Had to create an account for my first comment: I freaking loved this puzzle. Took me 80 minutes but I loved every one of them. Hope to see more of yours Kareem!
@Chris Congratulations. 80 minutes beats my Sunday average by 10 minutes and I have been solving daily for six years. I did finish today’s faster than average.
@Chris I loved it too! Thank you so much, Kareem! Brilliant job. You definitely belong!
@Chris Welcome to the commentariat! It adds so much to the experience to come here and riff on the puzzle with friendly folks. And to dodge the emu moderators.
I like lavender and sandalwood, but that's just my two scents. (I've posted this penny of times before.)
@Mike As soon as the subject a-rose, I scents that you would get centimental. Marc my words, I said, and lets be franc. There's a krona around his head, which means he's pine-ing to get something off his chest, but somehow he continues to pass the buck. Oh well, wishing for the moon.
@Mike Did you coin that phrase?
Ye gods, I got the trick! This would never have happened a year ago. I'm so happy about this 😀. There must be something to the theory that doing puzzles improves cognitive ability. I needed some lookups for the proper names, it took me forever to understand SLO and its clue, and I did not know the word TAMP before. But other than that the solve was pretty smooth, if longer than my usual Sunday, at almost an hour.
@Andrzej The evidence is mainly that doing puzzles improves your ability to do those specific puzzles. The effect on general cognition is much touted, but less clear. The problem is with "confounding factors". Do people develop greater cognitive reserve through doing puzzles, or are people with good cognitive reserve more likely to do puzzles? Unfortunately, it's impossible to do a randomized control trial---assigning people to either a few decades of crossword solving or avoidance never seems to clear the research ethics committee.
@Andrzej I came here today to see if you'd remembered the "head shop" from yesterday's puzzle.
@Andrzej I'm sure we ALL hope that theory is true! And just after I made a tentative New Year's resolution to spend LESS time on puzzles! BTW Shout-out to your wife for being so good at jigsaws that she won't do anything under a 2000. Spouse and I are battling one now.
@Andrzej Regarding SLO, it's just a shortened/phonetic spelling of "slow" that is sometimes used on temporary digital road signs along US highways (aka "thruways" -- the alternate spelling of "through" also serves as a clue to the answer). These signs have limited space, so shorter alternate spelling and abbreviations are the norm. It never occurred to me before, but I can see how confusing these signs must be for drivers that aren't native English speakers! You can see some examples of these signs here: <a href="https://www.highwaysigning.com/equipment-services/digital-message-boards" target="_blank">https://www.highwaysigning.com/equipment-services/digital-message-boards</a>/
@Andrzej The thing used to push down coffee grounds into an espresso puck is called a coffee tamper. One might also tamp down one's enthusiasm to avoid a crushing disappointment if things don't work out. But don't get me started on "portafilter". ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
That was fun! I really like when each theme answer plays out differently. It keeps things from becoming too easy once you figure out the trick. Took me longer than I’d like to admit to get the NOQUARTER/PERCENT pair, but now I think it’s genius.
@Amanda I got them independently but still can’t grok how 1/4 is PERCENT. If its “quarter percent” then clue should be something like 0.0025 or 0.25% or maybe 25 basis points
@Dan It’s not, it’s 25%, because a quarter is 25 cents.
@n 25 percent with "no quarter" would be 100 percent.
@Amanda I think this is a cluing error (but welcome back, Will) - if the clue were 1/4 % it would work, but then you would have the symbol there that is the answer. Otherwise, it's .0025. 1/4 is 25%, not a quarter percent. That slowed me down a bit because I had to get it from the down answers.
With the 2024 puzzle of the year voting soon to occur (see John Ezra’s reminder), it’s time for me to start a fresh list to scribble down my faves for 2025. Kareem, yours will start the list! I love themes that act in slightly varying ways throughout the puzzle. The best laugh was just prior to getting 98A/117A, when I said to myself “but hang on, there’s no quarter!” Hah!
I smiled when I realized that "Washington airport, informally" had two answers that shared all their vowels in same positions — rEAgAn and sEAtAC — but I'd picked the wrong one!
@Craig Nevill-Manning I like to think the constructors do this on purpose to increase solving difficulty. If so, kudos for truly creative clueing! If not, then chalk it up to the amazing world of coincidences. In either case, it’s what makes NYT puzzles so interesting but also tend to keep my average Sunday solving time from appreciably improving over many years.
@Craig Nevill-Manning Actually, three (DULLES).
@Craig Nevill-Manning I first put DULLES, found it didn’t fit, grudgingly entered REAGAN, then was very relieved to see that the answer was SEATAC. I’m still quite annoyed at the Congress that dared to rename our local airport, Washington National, for a president who didn’t respect or like DC at all.
@Craig Nevill-Manning Yup, that was the last wrong entry for me before I finally realized my mistake. "Reagan" kinda seemed like it fit, too; I was pretty sure "agit" was slang for "agitated", and I'm too young to remember the KCAR. Of course "ager" doesn't really make sense, but this is what happens when your primary source of new vocabulary words is crosswords. Is "Ager" that much less logical than, say, "URNING"?
@Craig Nevill-Manning Yes, funny about the vowel sharing. I’m glad it was SeaTac tho because lots of us in the DC flight path “informally” call that one “National.” (Apologies for two different uses of “” so close to each other.)
@Craig Nevill-Manning REAGAN never occurred to me since my spouse and I are among the many who refuse to EVER call it that. ( We lived in the DC area for many years and still occasionally fly there.) I think the city and the airport forced Congress to appropriate the money to change all the signs; it is a subway stop too.
Well, with the sparkling cleverness baked into the theme, and a solve – by not being a trudge – that allowed the theme to shine, this puzzle kicked up a lot of happiness. There were enough hitches in the fill-in to satisfy my brain’s workout ethic as well. So, a superb outing for me. Layered on top of were: • Admiration for the grid-making skill. A clean answer set – it’s actually calming to scan the filled-in grid. Plus, the spark from 13 answers we’ve never seen before in the Times puzzle, and they’re all good!: BARES IT ALL, BAT PUP, BUY ONE GET ONE FREE, DUCATI, FAB FIVE, FELT IT, HAIR EXTENSIONS, NO QUARTER, SUVARI, TAKE A PENNY LEAVE A PENNY, TANNING BED, TREVI FOUNTAIN. Wow! • Inspiration from Kareem’s notes. He started with a simple Thursday theme idea based on TURN ON A DIME, but scrapped that after coming across TAKE A PENNY, LEAVE A PENNY, realizing he could make something better. Then he worked and chiseled, improved and polished – went through 19 iterations of a Sunday grid – 19! – to make it just right. That’s an artist, whose motivation is beauty. That is uplifting. So, Kareem, thank you for happifying my brain and soul this morning. I loved this!
@Lewis You've echoed my thoughts exactly. My brain is deliciously happified this rather gloomy afternoon
Gees, I hate finding out my favourite people have died via the crossword. RIP Teri Garr.
@Ben I certainly already knew she was gone but did NOT need to be reminded of the sad fact. The clue would work exactly as well without the descriptor. Just unnecessary. "Garr" or "actress Garr" would have been more than enough. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
What better New. Year's gift for solvers than a NYT Sunday rebus puzzle. Thank you Kareem and Will!
I try to be sure and post when I particularly enjoy a puzzle. This is easily one of my favorite Sunday puzzles for quite some time. Loved that each rebus had a different "gimmick" and many of the clues were quite clever. Just very well done in my opinion. Thanks, Kareem!
The thrill is not gone! And not just because the great BBKING popped up in this puzzle. I had a lot of fun with this one. I thought the theme was clever. It became clear to me at TR(five)OUNTAIN because I remembered Roman Holiday, although I did try to work in Bocca Della Verita for a few seconds. I also liked SPIRITS for gin and djinn. Bonus points for including a reference to NADINE Gordimer, the fine novelist from South Africa who was equally important as an anti-apartheid activist. It’s always a pleasure when a great artistic talent is also a great human being.
Kareem Ayas, this was brilliant. I don't come to the column too often anymore and always either to spread the smug or offer my truly humble awe and gratitude for feats of construction like this. Today is the latter. Thank you for your persistence, woohoo!
Mr Ayas, thank you for not giving up on this charming puzzle! There was a delightful flow about it for me, and perfect enjoyment in figuring out the rebuses. I have to add that I was especially thrilled in seeing all the musical references sprinkled throughout. So it's when you listen to Duran Duran that you get your ideas, eh? I saw them in concert last year and it was a blast; they're in great form. But here I can't resist posting Led Zep's "NO QUARTER" for those who want to end the week rocking out (it's still Saturday night...) <a href="https://youtu.be/_BZLM2j8p5E?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/_BZLM2j8p5E?feature=shared</a> Thank you again! (And wishing all here a beautiful week ahead.)
Happy to see so much positive commentary for Kareem’s excellent puzzle. Rebus haters may hate, but the beauty of four different rebus answers, each paired with a clever clue explaining how to treat them within the theme was, IMHO, a remarkable and refreshing feat of construction. I struggled a bit to work it all out. Then wow. @Andrzej and @Sam Lyons: Your recent thread regarding Quo Vadis was a gem.
This is not a comment on the puzzle, which I greatly enjoyed, although I didn’t get the PERCENT/NOQUARTER link until I read @Steve L’s excellent “to a five-year-old” explanation. I’m writing to say that I was all set to reward myself with attending the ACP Tournament this year for the first time, after years of solving the NYT crossword and reading the Comments from all of you. I’ll admit to feeling nervous about the opportunity to meet so many people who I’ve only known through this column, but my curiosity and interest finally overcame my fear of possible rejection and I made plans to finally go. Alas, life got in the way, as it often does, this time in a good way. I’ll be occupied with caring for my grandson after my daughter has her second child (my first granddaughter) in late March. While I’m obviously looking forward to that, I’m going to miss the opportunity to meet many of you there. Usually I tell myself that there’s always next year, but at 72 I know how things can change from one year to the next. I’ll have to settle for just being there in SPIRIT instead. 🙂
@NYC Traveler Grandparenting first of course but I hope the stars align for you in the future. I went once as a guest to play fan girl for a much smarter friend (Jeopardy winner). For a lower admission they let you try all the puzzles but not submit them. First round starts out around Monday level. So I'm writing away feeling pretty happy at 7 mins and nearly done, when I look up and 95% of the room is empty!
Scheherazade is a Persian queen, and the story collection called the "Arabian nights" is so called only in English, on the whim of the publisher of the first English translation. It goes by the title "Thousand and one nights" in every other language of culture. It is a translation from the French — bowdlerized — version of Antoine Galland (1704). Galland's translation is based on a Mameluke Egyptian MS translated in turn from a Turkish MS translated in turn from Persian. Two tales not found in Galland's source — or anywhere else — are those of Aladdin and Ali Baba. Galland's French translation is the first known appearance of either in world literature, and in Galland, Ali Baba is identified as Persian, not Arabian (Aladdin is Chinese). Galland is suspected of having created both Ali Baba and Aladdin on his own. As to the Washington airport, it's located in a city whose formal name is SeaTac.
Fact Boy, Let's note the naming order: the Washington airport opened in 1944; the city, incorporated in 1990, was named for the airport's nickname. P.S. It's been a while since your last "Arabian Nights" post. I'm sure quite a few folks haven't seen it before.
@Fact Boy When I read the clue, I first thought of a book I have collecting Egyptian folk tales, where the common protagonist name is “Hassan”, often referred to as “clever Hassan”. Obviously not a fit for the space, but I think a more common protagonist in Arab literature.
@Fact Boy From what I’ve found, it seems that Galland did not create ALI BABA or Aladdin himself but was told those two by a man named Hanna Diyab from Aleppo in modern-day Syria, so the particular story mentioned in the clue would seem to be Arabian in origin, even though the wider collection into which it was inserted was originally Persian and even though either Galland or Diyab chose to set the tale Persia. <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2021/10/07/hanna-diyab-on-the-road" target="_blank">https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2021/10/07/hanna-diyab-on-the-road</a>/
Great puzzle, Kareem! Very clever theme and fun to solve.
If Vlad was a wealthy car collector living in Boston, his neighbors would say, "Yeah, that's Vlad the Impailah's Impalas.." It's also great to see the Trevi Fountain in here mere days after the Times's article on what Italian authorities do with all the coins tossed in there. In 2023, 2 million Euro were collected from the fountain, much of which went to Caritas, an organization that runs soup kitchens in Rome. And of course, it's very apt to have Trevi Fountain in a puzzle about coins. (It's still unbelievable to me that "Half Dollar" from a couple days ago was a NYT debut). I believe my wife made a wish to the Djinn of Trevi Fountain the one time we visited, that Jason Momoa "bares it all" in his next film. She has not expressed the same desire regarding BB King, Slash, Curly, Al Gore, Shia Laboeuf, Rambo, or even Yoda. I can see why, he's a handsome fella, although those hair extensions in Aquaman were a bit of a put-on. Do you think if Aquaman is forced to, er, aviate he'd fly to Sea-Tac? Times on Trevi: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/world/europe/rome-coins-trevi-fountain-caritas.html?searchResultPosition=1" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/world/europe/rome-coins-trevi-fountain-caritas.html?searchResultPosition=1</a> Lastly, can someone explain [Start to boil] --> SEERED? There's the lack of agreement in tenses, and also I think of seered as what happens if you overstay your tanning bed time, or what you do to a lamb steak. Can one seer a liquid?
@john ezra SEE RED. Which is what I'm seeing in the mirror, I'm embarrassed to admit!
WELCOME BACK, WILL! So glad to see your name again.
Did anyone else stop their solve to go watch "Yoda" by Weird Al? Here's the link, which I can't believe hasn't been posted yet. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IUMCyAR6U0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IUMCyAR6U0</a> I figured out the rebuses pretty quickly, (TR {FIVE} OUNTAIN took me a second), filling them in just with the word spelled correctly one (TEN, ONE, FIVE), and then thought the various revealer answers were quite clever as I solved them. Quick, not over-challenging and quirky enough to be a Sunday morning pleasure. Thanks Mr. Aras, and again, welcome back, Will!
@Puzzledog ....the word spelled correctly one TIME.... Insert plea for an edit function...
@Puzzledog As I saw that clue, I was thinking about how clever and creative Al Yankovich was to come up with that one. Thanks for posting the video link to it!
@Puzzledog I'm so late to the party--I'm glad you saved me the work and linked it for me!
UCLA for 1-down yesterday, and again today for the penultimate vertical. Maybe it’s a sign? I sent in my application to UCLA law on Friday. It’s my top choice if admitted, as long as I can make the financials work out. Wish me luck! And welcome back to the job Mr. Shortz!
You know what else works for 72A [Away from work, for short?] instead of OOO? Out. Out works. Of course that gives you YuDA for 67D, which sounds weird, but then it is *Weird* Al Yankovic, isn’t it. And at 1am, while your husband and cat snore in gentle harmony, having boxed you into about two square feet of bed space, you swear that in all those odd abbreviations you see blinking on LED matrix signs along overpasses you’ve seen (you’ll swear to it), “DNGR! WTCH OUT! SNW CHNGNG TONITE TO … SLT!” We drove in SLT earlier today and it was DNGRS. A very enjoyable Sunday puzzle. Thank you, Kareem.
@Sam Lyons That's not the first word I think of when I see SLT. (Jane, you ignorant...)
@Sam Lyons This was actually my only downfall on this puzzle. I still don't understand how OOO connects to 'away from work'.
@Sam Lyons I hope you did the Strands puzzle for Sunday. Lots of SLT and similar items, too.
BARRY (80D) - has appeared eight times in the Modern Era (the Shortz Era) and sixteen times in the Pre-Shortz Era according to XWordInfo. But how many times has BARRY appeared in the Wordplay comments?
Complaints notwithstanding, this puzzle made a lot of cents. Sorry.
Approaching my 86th birthday, I get slower all the time in my solving. Pop culture is ever further away. But I love this kind of theme. It has no age restrictions!
@Sue Well you might think so, but there are grown adults today, with jobs, who have never had to handle cash or coin.... (I wouldn't have believed it.) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
I really enjoyed this puzzle. To be franc, I really liked the theme & its "4-way" style, how each themer had its own twist. Even at end I didn't quite get 54A's gimmick cuz I only vaguely recalled "??Tivoli? Trivola?" FOUNTAIN of the film, mainly just FOUNTAIN, really… never saw the movie, just a trailer. Got all pence-ive but it took the Column for me to see the NickelBACKwards twist. I mean, it's zloty digest. I had it right though— found my error, combed thru & saw 18D HOdSE (25A HYPEd instead of HYPER), !fixed it & got the gold coin! Kareem you totally got me w/ Washington Airport— took some crosses before I considered THAT Washington. ALaddin before ALIBABA. "Revealing word", cute. OTOE, OBOE, OVAL, I'm sure Lewis will enjoy… HOTDAMN, a fine Sunday puzzle. Lotta good clues. BOING! 114A might throw some of our overseas solvers, but I liked it. I doubt Commenters will be reading Kareem the RIOT ACT today. I'm guessin' there won't be much of the usual drachma. Lotta good puns, no real kroners… I feel no gelt in saying this was a rial-ly solid, even lire-cal puzzle. And no, I'm not shilling for the NYT— nothing could be farthing from the truth. If I may peso bold as to say, w/o trying to pound it home, this was a very smooth yet crunchy puzzle, a very fine Sunday outing. Mark my words, I liked it. Of course EMMV (Euro Mileage May Vary). Thanks for florin us, K! And now maybe I'll put on some colón & go out to dinar Guilder? I hardly knew 'er *ducats* I mean *ducks*
@Becca Somewhat late, but your post still has a lot of currency. Nicely done. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
So, so good! Loved the variety with the theme. The support surrounding all the potentially tricky bits was so well considered, that even things like the backward FIVE came out really smoothly. The polishing time put in on this grid shows!
Had there ever been a more vivid example of clunky crossword-ese than URNING?
After all the discussion the other day about Lola and whether she (he?) was a showgirl or just hanging at a club in SoHo, I enjoyed seeing Weird Al make an appearance today… I saw the little runt sitting there on a log I asked him his name and in a raspy voice he said, "Yoda"
Before piping in about how SEERED is just simply *not* like getting mad (simmered, maybe..?) I took a last look. Oh, right. See red. D’oh! When I was young I saw a dish next to a cash register with a note - Have a penny? Leave a penny. Need a penny? Take a penny. I can still *see* that little piece of paper and wonder if it should have been clear back then that I would love wordplay in all its forms, forevermore. Lovely Sunday! Thank you Kareem!
@CCNY - For years and years I've seen those signs and those dishes, and I still don't understand what they're for. Money management is not my strong suit.
@CCNY Whew! I’d happily progressed from “I’ll never get this,” through, sussing the gimmick; flyspecked, and knew I was fumbling over the SEEREE/ gaming term crossing, but couldn’t see it. I was AFAR down the comments before you got me my music. Thanks
Na na na na na na na na Na na na na na na na na Batpup! Love it when a theme works in different ways! Great puzzle! Anyone else picturing Suvari riding her Ducati while eating rumaki and playing Jumanji?
A wonderfully clever puzzle that made great use of both a theme and wordplay. Great job!
Mabrook Kareem! A enjoyable Sunday solve, your talents are impressive.
This puzzle is poorly edited. There are several questionable clues, and then there's the five/evif thing which is just a goofy little tapdance to make this trite gimmick work.
LJADZ, Clearly this puzzle was not edited to your particular taste, nor was the theme appealing to you. Sorry not sorry.
Kareem Ayas, What a great puzzle! What a great idea! And even a great name! (Not yours, the puzzle's: All Things Change.) Two-and-a-half years to create! Amazing! I hope you don't ask an accountant to compute your pay-per-hour on the construction. Clearly this was a labor of love! My only complaint is that you revealed your earlier idea for a four-way TURNS ON A DIME Thursday puzzle. That would have been great! Perhaps there is still hope for it?!?
Wow, Kareem really nickel-and-dimed us today with this penny ante theme. Just kidding, of course. I do like a multi gimmick puzzle, and I appreciate how long it took to bring it together. Also thankful that there was NO QUARTER in 117A, as squeezing "twenty-five" into a rebus square would have been ridiculous. (H/T sotto voce for the Led Zeppelin.)
@Grant Agree about 117A--that was my favorite. At first I thought it was a rare constructor mistake. When I got it, I realized realized _I'd_ been gotten and laughed out loud. Looking forward to more from Kareem.
I found this puzzle to be fun and breezy, but I have an ongoing quibble with the editing team regarding formatting. For the fourth time in four weeks (or three times in 8 days), there’s been a “bidirectional” puzzle where there are answers squares that read differently across than down. Two of the crosswords allowed for entering those squares as “across/down” (i.e. “I/ERNST” and “PH/F”), while the other two didn’t accept that formatting (i.e. no go for “-/L”, and “EVIF/FIVE”). I prefer entering bidirectional answers as “across/down”, and IMO it should be accepted unless there’s a very good reason not to. As I commented on Thursday, that while the puzzles that have less permissible formatting have been mercifully breezy, their mere existence leaves me paranoid when spending minutes fiddling squares on any bidirectional crossword that it might be the formatting rather than other answers that are incorrect. Could the editors always accept the “Across/Down” formatting or maybe clarify the circumstances in which they wouldn’t accept it? It would save me minutes— minutes!— of my time.
@Steve For the EVIF/FIVE, though, it should have just been FIVE. For the across entry, you just read it backwards, per the revealer, you shouldn't type it in backwards. For the down entry you read it as normal.
@MB, as Jim mentioned, the clue says how to enter it, not how to read it. In any case, I’d prefer to have a way to enter how it’s literally read (which is usually only an issue in bidirectional puzzles with different across/down readings). Even if it was the case that the clue said to read it backwards, I’m also really not a fan of having some clues/revealers invalidate otherwise legitimate answers to clues elsewhere in the puzzle, like in the dashed lines puzzle last week. Just put the information or hint in the original clue!
Hoo boy. This puzzle was Thursday-worthy, and I expect we'll see the comments roiling. Bat-shi . . . er, -pup crazy. I love it. More puzzles, please, Kareem Ayas.
What a terrible puzzle, I wish we had Joel back. Psych! Very pleasant Sunday diversion.
@Steve - I see what you did there! ;^)
This may be about as close to the ideal Sunday crossword as one can get. Chunky, clever, clean, decent level of challenge (finished in 26:06). All in all a very pleasant puzzle. Thank you Kareem for sticking with it (two and a half years!)
@Byron I am right there with you! I got it in 25:57, with no looking elsewhere for hints. That backwards five was fun!
@SeaportOne Ok, how can I not? 22:17 (Maybe there should be a separate thread for braggers?)
@Cathall Are we at View All Replies yet? 🤣 I'll just say 4:08 below my average. I hesitated to enter the rebus squares until the end and am relieved I got them right the first time. Great puzzle!!!
The Sunday puzzle is always my favorite, and this one was fun and a delight to solve. Also, I want to take this opportunity to welcome back Will Shortz. I missed him.
Clever theme Hidden tricks And rebuses, oh my! I could not have loved this puzzle more. Is it too early to nominate the Best of 2025? Because I think this could be a contender. Thank you, Kareem!!
I know some people love the rebus and reverse rebus and take a 90-degree turn on a clue. I'm not one of them. I seriously wish you'd put a notation on the puzzle that it's a gimmicky puzzle or with rebuses and I'll just skip it for the day and save myself the grief. I love a challenge, but this is not at all enjoyable.
@Mike I think your comment would be more internally consistent, and IMHO, more fair, if you added the words “to me” to your final sentence. One need not personally enjoy every puzzle, and you acknowledge that some of us do love the twisty ones— I am one of those who do— but your “…this is not at all enjoyable” seems critical of the construction, in a judgmental way which discredits the maker/editors. As to your suggestion of an additional notation, one should have a reasonable expectation that Thursday and Sunday puzzles may well have rebuses or other tricks.
@Mike Did you see the three circles in the puzzle? That should have clued you in to the fact that it had a "gimmick," and you could have skipped it at the start.
@Mike Thursday and Sunday puzzles more often than not have some sort of gimmick to them, and steering clear of all Thursdays and Sundays by default might save you some grief. There might be some kind person on the internet that identifies which Sundays and rare Thursdays have no gimmicks to them. I’m not sure, but maybe that information is out there already?
@Mike maybe on a Thursday and Sunday you could skim the comments here to determine if there is a rebus or gimmick and if indicated either skip the puzzle or approach with awareness. I generally enjoy them but there have been a number that I personally find too cute or overly contrived.
I clocked the first part of the theme within the first two minutes, which is rare for me. I enjoyed uncovering the second component of the theme more gradually, and overall I had a decent time. Unfortunately, I had to spend several minutes figuring out that I incorrectly had SUVARA instead of SUVARI, which felt particularly unfair given that SALTS also made sense with the crossing clue and I've certainly never heard of said actor. And while we're at it, URNING is a truly absurd bit of fill. Oh well.
@Shrike Salt deposits? I'm not getting how that makes sense.
@Shrike Yes, urning was some cringey verbing.
@Shrike inURNING seems more correct to my ears, but apparently, URNING is legit.
Truly amazing puzzle - just well above my pay grade. One fifteen letter answer that dawned on me today: DEMOLITIONDERBY That pretty much describes my solving experience. End of streak. No big deal. Oh... and my puzzle find today. A Sunday from January 19, 1997 by B. Klahn with the title: "Presidential Punditry." Some theme answers: DISSEDHILLARY ALGORERHYTHMS CHELSEAGRAMMAR And there were more. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/19/1997&g=78&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/19/1997&g=78&d=A</a> I'll head back to my home planet. See you later. ...
ATTABOY, Kareem! I would love to be your PROTEGE. The rebus made my head go BOING! You ROCK. Hope to see you back ATIT with another crossword INABIT. You ACED it!
Give me your nickels, your dimes, your copper pennies urning to be spent. So late to the party today. Call me Mr. Moneybags, but until I got to the bottom half, I assumed "ten"," "one," and "five" were the dollar bills, with perhaps the gimmick being how they were to be laid in the till ("Make sure all the Dead White Guys are facing the same direction . . .") I don't really get the NO QUARTER/PERCENT one, tho--I mean, I do, but I don't. And don't bother mansplainin' it to me, either, because in the long run, I don't really care. "Met him in swamp down in Dagobah . . ." Hee hee.
Hi all, 8 days left to nominate your favorite puzzles of 2024, for the Puzzle of the Year awards. This is one of the last reminders! Put your choices of worthy contenders as REPLIES to this message. There are four categories: M-W Thursday Fri-Sat Sun We need the date of the puzzle(s), names of constructors, and (optional) your reasons for nominating your choice(s). You can nominate as many as you like. The first reply to this post will be my recap of information as to dates, rules for voting, etc. Thanks for participating! -- John Ezra, Cat Lady Margaret, Eric Hougland.
PUZZLE OF THE YEAR Details on nominating and voting: 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. We thank Tito & Puzzlemucker for their great work 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 as you like. Please review 2024's puzzles in archives, Wordplay columns & comments, xwordinfo.com, etc. 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. Nominations should include the puzzle date and constructor. Also, please include a brief statement as to what makes it POY material: standout themes, clues, etc. 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. Nominating & Voting is open to all. Just one vote per puzzle, please!
@john ezra Shape Up Or Ship Out, 11/24/24, Alex Eaton-Salners - absolutely delightful wordplay!
@john ezra & EH M-W nominee: Nov. 27--THE THREE SISTERS Unlikely to win, but all that I value in a NYT XW: the Highbrow (Brontës), the Lowbrow (Kardashians), and the multicultural (Native American agriculture).
@john ezra Art Heist, 12/15/24, David Kwong I think someone already nominated this one, and I know it had many haters, but I want to make sure it makes the list. Some unknown percentage of solvers adored it and I'm curious about that. It was my favorite puzzle ever. Besides, any puzzle that elicits 1.5K comments has to be special! I'm glad to see LovePuzzles nominated Shape Up Or Ship Out because it was wonderful as well.
The hardest thing about Sundays for us phone solvers is navigating a larger puzzle on a tiny screen. That being said, I enjoyed today’s puzzle a lot, even with all the zooming and panning! Good mix of challenge and reward, with some clever twists.
@ds Huh. I forgot. This device does actually make phone calls. For a second when you mentioned phone solvers I pictured someone calling in their answers.