The IRENE/CDS/NOTE/ROD/DYNE cluster was pretty sticky but the rest I quite enjoyed
@Joseph Yeah the Sol but not Luna clue was incomprehensible to me. As usual music terms are my biggest blind spot in NYT puzzles. BEER was the best I could come up with, despite INC being the only obvious answer in that section. A solid 20-30% of my time was spent there.
@Joseph I got IRENE but still couldn't make sense of the rest. CDS was the last one I filled in and that's when I finally got the clue. 😆
@BR Yeah so how is NOTE "Sol, but not Luna?" I thought maybe the answer was STAR which really tied up that section.
@Joseph had to look that up. Guessed Irene, guessed rod, didn't make any sense to me. I do think I could've gotten CDs with more time, but it seemed hopeless with 4 to go. Oh well!
I'm going to attempt to clear up the "SOL as a musical note" misunderstandings. Way back in the early 11th century, an Italian monk, Guido d'Arezzo, was teaching monks how to sing. One of the most difficult parts was having them memorize every tune, because there was no way of committing the melodies to paper. Guido noticed that a certain psalm they were singing, "Ut queant laxis", began each line on a successively higher note of the musical scale. He took the syllables on the first note of each line, Ut Re MI Fa Sol La, made those the names of the respective tones, and devised a way of representing them as markings on a system of parallel horizontal lines (our musical staff). Later the seventh note, the "leading tone", was given the name "Sí" from the initials of Sancti Ioannes, to whom the psalm had been dedicated. "Ut" was changed to "Do" so that all the notes began with a consonant. With various improvements over the years, this is the musical notation used ever since, all over the world. In the 19th century an English system of reading music was invented, in which Sol lost its L (so that all the notes had two-letter names) and Sí became Ti (so that they all began with a different letter). These changes were not adopted in Italy nor (as far as I know) anywhere else in Europe. It's still basically Guido's system, though! I feel particularly close to this subject, having taught for years here in Tuscany for the Fondazione Guido d'Arezzo.
@Sharon - This is the kind of informative comment that makes it worth reading through all the comments. Thank you!
@Sharon A Sol is a Peruvian currency note. There is no Luna currency note I know of.
@Sharon--I feel seriously close to the subject too. I got kicked out of my high school production of The Sound of Music because I refused to wear Rolf's lederhosen. My legs were very hairy and the tight fitting shorts created a camel toe look. Sol "a needle pulling thread, my left butt cheek!
@Sharon I always assumed that UT became DO so that singers would have a vowel for extended notes, instead of having to contend with a consonant at the end.
@Sharon Super interesting! Thanks for taking the time to post that explanation.
@Sharon Fascinating! Thank you for the interesting information!
At family game night, I got into Trouble. Feeling Sorry about that. (But that's Life!)
@Mike You think you have a Monopoly on pun entries? It can Boggle the mind. /Might be taking a Risk here /Such a Trivial Pursuit anyway
@Mike As for Sorry! on family game night… it’s an emotional minefield, that game, when played with a five year old.
@Mike I think you missed a CatchPhrase or two, and you didn't have a Clue.
@Mike Board games again? Uno I like card games better.
@Mike That’s why you shouldn’t play on a yacht, see? (It’s too much Aggravation.)
Mike, Canasta question? When are you going to stop these juvenile puns, and act charades? ( just balderdashin’ ya ;)
@Mike I think you've gone a pun too far; your brains are scrabbled.
@Mike Ur, I hope the checkers -- the emus -- allow this. They might decide that it's not up to par -- cheesy.
@Mike Only table games? Mister try Twister.
Hello! I’m an avid crossword solver for the last 3 years when my sister introduced me to the puzzles over a Christmas. Sprawled on the carpet we penciled in our guesses. I was hooked. I’d always thought crossword puzzles were for the gray-haired, sitting in their rocking chairs at 6am with a cup of joe. Little did I know at the time, this would become a hallmark hobby that makes me, me. Now I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed - as I read the comments here I’m acutely aware of how studied this community is. I haven’t opened a book in years, I’ve got my undergrad degree in business, and besides this my hobbies are mostly sports. Beyond that I’m a young millennial, a benefit to fill in the occasional NOCAP or SUS, but very unstudied in the pop culture before me. Alas, I press on! Now the inclusive thing about puzzles is that we can set our own rules. I chose strict method of “no outside study allowed”: if I were to be handed this puzzle on a remote isle, I’d be as likely to complete it as I am each day. Often I’m devastated to not get the little gold pixels by missing just a few boxes. A fun benefit of this is I can see very clearly my progress over the last few years. It’s fun to see the early weeks where I didn’t bother to attempt anything beyond Mondays. As I sit here on a train in London, I’ve failed this Thursday due to the left center cluster. But I am proud of me! There will be another Thursday, and it will be golden. And there I am, a chronic lurker no more!
@Walker May I be so presumptuous to welcome you here! I just love it when a lurker comes out from the lurkingness...the lurkinghood... lurkingtude....you know what I mean. You and I are close on the code of conduct for a "clean" solve. Yet it is advantageous to our little cyber-society that we don't dwell *too* much on what constitutes "cheating". We observe the Personal Code of Honor. End of story. I am still becoming aware of the august company here. I sincerely feel honored to comment among the cream of the crossword crop. No cap. You seem well aware of the landscape here, so I'll only offer this one bit of advice: watch out for Andrzej. He's a sly one. And pay no attention to what he may reply about this post.
@Walker Welcome! I subscribe to your "remote isle" method and think it's the fastest path to becoming a better solver. It makes you work harder, and in the process, helps chisel your crossword muscles. I predict a long and happy future of crossword solving for you.
@Walker Welcome to the 'hood Walker! [ CC attempting to sound younger] With that attitude, you'll be master of The Solve in no time. Very happy you ventured from the shadows. We don't get a ton of young millennial sports folks, so your commentary is that much more valuable. Very cool.
@Walker Welcome! I, too, was once lurking and thought I would never post. Oh, the anxiety! I also thought I would never reach the point where I could solve cleanly.A post from a favorite regular (Steve L) showed me the light: if you keep at it, one day you realize that you will (probably) solve them all. I love your take on this community. It is a special group. Interesting, diverse, humorous, and generally positive. Many of us lurk for days, weeks, months at a time. It’s always nice when a familiar name comes out of the woodwork. Don’t be a stranger. As for the puzzle, I was initially tricked into thinking it was a rebus challenge, until it wasn’t. Very clever and quite fun IMHO.
@Walker Glad you came out of the shadows. Just a note: my hair is white, not gray. I'm in a straight chair, not one of the rockers or my recliner. Given the cost of coffee, I never call it by a nickname. Late yesterday I was putting my sheet of paper (upon which I had printed and solved the crossword) into the recycling bin and noticed I had a WRONG LETTER. After all these years! All that education! Aw, shucks. We're never too old to get tripped up.
@Walker welcome to the fray of Crosslandia. My day would not be complete without visiting upon completion of the grid. Look forward to hearing your thoughts going forward!
@Walker Welcome. Liking sports will serve you well in your puzzle solving. And you may learn some ancient history along the way.
Will the editors please try to get rid of any answer that reads ICE? Every time I see that it makes my stomach turn. At first I thought it was not fair that we couldn't put the whole words in the rebi but then I saw the circled letters and it all made sense. Elegant construction.
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight First paragraph: Enthusiastically seconded and appreciated. Second paragraph: I was exactly the same. I usually don't smell a rebus unless it's really there, but I got fooled tonight.
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight You're bothered by ICES at 57A? Well, that crosses IDNO, which already suggests that the constructors worked hard to make this part of the grid come together. Can you offer a way to edit this puzzle to remove ICES? One that doesn't involved tearing apart a lot of the grid? I don't see an easy one. Would you have preferred that this puzzle were rejected?? I'm fine with ICE appearing in a grid. It's a crossword puzzle.
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight How bout just chillin a bit? It's a crossword puzzle, not an op-ed!
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight I, too, cringe at ICE in the XW these days, and also when clues seek answers like OSHA, EPA, etc, seeming to assume those agencies still do what they’re intended to do but don’t any more.
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight While I acknowledge that it would not be possible for them to get rid of the word in puzzles, I really appreciate your support, and your sensitivity to the word right now. It appears quite often but lately has been very jarring for me too. The agency and its repercussions here in MN are almost all I think of lately, though I'm trying to be healthier about it. Never been a great compartmentalizer though. Envious of those who are. It's hard to work or do anything else right now.
The themers and the revealer are such a good fit for a Thursday! (SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND): set a tricky puzzle aside, let your brain do some passive seeking, then come back to it. (ALL DAY EVERY DAY): the work ethic of Thursday constructors coming up with fresh ideas. (FAMILY GAME NIGHT): just for once, let’s do the NYT together instead of board games. (CONFIRMATION BIAS): “I know this is supposed to be a rebus! It has to be a rebus! Why won’t it accept a rebus!”
@Cat Lady Margaret I feel compelled to share with you that one of my cats caught a mouse during my solve today. It was quite the event
@Cat Lady Margaret I once knew a couple that w/couldn’t solve a nyt crossword together. Maybe it was competitiveness, or territoriality, or the challenge of going solo. I didn’t understand it. They’re not together any longer. Sad. I entertain the thought that it could be remotely related(but not causal!)
I posted really late yesterday so people might not have seen it and I've been asked to repost here as I have a great story to share. As the author of a recent book on Sondheim, his games, and his crossword puzzles, I was excited to see this puzzle. As this is still news to most, I’ll share a little known history behind the song Finishing the Hat. It could have been called Finishing the Game. In 1965 his friend Phyllis Newman had a show flop out of town. He asked what he could do and she said make a game for me when I return. He designed The Murder Game in an overnight 11-hour creative fugue. It was a hit (and has its own story). In the early 80s, creating Sunday in the Park With George, he wanted to write a song about that experience, about disconnecting from the world to pursue a creative pursuit, not to paint something new but to create a playful way for his friends to connect. So now, his song, about a game, has been honored in a crossword. Quite fitting.
@Barry Joseph So cool. Thank you for sharing again this morning! I would certainly have missed it.
@Barry Joseph Stories like this are a great reason to be here.
@Barry Joseph fascinating! Thank you for reposting!!
@Barry Joseph Great story. Thanks for reposting.
@Barry Joseph I was hoping you solved this puzzle! Perfect timing for the local activity you ran Tuesday night.
Most entries in this puzzle, including the revealer, were instant gimmes for me. How the theme worked became obvious very quickly, too. I still didn't understand half of the revealer though, because apparently I was unfamiliar with the other meaning of BIAS 🤣 The clueing was mostly extremely straightforward for Thursday, wasn't it? Despite being held up by trivial unknowns in two places, which took several minutes to resolve (without lookups!), I finished in Wednesday time. I was quite surprised, as I generally associate Barbara Lin with super hard puzzles. A *third* of an NFL broadcast are ads?! What horror! I have an allergic reaction to ads - I just can't stand them with their bee ess smiles, exaggerated claims and general inanity. The advent of ad-free streaming was one of the best things that have happened in my lifetime. That being said, there were no ads on Polish TV before 1989 - all two channels of it, one of them airing for only several hours a day. When they needed a break in the broadcast, they showed... a vase with a bouquet of flowers. Don't ask me why it was that, specifically. My wife watches a lot of football (soccer, to you). One of the premium sport channels she subscribes to actually has no ads. At half-time, say, they run no ads but simply show the empty pitch. It's my fave sport channel of all 🤣
@Andrzej I share your aversion to most ads--only the cleverest of the clever can actually produce something interesting. Like this one, which to my knowledge only played for a couple of days: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/ypetsdrf" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/ypetsdrf</a> Like many here, I grew up in the days of ad television only. Premium channels like HBO was heaven for me. Subscription models are sending me right back to H-E-double-toothpicks.
@Andrzej I read somewhere that an average American football game has 11 minutes of actual play time in a 3 hour broadcast. The rest is standing around.
@Andrzej it's not an "other" meaning; bias means "slant," whether it's referring to the communicaton of info (i.e., opinions), the orientation of muscle fibers in a steak, the stripes in a power tie, or any of a number of other senses in which that meaning could be aptly applied.
@Andrzej when you have a lack of objectivity, you lean (albeit pro a ly figuratively) in one direction or another. Bias does not signify "non-objectivity," it signifies lean/slant in a particular direction. It's all the same meaning, but a different sense (i.e., figurative vs. literal). The same is true for the words "slant" and "lean." Their meanings are not complicated, but their sense (literal vs. figurative) can vary according to context and/or the intentions of the speaker. Consider: person with a bias might very well lean, in the most literal sense, toward his preference.
@Andrzej For me, one of the best things about moving over to this continent is I have escaped the political ads during election season ! Second best thing: I have escaped the pharmaceutical ads ! Every European should try to see a few of those so they can appreciate just how good they have it.
@Andrzej As a bit of a clotheshorse, I had the advantage here of also thinking of ‘bias’ as it’s used in fashion: A bias cut is where a skirt or dress are cut and sewn at a 45° angle. I immediately started to look for the rest of the theme word letters to run at a diagonal off the last square. Interestingly, I looked at attestations of the use of ‘bias’ when it was first imported from French into English in the first half of the 16th c., and the literal and figurative senses appear equally early on. None other than Mary the Queen of Scots is accused of slanting her view thus in a translation of a G. Buchanan text: “She commeth to her own byace, and openly sheweth hir owne naturall conditions.” Which is pretty rich as the full title of the work is ‘Ane detectioun of the duinges of Marie Quene of Scottes, touchand the murder of hir husband, and hir conspiracie, adulterie, and pretensed mariage with the Erle Bothwell.’ No bias there.
@Andrzej When I started watching NFL games (go Texans!) with my then 6 year-old son, I had to answer the questions "Dad, what's ED?" and then "Do I, you or Grandpa have it?" As for soccer, bear in mind that the fields are now surrounded by electronic advertising boards, so in a way, TV watchers are subjected to a barrage of ads for the whole 90 minutes of play, plus a bunch of ads at half-time.
@Andrzej Jeez Louise! You people are exhausting.
@Andrzej If a musical was 1/3 ads, would that make it better or worse for you?
@Andrzej "In Soviet Union we have two channels. On channel one is propaganda. On channel two is KGB man saying go to channel one!" -Yakov Smirnoff
When is a rebus not entered as a rebus? In a Thursday crossword, it seems.
@gilliang Yep. Which made this an annoying rather than satisfying puzzle. To me, at least. Kind of inane.
@gilliang Not a rebus. The extra letters were in the circles branching off the square preceding the "missing" letters.
I object to 28A. I think it was misleading. I kept trying to get EVERYDAYEXCEPTFEB29, or MISSINGLEAPDAY, or something like that to fit. I would have much preferred 24/7/365.24217. Then of course we would have needed indication that we were talking about sidereal year, rather than tropical. And of course there would have to be clarification on whether we were using stellar days or sidereal days. Oh, and we'd need to indicate that leap seconds due to earthquakes and other such geological processes affecting the length of the day are being ignored. In all, this clue should have been about a page and a half long, to cover all the bases.
@Francis I've been justly called pedantic on many occasions, but I humbly bow to you, my lord. Surely you do not dispute that "24/7/365" and "all day every day" are two common colloquial expressions whose meanings, if not identical, are interchangeable enough to pass muster for crossword clueing?
@Francis OY; the common expression for a "year" is 365 days even though we know there are leap years.
@Francis Experts. Phthhh.
@Francis Welcome back Francis! I was just wondering where you got to
A pox on whoever decided that entering a rebus in the key circles would not be accepted as completing the puzzle.
@Becky Culbertson Exactly! I thought it WAS a rebus puzzle and had to come to Wordplay to find out why I didn't get the happy music with the circles filled that way.
@Becky Culbertson but it wasn’t a rebus - the entire word was there on the “bias”.
@Becky Culbertson You can add me to the disgruntled .
Just realized I could recommend my own posts. What fun. Now I’m twice as popular. Thanks Mom.
Oh, lovely theme. Come on – constructor sees the term “confirmation bias” and doesn’t just move on, but envisages this! Brava on that! Then, taking that idea and putting it into the box, which involves the 56 horizontal theme squares, but also ten squares on the bias. Now, 66 squares is astronomical as theme square counts go, making a grid very difficult to fill cleanly. But then you add the difficulty produced by those diagonal answers – and it is great – and, well, this was one masterful build. Brava again. Add clues that get the brain storming, such as [Like darts]. Pointy? Feathery? Sleek? Sticky? You start imagining flying darts. You picture dartboards in bars. Brainstorming is so pleasurable! As is riddle cracking, such as figuring out the theme. Then add a lovely Gandhi quote, not to mention fresh and colorful theme answers, and there was, for me, Wendy and Barbara, much quality and goodness here, which I greatly enjoyed. Thank you both for a splendid outing!
@Lewis I sometimes think you see in more dimensions than I do.
@Lewis Gandhi? What did I miss?
@Lewis Oh, come now. The darts clue was all too easy if you already had A_M_D in the grid. (I really loved the GALLEY kitchen we had in the "Midcentury Modern" Dallas home. And El GRECO with a clue that obvious?....corner filled in a trice.) The really hard one was 25A--trying to come up with a stat for Aaron Rodgers, who was taking up the space in my brain for "Aarons in Sports."
I thought this was a clever, well executed theme and I really appreciate a mind who can take CONFIRMATION BIAS and think of it visually and make a theme out of it. I do think the clues were pretty straightforward for a Thursday but I still had a good time solving. Folks, I made this point last Thursday and I will make it again today. Not everything is a rebus! If it doesn’t make sense going both ways it’s not a rebus. If it doesn’t make sense with the revealer it’s not a rebus. In this case you have BIAS in the revealer and extra circles which have to have a purpose. And finally, you should assume it’s not a rebus until it’s the only thing that makes sense.
SP, As I suspected, we're seeing confirmation bias in action!
@SP Ι think your last sentence should be prominently printed above every Thursday puzzle.
@SP … I’ve seen a lot of puzzles where the rebuses only work in one direction
🧵Wow, that Curie family, and their FIVE Nobel Prizes, 👀! Below, from Wikipedia: “Irène Joliot-Curie (French: 12 September 1897 – 17 March 1956) was a French chemist and physicist who received the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, for their discovery of induced radioactivity. “They were the second married couple, after her PARENTS [emphasis added], to win the Nobel Prize, adding to the Curie family legacy of FIVE [e. a.] Nobel Prizes. “This made the Curies the family with the most Nobel laureates to date.”
@David Pearce I imagine the runner-up family has one. That is insane.
@David Pearce You know, a creative person might be able to come up with a comedy concerning a psychotically dysfunctional but endearing and hilarious family absolutely determined to eclipse the Curies in Nobel prizes. It could be a Nerd TV classic.
@David Pearce The other Curie daughter, Eve, was a journalist and writer. Her husband was the UN representative that accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for the creation of UNICEF. Imagine being the underachiever in the family because you didn’t win a Nobel Prize.
The beautiful quotation from Gandhi reminded me of another, which, unfortunately, is probably not genuine: Reporter: "What do you think of Western civilization?" Gandhi: "I think it would be a very good idea."
Like many others, I tried to make it a rebus, and spent probably 20 min going through every answer before removing the rebus and getting the music. I spent yesterday evening listening to all my favorite Sondheim tunes in honor of the puzzle. It was a nice break from all the Grateful Dead I’ve been listening to in the wake of Bob Weir’s passing. I wonder what the Venn diagram would look like between Deadheads and Heimheads? Count me as one.
@Charles Nelson Reilly Yes, that is an odd combination. You have eclectic tastes! Are you an NFL fan? During the ESPN broadcast of Monday night's Steelers Texans game, on returning from a commercial break Sugar Magnolia was played and Joe Buck said a few words to mark Bob Weir's passing. That's some respect! Somehow I doubt I will be hearing Send in the Clowns and a shout out from Troy Aikman when we lose Stephen Sondheim. The only other person who I can think of to fit in your Venn diagram space would be Switters, the protagonist of Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates. Or at least a cross between him and Tom Robbins!
I used rebus to fill out the answer, and it wasn’t until I read the article that I realized I didn’t need them. I feel like the rebus-entered answers should have been accepted. Oh well. Still ended up with my gold star after I got rid of my rebus answers!
@Stephanie Yes!!! It's a Thursday puzzle so it made perfect sense to have AYE, AMEN and YES entered as rebuses.
@Stephanie it was quite perplexing and I only got it all finished by reading the wordplay, oh well
@Stephanie Yes, I also had a bit of trouble. I went ahead and just filled in the answer with the cross's answer and it completed the puzzle, but I didn't like it. Then I read in the article that oft-forgotten definition of "bias" which means at an angle. I know this word from gardening, and with this understanding it makes sense to NOT have the rebus , since the circled letters create that angle. Clever.
I'm so impressed with the puzzlers who thought this was easy. I tried the rebus and was confused and frustrated when it didn't work. I just didn't get it. Anyway, kudos to those who breezed through this one. I'll just wait for Friday.
Interesting day to have SAKS as an answer (and a down one at that)! 😉
@David Too bad it was one off from 5D. Must be the outlet mall location. That’s why it’s these than 5D.
Solved this one at full tilt. Cows say “moo”: confirmed. Hockey team names aren’t as good as when I was young: confirmed. Pavlov should have tried people and Thursday puzzles to check for salivary response: confirmed. Pavlov should have named his dog ‘Fido’: confirmed.
That was a fun and quirky Thursday. Easy but fun. Easy, that is, if you’ve got a few Thursdays under your belt. Probably a nightmare for those solvers new to the hobby. Side note: Speaking of astrobiology, I’m currently enjoying Project Hail Mary.
@Striker Also enjoyed PHM! I hear a movie adaptation is in production.
Looking at 2D and 3D next to each other makes me laugh …. ONE NIL ONE ILL OUI feels left out that it's not on the bias. Fun puzzle, great revealer.
YES! I figured it out! No help. Even on the names! I enjoyed this one immensely. I liked the theme. Thank you, Wendy & Barbara. Y’all have a great Thursday. Stay warm! It’s frigid here in the NC mountains. ❄️🥶
Reading "BVD was a well-known men's underwear company in the 20th century" has never made me feel older.
@J F Right? I guess it's time to buy some new underwear.
@J F Same. I got it almost immediately, felt smug and smart for a second, and then realized how old it made me feel. And the fact that clue was featured in the wordplay column did not help me feel any younger. Now, if I could just find my geritol...
As if it's not hard enough to construct a rebus puzzle, the constructors have upped the difficulty by combining an excellent rebus with tiny little diagonally-placed circles that illustrate the same CONFIRMATION BIAS. And while I adore rebuses and am generally indifferent to spelled-out answers contained in tiny little circles, I applaud Barbara and Wendy for setting themselves such a challenging task and accomplishing it with an absolute minimum of glue-y fill. SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND is familiar enough to have been easy to spot. ALL DAY EVERY DAY is a beautiful embedding of AYE, and FAMILY GAME NIGHT a lovely embedding of the delightfully unexpected AMEN. As soon as I had CON, I wrote in CONFIRMATION BIAS. Very cute revealer. And in this case, it's a revealer that necessitates including the diagonally-placed circles aspect. (The constructors could have dispensed with the rebus part of the puzzle, but then it would have been a much lesser puzzle and it wouldn't have been a Thursday.) This was a Thursday-worthy puzzle and entertaining to solve.
@Nancy It wasn't a rebus puzzle. I know because I really tried to make it a rebus puzzle. For instance, I put in YES as a rebus, but still had "yes" spelled out in the slanted, aka "biased" portion, because I took the second "yes" to be the confirmation of the first one. Yeah, it was fairly tortured logic, but I thought it was correct. And I spent maybe another fifteen minutes wracking my brain and flyspecking the puzzle before I removed all the rebuses and got the music.
This was a swell little Thursday puzzle. I couldn't figure out why I was omitting certain letters until I had it completed and studied the circled letters. Very clever! I have to disagree with Sam about CDs being obsolete, however. Actually owning the music you pay for will never become obsolete.
@Peter C. Most people thought LPs were dead and buried, and they have come back. CDs will have a resurgence as well.
If I'm honest, I'm not fond of puzzles where the answers don't read in both directions the way they should. I filled in rebuses in the three places ... and that of course turned out "wrong" as well. Bah humbug!
@Nanorama Same with me. I had the correct letters in the rebus but was told "UMNO" and had to try different ways to solve even with right letters. Boo hoo.
@Nanorama this puzzle’s answers do read in all directions as they should. This was not a rebus puzzle, so it is no surprise that when you put in rebuses you did not correctly solve the puzzle.
Loved the ONENIL ONEILL alongside each other... And also confidently rebused and MARIE'd for quite some time! A lovely fun romp on a VERY snowy day here -- thank you, fine duo, please keep them coming!
I guess I’m one of the few people who loved the puzzle, was helped by the ‘trick’, and loves Thursday puzzles for the interesting tricks constructors come up with. Thanks, Wendy and Barbara. Was stuck on the left-middle with Sol and shiny platters - thanks to some commentators for explaining 43A.
@Usha I also enjoyed this pretty unique puzzle! Felt proud when I figured it out…
@Usha Don't infer anything from the ratio of pro and con here. Contented people are much less likely to trouble to comment. (As Dorothy L. Sayers once wrote, "Happy murderers, like happy wives, keep quiet tongues...it's always the failures that make the noise.")
No. Please. Stop with the easy puzzles on Thursday. The theme was valid although gossamer thin. The general cluing was Tuesday level. I can't say I enjoyed this at all, and that's entirely because of expectations (as set by NYT stated policy and history). Some of us look forward all week to a gem on Thursday. This was a respectable craftsperson's Monday or Tuesday A fine puzzle. Wrong day.
@B I didn’t find it especially easy. These things are very subjective.
@B I found this a Wednesday and I'd rage if it ran on Monday, but yeah, a proper Thursday this was not, and it's a shame.
@B as someone stated above, I don't think anyone would be complaining if the circles were removed.
@B I think it is fine for anyone to share their solving experience, but using a tone that implies that one's experience is the correct one is a turn off. As @Lin says, these things are very subjective. Don't act like they aren't.
@B ...and one doesn't dissect gossamer.
@B I solved it well under my average, but the theme and the center left section made it worthy of a Thursday to me. It's definitely not a Monday or Tuesday. Maybe a tough Wednesday.
A very nifty theme idea and execution. The advantage of my solving bleary-eyed again in predawn hours was that I couldn’t see the circles, so I didn’t know that the “biased” extra letters were pointed out—a bonus opportunity to have to puzzle them out. About that clueing difficulty level: Yeah, dear editors, you Tuesdayed us on a Thursday again…
@Sam Lyons Your post about bias fabric is totally buried elsewhere, but i enjoyed it. As someone who sewed clothes way back in the 1970s, making sure the pattern pieces were or weren't set on the bias were part of the deal.
@Sam Lyons The bias cut fabrics you wear nowadays probably did not exist back then.
I guess like most others I started out filling in rebuses but they didn't really make sense with the crosses so it eventually became apparent that the extra letters were contained in the circled squares adjacent. Very interesting. The revealer clue was the aha moment. An enjoyable and fairly quick Thursday. Kudos.
@Asher They didn't make sense, but sometimes rebuses (rebi?) work only in one direction and bias (not in the sewing world) could certainly mean one square gets more than it's share. Oh well, just glad I had all of the answers right, even if I did have to change those three squares.
Loved the little extra puzzlement at the end, "Ok, I get the BIAS part, but what does CONFIRMATION have to do with it . . ." "Oh, right". Nice one. Thanks.
Apt theme today. Confirmation bias is especially damaging these days with all the fake news and sketchy information sources. Hopefully the rebus issue doesn’t overshadow it.
I fell for the rebus trap. Wasted a lot of time making sure I had spelled everything correctly before thinking to "unrebus" the puzzle. Grr. I do get it now though.
@Catherine yea I agree…that was annoying. I had to use check puzzle inly to find out i had it right, but just had to remove the rebi
Pretty gentle for a Thursday, but I found some of the cluing clever and fell for the Sol misdirect this time. Grrr. I guess people found the crosses kind in the NW corner, because no one, so far, has complained of ANNA Quindlen and Molly ONEILL (RIP) crossing each other. As a longtime Times reader, I enjoyed seeing these long ago Times writers get shoutouts.
@Vaer The biggest gripe has been, and will continue to be. Why the way they entered the )non-existent) rebus wasn’t accepted.
@Steve L Those complaints seem to have eased these morning. Time will tell if they come back.
I took two messages from this : . Beware confirmation bias . Think positive I enjoyed this puzzle, thanks, Wendy and Barbara. Best sports trivia clue ever, 34D.
@Linda Jo and there's location bias --- I read 18A as SEEK AND Y'ALL FIND 😄
One of those easy puzzles that is still fun. Finishing a Thursday puzzle quickly can be the thrill sometimes.
Whew. And wow. Typical tough Thursday for me, but finally catching on to the trick was the big turning point and that's always a nice touch. Really clever idea - don't recall seeing another one quite like this. A couple of puzzle finds today. Here's one - a Tuesday from May 24, 2005 by Mike Torch. Three 15 letter theme answers clued cleverly in sequence from top to bottom. Here those are: "Never." WHENHELLFREEZES "Sometimes." ONCEINABLUEMOON "Always." TWENTYFOURSEVEN Here's that link. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/24/2005&g=58&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/24/2005&g=58&d=A</a> Might put another puzzle in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Tuesday from May 30, 2000 by Fred Piscop. Can't help but wonder if the above puzzle might have been inspired by this one. Awfully similar. Anyway - three theme answers: "Always." TWENTYFOURSEVEN "Sometimes." EVERYNOWANDTHEN "Practically never." ONCEINABLUEMOON Just don't recall seeing two puzzles that were so similar before. Anyway -- here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/30/2000&g=17&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/30/2000&g=17&d=A</a> ....
I love a Thursday puzzle. Put your brain into high gear. Be on alert. Is there a trick? I'm a rebus fan, so I easily fell down the rebus rat hole but quickly found my way out. Nice puzzle.
Great theme. Reading the constructor's comments, and having read a while back "Thinking, Fast and Slow", it made me wonder what kind of thinking it takes to come up with a theme like that, just from the term confirmation bias. My guess is that it's a whole other category of thinking -- maybe in a different region of the brain.
Can we at least put in the clue that reiki is absolute bs? It’s not an energy healing practice, it’s imaginary hoodoo.
@Calig I am glad that was not in the clue.
I have doubt comments on this puzzle will exhibit confirmation bias.
Welcome.back, Francis! 💋
@Andrzej Gee, thanks. Both nostrils seemed to be currently clearing the fεcal level, so I thought I'd jump in. But I'm probably close to the peak of my manic phase, so I might not last long.
Sam, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that over here 2-1 would not be considered a low soccer score - in fact, it might be considered quite an entertaining match 🤷
@Tim Might be considered a blow out.
@Tim This is my punishment for not being a soccer fan.
Once again, there is a REBUSCONSPIRACYFOOT A !
Strong, solid Thursday. My solving MO is beginning in the first square at 1A, and not moving the cursor until the final SE square is filled. Thursday and Sunday often give me a run for my OCD money, but today was so...elegant! I saw the missing letters filling the circled squares, arrived at the revealer and got nerdy goosebumps when I plopped in CONFIRMATION BIAS. Satisfying, it was. Happy Thursday all!
@CCNY 😀 I love our different styles. I had only the lower half of yours showing, but I knew it was yours.