I think of all the carping that goes on in this forum, the most annoying one sniffing that "puzzles are just too simple now". I know, I know, I'm a neophyte solver, but I think it's true that *constantly* being told that something is easy when one is failing at it. One of the things I *never* did as a chemistry professor is blithely over and over again how easy chemistry is, just because it was easy for me. And I think it would have antagonized students had I done so. It would have come across as arrogant. If I follow others in simply giving up on this forum, it'll be because my blood pressure just gets too high when the "too easy" complaints come out.
@Francis Please don’t leave I love your comments, and this was on point. I do comment on perceived challenge sometimes, but more to question what day it’s on and hopefully not in a condescending or complaining way. I started solving about 5 years ago, and I do feel after awhile one’s perceptions get colored by one’s experience and my learning curve has grown exponentially, so I really try to be objective and compare to other puzzles and not my own experience.
@Francis Sorry, guilty here. But I'm just trying to call them as I see them. I'm sure I've gotten better at doing these but I haven't gotten all that much better. The recent Hoody entry was still a challenging delight. These last couple of Thursdays have been disappointing to me. If it's really just that my skills have sharpened with practice, then maybe I need to recalibrate. But these last couple of weeks, and the Thursdays in particular, have just seemed easy. I think those stat tracking sites might corroborate... I don't mean that this was a bad puzzle - the theme was excruciatingly well constructed. I just found it much too easy to solve. I can only report my own impressions after all.... ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Francis Please overlook the super crossworders who are supremely able at these puzzles. They are relaying their experiences but I don’t think they are intentionally aiming any condescension at those, who like me, really struggle Thu-Sun. I got stuck quite a bit today! Except for Mondays I usually have a hard couple or many situations. But I still get a lot of pleasure out of the discovery of knowledge and the clever wordplay. And your comments and a lot of others’ comments. I agree that somebody feeling or communicating something is trivial or obvious when it is not to me can bug me. Everyone is not a natural teacher and their inner thoughts leak out sometimes.
@Francis I never visit, however I wanted to see what the response was from other folks for this puzzle. I too am a "neophyte" as you say. I find myself easily annoyed by some puzzles, and this was one of them. I agree with you about the "too easy" and "this was a Tuesday puzzle". Congratulations to those folks. I enjoy a good challenge as much as the next person, but this one annoyed me. Maybe one day I'll be smart enough to enjoy puzzles like these.
@Francis I really wish I could edit out all the stupidities, elided words, and sentence fragments in my original post. I get sloppy when I'm peeved, I guess.
@Francis Add me to the list of commenters who enjoy reading your posts. I'm an experienced solver. I have no real memories of when I struggled to solve a Monday puzzle in less than 30 minutes, but there was such a time. (On the other hand, I have a distinct memory of one of the earliest rebuses I encountered, and how much I enjoyed it once I *finally* figured out what was going on.) As a wannabe constructor, it's invaluable to read comments from people like you and Heathie J who aren't experienced solvers but who are willing to give themselves a chance to improve. Please keep on commenting!
@Francis I see the comments as being like the weather, ever changeable, sometimes full of hot air, sometimes sharp as a cold snap, sometimes sunny and warm. Just accept that there's nothing to be done about it except disagree when you are offended, congratulate when you are pleased, and enjoy the process. There is always the sense of community, something like a multigenerational, multicultural family. We are bound together by the crosswords, thank heaven.
@Francis We all pay to play — with both money and our time. This is a place where some of us choose provide feedback as customers. There is nothing inappropriate about that. Perhaps this perspective will allow you to not take some of the comments so personally.
@Francis I don’t mind when puzzlers post opinions—“too hard” or “too easy”—as I always find it fascinating to note how other commentators’ perceptions may agree with or differ from mine. What I do find irksome, however, are the speed solvers who feel compelled to post their (to me) absurdly fast solve times. I have always been a slow–and–steady type solver, and have reconciled myself to the realization that I could never complete a puzzle in those times. But while I certainly am impressed that some folks can, and accept that it is fine if that is what gives them pleasure, posting those numbers in what is not specifically a competitive venue strikes me as unnecessary and unbecoming braggadocio. I got quite a bit of pushback the last time I posted these sentiments, so let me be clear: I can respect tournament–type solvers… but in these daily puzzles, the only prize offered is one’s own satisfaction. That may result, for some, from a super–speedy solve; but for others, it might mean completing a grid without any hints or look-ups, or learning some new facts, or enjoying reading others’ feedback. I’m sure some neophytes are inspired by seeing the ultra-low solve times—yet I suspect even more may issue a sigh of discouragement. So my suggestion is to refrain from over-specific gloating in this forum. Save it for your annoying family members! 😉
@Francis please don’t go! We need people like you to spice up the comments with more interesting reflections than “too hard!” or “too easy!”
@Francis I don’t pay attention to the clock. But I know some people are worried that the NYT might try to make their puzzles easier to attract more $$s. Also, some really look forward to the end of the week and have trouble hiding their disappointment when the clues aren’t as fresh as in other weeks. Whether a clue seems fresh depends on how long you’ve been doing these. Luckily, there doesn’t seem to be a toxic level of Xword consumption, or the ERs would be filled with strung out nerds screaming “Stuff the Oreos, doc, I NEED a seven letter word that anagrams to Latin for forbearance!” That said, the differences in perceptions of easy vs. hard always remind me of George Carlin’s observation: “Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?”
@Francis First off I love your name. Francis is a family name for me... Ancestors and a new great nephew! Anyway... No worries. I'm often miffed by some of the comments here and they can make my thumbs really thick as well!!!
@Francis Is there no part of you that can understand how some of us who have been solving for years or decades, for whom the challenge of difficult puzzle is the point, might feel about the puzzle getting markedly easier in recent years to accommodate the newer solvers and those who feel entitled to a star every single day? Do we not have the same right as you to say that here?
@Francis I've been told my puzzles tend towards the easy side, but this mostly comes from very experienced solvers. I'd much rather create a puzzle that is enjoyable by many (and perhaps the crossing point into harder ones), than one that is only solveable by a select few. Like any comment section, this one is not representative of the general population. That doesn't mean it's not informative, but it needs to be taken with a large grain of salt.
Matryoshka dolls are full of themselves. (Wooden you agree?)
@Mike Nest question please. No need to rush in. . ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Mike - hhahahahhaha spoiler comment = sorry wrong forum! Great joke!
@Mike Do you think they shed tiers?
@Mike Yes, dolling, we agree. Let the pun-ishment fit the crime!
Puzzles don’t have to be hard but they do have to be fun, and this one was a lot of fun. Great concept and some clever cluing.
I enjoyed this puzzle right up to the time I got to the comments. I was happy when I figured out the embedded clues. I thought that was quite ingenious, especially given the word within a word within a word all made sense. Then I hit the A in the cross of HAKE and MATRYOSHKADOLLS. I wish I had a solution for the balance between the "too easy" people who would seemingly want the puzzles to be unsolvable by 90% of solvers. I try not to complain when puzzles are too difficult for me. I wish others wouldn't complain when they are too easy for them.
@Francis Thank you, friend. Warned by your post I'll be skipping reading the comments today.
@Francis Me too, re the comments. Solving in 3.52 minutes? Who cares really. I enjoy the comments which enlighten me about the meanings or derivations of words, or a linked idea, like the post about Chinese writing v speaking today. Or an explanation of the background to say, baseball for non-US solvers (thanks again, Lewis). Or a comment on the idiosycrasies of US and other cultures, without judgement, of course.
This Thursday puzzle was excellent! Wonderful nested design. Thank you!
@Eddie Hey everybody, Eddie done did this puzz! There will be a little celebration in the break room this afternoon. Hope you can make it.
@Eddie That crossword didn’t stand a clue against you...
I don’t usually (or ever) comment on puzzles, but this one was particularly fun and clever. I have to praise the constructor for coming up with this one!
It wasn’t a rebus!!! Matryoshka dolls are a favorite of mine. Two days in a row where the puzzle was a doable one for me!! Yay!! I feel spoiled.
This might be one of my very favorite NYT puzzles ever. Diabolical to solve but done in three minutes under my average. Thank you for a truly excellent theme.
This is the kind of word play I come here for and thoroughly enjoy. I’d do a puzzle with this theme more often if it were offered. Loved it!
i cant remember the last time a thursday made me smile this much. thanks, mr brody. to someone like me who has never dipped a toe into the pool of crossword construction, todays offering fills me with an inchoate and fraught sense of how deep the pool is.
I thought the revealer was going to be “turducken” - the hen inside the duck inside the turkey. But MATRYOSHKADOLLS was just as good.
@Coriander That's a great alternate revealer (even though the idea of the dish repels me).
@Coriander - that is a good alternative! I didn't even think of it.
Gave me painful Lisp programming flashbacks but still, I admire the clever theme!
@pacer9 Ooh, I hadn’t thought of Lisp in ages! I think I wore out the parentheses keys on my keyboard back then.
@pacer9 LISP really clicked with me too--Lots of Silly Parentheses we used to affectionately call it
@pacer9 I came here to see someone reference Lisp! What a great construction today.
@pacer9 That's what the clues reminded me of!! I couldn't quite place it, so thank you for that :) Haven't thought of LISP in years!
Fun and well executed theme that actually helped with the solve. I wish there had been some way to clue the final answers, even in a very obtuse way, but that may be asking too much. My heritage is Russian and my grandmother had matryoshka dolls so it brought back fond memories. I disagree with George, no way this was Tuesday level, there were a fair number of easy clues but definitely a fair share of more difficult ones.
@SP I was just happy that the final answers were real words (and, for the most part, interesting ones). Clues? We don't need no stinkin' clues!
@SP I lived in St. Petersburg, Russia, for two years and have 2 sets of matryoshka dolls right here in the room where I'm doing this puzzle. The only hard part was how to spell matroyshka in English!
I'd say LOTHISVE but that isn't actually a word of its own, lol. But I did love it! Left the theme entries blank / filled by crosses, as is my usual strategy with Shenanigans Afoot puzzles, but PEERREVIEW had me figuring it out, which helped with the ones where I wasn't quite yet sure of the crosses. I'm sure there will be complaints but I found this fun. GOJOBOD (which also isn't a word)
@Isabeau I love your phrase “Shenanigans Afoot”!
Great column Deb. Yes, life would be very boring if we all knew the same amount about the same things.
Ingenious theme that completely escaped me. I solved the themed clues by waiting until I had enough crosses to see what the correct answer was without deciphering the parentheses. I feel a little dirty. I chuckled to see AKIRA Kurosawa pop up. I just rewatched The Seven Samurai for the umpteenth time a couple of days ago. The scene where the young samurai and the village girl forge their connection with a roaring fire distorting the space between them is one of my favorite cinematic moments ever.
@Marshall Walthew I was glad to see AKIRA, too. It was a very welcome gimme when I was trying to make sense of the theme. My Contracts professor wanted our class to watch Rashomon for its illustration of how everyone has a different story of how something happened. I somehow missed the screening but eventually saw it years later.
@Marshall Walthew if you're a big Seven Samurai fan, you should read The Last Samurai. Mind blowing novel, for me anyway.
Thinking over the 'easy' vs 'hard' debate. First, I'll say that the most aggravating thing is people saying that a puzzle 'annoyed' them or that the constructor is 'showing off', etc. I mean... we're here to do puzzles? Which by definition require some thought to solve, and also by design require more thought on different days? If thinking is annoying, wow, you are in the wrong place. I'm much more likely to praise a well-constructed grid (on any day of the week), generally more so if the puzzle took me extra time with good wordplay. I think that's where some (most?) of the 'easy' comments are coming from - not from a place of denigration, but more like feedback ('I would have liked this to be harder '). So, today I liked the theme a lot, but would agree that's it an 'easy' Thursday, and that's just where I am in my solving journey. And for all the folks in the 'hard' camp - enjoy the journey! We've all been there. Keep on solving. Time spent solving matters - there's so much crossword-ese and convention to pick up on, and intuiting that is really key to cracking the late week puzzles. 99% of the sharp solvers are in no way looking down on you, perceived tenor of comments aside.
@Withnail I think you might be right re: your last sentence, but the 1% who are tend to be early commentators.
@Withnail Nicely said. It's easy to forget that a clever clue — say, today's 28A [t has its ups and downs] for SEE-SAW — might be so familiar to veteran solvers that it requires no more time than it takes to read the clue and type six letters. But for someone who's never seen that clue (or something similar) before, it might take a minute or two of pondering to come up with the answer.
@Withnail I agree with your comment completely. Just one question. Why is I not with you.
I enjoyed seeing TIES clued as "baseball rarities" only two days after the MLB All-Star Game ended in a tie that had to be resolved via a mini home run derby. Now that's a fortuitous twist of puzzle timing!
Loved the nested clues idea! Great puzzle.
Hands up if, to remember the name of the Ted Lasso character, you started singing JAMIE TARTT doo doo doo doo doo, a la Baby Shark. Overall, a clever theme. I enjoyed solving the clues within the clues. They were not too hard, but my difficulty was figuring out which order to put them in, until I realized that the answers were nested within each other. Brilliant! Otherwise, there were some very challenging clues that were easily accessible from the crosses. Finished in less than average time, which is saying something for a Thursday. A great mental workout. Offerings like these are why I look forward to Thursdays.
@DocP I’d forgotten that song (having never heard the original until later) and it took me longer than it should have to remember Jamie’s last name. I loved the way his character evolved throughout the series.
@DocP Yes, and it's been stuck in my head ever since.
@DocP Yes, that awful earworm entered my brain. I hope it won't take up residence for too long. I wished they had used "Author Donna" instead!
@Eric Hougland 🙋♀️ Glad I wasn't the only one!
Unlike many coaches and managers in professional sports who wear suits during the games, those in baseball wear the same uniform as the player. Thus ties are a rarity in baseball.
"There's no tying in baseball." -- Jimmie Dugan
@ad absurdum you could start giving @Mike from Munster a run for his money!
Wow, wow, wow! Kudos to Mr. Brody! I’m constantly amazed at the cleverness and creativity of constructors who create these puzzles for our enjoyment, and I’m grateful that they share their gifts with us. Just amazing!
Tricky, tricky Thursday. Well done, Mr. Brody. Every time I hear the word "toke", I think of this song, introduced by none other than Lawrence Welk as a "modern spiritual." I guess if you are Rastafari, maybe! <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKslYBMycHM" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKslYBMycHM</a>
@Chungclan Yes, that was incredibly funny...
I thought I was the only person who call them Tricky, Tricky Thursdays.
@Chungclan I didn't even need to click that to know what the clip was. Somebody was pulling something over somebody else.
@Chungclan Thank you for the laugh! I have an image in my mind of the composers Brewer & Shipley watching this on Lawrence Welk, in the state described by the song’s title (is that emu proof?), eating Cheetos and Oreos, and laughing themselves into oblivion.
@Chungclan That was even better than his "take a train" intro.
@Chungclan My mother loved the Lawrence Welk show. My older brother and I laughed ourselves silly at that episode.
@Chungclan Great share! This is the "toking" song I was reminded of. <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q3mfENm6VJc" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q3mfENm6VJc</a>
I enjoyed this puzzle. In Polish the dolls are spelled MATRiOSzKA (sz being our equivalent of your sh sound). Of course I knew the Z would be an H in English, but it took me a moment to notice the I would be a Y. I liked the theme. I thought it was well implemented. I never played MYST but the title came to me. I had a similar experience with BAIDU. MOANA I learned from these puzzles. "There will be blood" I saw at the cinema when I still went there occasionally. It was a depressing mess I regretted watching, but at least it gave me one entry today. The enigmatic REN I got from crosses entirely. I did not have major problems with my solve until I finally had to deal with the small area directly East. I have not seen Ted Lasso, and I still don't understand the 35D clue: "Words often appearing after a number and a hyphen." I desperately tried to parse 52A ("Word before foot, fire or free" as a single noun made up of two words, and nothing worked. I finally looked up TART_ to get the missing final letter, a T. This allowed me to finally understand 52A. I still don't get what INONE or its clue might mean (is it a golf thing?). Could somebody please explain it to me? Having seen Francis's comment right below mine I'll be skipping today's other comments. There is little more annoying than a litany of "Too easy!!!" complaints, especially on a day I needed to look something up.
@Andrzej In-one. If something is being sold with two uses, it would be two-in-one. A Swiss Army Knife could be 17-in-one.
@Andrzej Yes. The best example is a combination tool. A 3-in-one might be a hammer, screwdriver, and wrench as all features of a single gadget. Oh, wait, there's always a bottle opener so my example would be a 4-in-one.
@Andrzej Your wife is an association football fan, isn't she? Ted Lasso is a very funny show. Funnier, probably, if you know a little about soccer, but that's not really what it's about. Spoiler alert (not really): There Will Be Blood is not meant to be an uplifting story. I have to credit it with turning me into a fan of Brahms' music; the bloody climatic scene uses the third movement of his violin concerto to great effect.
@Andrzej “I drink your milkshake!” (The one and only good thing I remember about There Will Be Blood.)
@Andrzej I share one of your interests, so I wondered if, as I did, you initially had "rappel" in 20 across.
Everything a Thursday puzzle should be.
I usually have to remind myself on Thursdays that throwing my computer out the window would only make me feel better for a few minutes, and it would make it a lot harder to do the Friday puzzle. Today, though, I got the theme right away and (for the first time ever) solved those clues first. I feel so accomplished! I finished a Thursday puzzle and didn't swear once! If I can just stay in the zone, I should be able to eradicate the blackberry vines from my yard by lunch, clean out the basement by dinner, and solve global warming by bedtime. I am on a ROLL, folks.
@Bee Winberg Make sure the window is open first 😄
@Deb Amlen From the column: “Maybe you knew about BAIDU. Maybe you’ve even used it, if you read Mandarin.” I knew about it, having lived in Hong Kong for seven years, but I didn’t use it. My friends there use it, so this was a gimme for me. But I write here now to point out that Mandarin is a spoken dialect, not a written language. It’s the “official” dialect of mainland China, though there are also many other local dialects. Cantonese is used in Hong Kong and in parts of nearby Guangdong province. Mandarin is also referred to as Putonghua (“common language”). The written language is just called Chinese although the mainland uses a “simplified” form whereas HK and Taiwan use “traditional” Chinese. It’s not phonetic so the written character offers no clue to pronunciation in any dialect. But far-flung Chinese can read each other’s writing though they may not understand a word spoken by the other. Mark
@Mark Cousins I always got a kick out of watching my Chinese and Japanese colleagues writing characters on their palms to clarify what they were saying.
@Mark Cousins Thank you. This is why I enjoy the crossword forum - learning new things from the other posters. Not really that interested in how fast others solve.
Fantastic puzzle! I've been doing these for a while but this is my first time completing a Thursday without peeking at the help column. The theme doesn't feel gimmicky and was really satisfying to figure out. Not too many US-specific references, which definitely helped this non-native English speaker (although it took me an embarrassingly long time to get ETOILE, so I really shouldn't use that as an excuse). I usually skip Fridays and Saturdays, but with this newfound (inflated, no doubt) sense of confidence, I might give them a go this week!
@J.P. Congratulations! Crossword puzzles really are something in which practice makes a big difference. Keep at it and you’ll be knocking out Friday and Saturday puzzles in no time.
@J.P. " 'Can't' never could; 'won't' never would." Go on! Give it a try! It used to take me all week to get some of the Sunday NYT puzzles.
@J.P. Go for it! Even if you don’t succeed at first, you’ll triumph eventually. I have so much respect for people who solve puzzles in languages other than their first. I speak passable German and had 4 years of high school French a lifetime ago, but I would have no hope of solving even an easy puzzle in either of those languages.
This is my favorite Thursday puzzle of the year! I love the cleverness of the theme and difficulty level of the construction. I was tempted to look up the spelling of 7D, but just kept working the puzzle. I made educated guesses about stuff I didn’t know and managed to solve it without lookups just a slight bit over my average time. The NE corner almost did me in with 10D and 12D (which I didn’t know), but I finally thought of TOKE (16A)! I also didn’t know 14A in the NW corner, but managed to get it on the crossings. What a satisfying solve! I have a four-day streak going!
@Cherry So similar to my solve! I was itching to look up the spelling of 7D, especially when I had only a few blanks left. I was so impatient! But managed to make myself wait, lol. On a similar note, I'm getting better at putting in educated guesses and trusting my instincts with them. Especially when the guess is crosswordese (23A), or a word often implicated in clever wordplay (1A)! For 14A, I knew I'd know it when I saw it because it had been in the news at one point a while back, but it took all the crosses to get it. (Didn't help I was embarrassingly at a loss about the penny-! Though I didn't think it was Ike...)
The line uttered by the cartoon character in 64A (ELMER) is of course from the classic Warner Bros short "What's Opera, Doc." It was top of mind for me, as there was a performance of "Bugs Bunny at the Symphony" at the Hollywood Bowl last weekend, and I was in attendance (along with 10,000+ other people), and "What's Opera, Doc" concluded the show. As the conductor said, it's a great way to hear 18 hours of Wagnerian opera reduced to 6'47". It was also the first cartoon short to be inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Here's the cartoon in its entirety: - <a href="https://archive.org/details/whats-opera-doc_202210" target="_blank">https://archive.org/details/whats-opera-doc_202210</a>
A bit like peeling an onion. Layers and layers to go through shedding a few tears along the way. But cooked gently it turned out to be sweet and delicious.
I feel kind of bad that I solved this without having any idea how the theme worked. That was super cool. On the plus side, I did spell “matryoshka” right on my first try.
@JamieMy experience exactly. Once I finished I had to come here to learn what the theme was :D
Delightful theme. Being obsessed with Bracket City lately I figured out the (somewhat similarish) theme right off the bat and could get the answers without much trouble. I grew up with Ukrainian immigrant grandparents so knew the revealer right away too, having spent my childhood (ok…and adulthood) playing with many a nesting doll. Having the five long theme answers in my first pass greatly helped the rest of my solve and I finished rather quickly for a Wednesday but the process didn’t feel too easy and definitely wasn’t boring. Really, really liked this one!!
@Jessica doh! *Thursday! That’s what I get for solving crosswords the night before!
@Jessica Good to see playing Bracket City helped you out just like it did me! I knew the name in my head of what the dolls were called... now spelling it correctly was a whole DIFFERENT issue!
@Jessica yeah - surprised not to see more mentions of Bracket City here today! Wonder if The Atlantic's site has a comments section for their games? I'd like to see if anyone there noticed the family resemblance. 🙂
I really enjoyed this one, a highly impressive piece of construction
What a wonderful puzzle! I didn't mind having my brain twisted into a pretzel to start with...it's kinda cool to find out that there ARE new things under the sun. Personally, I'm fond of parenthetical phrases, although (ahem, Sam) one could carry it a bit too far... I have just one tiny "compact wooden figure" surviving from my Russische Holzpuppe... (the kind with the multiple twisted spellings.) It resides with other wee keepsakes in a printer's drawer hung on the wall. (If you move alot, you learn that anything of size isn't going to survive; "three moves equal one fire," the saying goes.)
@Mean Old Lady have you played bracket city on the atlantic yet? nesting phrases galore!
Just wow. My head hurts from even attempting to understand how a human brain can construct a puzzle like this. OR WAS IT AI??? JK. Great job, Sam Brody . . . and how kind of you to offer to mentor new constructors. Excellent Thursday adventure.
@AudreyLM I just asked Google Gemini to find eleven- and twelve-letter examples in this format, and it failed, even when I told it that it could use proper nouns, contractions, and abbreviations. It said it was "exceedingly difficult" to find any examples and seemed impressed when I suggested the examples from this puzzle. "Well done!" I also told Gemini that this was the theme of today's NYT crossword, relating these words to matryoshka dolls, and it said this was a "fantastic observation" and a "perfect connection" between the two concepts. When I pointed out that the puzzle was created by a human, it said that "the human demonstrated a unique form of creativity and intuition that, at present, is beyond what AI can consistently replicate in puzzle creation."
The nested clues seemed very easy (even easier with the Russian dolls clue...). And no super obscure words or overly convoluted clues. Got it in record time (for me; for a Thursday), with no need to come here or to Google, and no groaning or swearing. But , it was enjoyable - nice to have an approachable Thursday puzzle :).
@K BAIDU and HAKE were new to me, and ETOILE is not in my French vocabulary, but all gettable with crosses.
If I'm going to gripe about annoying themes (and you know I am), I've got to praise the enjoyable ones. Clever, fun, and helpful toward solving. I was able to get this at one sitting. Nice job, Sam Brody.
I've been solving daily for almost two years (709 day streak, to be exact!) and this is one of my favorite puzzles to date. Just a delight, and so so clever. Bravo, Sam! 👏👏👏 Also, I was watching Jeopardy with my mother-in-law last night, and the wordplay clues came much quicker to me than they used to. I 100% credit crosswords for that improvement.
@Angela That's an amazing streak! Mine topped out at 404 during the pandemic (sounds like an error message) and I will one day go back to daily solving. Loved today's puzzle theme too. Must remember the analogy to the dolls when I'm teaching nested 'for' loops in computation.
I recently bought a dinner kit online and a main foodstuff in it was hake. Extra fun to find what would otherwise been a totally unknown word in the puzzle.
@kilaueabart If that had happened to me, I would have done did this puzzle... ...as it is, this is such a cool demonstration of what tiny, tiny factors puzzle difficulty depends on.
@kilaueabart Serendipity! Granddaughter asked me yesterday for my favorite word and after a bit of thought (favorite concept [love or justice] or just neatest word?), I came up with that one. And then had to come up with definition, examples and derivation. Brought back happy [but fuzzy] memories of my mother doing the same for me. Some book about the prince(s) of a mythical kingdom called Serendip, right?
Amazing construction, Sam Brody! I guessed the theme from the clues early on, but I couldn’t quite work out the answers until I had way too many crosses. Felt like it took me forever to get the correct spelling on the revealer. I couldn’t wait to read the comments on this little gem. The drama department always sends at least a few representatives, but I’m happy to see that the majority found it as clever and fun as I did.
Brilliant construction and exactly the right degree of difficulty. The only thing I wish had been included would have been a clue solving to Natasha Lyonne, star of the wonderful steaming series (at least in Season 1) Russian Doll.
@David Blatt As I recall, that series had some steam all the way through.
Dang but if REN and MYST didn't have me feeling like I'm riding the TIMEMACHINES back to my childhood
Love this theme! It’s “Cloud Atlas” in puzzle form. In trying (not very hard) to find some other matryoshkas, I decided instead you could make your own. Take three four-letter words, say ALAN, STEM, RUSH. Nest them, and voilà: ALSTRUSHEMAN your own artisanal matryoshka. It *could* mean something, right? Other creations? Let’s hear them!
Incredible theme that I did not even begin to grasp until well after I completed the puzzle
@Crab Hey!! Fellow Saskie here. Repping the prairie solvers! 🌾🌾
@Crab Par for the course for me. I’d love to know how many people just ignore the Thursday themes unless they get stuck elsewhere.