Sorry for the shameless gloating but I completed a 1000 streak today and am feeling super thrilled about it - and I couldn't have asked for a better puzzle to hit this number. I genuinely look forward to the NYT crossword's release each day and am very grateful to this puzzle for keeping me sane especially during the early COVID years. I also owe a lot to the community here - even though I don't post that often, I always read the comments and often learn something new or insightful or at least get a chuckle out of it that makes my day and for that I'm very, very grateful.
@Rahul Congratulations on the streak!
@Rahul Very, very nice streak. Gloat as shamelessly as you wish.
@Rahul That’s quite an impressive streak and all the more because you had to get through today’s challenge. Fantastic job!
@Rahul Emus blocked my innocent congratulations. So, trying again... Congratulations! (I guess they assumed I was being sarcastic.)
@Rahul, Woohoo! You have every reason to gloat today! Congratulations!!! 🎉🎈🍾
@Rahul Your post made my day! 🙂 I too eagerly await each and every crossword, and credit the NYT suite of puzzles with keeping me sane and happy during trying times. Cheers on the streak! Keep on puzzling on~
@Rahul Why, yes, we are quite marvelous. Thanks you for noticing. 👇 Sarcasm again. Although I really do love this community, I would never be so in-your-face about it as I am...wait, is that a logical error of some kind?
@Rahul Congratulations on the streak! And thanks for sharing—it’s a grey and rainy day where I am, but your post brought the sun out!
@Rahul Yes, good on ya! And, yes, it is a great puzzle to hit 1000 with.
@Rahul Good work on that streak! Reflects much time and commitment. Thanks for posting your success. Usually, Thursday replies are a mixed bag of responses, as you probably know - so it's nice to see a post that's triumphant and positive!
@Rahul Congratulations on your impressive accomplishment! I also love our little crossword community for sharing its wisdom, humor and insights across the globe. Here's to our collective strength in solving solidarity!
@Rahul yay!!! This is awesome! Will you keep going or will you free yourself from the pressure and solve at your leisure?
@Rahul Lots of people have congratulated you, but speaking only for myself, which you know something about, everything isn't about you.
The most clever Thursday I’ve seen in a while. Speedy solve once the trick makes sense. Kudos to Jesse Goldberg. Well played.
I can live with the theme (maybe even enjoy it), but calling SETI a subj. is just a bridge too far.
@SamG That one was my only “oh my”. I am familiar with the acronym. But a subject? Was to enamored only doing downs. So it filled itself in. If you haven’t seen Contact starring Jodie foster. You’re welcome.
@SamG From the OED, it would appear that SETI can be regarded as a subject as well: U.S. 1976– Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (any of a number of NASA projects investigating the possibility of intelligent life in outer space). 1976 Drake was deeply involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, which astronomers refer to as SETI. New York Times Magazine 12 September 64/5Citation details for New York Times Magazine 1977 It seems clear to us that the SETI effort should be cast as a cooperative international endeavor. P. Morrison et al., Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (1979) i. 19Citation details for P. Morrison, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence 1988 Success of the SETI program depends heavily on the radio telescope at NASA's Tippinbilla complex. Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 20 November 4/1
@Neil Bellinson I know what SETI is (I was actually offered a research position in the program after my PhD). It is not a subject according to any definition of the word subject. It is however a (set of) research program(s), a loosely knit science organization, or a scientific endeavor. A clue like "Org. searching using telescopes" would be accurate. NYT Thursdays need to hold the bar high.
@SamG It’s not an academic subject, of course, but it is a topic of interest for some—which makes it a “subject” in the general meaning of that word. I think using [subj] in the clue was a fair bit of misdirection.
Ok, that was totally maddening and then totally fun! I love a puzzle that stimulates some unused corner of my brain and delivers a genuinely euphoric eureka moment. Bravo!
Wow. Impressed. Started with an extreme lack of progress at first. Got scared. Great puzzle.
meh - candidate for worst puzzle of the year
@Amitperhaps worst of the decade!
@Amit Agree. Meh, fun for the constructor, who gets paid. We pay for this.
@Amit, Ilka Skill issue. Put it in your calendar for three years hence, and practice until then. I bet you'll have a different opinion.
@Amit I’m pleasantly surprised to see that the mods approved your comment. We should feel free to opine honestly (and respectfully) in this forum. I’ve had comments that I considered far less “controversial” than yours scrubbed in the past.
@Amit I'm not very bright or even a native English speaker yet I completed this puzzle without any outside help in Tuesday/Wednesday time, enjoying it all the way. It really wasn't that difficult. The revealer clue (even without its solution) clearly indicated you have to pay attention to each down clue and how it relates to its answer. So I did just that and caught onto the theme in less than a minute.
@Amit the problem with this puzzle is that I didn’t even know that tricks like this were possible.
@Steve L Hard disagree with it being a skill issue. I finished in 11 minutes with no lookups. Too easy for a Thursday, and not a very clever theme that I got immediately on my first pass at the down entries. It is more maddening that the down entries were gibberish. I was ready to be amazed when the first 2 down entries formed real words, but it was downhill from there. This was lazy. It would have been the puzzle of the year of real words were used.
Ehhhhhhh. Cute, I guess. More tedious than clever.
Now THIS is a Thursday. How the hell did I figure this in out? And how the hell do you construct a puzzle like this? I beat my average, but during my first look through I thought it would take ages. Bravo to Jesse Goldberg!
Oh boy. How cute. Maybe tomorrow a crossword puzzle?
@R.J. Smith So you might say "you hated this until you still hated it"?
@R.J. Smith Didn't the words cross in yours?
@Teresa Actually, no, they didn't. Nonsensical gibberish crossed real words in mine, therefore making it NOT a crossword.
Is AGRA becoming the OREO of cities?
@The X-Phile AGRA has been an answer in 562 puzzles, while OREO has been an answer in 507 puzzles. But... ... Pre-Shortz OREO was always clued as "Mountain, Comb. form (or prefix)." And... OREO has been answer in 391 Shortz era puzzles, while AGRA was only in 186 Shortz era puzzles. I guess the cookie must have made OREO a bit more friendly entry. ....
@The X-Phile And I was thinking today that 'computer company' or some such, is a new kealoa. Acer or Asus? Have to wait for a down or two, if the first is an A.
@The X-Phile Or might ACCRA become the ERIE of Ghana?
A cute theme, which was fun to solve. But once the theme clicked (thanks to the revealer clue), filling in most of the Down answers was nigh-automatic, so the puzzle did not put up much resistance. Also, some of the clues seemed unnecessarily strange. SETI is not a subject; it's an organization. I don't think OGLE is related to greediness.
@Dan Agree on the SETI clue. Maybe it’s a subject as well as an organization but I only think of it as the latter
@Dan Although I'm not sure that it was ever abbreviated to "SETI" before the organization of that name was formed, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has been around as a subject of scientific study for decades longer than the organization.
[“Favorite Thursday puzzle of the year”] BULOUS It took me until the last two down clues for STRIDE and BESTED before I realized the trick. What a marvelous aha moment it was. Well done, Jesse! P.S. For non-Americans, TRIPLE A (26D) stands for Automobile Association of America.
@Anita Actually, American Automobile Association. (Otherwise the Canadian equivalent would be AAC, not CAA)
@Anita. Here these organisations tend to be State based so we have NRMA, RACV and others. And, no, I’m not going to spell them out.
@Anita thank you for your comment, even as an American I couldn’t figure out what TRIP LEA was and how it helped travelers!
@Anita Oh! And now I feel silly for looking up TRIP LEA after I completed the puzzle! That explains why I didn’t find anything…
"Did you read the book about milk?" "I just skimmed it." ("You couldn't read the whole thing? It was condensed!")
@Mike I think I read that book, but it's right on the edge of my mammary. (I don't know about the breast of you, but I think Mike is on fire lately.)
@Mike Only one co-punster? Tsk. Perhaps the rest are cow-ards.
@Mike Moo-ving right along, this pun has made me Thursday. (I think I'd butter stop before Ice-cream.)
10 minutes in and nothing makes sense. So, I check the Wordplay column.
Hi @Dan, And we’re happy to have you here!
@Dan kinda showed me how much I depend on the two directions to solve a puzzle. I had to read the column. 😀
@Dan i'm working on a puzzle with a fun new theme! only one of the words is real and the rest of the clues are non-sequiturs for gibberish answers. i had no idea crossword puzzle-making could be so easy if you take away the handicap of only using real words!
Phew! I managed to catch on to the trick pretty quickly and ended up racing through this puzzle, but it definitely required more brainpower and focus to get the job done. A great use of the creative freedom offered by Thursday!
Surprised by the hate for this puzzle! I thought it was a delight Utter confusion at first and then the moment it clicks and then the fun of solving the down entries once you know the trick. I was smiling as it all fell into place and that to me is good puzzle!
@Suzzzanne Clue it as “Difficult in the extreme”
@Suzzzanne, but DId you enjoy it? 🙂
@Jill DUBITABLY Hey this is like speaking ig-pay atin-lay! 👍🏻
Brilliant! Thursday "Puzzle of the Year" material. Loved it. Not a theme I've seen before, as far as I can recall. Got it with no assistance, but took almost 30 minutes. Many presidents have been born outside the continental U.S. For example, Michael Higgins, the current Irish president, was born in Limerick. It's a big world, after all. ;-)
@Xword Junkie Hahaha! You need to be a bit more Ameri-centric, eh?
@Xword Junkie For some reason that reminds me of a quote attributed to Yogi Berra. When told that a Jew had been elected Mayor of Dublin, he is said to have said "Only in America".
This is one of those gimmicky puzzles that's probably much more fun for the developer than for the user.
jp inframan, I trust you mean "for the developer than for you."
@jp inframan Once I realized how this puzzle worked, I switched to ONLY answering the Down clues. Because it was so fun.
A Modest Proposal This amazing Thursday puzzle is behaving like a Thursday puzzle. It has a trick to solve. Many of us look forward to this. For those who feel otherwise, may I suggest a deal? We won't complain every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday that the puzzles are too literal. We won't say 'so boring. Meh. What a slog. no tricks to solve.. don't make any more puzzles without a trick.' So you get 5 full days without hearing us complain. Can you reciprocate? If on the other 2 days, the constructor has managed an elegant, surprising experience, that gets different synapses firing while still tickling memory banks and logic circuits, can you try to appreciate the creativity and hard work? And recognize that people around the world are enjoying that moment of 'aha!!!'
@CB Yes CB, Thursdays are my favorite! Like a little weekly present that you get to open.
@CB Personally, I don't care if they complain...It's ok to not like a puzzle. What gets me is how small a world many of them must live in..."I don't like this so everyone else must not like it..."This clever creator must only be able to make one kind of puzzle"..."I dont know these answers so they must be trivia and not regular knowledge." Banish them all!! And if you read the fine print, often it seems to be "I started working on puzzles 6 months ago...and I just discovered the Times and now the Times must change for me" Truly...how small must the world someone lives in be to take such a limited view on life's experiences.
@CB I have yet to come across the supposed “elegance” people keep claiming are in these Thursday puzzles. What I find every week is a mottled mess.
@CB No deal. We pay the same subscription fee the “every puzzle is brilliant” crowd pays, and so we are entitled to post our feelings here, too.
@CB Except that this wasn't an elegant or surprising experience, and no aha moment. I live for the aha moments, but this was not it. I actually got the revealer with no crosses at all, and was hoping that the downs all made real words, which would have truly made it a masterpiece, IMO.
I had one of my best times ever on this puzzle. I figured this one out early, thanks to Deb’s occasional guidance past columns, how sometimes you have to look back to the CLUE for direction on how to make the answer make sense, not the GRID. Thanks Deb…;)
@Chris I had a very fast time, but didn’t grok looking carefully at the clues, just muscled my way through the downs trying to imagine what the first two letters were. I guess that’s why my kids call me stubborn!
You are very welcome, @Chris! Thanks for reading!
@Chris it took me double the average time because I didn't realize you weren't supposed to use the rebus...
@Chris Wonderful puzzle! Most fun I've had in awhile. I immediately picked up the general idea, but didn't realize exactly what it was until I solved the across clue indicating the theme. Still -- great times. More like this please!
Two surprises after going through the comments: 1) The amount and intensity of the vitriol. 2) That most of the displeasure was not, "Cute, but WAY too easy for a Thursday."
@Bill in Yokohama It's quite the weird situation. You are right that as a cross word puzzle it really was not difficult at all *unless* you didn't get the theme. And in that case it seems nearly impossible to me. If you did, including that the first two letters of the clue were the "ghost" letters of the answer, then it became fairly easy. I think there is something of a division that this puzzle was patently impossible, with others saying it was easy. I expect that owes to the meta-puzzle aspect of getting the theme.
@Bill in Yokohama Only real problem I had was an error somewhere in the puzzle (failed to get the successful completion indicators when the grid was filled). Normally in that situation, I scan the across and down answers to see which entries don’t appear to be actual words. With almost none of the down answers being real words, it took me a while to work out where the mistake was.
@Bill in Yokohama If you read the revealer correctly, it wasn’t very hard at all from that point forward. And clear, as well, that there’s no rebus. (My solve had rebuses at first, but a correct reading of the revealer steered me away from them.) However, there seems to be a lot of reading comprehension issues amongst solvers who then get indignant about their own failures.
I’ve been doing the NYT crossword puzzle daily for more than 50 years and have always enjoyed the challenge and delighted in the wordplay…today’s puzzle was easily the most awful I’ve encountered along the way. Not because of the challenge…but because two ‘themed’ entries and a lot of non-word down answers just don’t make a good puzzle
@ARD “I’ve been doing the NYT crossword puzzle daily for more than 50 years…today’s puzzle was easily the most awful I’ve encountered along the way.” Ok, you got me for a second — I was about to take this comment seriously and respond by noting how preposterously implausible a claim that is to anyone who has actually been doing the NYT crossword daily for at least a year or two. But then I re-read the comment, and ok, I get that it’s either dry self-parody or rage-bait (or perhaps: Barry bait).
@ARD I’m closing in on a 2,000 day streak, and I agree entirely. This is not a good puzzle.
One of the great Crosslandia moments is The Great Aha, the magnificent Riddlecrack. And sometimes, like today, it comes in the form of a rollercoaster moment, where you’ve been at the peak of struggle, like a rollercoaster slowly grinding up the huge hill, and then at the very top, where for a split second it sits still, the light bulb suddenly hits you, followed by the glorious and thrilling swoosh down. Where you go from “Wha?” to “Whee!”, from clawing to soaring. This puzzle was made for that, and you can see that it played out like that for many solvers, based on the comments. It sure did for me. Makes me grateful to be enmeshed in our marvelous pastime that can create thrilling rushes like this out of a box of letters. Kudos to Jesse for taking a game that Will Shortz devised for the 2025 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, and doing the remarkable grunt work of translating that idea into a flesh-and-blood puzzle. Kudos to Jesse, who in his notes generously credits Will for the idea. Thank you, Jesse (and Will), for bringing thrill into the box today!
@Lewis As always, super appreciative to read your words that so beautifully articulate what I am thinking!
this is an awesome puzzle, i do the puzzle every day and this is my first comment ever just to say this puzzle was super cool and satisfying to solve!! 10/10
Hated it until I loved it. I had 3 letter rebuses all along the tops until I realized the trick. Extremely clever and impressive construction.
Wow, that was amazing! I read the revealer clue when wandering around the grid. Got to “Stop’s opposite”, looked at the clue again and after grinning, entered (ST)ART. Then thought “seriously?” All the downs? Let’s see… and couldn’t stop till done. Felt like a maniac. Fast, but enjoyable.
First thoughts: What the heck is going on? It can't be a rebus, as nothing makes sense. What other tricks have I seen… Hmm, letters off the grid? Maybe, but that doesn't work for the downs lower in the puzzle. (Later…) Wait a minute… what's this clue for 52A? And what's the answer—AHA! Neat trick, and I haven't seen it before, so definitely Thursday worthy for me. I don't care that the down answers in the grid aren't complete words. It was a good head-scratcher for a while, and then it was pretty easy to finish after after seeing the revealer. Nice one, Jesse, you got me good for a while!
@JayTee Nice stream of stream-of-consciousness . Really fun, isn't it? I think that's what eventually wins over Thursday puzzles to new solvers who soldier on. That first taste of "sorting it out" is just delicious. And addictive. But most of us don't get that the first time.
ive only been addicted to the times crosswords for nine months or so but heres what i loved about this puzzle: whether you love or hate rebi and word splitting/sandwiching/doohickying, anagrams and the fifty other types of word frippery that appear on thursdays, here is the first such puzzle ive encountered whose solution entirely hinges on the trick. no prospect of working around or ignoring the trick in order to solve by crosses. all in. totally rad. more of these, please.
@Matt Yeah, I agree. I think a few people say they solved it without knowing the theme, but it would as least be enormously harder to do it without the theme. So it was kind of a magic key that made the puzzle into a pure crossword puzzle. I was certainly convinced I was done unless I got the trick, and because the trick affect so many squares, it was a challenge for me.
@Matt Emus are k'ing my a, tonight. Synopsis of what will appear in 13 hours: I agree. I don't think I've even seen a puzzle whose solution relied so completely on getting the theme. I think it's almost impossible without getting the theme, although I think some have reporting doing so below.
@Francis Magic key is the perfect description 💯
Things I was finally able to do after starting this fantastic puzzle in the middle of the night: RAIGHTEN UP and stop thinking rebus RUG IT OFF RIDE along filling in downs keep my REAK alive
I think the joy of a puzzle like this, whether one calls it a crossword puzzle or a "crossword puzzle", is that you are quickly presented with a challenge that goes beyond word skill, into pattern solving (or problem solving?) skill. Like everyone else I was baffled at how badly things were going, and of course it being a Thursday you're looking for a trick pitch. But now the actually answers to the clues become secondary to figuring out the trick--you're pretty sure that unless you understand that trick you probably won't be able to solve the puzzle. At all. Suddenly parts of the brain that were asleep are hurried into duty, to help the parts of the brain that work with ordinary crossword skills. It's all cells on deck. It's really rewarding when it works out. And it's maddening when it doesn't. But it makes it a lot more likely you'll get the next one.
@Francis That's such a good explanation of the "fun" of a Thursday. If you come to it expecting merely a more difficult Wednesday, it's inevitable you'll be flummoxed. If you come at it expecting a double-puzzle that includes a bit of cryptology as well as traditional crossword solving, there's every opportunity you'll have a blast!
@Francis Agreed. A great crossword puzzle is a true synergy of logic, words, and art. That necessitates the little grey cells.
@Francis Yes. Those of us who do cryptics use this. And one style I particularly liked was Araucaria's "alphabetical jigsaws" he did for the Guardian where you had to work out where each solution fitted in the grid.
This was even worse than using rebuses, because as annoying as those are, at least you can cross-check answers. Here, you just have to guess that you have things right. This isn't a puzzle, it's a dartboard, and we're all playing blindfolded. So silly.
@Daniel Forgive me for pointing this out, but if "we're all playing blindfold", why is it all of the elite solvers and a lot of newer solvers (like me) not only solved it but enjoyed it? Maybe you're making just a little too broad a statement about the experience of "all of us". It's essential to learn from these puzzles if you want to do puzzles like them in the future. Or you can hope that if you complain enough maybe they'll stop publishing puzzles like this. That said, I do understand being frustrated by one of these puzzles.
@Daniel. In what sense can we not “cross-check answers”? The omitted letters are specifically given to us: the first two letters of the clue, and all others are fully checked.
@Daniel You’re not blindfolded- you’re given the first two letters of every single down answer!
Wow. Literally the worst crossword I’ve ever done. I usually don’t do Thursday, crossword puzzles, so I had no clue that there would actually be letters missing from the answers to the clues. This has to be spelled out somewhere beyond a really hard clue later in the puzzle, in order for somebody to be able to get it. Unless this just for people who have been doing crosswords for years, which kind of defeats the point of crosswords being there to test your brain instead of being through rote familiarization
@Ben Smith The first thing I do on a Thursday puzzle is look toward the bottom of the puzzle to see if there’s something to explain the gimmick.
@Ben Smith I fell this way after my first Thursday puzzle. But now I think this was a splendidly brilliant puzzle. If you want to enjoy these as well, you have to learn the unwritten rules of NYT. First is the rule of cool: if the construction is clever enough, it can break any or all the written rules. Second, Thursdays are not that hard, but there is a trick. If you don't figure out the trick, they are usually impossible. And lastly, these puzzles always have a "revealer" clue. Spelling out the trick isn't fun, but hinting at it is. The revealer could be anywhere, but they are usually toward the bottom and reference the grid in some way. If you identify the revealer clue, that should narrow the possible tricks for the puzzle. In today's, the revealer talked about the downs not making sense, so that's where the trick is. Start solving acrosses as normal then see if you can decode the full trick. I hope you continue trying Thursday's, as they are the most rewarding solves
@Ben Smith I would blandly suggest that if something is worthy of feeling good about doing, it shouldn't be possible to do it at easily, or even at all, the very first time you encounter it. I can't think of one thing in life that is challenging and does not require many failures before finally mastering it by something far more interesting than "rote familiarization". Everyone who nailed this puzzle tonight has felt exactly like you do tonight, probably several times. So don't
@Ben Smith I'm in month 3 and got this quickly. Thursdays are trick days, you'll get it. Or you can skip them and hit the archives. Whatever brings you joy.
@Ben Smith Welcome to Thursdays! Hope you stick around.
Puzzle Creator, I hope you are pleased with yourself. I’m angered enough by this crossword that I felt the need to comment. There are so many Thursday puzzles that are challenging and interesting, and it’s a shame I can’t include this one in that list. I’d say “Try again,” but I’m not interested in another puzzle from you. I don’t worry about solve times or other nonsense. I just want a decent challenge, not a solution that asks me to omit the first two letters of my answer, revealing gibberish for each down answer. Perhaps you could do better, but I’m unwilling to find out.
Dayum. Seems like you’re doing the puzzles (and life) wrong if they’re angering you. Sending you some chill ❄️
@Crabby Well said. Now, if you want to ever be able to do these puzzles, calm down, figure out what you missed, and be ready for looking for it the next time. Would you admire a major league batter who said "this slider stuff really isn't a pitch, not in the fullest sense of the word...who should have to learn how to hit that?...I refuse to ever come to bat with you pitching again..." Would you want his autograph?
@Crabby agreed. Clever and smug go hand in hand sometimes.
@Crabby I didn’t like this either, and I mean no disrespect to puzzle-makers, but it’s just a game, dislike it and move on.
@Crabby Sounds like Thursday puzzles aren't for you. This kind of trickiness is a feature of Thursday puzzles, not a bug. Totally fine to have preferences, but no need to insult the constructor because you prefer a different type of puzzle.
I can understand some frustration when a wacky Thursday theme forces a constructor to shoehorn some ugly fill into a puzzle. What confuses me is all the negative comments on this puzzle that not only has an exciting theme, but also has super approachable fill! With the exception of SETI and maybe ELAL all of this fill struck me as common NYT fare, and the acrosses seemed intentionally clued in a straightforward enough way to give numerous toe-holds for solvers to puzzle out the twist. It isn't often we get a puzzle this unique, and to have one with a fun grid design and great fill struck me as quite a feat! Thanks Jesse!
Interesting wrinkle! Thanks.
Without question my favourite NYT puzzle I’ve ever done. I was in despair with my first run through! But the theme clue changed my thinking. Once I got one the rest started tumbling in. The satisfaction from completing this with zero checks is incredible!!! Thanks Mr Goldberg - an absolute masterpiece
@David Well said! It was really like watching a long, long string of dominoes fall, only BETTER. I wonder if Jesse Goldberg is related to Rube Goldberg. I mean, Goldberg has to be a rare name, right? I appeal to the Keepers of the Words of this Forum.
A fun theme with a good “aha!” But it will always bug me when an answer fails to stand on its own. PSTORE, TENTIAL, ALLIONS, etc. are nonsense on their own. While still fun (and in service of a clever Thursday Theme) I just plain don’t like it when the resulting answer isn’t a valid word/phrase, and I couldn’t tell you why.
@Edward I can appreciate that, and I see several commenters today agree with you, but it doesn't bother me, because often answers that I don't know look like non-words. As do some names. Most important to me is just solving the puzzle, whether they be words or not.
@Edward I do understand, and agree with you up to a point. In a perfect world, the Down answers would have made sense as they were. But it may not be possible to construct that puzzle (unless your grid is the size of a Mini). It gives one furiously to think, as Hercule Poirot would say.
@Edward I've seen letters hidden behind black squares, answers extending through black squares, letters implied outside the grid, rebuses that only work in one direction- this is no different and super simple
@Edward Some people trash rebus puzzles, but with those, at least you can see a complete word, and not a fragment. More pleasing to the eye, in my opinion.
Eh - very easy once you figure out the gimmick and at the end you end up with a mess of a grid. Not my favorite.
@Marcus Yep. I used the rebus function to fill in all the letters. Guess what? They didn’t count. Wasted time trying to find my mistake since redoing the rebuses would take a while.
Hard for a moment, and then, forgive me folks, too easy. I loved figuring out that the first two letters were dropped, but once I knew they were right there in the clues, the puzzle became extremely straightforward to solve, and although it wasn’t a PB, pretty close. Also was a tad bit disappointed to read the details of the construction, with so much assistance from software, but I suppose I should get used to that. But still, a cool trick, and I don’t share the concerns about how a crossword puzzle “should” be. Make me puzzle over it! Yeah!
Horrible...Never realized the "trick" until I read WordPlay.
@Michael N. Funny how the mods delete all kinds of posts and then let Sam’s through.
Down answers need to all be real words or phrases as written (just not the right answers to their clues) for this to work.
@DIVAS IVLIVS Says who?
@DIVAS IVLIVS That would have been nice. It would also have been an enormous (and quite possibly impossible) improvement on an already spectacular puzzle.
@DIVAS IVLIVS would have liked that, many were.
Anyone else get DOOKed by [TR]IP LEA? 😂 (26 down). What’s a “trip lea”? Is that like a trip planner?
@Jeb Jones AAA= triple a, roadside assistance
@Jeb Jones Yes 🙋🏼♀️ I totally saw TRIP LEA and had to suss out what that meant til it hit me
@Jeb Jones I had a different first impression as [TR]I-PLEA. Could not figure out how one pled three ways, or to three indictments, or whatever. Got to the right break after a short patch of confusion.
Tricky but fun to finally figure out.
This was one of those themes that just fell flat. Didn’t enjoy and suspect most people gave up.
@Dan Without Deb’s explanation, I doubt I would ever have realized what was going on. I was struggling to fit in a rebus that would suffice in more than one instance, but no dice. It was kind of a fun relief once I knew the trick.