construction was great, the complexity made the solving experience more exasperating than difficult. Overall, I liked it, but it was a little too convoluted to be really enjoyable.
Agree that trying to find the painters once stolen/ filled in was a bit of a pain
Sorry. No fun at all. I still don’t understand whether I need to use the rebus key in order for the online puzzle to work.
@Dardanus typically a rebus only needs the first letter of the Across or Down word. Then in addition to that...you could put the whole word in the rebus...or both words... BUT....truly...its easier to assume you only need the first letter of one of the Across or Down. AND in this case the instructions implied as strongly as possible that you could take a single letter from top to bottom and use that to solve another minipuzzle. Actually that helped me...since the 10 letter mini puzzle made sense and it just meant that i could double check which letter I had in the box as compared to the minipuzzle.
@Paul Thanks. I know how rebuses work. In this case the first letter of the answer isn’t the letter entered into the square, so the usual method doesn’t seem to work. Can someone help?
Yeesh. This one was a slog, as many have already said. The poor technical implementation on mobile, the messy Across answers that spell nothing when filled in properly, the crisscrossing naticky names, the ancient clues... and then the trite revealer at the end. Ugh. The whole puzzle felt inelegant to me. I'm sorry to be harsh but I'm glad it's in the past.
This puzzle was very cleve, but not fun. There are several cheats or downright errors here. Crescendo is NOT abbreviated as "cres." And "flam"? Give me a break. That alone would disqualify this puzzle. But this was also almost impossible to play on the app, because only the stolen artist names were highlighted, and not the altered clues, which were the ones that were the real challenges, since they not only involved missing pieces, but also irrelevant inserted letters. Thumbs down on this one.
I really liked the concept of this puzzle, but unfortunately the execution made it more complicated than it needed to be. What a mess.
I liked the idea of the puzzle but it would have been better if: 1. The highlights worked in both directions. Can’t expect us to remember which word had missing letters. 2. We did not have the third trick. Especially cumbersome because of 1 3. Crossings were more balanced. Some just didn’t make much sense
@Andy K - totally agree on the bi-directional highlight. It’s so frustrating to scan back through clues to figure out which one has the fragment.
@Andy K I definitely agree on your first item. Took an inordinate amount of time to track down the connections without two-way highlighting.
Why do this? If the instructions on how to solve it are unclear the experience won’t be enjoyable.
Andrew, Which solving instructions did you find unclear? I found this note on the puzzle itself, and it seemed clear to me. Note: Ten paintings have been stolen by a master thief! To solve this caper, locate each stolen painting in the grid. Then identify the squares in the Across answers from which they’ve been taken. In their place, the thief has left behind 10 pieces of evidence – letters in the Downs. Read them from top to bottom to reveal a message.
Ugh. What a contrived theme. Did not care for this one.
Actors, towns, brands, tv channels, politicians. This already makes it hard for foreigners to solve but add to that not only a rebus but one that doesn't work across and down and it becomes a pain. Hated it
@AT I agree, there was a lot more US-centric content than usual, that should have been toned down given the audience. And seriously, how many people in the US even know what cable channel a Penn & Teller show was on? Having that be one of the unchecked letters was definitely not keeping the solver in mind.
A Sunday puzzle just ruined.
@Arcturus ok woah we didn't think it was THAT bad
@Arcturus I agree. Too clever for its own good. I solved it to keep a streak going but was pissed at the end, not satisfied. My wife and I solve these together. It's our tradition each evening. I had to finish the last half myself because she was so annoyed by the clumsy execution of this puzzle she bailed and went to bed.
A big fan of tricks and rebus, I normally hunt the Thursday ones down in the archives... but this is just embarrassing. It wasn't even that hard, just horribly tedious and far-fetched. To the vetting team: when you started discussing the need for a five-line explainer at the top, that moment would have been a good place to send the writer back to his desk. Paintings for painters, to start with? What a strange idea. Who let that one pass?? No link between the dual clues so that you have to fish them out of the list everytime you come back? Et par dessus-le-marché et au nom de tous les saints, il n'y a pas de thon dans la salade niçoise!
@ABC I usually refrain from posting negative comments when I don’t love a puzzle, but the errors you’ve pointed out are significant in this one. Things seemed to have been crammed into it to make the trick work, whether or not they were legit words. CRES was particularly annoying to me. I’ve never seen that abbreviation in any sheet music in 65 years of reading music.
@ABC It’s very common to refer to a painting by the artist’s name. Eg: “That is a Degas.” I agree about CRES. That is just wrong. The editors should have caught it.
I wish the linked clues were cross-referenced in both directions because i had to spend a lot of time scrolling through all the clues to find the other pair.
Alas, this one was not for me. I can’t recall the last time I failed to finish a puzzle, but now it’s today. Too frustrating.
Caitlin's choice of Munch's The Scream as the picture at the top of her column was more apropos than I initially realized.
Vaer, First thing I noted, with a smile, when the Wordplay page opened! The jump-scene foreboding music was playing all through my solve.
This was a stone cold, ten out of ten banger. Anyone whingeing and moaning about the difficulty of the overall theme, I imagine you don’t have a lot of fun in your lives… the final reveal of the secret code was a master stroke. Loved it - took me a good while to parse it all but I loved it!
@TheBiggestHater I disagree. On mobile, it was incredibly difficult to follow what was going on. And the “stolen” letters weren’t always stolen. Look at 118A, where DALI is stolen. 69D is completed by a D at the end, so only ALI was stolen. Overly confusing and in many cases incomprehensible.
@TheBiggestHater I can't believe how far down I had to scroll through the comments to find someone else who loved this puzzle. I guess those of us who get enjoyment out of real challenges like this are a small minority? It took me double my average solve time to crack it and I loved every second of it.
@TheBiggestHater, I wasn’t quite as much a fan of it as you, but recommending your post anyway in the hopes of getting something positive in the top 60 comments. Maybe this will get into the top 50!
I love doing the Sunday puzzles. This one, not at all.