I like playing the triangle. It's acute instrument. (Sorry for the tangent.)
@Mike When you piccolo note, does it jangle your vibes?
@Mike It’s a sine of the chimes
@Mike I'd offer a champagne toast, but I can't find my flute. Must be squared away somewhere.
[Presumptuous ones] WHI(P)(P)ERSNA(P)(P)ERS [The circles in the above answer?] SPLIT PEAS
@Lewis Stunning! I couldn't find any other examples half as good.
What an excellent puzzle. Astounding creativity and on point execution. It was great fun to figure out the themers, and the fill was so engaging as to never feel like a slog. Thank you much, Mr. Eaton-Salners!
I’m still new to crosswords so I was proud of myself when I got past halfway before turning on Autocheck; usually Sundays I barely even get started before resorting to Autocheck for help! I really enjoyed today’s theme, there were so many fun clues. I originally had secretCITY but quickly realised my mistake from the crossing words, and then I nearly worked out the letter puzzle on that one all by myself (I first tried iseeEYETOEYE, which threw me right off for a while). My favourite letter puzzle was TEASETS, and on a related note I enjoyed today’s puzzle with a cup of French Earl Grey tea; a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning.
@Nancy Yes be proud, be very proud! Congrats on pushing yourself before resorting to autocheck. That's the way to do it, and pretty soon you'll be able to take the training wheels off and even ride hands-free! Practice makes perfect. ;-)
@Nancy I don't use autocheck or google answers I don't know but if I guess an answer I don't know I might use google to check whether it's right. I had to do it a few times today just because of all the proper nouns outside my knowledge base today.
@Nancy Well done! The past few weeks of this forum has been filled with posts about solving and the state of our crossword puzzle union. Glad you seem happy with your grid work. Have you tried Lady Grey? It's just as nice - bergamot, yum. Autocheck? All's fair to help enjoy your solving, in my book. 😉
@Nancy Earl Grey tea and crossword solves are never far apart in my world
Very clever and fun, I enjoyed the cryptic-like nature of the theme. SITTING PRETTY / TEA SETS is my favorite pair. What do DAISY, YAREN, ANTIMONY and EGYPT have in common? CROSSWISE
A nitlet about YAREN and its country Nauru. Nauru is tiny. Four Naurus could fit inside Manhattan, which itself is tiny, only 12 blocks wide at its widest. It does not have cities. Its entire population is smaller than one of Manhattan's zip codes. It has districts, which have populations in the hundreds. YAREN is one of those districts. It is not a city, and is not designated as the capital. Its population is smaller than that of many residential buildings in Manhattan. It's where the seat of government is, but technically, there's no capital in Nauru. YAREN is considered, though, to be the "de facto" capital because a country has to have one, doesn't it? (Not saying the puzzle is wrong...)
@Steve L It's worthwhile to take a deeper dive into the island's history. Here's what the BBC says: "In the 21st Century it has been a key part of Australia's controversial offshore detention centre policy. There have been questions surrounding the Australian-run asylum-seeker detention camp, with allegations of human rights abuses and overcrowding. "Nauru is about 3,000km north-east of Australia. The island's main phosphate mines closed in the 1980s, though phosphate mining and exports resumed in 2005. "The government estimates that secondary deposits have a remaining life of about 30 years, but the island's landscape has been devastated by over a century of phosphate strip mining."
@Steve L A truly bizarre bit of recent Nauru trivia is that their leaders invested in and lost a lot of money by backing the musical "Leonardo the Musical: A Portrait of Love", a disastrous London musical production that has absolutely nothing to do with Nauro nor its history. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_the_Musical:_A_Portrait_of_Love" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_the_Musical:_A_Portrait_of_Love</a>
This was fun! Loved the theme. Loved lots of the other fill. Especially LEIS for [island chains]. I hope y’all have a great Sunday. Thanks, Alex!
I've probably never heard/seen the term Altiplano before today. Now I've seen it twice!
@Dave K. The tune "El Cóndor Pasa" was originally written as an orchestral piece by a Peruvian composer. It was made famous by Simon and Garfunkel, with English lyrics by Paul Simon. It's a perfect example of Altiplano music, which I have loved and followed since my folk music days.
When I see Alex Eaton-Salners is the constructor, I have a high MOTIVATION to jump into solving right away. He is the EMBODIMENT of inspiration, puzzlement, and fun. (go read AES notes if you wonder what I’m on about.)
Some data that can be used to begin to understand the relative difficulty of puzzles “now” and “back then”. In early COVID days, I did an extensive analysis of my personal solve times across a 1600+ streak that was broken in October 2019. My average weekly sum of solve times, Sunday to Saturday, was x minutes. I obviously had way too much time on my locked down hands. Using similar methodology my weekly solve times across my current 700+ streak is 0.98x. Good samples sizes, similar solving conditions, highly similar results. Using the weekly average suppressed a lot of variability, but leveled the playing field. I’m not gonna do a chi squared or t test to refine the results ( my Minitab subscription lapsed years ago) but from my viewpoint, over the long game, puzzles today are of similar difficulty to puzzles a decade ago. My results could be argued either way.
@Brian No, you got better over time, so puzzles must be harder now!
@Brian OY enough with the math, please. Constructor already tangled my mind up with that.
@Brian In contrast to your N of 1, xwstats has thousands of users. The puzzles are easier.
@Brian, Wordle has a new badge for a “Sea of Greens.” You earn it each time you solve a Wordle with all green letters with no yellows. My XW Stats calendar these last few months has been a Sea of Greens: Almost all puzzles have suddenly been >20% faster than my average solve time for those days. The stats show that is true for most solvers.
@Brian Ok, here’s my own N of 1 results: this week, I had my 3rd fastest all-time solve time on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; my 4th fastest time Wednesday and Sunday; and my 5th fastest on Monday. Last week, I got new PBs on Thursday and Friday. But also, I do a couple archived puzzles each day, and there is simply no question that the average difficulty level of the puzzles is drastically lower now than it was 10+ years ago. It’s such a stark difference…
@Brian Thank you for sharing this nicely constructed piece of evidence. In the spirit of Bayesian thinking, it shifted the probability for my primary hypothesis.
@Brian If you do any data analysis, I would recommend the statistical programming language R. It will do anything statistical and it will do it in style. There's a learning curve. But it's widely used and free (open source).
@Brian Something that might have kept your comparison to x close to 1.00 is that early week puzzles have not gotten noticeably easier. I'd be interested to see what happened if you ran your analysis over Thursday through Saturday. I like the time periods you compared, though. Those seem useful.
Here’s to YAREN. It is not a city or even an official capital, as its country, Nauru, has neither, according to Wikipedia. Yaren’s population (2021) is 803, a mighty climb from its 2011 population of 747. That is, Yaren is a little ‘un as capitals and cities go. A speck, hardly noticed outside of itself. And yet here it is in the prestigious Times crossword, sharing the box with the likes of KATE Winslett, Lisa LOEB, and ETTA James. And not even Bad Bunny has appeared in a Times crossword. You go YAREN! You are not only literally on the map, but tiny you out in who-knows-where, are now On The Map. Cheers to you!
@Lewis I thought he was just in a Mini?
Well, these letter-sound puns looked to me like they’d be easy to come up with – until I tried, and for me, at least, it was tough going. Alex not only came up with five of them, but made them symmetrical in the grid. Thus, INSTRUMENT / ARE YOU WITH ME – 10 letters and 12 letters – is matched below by SEES EYE TO EYE / ATOMIC CITY at 12 letters and 10 letters. And so on. So, not only are the theme answers tough to come up with, IMO, but the possibilities are greatly constricted by the demands of symmetry. Wow and bravo to you on coming up with this theme answer set, Alex. I especially liked the sees-eye-to-eye / ICCI conceit. My favorite clue in the box? That batty [Batteries for brains?] for IQ tests. It was also sweet seeing ATTA beneath ETTA. All of this is to say that I was impressed and entertained by your creation, Alex – that it was time very well spent. Thank you!
Fun fact: Nauru is the only country in the world with no official capital city. Yaren district is more of a de facto administrative centre.
@Rahul TIL of the existence of the country of Nauru, & of its Yaren district. Thank you!
@Rahul Maybe they could borrow one from South Africa, which has three -- a surfeit, it seems to me.
I am repeatedly awed by the cleverness and creativity of themed puzzles. How do people come up with this stuff? Bravo, Alex!
I learned about YAREN today, but I've heard about Nauru before. It's worth spending a few minutes of your time to learn about the sad history of the island "nation" of Nauru in the 20th century. The island was essentially a large pile of guano (bird poo) formed by passing seabirds over many millennia. At the beginning of the century, it was hollowed out for its rich fertilizer and turned into a desert, no longer of interest to most living creatures. At the end of the century, the Australians were using it as a "processing" holding area for asylum seekers. The stark conditions were intended to discourage all but the most serious "seekers". Let's hope that it's prospects improve in the 21st century
@The X-Phile Nauru for me always conjures up images of inhumane holding facilities for desperate refugees. It's basically all I associate the island with. I have no idea why any human would treat another human that way.
@The X-Phile - travel/aviation YouTuber Noel Phillips did a video about his visit to Nauru recently. Definitely worth checking out to see a bit of what the island looks like!
"Missal" is a word that is somewhat triggering for me. My grandfather was a very loving man, and I loved him very much. But he was, as was common in the time, a man of quite pronounced prejudices. One of them was anti-clericalism, as he was evangelical. One day, when I was probably five or so, he was showing me how the Catholic Bible wasn't really a Bible, but just a lot of "missal". Strange how vivid that memory remains. It hurts to think about my Grandpa as a religious bigοt, but I try to regard him as a product of the times and of the education that was available to him . Wheels within wheels, tribes within tribes.
@Francis I can relate to this. My dad was a minister who was very anti-anyone who was not open-minded. In other words, he was scathingly close-minded about being close-minded. Took awhile for us kids to figure that out.
@Francis There's more to that story, clearly. For another time.
@Francis My grandmother was so annoying in her atheism she almost put me off it 🤣 Thank god I persevered in my unbelief!
@Francis @Lynn @Andrzej We humans do indeed enjoy arguing about religion. Regarding "Thank god I persevered in my unbelief!", which is hilarious, I have been know to say that something someone did "restored my lack of faith in humanity".
@Francis @Andrzej We do indeed. And politics. Andrzej, you and my dad would have gotten along well, believe it or not. You would have completely "gotten" each other's sense of humor. Francis, my dad had quite pronounced prejudices, as well. It was just harder for me to see them because he was so liberal religiously and politically.
@Francis ETAL I can certainly relate to a lot of this. As I've said out here a few times, I am a Christian who fell far from the family tree. Much to their dismay.... And don't get me started on the religious right. I mean I guess I already got started on it since my family is part of it, but it's heartbreaking to me. I rewatched the latest Knives Out movie, Wake Up Dead Man, with some friends last night. I'd watched it before and I'd still really highly recommend it. It touches on alot of what we're talking about in this thread. I thought it was beautiful. And I think persons of sincere faith and atheists alike would enjoy it and take something from it. It also touches me somewhat personally because of, again, as I've mentioned before, I've been having a mysterious widespread issue of nerve pain throughout my body this last year and a half that there are no answers for, and there's a character in the movie who has the same thing and the themes of hope and faith and lost faith and reenvisioned faith really struck a few chords.
This is the kind of puzzle that makes me nostalgic for my salad days as a naive, carefree twenty three year old Prince of Monaco. Puttering about on the French Riviera without a clue as to what I would do with my life. Living day to day, a rather bohemian existence, hobnobbing with royalty and dignitaries, gala events, global summits, exploring the arts and world culture through my political influence and bottomless bank account. Now, as a middle aged man with a stable, if not lucrative vinyl siding business in Kenosha I can exhale a sigh of relief knowing everything eventually worked out, but back then the future was little more than a daunting abyss of uncertainty and crippling self doubt.
Rooney, We should get together sometime. Talk shop: vinyl siding, and stables.
@Rooney Have you met @Ace? It seems as though you both flew in the same dizzying circles.
Note to self: EROTIC CITY is the Prince song, not the Manhattan Project site. Fine puzzle, amusing theme. I can see why it took the constructor a year to make it work. Nota bene: I figured out BEELINE before the corresponding entry, and dropped in the Bs accordingly.
Puzzle: Are you with me? Me: I gotta be honest here -- not until the very end. Nicely done, Alex Eaton-Salners!
A fine Sunday puzzle, with a nice theme and good level of difficulty. Nice to see my old friend QBERT in the puzzle. In the TIL file: OTOMI and YAREN, both of which had to be inferred solely from the crosses. The N of YAREN was my last letter to fall. Fun fact: Not only is every little tuft of a dandelion a SEEDLET, but every little "petal" is a little flower, a "floret". If you pull one out of the head, you can see its little stamens and stigma and ovary. (This is true of a DAISY, as well.) Nit du jour: Three SETS makes for a nice tennis match, but is two too many for a crossword (IMHO).
@The X-Phile Where are you getting "three" for the SETS?
Personal best for a Sunday at 18 minutes. But enjoyable if easy-breezy. I'm noticing a lot of people are complaining that the puzzles are getting two mainstream-easy but I also noticed that a lot of people complain when they are too hard. Maybe there's no pleasing everyone? Either way, enjoyable puzzle and I can get my fix in the archive if I need to spend more time staring at my phone. Thanks for a fun one!
@Christine Sites like xwstats provide the data, which the Times won’t for some reason, so we know they’re getting easier. It’s not an impression. At the end of this week of easier puzzles, for example, we have this Sunday where 72% of users of that site report faster than average times.
@Christine “I'm noticing a lot of people are complaining that the puzzles are getting two mainstream-easy but I also noticed that a lot of people complain when they are too hard. Maybe there's no pleasing everyone?” a) When people complain about the puzzles being too hard, they almost never have the self-honesty to come right out and say as much — rather, they complain about the puzzle being “a slog”, “full of trivia”, or “too obscure”, and many accuse constructors of trying to “show off how smart they are”. b) I honestly don’t see why it should be hard to please *almost* everyone, but it requires people to accept a compromise: for experienced solvers, most of the puzzles in a given week offer very little resistance, and for newer solvers, a couple/few puzzles each week may be too hard to solve without assistance. Seems to me that formula was working fine for a couple decades…
Alex Eaton-Salners is always welcome at my breakfast table...I just wish he wouldn't let my coffee get cold. (When the answers/entries are literally streaming, one doesn't want to stop for a swig of java...) I had the worst time recalling the Spanish vocabulary word, which I am sure came up very, very early in 8th grade Spanish I.... I was out of sync with Alex...wanted CLUB DUES at 26A and ADAGE at 106D plus TALE for 109D.... Gave the FriXion eraser quite the workout. 39A... Ah, memories!...The post chapel at Schofield Barracks held services for all religious groups (though Protestants were lumped together) and thus was somewhat unadorned, and there were various hymnals and other books shelved on the backs of the pews. I entertained myself during sermons by reading the unfamiliar ones....which included "My Sunday MISSAL"
What a great Sunday offering; crunchy, chewy and very satisfying. Not too difficult but certainly with a few chewy areas. I spent quite some time fly specking for my error. Finally found it; don’t ask me why but I’d put crypt for EGYPT. Not going to argue with LLAMAS instead of Alpacas. I guess their larger brethren should get a look in occasionally, just don’t get in spitting range. My poor girls have to have a TB test as it’s been found in the herd they came from. Not at all concerned for them as it’s been over 12 months since they left, but officialdom demands. Naturally I have to pay the vet bill.
Sometimes I have a lot to say, as you may have noticed.... but today I just want to say that this was a very nice puzzle and I enjoyed it a lot! Really enjoyed all the theme pairs! Fun! Terrific Sunday puzzle!! ☺️
Am the only one who has never heard of “duded up”? I read a lot and am always confused when I find a phrase that is completely unknown to me. Usually I end up thinking “oh yeah I’ve seen/heard that before!”, but not this time. Who uses that phrase and in what time period?
Lots of people, for a while now... <a href="https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/duded+up" target="_blank">https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/duded+up</a>
@Calig Irving Berlin/Fred Astaire song:”Top Hat, White Tie and Tails” has the lines: I'm dudin' up my shirt front Puttin' in the shirt studs Polishin' my nails
@Calig Bruce Springsteen in 1973: "All duded up for Saturday night" is a lyric in "Sprits in the Night"
@Calig Sounds Western to me.
@Calig That one also gave me pause... In fact, I paused on it all the way to it being the last entry of my puzzle. I was sure I was going to get the horse feathers message because of it, but it was correct. ☺️
This one defeated me, but that was entirely my fault. Can't blame the puzzle, which struck me as being especially good. Entered SOTHATISIT instead of SOTHISISIT, and failed to check the crosses before filling my last box. Didn't know MISSAL, but would have seen that my LEAS should have been LEIS! So, another streak ended ... though it happens frequently enough that I don't pay (much) attention anymore. Liked the clever theme, and enjoyed some of the interesting entries, especially ANTIMONY and FETLOCKS. The LOTTO/MOTTO and ETTA/ATTA pairings were cute as well. I also liked seeing ILIED and LYING, with one about telling untruths and the other about reclining. Yes, in Italian it should be MAFIOSI, but MAFIOSOS is acceptable in English. Just anticipating complaints about that one. A very enjoyable and well-crafted Sunday puzzle ... even though it made me stumble.
Easy breezy Sunday. Cute theme, well below my average solve time for a Sunday.
@John I would have had such a solve time, but I had to find an error. Alas, I had the 'denial' for St Petersburg instead of Dresden! Other than that, a very fun puzzle!
Very little resistance was encountered in solving this puzzle.
Fun puzzle today but a bit proper noun heavy for my taste. Terra Haute, Ind is probably as well known nationally as Natick, MA. (I happen to live near Natick, MA.) Theme was fine but nothing exciting, just kind of obvious letter spelling jokes. But obscure references like LOTTE Lenya, and weird obscure words like DUDED, it felt less like I was figuring out clever clues and more like I was guessing phonetically and hoping it might be right.
@Chris I only knew DUDED (up) ((for Saturday night)) from Springsteen's "Spirit in the Night."
@Chris Lotte Lenya is referenced in the song "Mack the Knife," recorded by Bobby Darin back in the early 1960s. Score one for the old folks! (The song is now living in my head.)
Chris, Isn't it time to acknowledge that you not knowing LOTTE Lenya doesn't make her obscure and you not knowing the expression DUDED (up) does not make it "weird obscure?" It's fine not to know every answer from the clue; I certainly don't. It's a crossword puzzle; use the crosses. And I trust from the crosses you learned it was TERRE Haute, not Terra.
@Chris You made Dad mad but I think he's right this time.
@Chris Lotte Lenya is a legendary figure. I tried to find a good video of her singing one of her best known songs from 3 Penny Opera. It's Seerauber Jenny, (Pirate Jenny). There are several available but they all suffer from some sort of problem. Either German-only without subtitles or audio-only or grainy montage film clips. IMO, subtitled German would be best.
LOVED this puzzle. Great fun with circled letter play. Was very happy that letter play only included actual words. Everything made sense. Well done on this construction!
OTOMI? Who knew? Here are some nice views of the embroidery they are known for: <a href="https://www.otomimexico.com/single-post/otomi-embroidery" target="_blank">https://www.otomimexico.com/single-post/otomi-embroidery</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMsbr02DGcY" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMsbr02DGcY</a>
@lucky13 I am teaching a college course on Latin American geography. On the midterm exam last week, a question was about the Oto-Manguean language family: an important one that includes Zapotec, Mixtec, and other languages, mainly in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The "Oto" part is Otomi, at the northern extreme of the family (well north of Oaxaca).
Re: QUIET QUITTING - I'm still vaguely annoyed that they felt compelled to come up with a hip new term for "not doing unpaid work for your employer".
@Tali Have you heard of “mini retirements”?
@Tali Thats not what it is. Quiet quitters are getting paid for doing a close to nothing as possible for as long as they can until they are fired.
@Tali I was trying to fit “ACT YOUR WAGE” in that spot.
I finished in about half my typical Sunday time. I worked from bottom up and rarely had to pause before filling in the answers. It took a bit to figure out the trick for the companions to the circled entries, but the crosses helped. An enjoyable diversion.
If the easy easy puzzle trend continues, I’ll cancel my subscription. It’s been a great run of crosswords, but this isn’t enjoyable. I am aware of all the folks who love and support the easy trend. Peace be with you.
@Elaine It’s a little sad to think that the caliber of NYT puzzles we used to enjoy may be a thing of the past.
@Elaine, this puzzle was amusing, entertaining, and the theme required fun mental gymnastics. What else, exactly, are you looking for on a Sunday? Sunday isn't known for difficulty. I've been solving for decades; I'm quite good at it. I do see a trend of "easier" puzzles, though not to an extent that I will give them up. It's a daily brain workout that I look forward to completing at the end of my workday. Overall, I find Friday and Saturday challenging enough; though they're sometimes notably easier, I don't feel they've descended to the realm of easy. But that's just one woman's opinion, of course.
Elaine -- While I decry the easy trend, I'd call this a Sunday of average difficulty.
@Elaine XWStats is showing this one to be of average difficulty. It seemed average to me, but I didn't trust that perception because some rated Easy I find very difficult and vice versa. I agree with you in wanting stiff puzzles on Thursday - Saturday, and one on Sunday challenging enough to create a diversion from, well, everything. Sorry this one did not do that for you.
@Elaine Don't let the door hit you on the way out
It does not matter how easy or hard a Sunday grid is judged by the masses. I will never be able to do one quickly. They mentally defeat me from the get go, and I usually don’t try them. They are just too hard to do in my phone. 15x15 is perfect for my ‘old’ non Max iPhone. 21x21 is an abomination. I know I can zoom in, but somehow, that makes it harder for my brain. Even when I do them, I unwittingly self sabotage. I did both Friday and Saturday sun 15 minutes. Sunday, it took 50 minutes and just a blue star of shame. After countless passes of looking for my error, I finally gave up and hit check puzzle. My mistake? I don’t know how to spell EygPT. comedian first name. TIy Nataro. “Sounds like a reasonable ethnic name to me. I’ll YouTube them later to see if they are funny” The element Sb. ANTIMONg. “Sounds weird, but okay. Science be science” Sunday. You win. You always win…
@Weak Dude/Dudette... Why not do them on a desktop? Or print them out? They're painful on the phone.
@Weak Tig Nataro is pretty funny and insightful. Great two season show called One Mississippi on Prime based on their own life experiences.
@Weak My feeling is that Sunday puzzles should take longer—good way to relax, slow down, brace for the week ahead. But then again, I’m not one who does the crosswords for speed.
@Weak It's time for an upgrade on your puzzle-game. Solving on the phone is too frustrating. Better to solve on a tablet or a laptop. Best of all: solve on paper... ...and don't worry about your time.
@Weak I got ya. I do Sunday's on my phone, and the squinting gives me a headache, frequent breaks are required! Zoom in? Pfft, no. Yes, I have a laptop, it's a dinosaur, and by the time it boots up, well, my patience has expired and my coffee cup is long empty. And, it took me much longer than 50 minutes, you did great! I'm one of those people that have a video on while I solve (and sometimes on my phone, at the same time, one I can listen to) so yes, distraction is very possible lol. I guess I can't get ENOUGH distraction, oh boy, this brain. Have a good Sunday everyone, take time to relax, if you can, Spring has sprung, soon 'seedlets', seedlings, buds and blooms, if they haven't already where you are, will abound.
@Weak Just Print on Two Pages... The clues are all on one page, the large grid is on the other sheet, and there are generous margins for guesses or other notes (like, "put BACON on shopping list") A FriXion pen (erasable) is also handy. When you print the next puzzles on the backs of those two pages, the fill (and notes) will disappear due to the heat. Then you recycle the paper. Voila!
@Weak I work these puzzles on my Moto G Stylus phone. I don't have any trouble at all, but then I'm using reading glasses rated at 3.5 (meaning they're pretty strong). I've been using readers since I was 40 and have them scattered all around the house and in most coat pockets.
I’d be willing to bet I’m the only person who failed this because of qUETIPS/qDR. I just assumed it was an American brand plus I know almost nothing about military ranks, especially abbreviated military ranks.
@Niall "Que" isn't pronounced like the letter Q. "Queue" is, and "cue" is. "Que" is pronounced like the letter K. It's Spanish for "what"
Alex Eaton-Salners is on my top ten list of constructors; he never disappoints. This puzzle was entertaining, the theme was the perfect level of clever, and I enjoyed the mental gymnastics of the themed entries. This was truly a perfect Sunday puzzle for me.
This was a well constructed grid, not difficult but not boring, with quality fill and some nice stacks on the sides. I enjoyed this cute theme. My only nit is CUETIPS. Everything else is a straightforward entry but CUETIPS sounds like a pun on QTIPS. I assume as Caitlin suggests this means the ends of pool cues—but to me this isn’t exactly a common phrase and seems a bit green-painty. But the others are very legit and I liked the first and last especially because they combined letters. Maybe a few more clever or misdirecting clues would have made me enjoy this even more but this was a good time overall.
@SP. For some reason my Google feed is offering me a lot of snooker. So I am seeing a lot of CUE TIPS being chalked. It appears that pool, billiards, snookers are not totally obscure games
@SP What may be lost on you is that Q-Tips is a play on CUE TIPS, not the other way around.
@SP "green-painty"????
I'm still waiting for someone at NYT to acknowledge the issues with accessing the midi puzzle from Australia. Anyone??
Yes! There was a little murmur across the web initially, but now it just seems to work for the rest of the world so we’re forgotten… the NYT support bot helpfully told me I’m doing it wrong!
SB, I have issues accessing the mini from New York.
@SB The other day someone here suggested refreshing the screen (twice) to get the Midi. I tried it and it worked.
Finally I know what day of the week it is.
Another great puzzle! Thanks for the challenge.
Great Sunday puzzle. Very clever theme entries that were fun to figure out.Tea sets was my first and favorite solve.
Yeah for QBERT! Used to play this on an Atari plugged into my sister's 14" b/w TV. Good times...
@CatDad I played it in the arcade at a quarter a game.
Loved that the descriptor themers did not give us an alternate clue. (Like adding, …or “So we agree?” to the clue for ARE YOU WITH ME.) Bit more crunch. And we all need our fiber.
Clever theme and a good long workout for me. Nice moments as each trick finally dawned on me. And.. a perhaps appropriate puzzle find today - a Sunday from September 28, 1969 by Edward J. O'Brien with the title: "Rhymes from way out." Don't recall seeing another quite like this. A few of the theme answers: PAYDAYWAYLAYNAYSAY WHITECOLLARDOLLARHOLLER HEMIDEMISEMIQUAVERSAVER ALONGSIDETOGUIDETHERIDE SOMEFEWWILLVIEWWHOLLBOO ACOBBLEJOBLLWOBBLE ANYMOREMINIMODESIMMORAL ADIREFIREWIRE And there were more. Don't think I would have had much of a chance at that one. Here's the link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=9/28/1969&g=24&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=9/28/1969&g=24&d=A</a> ...
I have another idea for some CUE TIPS: Try it to stare at the cards when you read your lines. Make sure your scene partner is done with their lines before you start yours.
Y'see, this is the kind of creativity that hacks like me can aspire to but will almost certainly never achieve. After working a puzzle like this, I realize the best I could possibly pull off might be a Monday or Tuesday level puzzle. No shade on those constructors – their works are just simpler by nature. I'll keep trying, but don't nobody hold your breath 😐
@Down_Home, do keep trying! You may surprise yourself!
@Down_Home Yes, keep trying. After you've worked on a puzzle for five hours (or 15), taking down and rebuilding that troll-like southeast block for the third time, you are the least qualified to judge its freshness or crunchiness. But it may seem wondrous to the innocent player who hasn't seen the stitching, repairs, and duct tape.
LOVED IT! Great Sunday puzzle. Thanks, Alex Eaton-Salners!
@Caitlin. At least in the Roman tradition, technically, the MISSAL provides the rubric for the celebrant of those parts of the Mass that are common, while the readings are contained in a lectionary. However, the book combining both provided for the congregation is also styled MISSAL.
Here's Bobby Darin singing about Lotte Lenya: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYZY9P4O4cQ" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYZY9P4O4cQ</a> Lotte Lenya performed in an off-Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera in New York in the 1950s.