I’m usually not one of the complainers, but this is probably the first Monday I’ve seen with a genuine Natick. VIGODA crossing IMPEI and ALDA? I didn’t struggle with them, but it feels meaner than a typical Monday would be.
@Stephen Gen Z-er here - that crossing ruined it for me unfortunately. Shouldn't normally have to break out Google for a Monday...
@Nil and @Stephen file IMPEI in your crossword memory bank. He shows up a lot!
@Stephen I'm a boomer and all three were gimmes. Sometimes it helps to be just old....
Puzzle Haiku: What's cracking, Ono? The Lads on the radio: apnea, again. *** He is Moscow's mule, our knucklehead "Godfather." Goals? Shed IRS. *** Luna bends, loops, veers, a paler acai berry, hard shard of Miro. *** (and a limerick) There was a pet emu named Luna who gnawed out of her cage in Cancuna. She spread bird influenza to the wise folks from Mensa whose brains were then filled with lacuna. I'll see myself out!
@john ezra Your final poem is going to give me nightmares, I hope you know. Swiss cheese brains rather frighten me.
@john ezra As always, very clever. A bit surprised you knew about subcortical “lacunes”, first described by the French physician Dechambre in 1838 based on pathological findings at autopsy. ‘Lacunar infarcts” are still discussed, though their etiology is somewhat controversial.
(Second try) My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Ones getting good marks? (3)(7) 2. Sage-colored sage (4) 3. Pilot returning to the air, e.g. (5) 4. Plant energy source (7) 5. Pet sitter? (3)(3) CON ARTISTS YODA RERUN URANIUM LAP CAT
I'm sorry about the repeat posting. That first post didn't show up!
Lewis, Your first try did show up a few minutes late. Perhaps someone made the emus an offer they couldn't refuse.
@Lewis these were inspired, but 4 and 5 drove me insane, both were such "light bulb (moments)"
@Lewis I've been having issues with delayed posts, too, and I know a few others have had problems, too. It's hard to know what to do: post again, or wait it out. I wish those emus (and their programmers) would get it together!
Asymmetric encryption is the cure for the common code. (I got a loud cipher that one.)
@Mike Has anyone reviewed this? Scientific method requires rejection of cures that come sans crit.
@Mike I was auge-ing to see what you'd post after I flu through today's puzzle.
Wasn’t a fan of VIGODA and ALDA crossing, had me stuck for several minutes at the end. 135 Mondays in a row! Woohoo!
How could anyone on earth not know VIGODA and ALDA?! How did you even solve the TV Guide crossword puzzles in the '70s?! Lacuna matata!!
@ad absurdum Remember when SOO was always Jack, and not the actress in that movie I didn't see? He was also on M*A*S*H.
No joke, this is a delightful Monday puzzle. Congratulations, Ken and Stacy, on a cracking good debut.
i thought the theme was cute, but i was frustrated by the crossings with names- VIGODA/IMPEI had me stuck for a while and so did STP/TERI. i’m always bummed when i have to look stuff up on a monday.
@elizabeth and I was absolutely shocked (!) when VIGODA popped into my brain as the answer. At my age it's quite a relief when that happens. I almost felt like I should apply to MENSA.
Crossing VIGODA with IMPEI and ALDA is a party foul.
@John. I think that’s age dependent. They were all gimmies for this 78 year old. Now if they were current pop folks…
Sometimes being old pays off, I guess. Three names in the top middle that bothered a lot of people were sort of automatic for me. Now if they had been rock stars or in current movies...
@kilaueabart I know IMPEI and Joan MIRO because they're rockstars of The NY Times Crossword lol. I knew the last name Vigoda existed so it wasn't too hard to get it once I had enough crosses.
I’m surprised there aren’t a bunch of complaints about all the proper names. (Ten; thirteen if you count the clues containing proper names!) They happened to be names I knew, so not a problem for me. My only hesitation was what to do with the two extra squares for la di da.
@Heidi I knew them all except IM PEI, which I got from crosses. But I did wonder how folks outside the U.S. would do with it.
@Heidi I came here to make that exact comment. I hate the trivia which requires you to read certain books, know plays, movies (who cares who the director is), actors, titles, pop, rap or other musicians. It's not fun, it's trivial pursuit. Crosswords should be word play, themes in other words something you puzzle out. Having to look up entries is a necessary to get on with the puzzle, but today was a major part of the puzzle. Trivia is just lazy puzzle construction because it lets the constructor use odd strings of letters.
@Beth i only got IM Pei because it was in a Sunday a couple of weeks ago. The crossover of ALDA and VIGODA was really silly though - just sloppy craftsmanship IMO. I had to try all reasonable letters one by one until it hit.
@Heidi Strangely, I knew IM PEI instantly and entered his name into the grid without any crosses - a five letter architect of anything in NYT puzzles is always IM PEI. It must be that 60% of the name are useful vowels. This is how I know neither my first name nor my surname (which you don't know, but which would probably make you scream in horror if you did) will ever feature in a NYT puzzle (well, and also because I try very hard to not be famous, at all). I was even more amazed when VIGODA came to me - perhaps because his name sounds more or less like the Polish word for comfort ("wygoda"; we have the word "komfort," too, with the exact same meaning) - I suppose I must have seen the name at an impressionable age - I probably made the connection between the name and the Polish word then, and it became ingrained in my mind. ALDA was a gimme. And yet I still struggled with the puzzle. In the end I had to check it to finish - as described in my late night (CET) post below.
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Ones getting good marks? (3)7) 2. Sage-colored sage (4) 3. Pilot returning to the air, e.g. (5) 4. Plant energy source (7) 5. Pet sitter? (3)(3) CON ARTISTS YODA RERUN URANIUM LAP CAT
@Lewis RERUN was a particular favorite of mine
Well done you two! I hope Ken's mom made an exception and did the puzzle. Keep up the good work.
@David Gropper Of course she did!! Gracious-- it's in the rule book of motherhood. Just so you know, an example: ...I have two masks on my bedrm-studio wall, made by our children in 4th-grade Art class. (The "kids" are now in their 40's....)
I had a CRACKING good time with this puzzle, but I wasn't able to CRACK what connected the themers, so the revealer delivered a nice aha. And as someone who still listens to the RADIO, I'm singing along with Freddie,"RADIO whats new, someone still loves you" (yes, *that* Freddie, the one who, at Live Aid 1985, CRACKed the CODE on how rock concerts are meant to be done <a href="https://youtu.be/o-0ygW-B_gI?si=KskQBKrW6XKT72q6" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/o-0ygW-B_gI?si=KskQBKrW6XKT72q6</a>) Congratulations, Mr. Cohen and Ms. Cooper, on a very nice début!
Random thoughts: • This puzzle got me to thinking about things that you can crack, and there’s nuts, safes, ice, riddles, jokes, books, and smiles. Any more? • Lovely answers today in SHARD, LACUNA, and HAIKU. • When I think of memorable books, Barbarba Kingsolver’s “The Lacuna”, always pops up in my head. Highly, highly recommended. (Hi, @John Carson!) • My laugh-at-myself moment in this puzzle: That longer-than-I’d-like-you-to-know period where I wondered, “Eggplant? People crack eggplants? How do you crack an eggplant – and why?” I actually Googled “eggplant cracking”. Sigh. • In the box, a rare-in-crosswords five-letter semordnilap (LOOPS). • Also, the lovely abutting DIP and OARS. Congratulations, Stacy and Ken, on your double debut. Your puzzle got my brain going in many delectable directions. Thank you!
@Lewis Srsly? But the "eggplant cracking" confusion is too silly not to be true... I would add "crack HEADS" to your list... and (slightly off-kilter,) "crack wise" is a phrase (oft seen in older detective novels, etc.)
@Lewis My brain is going with cracking things… Where you use crack as a synonym for break, there’s glass (and ice), though I prefer the more metaphoric “breaking the ice.” The only real other crack expression I can come up with so far is “crack a beer,” though admittedly you often (though not always) add open in there… crack open a beer.
@Lewis One more: case - crack a case. ;)
This one only made sense if you’re over the age of 50 tbh. I didn’t understand any of the proper noun references except the locational ones. Pretty hard for a Monday.
So many unknowns for me, especially for a Monday... I also did not get the theme, at all. It was just too abstract for me. Even having read the column I needed a moment to grasp the explanation. My mind just did not want to make the leap of understanding how you can crack an eggplant. Yes, I know it was about cracking an egg, but in my head eggplant is eggplant: I just don't see the egg there, and there are few things as uncrackable as an eggplant 🤪. Even though it was all spelled out in the column, I needed a good 10 or 20 seconds to process it. Before reading the column I ended up checking the puzzle - yes, on Monday - when I did not get my gold star. I stared at the grid and I just gave up. Turns out chUCKLEHEAD was wrong. Having that exactly same length synonym there rather than KNUCKLEHEAD was an unfortunate result of, first, my lack of understanding of the theme, and second, Andrzej-unfriendly crosses. So how did I not see that mistake? The c rather than K came from an answer to the SNL clue - I automatically ignore SNL clues because I almost never know the answer to them (today it was gettable, after all, but what of it - my mind was a slave to its "we ignore SNL rule"). The h rather than N was a cross with some band I've never heard of. Solving in the middle of the night, after 3 hours of sleep, may have been a factor in my failure. I'll try to go back to sleep now and forget about this unpleasant experience.
@Andrzej chUCKLEHEAD is darn good guess, and I think easily *could* have been the answer. In some ways I'm getting more nervous about Mondays than Fridays and Saturdays. I don't necessarily expect to finish them with elan, like I do for Monday. There have been some scary moments in Mondays of late for me.
@Andrzej A lot of your difficulties sound like sleep issues.
@Andrzej I’m a big fan of yours, but this was a Monday-level puzzle. Sorry you didn’t like it! (It wasn’t my favorite either, but I thought the difficulty was fine)
@Andrzej I too had trouble with EGGPLANT but only because I'd filled in EGG first and couldn't understand what eggs had to do with baba ghanouj.
@Andrzej and there are few things as uncrackable as an eggplant Yes, oh so very true! Immediate visual, visceral reaction to that bit. Made me laugh -- I mean I cracked up! As for the "egg" in "eggplant", this theme answer only works by parsing the letters. In another scenario that'd be fine, if it was part of the theme to do so. But the others here do not require that; they're straightforward. Maybe not the strongest theme set...
LACUNA comes directly from the Latin: a diminutive of *lacus* ("lake"), it literally means "pond," "puddle," but also "gully, "hollow," "cave"--in other words, any depression in which water is likely to accumulate (so, not a Hobbit-hole). But more importantly, Lacuna, Inc., is the company at the center of one of my all-time fave films, *Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind*.
@Bill Nice! I need to watch that again. Love me some Charlie Kaufman. (If that sentence wasn't dated enough, LACUNA sent me back to Guitar Hero--the only video game I played after the Gameboy broke.) <a href="https://youtu.be/FhYGBsUXAsQ?si=H84nmWn4gKvuqQol" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/FhYGBsUXAsQ?si=H84nmWn4gKvuqQol</a>
VIGODA crossing IMPEI??? Painnnnful to me personally. Way over my Monday average :(
@Sanjana IMPEI is pretty much the only architect I know - so if an architect clue gas a 5 letter answer, that's what I enter. 3 letters? PEI.
@Sanjana I agree that was a nasty one, especially because the first two letters of the architect were initials. Initials can be just about anything. I lucked out that I knew them both, but not knowing either surely would have sunk me.
SNL makes “sketches,” not skits!
@Derrick um...a distinction without a difference
@Derrick "Sketches" are drawn on paper, not performed on stage. *This is my way of saying words have multiple meanings.*
@Derrick This annoyed me too. SNL specifically refers to them as sketches, not skits.
I hate to be *that* comedy nerd, but for 42 Down, “Saturday Night Live” segments are famously “sketches” and *not* “skit”(s).
@Mittie G yeah...because SNL says so? That's right up there with telling people gold paint is real gold...because you want to see it that way.
@Mittie G Congratulations - you made Steve L feel satisfied. 😊
I found there were a few too many proper nouns today, with trivia that is entirely obscure to me… so naturally, a rather frustrating solve. That being said - I thought the theme was funny and it got a chuckle out of me, so all in all, an OK Monday :)
Congratulations on the debut! So much to admire: Fresh idea for the theme! Minimum of three-letter entries! Novel Monday clues! And now... (for future reference) please note: Your True Solvers prefer the following: FOUR Themers plus a Reveal....What about "NUTS and bolts?" Photos on xwordinfo plus personal details in case any of us have marriageable offspring; The addition of qualifiers such as "...but not any more" on clues such as the one for 30D. Modern Times. Thank you for your attention in these matters.
A fun puzzle with more meat than a usual for a Monday. I liked the theme, but unlike yesterday's, knowing the theme didn't help me solve the puzzle. In fact, I forgot to even look at it until I was done and read the column. VIGODA and ALDA took me back to being 12-years-old, sitting on my grandmother's orange shag carpet, doing a puzzle from one of her magazines that smelled like cigarette smoke while listening to Tony Orlando on her 8-track. Those two names were in so many puzzles back then. I always thought a KNUCKLEHEAD was a stubborn person who did the same dumb things over and over again, but that's probably because my grandfather used to call my brother that when he got in trouble for doing some dumb thing over and over again. By contrast, I thought a goofball was someone who did silly things on purpose for a laugh, but the online dictionaries don't all agree on that, and anyway, the clue is close enough. I thought the cross of 15A and 6D were going to be a Natick for me because I didn't know IM PEI and assumed that groupies of My Chemical Romance called themselves by some specific name, but that was only because I missed the "e.g." in the clue. With the rest of the crosses, I could see the answer was just a description, which was easy to suss when only the M in EMOFAN was left. Weirdly, EGGPLANTDIP took a lot of crosses. I must be tired because I kept thinking, "Wait. What do eggs have to do with baba ghanouj?" That was a real "Duh" moment.
Like others have said, I don’t think I ever heard La-Di-Da spelled Lah-Di-Dah but thankfully the crosses made it pretty obvious. There were a few other questionable word uses especially for a Monday. If this any indication of how the week will play out for crosswords it should be interesting…
I'm not sayin' it's *easy*, and I'm sure I haven't calculated the area under that curve in, oh, 35 years, but-- --do we really need to go back to the days of: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDxmpUQfBWs" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDxmpUQfBWs</a> ?
@Francis Not when you haven't done any calculus since 1977. I did use simple algebra at my job.
@Bill Calculus is easy. Comedy is hard.
@Bill Oops! That should be 45! I guess it's tougher than I thought!
Nice Monday puzzle. Most of it filled in just from the clues and then a few things had to work out from the crosses. And didn't entirely catch on to the theme until I was almost done. That's a nice touch. Puzzle find today was one of the strangest I've ever encountered. I can't even describe it. Eight 23 letter grid-spanning theme answers. A Sunday from May 17, 1998 by David J. Kahn and Hillary B. Kahn with the tile "Green eggs and Hamlet." Just one sample answer: OOPSISTABBEDOPHELIASDAD Here's the Xword info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/17/1998&g=65&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/17/1998&g=65&d=A</a> I'm done.
Always nice to have an excellent first puzzle from friends, and hope to see more from Stacy and Ken.
Who was it, last week, that wanted to see baba ghanoush in a puzzle after we got the answer HUMMUS? I’m thinking of you!
Not sure where those extra H's came from for LA DI DA...
@Austin If you check a dictionary, there are several variants.
@Austin Well, there's always this: <a href="https://youtu.be/TK3eaaANVU8?si=YZSpa7wLVLIUj91k" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/TK3eaaANVU8?si=YZSpa7wLVLIUj91k</a>
@Austin "Not sure where those extra H's came from for LA DI DA..." . . . from Lah-lah Land. (Heh-heh)
In my 65 years, I’ve never heard ‘what’s cracking’. That said, break’s over and it’s time to ‘get cracking’.
Prefacing a clue with ‘slangy’ does not make the answer a thing. Maybe WHATS CRACKING is a colloquial phrase but it has never, for my dime, been a thing anywhere; and I’ve been around the block once or thrice.
@brutus might be time for another lap around the block
@brutus It all depends upon who you hang out with. <a href="https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/501068/origin-of-the-phrase-whats-crackin" target="_blank">https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/501068/origin-of-the-phrase-whats-crackin</a>
In addition to his frequent appearances in crossword puzzles, I. M. Pei also had a stunning career in architecture, designing buildings that many of you have visited. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I._M._Pei" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I._M._Pei</a> A friend an I were in Paris and saw the Louvre Pyramid under construction. The escalator that led to the subsurface entrance had just been installed and the workmen were about to test it. I asked if we could be the first to ride it, and they said no, it was only for disabled people. I pointed at my friend and said, "She limps!" (raised eyebrows from my friend). They laughed, shrugged, and down we went, the first ever to ride it. I had hoped for our names on a plaque, but nothing.
@dutchiris Nu descendant un escalier n° 2? Mais oui Mme... <a href="https://tinyurl.com/4k5ff749" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/4k5ff749</a>
Which will be the most common nit picked today? The appropriateness of Fuzzy Wuzzy in a crossword puzzle or The “fact” that segments of SNL are correctly called “sketches”, not SKITS.
@Steve L You forgot the surfeit of proper nouns
@Steve L I'm just here to see who else was annoyed by the SNL clue. :)
@Steve L Fuzzy because we just went through this only a few weeks ago.
@Steve L I'm out of the loop on this. What's wrong with Fuzzy Wuzzy?
@Steve L I have never found ELLEN DeGeneres to be funny. Terrible clue!
@Steve L The skit/sketch distinction makes me laugh.
Congratulations on your first puzzle, Ken and Stacy!
Had an hour nap in the middle of solving this. Unscheduled naps are one reason I don't worry about my times or averages. Gap is not what I thought LACUNA meant. Now I will have to think on what word I've been confusing it with. No, not viCUNA. Always nice to see our friend IM PEI. Recently rewatched a few episodes of Barney Miller. Holds up pretty well. I think Mr. VIGODA was in The Godfather, too. Alan ALDA's first memoir, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed, is entertaining. His parents were vaudeville performers and the showgirls* would often keep an eye on him. *Would you believe that Autocorrect wanted to change this to showers?????
@Vaer Wait! Were Alan Alda's grandparents vaudeville performers or were Abe Vigoda's?
@Vaer Once upon a time, I thought LACUNA was a synonym for "errata". Although I don't know why I should think that you might make the same error that I did.
In local news, there's a wild EMU loose on the Eastern Shore. It's believed to have escaped from a farm in Maryland, late last year, and has been running wild ever since. And at a top speed of 30 MPH, it's been covering a lot of ground. Residents are advised to keep their distance.
Grant, If it is on the Eastern Shore, it may be loose but it is not wild.
Glad you’re back and feeling good again. Love your intros!
WHATSCRACKIN', you ask? Well, for kicks, I asked my A1 sauce to write a HAIKU about Abe Vigoda. I wasn't impressed, but I did give myself a few chuckles out of it. This is why I never use A1. Also, I don't typically eat steak.
You must be joking. Only a KNUCKLEHEAD would say WHAT'S CRACKING. (Or maybe an EGGPLANT DIP.)
Congratulations on a breezy NYT debut, Mr. Cohen and Ms Cooper! Nicely done!
Found this way too obscure in parts
@Ciaran If you mean the W-9 (a tax document) --feel free to chip in and pay US income taxes. We need all the help we can get.
Was happy to see my favorite dip, but a bit perturbed at the overabundance of obscure names. Monday is supposed to be the fun day but sometimes is more frustrating than Tuesday when there are too many names in key spots😅
welcome back from your sickbed Sam. We feed stray cats, raccoons and opossums. It is humorous to watch each animal patiently wait while the other dines. Seeing raccoons, cats and opossums all sitting around the feeding area is a celebration of diversity. LACUNA required the firing of many little gray cels. Thank you Ken and Stacy, do it AGAIN.
WHAT'S happening? WHAT'S shaking? WHAT'S cooking? WHAT'S up? WHAT'S going on? Sure. WHAT'S CRACKING???? Well, why not?
>10 proper names... 20 proper nouns... another version of trivia disguised as nytxw
@Charles What is the correct number of proper names and proper nouns a crossword is allowed to have?
Congratulations on cracking the code and earning your debut! Well done!👍
Note to self: in the NYT it’s EGGPLANT, not aubergine. That’s why it wouldn’t fit. Duh. Good Monday puzzle, fairly straightforward once I remembered the above. TIL VIGODA, fortunately it came from the crosses. Can’t say I’ve ever used/heard the phrase WHATS CRACKING. I was going for CooKING, but again, there was a misfit. Plus, how would I cook a CODE? And yes, I too am in the ‘like fingernails down a chalkboard’ camp for that horrible KNUCKLE sound. Makes me squirm just to think about it.
@Helen Wright I'm with you! As in, Hey, good-lookin' Whatcha got cookin? How's about cookin' somethin' up with me?!
@Helen Wright I had certainly heard of baba ghanouj, but never knew precisely what it was. Now that I know what's in it (aubergine, as you say) it's unlikely that I will ever try it. Slimy food makes me squirm just to think about it. That goes for mushrooms, zucchini, squash, and the like.
@Helen Wright Aubergine sounds so much nicer (and more appetizing) than EGGPLANT, but in the land of Freedom Fries, we will not have such words imposed upon us. (Not to mention the pronunciation difficulties!)
@Helen Wright I was stuck on it for longer too - thinking ‘what on earth is it if not an aubergine dip?’ ! Took me too long to remember the American name…!!
Nice puzzle--I had filled everything but the one square at 51A/54D, and for some reason it took me a hot second (since I had no idea who the film director was). And that got me thinking about folks who complain that they aren't able to get clues right away--that is, without using the crosses. I wonder if it's more than just a resistance to what is the unique mechanic of the crossword: using the crosses to fill in where mere knowledge fails. What I wonder is: how many solvers making this complaint are solving on their phones? Until recently, my morning routine consisted of the Bee, Wordle, and Strands on my phone then the xword on my laptop. I have added the mini, and it's a much different experience **because I can't see the crossing clues** as I'm solving. I've been solving a long time, so work fast on my laptop. For the mini, I'm forced to depend almost exclusively on my knowledge (and/or to retain the clues that are no longer displayed as I solve). I find this slows me down. Similarly, when I've done the big xword on my phone my times are much slower. I suspect that the interface of the phone app favors existing knowledge, where the interface on a laptop/browser better facilitates the strategy of using the crosses. I'd be interested to hear from people who make knowledge-based objections ("too obscure," "I didn't know X and so couldn't finish") about how they solve, and whether switching helps them...
@David Reiffel I solve on the phone and I use crosses. I can't see why solving on a particular device would make any difference - maybe I'm not seeing all the clues all of the time, but I remember them when I switch the view between across and down for a certain square. I also don't really understand the general premise of your post. I don't "complain" about any unknown entry when I can get it with crosses. I report in my comments on not personally enjoying two or more unknowns crossing. When a brand crosses a person's name, and neither is as simple as Coca Cola or Jane, I will be stumped - and understandably so.
@David Reiffel That’s an interesting thought. I first started regularly solving crosswords after watching the excellent “Wordplay” documentary. Knowing that I could probably only solve Monday puzzles, I bought the NYT Monday-only books, where I had clues available at all times. Once I “graduated” myself to Wednesday puzzles, I decided to purchase the phone app and I think there was a difference in solving time not having the clues always visible. Of course, I can switch back and forth, but I wonder if there is something to this. I’m intrigued!
@David Reiffel On my phone, tapping on the clue switches it to the orthogonal clue. I use it all the time - it's no issue for me. And, it's still easier than searching for the other clue in a list, which is what one does when solving manually.
@David Reiffel Interesting: I find the "desktop" interface so much less intuitive than the phone version! I will admit that for quite a while I didn't discover how best to use it on the phone, and found it frustrating. Perhaps you're in the same boat? 1) I don't recall ever playing on my computer before starting with the phone, so I imagine it's partly what one is used to. 2) I play in the mobile browser, so can't speak to the apps. For me, it's great to be able to switch between across and down clues for the current square with just a tap of the clue bar. ...If there are any keyboard shortcuts on the desktop, I don't know them, and moving around the clues & grid frustrate me. A lot. Plus, the necessary features are so much easier to reach on the phone: the rebus button bundled into the keyboard, the next/previous arrows -- and clues! -- right where you're already looking (instead of off to the side), the pause button a short distance above (instead of all the way at the top of the screen)... A few aspects of the phone interface continue to annoy me: * Clue numbers are not displayed with the text! I imagine it was a design decision based on amount of space. This rarely affects the solve, but makes reviewing difficult! * Zooming in and out only helps so much -- Sunday puzzles continue to tax my aging eyes! Lol. All that said, I am never one to make the kind of objections you mentioned...