I post this sort of general comment once in a while when I expect a deluge of "too easy" complaints. Looks like it's coming tonight. I swear I'm starting to get a stomach ache when a puzzle is coming fairly quickly because I know we're in for "these puzzles aren't like the old days...". If you, for the very first time solved a Friday puzzle cleanly according to your personal definition of "clean", then congratulate yourself and be happy. Don't let all those who sniff at "too easy" Friday puzzles ruin it for you. A Friday is a Friday. Some are harder than others.
@Francis I think some people think of crosswords as a kind of intellectual obstacle course, in contrast to people who come for the wordplay. Even if a puzzle is “easy,” if it’s clever I still love it! I
@Francis Just out of curiosity, I took a look at the puzzle that was run almost exactly 10 years ago, on Friday, March 6, 2015, and found that my time was almost three times as long as today's time. On the other hand, I looked at the clues and answers, and thought that, other than a few things that would have been more obvious 10 years ago, like a website that was more prominent then, it didn't seem like it would have taken me all that time today. I think that whether or not the puzzles have become easier, the complainers often do not take into account that (a) they are better solvers than they were many years ago, and (b) if you try to solve an older puzzle, you'll be hindered by out-of-date references that might have been more obvious back then.
@Francis I only recently started attempting Friday puzzles, and I think this was my first without any lookups! Proud of myself :)
Just saw Elvis Costello in concert last night and was doing some online reading about him today and learned that OLIVIA RODRIGO’s “Brutal” owes a big musical debt to Elvis’ “Pump it Up.” When asked why he didn’t sue her, Elvis said: “I did not find any reason to go after them legally for that, because I think it would be ludicrous,” Costello continued. “It’s a shared language of music.” Gotta love the guy! Still in fine form at 70. Here are the two songs: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y71iDvCYXA" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y71iDvCYXA</a> (“Pump it Up”) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGUy2UmRxJ0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGUy2UmRxJ0</a> (“Brutal”) Puzzle was as fizzy as an ORANGE SODA. A really nice Friday puzzle.
@Puzzlemucker We’re seeing Costello at the end of June. I’m looking forward to it; he always puts on a great show.
@Puzzlemucker Yes that and also bc Dylan never sued Elvis Costello for borrowing the melody of Subterranean Homesick Blues for Pump It Up. <a href="https://youtu.be/MGxjIBEZvx0?si=_4UwChZUYXIQXr8G" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/MGxjIBEZvx0?si=_4UwChZUYXIQXr8G</a>
A zing-fest: • That vertical three-stack in the NE – BRA FITTING, LAST STAGE, and OH I SEE NOW. All are NYT answer debuts. Debuts aren’t automatically good, but these are. • Malaika’s puzzles always feel contemporary, and there’s brio in that. • This NYT debut grid design allows for a colossal 15 longs, many of which shimmered. A pair of lovely serendipities: • The contradictory cross of OH I SEE NOW and NO WISER. • A backward NONA to go with NANO. And a heart-warming reminder of World Central Kitchen (in the clue for NGOS). This group set up here in Asheville immediately after Helene and was all over the place feeding those in need, with local chefs jumping right in. Then there they were in California right after the fires. They are wonder-workers. All this brightness in the box, for which I’m immensely grateful. Thank you, Malaika!
@Lewis I thought of you when I noticed all the single-syllable "I" words: BIT, NITS, CHIT, GRIT; RID and RIG and SID...
After filling in more commonly recognized French and Spanish words across various puzzles, it was nice to see my parents’ native Cantonese represented in POPO (婆婆). I would love to see a crossword in homage to terms of endearment for grandparents around the world. Too niche? Thanks for the fun, Malaika!
@Jenny You would be probably as confused by "dziadek" (Polish grandpa) as I was with POPO today... Be careful what you wish for.
@Jenny Thanks for your post. You may have done me a great favor. I'm trying to find things to keep me sane until *this* is over. When I saw your Cantonese I realized that I've always wondered how in the world the Chinese language works. I hoping that will keep me occupied for part of the wait for the storm to be over.
The other day, I commented about how that day's constructor, Rebecca Goldstein, reliably produces high quality puzzles. I'll extend the same compliment to Malaika Handa, who has contributed mostly Friday puzzles among her seven so far.
"If I had a nickel for every time I thought of a long, fun, debut entry, then put the entry right in the center of my puzzle, and several months later, another themeless puzzle with the exact same entry ran before mine, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice." So it happens all the dime, Malaika. (Enjoyed the puzzle. Smooth with just a bit of crunch.)
@Linda Jo Funny that the last time this happened was with ESPRESSOMARTINI, which if plural like 55A, would have been a debut (I know, 1 letter too long for the grid). If today’s APPLETINIS was singular, it would also have been a debut.
When money is borrowed, it needs its a-loan time. (This pun is current, see?)
@Mike Your second pun, tonight, had a longer "gel" time for me than usual. Very well done!
@Mike Verry interesting. (channeling Arte Johnson) We'll get nowhere at this rate.
@Mike Next you're coin to tell us to forget it, that it's a debt issue.
Can we get back to Friday puzzles being hard, please? This might have been a Tuesday just a few years ago. I'm not asking for one hour puzzles all the time but this was a typing exercise.
@Andrew Sigh. We are all very impressed with your solving ability.
@Andrew This took me 30 minutes, one google, reading the column and turning on auto check. If puzzles like this ran on a Tuesday, I'd quit.
I’m pretty new here… Could someone direct me to an example of an (in their opinion) appropriately hard Friday puzzle in the archive? When I get through a puzzle like this one pretty quickly, I’d like to just think I’m getting better at it :)
@Andrew I was happy with the difficulty level. I was just under (by 6%) my average. It took me some time to arrive at some of the longer answers, and there were a fair number of unknowns.
Game of Thrones! Ghee, I forgot all about that! It's the perfect series for right now. Fantasy for March 7th: for me, movie magic would be watching a beautiful queen rigged out in a sun dress of moonstones (no "fitting" required) soaring high astride Smoke, her dragon, laying fiery waste to the stadt the clownish orange-soda-colored king (did he spend his life in a donut shop?) on his iron throne thought was his, making his pet apes literally eat dirt, while the true prince from Kiev prevails in his final stage showdowns with the rotten chief of the former Bloc countries, and can rid his country of the constant raid of nits. While in Menlo Park a strange inertia takes hold of the tech bros, and bit by bit, nano by nano, the whole internet disappears, like a moon on the wane, and with the dawn, the people wake, the world has begun anew, and one will say to another, "Oh, I see now. I was no wiser before, but now I have the key. Home is the most beautiful word." And I go on a blind date with Olivia Rodrigo to a basketball game where Angel Reese scores a jillion points, and then go to a mod hipster wine bar that also serves kale chips, PBRs and appletinis, and Rahm Emanuel, thank God, is nowhere to be found. Wouldn't that be movie magic?
@john ezra that's fab, john. Though I would like to keep this wee little corner of the internet, the NYTXWP community where we share our stories and fantasies. And maybe one tech bro to fix the app.
I'm familiar with jumping beans, but DO NUTS HOP?
@ad absurdum If you put pine NUTS in a hot skillet to toast them slightly, but don't watch carefully, you may find that, Yes, indeed--they DO HOP! Righ out of the pan and into the fire, into the grate, onto the counter, onto the floor.....
"Too easy for a Friday," they say. "It belongs on the back of the box of General Mills' latest sugar-kibble!" I did solve it faster than normal, (but maybe I'm just getting better at solving them). I guess I just dont like it when someone poops on the puzzle I feel good about solving. Oh well, Im still happy with myself!
@Greg Same. Took less than half a cup of coffee.
@Greg I was greatly pleased with this puzzle. I did it relatively quickly and only needed four cheats. I'm happy there aren't as many brag-complainers about puzzle ease as I feared. But it's still early in the day!
I had ROTTED crossing MOODSTONE. Did I discover a legitimate alternate solution?
@Tom S. This was my issue as well. Real recognize real.
@Tom S. I think you do! I can't find anything wrong with ROTTED and MOODSTONE. I'll be interested to hear what the crossword cognoscenti think.
@Tom S. I think there’s a part-of-speech problem there. You can’t say something “is rotted” like you would say it “is rancid” (in my idiolect anyway). So for the answer to be ROTTED the clue would need to be [_Went_ rancid].
@Tom S. Thank you. I needed that!
I prefer chicken Kyiv. It's a Ukrainian dish.
@Heidi I just spent some time searching for the origin of the dish. There are differing opinions but it seems likely that imported French chefs working for the 19th Century Russian elite applied their butter-intensive techniques to local meat cutlets.
@Heidi I've never had borscht, but I would bet everything I have that I would like Chicken Kyiv over Russian borscht anytime and every time. More so lately.
@Francis borscht is very Ukrainian, rest assured
@Heidi Yes, we now spell the city as Kyiv. But the chicken dish is an older recipe, recognized as Kiev, and it will take a long time for all the references to it be given the modernized spelling. There's a whole long Reddit thread about it. And apparently the food industries in Britain and in Australia have been pro-active about using "Kyiv". I doubt that will happen in the US anytime soon. Wiki's page calls it Chicken Kiev but acknowledges other names. "Chicken Kiev, also known as chicken Kyiv and chicken à la Kyiv, is a dish made of chicken fillet pounded and rolled around cold butter, then coated with egg ..." The google search recognizes either spelling, and cross-references.
@Heidi I suppose you also eat Beijing duck.
@Steve L in Beijing, as it turns out, one does eat Beijing duck.
I had to look at the answer key because I had ROTTED crossed with MOOD STONE and legit thought the puzzle might be broken. Guess my Gen X is showing, because being a child of the 1970s, that was glam to me. 😮🤷
@Tony Same here! I lost several minutes trying to find out what I had spelled wrong. I’ve always wanted a MOOD STONE to go with my lava lamp and flared jeans!
This ended up being too hard for me to solve on my own. On my first across and down pass I had very little, but I was determined to complete the puzzle without lookups, so I persevered(-ish) and managed to fill most of the grid in 20 minutes. I was left (I thought) with the NE corner. I had "pact" for "alliance", I did not know the Chicago politician (just as none of you know any politicians from Gdańsk, Rzeszów or Wrocław), for some reasons wANS made sense to me for "darkens in the light"... There was no way out of this mess for me, I thought. But then I realized pact would in fact be BLOC. I was still quite confused though so I broke down and looked up RAHM. Then I kept staring at BRAFITwING and I just could not parse it... So I went to the column for help. BRA FITTING... D'oh! I know that's a thing! But it did not come to me... Well, ok, anyway - I put in the correct letter there and... I got the dreaded "So close" popup. By then I was just tired by the whole thing so I checked the puzzle. Turned out the drink from China is not teA (it is though, isn't it?), but CHA... Yes, I know the other words there did not make sense with the t and a from teA, but I was so certain of teA I never checked my crosses there, especially as I had no idea who Laura Ingalls was. Btw, do the languages we need to know to solve NYT puzzles now include Cantonese, too (POPO)? Spanish, French, some German and now a dialect of Chinese? Ok... I guess I did not like this one much.
@Andrzej Sounds like you fell in all the same potholes I did. I, too, wanted wANS instead of TANS, but for the life of me, now I can't explain what I was thinking. Likewise, teA. CHA is a new one for me, so thanks, crosses. I was lucky, though, on RAHM Emmanuel, as I had that one in my hip pocket without realizing it.
@Andrzej POPO you can only really get from the crosses and a guess. My wife is a fluent Cantonese speaker and it would never occur to her to spell the word for Grandmother on your mother's side like that! From how she pronounced it, I'd say it's closer to PAWPAW, but even that's a stretch.
@Andrzej I can understand a foreign language clue when there’s no other way to clue the fill, but in this case clueing POPO as “Fuzz” or “Five-O” could have worked just fine
@Andrzej If we frequently have answers in French and Spanish then why not German, Cantonese, and Mandarin? I don’t speak Cantonese but did grow up calling my mum’s mum Popo so entering that put a smile on my face The word cha has the same origin as chai, which you might be familiar with given the popularity of chai lattes these days (though maybe not in your part of the world?) This is a fun map: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/etymologymaps/s/omDxaI4jCH" target="_blank">https://www.reddit.com/r/etymologymaps/s/omDxaI4jCH</a> @Tim Yes more like Pawpaw, but sort of like you’re saying it with a Bostonian accent?
@Andrzej I had PACT in there for a good bit (and feel that BLOC is a bit of a stretch for that clue.) TANS took me a good while --though I try not to smack my head when I get these tricky ones because I can't afford more brain damage... I did not know RSS and at one point for 25A I had NOW I SEA (crossing OH I SEE NOW, ha ha....so I knew it was wrong, but in my weakened condition I needed a good laugh...
@Andrzej "do the languages we need to know to solve NYT puzzles now include Cantonese, too" Are you saying because I've danced a mazurka, I necessarily know Polish?
This was a nice challenge. The puzzle went much better for me after I gave up on the concept of people caroming from door to door.
@Ed I just snorted out my coffee. And now I’m laughing again as I’m writing this comment, because the visual is hilarious. Thanks for that [smile].
@Sam Lyons. I had caroming too for a while. Wondering how the editors managed to accept that.
That felt more like a Tuesday. Personal best for me. It was a nice puzzle, just the wrong day for it.
Perhaps appropriate,with BRAFITTING everything fell into place.
AS A rule, I don't go on many BLIND DATES, but I a friend set me up on one which proved quite memorable--I opened the door, and there stood Michael Stipe, of REM! I plied him with APPLETINIS, red and white WINES, black-and-TANS, cans of PBR, even DONUT SHOP coffee, but all he wanted was a cup of fresh brewed CHA. For dinner, I prepared a KALE OMELET, and a classic dish of chicken supremes, neatly trimmed into ovals and stuffed with herbed GHEE. He would have none of it, and prepared to leave, making excuses that he needed some "ALONE TIME." Was it because I used that pre-washed baby kale AS IS, wehich turned out to be half ROTTEN and full of GRIT*, so it tasted like one ATE DIRT? Or because, insensitively, I had not called it Chicken KyiV? I was NO WISER, until one of my BFFs--was it Emmanuel or Olivia? I don't remember.--informed me it was simply because Stipe is Vegetarian! OH, I SEE NOW! All this as a set-up to offer, from *Green*--<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mSmOcmk7uQ" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mSmOcmk7uQ</a> *which, ironically, happens to be the name of an erstwhile vegetarian restaurant in Athens, GA, located in a building which Stipe owned--look it up!
@Bill the Grit was my favorite restaurant in college! Still miss their Golden Bowls and art exhibits
A while back, Queen Elizabeth (second of her name, and mother of corgis) had occasion to tour the set of Game of Thrones, in Northern Ireland. An internet meme followed quickly, showing her gazing at the IRON THRONE, with the caption, "Windsor is Coming."
@Grant I had forgotten that I guess, if I ever knew it. But thanks, it’s hilarious. 😆
My daughter's kids are not allowed to have soda; there is none at home. But they, of course, hear about it at school. It is a well-known fact, however, that "Grandma never says no." Let the record show that my daughter is the one who told them that; I never did. I follow their rules to the letter, and only bend them when specifically told that it's okay. So when I had the kids for a couple of days a couple of summers ago, we were at a restaurant (only outdoors ones where permitted), and grandson asked if he could order an orange soda. I knew he wasn't going to drink it, so I let him order it, with a glass of water. He drank three sips of the huge soda (definitely a whole can of Crush in that glass) and then abandoned it. Mom and Dad approved, and he still, now and then, will order a soda, and not drink it. Granddaughter (two years older) shakes her head at him, in an older sister way, and orders water. "It's bad for your teeth!" she reminds him. I did love this puzzle; and my favorite clue was "Service for someone who needs support?" for BRAFITTING. And that's another story. But, maybe we'll skip that one today...
@Momerlyn - Hah! When I was just two or three, and my big sister and brother got peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, I would point and cry and act out until I got what they were having… only to spit it out right away. Never have learned to like peanut butter; I still only keep a small jar in the house for baiting mouse traps. But the lure of wanting what others have is deep in our genes.
@Momerlyn, soon-to-be grandma here (in May). When my children were toddlers, I limited their sweets and junk food. Inevitably, they would come back from their paternal grandmother‘s house having loaded up on those things. I was so dismayed because I thought it was sending mixed messages. I’ll never forget our pediatrician telling me that children know the difference between Mom‘s house and Grandma‘s house, and it’s perfectly OK to be spoiled by Grandma. Now I can’t wait to do the same!
@Momerlyn When I was little, I couldn't have much pop either. Once or twice a year. My mom didn't like Barbie, television, sugar or store bought bread. When we would go to the beach, she took saltines as snacks. I hated living in that family at the time. But it makes me laugh these days.
@Momerlyn The daughter of a friend of mine, who had strict limits on sweets, went to her first birthday party when she was around four years old. She came home and told him, "Dad, I discovered a new food. It's called cake!" (Years later, she converted him to vegetarianism.)
From nerdy entries like INERTIA and RAID, to smart puns like BRAFITTING and TANS, and even relatable quips like how we all need some ALONETIME, this puzzle was a homerun for me. Totally enjoyed it!
This puzzle took me quite some time, and it has left me with serious questions: Who slices their hard-boiled eggs the long way? If I lost my mind and decided to use eye shadow, would I have to buy a PALETTE? Srsly? Didn't MOOD rings go out of style in the 70's? If you serve someone KALE for dinner, what is the message? (I can tell you what DHubby would think...) I haven't really found it useful to add MEd or BSEd to my name. People think anyone can teach and that there's nothing really to know about pedagogy...which might explain why our students lag behind those of most other advanced... oh, never mind.
@Mean Old Lady those who make deviled eggs slice eggs the long way.
@Mean Old Lady - I took all the credits that would earn me an MAR (Master of Arts /Religion), but did not petition for the degree. As a church musician, I know too many pastors who feel threatened by a qualified potential colleague. Having the information is enough for me…
@Mean Old Lady, same thought about the eggs. To answer your question, no one. Ever.
@Mean Old Lady I never even considered adding MBA to my e-mail signature, and scoffed at those who did. Dude, it's a two-year degree, and there's no thesis to defend.
@Mean Old Lady To be fair, the clue was “Slices of hard-boiled eggs, for instance” and not “slices of hard-boiled eggs the way everyone (supposedly) slices them. Or the way MOL slices them.” Cuz, how would you slice a mango?
I agree Sam. Friday is my favorite puzzle day and the one I am most excited for each week and the saddest when I am done because I have to wait another week. This was a smooth solve today.
Very fun puzzle, though also a very quick one. Not a PB, but close.
Malaika, thank you for a puzzle I needed on a very trying day.
Next time someone asks if I'd prefer the red or the white, I'll respond, "blue, thanks!" and it's all because of today's puzzle. Thank you, NYT Crossword, for providing these very high quality jokes that I will use in reality.
Fun puzzle! I appreciate the notable absence of sports trivia, except for one WNBA mention. I’m working through the NYT archives as distraction from current events, and clues like “1956 NHL MVP” or “LIV Super Bowl winners” kind of drive me bonkers.
@zelda I would have to look up NHL MVP!
With Spring finally around the corner, nice imagery formed by tan, sundress, donut shop, orange soda and of course a glass of appletini for TGIF! I appreciated this puzzle.
Very late Gen X male who got OLIVIARODRIGO and BRAFITTING immediately. I don’t know what that says about me.
@Jamie I'd say you're representing us oft forgotten Gen X very well! Keep up the good work! 🍸
@Jamie Says you’re paying attention :)
Every time a Friday or Saturday puzzle is "too easy", we reargue if the puzzles used to be harder. A lot of long term solvers say they are, and I guess I have to believe them. They do make an argument, and can counter my suggestions that it might be otherwise. So, they're getting easier. But you have to admit that puts the newer solver (last couple of years) in a conundrum: "I got a Monday with no cheats!" "But wait till you get to Fridays and Saturdays. They're harder." "I got a Friday/Saturday with no cheats!" "Yeah, but they're easier than they used to be." 🤷♂️
@Francis No conundrum - late week puzzles are both more difficult than early week puzzles, and easier than they used to be. Easier than they used to be applies to all puzzles. I'm doing 1994 now and the Mondays and Tuesdays are impossible, as/more difficult as the toughest Fridays and Saturdays of today.
@Francis I haven't been doing them that long and I'm nowhere near a strong solver or anything but I just finished a Friday from 2011 in the archives. It took me over 2 hours total, not in one sitting, and in the end I could not close it without a lookup or two. I couldn't figure out the remaining letters in A?O?IA?HARP, which was right atop "Playwright who became a president" for V?C?AV?AVEL, both of which crossed with "Tour de France setting?" for GEAR... (ahh, which I only now came to understand as I wrote this), "Filmmaker Louis" for MALLE, a clue about NHL teams, and "Artist whose moniker is the pronunciation of his initials" for ERTE. Arguably, I should probably have thought of GEAR And I do know of ERTE, though not the fact in the clue, but it still wouldn't have brought me closer on the other ones, which I ended up with all but three letters in each that just made no sense to me and resulted in a lookup. So, I don't know but it took me substantially longer than Fridays do now and I don't think I would have been much better at it back then. This is all just one big anecdote but right after I finished that puzzle I came here and saw your question, so thought it was kind of interesting. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/14/2011&g=57&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/14/2011&g=57&d=D</a>
@Bill in Yokohama well, ok. But doing any puzzle that’s 30 years old is going to be extremely difficult most people because we’re so far away from a lot of those references. You probably would have found those puzzles easy if you were doing them at the time
@Francis I think it’s like how people say Jeopardy! is easier than it used to be. It’s because: 1. You’re older and you know more things than you did back then 2. You’ve had so much practice with Crosswords that you know all the tricks of the trade 3. Fewer and fewer references are from “before your time”
Thoroughly enjoyed also one of my faster Friday solves; 20minutes
I guess I'm feeling a bit bleak or geared up for a fight at the moment, because all I could think for 11D was LASTSTAnd... Hmm. Well, I didn't know OLIVIARODRIGO off hand (though I've heard her name, so got it with a handful of crosses), so I kept trying to work the ND in, but ANEW would have nothing of it, so I relented. Can not believe how fast I sailed through this one, filling in long answers on the first round and all. I only slowed a bit in the SE. I knew BENIN and GHEE but struggled to remember the cheap beer even though I knew I knew it. APPLETINIS helped me out a lot though. Anyhow, it was breezy feeling for me but I enjoyed it. Not the struggle that Fridays can be for me, which is good because all day today I thought it was Friday, which is going to make tomorrow a bit rough. So, well, Sam sorta brought it up by mentioning calculators... and BRAFITTING is in the puzzle, so just gonna ask, who remembers what 55378008 on a calculator spells out upside down? 😂 Ohhhh, to be 13 again! (No thanks!) Off to shake up a legit marTINI now! Another perk of not being 13! (Although, I grew up in rural WI, you know there were a few PBRs involved in my misspent youth.)
@HeathieJ I'm also feeling geared up for a fight, and if this isn't bleakness, it'll do until the bleakness gits here. I like you how said you got it in fine time, but then credited your (more or less accidental) knowledge of BENIN and GHEE and APPLETINIS greatly aided you. It was the same for me. I stare at maps and I took a bar tending course on a lark. Neither of those things makes me smarter than people who don't do those things. But they really helped tonight. In most puzzles I think the are a six or so things that we either instantly get based on our history, or will never get based on our history. Those six cases alter the complexion of the puzzle enormously. If, by chance, you know none or one, you're in for a hard puzzle. If you know five or six, it'll be a breeze. This outlook, I think, checks my arrogance on a good night, and reduces despair on a bad night.
Reading these comments can really bruise the ego. Had to slowly piece together OLIVIA RODRIGO, which makes sense for someone who still loves The Strawberry Alarm Clock.
It doesn’t get any groovier than this: <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=the" target="_blank">https://www.google.com/search?q=the</a> strawberry alarm clock&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:f4b786d1,vid:4rw1_FNdy-Y,st:0
If I can solve it in 21 minutes, I know it was an easy Friday.
Just over 12 minutes. Less than a dozen fills that I had to go back to more than once. Nothing wrong with the puzzle, but not at all what I expect on a Friday. I agree with Andrew. Can we go back to harder puzzles, especially Thursday-Saturdays? I used to spend a good 30-45 minutes on those, sometimes over an hour. A fabulous way to spend my time. Now, it's rare to spend more than 20 minutes on one, and that's usually the Sunday grid, only because it's bigger.
@DW Have you considered that you might just be becoming a better solver?
I very much enjoyed this one. I was definitely on the same wavelength because the long answers came easily - like BRAFITTING! And ALONETIME - one of my favorite things! A very pleasant puzzle experience.
@Julia Same. I filled in BRAFITTING without any crosses, fully expecting to have to change it. And as an introvert, I got ALONETIME almost instantly.
Appropriate answers for me today: NOWISER OHISEENOW Typical tough Friday for me, and actually surprised that most seemed to find this one unusually easy. More than a couple of answers that weren't going to come to me even with some crosses. So - cheated a bit but managed to get through. It is an impressive puzzle, though. I agree with that. A quite unusual puzzle find today. I'll put that in a reply. ....
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened. A Sunday from January 20, 1985 by William Lutwiniak with the title: "Homonymic sextet." Six grid-spanning (23 letter) theme answers in that one and the clues for them were just: "Start of the sextet." "Second of the sextet." And so on. I'll start with the second theme answer and add in parentheses what I'm pretty sure the implication is. SUFFIXDENOTINGRECIPIENT (ee) UNDEVELOPEDBUDOFAPOTATO (eye) ANEXCLAMATIONOFSURPRISE (oh) SINGULARORPLURALPRONOUN (you) THEREASONPURPOSEORCAUSE (why) So, I can't imagine figuring all of that out, but I get it. But... back to the first answer: ALWAYSCONTINUALLYOREVER I would assume that had to refer to 'a,' but I remain completely puzzled about what homonym word that could possibly be. Anyway - here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=1/20/1985&g=59&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=1/20/1985&g=59&d=A</a> And I'm done. ....
Unremarkable. It seemed too fast /easy for a Friday to me. The clues were fine, if not very exciting/clever. It's nice that I didn't notice crossword filler. Funny that I've heard both dozens of times but it never gelled for me that there are famous Menlo Parks in both CA and NJ... ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler
Friday record for me. DONUTSHOP clue made me giggle. Nice puzzle !
@bayonetta Same here on both counts : )
@Tyler S Not I! But I did love this stunning Friday puzzle by Malaika Handa. (And I may just have an appletini tonight - oughts throwback...)
@Tyler S Why would anybody love extra sugary water with artificial flavor?
@Tyler S 8-yo me loved it! Somehow on a road trip my younger brother and I, typically deprived of all the pleasures of unhealthy youth (sugared cereal, soda pop, fast food) inveigled our way to buying two cans of Crush: one grape, one orange. They came chunking down the chute of the vending machine, cold and then sweating in the summer heat of wherever we were driving (maybe Nevada? Utah? Anyway!) We proceeded to drink them and then rode *the wildest sugar high*, shriek-laughing at everything and bouncing around the back seat for about 100 miles. My parents may have regretted giving us those quarters and carte blanche, but my brother and I still remember that episode gleefully 🤪
@Tyler S Me! (Mixed with cheap red jug wine on a really hot day.)
Is there a way to reset the timer to zero if one, say, opens the puzzle but then falls asleep and awakes many hours later to find a still-blank grid and 11 minutes on the clock? Asking for a friend… This one started slowly (in more ways than one), and seemed nearly impenetrable at first. But once things started to click, they clicked rapidly and I somehow ended up about 10 minutes under my average time. I found the clueing to be challenging yet intuitive. Nice puzzle!
@Heidi Same goes for a friend of mine . . .
@Heidi As someone who fell asleep doing this crossword and woke up with more than 2 hrs on the clock, I wish I had reset the puzzle. I once had a glitch on another puzzle where I completed it and got the happy music, but the next time I opened it the timer was still running. After sending an email to NYT help, I clicked "clear puzzle" and filled everything in again. It reset the timer and I got a gold star, but I'm not sure if they just restored my gold star (they mentioned restoring it in the email). So I didn't clear the puzzle today because I wanted the gold star more than I cared about the time. I might try it again one day as an experiment.
I really enjoyed solving this one. The NW was largely blank with the rest of the grid filled in, but fell pretty quickly when their was nowhere else to go and I was forced to focus on it.
Perfect! Solveable without needing obscure knowledge. Love that! Thanks:)
Rather appropriate that Sam, our M-W columnist, wrote the column for this gently-clued puzzle. There was a lot of lively fill. I liked seeing the IRON THEONE in there, partly because it gives me a reason to post this extended clip from Parks and Recreation. <a href="https://youtu.be/eRUpVkjq-BE?si=xTow6NyMOu4GFqj4" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/eRUpVkjq-BE?si=xTow6NyMOu4GFqj4</a>
@Vaer That would be THRONE. One does wonder why autocorrect corrects words one doesn't want corrected yet doesn't correct those that are actually misspelled.
@Vaer Agreed, although as someone who is not into Game of Thrones (and hadn’t seen that clip), that’s actually where I got stuck on the grid today. I knew Westeros was from GoT but I had bPM instead of RPM for the DJ clue so I had to google to figure out what place would start with IbONTH…
Aha! The photo is probably inspired by OLIVIA, since the celebration is BOLIVIAN. That’s my guess, anyway. I wonder whether there was meant to be a double bluff with the obvious LPS, CMS, etc. I held off on those, thinking they were too obvious, only to see them fill in. STADT for German city definitely is in that category. I filled in RSS quickly, but only because I remember never understanding it.
Easy, breezy beautiful palette of words! For those that felt they’d like the fun to last a wee bit longer, I’ll give you a shiny red penny if this doesn’t make you audibly chuckle. Bargatze on a show you may have heard about. It’s called SNL. Short for…something. <a href="https://youtu.be/JYqfVE-fykk?si=NrjXliKWTMiq-FWr" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/JYqfVE-fykk?si=NrjXliKWTMiq-FWr</a> Happy Friday all!
@CCNY Hilarious. Of course every Canadian cross-border shopper knows that there are roughly 3.8 L to the gal. Not that there are many Canadians going to the US these days, for gas or anything else.
Far too much "trivia" for my liking, but seemingly a fair puzzle, given that I solved it unaided while not knowing much of the trivia. Seemed very gentle for a Friday puzzle.
Very nice puzzle, a little chewy at times, but overall quite smooth.
If the Chinese character sHA means “sand”, I suppose you could have “a cupful” of sand - and the “s” in that square would certainly work better for the crosser (in my experience). Fun puzzle tonight. Thanks, Mailaika Handa!