"Would you like a chocolate coffee?" "Go ahead, mocha my day." (Puns are how I espresso myself.)
@Mike What's that durable looking cloth hat you're wearing made of? Is it a cappuccino?
@Mike You guys are great, much better than I. Once, I submitted my ten very best puns to a contest. I was hoping one of them would prevail, but alas, no pun in ten did...
@Mike I see you've bean at it again. Just part of the daily grind, I guess. Are the emus our filters? Or a bunch of drips?
In re the cheating versus solving debate, I think cheating is the end wrong word. It's a loaded word, and it's not even the relevant factor. When I was in elementary school, every evening my dad would bring me the newspaper, and I'd do two things. First I'd look through all the box scores to see if anyone got a triple-double in the NBA or hit for the cycle in the MLB. Then I'd turn to the crossword answer key and fill in the crossword from the previous day if my parents hadn't finished it yet. I wasn't solving the puzzle, but I was learning from it. I don't think anyone would consider it cheating. In high school, I often used a thesaurus when I solved the puzzle. Was it cheating? No, of course not. I was learning new words. Was it solving? Sure it was. I stopped doing the puzzle after High School and picked it back up a year or so ago. After a few months I was able to do seven days a week. I don't look anything up. If I come to my wits end, I click Check Puzzle and correct my mistakes. I consider that failing the puzzle, though. But cheating, no? It's just another tool for solving.
@Steven M. Well said. We live and learn. Those were interesting statistics you looked for. I was obsessed with batting averages, myself, and the Pirates had some fellas -- Dave Parker, Rennie Stennett come to mind -- who could consistently hit over .320.
@Steven M. While well said, I still think you're splitting arbitrary hairs. Someone could easily take the same issue with your use of "failing". "But you didn't fail, you simply finished the puzzle another way." Most of us are adults here. It's okay to call it cheating. My impression is that a wink is usually implied. :) /haven't had to cheat yet, unless you count rolling the alphabet on a square ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Steven M. In tonight's game, playing the Warriors, the Mavericks' Luka Dončić got a triple double. The teams combined for an NBA record 48 3-pointers. It was a terrific game, but I'm sorry to say the Warriors lost. I thought you'd like to know about Luka's stats: Min 38., Reb. 11, Assts. 13, Points 45.
@Steven M. I think it's always worth remembering that unless a constructor has declared they used no outside sources, then it is fair to assume that it is not you "against" the constructor but it is you against the entire internet (i.e. the sum of all humankind's knowledge). So as to "cheating", as you point out, there is a "spectrum" of what any one persons line in the sand might be. I for one, especially if there are Naticks involved (as is more and more the case as editing has devolved), have the least bit of interest in having to know the minutiae of Star Wars or Harry Potter and will "cheat" so as to move on with my life.
My poor brain needed an breezy puzzle after that gauntlet yesterday. I'm still reeling.
@Dave ST This is why I am in the comments today. We took 4 1/2 hours on Sunday’s and didn’t get it. TGIM
@Dave S LOL! You are not the only one Dave.
It’s great to see the youngest female constructor back after her debut two years ago. And with a theme that is brilliant for its straightforwardness and simplicity. It amazing this hasn’t been done before. Thanks for a fun puzzle, Ailee. I hope you have more ideas percolating and that we’ll see you again soon.
This is extra refreshing after Sunday's puzzle.
I’m with Sam Corbin on “cheating”…. when I started regularly doing the NYT crossword a few years ago, it was me and Google. The main difference now that enables me to not Google anymore… I have learned a bunch of frequently used words like ERE, ERR, OGRE, EPEE, EMU, etc. So usually I can get enough of a start to reason out the rest. Very fun puzzle today! Ever since I tasted coffee ice cream at age 3 it has easily been my favorite… morphing now to mainly espresso shots. Thanks!
@sonnel I can so relate to your comment. I didn't start drinking coffee until I was in my early twenties and started traveling. I eased my way in through cappuccinos in Italy and then on to Austria and Kaffe mit Shlag and Eis Kaffe which was coffee with whipped cream or coffee with ice cream. I was hooked. Thanks for helping me retrieve this delicious memory of many years ago.
As someone not from the US, googling is frequently part of my strategy! I think of it as learning extra facts, not cheating 😅
Don’t call it cheating. Call it learning. I have learned a lot through crossword puzzles.
@Heidi I came here to say the same thing! Cheating is learning. Looking things up as a beginning (or experienced) solver strengthens your ability to solve the next puzzles you try. Giving up because you "can't do it" only ensures that you can't do it. Happy solving, all!
Re: “Cheating”— a crossword is a game that you play for yourself, so I say play however you like and pfui on the idea of “cheating”! And this is why I rarely look at the mini—the “how fast can you solve it” puts me right off. I don’t do crosswords for speed, I do them for fun and for waking up my brain in the morning, and the very idea of rushing through annoys me!
@Rachel R. - I avoided the mini for much the same reason for years. Then someone told me how good a particular day's mini was, so I did it. And now I enjoy it every day. I don't solve for speed there, either. But I do check how long it took just as one gauge of the puzzle's difficulty. But if I get a phone call or other distraction, I rarely remember to pause the puzzle, and I don't care that I didn't remember. Because I don't care about my solve times.
On "cheating" It's your puzzle; you paid for it; solve it any way that gives you pleasure; feel free to change your "rules" as you get more experience. If you're in a competition with others, there needs to be rules established that create a level playing field. Otherwise, you're on your own. What's the problem?
@The X-Phile Amen! I play a lot of video games, and I look up "how to solve That One Puzzle" quite often. But my rule is that if the whole game is about puzzles, I'll try my hardest to solve it on my own. If it's a puzzle game in some RPG side-quest, though, I'll give up pretty quickly so I can get back to murdering people. I mean saving the world.
After yesterday's disaster, this enjoyably easy puzzle with a pleasant theme felt especially good: like a perfect morning coffee. I might have set a new Monday personal best time had I not confidently gone for HPS for some laptops - it took a moment for me to resolve the resulting mess. I only think of PCs as desktops/towers rather than laptops, and some definitions I've just found online seem to confirm that.
@Andrzej Not at all. All personal computers are "PCs" but the term has long been used to distinguish what was once known as "IBM compatible" computers from Apple and other computers (or things like Chromebooks). See the Hodgman/Long "I'm a PC; I'm a Mac" ads. These days it generally means something running Windows. This all applies whether talking about desktops or laptops.... ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Andrzej Yes, the distinction between a personal computer and a laptop was once a thing, but seems now to have disappeared. I'm still anachronistically amused by the fact that I now can't buy what I used to think of as a "PC" (a desktop computer) in PC World. I suppose I soon won't even be able to buy a carphone in Carphone Warehouse.
Thank you, Ms. Yoshida, for a lovely, contention-free Monday puzzle.
*peeking through a crack in the door* …is it safe to come back in..? I think COFFEE BREAK is just what we needed today. Nice one Ailee. Have a lovely week all!
Fun puzzle today, with a pleasant sense of humor. A good palate cleanser after yesterday’s mess. I enjoy asking my family for help on crosswords. Not only because my wife and daughter are better by magnitudes than me at pop culture, but because it’s a fun way to share my little hobby with them. I don’t go to the well too often, and I try to ask about clues they might be interested in. We have fun. Along these lines, when I end a streak, I feel no remorse. Streaks become tyrants, and I feel this about streak-culture in general (if that’s a thing). If it helps anyone enjoy puzzling, power to them. For me, a good streak too easily becomes one more project to maintain.
@Josh Agree with you about Streaks! They are a blatant way to gamify your puzzles and boost engagement on the site.
@Meghan I agree with your take on what’s happening here, and find that use of “gamify” … ironic? disturbing? maybe someone with a more formal understanding of what constitutes gaming or a game would feel differently, but insofar as puzzles are already games, “gamifying” puzzling seems to go full circle, or perhaps to serve as a kind of stand in for “monetize”, taking a natural impulse to play a game and coding it with capital. 😬
Pretty quiet after an 1100 comment Sunday. I take it that few of you would nominate Mr. Kwong's puzzle for Puzzle of the Year? Anyone? Luckily, I imagine Kwong has a healthy ego, but if it was some kid's debut effort, think how mortifying that would be to be met with such negativity. I'm not being a scold, but please do consider that before posting. That reminds me! As you may know, it's POY time, and we have quite a few nominees, but we could always use more. So, please take time to review 2024's puzzles and make your picks (as many as you like in as many categories as you like). You can put them in "Replies" below this message and either Eric Hougland, Cat Lady Margaret, or I will log them in the nominations: date of puzzle, name of constructor, and (optional) comments on why they're so good. This is a way to honor all the efforts the authors, editors and us solvers have made over the last year, and as you know, this is a very welcoming, earnest and enthusiastic community, so please do participate, especially you regulars and very especially you lurkers. I liked this puzzle a lot. Coffee is just the best, although to some, like cilantro, it tastes like S_ _ _. I'm a coffeeholic, but the only way I'd consume instant is if I was in the desert and literally dying of thirst. And even then it would be a tough choice. (Allrecipes.com does have a recipe for cappuccino cheesecake that does employ instant coffee to good effect, however). Details on the POY contest to follow.
POY Deets: Nominating now underway! Eric Hougland has now taken the baton from Tito as the coordinator of nominations and voting, with the assistance of Cat Lady Margaret and yours truly. As in years past, there will be two rounds of voting. In the first round, you’ll be able to vote for more than one puzzle in a category. The puzzles with the highest number of first-round votes will then move to a second round, where you'll vote for your favorite in each category. Information below on the procedure: DATES: 1/12 Deadline for nominations 1/15-1/19 First Round 1/22-1/26 Final Round 2/2 Announcement of winners & runners-up CATEGORIES: Early week (M-W) Thursday Themeless (F-S) Sunday NOMINATIONS: Nominate as many or as few as you like: don't feel obligated to nominate in each category. And even if you don't nominate, you can always vote. To nominate puzzles, REPLY to this message (or future ones from us) with your picks. We'll make sure your selections get on the ballot. Please include the puzzle date & constructor, as well as any remarks on why it deserves to be on the ballot. VOTING. We'll use a custom-made ballot on an outside website. The ballot is easy to use and will allow for voting on each of the four categories. We’ll provide a link when voting begins. Voting is open to all. You can vote even if you haven't nominated anything. Reply HERE with your nominees.
@john ezra In the interest of, I dunno, human honesty, I believe someone did seriously suggest it in those comments and that you yourself replied that you'd add it? But please feel free to forget that that happened. :) (Also, I suspect his healthy ego was exactly the problem with that puzzle.) Anyway, I should probably comment on this Monday. It was light and creamy. No bitterness to tamp down. Well grounded. Frothy. It did what it was supposed to do. Cool beans. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@john ezra I quite enjoyed Thursday June 27, 2024 from Paolo Pasco and Sarah Sinclair. Definitely the most memorable Thursday for me from this year.
Re: POY -- I realize that in my earlier nominations, I didn't have a Friday themeless. For reasons I can't quite remember, I really liked Kate Chin Park's 8/2/24 puzzle. I didn't divide my nominations into categories as I neglected to read that part of the instructions. Presumably you already sorted them for me? Hope so, and sorry! At any rate, let me at least point out the Sundays I especially liked: Caryn Robbins 8/11/24 TAKE THE EL TRAIN (for its humor) Luke K. Shreiber 6/2/24 TYPECASTING John Ewbank 7/21/24 IN MY DEFENSE
@john ezra Regarding instant coffee, it's not just cappuccino cheesecake that benefits: believe it or not, it's pretty much indispensable in many a chocolate cake! I keep a small jar of instant espresso around for exactly that reason. (Also for tiramisu.) And I've been known to consume it out of desperation as a beverage on VERY rare instances when I'm out of the real stuff -- heavily doctored with cream. Of course! ☕
@john ezra My favorite puzzle of the year: Wednesday, August 28 by Jesse Goldberg. This puzzle tickled my funny bone in the best way possible. The theme clue/answer combos were whimsical, cheeky, even downright silly at times. Some favorites: “They pu- - - - - - - uff” = SHOVERS. ‘ “Star Tre-” - - - - - - ot heard on the original series’ = KLINGON. (Not part of the theme but I also loved “Going places?” = JOHNS.) So much of the crosswordverse takes itself SO seriously. This puzzle was delightfully refreshing in its playfulness and I laughed to myself the whole way through. To confirm this was my favorite of the year, I cleared it out and did it again and enjoyed it just as much the second time around.
A return to sanity after yesterday.
While I would never use the word “cheating” outside of the context of a competition (which individual solving is not), I do think there is value is being judicious about the *way* you look things up to maximize learning and minimize feeling cheated yourself. Usually this means not looking up the exact wording of the clue and finding the answer on a website that publishes crossword answers, but instead doing research *around* the topic of the clue, in an effort to actually learn what you’d need to get to the answer. This may mean taking a few extra moments to read some of a Wikipedia article, browse an IMDB listing, examine a region on a map, or even ask a friend who is knowledgeable on the subject for their take — all in same of learning what you need to solve the clue.
The Comments are liable to seem sparse in contrast to yesterday's 1400 Plus....Hate-a-thon, should we call it? I hit Like for every positive Comment I could find, but it pretty much wore me out. I never did see if my own laudatory Comment appeared, due to the absolute volume....but a lot seem to go missing lately. I guess one has to have been a Starbucks customer to now the 48/52A "COFFEE"...I have no clue what it is....a cup of weak COFFEE (or Covfefe) with a lot of sugar substitute and fake cream--of no nutritional value--served lukewarm? that's my best guess. After David Kwong's magical Sunday puzzle, anything else will seem tame, so my sympathiies to Ms. Yoshida for having to follow that tour-de-force....which did NOT have any rebus squares. And after being misled by Wickedpedia, I hope people will stop regarding it as a reliable source and use a better one in future. (Model A: 1903. And the message confirmed that the square had to contain an A.) Ducking and running....
@Mean Old Lady Of all the coffee drinks in the puzzle, an Americano is probably the closest to what you would call good ol’ Joe. Just beans and water! They can be pretty eye opening :)
@Mean Old Lady I also scrolled and recommended all the positive comments! I feel strongly that, tech glitches excluded, it is not the NY Times' fault if a puzzle is challenging. In fact, hooray! Ducking and running....SPLATting and PLOPping...
@Mean Old Lady It’s ironic for you to call it Wickedpedia when it was perfectly accurate and you misread it. If you Google “Model A” and find the Wiki on the better-known version of the Model A (<a href="https://tinyurl.com/4wt5zxjm" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/4wt5zxjm</a>), you should see the note at the top about the earlier Model A. That would bring you to <a href="https://tinyurl.com/4cj94kk6" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/4cj94kk6</a>, which is the Wiki about the earlier version. The clue was not wrong, and neither was Wikipedia.
@Amy - I don’t think the majority of complaints were about the challenge of the clues and their answers. I think the issue was that the puzzle design erected barriers between the clever, challenging, solving bits that themselves weren’t clever or fun. It just added friction and while that friction did make the puzzle harder to solve in a technical sense, that extra “difficulty” didn’t enhance the experience in any way. The silver didn’t feel smarter or rewarded for going through the extra steps. It was akin to making solvers translate clues from a codex before they could read them. Making solves translate the meter S to the letter B is an extra step, but it doesn’t require any smarts to do and doesn’t add to the experience, it’s just an extra tedious step. This was the issue with the puzzle yesterday. Aside from that extra friction, I found the puzzle a very impressive construction and generally rewarding to solve.
I’m with you, Sam, on what some folks think is cheating. It’s research in my book, just expanding my knowledge. Thanks for a nice breezy Monday puzzle, Ailee Yoshida. Just what we needed after yesterday’s workout.
Really fun theme to start the week. I’m a black coffee drinker and had to remember to order it that way when I first moved to England; otherwise it came with milk. I’m about ready for my second cup of coffee.
@suejean I can't handle coffee without cream nowadays. I use half-and-half--NEVER "creamer"--and often add another half-cup if I've had a bad night...ha ha.
@suejean And if you ever visit our fair state, do NOT order a REGULAR coffee (assuming you aren't in a Starbucks). Here that isn't a size but means with milk AND sugar! Ick! Well I learned fast but it's a wrench every time. May be true in other states and/or in lots of Dunkin Donuts. Caveat emptor.
@suejean Glad to know that one of my sisters from another mister is also a black coffee drinker. I never add cream. But.. apparently my other sister is not. ...
That had some nice fresh content for a Monday
Horror of horrors, I woke up this morning to find I was completely out of coffee. This puzzle was a good reminder to never let that happen again.
@Justin I too was completely out of coffee this morning, but I had already planned to go to the cafe, where they make you a free espresso drink when you buy a bag of coffee - thus killing two birds with one stone 😊. Still I don’t like to cut it that close. Puzzle felt fun and light. Not difficult, but some lively cluing for a Monday
It took me way too long to realize that “Espy” was a verb and not the award 😂
Smooth Monday for this non coffee drinking, cilantro loving solver. I liked seeing WRIT ACROSS WRIT ACROSS the grid.
A perfect Monday. ARTISTIC, POETIC ELEGANCE. [Ingredient in bug spray] made me laugh, not because it's wrong, but I just imagined: "OMG, your bug spray is delish! What's your secret?" "I use deet instead of cilantro." Hope I won't miss America.
Yooo I got some representation!I still kind of think its a bit disingenuous to say I "solved" the crossword if I don't also mention I looked some stuff up. But as others said I think looking up info related to the clue without going on "crossword answers" websites is not cheating, just a different way to have fun. This Monday is actually the second one me and mom solved without looking anything up, and in under 17 minutes instead of an hour this time, too! I remember the time when Minis took me staring at the grid for that long.
4:07, my third fastest solve. I don't know how I ever got that 3:40 score, since I breezed through this one. And perfectly timed during halftime of the Bills game too
@Steven M. Same here. Except halftime of the Lions game! 🦁
@Steven M. I'm not quite where you are yet, but I did get my best time for a Monday. It was a fast, fun solve with a cute theme. Maybe I'll have some organic avocado toast and farm-fresh feta with my morning americano (hold the chia seeds).
@Steven M. I have what's got to be an apocryphal best of 2'31" listed for a January Monday of 2021, the eleventh to be precise. I think the good emus must have removed all pauses between my entry choices, much the way the pharma shill on radio flies through a time-compressed cautionary paragraph on the side-effects, contraindications and mortal dangers charitably attributed to this week's new wart removal poultice. Im sure I never really hammered out a NYT CW in 2.5 mins, but the stat pleases me and I dine out on it often.
@Steven M. On the topic of best times a question - a few months ago the way the puzzles appear on my phone changed. I can no longer see my bests and averages for the day and I can only get the Wordplay link if I ask for Wordle on Google. If I hit play on the NYT app I get the puzzle without the stats or wordplay link. Any suggestions. Also on best times - alot of my best times are artifacts of days when I finished the puzzle the App lost my last few fills and when I recompleted came up with some unrealistically short time.
I've been looking for Lewis for a while now, to compliment him (and Rachel) on their recent LA Times puzzle. Lewis is usually first to comment on Monday, giving us his favorite clues from last week; a post I always look forward to. I found Rachel & Lewis's puzzle very (pleasantly) challenging. It felt like it took me much longer than it did, as I had to stop and come back to it multiple times, but in the end got it in "only" 35 minutes. I can't figure out how to share a link directly to the puzzle, but if you go here, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/games/daily-crossword" target="_blank">https://www.latimes.com/games/daily-crossword</a> and scroll down a bit, it's the Dec. 7 puzzle
@Bill in Yokohama Lewis posted that he was going to be away for bit sometime last week. Can't remember if he said he would be posting his 5 favorite clues today. Some of us did that puzzle last week and also enjoyed the challenge of solving it.
@Bill in Yokohama — Out of town, but back with commenting and Favorite Clues (usually Mondays) on Wednesday. Glad you liked the puzzle! And there is another coming here before the end of the month.
11:32 with no lookups is not too shabby for a Monday for me, especially when half asleep. Playing on the laptop helps. I appreciated being able to get the ones I didn't know or couldn't recall via the crosses.
Forgive me for going back in time but, I just now finished the Saturday puzzle. Well, not exactly. It finished me. Regular readers will know I have a self-imposed 1 hour time limit per puzzle. I found Saturday maddeningly (in a very good way) difficult. I was so close. In so many different areas. And I knew it. While solving. I just knew it. I knew that when I finally either finished or checked puzzle, I'd kick myself. Because it didn't *feel* difficult, and yet, it was always just out of reach. (With only 2 letters, GAY MARRIAGE finally coming to me was an aha! moment worthy of its own separate post.) Well, despite numerous attempts, I hit the 1-hour mark and started checking the puzzle. Normally, if I took 3 days to finally give up and check a puzzle, I think I might not bother with the Wordplay column and Reader Comments. I certainly wouldn't bother with the Constructor's notes, which I don't read every time anyway. But despite/because of my inability to solve it, while loving it, this puzzle spoke to me in a unique way. I felt compelled to read the column and Constructor's notes. And now, I'm digging into the comments. If you haven't solved Saturday, or did but didn't check Wordplay, do yourself a favor and go do that.
@Bill in Yokohama I hope you enjoy the comments on that puzzle. I certainly did! I got in just a bit under the wire with a lengthy comment myself. It's just unfortunate that the last comment left before commenting closed was unrelentingly negative!
I don't cheat; I give myself "boosts". 😄
Can't believe I'm saying this, but, this was easy, but FUN! Thanks Ms. Yoshida
Regarding Sam's discussion on cheating, there's another way to improve when you only have a few unknown boxes, and I think it makes you a better solver than if you look things up, or for digital solvers, to run the alphabet, which is basically the same as looking it up. Just study the words and try to figure out what makes the most sense. In the case of ILIUM crossing SIMMS, there really is no other letter besides M that looks right there. That is often the case. You can test each letter in your head and make your best guess. If it turns out you're wrong, oh well, not a perfect solve today, but you still did the puzzle on your own. I think that exercises your brain and trains you better than getting outside help. Just my opinion. For new solvers, taking breaks before resorting to outside help will enable you to improve faster. You may well still need to look things up to get unstuck, but that's something you can wean yourself off as you become more experienced.
@Nancy J. Nice advice. My compromise is to run through the vowels when it’s pretty obvious a vowel is next. It doesn’t always work, as with proper names (Mel Ott? Especially when eg Mel is usually female). Initialisms and acronyms are impossible- looking at TV channels here - so many! I try to reveal one square at a time when I’ve done all the crossers. Often works.
@Nancy J. Excellent advice! I'd add, especially with late-week puzzles, that when there's "really no other letter that looks right", it often is. (Correct) Take SESAME recently. The M fit, and indeed even made a word I know, but the connection to the clue was not clicking at all for me. I left it in and continued on... and eventually my brain caught up with me. SESAME as [a bit of everything] seasoning! (as I know was discussed at the time)
I tend to fall more often in the winter, personally, but I did think that was a cute clue for leaf. Two winters ago, I fell on black ice and landed smack on my face. I walked around for a month looking like I was wearing an extremely colorful Harlequin mask. The colors were really quite beautiful, in a very horrible way. The day after my fall, feeling achy and grumpy and afraid of the outside, I decided to order groceries for delivery. The delivery guy got there, took one look at me and said, "Girrrrrrrrrl, what happened to you!? You must have had some kind of crazy fun last night!" It was so crazy of a response that I couldn't help but laugh. Oh yeah, the puzzle! Nice one! Fast and enjoyable. A gentle way to start my first day back at work after 8 days off, while I sip my poison of choice, Diet Coke. I absolutely loathe coffee of any sort, but a theme around diet soda would probably be weird. The smell is loathsome to me and the taste even worse. If you even put a half teaspoon of ground coffee in a chocolate sheet cake recipe, I will taste it and utterly reject it. Sometimes I wonder if I actually have an allergy to it (or maybe it's a gene thing like cilantro tasting like soap to some people) since it is so distasteful to me. On the other hand, I adore cilantro, especially with avocado. I shall be having some tonight, in fact. ☺️ Cheers to a good week, all!
@HeathieJ I haven't fallen once since I got ice cleats. Yaktrax Diamond Grip is the one to get. They'll dig into any but the hardest ice. I recommend them to everyone. I didn't used to like coffee either, but I forced myself to like it by drinking it a lot. I've done this with a lot of unsavory foodstuffs: olives, mushrooms, beer. I may have turned into one of those Craft Beer Guys. Fortunately for anyone within earshot, I don't drink anymore.
Here’s a musical interlude for this puzzle: <a href="https://youtu.be/OmBxVfQTuvI?si=0hUiLHTIyQdYRAyc" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/OmBxVfQTuvI?si=0hUiLHTIyQdYRAyc</a>
Fun puzzle. Took me a bit to tumble to the trick but then it all fell together pretty smoothly. Back on a one day streak. Will see how long this lasts. Went back and looked at Ms. Yoshida's previous puzzle from October 11, 2022 and saw a note that she is the youngest female constructor in NYT crossword history. Wow. ...
When he washes dishes, my Partner has a bad habit of not rinsing them entirely. (To be fair, he volunteers to do more of the dishes than I, and often at 1am, so I think he is half-asleep.) One brand of dish soap was particularly hard to rinse off, and I begged him never to buy it again, even on SALE. As a result, ofttimes it's my morning coffee which will taste like soap. Soap-flavored coffee may not be a thing, but apparently coffee-scented soap is; those grounds make an excellent defoliant: <a href="https://www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com/products/soap-coffee-clove?variant=34056209995" target="_blank">https://www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com/products/soap-coffee-clove?variant=34056209995</a> <a href="https://tinyurl.com/5az7afpb" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/5az7afpb</a> (comments on yesterday's puzzle have not yet closed, and are now over 1.4K, which may be a record. But on to the next . . .)
@Bill Well, I guess we moved away before that purveyor appeared in Chagrin Falls....are you using in the garden, or on your face? I was unable to get through all the Comments (we went to a musical/play in the afternoon--"Million Dollar Quartet"--great time!
Harmless theme that you probably won't notice unless you go looking for it. I do applaud the almost complete lack of proper names. The two that I noticed are two of my all-time favorites in two different fields of endeavor: NORA Ephron and Phil SIMMS. A gratuitously unappetizing clue for SPLAT that flunked my "breakfast test". No, it's neither funny nor cute -- just unappetizing. A word about AVOCADO, one of my favorite foods. Predictions are that Trump's tariffs on Mexico will launch a trade war that will make AVOCADOS, over 90% of which come from Mexico, a luxury item. Like caviar or champagne? Please say it ain't so.
@Nancy I personally appreciated the clue for SPLAT as it let us know we weren't looking for the sound of a fortunate bird poop landing!
I refuse to consider it cheating if the topic is pop culture; I'm not wasting my time keeping all that in my head just for a potential crossword puzzle answer.
@D. Johnson Do you feel the same way about obscure European rivers? Or words that are hardly ever used? To me, if it’s in a crossword, it’s within the corpus of “common knowledge”, so I’d rather learn it, not just for crosswords, but also to appear to know about what’s going on around me. But fear not; you’re definitely not alone in feeling that way.
Late puzzle find: A Sunday from July 15, 2007 by Patrick Berry with the title "In the beginning." A couple of clue/answer examples: "Dire proof-of-purchase slip?" INVOICEOFDOOM "What Dr. Frankenstein tried to do?" INSTILLLIFE "Bored kayaker's movements?" INDIFFERENTSTROKES And some other theme answers: INCOMETOTHERESCUE INCREASERESISTANT INVOCATIONALSCHOOL INTENTPOLES And there were a couple more. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/15/2007&g=91&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/15/2007&g=91&d=A</a> .....
@Rich in Atlanta Oh - and stumbled across one more puzzle find. This is the first puzzle I've encountered that even after reviewing it I vaguely get a couple of clues and answers but don't get most of them at all and have a vague idea of what was going on there. Anyway - a Sunday from October 22, 1972 by Frank Nosoff with the title: ""Fancy footwork." 17 answers in that puzzle that appeared for the first and only time. A couple of clue/answer examples. "Grieg heroine is nervous" ANITRASTENSE "Nonclergy dancers in a ballet" LAYSYLPHIDES "Ballet for a clumsy girl" SLIPPINGBEAUTY "Hot-sofa ballet, in a way" PILLOWAFIRE And there were a lot more. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=10/22/1972&g=47&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=10/22/1972&g=47&d=D</a> ...
Quick clean fun and nicely done. Many thanks. I've no qualms about looking up an actor's name or checking the spelling of a word I "know" since, as commented here and in the column, this is a learning experience after all. Otherwise I'd just do the xwords in the local* paper. *Can't say daily anymore as it is thrice weekly in the mailbox.
Good puzzle! One of the few days I didn't cheat. I try not to on most Mondays, but you get to a point sometimes...
Relief after yesterday ... which still sits unfinished. This one went by in a breezy 9:00, a personal Monday best. Perfect in all respects, and a great way to start the day.
I know many of you are tired of Sunday's discussion, but one more thing... Out of curiosity, I reset the puzzle, went to one of the "stolen" squares, and hit "Reveal Square". The result was a rebus, "GOYA". This was interesting to me since many people insisted this puzzle had NO rebuses. I got credit for a completion entering "W" on my first solve, which means they programmed it to accept either. Happy holidays!
@Mr Dave Yep. It was literally labeled a rebus puzzle by its author, by the NY Times answer key, and by the game mechanics / solution. People can be silly, what can I tell you. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Mr Dave, Your post has my two favourite things: curiosity, and facts.
@Mr Dave All the rebuses appeared of their own accord in my crossword as I entered the letters, I remember GOYA because it then read "GO YANKESS' but I didn't enter it. Can't remember the others.
Sometimes you have those Mondays where it makes perfect sense for Teddy Grahams to be PEAR shaped, even if APU Dhabi sounds more like a Simpsons reference than a city.
very fun theme! i also got tripped up on ILIUM/SIMMS, but was a breeze to solve aside from that. could use some ESPRESSO myself as finals season gets into full swing...
I rarely see the easter eggs if not given a heads up — so thanks for that! I used to drink Americanos when espresso beverages were my only option. Haven’t had a mocha in years, but this may be the week! Cheers!
Today’s offering was a joy, filled while sipping my decaf AMERICANO with cream (lactose free, a Carnivore’s delight). I only earned of the CALICO cat from previous crosswords. I have no idea if we have the breed over here under a different name, tortoiseshell perhaps? though the calicos look more multicoloured than that. Our (plain old black) feral cat has disappeared, presumably succumbing to a fox or badger. She’s not been seen for several weeks now, her food untouched, so we cleared out her stable stall at the weekend. I say we; actually it was DH due to my severe cat allergy. While I was not her carer (she was abandoned by the previous owners of our property), it’s sad to think she met a grisly end. Farewell puss.
@Helen Wright Feral cats come and go as they please. She may be fine? It's not impossible so let's assume that is the case 👍🏾
@Helen Wright It seems that calicos have a background white coat and tortoiseshells have black. I have 2 rescue cats - a black cat and a black and white, what’s called in the US a tuxedo. I chose them because black is the least popular and so left behind! The
@Helen Wright When I was a child a read Field's poem about "the gingham dog and the calico cat", which were both stuffed fabric toys. For a very long time I thought there was no actual animal called a calico cat.
Coffees while drinking my coffee: how deliciously meta!! @sonnel's early comment down-thread about falling in love with coffee ice cream at age 3 acted as a time machine on my own "gateway" coffee experiences. (Their comment: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/43t0iu" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/43t0iu</a>) As a treat after doctors' appointments as a child, my mom would get me a tiny carton of Hood coffee milk (Boston, early 70's). I also loved Dannon coffee yogurt from a very early age -- way back when the lids had those removable cardboard inserts and the individual serving size wasn't as measly as it is now. So I guess that flavor is just in my DNA! I made the leap to hot coffee circa sixth grade, at the church coffee hour. I made mine so light and sweet I called it "melted coffee ice cream" -- poured plenty of sugar into the tip of those conical plastic inserts that sat inside a plastic holder, inevitably aqua or mustard colored, that passed for cups. Then a bit of coffee, then milk... By high school I was gulping down a mug of Maxwell House standing at the kitchen counter before dashing for the school bus. Believe me, my first café au lait, in France with the French Club my sophomore year, was life-changing!! Thanks, Ailee, for the fun, lively puzzle today!
@G That Dannon coffee yogurt was the best! I love all things coffee flavored, except coffee.
@G I didn't start drinking coffee until Uni. The coffee shop in the law school served coffee with ice cream. Gateway to caffeine. Decades later, now I reserve coffee with ice cream for when I have to clear a morning headache. Normally, black coffee, or maybe some real cream, or espresso-based drinks. None of that flavored garbage or non-dairy junk. Ugh to coffee yogurt.
@G Oh, G.... well, at least we'll always have Pierce Brosnan!! Har!! :-D
Monday for me has become all about the speed. Today's 6:34 is a record for me. My (as yet unreached) goal is to solve the Monday puzzle in under 6 minutes.
Phil Simms did not QB the Giants to two Super Bowl wins. He led them to one win over Denver but was injured and could not play in the second win over Buffalo. Jeff Hostetler was the QB for the Buffalo SB.
Jim, Your statement may be correct -- I haven't followed the Giants since Y. A. Tittle was the QB -- but if you reread the clue you will realize it is also correct.