What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?
@Fact Boy You nean it isn't? 😯
@Fact Boy Even if it's actually the "Hokey Cokey"?
@Fact Boy It is. You engage your whole self. You turn yourself around.
@Fact Boy After midnight...
Said the director while filming the movie about mathematics, "Lights! Camera! Fractions!" (The reviews were mixed...numbers.)
@Mike So… the critics were divided?
@Mike As an exponent of clever wordplay *and* obscure movies, I figure any film about mathematics would need a super script.
@Mike To quote Bill the Cat: Ack. Ack ack ack.
@Mike Before that, he said "Laplaces, everyone."
Mike, Was that the one the MPAA rated NC-(68/4), due to all the algebraic x scenes?
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Whom a diary is often shown to (2)(3) 2. Sound-track? (10) 3. [Taps casino table] (3)(2) 4. Pressure gauge? (6)(5) 5. ___ Story (punny nickname for the "Iliad") (4) NO ONE ECHOLOCATE HIT ME STRESS LEVEL TROY
My favorite encore clues from last week: [Like cats and dogs] (6) [Bumpy ride?] (5) PLURAL CAMEL
Just a heads up -- as I will be away on vacation, the favorite clues lists next week will be several days late, probably Thursday. There is a chance that I can get them in on Monday, but I would rate that chance as slim...
Two SMÉAGOLS in three days. There have only been two other appearances of this character ever. The last one before Saturday's was in 2018. So was the other one. They appeared about two months apart. Who'da thunk it?
@Steve How else was I supposed to know SMEAGOL?
Leslie, Nice debut! Will, et al, Can we get Mondays back up to NYT level by getting rid of the shading, starring the four themer clues, and having the revealer refer to the "starts" of the four themers? Thanks.
@Barry Ancona Or maybe just no Monday themes? As usual though, I ignored the theme. No point slowing down to suss it out. Personally it was close to a PR for me, so I’d wish for a little more challenge in place of theme.
@Barry Ancona Mondays are supposed to be easy. The shadings etc seem to be helping with that goal. If you want harder puzzles, skip the Mondays and leave them for the beginners.
Down_Home, Shortz Mondays were always easy, just not absurdly so. I'm happy also doing good easy puzzles, but with Minis and now Midis in the mix, nobody needs to start cold with Mondays.
There are many instances of movies with nearly identical plots being released within months of each other. The Illusionist/The Prestige, Deep Impact/Armageddon, Antz/A Bug’s Life, the slew of body-switching movies in the late 1980s… how is it that so many creative people just happen to come up with the same ideas at the same time? This phenomenon, known as Twin Movies, is usually attributed to eavesdropping and industry spies. Which leads me to wonder… Are there events where crossword constructors throw out their best clues for others to hear? Is there a network of puzzle moles who regularly hack into the NYT database? How to explain the Twin Puzzle phenomenon of dueling Sméagols, tandem Captain Phillips, and other duplicate entries appearing within days of each other? I don’t know, but something tells me Yoko Ono is behind this.
@Heidi It's what snorting powdered Oreos gets you.
@Heidi It’s the editors. Seems like we get some words that appear in relatively short spans of time and then go away again. Poor performance on their part, IMO.
@Heidi I had a conversation with my physicist father many years ago about a similar phenomenon in science. In this case, it's the increase of general knowledge that prompts more than one person to come up with the same idea at the same time. It appears that people are copying each other, and I'm sure that does happen, but usually not, they just come to the same conclusion based on the data available. Anyway, I think Hollywood is such an insular group that they are like a hive, with one mind that chugs along and comes up with one thought. They all talk only to each other and think they are being original, but they are just repeating what their hive is saying. Possibly not terribly charitable, but that explains why all the material is so similar.
@Heidi The word STRIKE really unnerved me. Too close to current events.
@Heidi I often find that when I learn a word that I was not previously familiar with, it will appear in conversation or something I’m reading within a matter of days. For an extreme example, many years ago I learned the word “myrmidon” in connection with a fantasy board game called Wizard that I used to play. Two days later I happened to watch The John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and sure enough, the town’s newspaper editor blames villain Liberty Valance’s myrmidons for destroying his printing press. I can’t remember coming across the word in the real world again since that time, although it is a word that has many useful applications today. In the cases like Sméagol and Captain Phillips, I wish the editors would space the puzzles out a bit more.
@Heidi - Thank you! I thought I was the only one who noticed this phenomenon!
@Marshall Walthew It's called the Baader-Meinhof frequency illusion, although in your case it only happened once with that unusual word. I used the word 'anathema' and a friend wasn't familiar. She said she heard it five times in the following week or so.
y that @Heidi I was thinking the same thing yesterday. I saw a movie starring Andrew Garfield called "We Live in Time." It reminded me of another film I had seen recently. Both were about master chefs who wanted to leave their great mark on the world by making a fantastic dish--before dying of cancer. (I can't think of the name of the other film.) I also recall a scene from "Grey's Anatomy" that was an almost exact duplicate of a scene from "Sex in the City." The star has her wedding dress forcefully ripped from her back by a female friend when the nuptials go sour. What an image!! I'd say it may be pure thievery.
Great observation, Heidi, and equally great write-up! Did you ever wonder how iconic movie quotes are spoken with close-up shots of the actors faces uttering those lines? I guess like "the money shot," there are "the money lines?" Take "smell of napalm, handle the truth, make my day, hell's coming with me, quick, pay me a compliment" etc. How did the producers/directors know those lines would become part of our vernacular? And how did they know to make the scene itself look so iconic so the consumers would always remember it? As I mentioned in a reply to Nora, I believe the puzzles are submitted in an electronic form that allows scripting tools to access and compare past cluing and solutions, much like XWordinfo provides. This way, the editors can keep a trend going, start one or, as Barry/Bruce (same person) eluded to, if you read this publication, the clues make better sense. I don't read this pub, so completing the puzzles are more challenging for me. Love your story!
Solid, pleasant Monday. Congratulations on your debut.
When I was learning German in my teens, I often browsed Langenscheidt's German-Polish dictionary. I found it an uninteresting yet quite effective method of expanding my vocabulary. So there I am one day, opening the small yet thick book at random, memorizing word after word. It's going great. The dictionary has this rubberized cover, quite nice to the touch, and the thin yet surprisingly substantial pages make a fascinating, weirdly pleasant sound when I leaf through them, like baby asps zig-zagging across the reedy wetness of a papyrus thicket. The snakelets stop in the middle of the Ms. An unfamiliar word pops at me, daring me to learn it. MOPED! What could it possibly be? It sounds so alien! My mind stutters, confused. My eyes glide hungrily along the entry: Moped [ˈmoːpɛt; -peːt] n Yes, yes, but tell me what it means! I'm dying to know! Ok then, the dictionary says, I'll tell you. Tiny forked tongues vibrate on the page. The anticipation is delicious. It means... Moped! The betrayal! All this seduction - the yielding rubber of the cover, the hypnotic, reptilian rustle of the inviting pages - and then... Denial, rejection! I've been jilted by knowledge. (The thing was, while moped *theoretically* is a word in Polish, literally nobody ever uses it outside dictionaries, as we have another term for the thing: "motorower," literally "bicycle with an engine." Thus, the dictionary entry was the perfect example of the "ignotum per ignotum" logical conundrum)
@Andrzej I was pretty sure I was having a stroke when I read your post until I realized I had solved a la @Petrol using only crosses. Then I saw 13D. I still think one of us is having a stroke.
@Andrzej Whew! With a comment like that, who needs Fifty Shades of Gray?
@Andrzej I wouldn’t get all mopey about moped.
@Andrzej That was awesome! Thanks for taking us on a ride through the aspy wetness of your vocabulatorial adventure. How can one who hates the very word be so unstintingly delightful?!
Oh, I greatly enjoyed this theme. I saw and heard the golfer and other shouters, which brought fun into the solve. The shouts are not directly related to the answers they are embedded in. FORESHADOW has nothing to do with golf, nor ACTION PLAN with movies, and so on. That's a nice touch. It may not be hard to come up with words that are often shouted, like “Sold!” or “Bingo!”, but finding bigger words that start with unrelated shout-words – not so easy. Coming up with four such answers that fit symmetry, well, that’s moving into wow territory. Making them fresh is even more impressive. The five theme answers include ia NYT debut, two once-befores, and two twice-befores. Brava on that! Finally, a serendipity in the grid greatly pleased nerdy me. Near IDAHO is ATOP, and if you read ATOP from right to left, then continue in the other direction two more letters, it spells “potato”. Hah! Your puzzle sparked my day, Leslie. Congratulations on your debut, and thank you!
Administrative note. I will be away until a week from Thursday, on the first non-family-visit vacation my wife and I have had since covid! (We will be lazing away on an island in the Caribbean.) My “favorite clues” list will therefore be late next week. I will miss the gang here greatly, and it will be a joy to return to you. Wishing you well!
@Lewis How about: [What Dad has to do when the lamp falls apart] SOLDER (Trying without success to shade some letters...)
I retired after 40 years of bus driving on the campus routes of Indiana University, Duke, and University of North Carolina; I regret that I never thought to yell out MOVE ARREAR to get my passengers to move back. There were many times when they'd cluster up front like learned sardines.
@Dave “learned sardines” will make me smile for the rest of the day!
@Dave Of course the sardines were learned…they travel in schools and in these cases they were traveling in schools around schools.
@Dave Did you overhear many interestung conversations or were you eyes-front and focused every hour of every day?
Hey, I just posted about the HOKEYPOKEY out here in the comments just a few days ago. NYT is stealing my intellectual property!! I want a cut in the deal!! Har! Actually, it was fun to see that show up! But I think it hasn't been included since 2009, so it is funny that it came up just a few days after I mentioned it. Believe it or not I don't actually mention the hokey pokey very often in my everyday life. Now the lambada, that I talk about all the time! Gotta love the forbidden dance! 💃🕺 Anyhow, nice theme, nice puzzle, nice debut. Somehow, without trying, it was my best Monday time--by far. I don't try to be fast, so it kind of surprised me... Anyhow, time to wind down, or maybe it's wind up, for the week ahead. Not sure which but please know there will be winding involved. Don't worry, I'll wear a helmet!
@HeathieJ Ah, the lambada! With all those a's, that should be useful in crossword construction.
A soothing Sunday afternoon solve, just what was needed at the close of a fraught week, SMEAGOL notwithstanding (never sure what that means, but I think it means what I meant). Thank you, Leslie, for constructing this one, and congratulations on your debut. You seem properly obsessed, so I'm trusting we can count on you for more.
@dutchiris second puzzle in three days with Smeagol. In the Lord of the Rings trilogy we learn that Gollum’s original name was Smeagol. So he considers the one ring his precious and he was a ring bearer
This 10A is [clue to 10A + 10A] to be represented in the puzzle! My usual clarification, before someone posts the usual misinformation: we are purportedly happy "at high tide" because that is when we are spared predation. No! All sorts of nasty predators come up from the sea and are actively hunting us at high tide. Crabs, fishes, moon snails, whelks, and so on. We are happy at high tide because we get to be active then -- for example, we get to eat! During low tide, we have to, well, CLAM up. We cannot feed, we are subjected to thermal (and sometimes salinity) stress, we often have to go anaerobic, and so on. We get to recover from all that stress when the mother ocean comes to cover us again. And that recovery takes energy, so we have to feed! Glorious, succulent phytoplankton! MMMmmMMMmmm! Soup's on!
@Captain Quahog I as watching this movie yesterday about Lake Michigan. The invasive bivalves--quagga mussels--in the lake are devouring all the plankton, so there's none left for juvenile whitefish. Quadrillions of bivalves. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/video/the-fight-to-save-lake-whitefish-zbytwf" target="_blank">https://www.pbs.org/video/the-fight-to-save-lake-whitefish-zbytwf</a>/
@Captain Quahog I was perfectly content entering "lark." Such members of the Avian nation express their happiness through their songs. My two favorite songs of happiness are the towhee and the eastern phoebe. How do you bivalves express your happiness?
@Captain Quahog Soeaking of clamhood, I asked this late yesterday but you may not have seen it. In the spirit of archy and mehitabel I ask: how do you type?
For someone that’s having a pretty bad day, I found this puzzle to be nice and uplifting. Thanks and congrats on your debut, Leslie!
@Mary F Hope the day is that follow are far better for you!! Glad you found a little refuge in the puzzle!
What a lovely Monday puzzle. SMÉAGOL for the second time in a week will always make me smile, being a total LOTR nerd, unlike Ms Kirsch. I thought I was being very clever at 56D as I had CH. ‘Aha,’ I thought, a clever misdirect, it’s a measurement, not a limb. Had the smug wiped off my face two minutes later when I realised TIMBEnWOLF wasn’t a thing. Ah well.
Not only is today my 1300th straight, but I set a Monday PB on this one, so thanks, Leslie Benson!
Great debut. I'm a baseball fan, but I was thinking here that STRIKE was something shouted at a union meeting.
@ad absurdum Not the board of peace?
Perfect Monday. Nothing more to say. (Except: thanks Leslie!)
Really enjoyable Monday puzzle. A lot of working the crosses but everything fell together smoothly. And then... I didn't catch on to the theme until I worked out the reveal. That was just a nice 'aha' moment when I finally saw it. Looking forward to more from Ms. Benson. And I'll put my puzzle find today in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As promised - a Sunday from December 14, 2014 by Jim Peredo with the title: "Well Golly!" A couple of theme clue and answer examples: "Religious rituals for cats?" KITTYLITURGY "Strange pond scum?" WEIRDALGAE And some other theme answers: GENIEJERKREACTION BEEGEELINE GPSILOVEYOU OHDARJEELING Here's the link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/14/2014&g=67&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/14/2014&g=67&d=A</a> .....
A lot of people in this chat forgetting that they already saw SMEAGOL just a few days ago. Gimme for me both times, though
Where did they come up with that mysterious, alien word at 55A? Seems like they just pulled it out of their ‘Area R’. A good puzzle - I didn’t scream once.
@JohnWM Ooh, I'm currently rereading Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach series, which features an Area X. Highly recommended. You will never look at a boar the same again.
@JohnWM More often one sees "in AREARS" relating to a payment/debt/mortgage/etc. But mostly I guess we see it when someone has constructed herself into a cul-de-sac/painted himself into a corner, or whatever. I refuse to get my knickers in a twist over anything this trivial today. The cat's on my bed and won't get up so I can make the bed. I have to decide between going to a library book sale and pulling weeds in the garden, which are emitting guilt vibes, but which will be difficult as we've had no rain for weeks. I'm out of coffee, and DHubby hasn't made a second potful. It's Monday. I think that about covers it. None of this is significant...well, except for the drought. MS is a rural, agrarian state, so.....
A delightful and breezy debut puzzle. Hope we see more of you Leslie Benson. I only read the first several comments, and as usual a few of them are unnecessarily nasty. Please don't let those cranky people discourage you. I'm currently rereading the Harry Potter books and have read LOTR more than once as well, and I really enjoyed those references. Please keep making crosswords.
Pretty sure Deb Amlen would have gone with THEDOCTOR before DOCTORWHO. Hope you're enjoying the next phase if your life, Deb.
@K Barrett The show is not called THE DOCTOR.
CONGRATULATIONS on your debut, Leslie. I thought that deserved a SHOUT OUT 😉 We saw TIMBER WOLves walking along the frozen Milwaukee River when we lived in Wisconsin. They were huge and way too close to our house. There was only one house across the street separating us from the river. Happy Monday Crosslandia.
Good job on the debut, Leslie! 😉 This puzzle flew by fast; a lot of the notes made above by NYT themselves didn't even cross my mind, I just filled them in fast! New record, by the way. And I also learned that Gollum was called SMEAGOL, so it's kinda odd. Keep it up, Leslie! 🥳
OKG OMG OMG MY FASTEST MONDAY EVER! Go 4:20! Perfect time for ARBOR day!! Hope everyone else has a strong start to March! Onward ho!!
Great crossword today! I did in 14:16 using Across clues only, no Downs. Yay me! Great to see SMEAGOL making a comeback!
@Petrol Is it though? Aren't they making a 9 hour film trilogy of his origin story? Stretching half a page of Tolkien on the rack mercilessly, cracking its bones, tearing sinew and muscle? Let sleeping Smeagols lie...
Congratulations on a fine Monday debut, Leslie -- I hope we see more from you soon! Thanks for your sparkling commentary, Melissa. Like you, I greatly rely on crosses (that usually save me) when coming upon similar cultural blind spots. I missed my PB by 17 seconds today, but still finished happy as a CLAM at high tide.😉
Seemed like a nicely constructed (we'll not mention ACUTER) and appropriately clued Monday puzzle. Gollum has crept back into view. UHOH, or perhaps OHMY!
I only met Daniel Craig on two occasions but they were both memorable. The first time was at the Met Gala in ‘86. I was working as a bus boy and accidentally spilled heavy cream on the crotch of his trousers. He was very kind and didn’t make a fuss, despite the fact that he was no doubt wearing something one-of-a-kind and irreplaceable, and I always looked upon him charitably after that. The second time was years later in Rio. There is a restaurant and bar nested within one of the swimming pools at the Copacabana Palace and I was working there as a bus boy in the mid aughts. Mr. Craig was having lunch with several guests and I accidentally spilled bananas foster on the crotch of his swimsuit. He was surprisingly relaxed about it and we all had a good laugh. Technically we had a third encounter on the moon last year (I was working part time there as a busboy), involving a custard stain on the inner leg of his spacesuit, but he refused to speak with me afterward, so I can’t rightly call it a meeting.
@Ace Hah, you sure do spill the beans, don't you? By the way, in January 1985 I was one of the interpreters working the Rock in Rio concert, and dealing with some of the musicians at both the Rio Palace and the Copacabana Palace Hotels. But I will tell you absolutely nothing about it! :-)
One more amazing puzzle find. A Sunday from February 18, 2007 by David Kwong and Kevan Choset with the title: "Magic Words." The 'reveal' in that puzzle was 21 letters across the middle. Clue and answer: "Magic words or a hint to the other long answers in this puzzle." NOWYOUSEEITNOWYOUDONT And some theme answers. BITINGCROSBY DEADLYSITIN SHORTCIRCUS SUNVISITORS HUNTINGPERM ONEARMEDBAND TITANLINES Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=2/18/2007&g=70&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=2/18/2007&g=70&d=A</a> ...
Anyone else incorrectly enter BIG for 1-Down and then have a funny little surprise when the rest of 1-Across was filled? 😅
@Jacob Hmm - I entered a reply that mentioned the one actual appearance of that word in any answer, and apparently that's not going to make it in. So... just go take a look at the first across answer in this puzzle: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/5/2008&g=1&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/5/2008&g=1&d=A</a> ....
SMÉAGOL in a Monday puzzle? If it hadn't just appeared (but in Saturday puzzle), it would be a blatantly out of place in a Monday puzzle in my book. I've only known Gollum. Alas, I Ramble On*. *Led Zeppelin: 'Twas in the darkest depths of Mordor I met a girl so fair But Gollum and the evil one Crept up and slipped away with her, her, her, her, her, yeah
@Jim And don't forget Smeagol's brother Deagol, who initially found Isildur's lost ring in the stream. That didn't end well for him. Yes, I'm showing off my LOTR knowledge. I love Led Zep, but I never really got that lyric. What girl was in Mordor? When artistic license goes a bit too far...
If you're up for more of a challenge on a Monday morning, The New Yorker's crossword today is by Will Nediger. <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/crossword/2026/03/02" target="_blank">https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/crossword/2026/03/02</a>
Barry Ancona, Nice puzzle. I’m thinking a themeless Wednesday from the 2010s here, or currently a hardish Friday (?).
JohnWM, Sounds fair to me. TNY's Mondays have been getting easier too; they used to be more like NYT Saturdays used to be.
@Barry Ancona That was a toughie for me. Yellow Magic Orchestra?
@Barry Ancona I did it in NYT Saturday time but I had to look up the Chinese name in the NW corner to unlock it.
Grant, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Magic_Orchestra" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Magic_Orchestra</a>
Andrzej, I wasn't sure of the answer from the clue either. Which of the crosses did you not know?
@Barry Ancona That's the thing - I needed the name to get an idea for most of the crosses. These things really are hard when you're Polish. I stared at that corner for some 10 minutes trying to figure it out on my own but much too little came to me. It's all on me though - the crossword was nice.
Oh, and one more puzzle find. A Sunday from September 13, 1998 by Catchy Millhauser with the title: "Getting A-Long." Some theme clue and answer examples: "Food for thought?" BRAINMUFFIN "Pain killer?" ACHESMURDERER "Plea for a TV cop?" LACEYCOMEHOME And some others.... WOMANWITHAPASTE STAINEDUPCOMIC BAKEINTHEUSSR BAITATHOUSAND Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/13/1998&g=106&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/13/1998&g=106&d=A</a> ...
Nice debut puzzle to begin the week…looking forward to tomorrow’s
Short and sweet like a scoop of Hokey Pokey, National ice cream of New Zealand, unofficially. Boysenberry swirl is up there too. Finally back on a streak after some Sunday and work delays.
@Paul I had to look it up. "Hokey Pokey Ice Cream is a New Zealand classic! Creamy vanilla ice cream with crunchy bits of honeycomb toffee swirled throughout!" Apparently, honeycomb toffee is called hokey pokey in NZ. The ice cream does sound decadent.
Well done Leslie. Didn't achieve my No Look-Ups on a Monday goal because of the cake. I've never heard of tres leches, and it was hard to guess, wasn't really sure how to solve Yikes! or even Good Heavens! Slowed down a little by DIF, ARBOR day and PARADE and of course I play the Hokey Cokey!
@Jane Wheelaghan ooohh! You're in for a treat! If there is a Mexican bakery near you, I recommend trying Tres Leches cake. Delicious!!!
@Jane Wheelaghan For knowing TRES LECHES, I have to thank The Great British Bake-off (as it’s called here in the states). Never made it, or eaten it, but thanks to GBBO, I even knew how to spell it.
@Jane Wheelaghan TRESLECHES Whole milk, sweetened condensed milk, and evaporated milk--lots of protein, maybe
Congratulations, Leslie! Very nice Monday to start the week.
Got tangled up in a couple of places, because, in my haste, I misread something…so I am not one who finished with a PB. Still, quite a bit under my average…and I enjoyed the puzzle quite a bit, so congratulations to Leslie Benson on a marvelous debut.
For me, the Midi is the answer to the question that no one has asked. But now I need to devote another 2 minutes or so to my morning routine because of my compulsion when it comes to streaks (1030 on the big one, btw).
I cannot be the only one who's sick and tired of running into Tolkien references in every puzzle. Makes me long for Mel OTT, Bobby ORR, ELI Manning, please!
CatDad, Master Melvin has already been here twice this year! Sun Feb 22, 2026 55A Baseball Hall-of-Famer Mel Jill Rafaloff and Michelle Sontarp Mon Jan 12, 2026 8D Baseball's Mel Carolyn Davies Lynch and Christina Iverson
@CatDad I read LOTR dozens of times in my teens and 20s. I may have read it two or three times in the decades since. I think, for some of us, you just go through it-- like acne--and then you're done. But for some, it's a lifelong affair. (Cf. Stephen Colbert, whom I love but who has a serious case of LOTRitus.) It did give me a lifetime's worth of crossword fill.
@CatDad I never tire of LOTR references…I remember the Christmas those books came in my “annual shoebox of books”…I still have those books all these years later.
@CatDad Seems like there's a lot of them waiting to celebrate the return of the Dark Lord.
Whoa! - one of the most amazing puzzles I've ever come across. A Sunday from May 27, 2018 by Andrew Chaikin with the title: "21" Six grid-spanning 21 letter answers in that one, but what was truly amazing is that the clue for every one of those was... "21." Those answers: AGEFORDRINKINGLEGALLY NUMBERONEALBUMBYADELE GUNSINAMILITARYSALUTE SPOTSONALLSIDESOFADIE WINNINGBLACKJACKTOTAL LETTERSINTHESEANSWERS Wow. Wow. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/27/2018&g=92&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/27/2018&g=92&d=D</a> ...
Great start to your crossword creating career. Thank you for a fun puzzle Leslie!
acuter and arear were a little rough but arguably worth it for the theme
One of my faster Monday finishes at 3:42!
@LWat Mine too. 14 minutes ☺️
Easy but fun puzzle today. Good way to start off the week! Got confused with CHESSMOVE vs checkmate. Doesn't help that I'm not sure what APRS was. So had to wait until the end to rejig that section.
@Sally Annual percentage rate (for loans). (Another great clue once was [Followers of Mars.]) (8/4/67)
Fast solve and lots of fun! Unrelated but question — is the midi crossword only released for US located subscribers at the moment? I'm located in Australia, and cannot access the page at all (and it's not in my app despite making sure it's up to date!) When I tried to visit this URL, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/archive/midi" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/archive/midi</a> I get the error that "This page no longer exists"
@Sarah N Maybe this link will work for you? <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/midi" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/midi</a>
@Sarah N I can access the midi just fine in Poland. However, personally I have found it much less engaging than the regular crossword and I think I won't generally be doing it - you're not missing much.
@Sarah N I've got it in my iPad app in France. Could be an operating system issue. When it showed up for me, it included the previously published puzzles.