Today was my first ever clue-free Friday, a personal Everest—until I got here and found out it was more of a scenic overlook. I’m planting my flag anyway.
@A.B. Celebrate your own personal goals, and don't let others' criticisms bring you down. Congrats!
@A.B. Plant that flag with pride. I dare say most people's first Friday or Saturday was easier than normal.
@A.B. Hey, good for you! Difficulty is subjective, and don't let anyone tell you different. You can scroll through the comments on most any column and see two people having the opposite experience on a puzzle. Onward, to more Fridays!
@A.B.”scenic overlook” very apt! And happy vernal equinox to all
@A.B. Nice image! Reminds me of welcome language in hiking guides: "Great views can be obtained with little effort"
@A.B. Does this mean you were able to fill the grid without looking at any of the clues, just through likely word combination, letter frequency and grid shape?
@A.B., Plant away! It’s a Friday that you solved for the first time with no help. You earned it.
Pleasant answers, as I would expect from these two pros. Too many easy clues, which cannot be on these two pros. One should not be able to say about a Musa/Goldstein Friday crossword: ITSASNAP.
@Barry Ancona As Rebecca herself told us by providing the list of her rejected clues for SURPRISE PARTIES.
Didn't understand how 'Gukesh Dommaraju, upon becoming world chess champion in 2024' translates to TEEN. Gukesh was already a teenager before he becomes the chess champion and is still a teenager - so where does the 'upon becoming' bit come into the picture? Just seemed like a very awkwardly worded clue.
@Rahul It means he was a TEEN when he became champion. It doesn’t imply causality or both happening at the same time.
@Rahul, I agree, I found the phrasing "upon becoming" both awkward and also implying that "upon becoming a chess champion he turned thirteen," that the two events nearly coincided with each other. Better phrasing: [What Gukesh Dommaraju was when he became a chess champion in 2024].
@Rahul Yeah, the phrasing in the clue was really confusing.
Yikes. I’m a dummy that takes like 25-35 minutes to do an average Friday. Today was 12? The comments are gonna be brutal. I read Thursdays comments less than 15 minutes ago. If @Lewis is unhappy with the cluing / editors, then you know we have jumped the shark (shout out Fonzie). Editors be like “GO EASY ON ME”
@Weak Yes, please let's go easy on them! I'll explain: I have an inkling that this is all being as difficult on the editors as it is on those of us who expect the crunchiness. We all *know* what the constructors and editors are capable of when it comes to wordplay and misdirects. And that is why something tells me that they're being made to answer to a higher power that is demanding an accessibility based on the lowest common denominator. In fact, I wouldn't doubt it if it's driving them up the wall as much as it is us. I really do think the editors' hands are tied. Whoever is calling the shots on profitability is who's to suffer our complaints, and I'm willing to bet it's not Will Shortz nor any editors on his team! [Exiting soapbox]
@Weak I'm also one of the 'dummies' who takes 25-35 but it took the normal amount for me. But I got stuck for a while in the top half because I had SET instead of LAP, COW instead of SOW and STAMP instead of TRAMP, and did not know who HASAN Piker was, which made it tough to get SURPRISE PARTIES.
@Weak same here, takes, me 25 to 35 usually, I was done in 11:35? A Year ago it was taking 45 to 60. I can't even do a Monday in 11 minutes.
What a treat – a Rafa and Rebecca puzzle! I love these two constructors so much that I'm not even going to apologize for being on a first name basis with them, like old friends, lol. These two are the bee's knees and the cat's meow. Put them together and it's magic squared! Thank you so much! A bit too easy for a Friday as well as for what these two and Will Shortz et al are capable of with wordplay and misdirects. To the Games higher-ups: please leave the Crossword be. Please show respect for the gold standard and those who have given of themselves to cement it.
Sacré bleu, Hastings! Poirot prefers a little more challenge to the little gray cells in a Friday puzzle.
JUST SO WE'RE CLEAR: This puzzle HASAN identity problem. It did not AMUSE me. Have I once asked the NYT to GO EASY ON ME? I HOPI never again see a Friday about which I can truly say: IT'S A SNAP. I think that on Fridays we're entitled to AFFAIR challenge. Not to the equivalent of doing one's ABCS in kindergarten. I would rather have a puzzle that occasionally makes me feel I'M LOST than one that PITIES me. NAE NAE, I protest. NAE NAE, I want my Fridays back.
It’s fresh, it’s clean, it’s smooth… and yet it also was in *no way, shape, or form a Friday* JUSTSOWERECLEAR… ITSASNAP 🫤
@Mishlev Yes, I enjoyed it a lot, but it was way easy for a Friday!
I found this a proper Friday challenge - my solve time was right on the money for this time of the week. I see many others found thought grid way too easy, so maybe my being Polish influenced my solving experience even more than usual, but for once I'm glad about it! I enjoyed the misdirection of many of the clues. However, I thought the trivia-heavy NE would defeat me: I had no idea what Zillow or a kachina might be, any mention of American legislation *for short* strikes terror into me, and I feared I would not be able to get the name of today's particular Jesus. But I decided to persevere. You probably know the answers, I thought to myself, and sure enough, with a few crosses I remembered ACA, ALOU (thanks, Steve L!), and HOPI. I admit I Googled what Zillow is to get an idea of what the answer to its clue might be, but that ended up being my only bit of outside help. My wife and I visited Denmark in 2024 and yet I already managed to forget they don't use the Euro! I suppose it's because it's a completely cashless society - all I did was wave my phone around terminals, and I never handled a single Danish krona. It's not like I use cash in Poland either, I guess, not outside the farmer's market anyway, so maybe I should not be that surprised...
@Andrzej my solve time was 30% of average and ~50% of recent ‘normal’ Fridays. So it felt speedy. Wednesday took longer than today. Haven’t had cash on me for quite a while now. I just checked and there’s an emergency 20€ in my hat 😀
Was zum Φick?! How, *how* was this properly hard for me then? I mean, my mom said I was special, but *so* special? Surely not... The 26 minutes this took is exactly my Friday average, and at no moment during the solve was I even sure I would be able to finish. The SE corner went fast, granted, but everything else was an enjoyable, uphill struggle. For me, the NE corner could have come from Simeon Seigel - it wiped the floor with me and was about to wring me out when I finally cracked it with much blοοd, sweat and tears. Had this run on a Tuesday, or a Wednesday even, I would have posted an epic rant about editing inconsistency 🤣
I’d like to clarify a previous comment. Two things can be true at once: the fill was delightful and the puzzle was uncharacteristically easy _for its day_. That’s not being dismissive or pretentious or unappreciative. For those of you completing your first Friday sans lookup, rock on. But this ain’t how they used to make ‘em, in my humble opinion. Again, Fridays and Saturdays shouldn’t have to shatter your will to puzzle. They should _not_ feel like a large Mini or a Midi, either.
Loved the clue for GLUTENFREE! I have celiac, I guess I go against the grain!
@Lydia Simmons Finally, someone who has a real reason for having to be GLUTEN FREE!
Not the first and won’t be the last to say ITSASNAP, and GOEASYONME, were apropos. If these were the hard Friday clues, what could the easy ones be? Doesn’t get any easier than old McDonald and ABCS for fundamentals? These are top tier constructors (and a very smooth grid), surely we could have uplifted these clues a bit more. That said, I did like the clues for GLUTENFREE, PUBTRIVIA and ALOU but most of the other misdirects were not too misdirecting. I will say since I mentioned yesterday that my kids picked up an ALBANIAN RESCUE that it was nice today’s crossword finished the thought.
@SP It's amazing how much harder I found this grid than you and many others! I solved it in 26 minutes, which is pretty much exactly my Friday average. The SE was the only area that yielded to me quickly - elsewhere I had to fight my way to completion.
I don't envy whoever's job it is to determine which puzzles run on which days. You have to figure out if more people are going to complain that it's too hard, or more people are going to complain that it's too easy. Because either way, people are going to complain, apparently. I just like solving puzzles.
@Scott It's not all that hard. They apparently have rounds of private beta test solvers, in addition to a staff of editors. They know how hard something is going to be before they publish it, they edit for difficulty and clarity all the time, and they know that they are making them easier. Do you enjoy solving kid menu placemat puzzles AS MUCH as NYT crosswords?
I just came here to say that "Giant Jesus" had me rolling. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@Sean Robertson best way I’ve ever seen this answer clued!! 🖤🧡
I loved seeing it again... New York Times, Thursday, February 5, 2015 Author: Mike Buckley Editor: Will Shortz 33-Across : Giant Jesus
@Sean Robertson Oral Roberts had a vision of a "900-foot Jesus" outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and he took it a a sign to build his university there.
I don't mean to be harsh, but let's be honest. It was pleasant enough, but more like a mega-Mini.
@dutchiris Agreed. Nice puzzle but I went through it in no time. (Hardest challenge: I didn't know the Hillary Clinton dance and had TRoMP instead of TRAMP. Fixed that in no time too.) My personal marker is when I've filled in complete crossing entries without even having looked at them, it's too easy. For me. For the day in question.
Most horses who are not "in the wild" are SHOD. There are numerous reasons for keeping hooves protected; horseshoes can even be corrective. BIRTHDAY PARTIES fit in there nicely.....Hide and Go Seek isn't a bad party game. ESCOOTERS? The way people charge around in their giant vehicles? No thanks. I can't quite get my head around the "new word" COSPLAY. Wasn't "Pretend" good enough? And isn't it about time to GO EASY ON Hillary Clinton? We have villains enough who merit investigation and opprobrium, who are without the education, accomplishments, and record of service that she has to her credit. It would be nice to have a few people in office who were as qualified and hard-working, IMHO.
@Mean Old Lady Good morning, Meanie. COSPLAY is a portmanteau for costume play. Pretend often does not require a change of clothes.
@Mean Old Lady granddaughter and I endlessly played pretend until she was about 10 or 11. We did it when she lived with me, and then via facetime when they moved away. Such great memories - literally hours on the phone together. Now she's 16, so it's cosplay. ❤️💕❤️
@Mean Old Lady oh good, I'm not the only one that was mad at the workhorse clue!
@MOL Such a good point about E-SCOOTERS! {Shudder} Good points all, actually... But only that one caused a physical reaction, haha.
@Mean You can go on Youtube and watch Hillary sway the Nae Nae. It could give you some good free entertainment.
“Monday easy” “Like a midi” Really? I may not be the most experienced solver here, but I’m not an idiot, either. And I found this plenty challenging. I’m starting to think I don’t belong here.
@Heidi I had a similar experience. High five?
@Heidi Well I, for one, hope you stick around. You DO belong, just as everyone who struggles to solve something that others found easy, and vice versa. What my colleague Deb Amlen once said of the column, which holds true to this day: It's a party, and everyone's invited.
@Heidi None of the “too easy!” commentary is directed at you, or any other solvers who are finding the current puzzles plenty challenging. But to be perfectly honest, if you are in that boat, you probably *shouldn’t* be able to solve the average Friday/Saturday puzzles without assistance. And that’s totally fine! As I see it, the day-of-week difficulty scheme is largely intended to strike a compromise that accommodates solvers with a wide range of abilities. The upshot being: for more experienced solvers, the first couple days of the week are usually cakewalks, and for less experienced solvers, the puzzles later in the week are often unapproachable. In other words, beginners and advanced solvers can “belong here” simultaneously (“here” being the puzzles themselves, the Wordplay comments section being a whole other beast). Recently, the editors seem to have prioritized making late-week puzzles approachable for less experienced solvers…with the result that more advanced solvers can often go weeks at a time without getting a puzzle that presents them with a real challenge. And that’s what the complaints are about.
@Heidi Speaking of not belonging here, a lengthy-ish response I wrote to your comment has been deleted. As far as this comments section goes, *nobody* really belongs here 🤣
@Anonymous Yeah, but @Heidi in Dallas is an experienced solver — more than her post implies — and a regular commenter. So while your comment is very good advice, there may be something else to her post. :) Speaking for myself, while I felt let down by this puzzle given who the constructors are, it's equally disheartening to come to the Wordplay comments only to find them overwhelmed by the complaints about difficulty. It wasn't *that* bad, nor *that* easy. Yet in lieu of personal anecdotes or praise of clever gems, there's just a large amount of repetitive commentary. I wish the Games staff would get the message already so we all can move on!
@Heidi For what it's worth, I always enjoy your comments! You definitely belong! But I also absolutely get it, because there are days I feel like that too.
Heidi, Did anyone else call you (or anyone) by the “i” word? I bet not. Did anyone call someone (other than themself) a genius just because they can fill in a little grid with some words, quickly? Again, my money is on ‘no’. If people feel like geniuses or the opposite, I see no evidence it is caused by the comments here. And performance on a crossword puzzle is evidence of one thing only: performance on a crossword puzzle. Personally, I am as slow as a snail always at these puzzles, and care less than zero that some people complete them in under five minutes. It’s a fun thing, a puzzle, and seeing the range of people’s comments here is also sometimes fun, and sometimes… instructive. :)
@Heidi I've found that people who brag don't always tell the truth.
So it’s themeless and thus will land on Friday or a Saturday. Not much trivia to artificially make it hard. So in order to make it a Friday we’re left with the cluing being fiendish. Well it wasn’t. It was benign. A nice set of answers that merited better.
Random thoughts: • What a lovely addition to the crossword answer oeuvre – JUST SO WE’RE CLEAR. It’s not only its first appearance in the Times puzzle, but in all the major outlets. • Two echoes to yesterday’s puzzle: NAE NAE after yesterday’s neighboring NAY NEE, and ASSET, which backwards is yesterday’s TESSA. • I liked the fauna sub-theme – GAME REFUGE, SOW, MOO, RESCUES, EWE, and DINOSAUR. • There was a sports related undercurrent as well: Soccer (PELE), baseball (ALOU), swimming (LAP), auto racing (TIRE), and football (IT’S A SNAP). • [Giant Jesus] immediately triggered the image of one in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. • PuzzPair© -- DINOSAUR / OLD ME. • NAE NAE and the moo-moo clue got me seeing SEE as “si-si”, and EYE as “aye-aye”. Congratulations on your fourth collab in the Times, R&R, and thank you. I had great fun with this!
@Lewis Hey, LAP would be appropriate for all of the track events...just think about the 1500 meter race and how many LAPs that takes!
@Lewis Doing comparisons between yesterday and today entries. Next level. (TESSA / ASSET). I think your post for the Thursday puzzle may win comment of the year. Not that it was so unique. But even a whiff of dissatisfaction from the king of positive makes people take note. I crave to one day read a Lewis comment that just flames the constructors. Maybe April 1st?
Seeing "Giant Jesus" in the puzzle reminded me of an old joke. Apparently Jesús, Felipe, and Matty had a fourth brother who made it into the majors. But Boog changed his last name to Powell because he didn't want to be known as... Boog Alou.
@The X-Phile There was no 4th Alou brother ever to get to the show. Entirely false. Still amusing, though.
@The X-Phile Ah, that explains the physical resemblance. ;-)
@Matt Wrong! There was a fourth ALOU. Of course, Moisés wasn't a brother. He was the son of Felipe.
Not to mention Felipe's other son, Luis Rojas. What an amazing family!
@The X-Phile As a one-time Cincinnati resident and fan of The Big Red Machine, I enjoyed that clue/answer, even clued as a "Giant"...
@Sam Corbin I always like it when the Games staff or the constructors are scanning the Comments and adding their thoughts. However, I'd like to see more than just words of encouragement. As I trust you can tell, the overwhelming question inside the Commentariat is, "Are the editors/constructors getting instructions from 'higher-ups' to ease up on the level of difficulty of the puzzles?" The silence of the Games staff is deafening!
@Sam By the way, thanks for the SNL/ZILLOW link. Very amusing!
Upper right quadrant took me a little bit to finish, but otherwise pretty easy for a Friday. I mostly enjoyed it, since there felt like a bit of chew throughout for me. XWStats is showing "Very Easy" at present. I wouldn't go that far. 🤷♂️
@B To me this felt hard, even though my solve time ended up being my Friday average. I enjoyed it, anyway.
The seat heaters in our car keep our buns warm.
Living in Minnesota these last several months, I had a much darker initial answer for the reason why people might go into hiding. The lovely woman who cleans our home has only just resumed business last week, since about Christmas. So glad to see her. She definitely doesn't yet feel completely safe, but she needs to make a living. Anyhow, fun puzzle... Some rather amusing clues. I really liked reading the alternate cluing in the constructor notes for surprise party. Though I shivered a bit seeing the two constructor names, thinking it was going to be a really tough one for me, and I was ready for it! However, I solved it over 60% faster than my Friday average and it's my new personal best, by far. I've only read a handful of comments, but I can imagine there's a lot of unhappiness... I could rarely be unhappy about a puzzle that offers me any humor and distraction, but if I solved it that quickly, I can only imagine how fast the more experienced solvers solved it. That's okay, I'll just do more of my job! Har! Cheers to the weekend!! May we somehow all be happy with our crosswording experiences tomorrow.
@HeathieJ I'm with you. I wouldn't say I found it too easy at all, but maybe more accessible than Friday usually is. Good Lord, aren't there enough things to be upset about these days without complaining about the puzzles we all do for entertainment and distraction?
@HeathieJ Yeah, good thing we're making sure all those drug kingpins and MS-13 gang members working at the car wash or cleaning houses for five dollars and hour aren't taking jobs away from real Americans. I am so jaded.
“Functions without awareness?” is a particularly good alternative for that spanner - kudos for that one. Pretty breezy but a lot of fun!
@Mos Oh wow, was that in the column? Much much better clue. Really need Constructors' Editions these days.
Let's assume the finance department is calling the shots on clue composition -- is it fair to say the target audience is not even bothering with the puzzle in the first place? Meanwhile, time to see what's cooking over at The Atlantic.
@LBG The Atlantic has awesome crossword puzzles
Waaaay too easy for a Friday but I can't complain too much. This puzzle and its fun clues were a thing of beauty.
"[Things that send people into hiding]" reads a bit off, these days.
@Moira Yeah, of all of Rebecca's many clues, they couldn't find one a little less jarring?? I really liked [Functions without awareness?] for its Friday crunchiness. What an aha moment that would've made! I still enjoyed the answer, but with a heavy dose of relief-!
Cute Wednesday-level puzzle. This took me 1/3 of my average Friday time and earned me a Friday personal best. I enjoyed the clueing, but not the fact that it took me about as long to do the puzzle as to read the article afterwards. XW Stats called this “Very Easy,” with 95% of solvers playing faster than their average Friday time, and almost 80% solving it in over 20% less than their Friday average. Stats don’t lie. I used to look forward to the challenging Friday and Saturday puzzles, but lately I feel annoyed more often than delighted. The other NYT games (esp Connections) have gotten way too easy lately also.
A wicked good puzzle. I had no idea there were so many islands off the coast of Maine.
@Linda Jo Agreed! I read that one aloud to DHubby. Brrrr.
@Linda Jo The islands, peninsulas and coves are why Maine has more coastline than all the other states except Alaska. More than California, Florida, Washington, etc. even though those states are so much bigger and longer north to south as the crow flies. And why it can take an hour to drive between two towns on the Maine coast that are only a few miles apart on the map but the distance between them is all water.
@Linda Jo Also, “wicked good”? You’re not originally from Georgia, are you? Or has that bit of New England idiom made it that far south?
I was considering all sorts of dire things that send people into hiding, as I moved along through my first pass. Yaay...SURPRISEPARTIES!
@Amy Me too! I was thinking “Mafia hit list,” “Fascist regime,” “FBI most wanted,” “ICE in the area,” etc. I was genuinely relieved when I realized the answer was “surprise parties.” Which is weird. Why should a crossword clue trigger a reaction? Times we live in, I guess.
I thought the clue for GLUTENFREE was fantastic!
Well… there goes the nice streak we had for challenging Fridays and Saturdays. I echo with Barry said: again, this isn’t on the constructors. NYT has to keep them easy so that people keep subscribing.
@Jake G Or, to put it another way, the Times needs to recalibrate the difficulty of the puzzles in order to meet the ability of a larger share of their solvers. As more people try the puzzle each day, those people who have been solving it for years and like more challenging puzzles represent a smaller percentage of their clientele.
Not quite, marigold. There have been new solvers showing up here for decades, willing to take the challenge and not expecting to solve every puzzle from day one. The issues now are (1) more people seem to expect instant gratification, and (2) readers of The New York Times are a smaller percentage of the new solvers, so the literacy of the new solvers and their interest in information and culture provided by The Times is presumed to be -- and quite likely is -- lower.
The NYT should add a Wednesday themeless, for beautifully constructed, totally enjoyable puzzles, like today's, but that are easier than what people expect for a Friday.
Calling an [Animal sanctuary] a GAME REFUGE is a little like calling a state park a meat farm. It sends mixed messages. Am I going there to relax, or am I on the menu?
@Nancy J. Animal sanctuary is to state park as game refuge is to meat farm? What is it that you think happens in a game refuge?
I don't understand the clue "Gukesh Dommaraju, upon becoming world chess champion in 2024" at 61A. If the clue had been written "Like Gukesh Dommaraju, world chess champion in 2024", the answer "teen" would make sense. However, the clue as it is written, to me, seems to suggest Gukesh Dommaraju became a teen after (during?) the 2024 world chess championship. Was this individual age 12 at the beginning of the tournament/match and became age 13 after winning, or only became a teen because they won the championship?
@Jason K There was a similar post way back at towards the beginning of the comments, which you might find interesting — or at least commiserating! <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4epst1?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4epst1?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
OK, I’m emerging from lurking mode (which has resulted from simply being busy) to add my voice to the ITS A SNAP chorus. Yes, I’m always wishing for themeless Wednesdays—just not on Friday, please. I’ve become a pretty good solver…but not that good. (The puzzle did not disappoint in other ways; would’ve been a delight on Wednesday .)
@Kate Way too hard for Wednesday. Or maybe my brain just didn’t work well today.
I for one, would like to say thank you for including the occasional easy friday puzzle. even though i’m in the minority, I was really excited to finally get to a 5 day steak after over 4 years of daily solving!
PETA and RESCUES crossing with GAME REFUGE warmed this animal lovers heart. 💜 And PELE so DINOSAUR Matt can learn about football.
@Becky I'll have you know that back in the day I went to a NY Cosmos game and dropped my jaw watching Pele and Franz Beckenbauer kick 50-60 yard through balls with the deadly precision of Joe Montana and more otherworldly spin than Willie Mosconi. Then me and the other DINOSAURS went to forage in GREENwich Village. Just cannot abide the grade-school theatrics, Becks.
Fairly easy Friday, things dropped quickly into place, with only a few, easily fixed, incorrect entries. Nicely constructed, but clueing could have been a bit more devious. Thanks, Rebecca and Rafa!
This was such fun! Loved the long answers. Good cluing. Just a gem. Thanks, Rafael and Rebecca! Happy Friday, y’all!
A calm 14 min, my Friday record! Love the clues but they did feel more Tuesday, Wednesday-ish. No problem with the puzzle itself, these are actually two of my favourite constructors! Just that I look forward to a challenge on Fri and Sat.
Got me thinking Hemingway, with the OMEN and the SEE.
Enjoyable puzzle but more like a Wednesday in terms of difficulty. The ‘Giant Jesus’ gave me a chuckle when I figured it out; always fun to see a common answer clued in a creative way.
When I do the Sudoko on NYTimes Games, I have the option for Easy, Medium or Hard. If crosswords were handled in this way, maybe there wouldn't be so many upset people on both sides of the fence.
And now we have both the Mini and the Midi for an easier daily crossword experience...
Is it me or are fridays getting easier. I have been playing for a year so maybe it’s me?
@eastcanuck I would say that both things are true! ☺️