Well, I'm feeling for John Ewebank. Here he came up with a sweet theme idea and expertly crafted a grid to showcase it. Absolutely, complain away about its unsuitability for the day it landed on -- that's what this forum is for, to express sincere reactions -- but also tip the constructor when deserved, giving credit where credit is due.
@Lewis Well you are right of course and now I feel bad jumping in with my jibes below. I've yet to construct a puzzle, let alone having one published, so props to Mr. Ewebank.
@Lewis It *was* a nice puzzle, and I should have said that. I think we're all just reaching our breaking point due to the loosening standard as to what constitutes a tricky or difficult puzzle. The real fault lies with editing. I'm guessing it was their decision to include shading and circles, and that they significantly eased up on the cluing. I'd like to hear what John has to say about that.
@Lewis Well, we're not the ones calling him a lady-sheep, at least.
@Lewis This is not his fault. In my comments I made it clear that it wasn’t the theme or the execution of the theme. I’m sure he submitted more difficult or creative clues with his original submission. The grid was a little easy but that could have been remedied by making it a Wednesday—or even upped the level of clueing. It’s the deliberate single-minded obvious direction of the editors to dumb down the clues on Thursdays and weekends that is driving me crazy and I think it’s fair to say so.
@Lewis I felt that way about last Sunday's puzzle--that it was an excellent theme/construction that was marred by overly easy cluing. (The word I used was "ruined," but that's really too strong.) Same today.
Like many of the other early commentators here, I am getting seriously annoyed. It takes more than a rebus and a clever theme idea to make a decent Thursday puzzle. Ok, it was a cute idea and the theme fill was relatively interesting and well chosen. And I will even grant that for some themes if you get the first one you can fill in the others more easily, that’s the nature of some themes. But for heaven’s sake why does the majority of the clueing have to be a Monday level? Seriously does three quarters of the puzzle have to be gimmes? I just finished a Saturday archive puzzle—June 4th 2016–Byron Walden/Brad Wilbur. Took me an hour and a half but I finally cracked it (except for an Natick at the end that I could have potentially cracked as well). I’m not saying it was a perfect puzzle but at least it had respect for the solver’s intelligence. And I know this is a Thursday, not a Saturday. But still—is the New York Times readership that much less intelligent than 10 years ago, or do the editors just think we are? Sorry for the rant, and if you want to go off on me for being an elitist have at it. But the juxtaposition of solving these two puzzles just really set me off.
@SP I’ve been doing archived puzzles from the 1990’s and I agree — they were MUCH harder.
@SP To make matters worse we are taunted by 3D.
@SP Absolutely agree and I don't think it's elitist to want a proper challenge. I remember doing the puzzles in the 1990s. Different world altogether.
@SP Coincidentally, I did the June 4th 2016 puzzle on Monday. Not only did it take me far longer than recent Saturday puzzles, but I finished with one wrong box (the crossing of 37 A and 28 D). That hasn't happened to me in a few years. I should have known 28 D, but 37 A was just so tempting. Most striking, was the tenor of the comments. No whining! The defeated solvers just chalked it up to not being up to the task. So, maybe the solving public has changed. Some people just want a "gold star", but they really don't want to work at improving their skills. Their failure has to be someone else's fault. I better stop now.
@SP I'd prefer a challenging puzzle, but frankly I'm happy to get a clever theme and a mildly amusing rebus. The joy of lowered expectations, perhaps.
@SP I have to agree. For the record, I do have respect for the constructors. I have tried, and failed, to construct my own crossword, so I know how hard it is. I'm thankful to all constructors for giving me these puzzles. But the difficulty of the puzzles has been on a very obvious downward trend for a while now. Most of the problem seems to be in the cluing, which in my mind is the easiest thing to fix: no need to redo the grid, just think up a trickier clue. I like a challenge, and I think most of the people here do as well. These days, a challenging Saturday is the exception, not the norm. Thursday's tricks fall right into place instead of taking time to suss out. I'm getting bored.
@SP With the occasional Saturday exception, I have to agree. I don’t necessarily need the Times to return to 90’s level of difficulty, but at least returning to where they were 10 or 20 years ago. They’re becoming children’s games, which feels not only like a waste of time but vaguely insulting.
@SP The thing is, not only are they getting easier, but this one was even easier than recent Thursday puzzles. Case in point, the rebuses were marked with a circle. If you know where the rebus is, it's hardly a challenge -- especially if they are all the same word. And the fill was Monday-level. Thursday is my favorite puzzle. This did not live up to the day. I understand encouraging new solvers, but they can do Mondays and Tuesday to gain confidence and take on later-in-the-week puzzles only if they are ready for a challenge.
I enjoyed your puzzles. I am always baffled by the negative comments.
@Sandy Imagine going to a boxing match, and your guy scores a knockout in the first minute of the bout. You got the result you wanted, but you paid to see...basically, nothing. That's why we have negative comments.
Usually I expect a rebus to make a puzzle more challenging, but here it quickly became apparent that all the circles contained the sin rebus, and a couple of crosses made it clear that the shaded squares had sin too. With so many free letters, and an obvious revealer, there wasn’t much mystery to the puzzle. Not what I was hoping for.
@Marshall Walthew It would have been interesting to have seven "deadly sins" somehow involved rather than the word repeated. Or maybe that's a puzzle that's already been done many times?
The clue for 29D reminded me of an incident that happened when I first moved away from home. Back then, one could ask Ma Bell for a phone number that was relatively easy to remember. As soon as the number was assigned to me, I began getting frequent panicked “wrong numbers” in the wee hours of the morning. Turns out that my phone number was only one digit different from the local VD clinic (as they were called at the time). Fed up, I called Bell to ask to have my number changed, which they did. The very next day, I got a phone call at 1:00 am from someone trying to reach the VD clinic. I asked the caller how he got my number. The caller said he dialed my old number and got a recording that said, “That phone number has been changed to xxx-xxxx”, which was my new phone number. I had mistakenly agreed with Bell to have call forwarding! 🤪
@Strudel Dad 😂Great story! And this story could not have been made better if they had changed your number to 867-5309.
I’ve been doing the NYT crossword for, oh, about fifty years now. I gotta say I did not solve this thinking, “Oh, easy, bah humbug.” I solved this thinking, “Ooh, clever theme, enjoyable solve, yay!”
@Rachel R. I'm a 50+ year veteran of NYT xwords too, a d I've enjoyed every one of them.
Much too easy for a Thursday.
Such a fun example of “guess the revealer”, with only a tinge of disappointment that it wasn’t somehow the “lesser of two trig functions”. Then I got a laugh when I got to the colored EGGS. I had EG - S, and brain instantly piped up EGOS! Can you imagine: a selection of differently colored egos, in the seasonal aisle in spring? (Mine is purple, and it is year round.)
@Cat Lady Margaret -- "lesser of two trig functions" -- Hah!
@Cat Lady Margaret Mine is purple too! 😊
Cat Lady Margaret, Sorry to link to an advertisement, but here is a pleasant selection of colour options: <a href="https://youtu.be/mQpwDtIn4ec?si=48gTWD4VCoO5qy-h" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/mQpwDtIn4ec?si=48gTWD4VCoO5qy-h</a>
Ya know, when you hit your personal best for a Thursday, and you have a 6-day streak going that started on Saturday (‼️) and you find out that the median solve time was still 3 times faster than your personal best, and nearly everyone complains about how ridiculously easy the puzzle was, y’all kinda ruin it. 😞 That said, we’ve established here before that some of the easier puzzles come from trying to bring in new solvers (like me 🙋🏼♀️!). I’m sorry, not sorry that my joy in solving the puzzles brings you so much pain. We’ve also established that people just get better over time because you learn all the repetitive fill and you get better at spotting letter patterns (like me 🙋🏼♀️!). Could some of it also be that collectively, our vocabulary level has gone down a bit? When they use words nobody has heard of, we all complain. 🤦♀️ Personally, I’m grateful to @WillShortz for doing the impossible job of trying to make this group happy. 😊 And I’m grateful to be part of this community where we can all argue with one another, and still come together, differences and all, to enjoy one of life’s simple (at times, too simple) pleasures. ❤️
@Cherry Congrats on a 6-day streak, and starting with a Saturday, no less!
@Cherry, congrats on your streak and a new personal best! Just scroll by the negativity and keep up the excellent work! One part of your comment I don't understand is that others might not be happy about your solving success; I've never seen any comments to that effect here. I think most of us love hearing about the success of others, especially newer solvers finding their puzzle legs, so to speak. (I'd insert a festive emoji, but my emoji keyboard has disappeared! Figuring that out is a project for later today.)
@Cherry “Personally, I’m grateful to @WillShortz for doing the impossible job of trying to make this group happy.” Of course it would be impossible to make *everyone* happy, but IMO the day-of-week difficulty progression that Shortz developed hit about as broad of a sweet spot as possible. At the moment, from my perspective, the editors are cannibalizing the brand/reputation that they developed over the course of several decades, in order to attract as many new solvers as possible in the short term. For a while, this may work nicely, as I’m sure it boosts “engagement” for lots of newer solvers to see themselves tackle the much-feared late-week puzzles. But here’s the thing: once Thursdays have stopped being genuinely tricky, and Fridays and Saturdays genuinely hard, for a long enough time, the reputations associated with those days will fade away as a memory of a bygone era, and people such as yourself will no longer feel a sense of pride for finishing “an NYT Saturday puzzle” without assistance. Not sure where things go from there…
@Cherry I've been solving NYT Xwords for 50+ years and I've enjoyed every one of them! Even Mondays (for which I creare special rules for myself to make them more challenging),
@Cherry It's fine to feel like you solved it, but as a beginner, you aren't expected to solve anything easily. For instance, I wouldn't lace up skates for the first time, try to play in the NHL, and get mad when I couldn't keep up. I would practice at the junior level until I got good enough to advance. In the same way, when I started out, I could only complete Mondays, and even then I'd look up what I could. I then went back through the archive, doing only Mondays, and once I became proficient, I'd move on to Tuesdays. I think it took me over a year to get into Saturdays.
The last Monday puzzle with a rebus was August 6, 2018. It would have been fine to hold this one for February 23, 2026. SRSLY!
Without the tint boxes and circles, it would have been a nice -- if a bit easy -- Thursday puzzle.
Early comments expressing a lot of big feelings on the easiness of this one. I’d like to say, first, I enjoyed it quite a bit and thought it was clever. And second, this puzzle certainly wasn’t hard, but I thought it was fairly standard Thursday difficulty for a Monetization Era puzzle.
@Striker Ok, but I’m quite sure you actually realize that the ascension of the Monetization Era itself is the very thing people are complaining about…
Whoever decided to run this on a Thursday should be cruci-fined, or sent to SINg-(SIN)g. There is that scene in Master and Commander where Jack Aubrey is telling a joke at the Captain's Table, punch line: "...the lesser of two weevils!" The books (O'Brian) are great fun to read, good historical accuracy, you learn a lot about seafaring, and the characters are all well drawn. Movie's not bad either. I wouldn't say paupers are necessarily penniless. They might still be pennied, even after being thoroughly nickeled & dimed. I would say a better answer these days to [Penniless one] would be US Mint. Beyond the puzzle's lightning quickness what is more disappointing to me is the lack of wit and misdirection in the cluing/fill. Gas units -- GALLONS was typical in that regard. I wanted to shake the puzzle by its lapels and shout loudly in its face, "Cmon, make me bleed a little!"
@john ezra Gas also comes in Litres (liters) which dominates globally, or cubic things as gaseous matter.
@john ezra, My response was complicated by the terminology: in Australia, we call ' gas' 'fuel' or 'petrol' , so I was thinking of sophistications such as famous scientists' names eg, Pascal.
@john ezra Ha, thanks for the Patrick O’Brian reference. The lesser of two weevils indeed.
@john ezra You are right about the O'Brian books. To me and to many, they are as addictive as great food, and better than any serial put out by HBO/Netflix/Apple etc. By the time one finishes the series of 20 one is compelled to start over, and the second time through is more enjoyable than the first. The movie is a reasonable facsimile, but failed greatly in miscasting and minimizing Captain Aubrey's best friend Stephen Maturin, who is a far more interesting character: Irish/Catalan, naturalist member of the Royal Society, polyglot, polymath, superb swordsman, spy, cellist, diplomat and surgeon. In spite of the fact that he is small in stature, swarthy, and no seaman (can't get from the dock to the ship without falling in), he saves Jack's bacon time and again, and gets the girl. Agree completely about the puzzle. I would particularly note the the PHIL was way too easy.
@john ezra To be fair, with gasoline units, I immediately went to liters. It took me a few seconds to go "oh, wait"
People - if you want a harder Thursday puzzle, please submit one. The NYT can only work with what they are given. I enjoyed this puzzle.
@jennie - The SIN rebus had to work six times. That is impressive to me.
@jennie We're solvers, not constructors. Also, the constructors among us have been saying they've had many rejections of tough puzzles.
@jennie A puzzle isn't a "take it or leave it" proposition. The crossword editors work with constructors to improve their original submissions, and they can (and do) suggest alternative clues. It's the clueing that determine the difficulty of the puzzle - the existence of easy mode for Friday puzzles demonstrates that. If a difficult puzzle can be made easy by more straightforward clues, then the opposite is also true: an easier puzzle can be make harder with more subtle or trickier clues. It's up to the editors to determine what level of cluing is appropriate for a particular day of the week. Personally, I'm OK with an occasional easier puzzle - as long as it's only every now and then. It's the overall trend towards consistently easier puzzles in the second half of the week that I find disquieting. I like variety and definitely want challenging puzzles to be part of the mix. And that's up to the editors.
jennie, The "given" theme and grid entries are fine. Get rid of the circles and tints, and toughen up the -- or leave the constructor's original tougher? -- clues, and you have a decent Thursday. It's the editing, not the submission, that's at issue.
@jennie The editors can toughen up the clues.
@jennie Thank you for giving me an in. I wasn’t going to say anything because it would sound like sour grapes but I’ve had several puzzles rejected lately. Since I’ve had three accepted in the past and I know enough about puzzle construction, I can say the ones that were rejected were better than the ones that were accepted and in my opinion better than many that are published from the same day. The standard form rejection is “this wasn’t our top theme” (they used to give more specific feedback but rarely any longer). I can say confidently it is not for want of more difficult puzzles being submitted.
I hate to pile on, but… you know something’s wrong when at this point in the night, there are zero complaints about the presence of a rebus. It’s almost like this was a Thursday primer: See Jack fill in the shaded squares. See Jack squeeze those same letters into a circle. Fill, Jack, fill! I’m so sorry, Mr. Ewbank. I have nothing but praise for your abilities, but Jane, Spot and I think the editors did you wrong.
@Heidi Ye gods, you're right. I didn't look at it that way but it's brilliant - no complaints about a rebus must surely mean it's not a proper Thursday.
I'm not sure if you all are under editorial direction to make these easier, but please go and look at some of your Thursday-Friday-Saturday puzzles from the before times (I'm almost done with 2013 - they're diabolical, and let me know it is not, in fact, that I am too skilled). It was nice when I could learn new things from esoteric crossword puzzle answers, when solving a Saturday puzzle felt like an accomplishment. As my streak approaches its second year, it feels more like dead weight than something to be proud of.
@Paul you said it much better than I did. Thank you.
@Paul I completely agree. I’m working backwards in the archive and have reached 2012. So many of the Thur, Fri and Sat puzzles were far harder then than the ones today. The past 2-3 weeks especially have been almost ridiculously easy.
@Paul I agree, as I have been working back through the archives too, although not as far back as you. But I do wonder how the current puzzles will appear in 10-15 years, to that audience.
I agree with everyone who thought the cluing terribly easy for a Thursday, but I still think credit and gratitude are due to Mr. Ewbank for the conceit and construction which I, for one, thought were awe-inspiring. (Yes, I'm always awed by talents I don’t have, which is why I enjoy crosswords so much. Constructors never cease to amaze me!) For conjecture's sake, it seems to me that the cluing was maybe made easier to balance out the presence of rebuses. That said, when the rebuses are repetitive, I'm of the opinion that more challenging cluing would be a better fit for a Thursday. In any case, I love me a Thursday puzzle and this one was no different. Added to that, it lit up the musical synapses in my brain: Bill Withers with "USE ME" (one of my favorite turn-up-the-bass songs of all time) - <a href="https://youtu.be/NuYDKzky4z0?si=t6SvsWzCOm5bAbur" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/NuYDKzky4z0?si=t6SvsWzCOm5bAbur</a> And [Take THAT] with "Back For Good" - <a href="https://youtu.be/N2ICtCO8TCw?si=94eo2FBtPVvOm-6g" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/N2ICtCO8TCw?si=94eo2FBtPVvOm-6g</a> Thank you, Mr. Ewbank!
@sotto voce It definitely was a nice construction and yes, I got the theme really quickly. Not alwasy the case. LOL.
@sotto voce your review is far more eloquent than mine would have been. I will just say that I wholeheartedly agree with your entire post.
@sotto voce USE ME made me think of an old Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir song of the same title. The song and video are a but dated, but I love the sentiment. <a href="https://youtu.be/mPhAlDBzOI0?si=rcmcdy45XkxnR-US" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/mPhAlDBzOI0?si=rcmcdy45XkxnR-US</a>
Just slightly under my Monday average. Nice puzzle, but way too easy.
I see a lot of comments complaining the puzzle was too easy. But I came here to say I enjoyed the theme and thought it was very cute.
@SusanEM It was a good puzzle but the editors did the constructor a disservice by running it on Thursday. I enjoy a good challenge and a hard rebus this time of the week, and this was not it. If I ordered a steak at a restaurant but got a BLT, even the sandwich being good wouldn't really be enough to satisfy me, would it...
Not a TOUGH NUT to crack, but a sweet puzz. My dad, who was as gentle as a lamb, (and the reason I love the NYTXW and football), would watch the Bears play *any*other team and say, "Ooh CC! They're cruuusin' for a bruuuisin'!" Thanks for the help today, Dad. I know you're grinning wide over that one.
Oopsie! The NYT accidently ran a puzzle that was meant for Highlights magazine. Hopefully, the real Thursday puzzle will come up later. I anxiously await it's arrival.
I've been renting gluttony and sloth recently. I'm a lessee of two evils.
@ad absurdum If you'd been the buyer, you could have been the LESSoR.
@ad absurdum Made me smile more than the puzzle did. Or that time you loaned a couple of bark beetles to that film set, when you were the lessor of two weevils.
Is it too late to get a new SSN? Mine has been a real beast.
@Mike R Are you sure you're not from Munster?
I miss the rebus puzzles...the real ones, without the circles to indicate where the rebus goes, accompanied by shaded squares that spell out exactly what the rebus is. The ones where each rebus was different. The ones that required some real effort to crack...but that feeling when you did crack it, and the puzzle started to yield, was wonderful. Those were my favorites, but I think they're gone for good now, and I don't know of any other source for them now. I liked the puzzles that outrageously broke the rules, like the one that had the answer's direction turn ninety degrees halfway through, or the one that had answers that continued outside the grid. Those usually were beyond me, but not always, and conquering one was a thrill. The NYT had become so leery of rebus puzzles that you seldom see them anymore, and when you do see them they're like this one...spoon-feeding the solutions while holding the solver's hand and murmuring encouragement. I'm waiting to see the gold star given out just for participation. Thursday puzzles don't have to be dumbed down like this. Seeing a few outraged and frustrated rants in the comments section is a sign that you're doing it right.
@Bruce Yes and it’s funny. Once my mother and I worked on a Friday puzzle I mistakenly thought was a Tuesday(on stone tablet) and when we finished, I showed her the online comments. She read a few like, “This is a terrible puzzle!” I think it made her feel better that her work wasn’t all for nothing and she found it kind of funny. So I don’t think we need to be so hard on for example Eva from Kentucky. And I love when Ed done did this puzz. Once my mother thinks though that we got covid from doing a puzzle together. No one else on that weekend trip got it, but I thought it was from crowded dinners unmasked in small rooms.
@Bruce I mean... "the one that had the answer's direction turn ninety degrees halfway through", like last Sunday's? I guess the italicized clues made it too easy? And for a rebus puzzle without any circles telling you where they go, you can look at the first one of this year. I agree these past few weeks have been a lot easier on average, although as a new solver I don't find that as annoying as you guys I guess.
Even taking it a little slow, bc I was distracted, I still finished in less than half my average. Agree with the general sentiment that it was overly easy for a Thursday puzzle.
Maybe without the shaded squares and circles this would have put up some resistance. As it was, I just filled in the answers and only slowed down to hit the rebus key. Bummer :(
I love the first-class constructor’s mind that came across the everyday phrase LESSER OF TWO EVILS, immediately (I imagine) wondered if a puzzle theme could be made with it, then came up with this primo idea with its perfect punchline. Bravo, sir! The theme not only does its job well, but it also gives the puzzle freshness, with all four theme answers being NYT debuts. Not only did John have to juggle grayed squares, circles, and rebuses, but he got those theme answers to fit symmetry, and on top of all this, he filled the box with a clean answer set. Bravo again! I enjoyed coming across lovely answers – WHIRRS, BLIP, TOUGH NUT, BONSAI – during the fill-in, and I chef-kissed when I uncovered the revealer. I liked the liquid-y subtheme: ARK, KEG, SHOWER, SOAKED, LEECH, THIRST, GALLONS, SEABEDS. As well as the HISS subtheme, with seven answers containing double SS’s. Much sweetness in the box today, and thank you for sparking my day, John!
New PB for Thursday at 15:37! I’m a fairly new solver, started about two years ago and in the last few months have mostly been able to solve Mon-Wed all on my own and the rest of the week using the hints article and perusing the comments. Although it looks as though this puzzle was very easy for a lot of people, I’m just happy with myself that I figured out a rebus for the first time without having to read the tips/hints article. Even got the LESSEROFTWOEVILS on my first run through and without having any crosses yet. Thanks for the fun solve on my bus trip to the city :)
Got it, no help from Google, didn't balk at the rebusses (rebi?) Since Thursday is usually my least favorite crossword day, I just strode in here to SINg a happy song, albeit sans a shampoo bottle.
@Don H Don’t fear the Rebus :)
8:04 without really even trying. Theme was obvious from the first clue. Please, please can we go back to clever, tricky puzzles?
Came to say how I appreciated today after struggling mightily yesterday but I see that’s not the vibe so I’ll see my way out.
@carrielewis No problem in saying that you enjoyed the puzzle. Good for you! The complaints seem to centre on the overall dúmbing down of the whole collection. Many here have said, 'Great little puzzle! Too bad they ran it on a Thursday." I think the irritation is that the plan as presented (and paid for!) is progressively harder puzzles from Monday to Saturday, with Sunday having mid-week clues. Yet, we're seeing the flattening of the difficulty curve so that even the so-called 'tougher' days are not tough. And sadly for the NYT, the archives provide ample evidence of this decline. So, logically, the next step will be to limit access to the archives and charge more for that. Or perhaps remove them entirely. No evidence = never happened, right?
I guess people are too botherred/pleased by the ease of the puzzle, to be concerrned with WHIRRS. I've ever only seen it spelled "whir," and ngram confirrms that, in fact, "one-r whir" is the more common form, although "two-r whirr" outstripped it for most of the 19th c. Perr the OED, there's also a form "quhirr," using that weirrd Scottish spelling. Also, it probably derrives from Old Norse, brought when the Danelaw whirred into Northerrn England, and not simple onomatopoeia, which is what would have ocurrred to me. In summation, "whir" is the sound a Tibetan priest's prayer wheel makes as it goes around; "whirr" is the sound a herrd of camelids make as they race through the Andes. Last night, my Partner and I watched the 1961 film *Mothra*, and it could be said that "whir(r)" was the sound Mothra's wings made, as she destroyed Tokyo and New Kirk City.
@Bill They save words like "quhirr" for Spelling Bee.
@Bill How do you know MOTHRA was female? Did she lay an egg?
If you thought this was a super easy puzzle for a Thursday, you're in good company. From xwstats.com: 🌎 Global Stats Difficulty Very Easy Median Solve Time 8:47 Median Solver 34% faster ⚡92% of users solved faster than their Thursday average. 74% solved much faster (>20%) than their Thursday average. 🐢8% of users solved slower than their Thursday average. 2% solved much slower (>20%) than their Thursday average. My personal calendar from xwstats indicates that 11 of the 19 days so far this month, I have solved more than 20% faster than my average for the day, with only one day (Sat. the 7th) when I solved more than 20% slower than my average. That is in stark comparison with January, when the numbers were reversed, with 12 days more than 20% slower, and only 2 days more than 20% faster. Given the fact that I'm doing everything a little slower these days than a few years ago, it's not surprising when I type slower, think slower, and just move slower. What is surprising is when puzzles consistently take me astonishingly little time to complete. At least, with the new system, reading the comments is slower.
@Steve L Absolutely yes. I think anyone who thought this was a difficult puzzle must be a very new solver. So it was a Thursday just because there was a repetitive rebus tucked into a puzzle that was as easy as a Monday? I guess subscription rates will really soar if this keeps up, and maybe that's the idea.
@Steve L One can now (pay to) share a Games account with 3 or 4 people, but that's okay since crosswords now take 1/4 the effort to finish. A wash? Nice dig on the comments.
I came here expecting to see the normal complaints about a rebus, ...and found none! I came here expecting to see compliments about the cleverness of the theme and gimmick, ...and found very little. I thought that this was a fun puzzle. Could it have been more challenging? Absolutely. Was the cluing a little basic? Yes, indeed. Should you let that interfere with experiencing the joy that a (im)perfectly puzzle can provide? Well, I enjoyed it. My question is, "Will all the complaining in this forum convince the editors to increase the difficulty of these puzzles?" There is little evidence to support such a hypothesis. In which case, ...perhaps we can leave the whining and belly-aching to those who specialize in that sort of thing.
And an excellent revealer, in my not-so-humble opinion. Apparently that makes a big difference to me.
@The X-Phile, the dominant conspiracy theory here seems to be all the complaints about rebus puzzles and difficulty has made the puzzles easier, so it tracks that they feel the need to complain in an effort to make them more difficult again. It’s tiring.
@The X-Phile Would you enjoy solving a Tuesday every day of the week? It's disappointing to see such a low level of difficulty this time in the week, even if the puzzle itself was fine. Why should we keep quiet about something we disagree with?
I could not figure out the revealer before getting there. What I was thinking was BIG SIN, LITTLE SIN??? What does that mean? I almost clapped my hands with glee when I saw THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS. That's about the best and most amusing revealer I've ever seen. Kudos! Re: SINGS IN THE SHOWER. Too funny. I don't sing in the shower because I don't take showers, but I do sing in the bathtub. I've never used a shampoo bottle as a microphone and I'm quite sure I never will. Why on earth would I need a shampoo bottle? You don't need one either, shower-singer. Lovely embedding of the SINS, both big and small. No junk. A delightful puzzle.
@Nancy Duh, I just caught on to the Lesser hint. Little sins in little (lesser) circles. I'm pretty slow on Thursdays – pretty much like every other day... Thanks Nancy!
@Nancy -- I just thought I'd let you know: Singing into the shampoo bottle let's you Repeat after you Rinse. As a lyricist, you can see how that would help with the chorus...
A little surprised everyone is calling it Monday-Tuesday level. I finished faster than my Thursday average but not anywhere close to Monday-Tuesday speed. More like an easy Wednesday (Especially compared to yesterday that was full of Naticks). Fun puzzle though.
@Chris I would note that, per your testimony, "an easy Wednesday" would be exactly Monday-Tuesday level.
... This would have been a fine Tuesday, with its direct clueing, utter lack of misdirection and simple theme. But a *Thursday*? C'mon!
Back to Monday-level for the rest of the week, I guess
@a 39.2% faster than my Monday average. And roughly a minute and ten seconds faster than Wednesday's puzzle. Next up: [Feline pet that meows] --> CAT.
Thursday? No. Tuesday. Sometimes a puzzle can be quick and fun. This was just easy. I wait for Thursday to even do the puzzles. Disappointing. Sorry.
@Jake G The expectations and day progression policy are now nearly officially out the window. We've had repeatedly dead easy Fridays and Saturdays and a weirdly difficult Wednesday, among other things. Worse, as you imply, is that Thursdays can't be counted on to be clever. I used to really look forward to them as a crossword highlight. Now they're just another day. My new favorite crossword day is "well, I guess we'll see".
I enjoyed this one. I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see all the complaints, but... so it was on the easy side for a Thursday. So what? It was definitely a Thursday type of puzzle and a really impressive feat of construction. The rebus makes it a Thursday puzzle and that doesn't always mean that it has to be unusually tough. Oh well. Anyway - one puzzle find today - a Sunday from February 27, 2005 by Mike Torch with the title: "In Pairs." Some theme answers: INTERNSINTURNS INHALEINHAIL INROADSINRHODES INGESTINJEST INSIDERINCIDER INQUIREINCHOIR And there were more. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=2/27/2005&g=100&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=2/27/2005&g=100&d=A</a> I'll shut up now. ......
@Rich in Atlanta And... one more puzzle find. A Tuesday from March 19, 2019 by Daniel Larsen. Some theme answers in order with some letters highlighted to clearly reveal the trick: easyasABC mosDEF weiGHIn dJKhaled fiLMnoir backuPQb pRSTunt UVWave XYZaffair Here's that link. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/19/2019&g=18&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/19/2019&g=18&d=A</a> I'll shut up now. ...
Rich, ...and for you _____, Mickey's big hand is on the one.
@Rich in Atlanta It might not have been as wickedly hard as the usual Thursday, but I still needed four cheats. I did manage the rebus parts fine. I enjoyed it, which is the most important part. I'm sure something horrid is coming for the weekend, though.
I came in here to say I loved this puzzle! It was really fun and I enjoyed it.
Fans of my solving -- and they are legion -- will be delighted to learn that I finished this puzzle faster than I have ever finished any Thursday puzzle. I'm down to a record fourteen seconds personal best for Thursdays. Obviously the Monday times are quicker, six seconds is my PB; but there were some hitches today with the rebi and all. I think that it's time to start an admiration society of me. I wouldn't be the one to suggest it, I'm too modest for that, but I'm putting it out there in case someone with organizational skills and nothing but time on their hands wants to take up the challenge. It isn't easy. You'll have to manage the many thousands who want access to interviews or just time spent with me. Be strong. It puts me in a reflective mood: for a long time I wasn't really sure what the purpose of the internet is, at least for me -- or what the purpose of a comment section in general or this NYT crossword comment section might be. Now I know that the point of the whole thing is for others to boost my fragile ego on flimsy grounds, with no evidence to support my dubious claims. That's right, isn't it? Have I misunderstood?
Asher B., Sounds great, but I have a question: If we join the society, will we have access to all your archived comments, where you are even less modest? Because for a Thursday, this comment was way too modest.
@Asher B. He gets it! He really gets it!!!
@Asher B. I am more of a lurker than commenter these days (used to comment a fair bit, usually argumentatively, and always just felt dirty), but I will say that the “purpose” of this forum for many of its most active members has often struck me as a head-scratcher. I’m also not sure exactly which sub-genre of comment you are primarily aiming to lampoon. That said, if you are under the impression that the slew of complaints from long-time commenters regarding the lack of challenge in recent puzzles can be reasonably characterized as bragging…you’re simply reading the room wrong. Whereas *newer* solvers do often come here to pat themselves on the back about their personal milestones (which I have absolutely no problem with, btw), I am supremely confident that most of the old-timers aren’t coming here to do that…even if I’m not sure exactly what it is they are doing.
Well, yes, I suppose this might have been easier than many Thursdays are. I really enjoyed it though, and I thank John Ewbank for making it. All the puzzles I do are entertaining and so good for my aging brain. I am never inclined to complain about any puzzles, whether it seems too easy or too hard for the day it's on. Gosh almighty, we have enough things these days to be upset and annoyed about. Puzzles are pure joy and distraction, at least they are for me. Thanks to the whole team and to Sam for a great column, as always.
@Shari Coats Suppose the opposite trend were to occur, and suddenly puzzles became so diabolically hard that most solvers weren’t able to complete even Mondays without cheating. Would you respond to their inevitable complaints with the same “gosh almighty” chiding?
If you're looking for puzzles that are of the difficulty and quality of the pre-2020 NYT, where do you go? This one used to be the gold standard, and I'm not sure where to get my fix now
@a Puzzle archives? I'm plodding backwards through them, but I'm only to 2022.
I'd call this the lesser of Tue...sday. Definitely not a Thursday puzzle.
I can’t decide which is whirrs: having TOUGHNUT in *this* puzzle, or not cluing RANK as [Noisome].
Personally I appreciated a quick solve Thursday because I needed time to finish my (harder than usual) Wednesday! Also, I thought the focus on SIN was clever given that lent has just begun.
Joining the chorus, very nice Thursday. If this one doesn’t win over the rebus haters then I don’t know what would.
I love you, NYT crossword. Thanks for all the dopamine.
@Caroline That is the sweetest comment I've ever read in this forum! You've put a smile on my face and, I'm pretty sure, raised my own dopamine levels. Thank you!
Late to the party, because I was still waiting for the Thursday puzzle to arrive, and now I see that that was it.