Amen! Let's hear it for the Minnesotans.
Minneapolis rightly deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
@Cole 🩵💙🦆💙🩵 It's a duck emoji but it's standing in for a loon... I feel like after all this, they need to add a loon emoji specifically.
@Becky No, that's okay, St. Paul doesn't need a Nobel. I'm sure you'll all remember us next time there's an occupation... (Passive-aggression: Minnesota's official language.)
HELLYEAH, MINNESOTA NICE! We've LIVED through some tough times recently, and have felt less SECURE by the day. To say we are MIFFED is an understatement. Thankfully, we didn't have to go it SOLO, as we are always here for each other. Minnesota will be an ICE ARENA no longer. We won.
@Katie We won a battle and I loved the support we got from this forum--I never felt alone. Celebrate it to the fullest. Drink the deepest draught. And get ready for the next phase.
On a day where we may be seeing some changes (we’ll believe it when we see it), thanks for the MINNESOTA NICE!
I like a nice Friday puzzle that causes mild panic in the beginning as you struggle to get a foothold, but starts coming together quickly enough that you're solve time average isn't completely wrecked. That's what this one was for me.
Three cheers for MINNESOTA NICE ! I am here to testify that it is a stereotype because it is true ! Just drive the freeways (and more commonly now) tollways of Dallas or Phoenix. Then go to Minneapolis and St. Paul, get on the freeways, and try your turn signal. It's like the seas part, and they invite you into their lane with a wave and smile and promise you a hot dish, dontcha know ! And now we've seen that in the face of injustice and oppression, they do not change. They are heroes. I <3 you, Minnesota !
@Jim Why, thank you very much. But I couldn't have done it without my fellow Minnesotans**. **joke**
@Jim Having lived in Europe for over 50 years and done a fair amount of traveling, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Swedes are the nicest Europeans. Wasn‘t Minnesota settled by lots of Swedes? Maybe they imported their niceness, and it caught on..
@Jim Hey, now. Watch how you talk about Dallas drivers. 🚘 🚘 🚘 (Nah, you’re right. We’re terrible.)
As a Minnesotan living in Thailand, I was pleasantly surprised to see Minnesota nice crossing paths with Thai iced tea, much like I do nearly every day. Well done!
Joined the 1000 day streak club with this one! Definitely getting better over time. Needing less research and checks and often beating my daily average.
@Paul, Congratulations! That is for sure a big milestone, one not reached by a whole lot of people. Well done!
Gosh you folks can be tough on the puzzle creators. I’m just happy to finish one. I don’t know the names of tv actors, authors I haven’t read, or oddball food ingredients so I spend a bit of time with Google on Fridays and Saturdays. But it’s always enjoyable to take a quiet hour to solve the puzzles. So thanks to the brilliant people who give me that time to be surprised and delighted by the answers and the clues.
Thank you Evan, and editors, for giving us a Friday that is not already in Easy Mode. Fine (NYT debut) clue for CIRCA, which is not to be confused with CIRCE. (HERA SAYSHI.) The Boston cab driver says SCROD is the past pluperfect...
@Barry Ancona CIRCA was a debut? I would have thought it would have long since appeared -- Maleska's era at the latest. Any guesses why it's been hiding out all these years?
@Barry Ancona Oh, wait. 🤦♀️ You mean that the /cluing/ was new. All clear.
@Barry Ancona Do you know where I can get SCROD?
"Can you fasten a rope out of metal way up in the air?" "High zinc knot." (Even with a first-brass ticket.)
@Mike -- "High zinc knot" -- Hah! One of your best!
@Mike Thank you Sgt Shultz 😃
@Mike I guess you said that tungsten cheek. (I hope the emus see the irony.)
@Mike What's it for? Should we call a copper not?
I really liked the puzzle, but I don't understand why they would clue MINNESOTAN ICE as [Polite, friendly stereotype from the Midwest]? Seems kinda backwards to me. ;-)
@Francis Because we know what Minnesota Nice really means? Excuse me, Francis, but there was nothing passive about that aggression from SP.
@Francis "Polish nice" is the best nice, anyway, as demonstrated delightfully by yours truly.
@Francis Is it true that The People of Minneapolis have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize? What a coup that would be, on so many levels!
Loved the puzzle! Especially MINNESOTA NICE. I’m a native Minnesotan (now living in CA) and I know my people. It has been gut wrenching to see the twisted portrayal of Minneapolis in the national conversation. Minnesotans are in general steadfast, strong, generous, compassionate, and…nice. (Well, with a side of wicked humor and passive aggressive thought patterns,) They have shown their colors many times over the last several weeks (and years). I couldn’t be prouder. Maybe this is why I have a soft spot for Francis, HeathieJ, and many others here from the homeland. Thanks again, Evan, for a fine Friday puzzle that was very close to my heart.
@M. Biggen Well, I need all the help I can get. So thank you. And you are 100% right. Minnesotans (and all Americans) are great with a side of rascality. It's not just them that will not be tread upon.
I don’t like to see ICE ARENA looming over MINNESOTA NICE, but at least it’s right next to I VOTE NO. The opportunity to vote “no” can’t come soon enough.
@Heidi Curling is very Minnesotan.
A puzzle for Francis who is the epitome of MINNESOTANICE. Dating qualifier: CIRCA, nice. I tried sake for poke accompaniment at times, and groaned when I caught my mistake. Lots of nice entries like FLATEARTHERS, THAIICEDTEAS and MOVIETRAILERS. Add in ICEARENA and DIAMONDEARRING, and there was a whole lot of ice in a puzzle with MINNESOTANICE at its heart. Seeing SCROD reminded me of an old joke: A tourist arriving in Boston for the first time, asks the cabbie on the ride from the airport, “Where can scrod be had? The bemused driver replies, “Many people have asked me that, but that’s the first time I’ve ever heard it in the past pluperfect.”
@Marshall Walthew Well, thank you, but I pale in my Minnesota Nice to Heathie and other Minnesotans here. I'm just old and trying to get into heaven. But kind of you to think of me Regarding your joke...OMG...😂😂😂 I did not know that Boston cab drivers were such grammar elites.
@Marshall Walthew I'm slow. What does it mean?
I so wanted the P-town catch to be "crabs." Ice arena crossing Thai Iced Tea crossing Diamond Earring -- triple ice axel! Very Winter Olympics of Evan. And a laudable effort at putting naughty ICE back in the NICE column. As in Minnesota Nice, H3LL YEAH! ...although that, along with RAN A LIGHT and IN GOOD, well, SMH. Funny how the long ones filled in so easily and it was in the thickets that my time was spent.
Had to laugh about Circe. Just today, my wife said incredulously, "Did Epstein turn every man he met into a pig?" We debated that for a while, whether Epstein had a good pig radar and sought them out, or whether he simply let out the inner pig that most men possess and keep mainly penned up. "Where's your inner pig?" she asked. "Oink," I said, kissing her cheek. But it wasn't that funny. Lot of pigs out there. From Canto I, by Ezra Pound: And then went down to the ship, Set keel to breakers, forth on the godly sea, and We set up mast and sail on that swart ship, Bore sheep aboard her, and our bodies also Heavy with weeping, so winds from sternward Bore us out onward with bellying canvas, Circe's this craft, the trim-coifed goddess. Then sat we amidships, wind jamming the tiller, Thus with stretched sail, we went over sea till day's end.
Apparently, somebody fixed the toggle between Oldest and Newest. (I did complain and was asked a whole bunch of questions, including whether I logged out and back in again, restarted the computer, and uninstall and reinstall the app, even though I told them it was an issue on a desktop, an iPhone and an iPad.)
Steve, It got unstuck late in yesterday's comments. It will probably get stuck again at some point. What else is new?
@Steve L I complained, as well, on a couple of articles, not just the crossword. I also mentioned in my report that the Washington Post had tried removing the "oldest" sort and had to backtrack after all the complaints.
I also had an email exchange with the tech staff, first with the automated assistant, then (presumably) with a real person. We were never able to get on the same wavelength and the glitch finally disappeared. I wonder if the first response to all inquiries is “reboot your device and clear the cache”.
It's amusing to me that taking a break and giving my brain a rest will almost always result in seeing a word that had previously eluded me and is the key to finishing the rest of the puzzle.
@Nancy It is just the spookiest thing, ain't it! And the break can be days later, not just minutes or hours... It's like unconscious solving is going on in the interim...
@Nancy My routine for late week puzzles is to start them before I go sleep, if I don’t finish it that night, I’ll attack it again when I wake up. Usually one or two clues that eluded me the night before are suddenly obvious and the crosses fall into place.
@Nancy It’s an amazing phenomenon.
@Nancy My wife (a cognitive psychologist) has told me in the past that there is scientific confirmation of this phenomenon. Unfortunately she isn't here at the moment or I could ask her what it's called. I've preserved many a streak by putting the puzzle down for an hour or two and coming back to it later.
About the puzzle: It seemed quite chewy as I was doing it, but my time wound up being four seconds faster than my Friday average. So many things I didn't really know but took educated guesses and did fill-in-the-blanks after a few crosses.
@Steve L Really? Had I known the three trivia entries in the NE, I would have solved the puzzle in Tuesday time.
You'd think the story of Circe and Odysseus and his crew would be more of a cautionary tale and less a meetcute. Sure she turned his crew into swine when they behaved drunkenly and boorishly. But in her passion for the louts' commander (he tried to resist with Hermes's help but her charms were too powerful and he ended up betraying his fair Penelope) she ended up turning them back and everyone had a grand old time on her island (Aeaea...by the way, killer fill if it hasn't yet been used) for a year. It's a man's world, I tell ya.
@Matt Your little retelling made my day!
@Matt Boys will be boys, especially on islands.
Matt, 1 result for AEAEA from Modern Era puzzles: Fri Aug 30, 2019 50A Island of myth in Homer's "Odyssey" Trent H. Evans Shortz 2 results for AEAEA from pre-Shortz puzzles: Sat Jun 20, 1992 25D Circe Kevin Boyle Maleska Wed Jan 24, 1973 8D Circe's isle Unknown Weng
@Matt Aeaea!? Aieee. Don’t give anyone ideas. I could see that becoming the next Oreo.
I liked it! A nice challenge with some twists and turns for me.
@NYC Traveler Hmm, I think my husband might say that I'm a nice challenge with some twists and turns. 😏
Fun puzzle! Please tell me I’m not the only one who thought “A sharp wind?” was Fart before FIFE ? 🤭
@Kim I had OBOE. Cause when is it never OBOE here?
@Kim Did you read the column? I believe that @Sam Corbin implies that she was on your wavelength.
Finally, I flew through the puzzle but man, if I didn't get stuck right at the end with PSST and SEE. I'd made the mistake of putting cHAIICEDTEAS of course. Still not understanding bishop's locale. Still, a fun little puzzle before bed.
@Alex M You must be my lost identical twin. That was exactly me! SEE is, believe it or not, also a noun. In that sense it is of a church like-thingy...you know, that stuff they do in churches.
@Alex M See is most commonly used to refer to the domain of the Bishop of Rome (The Pope) as the Vatican is called the Holy See.
@Alex M Diocese, bishopric, and see are roughly synonyms with small differences in nuance. See tends to be used for the central headquarters of a bishop’s territory rather than its full extent.
@Alex M @Francis Triplets...
@Alex M I was completely stumped by PSST/SEE. I thought the first word was POST, as in Facebook post, since you can poke people on FB. But OEE didn’t make sense for the other. I couldn’t imagine what it could be!
Was anyone else curious about the 14.54-carat Apollo Blue DIAMOND EARRING? For me, what was curious was the singular noun. I mean, don't EARRINGs usually come in pairs? If you've got 42-million dollars hanging from one ear, what do you wear in the other? <a href="https://www.naturaldiamonds.com/historic-diamonds/apollo-and-artemis-diamonds" target="_blank">https://www.naturaldiamonds.com/historic-diamonds/apollo-and-artemis-diamonds</a>/ Apparently, you wear a similarly-sized pink diamond. For those who are still looking for a Valentine's Day gift,... Kind of amazing how small 42-million-dollars is!
@The X-Phile So I'm actually the dude that bought that thing. What happened was, I was sitting there at the auction, feeling embarrassed that I was like the only person not bidding on anything. I decided I had to use that silly bidding paddle for something and it's not like I'm gonna play ping-pong with it(What am I, Will Shortz?). Funny thing is I don't even have pierced ears so now it's just sitting in my thingy drawer with all the rubber bands and aglets and Faberge eggs(I guess I could donate those somewhere).
@The X-Phile It's crazy that blue diamonds are so rare that they couldn't find a match for the Apollo.
Talk about lovely bones … the three-stack across the middle and its crossing vertical two-stack – All five answers are NYT debuts. And excellent ones! That is tough to pull off, and it pays off – it lifts the puzzle out of same-old-same-old; gives it a fresh-off-the-press feeling. There are actually ten NYT answer debuts in this grid. Lovely short answers that I like as well – THINGY, MAHALO, MIFFED, SCROD, CIRCA. By the way, if your time was a little longer than usual, could be because the grid is one column wider than usual. I like BEATLE crossing EYES, tripping off “The Fool on the Hill” (And in the eyes in his head / see the world spinning ‘round) and “Come Together” (He got joo joo eyeball). I also like the rare-in-crosswords five-letter semordnilap (LIVED), along with an almost six-letter one (ALETAP). Your puzzle, Evan, was not only made well, but it played well. This was one sweet outing. Thank you!
The Minnesota spirit Blend of kindness and grit Heart warming Mightier than brute force That spirit kindling pride Kindling hope Through its burst Of light
When Friday puzzles appear such as today’s and you scan a few clues, you think to yourself, this is such a daunting task. Then you run through the clues and get a few. You go around a couple more times and your success is starting to become achievable. Next thing you know, it is solved. That was me today. I started out hopeless then just kept going to the well and sure enough she’s done. The clues today really made you stop and think. All in all an enjoyable brain test!
@Dan Collins every time this happens to me, I try to absorb the lesson to apply to the rest of life: It feels impossible until it doesn't! NYT Games are my grit workout.
That was fun and challenging, very nicely constructed. I'm happy whenever I can solve a late week puzzle in under 30 minutes and with no assistance.
THAI ICED TEAS, in sea shanty form: you’ll be glad you took a couple minutes. <a href="https://youtu.be/z9T33lQAqPg" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/z9T33lQAqPg</a>
@Cat Lady Margaret Well, it turned out to be more like an hour. Thanks for the link.
@Cat Lady Margaret -- Yep, ear worm for the day. Can't get it out of my head.
Delightful. That is, it would be, on Tuesday. And not really, either, with the NE corner from my personal hell, with three adjacent trivia entries which I ended up having to look up. The constructor/editors even found a way to clue a poem I like and enjoy (possibly the only poem in English that speaks to me) in a way that stumped me. Again we get an easy grid where knowing the trivia is the only challenge... Where art thou, my late week misdirection? Shall I experience your uncertain rustling... Nevermore?
@Andrzej Strange that The Raven, like most poetry, eludes me. I think the moment I get to something like "the bust of Pallas", or whatever, my eyes roll up into my head and I'm comatose. I invite you to expound on why you like it so much.
@Francis I don't like it *so much*. It's both much simpler and much more complex than that. First, as I have remarked here on multiple occasions, I just don't get or feel poetry in English. It feels strange and alien, generally, and either I have no idea what's going on, at all, or - in a best case scenario - I understand the language but I find it artsy and convoluted rather than special. It doesn't speak to *me*. (One of the many factors may be that in Polish, where I occasionally do get poetry, it is not metered, which in turn is often a feature in English: it's just not something I have ever learned to appreciate since it's not a thing in my native tongue). Now, second, I simply understand the language of "The Raven", which is a good start. I also get the Romantic-era trope of longing after a dead beauty - one of Poe's most common motifs. I like how the words convey the feelings of the lyrical ego, his loss, his obsession, possibly even madness. The poem picks up pace, reflecting the growing terror. There is also the mystery in the background - who exactly was Lenore? What had happened to her? Not knowing contributes to the feeling of dark unease.
@Andrzej I have a theory. For seasoned solvers, the late-week, themeless mindset is to look for misdirection. But do that say, 100 times... 300 times... 3,000... and the *mis*direct reads like a straight shot. Like today's [Group of reps] or [Really fancy?]. Didn't you read them immediately as [Gym workout units] and [Really, really like]?
well I read it as as Minnesotan Ice and thought that's not so nice!!
@gym Yes! Quite observant! My wife broke her wrist on Minnesotan ice. I had to make dinner ALL BY MYSELF for *two* weeks! Horrible thing to have happened to me.
This felt hard but didn't resist mightily. It was an enjoyable solve. But some of the entries feel lame to me, like IN ARABIC.
It seemed tough and then it was done. Nicely constructed. A good workout.
MINNESOTA NICE made me smile and immediately brought to mind Frances and HeathieJ! My cousin was named after the Fleetwood Mac song RHIANNON ☺️ I often think about music as I’m solving, so that song will forever make me think of my cousin. We also had the BEATLEs with Something. On the other hand, DIAMOND EARRING brought to mind Golden Earring 😉 Here’s Twilight Zone for your listening pleasure <a href="https://youtu.be/L3WAyRJxWpg?si=r_HaCJLlwUsyF5Xo" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/L3WAyRJxWpg?si=r_HaCJLlwUsyF5Xo</a> Thank you, Evan, and keep them coming! There’s March and November this year to get another one published on Friday the 13th!!
Felt completely stuck here for about fifteen minutes and then it was like a penny dropped and I finished most of the puzzle in ten. Hats off to MINNESOTANICE. I had some of the blanks to fill in and was thinking “ICE are the literal antithesis of polite and friendly, *especially* in Minnesota right now,” but then the penny dropped. Bravo.
I can I not love a puzzle which starts out with THINGY, NUTSO, PYRO, and especially HELL YEAH!--my second favorite interjection, right after "HELL NO!"? Circe and Hera were first cousins, once removed; which is pretty far removed by the standards of Greek mythology. The family tree of the Greek Pantheon is almost as complex as that of the Coppolas. To a person of a certain age and subculture, [Provincetown catch] suggested something else, although at least I was as negative as @john ezra (Hi, @je!)
@Bill (I get frustrated hot being able to edit comments, especially for the typos spell-check doesn't catch--i. e. the simple grammatical ones. "How can I . . .?" "was not as negative . . ") (Oh, look, I just typed "hot," which spell-check wouldn't catch, and which, in sans-serif and by my poor eyesight, is hard to notice.)
@Bill Hell Yeah, if they can remake the Comments (and break the Oldest option) why can't they add an Edit function?
@MOL Because they're bad at their job?
Seems my earlier comment was impounded, or lost during one of several "glitchy" periods this morning. Lovely puzzle, but the *only* correct answer for "Someone singing 'Something'" is GEORGE. CIRCA and CIRCE in the grid together was a nice bonus. Really enjoyed this puzzle.
We need more from this puzzle creator! I've loved both of his.
Psst! I vote hell yeah for more like this Friday thingy -- er, puzzle!
TOASTS to this puzzle! My insistence on Prod before PSST (cause, you know, poke and prod? Clever) produced 3 nonsense downs that I chose to accept, and delayed my solve time by at least a solid 30 minutes. 😂 I was laughing out loud at some of my mistakes once I figured them out. Really great clues throughout (loved DIVEBAR and CIRCA). I thought this was a perfectly Friday level Friday, and I'm looking forward to the next Friday the 13th! 🫶🏼 to Minnesota
Another Friday grid that seems pretty decent, but so many of the clues (especially the shorter ones) were clued at such a basic level it just took the air out of the balloon, or so it seemed to me. I never really had the fun of feeling stumped, which is a shame because there were a lot of interesting longer entries. I liked the clues for MOVIETRAILERS and DIVEBARS. But some of them like for PYROS or FLATEARTHERS just came off a bit tired or obvious despite trying to be clever. Even one of my favorite entries, MINNESOTANICE (no excuses today, Francis) just seemed clued very blandly. I don’t mind the entry INARABIC but really how many of you had to think twice about it? FIREHAT? Sure it could be part of chidlren’s costume it so can a zillion things and not very Halloweenish—just seemed pretty arbitrary. I did like learning about Lincoln’s fascination with ThERAVEN. Last nit—sure, MANNA is in the Bible, but it’s physical, not spiritual, sustenance.
@SP "...no excuses today, Francis..." 🤣🤣🤣 I got MINNESOTANICE pretty quickly, oddly enough. But from the moment I did I was terrified I'd be stumped somewhere else, and it would have all been for naught. I mean, for the Gods of Construction to send a gift like that, and *still* not be able to seal the deal...well, the shame of that would be unbearable.
@SP The clue for FIRE HAT annoyed me. I struggled in that corner or the otherwise way-too-easy grid, with its vertically stacked three trivia entries. I needed footholds there, and the red Halloween plastic thing could have been anything... As you probably know, mana (not MANNA) is spiritual fuel for spells in fantasy games. Maybe the constructor/editors confused the two? Btw, I've been playing an awesome game recently. "Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon" is a dark fantasy RPG with a great story and interesting quests, and some wonderful writing. It was created by my Polish compatriots. The only issue is the dated graphics, but the world is nicely designed and has a great feel to it, which makes up for the rather simple models and textures. I highly recommend it. It's been released both for consoles and PC. I haven't enjoyed an RPG this much since The Witcher 3.
SP, Regarding the clue for MANNA, see def. 1b: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manna" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manna</a>
@SP I liked this puzzle better than you did, it seems to me, although I didn't much like FIRE HAT (shouldn't it be FIREman's HAT? Does a PYRO wear a FIRE HAT?) But I need to correct you on MANNA. Sure, in Exodus it is physical sustenance for the wandering Jews. But there is a 2,000+-year history of symbolic interpretation of this passage in which divine, spiritual nourishment is emphasized.
@SP Agreed, the red FIRE HAT was green paint.
Honest question - do most people look things up? It kind of mystifies me when I read comments like “too easy; I only had to look 3 things up”. If I look ANYTHING up I mentally count it as a failed puzzle. When I look at people’s comments on the difficulty of a puzzle, I don’t know if I’m comparing my experience to those who Google. Didn’t look anything up in this one and I thought it enjoyable!
@Sarah f I look up proper names, abbreviations and the like when I'm hopelessly stuck, as was the case today in the NE corner with its three adjacent trivia entries. It's either that or leaving an incomplete grid. I refuse to be defeated by stuff I haven't managed to learn along the way in my generally full and interesting life. Ultimately what's the difference between knowing some random name and looking it up? We have the internet for a reason. For a mental exercise, imagine a grid that consists only of proper names you don't know. You wouldn't find it fair, would you? Closed-off, trivia-heavy areas of grids are somewhat like that, to me. Finally, everybody has their own puzzle-solving standards. You have yours, I have mine. Neither is better or worse.
@Sarah f I try not to as well, there were a few names in this one I was tempted to but held off and made it through on crosses. But yeah, personal fail if I absolutely have to. It gets harder as you go back through the archives, so many topical names from the past that simply aren't common knowledge in the present. They had one from 1942 on the archive and it was impossible!
@Sarah f Great question! One I've asked myself over and over for the couple of years I've been here. It would be silly to try to enforce any rules here, so I think we've mostly adapted a "follow your own code" here. But, if I may be so bold, the error you're making was the error I made for a long time: it's a mistake to try to compare yourself to others here. The only reason to do so is to establish oneself in a hierarchy. And it's just not worth it. This is for fun, in its purest sense.
@Sarah f As a general rule, I don't do lookups, and I too feel the weight of failure on the rare occasions that I do;) My personal hack for completing tougher crosswords is that frequently the answer is far less complicated than the clue, you just have to understand the clue. Or sometimes you have to walk away for five minutes, let your brain marinate, and look at the puzzle anew. I find the experience of working out the grid that way much more satisfying than going on an internet scavenger hunt for answers to popular entertainers I no longer have the band-width to keep track of. I don't view the crossword as a competition. I view it as an exercise, from which I happen to generally derive pleasure, so I don't really think there's a wrong way to do a crossword puzzle, and I don't think doing lookups is cheating.
@Sarah f Also keep in mind that comments can be absurd bragging. 'Tis the internet, after all. I almost never look up anything, but it took me a long time to get to this point. Sometimes when I'm stuck (today SE corner), I'll check spelling (RHIANNON) or names that I think are right (GIA). But sometimes that gives away a mistake that I wished I had struggled with a bit longer, so I do resist. I agree with others, it's a game, play it however you want to.
@Sarah f As for me, I think "to each their own" applies perfectly here. For those that like having the answers already in their brains, ready to dig out and dust off, a look up will feel like a failure. For me and the way my brain works, that feels like brain clutter. I'm more of a librarian-type who thinks, "I don't know the answer to that, but I know where to look." The satisfaction is in the finding of an answer. When it comes to the sports trivia questions (like the scoreboard questions that drive me insane), I will ALWAYS look those up. I have no interest in storing that info.
@Sarah f The King of Crosslandia, our beloved liege, Will Shortz, has long said, "It's your puzzle; solve it your way." I agree with you that using outside resources is "cheating", but that's just the way I roll. I used to judge the way others solve, but I got over it. I don't think it would be possible to get a reliable survey (either in this Wordplay-realm or the greater world) about what "most people" do. To each her/his own. To thine own self be true. Let a hundred flowers bloom. And don't worry about comparing yourself to others.
@Sarah f So glad you asked. I'll be interested in others' answers. As for me: I'm old school, straight up. I don't look up. I'll leave a puzzle unfinished and walk away for hours, days, weeks while I wait for my brain to rev up and cough up the missing datum or for life to hand me the solve randomly. I think I've 'cheated' on three puzzles in the last 6 months. Came here and confessed my sins like the good Catholic girl I'm not. And I very rarely will use "Check Puzzle" diagnostically to confirm what's correct and pinpoint where the trouble is. NB If you're like this, you have to abandon any hopes for streaks or fast times. Which I have done. But as we all say: It's your puzzle. Do it your way.
@Sarah f I allow myself lookups on Fridays and Saturdays. I never look up using the exact phrasing of a clue and try to limit the specificity of my search. I often learn something new along the way. I also check my spelling. I love word games but am an awful speller!
@Sarah f With you 100%. On the rare-ish occasion I cheat at all, I do so in the app. At the same time, I agree with 90% of the recent (last ~couple/few years) complaints about how the puzzles have gotten too easy, and also concur in presumptively attributing the motivations behind this unfortunate trend to business concerns. But isn’t it funny how so many people like to crow prescriptively about the meaninglessness of streaks…and yet they use “lookups” to preserve their own, provide well-argued justifications as to why a given puzzle so clearly deserved the lookup treatment, and often trot out the good old Shortz saw about how it’s “your puzzle to solve how you want”.
@Sarah f Unfortunately people here love to brag and show off. Whether it’s true or not that some people never look things up will never be known. Honestly, it’s obvious the constructors use tools like Google, dictionaries, thesaurus, to dig up the most obscure information in an effort to make the puzzles difficult, so you shouldn’t feel guilty doing the same. You only know what you know, you know?
@Sarah f I have said before that I consider lookups to be “learning” rather than “cheating”, and I don’t think I’d be here without them. (In this puzzle community, that is. I’m pretty sure I’d still be alive.) When I started doing the crossword, the clueing language was quite foreign to me and I was regularly stumped. How could I get names from the cross if I couldn’t get the cross? I resorted to a lot of lookups in those days, because a sea of empty white squares looked a lot more like failure than a Google search. Over time, as I learned how to decipher the more cryptic clues, I relied less and less on lookups. That’s how I knew I was making progress. These days, I usually need them only for adjacent factual bits (like names) that cannot be sussed out or guessed. So I understand judging your own abilities, as well as the difficulty of a given puzzle, by the number of lookups. I had none today, BTW. But I didn’t find the puzzle easy.
Gosh! Felt like a Sunday to me, lots of specific knowledge which I did not possess beforehand about two types of midwesterner, pacific islanders, aegean islanders, new englanders and old celts! Fun puzzle for a Friday!
@Jonathon I would have thought people in the UK would be at an advantage regarding old Celts! :-) I had to look that one up, not on Google, but in my Spotify playlist. I like the song, but can never remember how to spell it.
Unusually tough one for me and had to cheat a bit to get through it. Probably shouldn't count it. Puzzle find today - a Sunday from March 15, 2015 by Dan Feyer with the title: "Making connections." I won't list the clues - just some of the theme answers: INSUREENOUGH INFIDELCASTRO INCANOPENER INJURYTAMPERING INFIELDGOAL INDUCTTAPE INTAKECONTROL INFANCYPANTS Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/15/2015&g=124&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/15/2015&g=124&d=A</a> See you tomorrow. ...
@Rich in Atlanta Oh... and one more puzzle with one answer appropriate for today. Wednesday April 1(!) 1981 by Ernst Theimer. Three theme answers: VIIYEARSBADLUCK THEIXOFDIAMONDS and... FRIDAYTHEXIIITH Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/1/1981&g=62&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/1/1981&g=62&d=A</a> .....
@Rich in Atlanta Ah, go ahead and count it. Your love of crosswords gives you at least that much.
Faster than yesterday and no lookups. Good flow, and lots of fun clues. Enjoyed.
Came for the THAIICEDTEAS, stayed for the Boston SCROD
What a ride that was! I went clunking over some rocky places, thinking that my crosses must be wrong, and sometimes they were and sometimes they weren't. Crave before COVET, FLATlander _ (oops) before FLAT EARTHER, and some others, but dropping in MIFFED made up for everything. The few easy clues tucked into the leftover spaces were fine, and in the end, the whole thing sparkled like a DIAMOND EARRING. I'm looking forward to your third puzzle, Evan, and thank you so much for this one. (I guess I'm the one who's doin' THE RAVEN.)