The complexity involved in creating this masterpiece is mindboggling. We should prostrate ourselves before the constructor, saying "We are not worthy." I see the early birds got the worm; I hope later arrivals do too. Bravo, Dylan!
@Barry Ancona I love it when I can agree 100%, fully, completely, whole-heartedly with Barry. This is a treasure. Bravo, indeed, Dylan!
@Barry Ancona Glad to know that worms can bore through stone tablets! Did you solve on paper? A four-letter rebus entry is mighty small on a phone sceen. Just wondering . . .
@Barry Ancona Agreed, one of the best NYT puzzles in my 57 years of solving. Took a while to finish, but amazing construction.
@Barry Ancona I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of myself for a clean solve. What a wonderful and demanding puzzle.
@Barry Ancona Totally agree. And I didn't even catch on to the added bonus of earworm et al. until reading the column. I was just thrilled to figure out the wormhole/rebusness of it all. Whew. Loved it!
Wow. Just wow. I thought this one would be a DNF and break my brain, but suddenly the wormhole theme kicked in and I could not believe that I finally figured it out. I had to wait for Caitlin to explain that each of the wormhole words is a kind of ‘worm.’ I am totally in awe. What started as a frustrating experience ended with a huge self back pat! Thank you, Dylan, for taking my brain on a wild ride through space and time ☺️
@Connie Exactly my response: WOW Wow wow... I was sure that even if I figured this out I would have to hunt for a simple typo but came out 12+ minutes below my average. Well done Dylan!
Interlocking bookworms, inchworms, and earworms? Wow! Next level construction. Great puzzle!
Extremely satisfying Sunday puzzle. Feel like I could run through a brick wall right now. Not to be overly dramatic.
@Logan Wormholes and running at brick walls makes me think of Harry Potter on platform nine and three quarters! This puzzle too was rather magic!
Such fun! Tricky, but not frustrating. Best Sunday puzzle in ages!
Welcome to ROOTLE ! The new game where you unscramble words with your prehensile snout! Sorry I know it s not right? I just couldn't muzzle myself. [sniff, sniff]
@replay Egad - my proboscis is sitll prickling with pugnacious pique . . . it missed the scent of unrootled rebuses! Don't worry - the hounds will be baying for subscription fees on this one. Would you take 500+ posting odds?
@Whoah Nellie I'll take those odds. We will give them their Nickelback <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOcjvNzMb3s" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOcjvNzMb3s</a>
An OMG impressive build. For one, the colored wormhole pairs are symmetrical, which means that not only must the theme answer pairs have the same number of letters, but the wormholes have to fall in a certain square of those answers. Standing-O, Dylan, for coming up with this theme answer set. There have been wormhole-type themes in puzzles before, but I believe today’s puzzle is the first where the wormholes work horizontally and vertically, rather than just one direction. That's not only incredibly impressive, but envelope-pushing as well. Most importantly, how was the solve? Mine was like a rollercoaster ride, starting with a big what’s-going-on hill to climb, then a eureka moment, followed by a swoosh to the finish. That is, the grind of cracking a thorny riddle – just what my brain adores – followed by the thrill of streaking downhill. Complete gratification. Finally, ROOTLE! ROOTLE! A joy-sparking word if ever there was one. It’s my earWORM for the day. This was a wow from start to finish, Dylan, impressive and satisfying. Thank you, sir!
I came to the comments to see what the consensus was on loving vs. hating. I didn’t even realize until then that the rebuses were types of worms. Amazing! Loved it.
@Bob Roll I didn’t know until your comment - so clever.
@Bob Roll Same. I loved it before reading the column, and I love it even more now that I understand the 3 types of worms!
@Bob Roll Save for me. Once I figured out how it worked, I thought it was a brilliant puzzle. Then I read Wordplay and learned about the meanings of the rebuses, and my mind was blown.
Wow! If I loved this puzzle any more, I’d have to be twins! An absolute gem—right up there with the legendary November 5, 1996 Schrödinger puzzle, and that is my highest praise. The moment I cracked the trick, it unlocked new pathways, adding even more joy to the solve. Thank you, Dylan! It was happy solving indeed!
Wow, wow, wow. What a tremendous workout. I enjoyed every bit of the journey from "what in the world" to "oh, I see." I played it by ear, inched along, and finally booked a completion. Thank you, Mr. Schiff -- this was clever and great fun.
I'm just gobsmacked, in a good way. Love the twist(s).
Two nights in a row, I have written a lengthy post which somehow closed on me just before I was able to send it, and I have no idea what I pressed to cause this, so I will try again here. This comment is about how the opinions will run. So far, most of the comments have been favorable, but most of the experienced solvers solve earlier and finish faster, so there have been only a few people who had bad things to say about what is certainly a different and challenging puzzle. As the 24-hour period progresses with a challenging puzzle or one with a novel trick, we often see less seasoned solvers come to say that the puzzle was unfair or too hard or even "not a crossword". I think we will see some of that. Of course, there will be veteran solvers for whom this puzzle is not to their taste, and some newbies who don't blame the puzzle for their inability to solve it. But nevertheless, the trend will be more praise on Sat. night, more criticism on Sunday. I think that if veteran solvers can finish a puzzle and praise it, but others get stuck and frustrated, the constructor has created a great puzzle. If no one can solve it, or everyone can, not so much. If I were the constructor of a puzzle that hit this sweet spot, I would have cause to be proud. This was a very good puzzle.
@Steve L good assessment. I finished this pretty quickly (under my average) but I'm experienced. I remember the first rebus I encountered, I was mad as a wet hen and probably came here to express my outrage (it would be hilarious if I could find my incensed comments from 6 yrs ago). Now I feel cheated on Thursdays with no rebus and relish puzzles like today's as a treat!
@Steve L I'm glad I'm here on Saturday night. I loved this puzzle. It look me much longer than usual for a Sunday and gave my brain a good workout trying to figure out what was going on. So rewarding once I grokked it. And I'm amazed at what the constructor achieved.
@Steve L It's so frustrating when it closes on you. I've had it happen so many times, even in one sitting. Never used to disappear like that. Anyhow, I don't know what I am, a newbie plus maybe, but I loved this one! Couldn't solve it last night because we went to see Mousetrap, which was recently a clue for WESTEND. ☺️
@Steve L This took some lookups. I got frustrated at points when a word fit but the crosses did not work like on Ricearoni. I finally got the theme but did not notice the "worm" modifiers until reading the Gameplay. So I am mixed on this one. I definitely needed lookups, but I am in awe of the construction.
I had such fun working out the trick of the theme and solving this puzzle! Plus I'm still chuckling at [flat-headed crew driver]. Thank you Dylan Schiff for a great crossword! It was a nice ESCAPE-ARONI of an evening....
@Sal Z Before I figured out the theme about halfway through, I kept wondering how I had never heard of that awesome ESCAPE-ARONI term!
@Sal Z It took some serious BRAIN-CHARACTER but I did it. Now I gotta get some OPEN-BOOK-AIR.
Who doesn’t love a puzzle that makes them feel smart? There I was, having passed by the revealer, and rootling around with what exactly the OPEN BOOK TEST was doing. Says I to self, “oh it’s a kind of WORM HOLE”. And voilà! More rootling as I realized an EARTH worm would not work. Now to find out if EMU OIL is used externally (yuck?) or internally (double yuck?) Adding this brilliant puzzle to my list!
@Cat Lady Margaret. EMU OIL, very much external. We also have goanna oil, also applied externally.
@Cat Lady Margaret How 'bout 80 - 90% smart? [says the almost-got it reply] And 100% agreement - this one has enough worms to keep any word-solving gardener in tall cotton.
@Cat Lady Margaret Thank you for my third worm; I was about to see what ring worm could do for me🙄
@Cat Lady Margaret An EMU is just a big bird. So its OIL is no more yucky per se than schmaltz.
Wow!!! What a puzzle!! I cottoned (or flaxed?) to the theme when I got the revealer, but still took me a while to see how the wormholes worked. They were rebuses? That were different types of worms? And they worked both across AND down??!? Unbelievable. Well done, Mr. Schiff. Took me nearly an hour, but how satisfying was that to complete? It also happened to be the five-year anniversary of the start of my streak. Quite a suitably challenging puzzle to finish a five-year run with. Thank you again, Dylan.
@NYC Traveler congratulations on the five year streak! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 I’m 43 days away from my four year streak ☺️
@NYC Traveler Kudos on your streak! My daughter's less than a month away from that milestone. She got me hooked on these by giving me a subscription for my birthday one year, so I'm quite a bit behind her.
Blech, hated it, more brain power than I wanted to spend on a puzzle.
@Jamie, I thought it was stupid. What a waste of time.
@Jamie I completely agree. Did not like this one at all.
@Jamie Didn't do any research, but I suspect most definitions of puzzle would include something about challenging your skill or ability, so seems odd to hate a puzzle which does exactly what a puzzle is designed to do.
@Tex I like tricky puzzles and rebuses. This puzzle was absolutely stupid, with tortured fills. Is this the third or fourth puzzle this week with "ACAI" as an answer? Flipping where words go in the puzzle isn't skillful. You could do that anywhere. It's about as complicated as a sodoku with duplicates, and equally pointless and unfun.
Wow wow wow. I’m predicting a lot of haters as the day goes on but I ATE it up. This was an absolute tour de force, positively next level puzzle construction. Four way rebuses, complex entries, great fill and symmetrical worm holes—out of this galaxy!
@SP Not to mention cunning title "Travel Bug" Haha
When I first began xwording it never occurred to me that the puzzles could teach me loads about myself. When I grok a rebus theme I am usually wont to think: How devilishly clever are we, the puzzle builder and I! And when I don't I incline to pout and declare: How dopey and maudlin this meager effort from the puzzler and how rightly affronted am I! I no longer can discern clearly where the puzzle characteristics end and mine begin.
@Matt Comment of the year! If this were Reddit, I'd give you an award. Would that others were so self-aware.
I absolutely loved this one. Didn't need to look a single thing up; was challenging without verging into frustrating; and the "aha!" moment for the theme, rebus, etc was so satisfying and clever. This was a journey. (And I somehow beat my average time on this one. ) Looking forward to more!
@Emmy Slightly envious, and happy for a fellow solver's success! [sigh] They'll be another one tomorrow. 😉
@Emmy Same! I felt challenged by it, even though it didn't take me longer.
This was a constructor’s tour de force. I can only begin to imagine how much time this must have taken to put together. The only downside was that it became relatively easy to solve, but that was probably an inevitable byproduct of the theme itself. One of the most creative Sunday puzzles I have ever completed.
Ok I have to comment on this one. On my first pass I had so little filled out that I was sure I’ll need help on this one. I figured the circles were rebuses but it was still not making sense. Until I got to 69A and had the aha moment. Then it was trying to match up the colored circles on my iPad mini screen, which is a bit of a pain as the color changes if it is highlighted…but I got there with not too much trouble, and then going back and forth through the wormholes! Thankfully there were not too many obscure clues to make up for the tricksy theme. I can’t even begin to imagine how this would be constructed - just happy to have figured it out with no lookups and just slightly over my average solve time. Thanks to the constructor for a fun ride!
I couldn’t believe it when I un[EARTH]e crafted with this puzzle! Bravo to Mr Schiff and th[EARTH]ed the theme!
@Hurst This comment should have more recommendations. Bravo!
Said one annelid to another, "Worm meant for each other!" (Feel free to burrow that one!)
The best Sunday puzzles are the ones that make you smile when you realize the theme. This puzzle gave me a big smile. Well done!
@Michael Davis Oh! You startled me! I was still spacing out over how awesome this puzzle was.
Gonna have a LOT of pushback from ME if he thinks TYPEWRITERS are obsolete, I can tell you that, 😉‼️
@David Pearce You and Tom Hanks! <a href="https://www.thechurchsagharbor.org/some-of-toms-typewriters-from-the-collection-of-tom-hanks" target="_blank">https://www.thechurchsagharbor.org/some-of-toms-typewriters-from-the-collection-of-tom-hanks</a>
@David Pearce Just go into Staples or Best Buy and see if you can find one. @Beth The fact that they're being exhibited, museum-style, proves the clue to be correct.
@David Pearce My Dad bought an electric portable Smith Corona for his dental office in late 1950's. When I graduated from high school he gave it to me to take to college. It had a very unusal font -- the lower case letters were shaped like the upper case, just smaller. I always got comments from teachers when I handed in the first paper for any class. We got our first word processor at home in 1984-ish. Z-80 computer, 80 character lines, green letters on the screen. Daisy wheel printer. Quit using the typewriter. About 10 years ago I found the old Smith Corona in the back of the garage. But it didn't work. Motor burned out. There was still a typewriter shop nearby. I called them and they said about $120 to fix it, and then it would be worth $80-$90. Not worth fixing, sadly. Just last summer it went out on the curb (with a lot of other old stuff) on the city's "Dump anything you want" day. We are trying to clean out the house and garage (no basement) before we die so our kids won't have to deal with it all. We've lived here 50 years!
You don't have to be Stephen Hawking to solve this puzzle -- just Dylan Schiff to create it. Out of this world.
Solving the Sunday Crossword 'Travel Bug' is a euphoric experience. This puzzle is brilliantly constructed; a work of art. I loved how the nonsensical, disjointed answers morphed into logical solutions when the wormholes were added to my mental landscape. Dylan, thank you very much. That was SO fun! -K
I was saved by RICEARONI. Being absolutely sure of that answer cracked open the wormhole detail for me.
We had family over tonight, and I was asked to set up the charcoal grill at around 5:50, so I knew that if I played it right, I could start the puzzle at 6:00 and hopefully finish before I had to cook the burgers. Since my average Sunday solve time falls within coal-catching time, I figured I'd be able to get it done. The non-theme answers seemed super easy to get (with just a couple of exceptions), but I was halfway through before I got to WORMHOLES, which gave the game away. It did take me about 5 minutes longer than average, but once the wormholes fell into place, it was smooth sailing, and I had to go cook. I did get hung up for a minute or two at SHAKA (seen before but still not familiar with it in that context) , and a random typo that I can't recall anymore. But I did get it done before going back to really take in what was happening. And then it occurred to me: The WORMHOLEs work on both the across and the down answers! There was a previous WORMHOLE puzzle, on Thurs., July 18, 2004, but there were no rebus squares and it only worked once per clue. (The continuations started with an unchecked square, so there was no crossing of two answers at the WORMHOLE square.) See the completed grid at <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/18/2024" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/18/2024</a> ). But this one had two WORMHOLE entries crossing at every WORMHOLE, and rebuses at those spots. Jaw dropper! More in another post about how I think the comments will run.
@Steve L Gosh, all that and you cracked it before your clan came after you with forks and pitchforks! My hat is off to you!
Beautiful Sunday Morning workout! When I first started the puzzle, I quickly learned to stay away from the colored squares. There was clearly something amiss there, and I would have to wait a while until things became clearer. When I solved the revealer, I guessed how things would work out: going in one of the pair and out the other, but it wasn't until a bit later that I saw that one would need to put rebuses into the colored circles. Since I was working the puzzle from the top down, there was the frustration of not having much to work with with the "exit holes" on the bottom, and it took a little bit longer to see that the colored pairs would have the same rebus in each. And it wasn't until the whole puzzle was finished that I could look back at the solve and see the WORM-connection in all of the rebuses. Wow! So many a-ha moments in one puzzle, and then the final perusal to think about the genius involved in its construction! Hats off to you, Dylan Schiff. This is clearly a great puzzle!
Someone said, "I hated this puzzle, until I loved it." I might agree and add, "...and then I was in awe of it."
Absolutely amazing puzzle! I was about to give up ( well, maybe just set it aside for a bit), but I finally realized that the colored circles were types of worms and had a good romp finishing it up. (That smoke you smell—that’s my brain!) Definitely extremely challenging, so for those who had difficulty, it’s not you! After some years of frustration and hair-pulling, I’ve come to treasure these stumpers. Stay with it, and you will know a puzzling satisfaction like no other.
Any complaints I had about this puzzle were on me and entirely of the annoyed-until-solved variety. This puzzle is ingenious. Kudos to the constructor!
Amazing feat, just amazing! Two-directional verbal wormholes with actual 🪱s!! The matching colors were a tasty icing on this delicious solve (and a vital clue!). I am continually awed at the creativity of crossword constructors. This will go on my list of most memorable Sundays. Thank you, Mr Schiff!!
Haters gonna hate, but I totally dug this.
This puzzle has wormed its way into my heart. Glad there were no tapeworms or ringworms in this puzzle, let alone the parasitical kind that lodged in RFK Jr.'s brain. Very lively puzzle and on my list for POY. Speaking of which: now that we're nearing the midway point of the year (already??), please remember to make a note somewhere of your favorite puzzles. We had a good turnout in the vote for POYs and hope that continues. Two quotations re worms. The first is by Willam Blake, among his aphorisms, often accompanied by small woodcuts: The cut worm forgives the plow. This second is from late in Hamlet, Act 4 Scene 3. Claudius is seeking the whereabouts of Polonius (the two of them were in cahoots), whom Hamlet has unknowingly killed. King: Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? Hamlet: At supper. King: At supper! where? Hamlet: Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table: that's the end. King: Alas, alas! Hamlet: A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. King: What dost you mean by this? Hamlet: Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.
@john ezra "Not where he eats, but where he is eaten." Ah, Will, in the end we're all WORM Chow.
@john ezra Nominating worm puzzle now
I can't stop thinking about EMUOIL
@Sam F my mom had a brief obsession with emu oil and sent me a little roller with what she claimed was emu oil. I remain skeptical
@Sam F I have this image of that fuzzy bird going through a set of rollers, and someone collecting the liquid that come out. UGH!
I was really beginning to hate this puzzle until suddenly I loved it.
@Infidel Perfect description. I was almost ready to bail when I started filling in the worm types in each rebus, then the revealer filled in and I had an inkling of what was going on, then the long entries started working. Went from frustrated to completed.
This one wormed its way into my heart ❤️
As one who sometimes struggles to "get it," I'd like to suggest a little more compassion for the unfairly labeled "haters" here. Those of you who are so pleased with the constructor, the constructor, and the cleverness of the puzzle might just be pleased for the simple fact that you got it; whether you lucked into it, figured it out, or came to solve the puzzle in some other way, the fact remains that you're (deservedly) proud of yourselves and pleased. Good for you. Really. But you might have a little more compassion for those of us who come here to enjoy some time on a Sunday and don't get it. We work at it, we struggle with it, and it's increasingly frustrating. Instead of enjoyment and entertainment, we get frustrated, upset, and don't have a good time. And some post things they don't mean. That doesn't make them/us "haters"--a word I think is unfair. We are not all equally smart, equally clever, equally wise, or equally good at this game. But we ALL come here for enjoyment. Those of you who are smart or clever enough to solve the puzzle are pleased. Rightly so. But those of us who keep struggling and struggling get understandably frustrated. None of us are at our best when we're frustrated. But instead of calling us "haters," you might remember that there was (likely) a time when you struggled too. When you couldn't solve the puzzle. And have a little compassion. That doesn't excuse the nasty, uncalled-for language but a little understanding might help.
@Dave Sorry that has been your experience with this morning’s comments. I only see “hater” references to people who are generally self-professed rebus-haters, who always come out whenever there’s a rebus puzzle. Doesn’t seem to me at all like a measure of intelligence to express a preference but what do I know. Maybe the comment(s) that you are reacting to have been deleted?
@Dave I haven’t read the latest posts since I last went through the comments, about an hour ago, but from what I’ve seen, I don’t see too many people calling anyone a hater. What I do see, though, are several unsuccessful solvers who are less than charitable with the puzzle because they were unable to solve it. Certainly, this puzzle would play hard or even impossible for the inexperience or weak solver. However, this is a very clever puzzle, and doesn’t deserve to be disparaged. Some of the repliers have addressed this type of complaint. That doesn’t mean they are calling anyone a hater. And it’s always surprising to find out that people who set out to solve a puzzle get upset when it’s too puzzling.
@Dave I can appreciate the sentiment, but I would counter with the simple fact that it’s a *puzzle*. It’s supposed to be difficult to some degree, and require work and thought to figure out. If you just want an easy crossword that you’ll always be able to solve, stick to Mondays. If you don’t want any work at all, relax by watching TV. But coming to complain that a puzzle is “too hard” simply because YOU yourself didn’t get it, just comes across as… well, whiny. I haven’t seen any name-calling on this thread anywhere?
@Dave It saddens me when solvers say they are upset when they can't solve a puzzle. Being challenged is part of being human, and rising to a challenge can be very satisfying, as is learning from one you fail at. Even tough puzzles like this one become solvable with experience. Be patient with yourself. It used to take me hours to solve a tricky Sunday crossword.
@Dave Please do not let thinly veiled, braggadocious comments get you down. Solvers often come here to toot their own horn or to pooh-pooh the concerns of other solvers. Consider the source and try to ignore the negative or snarky comments. And always feel free to comment, vent, complain, or whatever.
@Dave totally understand that the puzzle can be frustrating. I don't, however, understand when *adults* allow their frustration over an entirely voluntary instance of a particular pastime to lead them to being outright nasty to/about another human who's sharing their creation with us. I rarely see people being mean to those who report struggling. I FREQUENTLY see people who report struggling being quite mean to the puzzle author. If one's frustration is so uncontainable that it results in taking the time to type out unkind things in public, perhaps a crossword known to be difficult at times is not one's most appropriate hobby.
@Dave You said it best. I also will add…..working on the puzzle longer than usual has the added bonus of taking my mind off the news of what t Rump has been up to…. I try not to tune in to that station and i just try very hard because I am not going to loose my mind over my country’s decision to elect him
@Dave I wonder whether part of the frustration when solving online is an implication that the puzzle should be solved in a day? I started off solving these without that pressure, from book collections of NYT Sunday puzzles. I could happily spend a couple of weeks on one, work on it for an hour or so then put it down and come back a few days later. And if I couldn't ever get it, I'd look at the answer key. That's how I first figured out how rebuses work in the context of crossword land.
Wow. Just wow. I was blown away by the construction on this one as it slowly dawned on me how to solve it. (My format did not display the colors which added an extra layer of puzzling.) I’m with those here who consider this POY material. IMHO Dylan Schiff has set a high bar.
Lots of fun—enjoyed it very much. Some recent Sunday puzzles have seemed too satisfied with their own cleverness—this was not the case here. Once you realize the worm hole meanings, it’s an enjoyable romp.
Wow. Za. That was fun. Next-level fun. Rice-a-roni broke it open for me, and then I lost three pounds running all over the grid 17 times to parse out exactly which letters to rebus. Sunday POY candidate, fo’ sho! Thank you Dylan! And to those who lost someone defending my home country, I’m so very sorry for your loss, and we remember them especially, with deep, unending gratitude.
@CCNY What a stupid way to say it, CC. Was thinking of this US holiday weekend. I am so sorry and grateful for *any* of you, no matter the country, who have lost someone defending your home. We’re all just one, right?
@CCNY When you keyed it in you were probably the only person in the history of mankind to have used the phrase "Rice-A-Roni broke it open for me."
Absolutely love a Sunday exercise of this type - filling in the non-themers as best I can, looking quite blindly at the circles, and then getting not just one but two aha moments: first the worms in the holes and second what they did to the back half of each entry. What a delight. As I was tapping over towards the comments to share this observation, I found myself wondering how many folks were going to be here complaining that the puzzle was "too _______ by half." Usually it's "clever," of course, but I think here we have also a "cutesy" or two (what makes a puzzle cutesy vs clever I'm not sure) and I imagine some other options as well were I to look over all 400 and something comments more closely. Who decided that this is the thing to say when what you really mean is you didn't like how difficult it was, and why is it always by half? I'm at a loss. I personally find the description overused by three-quarters at least. In any case: thank you to Mr. Schiff for the fun and satisfying solve, and happy Sunday to you all.
@Regine I always thought the phrase "too clever by half" was a Scottish one, until I started coming here. In my part of the world it designates a level of cleverness that exceeds savviness, leading to counterproductive results. It's uttered with a weary headshake. So (in the usage I'm familiar with, and have uttered myself) it means "I actually completely understand the cleverness here, but I think it hasn't been thought through properly." So its meaning, in my experience, is almost the reverse of the one you invoke here. Interesting how perceptions, and usages, can differ so strongly.
@Regine I can imagine people use it as you describe, but it's a pretty feeble bluff. But I've also seen it used as I described---people who clearly have understood the theme, and have completed the puzzle with little difficulty, but nevertheless found the complexity of the theme ultimately wearing rather than satisfying. It's insulting if directed at the constructor and editor, but as a personal experience of a puzzle it has some validity, to the same extent as describing the user interface in your car as being "too clever by half".
This was my favorite Sunday puzzle of… I think forever! Incredibly, mind-bendingly clever—not only the construction of the “worm holes”, which was super cool and unique, but also the way the symmetry of the puzzle stayed intact and the worms themselves added a sort of “aha!” Easter egg moment. Perhaps the perfect Sunday puzzle. I’ve done hundreds of Sunday crosswords at this point and never felt compelled to comment until today. Massive hats off to the constructor!
Quite the puzzle. I got tired and gave up trying to figure which wormhole went with which. It probably would have helped if I'd realized that the colors were matched up. Oh well, at least I knew that Outkast was a RAPDUO. Some of the answers were fun to read without using the wormhole, like ESCAPEARONI and RICEARTIST. RICE ARTISTs actually exist. Some use rice to make mosaics or sculptures. Some carve onto grains of rice or carve things out of grains of rice.