"Do you argue about the best Pokémon often?" "No, I kind of Pikachus my battles." (I bet they're off to the shopping center: gotta catch a mall!)
@Mike Is a male sloth (or male slow loris) a Pokey-man? Asking for a friend.
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Sub category (4)(4) 2. Top tier (5) 3. Ones who are out of cite, in brief? (2)(2) 4. Congressional record? (3)(4) 5. Assist, as a lifter (4) FOOT LONG ATTIC ET AL SEX TAPE ABET
@Lewis Good choices, as always. I also thought the clue for EMOTIONAL was quite clever [Tearing up or breaking down]. My first thought was of ripping rather than crying.
@Lewis So nice to have you back! I hope you had a good time away!!
What a perfect Monday puzzle! Pleasantly easy with a fun, non-groany theme. Kudos to the constructors 👍🏾. I especially enjoyed the juxtaposition, of sorts, of the actress and president in the clue for ADAMS. I'm more familiar with her than him 😂. Btw, does anybody else Rich KatZ would be a great rapper name? 🤣 I learned the word SCABS very recently, 2 or 3 years ago, playing Disco Elysium - one of the best video games I have ever experienced. The writing in it is mindbogglingly good: for what is actually quite a small game, the writers created a whole new world, with fascinating characters, a history, economy, and society, all described in some of the most intelligently sophiaticated and complex English I have ever heard or read. In fact, the English of Disco Elysium is so hard, a certain Polish gamers' community was reluctant to believe I was able to understand it - apparently I was the only one among them who could: all the rest played with the Polish translations enabled. NEWT I learned, obviously, from the local witch, who turned me into one. I got better though.
@Andrzej I'm just so glad you got betta!! I was turned into a newt once but I never did get better... Happily, my husband decided to stay with me. Our vows didn't explicitly state being turned into a newt, but he's just that great of a guy.
Flat-bottomed boats you make the rockin' world go 'round!
I know bragging is bad but...today marked the 15th day of my streak, my best ever. Based upon past performance, I should hit at least 17 days. Nothing compared to the mavens on here but nobody else in my life would really care about this achievement so you guys are stuck with it. Thanks .
@Allen Good on ya', mate! We all care about it! My really honest streaks rarely get too far beyond a week or so.
@Allen It's not bragging, it's celebrating! And celebrating is always a good thing! Congrats to you!!
By the numbers: ONE – PuzzPair© in the cross of BUTT and TUSH. TWO – words that sound like letters (BEE, I SEE). Also, rare-in-crosswords five-letter semordnilaps (ENOLA, PITON). Also, that pair of abutting flat-bottomed boats (PUNT, BARGE). THREE – Theme answers (TOUCHDOWN PASSES, AIRPORT SHUTTLES, SPELLING ERRORS) that are appearing in the Times puzzle for the first time in its 80+ years. “No,” you object, “They are all plurals. Surely the singulars have been used before.” And you would be wrong. FOUR – Distinctly different meanings of “catch” in the theme. Impressive. Also, the number of points TSAR gets in Scrabble, while its other spelling gets 15. This was a stellar Monday puzzle with its terrific theme, and with any possible no-knows easily crossed. This could make doing crosswords to a newer solver quite catchy, as it were. Thank you, Katy and Rich for starting the week with spark, and congratulations, Katy, on your NYT debut!
Normal easiness for Monday, but I appreciated the clues that went all the way across the grid.
I liked them too, but entries in the grid are not clues.
I think this may be the last post concerning the mother deer and her fawn that have been stopping by in our back yard. We set up a cam to record them when we're not here, and one day the mother actually came up on the back deck, snooping around. A few days later, I noticed something on the railing for that deck. I went out to see what it was, and it was a rock, seemingly carefully placed on the railing in the most likely spot to be seen The rock was interesting, a lot of quartz (I think), kind of pretty. Not just an everyday rock. I am loving the idea that the mother deer left it for us to thank us for the use of our back yard. Obviously I know that's not the case, but I prefer to believe that over the many more likely possibilities.
@Francis Please believe!! If you can't, I will believe for you!! Stranger things have happened!! ❤️
@Francis Btw, how are your pepper plants?
@Francis I love this story. And I welcome further updates, should you wish to share them. What will you do with the quartz?
13A's clue is incorrect. Google.com is rightly a URI; <a href="https://google.com" target="_blank">https://google.com</a> is a URL (and a URI). Without the protocol, we cannot call it a URL.
@Thomas If we're being pedantic then without the scheme it is neither a URI nor URL. But in common parlance a domain name is a URL.
@Thomas I came here to see whether anyone else had commented on that. Yep, Google.com is just a domain name. I realize that today, if you just type the domain name, today's web browsers will fill in the necessary information (https://) to locate that site, but the fact remains that the domain name itself is not a URL.
@Thomas You are correct that google.com is not a URL. However, it's not a URI, either. Both a URL and a URI must have a scheme (such as "https"). It would be correct to say that it's a domain name. The clue should be: <a href="https://google.com" target="_blank">https://google.com</a>, e.g. I'm also not sure that I agree with the reply that a URL includes a bare domain name in common parlance; "URL" is a technical term with a specific meaning, as opposed to a more generic term like "web address".
Well that was a quick fun one for me, who is otherwise in a rather foul mood for a very specific reason that occurred after an otherwise very lovely day. I don't need to go into it except to say that I'm grateful for the puzzle! I am always grateful for these puzzles, and I'm always grateful for you fine folk! ❤️ I'm less grateful for the mosquitoes, who keep trying to bite me out here on our gorgeous garden balcony. It's probably not gorgeous by most people's standards, certainly not magazine type standards, but there are lots of plants and life and I love it so much!! Especially my maroon and gold marigolds. Go Gophers!! Currently, there's also a martini and a bunch of anti-mosquito candles out here, so things are improving. Hehehe! 💛❤️💛
@HeathieJ Be brave, HeathieJ 🫂 Your garden sounds amazing, exactly like something I would love ❤️ My mother wanted a magazine-type garden, with great lawns, neatly planted flowers, trimmed shrubs. Since she died, my father and I have been implementing environmentally-positive policy there, though. Dad stopped mowing the lawn. Within months it transformed into the most beautiful meadow, full of flowers, abuzz with bees. It warms our hearts to think how thousands of creatures are benefitting from it. Also, water retention has improved greatly - the old garden required regular watering. The new one needs no watering at all. My beloved dog resting forever under all that life and beauty gives me peace. 🏵️🌿🌾☘️🌼🪴🌿🌱☘️🌹🌷🌿
@HeathieJ I replied to you but at the time of my posting this, the reply is hidden by the time stamp bug.
Fun Monday and a pretty impressive piece of construction with all of those long answers. A couple of the theme answers actually came to me with no crosses and the others worked out quite smoothly. And of course the reveal was the last thing I got - just a nice touch. And... no big deal but will just note that MIA is more than just 'an army absence.' Still a couple of guys from my company in Vietnam that remain MIA. Can't imagine what that's like for those families. And of course a puzzle find today. I'll put that in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened - a Monday from January 14, 2002 by Michael Shteyman. Never seen another one quite like this. Three 15 letter theme answers. Here are those clues and answers: "Response to a vet, maybe" GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR "Quiet, please!" SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH "Hive output?" BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Pretty impressive to work out 14 crossing down answers for all the Z's in that last answer. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/14/2002&g=46&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/14/2002&g=46&d=A</a> ...
@Rich in Atlanta, I agree about MIA. I was surprised at how casually that term was used here. It means so much more than just “an Army absence “.
I’m not here to flex my BICEP or correct a URL, nor to point out the hilarious rudeness of the word SPUNK to any Brit with an ounce of impishness, and not even to whinge about the excluding Americanisms (Heinie /TUSH?). I simply wish to celebrate the word PUNT. Does any other rarely-used word have so many meanings? I’ve always loved it for this reason. Without looking it up, i am aware of these definitions: A kick A bet A flat-bottomed boat The bottom of a champagne bottle An Irish pound Are there any more?
@Petrol Yes.. an act of procrastination
@Petrol You've only examined the noun usages; it's also a verb.
SPUNK fnarr fnarr. Ok, now I got that silliness out of my system: a perfect Monday puzzle. Straightforward but not boring with a well thought out theme. What’s not to like?
Fun to see the spanners on a Monday puzzle.
A fine Monday puzzle with a pleasantly simple theme. Can't help but feeling it's already been a long time since THE EVENING NEWS was a must-catch offering. Most of the connotations of SCABS are somewhat unpleasant, but when applied to people as in the clue the term seems borderline derogatory. Was a bit surprised to see that one. Of all the entries, I think I spent the most time unscrambling AISLE. Took me much too long to see ELIAS.
@Xword Junkie SCABS as applied to people who cross the picket lines, is *supposed* to be derogatory. They're breaking solidarity with their co-workers.
@Xword Junkie You're early today, my friend. I hope you're getting enough sleep. I found today "meh" -- no struggles, nothing that jumps out as especially interesting -- but it seems unnecessarily harsh to criticize a Monday puzzle. I agree with you on THE NEWS; hardly a "must catch". These days it feels more like, "must avoid".
@Xword Junkie Agreed. Scabs with this usage is a slap in the face to relief workers who come into healthcare settings during a strike to continue to care for sick and dying patients who have essentially been abandoned by those who vowed to treat them. These people don’t deserve to be slammed in a NYT puzzle in this way. These puzzles are supposed to be fun.
For our international solvers and those Americans not into sportsball, you might have had a little trouble with the crossing of 16A/18D, since both are about American football. A TOUCHDOWN is scored by carrying the ball over your opponents' goal line or catching it (generally via a THROW by the quarterback) in their end zone. It's the highest-scoring play in the sport, good for six points, with an opportunity to kick an extra point or run a play for two points. (In most situations, teams opt for the single point because it's a near certainty.) A PUNT is a play in which the team on offense concedes possession to the defense by kicking them the ball. This usually happens on fourth down, which is the last of four chances to gain ten yards. At the beginning of each play, the down and distance needed for the next first down is given in the format of these examples: 1st and 10 (normal starting situation), 2nd and 5 (after one play that gains five yards), 3rd and 2 (after a second play that gains another three yards), 4th and 2 (after a third play with no gain). Upon reaching fourth down, the offense can run another offensive play, but if they don't pick up the required yardage, the other team gets the ball at that spot. Usually, the offense will choose to PUNT the ball downfield, especially if the distance to go is long ("4th and long"); the opposition still will gain possession, but this time much farther down the field.
@Steve L Lost me there but I know somehow that "punt" is like "put off and delay.'
@Steve L Wonderful explanation! And still I don't understand a word nor a thing about American football. Much to my father's chagrin, die-hard fan that he is, I watch only the Super Bowl, paying attention to the score and never the game. But I do appreciate the lengths to which you went to explain. Really amazing!
@Steve L I just thought, whew, at least it's not baseball. 😄
@Steve L Nice explanation. I once was told by PhysicsDaughter: "Mom, I think if you would just learn the basics, you would enjoy football!" Now, why would she want to ruin my Pet Hate? How else am I to exercise (eye rolling, head shaking, ear-covering) She and DHubby remain staunch Football Buddies. If not together, they phone one another After. Every. Play.
@Steve L When I started 9th grade we had a brand-new high school in our city -- but it wasn't quite finished. No gym or locker rooms for the first semester. What to do for that PE hour? Some brilliant person decided to teach the girls the rules of football! It's been one of the most useful classes I ever had!
I zipped through the solve, hence didn't CATCH the nuance of each theme entry using a different definition of the word "catch" (thank you, Sam!) Now I'm even more sold on this puzzle. This is really a perfect Monday for newbies to CATCH the crossword bug. Thank you, Rich and Katy for a great start to the weekend. Please come back soon! P.S. Here's The Cure with a very cute "Catch" ("You know I used to try to catch her, but never even caught her name...")
Great start to the *weekend*??? Ha! I must be on another planet.
Wow, I never linked the song... <a href="https://youtu.be/JWPnYXldfY8?si=dUP3OM2l_uz1cxyx" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/JWPnYXldfY8?si=dUP3OM2l_uz1cxyx</a>
First time I managed to complete a solve with just the down clues. I have been trying for a few months on Mon and Tues but have always come up short before
@James Congrats. I always try Mondays that way and sometimes succeed. The SW defeated me today.
@James I tried that for a while today. But I have a question. Do you look at the acrosses without filling them in to get a letter or two?
Did anyone have any idea about what the themers had in common? I love it when a revealer surprises me like that. One of my favorite John Sayles movies, "Matewan", concerns labor organizing about a century ago. I wish more people knew who John Sayles is. The Mini puzzle has gotten way too hard; it seems like forever since I got a gold star!
@ad absurdum The Mini has gold stars? I just checked the archive, and it's blue all the way back as far as I've been doing them (nearly a year). I think gold stars are only for the main crossword (indicating it's part of a streak, yes?) and not for the mini, which doesn't track streaks?
Tony, ad absurdum is aptly self-named.
@ad absurdum had no idea. On Mondays I solve bottom up on the downs only…then crosses from the top down. So I didn’t get to the revealed until after I’d filled in the other theme entries. Not a big Pokeman fan but I’d heard the phrase before. Good AHA moment!
@ad absurdum They’re all things that folks make an effort to catch!
@ad absurdum - Also a Sayles fan here. I just noticed that Matewan is about to expire on my DVR, so I will be watching in within the next week. One of my favorite Sayles movies is Lone Star -- have you seen it? I haven't seen it in several years, but I think it's due for a re-watch. I'd like to see if it holds up, given current events.
@Captain Q I'm a fan of Lone Star, too.
A shot across the bows from Sam Corbin ? “May it brace us all for the uncertainty of the solving week ahead.” It was a pleasant puzzle. Thanks to the constructors and congratulations on your NYT debut. An achievement for anyone.
SCABS could have been clued better.. great little monday though!
@cameron The clue is an exact dictionary definition. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scab" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scab</a> I can't see what your nit is, except that maybe you don't know that definition.
@cameron I don't think @Steve L was trying to be rude, but his terseness can appear so, especially in a format where you can't hear tone of voice. @Xword Junkie also complained about SCABS, but, like Steve L, I don't see the problem. Do you find it too pro-Union?
I’ll be on the lookout for more “catchy” puzzles from this pair of collaborators. A delightful Monday with charming spammers for the theme!
Amy and John Quincy are quite the ADAMS odd couple, but whatever.
Congrats on the NYT debut Katy Steinmetz. Breezy fun. I was going to talk about Lou Grant's opinion of people with SPUNK but see Steve L just beat me to it (see below). Was the first thing I though of.
@John Carson "Our Sal she am a SPUNKy gal, sing polly-wolly-doodle all the day;...with curly eyes and laughing hair, ..sing Polly-wolly-doodle all the day!" That folk song is taking up space in my brain where I need to store other, more important, stuff!
50A contains only one spelling error. Their, fore, and hear are usage errors but are spelled correctly. Only sentance is a spelling error.
@Carole S So that makes two of us....
@Carole S Surely they are spelling errors for the intended usages?
Using the wrong spelling of a homophone is not a spelling error? Fine. There are no longer any typos because there are no longer any typographers.
Let me be the 150th to point out that 50A is in ERROR. Only "sentance" is a misspelled word. The others--homonyms (or as some call them, homophones) --are spelled correctly but are not the right (intended) words. Just for kicks: what's the most interesting/hilarious/astounding misspelling you've ever encountered? My vote goes to PEACH'S FOR SALE. Oh, the puzzle. Starting with a rock group and ending with "celebrity gossip site" and Pokémon.... Thank goodness it's Monday and the Crosses were easy, because Katy and Rich were striking at my weakest areas. Spelling story: One of my HS Special Ed students asked, "How do you spell ANUF?" Of course I gave him "E-N-O-U-G-H," and he threw a fit. He stamped his feet and flung his arms about, yelling, "ANUF! ANUF! I want to spell ANUF!" He may have called me "an old bag," which was hilarious, as I was in my Twenties. It was a doozy of a tantrum. I would SO have loved to say, "You blithering idiot," but had to stay professional. I don't know what became of Mike H., but I'd guess prison; he was in school by court order only until he turned 16.....and it was, indeed, a *happy birthday* for the whole class.
@Mean Old Lady Your post makes me very sad. When I was part of a special services support group for parents of special ed kids, part of my role was talking to parents whose children had just been identified. Most of them were being told by their mothers-in-law, who inevitably had at some point worked in a school system, not to let their kids be "labelled." And I would say, which label would you rather they had? LD or JD? Stupid or learning disabled? Your MikeH probably had a sad back story and a school district that tossed him in a group setting with little or no one-to-one attention. And no follow-up at home. This is not criticism on the classroom teacher, it's for the system he went through before he ever got to middle school, or even second grade.
@Mean Old Lady I hope a somewhat gentler comment. You were there; I wasn't. But my husband says he felt that angry about the idiocies of English spelling at that age too. He managed his anger (credit to supportive family plus having survived parochial elementary school) and went on to an ABD, successful career in tech and happy marriage (to MOI!). And he still can't spell.
One of the easiest Monday puzzles I've solved. (But I don't find "Gossip" a good clue for GAB, which to me means nothing more than talk.)
On the easy side, even for a Monday. Finished in 4m42s. Thought it odd to clue MIA with something as banal as “army absence” (which would be an apt clue for AWOL perhaps). I’m pretty sure the loved ones of those considered Missing In Action think of it as something more than a mere “absence”. Nor did I love SLUSH clued as “watery snow”. I suppose it’s not entirely incorrect but “half-melted snow” would be better.
As long as a clue for MIA isn't a joke, I think it's okay. And absence shouldn't clue AWOL (Absent...).
@Byron I mentioned earlier that there were several MIA from my company in Vietnam, and we all knew what that almost certainly meant. And... this led me to do another answer history look-up and... I was a bit surprised at the clues. PURPLEHEART Clues: "Military medal" "Washington's profile is on it" "Military hero's award" "Vet's treasure" "Service award" And a few others, but NONE of them in away even hinted at what a Purple Heart is a medal for. Oh... and I've got two of them. ...
@Byron agreed. Tone deaf clueing and editing.
My fastest time in the past year by nearly a half minute. (About as long as your average pop song.)
Steve, Glad you're feeling better.
TIL bicep is a colloquialism. What the muscle is actually called beats me
@Steven M. I had the same thought, the "informally" there definitely threw me.
@Steven M. Without the "colloquialism," we'd have a dozen commenters pointing out that the correct singular form of that muscle is "biceps."
@Steven M. The full name is biceps brachii, and there are 2 sets, short head and long head. So "biceps" is the colloquialism.
@Steven M. I noted that, too. I thought just maybe in the colloquial since there is a huge number of muscles other than the biceps which go into a pull up.
@Steven M. Not only are there the biceps brachii, commonly identified as “biceps”, there are also biceps femoris, yes in your legs.
@Steven M. P.S. …so “biceps” referring to the former is not colloquial but rather, as in the clue, informal, being imprecise.
This one was pretty easy even for a Monday one, got it in 6:57, my PR is 6:40. Not often you get full width clues that you can get instantly without any cross clues.
I think I may be the only one who found this slightly harder than usual for Monday. Looking at you American football, of course, and initialisms. Also I don't know anything about Pokemon, really nothing. Having 'MALL' at the end didn't help! Thanks again to Steve for explaining. I should know PUNT by now. We have a comedian called Steve Punt, maybe I'll use that. I won't comment on BrEnglish SPUNK.
@Jane Wheelaghan And to think that your Punt could’ve been the Flat Bottom Boat but for one letter. It was my first thought.
@Jane Wheelaghan Re: SPUNK The Mary Tyler Moore Show was a groundbreaking sitcom in the 70s because it depicted the life of a single woman in a city making it on her own. While it was not the first of its kind, it was very successful, ran seven years, and spawned three spinoffs. The very first episode got the public's attention, in great part because of Mary's interview with her soon-to-be boss, Lou Grant. Here's the most pertinent exchange: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cHSYhafCQM" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cHSYhafCQM</a> And for more context, the previous exchange takes place just after the three-minute mark in this longer clip: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6WtXwhWqZw" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6WtXwhWqZw</a> We know what SPUNK means in the UK (it can mean it here, too, in the right context), but in these clips you see how it's usually used.
@Jane Wheelaghan I'd be interested in seeing an historical etymology of SPUNK and see how and why its meaning has changed. I think it's pretty interesting in general to look at the etymology of slang terms. Anyone want to examine JAZZ?
These Monday puzzles get easier and easier. My 23 year old grandson and his mother agree. Why oh why are the editors dumbing them down?
@Skeptical1 Seriously... Why do there always have to be posts like this on Monday? The very point of Mondays is for them to be easy. If easy Mondays were not a thing, I would never have been able to get into doing these puzzles, at all. These days, after the usually quite hard weekend puzzles, I enjoy Monday as a day to relax in Crosslandia. There is nothing wrong with that, either. Please consider restricting the exclusionary elitism to later in the week.
Whether or not all Mondays have gotten easier recently, this one seems to have been easier than other recent ones. 🌎 Global Stats Difficulty Easy Median Solve Time 4:20 Median Solver 22% faster ⚡92% of users solved faster than their Monday average. 57% solved much faster (>20%) than their Monday average. 🐢8% of users solved slower than their Monday average. 2% solved much slower (>20%) than their Monday average.
@Barry Ancona I agree with @Skeptical1 that today felt easy, so it's not surprising that the stats back that up. Whether that's something to complain about? It is Monday, after all; I'm not expecting a challenge. But is S1 right that Mondays in general are trending easier? Is someone doing statistical analysis that could support a claim like that.
I wish there were separate speed records for puzzles completed on the desktop versus the phone. I’m limited by my clumsy thumbs on the phone; otherwise I think I would have been close to a record today. Also, there was only one spelling error. The other three were clearly caused by autocorrect guessing the wrong word!
Dave Munger, In the deluxe app, I hear there are separate stats for Epee only (no fingers allowed), Mixed Doubles, the Team Event, and just since last month, the Coxless Eights. That may only be GAB, though. ;)
Absolutely LOVED this puzzle, y’all! The care and detail and fun twists! I had never cared to learn about Pokémon until our sixth grandchild started playing so that was fun. And the theme really appealed to my retired teacher sensibilities! (Especially 50 across) Thank you, Puzzle Makers!
@Lauree That was my experience too, except for the Pokémon entry. Not sure if my grandkids did it (is it still a thing?), but I didn’t absorb any of it if that did. I taught English too and also loved 50A.
Your biceps are not used in a pull up. It should be lats or traps. Bicep would be more appropriate for a chin up.
@Patrick If you are doing an underhanded pull-up, you absolutely use your biceps. I just did.
@Patrick OK, you go over to that gorilla lifting his body weight with one arm, and tell him he's working his biceps with a one-armed chin-up, and not his bicep with a pull-up. (In fact, the gorilla, and I, would probably agree with you. <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/pull-up-vs-chin-up#is-one-better" target="_blank">https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/pull-up-vs-chin-up#is-one-better</a>)
Wonderful Monday puzzle, and wonderful debut for the constructing team. It was never frustrating but was also full of surprise and delight. Great start to the week. I had to correct one error to get the gold star, as I had NSa at 35D until I saw my mistake at 43A. Wishing you all a safe week.
Bonus themer to CATCH: Steelhead TROUT, my favorite gamefish and near obsession. While steelhead are derived from rainbow trout and share the same biologic name (Oncorynchus mykiss), they have adapted to the same life cycle as salmon, spawning in fresh water rivers of the Pacific and spending a year or two there before migrating as 6" smolts to the ocean. Most spend two or three years feeding and growing to 6-8 pounds and then return to their natal river to repeat the cycle. Unlike Pacific salmon which die after spawning, around 15% can survive the spawn and then go back to the ocean for another cycle. Some even spawn 3-4 times, coming back progressively larger, which make them an attractive gamefish. Most anglers realize that these fish are "too valuable to catch only once" and so practice catch-and-release. Although hatchery steelhead are delicious, you should never buy wild steelhead as they are increasingly endangered. The four H's (lost Habitat, over-Harvest, Hydropower dams and Hatchery fish which compete with wild fish) have lead to declines in numbers. Farmed steelhead and salmon are also not as sustainable as some would lead you to believe, because of the immense damage the fish farms do to the estuaries and their inhabitants where the net pen farms are anchored. Obviously I liked the puzzle! I would have had a PB Monday but I had NSA and SAABS which took me 4 minutes to sort out. My son was a big fan of Pokemon so the themer was a gimme.
Excellent offering....just the thing for crossword newbies...as it should be for Mondays. Thanks Katy and Rich!!
An enjoyable few minutes. We've seen Rich a few times, it's nice that he brought you along for the ride, Katy. Nice debut and thanks!
@JayTee While I’m sure this was meant to be complimentary, I suspect Katy wasn’t just “along for the ride”, but a full and equal collaborator. Congrats to both Katy and Rich for an enjoyable puzzle.
This one was too easy… or maybe I was just WIRED? Either way, a Monday and overall PR (and a first-ever sub-3:00 solve).
@latx I typed the answers to this one in pretty much without pauses - it certainly was an easy one. It was just a few seconds over my PB, but that PB is 7:36! I don't know if I could get a sub-7:00 solve, not that I'm even aiming for it, but 3 minutes?! Do you solve longest-to-shortest answers? Do you look at the list for sure-fire answers and whack them in quickly? Or only arrow-key navigation? Genuinely interested in knowing how someone obviously has such a different approach for solving the same crosswords as I do every day!
@latx Amazing! Congratulations on new PB! I was under my average at 3:50 today, but I am still searching for that elusive sub-3' puzzle. My current Monday best is 3:03.
@latx A Monday can't be *too* easy. It being easy is the whole point. A challenging Monday puzzle would be an editing error. There have been a few of those, and I have never enjoyed them. My Monday PB is 6 minutes, exactly. Today I needed 22 seconds more.
@latx first sub 3 as well! I’ll take the W even if it did seem almost too easy
Almost two decades as an English teacher and it’s a Monday crossword that causes me to learn what a zero plural noun is. Well-played.
@Phil Where in the puzzle is there a zero plural? Or is it in the comments? I went back to look at both (well not all of the comments...) and I don't see what you are referring to. Just trying to learn as well.
@Phil color me confused. I can’t seem to find what you are referencing??? Please elaborate 🧐
BICEPs is both singular and plural, hence a "zero plural noun". BICEP doesn't really exist (except when it does), hence the need for the "informally" in the clue.
Did not know SCABS and had NSa instead of NSC, so was left wondering what SaABS could possibly have with picket lines 😂 Needed to check the column to figure it out finally! But a fairly breezy, fun puzzle otherwise.
Thanks, NYT, for adding the Midi crossword puzzle. I appreciate having a little more crossword fun without breaking into the archive.
Catchy puzzle! Thanks, Katy and Rich. No, I haven't read the comments to see how many other folks have made the same obvious pun. Like Sam, my favorite clue was 50A, "sentance". Now I need to GOBI useful.
I received an email today about the new midi crossword that apparently begins today. I used the link, found the puzzle, and solved it. But it’s nowhere to be seen on the Gameplay App. I tried refreshing the app, and seeing if there were any updates to no avail. What gives?
@Mary Seratt Apparently, it's a big secret. I can't find it anywhere on the NYT website through my browser. And we have not received any emails about it.
@Mary Seratt Would you or anyone else please copy and paste the email, including the link? I didn't get any such email and have no idea what this Midi is. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
#Everybodyshutup:-0 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc&list=RD8Gv0H-vPoDc&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc&list=RD8Gv0H-vPoDc&start_radio=1</a> (My favorite moment is at 2:42)
@Bill I loved that! Perfect for the pedantic among us LOL.
@Bill I am now and will always be so grateful that my time on earth coincided with Al Yankovic's. I gotta go listen to "You Don't Love Me Anymore".
MIA carries a lot more context and weight than "army absence." This clue was pretty tone deaf. How about ___ Farrow next time.
@TLC totally agree. A bit disrespectful to those that served.