I used to know how to spell ONOMATOPOEIA and PORTOBELLO, but tonight couldn't remember where the As go and where the Os go. Time for some of those special memory supplements, I think.
@Pezhead I tried those for a while, but couldn't remember to take them.
@Pezhead me too! I’m sorry but I’m glad that I’m not the only one who has been having trouble with certain things that I always knew type thing. Of course I believe it’s due to all the global factors that are going on which fogs my mind. Namaste!
@Pezhead My memory is fine. I can even remember things that didn't even happen.
So you're telling me that if the head of all the mafia bosses had the best guitar clamp in the world, that would be "Il capo de tutti capi aveva il miglior capo di tutti i capo"? Buono! Aye, Nobu. I was in Vegas once and dined there with my teenage son. We had a grand time, and that black miso cod? To die for! Easy or not, this was a very sense-heavy puzzle, aurally pleasing, lots of granular words, peapod, nitro, cacao nibs, chips ahoy, and the pleasing brown noser paired with balloon hat, gives you a picture of a real creep, doesn't it? And cherry soda, gin martinis, how fun and bubbly is that? Antipattern, who knew? And the vastly underappreciated Nella Larsen, known, yes, for "Passing" but her other novels also capture the heart of the Harlem Renaissance, just as Sula ushered in a new age of Black female authors, the heroine on the cover of the first edition that came out in 1973 is sporting a model afro, a great duo! Always up for popping in onotmontopoeiaboodypoppawoppa or however it's spelled.
@john ezra Though I watched the film adaptation of "Passing" about a year ago, the name NELLA Larsen didn't sink in. NELLA was in another crossword I did in the past week, and I actually remembered the name.
This one nearly destroyed me. First off, asking me to spell ONOMATOPOEIA is just mean. The constructor should have known that I can't spell it, and taken steps to preserve my ego. Second, I could have sworn that is was cocoa nibs, not CACAO NIBS. A quick Google search for cocoa nibs gives me a snarky reply: Including results for *cacao nibs*. I do not appreciate the tone, Google. Third, I had misspelled PORTOBELLO as portoNello, and took forever to realize my mistake. This led to me having "ALT ten" at 27A, it seemingly never occurring to me that there is no ten key on my keyboard. In spite of my ineptitude, I enjoyed it! Great job, Alina!
Note to shelf: I need to book it to the library! (This pun checks out.)
@Mike Is it my imagination or is a tiny bit more of your face appearing every day?
@Mike You're such a card!
Well, I finally completed the 1600 Saturday puzzles in the archive this week. A little over 700 hours of happy puzzling. A huge thanks to the constructors and editors who exercise our brains over the years :)
@Brendan Congratulations!! 😀 I’m impressed—I am currently working my way back through mostly Tuesdays and Sundays. Saving the later week puzzles in the archive for when I’ve got a bit more skill with them.
Pretty easy breezy for a Saturday, but fun and enjoyable, and I appreciated the absence of proper names/trivia for the most part. (Always a pleasure to see ABBA.)
Alright, be honest. Who nailed the spelling of ONOMATOPOEIA first try? I certainly did not lol.
@Sam I was so unsure that I checked my dictionary and was amazed I had it right first time. Then I worried what the US spelling might be, as I was (wrongly) certain that Noah Webster would have pruned it.
@Sam I knew what the answer was but I couldn’t spell it, although I originally thought onomatopoeic, the adjective form.
@Sam I spelled it properly, but was not confident I had for quite a while.
@Sam I cannot tell a lie: I did, which is ironic because although I am an English teacher I cannot spell and am known to look up quite common words in the dictionary during lessons.
Random thoughts: • Saturday-level clues: [Calculated] for NO ACCIDENT and [Teacup] for MINI. Did anyone get these answers just off the clue? On a related note, my TIL: That a teacup dog is one that is smaller than a typical dog of its breed. • I find it astonishing that PORTOBELLO has never appeared in a NYT puzzle before. • Many smiles in this outing – i.e., flashing on the taste of CACAO NIBS, the lovely misdirecting [Middle of a date], mental pictures of balloon hats, and the thought of Amy Sedaris. • I like the grid design because it accommodates a hefty 14 bigs (answers of eight letters or more), including the lovely NOTE TO SELF, ONOMATOPOEIA, and PORTBELLO. • Sweet sing-song cross of NELLA and BELLO. Say that five times rapidly! Alina, thank you for mixing workout with pleasure in the box today. You must know that only one constructor (Andrew Ries) has hit the cycle (a puzzle for every day of the week) in their first seven NYT puzzles, and you are just two puzzles short of joining him. Go for it!
Is it just me or did something happen to Saturday…?
Sam, Same thing happened to Friday. IMO.
@Sam Lyons Yeah, it's been like this for a while now. It's too bad. The old Fridays and Saturdays that weren't clued and filled like Tuesdays were great, but I guess they weren't bringing in as much subscriber money
Looking at posts ahead of mine, it seems I'm a minority of one, but that was no fun for me. (I'm expecting a bunch of kickback and negative feedback after posting this, but I don't care. For me, the flaws just sucked the joy out of the solve). Chef, comic, novelist, screenwriter, actor, president, a news channel clued with a person's name, the nickname of some school clued by its mascots name, and a reference to two proper names from some movie. Proper noun trivia much? In her constructor's notes, Ms. Abidi says that her algorithm includes "... aggressively downscore any questionable or so-so entries, ensuring a high-quality floor...", which sounds admirable. But I don't think she was anywhere near aggressive enough, because I consider the clues for PEAPOD, ATLAS, MOMA, and MINI to be highly questionable. (Not to mention obscure esoterica like ANTIPATTERN). Some of this puzzle was of very high quality, but the floor was well below that. On a different note: Not only have I never heard of NITRO coffee, I also wouldn't know where to go to order one, or even why anybody would either invent or want such a thing. (I assume it's something enjoyed by hipster dudes with man buns?)
@Grumpy next time you go shopping, look around in the soft drink aisle and you'll see that obscure nitro coffee ;)
@Grumpy I first encountered nitro coffee several years ago at a Starbucks. It's not so very obscure. They still serve it. Even in Toronto.
@Grumpy You're not alone! I also found it an annoying drag. FAR too many TV shows and product names, with too many of those names crossing. IMO, proper nouns are not in and of themselves a problem, but it's what they refer to, e.g. a president vs. some dumb TV show or a made-up snack name. I didn't even bother to finish it. And agreed about nitro coffee! I've vaguely heard of it but it doesn't sound the least bit appealing.
@Grumpy I'm with Grumpy. To do this puzzle is to dwell in a very narrow, Gen-X world of references.
@Grumpy Just wanted to point out that the college was inferrable. The mascot’s name is Big Al, after all. (That’s how I got it,)
@Grumpy You can go to your closest Tim Horton’s to order one. What was your issue with PEAPOD?
An obscure trivia collector's dream mixed in with some slang used by some. For the rest of us dull slog. Suggest the creator re-evaluate how they "aggressively mark down".
@Lauren I’m sorry you had a frustrating time with this puzzle. I don’t consider myself a trivia collector, at least not nearly on the level as many solvers. I had a nice time with this one though. The majority of the comments I’ve read seem to rate positively with many observing an easier Saturday than usual. Your comment seems to needlessly assert opinion as fact, speaking for the majority as the “rest of us.” I would submit that a more accurate statement might be “I didn’t like this puzzle because I didn’t know many of the answers, though I cannot speak for the majority as I have not conducted a scientific survey.” Indeed, perhaps shifting your perspective to one of curiosity and self-improvement might enhance your enjoyment of the puzzle in general, rather than insisting that constructors utilize only your specific fund of knowledge.
@Lauren Sorry you got chided. It seemed obvious to me that you were relating your subjective experience and not the result of a scientific survey. I think this kind of feedback is acceptable and shouldn’t merit the standard put-down.
A delightful construction with quite the variety of subject matter. The entries I had no clue about from the clues were fairly crossed (for me), so the solve went quickly. Not much wordplay today, but I have no ANGER over that. Thanks, Alina.
Sorry to go down this route, but this seemed far too easy for a Saturday. Easiest one I can recall doing here. I never heard of "antipattern", at least as defined here. But that and the rest went very quickly. Decent, perfectly cromulent outing, don't get me wrong. Just not Saturday material, to me. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@B I followed the Wordplay link to the constructor's previous effort, about which I had written after some deliberation "there is a lot not to like in this puzzle". At least today's doesn't lean quite as heavily into his or her niche coding experience and jargon. So, improvement I guess? I did like that sunglassed dog picture though. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Crossword Revolution Day 18: NO ACCIDENT This crossword revolution (CR) has not been calculated. Apparently, the NYT thinks it might be time to end it, and perhaps they’re right. Is this Xword comments section really the place to mount an obtuse, disjointed, and seemingly pointless “revolution” that is not really a revolution at all? OTOH, i think somehow this CR may end up making some kind of sense. Crosswords have a secret power. As Pete Seeger painted on his banjo, “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.” So too crosswords (Thursdays and tricky Sundays excepted). So, I’m going to continue this seemingly pointless, and possibly annoying, project. A Crosswords Saved the Day ™ production. (I think the ™ adds a bit more legitimacy and might make the emus and their handlers reconsider deleting).
@Puzzlemucker I’m a loyal soldier in the CR army.
@Puzzlemucker Um...I'm not sure what you're saying here, and I want to. Can you explain Crossword Revolution in terms that won't offend anyone?
@Puzzlemucker If I may, I saw it as one part algospeak, one part deference to crosswords’ function as a non-political escape (meaning obscured exactly for this reason), and one part acknowledgement that everything tastes like what’s happening politically right now.
@Puzzlemucker Oh, good! I think I understand it correctly. And if I do, I hope you continue. And if I don't, I hope you continue, too. 😁
Wow! ONOMATOPOEIA, I don’t wanna see ya. Or, more accurately, I don’t wanna spell ya. Now that’s a great crossword word. There was much in this one that I didn’t know, and just enough that I did to get by. One clue really took me back. I tried cherrycoke and cherrycola before CHERRYSODA. I can remember ordering cherry Cokes at Levis’s in Philadelphia made with real cherry syrup before they came pre-bottled. Great hot dogs there too. I loved CRASHTEST for assessment for dummies
@Marshall Walthew The 7Up in the clue didn't steer you away from coke/cola?
I've always thought there should be a snazzier word for onomatopoeia. Maybe crashblamwhooshkabopoeia.
Pretty easy for a Saturday. I’ve never heard of NATHANFORYOU, so it didn’t look right even at the end. I guessed NITRO, too, because living in my traditional Iberian village, trendy coffee orders are starting to pass me by. Every time I see Toni Morrison I recall how my daughter was almost cast in the movie, Beloved. It was the summer of 1997. I was about seven months pregnant with my daughter when, for kicks, I went to the open casting call for extras. They were unimpressed by me but very interested in my daughter. Apparently, they needed a newborn. After mulling it over with my husband, we decided that if it was a safe environment we’d do it. The producers or casting people kept calling, checking to see if she’d been born. A few weeks after she was born (way too soon in hindsight), they had us come in for a professional photo shoot. They were surprised to see that my husband was white, and my daughter could have been straight out of NELLA Larsen’s *Passing* 😂. They had never asked about her likely phenotype and I never thought about it! They passed on casting her because she would not have matched the actress in the film. After the film came out, I was so relieved that my baby girl wasn’t in it! Whew 😅! It was fun, though. I’m starting to think that recurring entries within a week or so are NOACCIDENT. BAMA and the movie Parasite are examples today. I think AFROS and ARABS were very recent, as well. Just a thought. Enjoy the day!
Today I learned I had no idea how to actually spell onomatopoeia (thanks again auto correct!)
@Pcraves Personally, when trying to write onomatopoeia - I usually try to sound it out. I’ll see myself out.
@Pcraves I vote to ditch that fourth O. It ain't doin' nuthin' anyway.
@Pcraves The word functions in Polish as "onomatopeja", pronounced pretty much the same as you do your version. The American spelling looks as weird to me as the Polish one probably does to you 🤣
Yeah this one was a bit easier for a Saturday but onomatopoeia made it great!
This comment thread is very funny. As far as a Saturday puzzle goes, none of these references are that obscure. NATHAN FOR YOU was a pretty popular show from the last decade. Usually on a Saturday you'll get asked for the middle name of the 3rd lead on a show from the 60's. I saw someone complain about not knowing who ABBA was? Maybe crosswords just aren't your thing... As for me, as soon as I saw the clue I knew it was ONOMONOPOEIA and I also knew I had absolutely zero idea how to spell it so that was fun.
@Eric I had never heard of, much less watched, that "pretty popular show from the last decade", but the fact that only the last name was given in the clue was a pretty good indicator that the first name was likely to be part of the answer. BTW, even though this was a "pretty popular show", Wiki tells me that it never garnered above six figures in viewership, which might indicate that it was very popular among a niche viewership. Not exactly "This Is Us" numbers. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_for_You" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_for_You</a>
Finished in about a third of my average time AND spelled “onomatopoeia” right on the first try with no crosses! Feels like a pretty good start to the day!
I see most people found this Saturday crossword easier than usual. I found it quite challenging and harder than Friday's puzzle, despite the fact that I finished 6 minutes faster than yesterday, and only 4 seconds off my personal best Saturday time. However, I only had to look up one word in Friday's puzzle, while I had to look up at least 6 clues today (mostly names) so my time doesn't count. I only really count Sun through Thurs as completed puzzles (the ones I can do without lookups). The Fri and Sat crosswords I consider teaching exercises, and today's had a lot of lessons for me. 😄
@Janine - I found 90% of this solve super easy... like Tuesday/Wednesday level, but there were several tricky spots that made it overall closer to Saturday timeframe for me. I guess the times seemed quick because you got to the cruxes very easily and then there were only so many things to try and play around with before finding the right combo. My last letters to fall were the first A in CACAO and the second O in BUONO. I had those letters reversed in my first pass through the puzzle.
This was a fun Wednesday puzzle… wait what?
I love all the fun facts about William Howard TAFT. The first, and only president other than JFK, to be buried in Arlington. The only president to also serve as Chief Justice. The first to own an automobile. The last to have a mustache. The heaviest (over 300 pounds). Since he appears so often it’s nice that he has some good trivia. Nice crossing of CHIPS AHOY with CACAO NIBS. My favorite clue is the one for CRASH TEST (“Assessment for dummies”). I generally don’t pay attention to solve times, but I can’t help but notice that my times this week have a much tighter range than normal. The trend lately seems to be that early week puzzles take longer to solve than usual and later week puzzles are solved more quickly. I’m beginning to wonder if the goal is for all puzzles to be of moderate difficulty.
@Anita I wouldn't bank on that heaviest crown. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
I don't see a comments section specific to the Mini, but I want to say that I'm beyond delighted to see that Joel Fagliano is back building mini crosswords for us. His clues are clear and precise, a real talent and a gift to those who find the Mini a quick hit of pleasure.
There were only two answers that I had to change: ACDC for ABBA, and CLASP for CLAMP, but there were a lot of guesses that turned out to be right. BAMA, NOBU, NITRO, NETS were all guesses that worked; I had wanted MESS HALLS for MEAL PLANS, but thought it was odd that a military name for a dining hall was used for college meals...turned out, it wasn't, anyway. Some other things that weren't strictly guesses, but just possibilities also held: MINI, ANTS, SUMO. A few others, like ANTIPATTERN, CACAO NIBS and NATHAN FOR YOU, filled themselves in mainly through crosses, even though I was unfamiliar with them. Overall, just slightly slower than my average Saturday time, but didn't seem slow because the flow was there. It kept moving without any serious stop time.
Steve L, I almost never comment on times, but I am confused as to why this was my fastest Saturday ever, but a true veteran like you didn’t find it a whiz. For me this means well below half my Saturday average, and faster than any puzzle this week except Monday. I am reminded of your comment quite a while ago, that due to the fact you have done so many for so long, your distribution of times for any day is very narrow, with very rare excursions into the tails, just hovering around the mean. I’m into my seventh year, but not super-serious and thus more variable. So I guess the “flow” you mention affected my time (percentage-wise) more than yours. Interesting - sorry for the ramble.
My not being a native speaker or American does not always hinder my solves but today it did, big time. I know this is bound to happen from time to time, but I still don't personally enjoy it. The abundance of proper nouns and unknown terms in both the clues and answers (BROWNNOSER, ANTI PATTERN, Term of ART, for some) was my undoing, and required a lot of lookups. Many clues being surprisingly straightforward for a Saturday was little help with how arcane some of the fill felt to me.
That being said, with lookups (which make my solve longer than it would be if I didn't need any) I filled the grid in 14 minutes: one minute faster than yesterday, and 7 minutes faster than Tuesday. One has to wonder what the editors were thinking this week...
Oof. That was one tough cookie (no exclamation) for this Brit. Chefs, biscuits, universities/sorry, colleges, TV progs etc All unknown. Where to start?? AVON as a gimme was a glimmer of hope, as was knowing the long drops of 5 and 11D, but it was a slow slog for me. 14A raised an eyebrow. I mean, it fits the clue, but yuk. I did get there eventually, but only with the help of Wordplay for 21D and 10D. But with such a trivia heavy grid I’ll take the win.
@Helen Wright while I was slogging through this trivia-heavy puzzle, I said a silent prayer for all the non-Yankees trying to make sense of it.
14A seems apt for the current administration appointments. Somewhat rude but a sign of the Times. I feel blessed not to have known that such a thing as NITRO coffee exists. PIT was beautifully clued. Normal strength Saturday I would say. Thanks
Fun and breezy! Spent an embarrassingly long time on onomatopoeia!
Go watch anything by Nathan fielder. He's amazing.
Nice Saturday puzzle. Not all that easy for me, of course and there were more than a couple of completely unfamiliar answers - CACAONIBS / ANTIPATTERN / NATHANFORYOU. So... cheated a bit but managed to get through it. Actually surprised that most found this one quite easy. No big deal. Some rather remarkable puzzle finds today. I'll put those in replies. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: First one - a Thursday from July 23, 2015 by Timothy Polin. Three theme-related answers in that one. First - 19a. "What 39-across means" MAGNIFICENT 62A. "Musical featuring 39-across" MARYPOPPINS And then 39a. "Mouthful from a 1964 song" And that answer had three I's and eleven rebuses: (SU)(PER)(CAL)I(FRAG)I(LIS)(TIC)(EX)(PI)(AL)I(DO)(CIOUS) Don't recall seeing another one quite like that. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/23/2015&g=39&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/23/2015&g=39&d=A</a> I'll put the other puzzle in another reply. ....
Ahh… I *so* love a themeless. Lately, I’ve been pausing after I open the puzzle. For a few moments, just looking at the grid, imagining the possibilities, soaking it in. Today felt a bit like a Saturday. But the clueing felt so generous, it was over before my tea cooled! I love the freshness of this one. Never heard of NATHAN FOR YOU, HAN, and a few others, but the clueing of crossings was so gentle this lovely gem was simply over too quickly. I think I said this last Saturday, but- to the archives I go! Thank you Alina! Keep ‘em comin!
Nice puzzle. A little easy for a Saturday but still enjoyable. I was going to complain that a portobello is a mature cremini not a mature button but then I looked it up. Indeed, white buttons are the juvenile form of what later become creminis and portobellos! Always like to learn new stuff. FWIW, cremini are my go-to: work well diced or sliced and offer a little deeper flavour than white.
@Byron Join a mushrooming group and learn to pick your own Meadow Mushrooms (Agaricus campestris). Can pick a basket of them in ten minutes, usually after the first heavy rain in September. These are the wild ancestors of many of the cultivated Agaricus varieties. Flavor (or flavour) is even better than the store varieties.
@Byron Kind of the larval and pupal forms, I guess.
While the clue for 40D is technically correct, Jacques Pepin only ever won one James Beard award. The rest he just swiped from other inebriated chefs at afterparties. (I'm not really even sure if the clue is technically correct. Google and Wikipedia say he won 24 awards. I won't lose sleep over it.) -ad absurdum, holder of 16 Mischa Muttonchops Awards
I really wanted the answer to Snap, crackle or pop to be Rice Crispy, but fortunately it did not fit, and I suppose they all would have to been capitalized. A very easy-going Saturday, which seemed to fill itself in. Maybe because of all the food and beverage clues.
I suppose it's my own shortcoming that I'm not familiar with Nella Larson. But that, combined with the nonsensical title (NATHANFORYOU) of a reality TV show I've never heard of, made this section feel a bit Naticky.
@Tim V. You are not alone. They were book Greek to me also.
Tim and Jon, I had never heard of the reality TV show and forgot the author's first name, but I filled most of both quickly from the crosses and their crossing letter became obvious. I rarely know every puzzle answer from the clue, even on Monday. I puzzle them out. It's a crossword puzzle.
@Tim V. Same here, plus I didn't know the pizzeria in Do The Right Thing - I thought Sam's made sense, giving me xELmA as the novelist, so I was off to the races with Selma. That L was the last letter I got, and I only found it by looking at the answer key. That little trio of words was definitely a personal Natick for me.
Enjoyable but fairly easy for a Saturday. I just had a little trouble at the end trying to find my mistake when I had BUONA instead of BUONO because I couldn't spell ONOMATOPOEIA. TIL about ALT-TAB. Pretty embarrassing that I didn't know it since I spend my whole day working in Windows. I only knew about ALT-ESC but this could come in handy so thanks Alina!
@Ivy agree this was very easy for a Saturday but enjoyable. And glad to learn about alt-tab! Hope I remember that on Monday.
@Ivy If it makes you feel any better Ivy, that BUONA-BUONO-ONOMATOPOEIA trouble was exactly mine as well… and I didn’t find it until I read your comment— thanks!
@Judi It’s extremely useful. Also try Win-Tab (i.e. the Windows key near the Alt key), which has a similar but slightly flashier function. Also note that you can keep holding Alt and repeatedly press Tab to cycle between open windows. Also, while holding Alt, you can click on one of the preview windows to open it.
@Ivy I asked DHubby about the second half of that. His answer was, "I just point the mouse and click." QED I used to find the key commands much faster (at least until I managed to master the spatial task of using the mouse, which I found very trying.
@Ivy I'm curious as to how many people didn't know ALT+TAB, or as I call it, the "boss key." So when your boss comes into your office, he sees a spreadsheet on your screen and not the crossword puzzle you were working on.
I struggled for a bit, then I remembered that I graduated from one of Canada’s top business schools, with really good grades.
Both yesterday and today’s puzzles were considerably easier than normal. I set two new time records back-to-back, which rarely ever happens, let alone on such challenging days. Solve times for the last two puzzles were half my average time
Was watching Bama vs LSU gymnastics while solving this and the commentators had just mentioned Big Al when I got to the clue. Made it very easy. Had some struggles with some easier clues mainly due to spelling errors. But onomatopoeia was a slam dunk and knew that it’s a parliament of owls confirmed my guess on achoo
an enjoyable puzzle and always a pleasure to see Nella Larsen mentioned! definitely too easy for a saturday though--i finished it before i finished my coffee!
Just yesterday onomatopoeia happened to have been an answer (question) on Jeopardy in the 12-letter word category so I actually had a shot at the spelling
If a button mushroom becomes a PORTOBELLO when it matures, what are these "baby portobellos" that I see in my supermarket?
@The X-Phile Those are creminis, which are like teenage PORTOBELLOs.
@The X-Phile Brown button mushrooms labeled more exotically for marketing purposes?
@The X-Phile et al Even though they look different but yet are the same thing in a different phase, I tend to use them differently in my cooking. 'White buttons' for salads, PORTOBELLOs for a brown rice side dish, either for a home-made pizza....
Another surprisingly quick solve! My last entry was NATHAN FOR YOU, which mystifies me--certainly I've never seen/heard of this series/person. CHOCO NIBS had to be revised, and Kibitzing is alot more annoying than mere GABbing. ASHE's memoir is a very touching read. I thought NOBU was a restaurant (not a chef! Learn something new every day! Really nice puzzle!
@Mean Old Lady It's always nice to hear from you--I have been missing your posts lately. Thanks for Choco NIBS --my memory too--maybe it was a brand name.. Also agree with you about kibitzes and NOBU. Have a great day!
This is not a good puzzle. A smooth fill at the start. Yet I count at least 20 clues with random trivia involving proper nouns. 5D is an easy get but is beyond inconsiderate to the solvers due to the difficulty with spelling. This is supposed to be a crossword, not pop culture trivia night with a political undertone.
@Michael Spelling is part of crosswords. You could argue that pop culture and trivia is as well, but spelling is definitely part of the assignment. One of my high school English teachers told us to remember that Yoko Ono was Edgar Allen Poe's mother and we'd always be prepared for "Ono, Ma To Poe (ia)." I wish our home ec teachers had given us something for mushrooms; that was the one that I misspelled today.
@Michael When I got to that clue I just said, "Alexa, spell onomatopoeia." (I said the same thing when writing this, too.)
@Michael This is not supposed to be just a crossword, but a NYTimes crossword. Random trivia involving proper nouns and impossible to spell words are features, not bugs. Here is the first one, from 1942: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/1942/02/15" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/1942/02/15</a>
@Michael In the first puzzle, note that there are more than twenty answers that are proper nouns, some very obscure. I did not even try to count the number of clues that involved proper nouns. Plenty of politics as well. At any rate, I love tackling difficult-to-spell words and learning new random trivia, so for me, those make these puzzles delightful and keep me coming back.