Here's a fun little thing about the 3-letter abbreviations for country names in the World Cup. When Sweden (SWE) and Denmark (DEN) play, the scorecard says: SWE - DEN The missing letters from each are: DEN - MARK
@Alex This reminds me of an anecdote from early Hollywood. Two pioneers of the young film industry, Samuel Goldfish and Edgar Selwyn, co-founded a movie studio. To name it, they combined their names into the word "Goldwyn." Later, Edgar was dismayed to learn that his partner had legally changed his name to Samuel Goldwyn, which made it appear that he alone had founded the studio. Some unknown wit at the time noted that it would have been more appropriate if they used the discarded parts of the original names -- Selfish! P.S. Sam lost control of that original studio, but it survived and thrived under the Goldwyn banner. A series of mergers eventually led to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), a name which lives on today. And Sam had nothing to do with it.
A bit too trivia-heavy for my liking. Probably should have been a Tuesday puzzle with some better clues. There's always a fine line between an enjoyable, difficult puzzle that stands on its merits, and a simple puzzle made difficult with random trivia and overly obscure clues. Unfortunately, this fell into the latter for me. It didn't have the substance to be challenging on its own merits.
Is this Whoa Wednesday? Or is it Whao Wednesday. I had to flyspeck. I didn't have to flyspeck Friday or Saturday. What does that tell us? Well, for one thing, that I am very, very bad a puzzles in which there's a cross for a Spanish museum and a Japanese air hub. Is NARITA a city, or a carrier? I think it's made up completely, and all of you are in on it, trying to gaslight me. But it's never going to work. I'm a stable genius. Also, I stared at AFFRAY until my eyes crossed, and I'm still certain I've never encountered the word. Another made up word. A word that's never been used by anyone, anywhere, at any time. I am not bitter. Not bitter at all. Maybe just a little bit bitter.
@Francis Narita International Airport is located in Narita (city), Chiba (prefecture). It is east of Tokyo, but not too far. I flew in and out of that hub when I lived in Japan.
@Francis. I don’t know about your part of the world, but here AFFRAY is a defined criminal offence.
@Francis I know that Narita is the name of an airport that serves Tokyo. I don't know whether it is the name of a municipality. (Check that. A quick search shows that it is.)
@all The emus are feasting on my brilliantly conceived, hilarious replies to the lot of you.
@Francis “Stable genius”… does that mean you’re great with horses? 😉 I, too, found many ways to be confounded by this puzzle. I’ve never heard of Narita, I don’t know the Madrid museum or the Maryland athletes, LOGE is giving me flashbacks to DOGE, and I’m a little afraid of AFFRAYED. But don’t be bitter. Just say “neigh”. (I’m sure you don’t want to stirrup any trouble.)
Francis — I once had to change planes at Narita. I somehow wandered into a part of the airport I wasn't supposed to be in and almost got arrested, especially because neither the Japanese authorities nor I had any idea what the other was saying.
@Francis Oh, wait! It's "Narita", not "Narnia". Well, that's very different. Narita is an airport in Japan Never mind.
Sauteing is not particularly associated with zucchini, nor is zucchini particularly associated with sauteing. Felt like a borderline unfair misdirect that resulted in that entire section being a total loss. I probably should have clued in with our good friends the UTES but I had SPRING instead of SERTAS sooooo it was a mess. Next time!
@Scott also a couple of really naticky spots that I only got by luck. ALF/SOO/LOGE and REINA/NARITA.
@Scott You should try to remember Philippa SOO. Ever since she played one of the Schuyler sisters in Hamilton, she's been appearing in puzzles.
@Scott i had single for a second which really threw me for a loop
Scott, Regardless of how you might prepare zucchini, to what other answer did the clue borderline unfairly misdirect you?
@Scott I was mystified by that, too. Sautéing makes zucchini mushy.
Too many names of people, residences, etc. This puzzle feels like Jeopardy.
I can't remember when I last had so little entered into a Wednesday puzzle after my first pass. Every second clue seems to be about trivia, and I'm completely stumped by the theme. I'm wondering whether I should even continue with the solve - it seems utterly impossible for me...
@Andrzej this was hard for me too. Although it did fill in once I figured out the circled letters were World Cup teams. Definitely got hung up on the east central section. It was tough!
This was natick central - there were just so many proper names and abbreviations, and they came clustered, too. I always personally consider that poor construction - this is a crossword puzzle, not a pub trivia quiz. I ended up checking the grid and revealing some letters and entries. I was late to get the theme - first, because initially my grid was almost empty, so the revealer remained a mystery for a long time for lack of crosses, and second, because I neither care nor know much about world cup winners. For some reason I remember France winning in 1998, but that's it, even though my wife is a football fan and I've watched many games with her, or at least in was there when she watched them. I only fondly remember bits of the 2014 world cup - my wife and I were on a camping trip to Austria and Italy, and we watched games communally with other campers. It was fun. But I still couldn't tell you who won the tournament without being reminded of it by the puzzle... Why is WED "Hump day"? What does that mean? Is it the day you traditionally, you know hump? 🤣
What is the right side today? An abbreviated basketball position, a card game, a dog from a 92 year old movie, a Japanese airport, random athlete team, a south-east asian holiday, what ever is "Seat of White Pine County, Nev." Ugh
@Frankie B That's the classic example of YMMV. I found the right side to be fairly easy for obscure reasons - I've seen the movie (and loved the dog); I've been to the airport; my friend's daughter goes to Maryland; the Tet Offensive was a battle in Vietnam, etc. But if you ask me about video games or modern singers, I'm lost. I felt today's crossword was a little crunchy (affray), but I learned something as well (affray), and I enjoyed the well-constructed theme.
@Frankie B TET is always a gimme, because of the TET Offensive. Every American learns about this in history class. The Thin Man may be old, but it's also a classic. There were quite a few of them made. Believe it or not, there are still people around who watch old movies. Plus, ASTA is like the dog version of Oreo. If you're going to solve crosswords you should learn this dog's name. NARITA was fairly easy for me, because I watch a lot of anime. One of the many reasons to watch more cartoons. CTR is a common abbreviation not just in basketball but other sports with that position. It happens to be an incredibly popular sport here in America, so easy for many people to guess.
@Frankie B Zero info here about anything Nevadan except Reno, divorces, Vegas, and gambling. Fortunately there were crossing clues that gave me ELY.
Bonus answer in the grid: KICKSTARTER. I don’t know much about el fútbol, but it does involve kicking, right? 😀
How sweet is this puzzle! Sam, surprised you didn’t point out the appropriateness of the accessory fill for this puzzle—FOOTWARMERS and KICKSTARTER? That’s just crazy in addition to the rest. Not to mention PELE and REF (which I would really have loved to see clued “cardplayer, of a sort?” for this puzzle). I don’t know why, I had an immediate premonition about this puzzle’s theme, which didn’t reduce the charm of the solve. Love all the dust up’s in this puzzle. Also love the call out to the Reina Sofia—if you are ever in ESPana it’s a very delightful quaint museum where you can see Picasso’s amazing Guernica. Coincidentally I just finished an archive puzzle by David Kahn today, an excellent Sunday that had entries which were clues for Shakespeare characters that had their names hidden inside the entries, really amazing, how wonderful is it to see the torch passed two generations down. Congrats to both zayde and einikl.
@SP Oh, how sweet. Zayde. I haven't heard that word for the now many decades since my Yiddish-speaking grandparents passed away. My great-grandfather lived to be 95, so I knew him as a toddler. Since my mother called him zayde, my generation called him "zaydinho", a mash-up of zayde and the Portuguese diminutive suffix "inho." zay-GEE-neo. Little zayde. Thanks for eliciting the memory. I can't stop smiling now.
@SP I had some friends who just flew down to the US to visit the married kids. (They're safely back now.) They had an einik-ful trip. Today's fun etymology: Yiddish 'einikl' (grandchild) is derived from Hebrew 'yoneq' (nurseling).
@SP and @Laurence of Bessarabia Whether saba or zayde, that's really lovely that certain traditions go on. It warms my heart to know, so thank you so much for sharing!
Don't think I've ever seen the word NOWISE in my life, but it's right there in the dictionary. This, and my certainty that a "Motivator, of a sort" was a CUDGEL, almost led to my downfall today. But since an "L" seemed extremely unlikely in a Japanese place name, I thought more carefully and went with the truly horrific NUDGER. Just awful. Sorry, but NOWISE/NUDGER should have led to this one being binned. That *two* constructors were comfortable with this pairing is quite surprising to me. Got the theme easily enough, and solved the puzzle correctly in about 20 minutes. Perhaps my least favorite weekday solving experience this year. (Can't wait to see what REX has to say about this one.) Did anyone else think that the grid pattern didn't look like a soccer ball?
@Xword Junkie I've seen it written this way: In no wise . . . . not as one word. Never seen a soccer ball, so I don't know. The grid pattern didn't look like ANY kind of ball to me. It was not circular.
@Xword Junkie I agree with you about NUDGER (I tried cUDGEl out first too) but I don't think the composers were happy with it either. To me, that 'of a sort' in the clue is the crossword equivalent of a wince.
@Xword Junkie, yes, I wanted CUDGEL, or maybe BUDGET, but had to go read the wordplay column to get NUDGER. I did *love* the theme on this one and am willing to let it slide for the sake of a great theme, but I did wince a little at some of this fill.
I look at all the complaints and I wonder ifwe all solved the same puzzle. When I solve, I ignore a theme and circles and dots and dashes in the clues, and fill in as much as I can before I even consider them. The puzzle isn't a package that you have to read instructions and take off the wrapping before you start filing it in. I make mistakes, but they can easily be spotted if the crosses don't work. I then go back over it and a theme, fi there is one, becomes clearer and helps with the baffling clues. I liked this puzzle, and I appreciated the clever spins on cluing. Thank you, David, and welcome to AFFRAY, Ethan. I thought your puzzle was fun.
@dutchiris Wow, I do the same thing for later-week themes. Unless the first theme clue really jumps out at me, I’ll pass it by until I get a turn at the Downs. Then I’ll try to dig into the theme and figure it out.
A wonderful theme that suffered from very poor clueing. Solved easily enough but I don’t even know where to start with my complaints on the clues… just not great.
@Brett I agree. Far too many clues were awkward at best. I don’t mind difficulty, but I think this puzzle has an appropriate theme… and that’s it.
I was taught as a child that a JIGSAW is not a puzzle; it is a tool. And if I meant the puzzle, I should say "jigsaw puzzle".
@Dan - Yes, but we will allow it in crosslandia. Answers aren't always perfect. I admit that I did expect the answer below JIGSAW to be "puzzle".
@Dan I had the same issue. On a related note: In Polish, a jigsaw puzzle is known as... "puzzle". The generic English word for a game designed to puzzle somehow became the specific Polish word for a jigsaw puzzle. There is another, Slavic word for it, too, "układanka", but it's used more rarely ("układać" means "to put together", so "układanka" is something designed to be put together).
@Dan If you want to be specific, the image next to the Wikipedia name is not a jigsaw puzzle. It’s a jigsaw puzzle piece. So there’s that, too. (BTW, I had no problem with just “jigsaw”. I don’t expect my puzzle entries to be specific.)
@Dan Goodness! Were you raised by a carpenter? A dictionary editor? That seems extremely stringent. Now you could just mutter "Metonymy" at them and walk away.
ASTA! Long time, no see. Such a good dog.
@Linda Jo You know when you fill in a clue but even as you’re doing it you’re thinking I don’t know this — it fascinates me that this dog from a movie I haven’t seen in decades is somehow embedded in my brain and comes out automatically. I love how doing these puzzles keeps my brain bouncing!
I got a kick out of this puzzle, although I did not reach my goal of solving it in regulation time. As a fan of the beautiful game, I loved the theme and the circles helped me with the fill, because I knew the various WORLDCUPWINNERS. KICKSTARTER and FOOTWARMERS were nice bonus theme related entries too. Having recently returned from a trip to Scotland, and having seen the level of enthusiasm there for the Scottish national team, I’m adopting the Tartan Army as my sentimental favorite/hopeless underdog for the upcoming tournament.
No thank you. Not at all. Not even a little bit. This was a classic example of how service to a theme resulted in choppy, shoehorned filler. None of the clues were fun, memorable, or clever for me. This puzzle just felt entirely soulless. Perhaps I was soured by the Midi only accepting an ampersand and not “N” or a rebus “AND” which already predisposed me to nitpicking. Nevertheless, I did not enjoy either of today’s puzzles in the least.
@Edward My Midi accepted an "N." Maybe they already changed it? I did it on my phone.
@Edward thanks for the ampersand comment. That fixed it. But I agree as a long time NYT crossword solver any of N or AND or & should have worked.
The puzzle author is unaware that USA has won 4 (four) World Cups (They didn't specify Men's World Cups. They just forgot women actually play sports, too.)
@Rebecca I'll repost my reply to a person who complained earlier that Barry Ancona pointed out that the term "World Cup" officially refers to the men's tournament. Take it up with FIFA; it's their nomenclature: Barry's not expressing an opinion; he's making a statement. If you want to express indignation (which I agree you have a point about), you can take it up with FIFA. FIFA, in its boundless wisdom, has branded the men's tournament "The WORLD CUP," and the women's tournament "The Women's WORLD CUP." One is not a subset of the other. As much as you may disagree (and I concur with you), references to the former officially mean the men's tournament. (Crossword clues follow NYT style, so you might also blame the NYT for acquiescing to FIFA's somewhat sexist naming rules.)
Rebecca, I posted last night that I was solving while watching the USWNT. My wife and daughters played and coached soccer, and have attended matches at several Women's World Cups. I am quite sure the puzzle constructors and editors know that women play sports ... and know what FIFA calls these two events.
N.B. FIFA probably should change "World Cup" to "Men's World Cup," since unlike in some other sports, FIFA does not permit adult women to play on men's teams. This is not true at youth levels; my younger daughter played U6-U12 on a "boys" team.
I first encountered the word AFFRAY in a book. I knew what it meant. It's been rattling around in my head or snoozing somewhere inside my brain for about 75 years. I don't know if I've ever said it out loud but I could do it if the occasion arose. So where was it this evening, when it could finally have debuted on the stage of my unused words venue? Why did I have to sweat and stare and change words I knew were correct until finally, teary eyed and head hanging, I had to come to the column, where it crassly acted like we had never seen one another before and that we needed an introduction? Thank you, Kahns, for a wizard of a puzzle. I would have been able to play it straight, without fouling things up, if I had just been able to find AFFRAY when I needed it. Words. Sometimes you just can't depend on them, no matter how old the friendship might be.
I kind of feel like NYT has taken the feedback that the puzzles are too easy and have ramped up the difficulty as of late. Cue the comments about the puzzles now being too hard.
@Wendy They're trying to thread a needle that has no eye.
Ah, getting in the spirit of the upcoming tournament - cute puzzle. The great Pele almost did not play in the 1970 world cup, having had a difficult tournament in 1966. Nice to know that the grandson is the third generation to have crosswords published in the times - congratulations!
What a drag. Clunky fill with bad cluing. College nicknames, obscure people.
@Daniel Okay, well, obscure to you. On a related note, after yesterday's crazy news from Belfast, millions of Americans were left wondering what a hurling stick might be.
@Add Worked fine for me, but there was something unusual in it. What do you mean, broken?
@Add I had the same problem. What you may think is a rebus is actually a special character. I never, ever click “reveal” but I was absolutely fed up trying to figure out what the problem was, especially after I used Autocheck and nothing was showing as incorrect.
Yeah. The special character stumped me. But after clicking ‘check puzzle’ nothing showed as incorrect. But I also couldn’t make any changes after clicking it. But the clock kept going. Finally had to click ‘reveal puzzle’ to get the clock to stop
@CookieWookiee Third attempt. Comments being wonky tonight. The original crossword rebuses were symbols, numerals and punctuation marks. The multiple letters squished into one box came later. This one is a symbol, but the word written out and squished into one box was accepted. If it didn't work for you, you probably had an error somewhere else.
@Add I used the ampersand symbol [M&MS] and it finally worked.
I had a ball with this puzzle! At first, I skipped around the grid with no idea at all about the theme and themers. I was thinking politics and searching my brain for any memory of a group of eight. And then I hit upon _E_E. Aha! Excitedly, I went back and filled in the theme and themers. I love the World Cup. I even have Brazil and U.S.A. flag arm sleeves! I root, I cheer, I yell, I jump, and sometimes I sulk. This puzzle put me in the spirit. Thank you so much, David and Ethan! ( AKA Crosslandia's most heartwarming team of constructors.) And to Ethan, congratulations on a kickin' debut!
This was incredibly easy, especially considering my deficient knowledge of sports. Good one. Gooooal! PELE is the OREO of the sports world as ASTA is the dog of B+W movies.
@Jeanne They used to take the dog out on the balcony in Hollywood to look at the Los Angelos skyline—and they’d say Asta, LA vista, baby!
@Jeanne Yes, thanks to PELE for helping me figure out what sport this was when I was less than half done. PELE pretty much has been clued so often in puzzles.
I loved this puzzle! Cheering for 🏴! And many others! I see you 🏴! Any national team with a flash kit, an Arsenal player or two, and dancing. 🇧🇷 Any national team with Virgil. 🇳🇱 🇸🇳 🇳🇿 🇪🇨 🇭🇷
@Becky People were asking after you yesterday or the day before. If this grid didn't elicit a comment from you, we'd have concluded you were still in prison for hooliganism-related activities.
@Becky NED is my team, due to my Dutch heritage. Of course, those letters do not appear in circles today, as they've come so very close but never won the cup. Hup Holland Hup! Also, Dennis Bergkamp is the reason I support Arsenal, as he was so amazing in the '94 World Cup that I decided whatever team he played for would be my team. And then Robin van Persie - I have his jersey as well.
Congratulations on an excellent NYT debut, Ethan. You have a wonderful mentor and I hope to see more from both of you. Luckily, no soccer knowledge was needed to solve.
Three random points: • We’ve seen Greta GERWIG alluded to in Times puzzles before, but always through the answer GRETA, never through her surname. Lovely to see her finally get her well-deserved due. • David J. Kahn has shown in his 191 Times puzzles that he loves making tricky clues that require steps to get to the answer. He, along with his grandson Ethan carried on the tradition today, with clues such as [Used one], [Deliver up], and [Suit in a certain suite]. • Since we have CORNET and a backward TAPS in the Middle West, here is a short info bite regarding horns and “Taps”. The bugle, which has no keys that the fingers press down, is the traditional horn for “Taps”. The cornet, which has keys, is sometimes preferred because it has a warmer, more solemn sound. And the trumpet, also with keys, is the most popular because far more musicians have it. You’re welcome. A timely, fun, and satisfying solve for me. Thank you, David and Ethan!
We call them 'valves', not 'keys'. Traditional bugles have no valves, but these days marching drum & bugle corps wield bugles with one or two valves. Bugles, flugelhorns, and cornets (and french horns, euphonia, etc.) are derived from hunting and pistal hirns of olde, and are characterized by conical tubing that increases in bore diameter throughout. Trumpets are derived from straight herald trumpets of yore and have constant-bore cylindrical tubing until the bell flare. Modern cornets and trumpets converged on identical three-valve designs in the late 1800s, around the same time Adolph Sax invented his family of saxhorns (including the model for today's flugelhorns). They also differ in how the tubing is 'wrapped', with lots of variation among cornets. All this, plus mouthpiece design, can affect the sound produced. I play a 1950 cornet and double on flugelhorn in jazz bands, and still use my trumpet for reggae and R&B horn section work. I mostly practice on a cute little double-wrapped 'pocket trumpet'.
As for complaints to this and all puzzles: A young boy was marching down the sidewalk along the marching band in the parade when his mother commented, "Look, the band is marching out of step with my little Johnny".
@nash.mark I’m right there with you. I found this to be clever with just enough crunch. The clueing was also clever. The PELE clue was a nice bow on top. I challenge any of the grumblers to have their works published here.
Sometimes it’s the puzzle, sometimes it’s the column, sometimes it’s the constructor notes. Got a big “kick” out of all 3 today.
I’m not a fan of soccer (sorry, football), so it took me a while to catch on to this theme. At least as long as it took for _ELE to appear. A fair amount of trivia, some decent misdirects, and years that meant nothing to me added up to a challenging Wednesday. I just have to wonder… how was crossword favorite “OLE” not in this puzzle?
Can't believe all the complaints about this fun puzzle! Yeah a little tough but I enjoyed it and learned some things.
Harder than it should have been for me. Maybe because of my antipathy for the music-free slapstick ballet celebrated therein of men flying through the air, then rolling around and caterwauling on the ground pretending to be injured and finally running limp-free at full speed minutes later as if nothing at all had happened. Because nothing had. All of which is OHSO occasionally interrupted by elegant ball handling, passing, etc. Do the women pretend to the same degree? Yellow and red cards for faking, I say. And the fakery can easily be demonstrated. Where was I? Oh yeah. The puzzle. I liked it a lot. And today's Midi really threw us a curve.
@Matt My antipathy for the tired, played out, and unimaginative railing of said event must rival yours. But yeah, fun puzzle
@Matt We do, just off the pitch.
@Matt Based on last night’s uswnt v. Brazil friendly, there’s plenty of flopping (or simulation as it’s termed) in the women’s game.
Well, what do you know, an NYT crossword with a sports theme that I actually understand!! Not that I’m a big footie fan; sadly it will be wall to wall for the next month over here. England will go from being our heroes to zeroes as they crash out as usual. I’ll be consoling the menfolk as they cry in their beer. As usual. Happy days. Give me Rugby League any day, where men are men and don’t sport silly hairstyles, or fall over at the least provocation.
Helen Wright, The Lionesses do you credit (as does our USWNT).
@Helen Wright In 2006 I was in London during the World Cup. England had lost to Portugal in a match marred excessive Portuguese flopping and ref baiting. My daughter and I watched the subsequent France/Portugal match in a pub in South Kensington. It was surreal to hear a pub full of English people rooting avidly for France.
Not only did this Wednesday beat me, it also reminded me, in PE Guy style, that I'm too poor to name drop Japanese airports, buy balcony tickets, or stroll the museums of Madrid. Bummer!
@Some guy in 😀 I was left with that feeling, too. After I was 11, we couldn't even afford a father.
In the context of today's theme, if two football hooligans fight each other in public, it's AFFRAY, which is usually a misdemeanor offense. If a football hooligan attacks an ordinary fan for wearing the "wrong" colors, it's assault, a felony. Hope this clears things up. (Disclaimer: not a licensed attorney. Your jail time may vary.)
Loved it! So many aha moments, and a great theme. Plus the grandfather grandson collaboration; it doesn't get better than that.
Did this one while watching the USWNT.
@Barry Ancona Ditto. That was one very ugly match.
I thought this was very cute and fun. Thank you.
It has been a long time since I received a business letter that incorporated an enclosure,
@Marty F I got one today from my Homeowner's Association management company.
@Marty F I only got this one thanks to crosses.
Regarding the midi. According to autocheck I have no wrong letters but it won’t play the happy music or award my star. Anyone else?
@HB yes, me too. I finally did reveal puzzle and it wanted a symbol instead of a rebus on the bottom left. I had nothing wrong, but no happy music.
@HB I even used the backspace key on every square in the midi but it still didn't reveal the error. I had to "Reveal Puzzle" to finish it.
@HB Also caught out. Never occurred to me the midi took symbols or rebuses, so just had the letter N until I hit reveal puzzle.
@HB I just had the N and I got the happy music!
I was surprised to see that XWStats rates this as “very hard,” as I finished around 30% under my average time (though, I hasten to add, still two minutes above the median time of solvers reporting their scores to the site). There were quite a few I had no idea about but there were enough crossing fills I was able to figure things out. I am far from a fan of soccer (football) and the only one among the WORLD CUP WINNERS I knew for certain was AV[ENG]E, and only because of an episode of Endeavour set in 1966. I appreciated several clever clues, especially “Used one” for PAWN, and (as someone who has to work hard to keep my weight within a range that won’t earn me a talking to by my doctor when I go in for my regular checkups),I also appreciated that 14A was LET OUT not “take in” … and I know the latter wouldn’t fit. Despite my relative good solve time today, I have done enough puzzles not to get cocky, since I know that tomorrow the crossword could well have me tearing out what little hair I have left. .
@Joe Anyone else try hikeUp for belt adjustment in 14A? Just me? OK.
NUDGER, crossed with NOWISE? AFFRAY? At least NUDGER gave us "of a sort." But shouldn't there be something in the other two clues to suggest the fact that they're archaic or dated?
@Fritz Yes, the pairing of NOWISE and NUDGER was very unfortunate, to put it mildly. No, the clues for the AFFRAY and NOWISE seemed fine to me, in that they seemed to adhere to NYT crossword conventions.
@Fritz ......like many of the Solvers? In no wise do I agree with your complaint favoring only au courant words and usage. I did not much care for NUDGER (clumsy, crude as a word), plus it's something that will get you a retaliatory shove if you try it on me...just as a friendly warning.
I heard a story about the World Cup and how FIFA is using "dynamic pricing" (i.e., gouging, aka, basic capitalism) to set ticket prices. A single ticket can cost over 10 Gees. Moreover, you can't buy specific seats, you can only guy a section number from 1 (the highest) to 4. But they are constantly changing what seats go in which category, so you might pay the dynamic price for a section 1 seat, and end up getting a section 2 seat because they changed after you bought it. We can't have nice things. Ah, FIFA. Such a fine organization.
@Francis Did you read about the $98 train tickets for a ride that normally costs $12, for the approximately seven-mile trip from NYC? Don't worry; it's been reduced from the original $149. Or the $225 parking fee, if you wanted to avoid (or were not anywhere near) the train? (Normally an already-too-expensive $50.) They took most of the parking out of play to erect a fortress around the stadium. Not to mention the "Peace Prize" they gave to a certain warmonger who they had to flatter to keep their games in the US...they should've given them all to Canada and Mexico. Good thing I wasn't a soccer fan before. Withdrawal might have been tough.
@Francis As I understand it, the point of dynamic pricing is to charge wealthier people more for the same product, because "they can afford it." So when you use that loyalty card at the grocery store, a profile is being constructed. Is Francis buying steak or bologna? But yes, FIFA is totally corrupt. Why else would they have a World Cup in Qatar?
Francis, I'm watching on television. Free seats. I'm also not going to the Garden tonight.
Okay, gotta ask. Is anyone else baffled by all the ongoing which-day-of-the-week-is-this-puzzle talk? Definitely there's a general difficulty gradient, but don't individual knowledge banks make day-of-week assignments a bit imprecise, and that's okay? (Could be that it's all just fun banter, in which case, ooops my bad!)
@Sian You are right to an extent. Personally I don’t get too excited about it at all for Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, whether too easy or too hard. Thursday I like a tricky theme, and even if I get it am disappointed if it’s spoiled by fill which is too obvious. Friday and Saturday is when we get a bit testy; I think the line between those is a bit arbitrary, but hate it when the difficulty of clues there is more early week. Sunday has the most variability in theme difficulty, and I accept that, but still appreciate it when the overall difficulty is at least a Wednesday.
@Sian Difficulty rating is important. Personally I can only do up to a certain difficulty and I don't enjoy being stuck or having to look things up. For beginner / intermediate solvers Monday Tuesday and maybe Wednesday is all they can do, that's 3 crosswords a week. So when one of them is too hard it's a disappointment.
Congratulations on your debut, Ethan! I really got a kick out of this clever puzzle. How fortunate you are to have your Grandfather as a mentor! Looking forward to your next one.
As someone who couldn't care less about soccer, this was a horrible slog
Today's poem made from words found in today's puzzle <br> a/ a thin pale man in a white suit comes to deliver a letter comes as the dust that comes in d/ the dread in the air the way the only way the river appears only a/ wet
@Peter Valentine Loved this one! Starting from the Bowie-esque opening through the insidious dust and dread to the punch of that closing monosyllabic line — wet!
@Peter Valentine Loved this one! Starting from the Bowie-esque opening through the insidious dust and dread to the punch of that closing monosyllabic line — wet!
This felt like a Friday or Saturday puzzle, but it was still fun!
Contrary to my glowing comments of recent puzzles, I thought this was a poor one. Others have already posted my complaints so I won't repeat them here. But I will complain about the NYT puzzle IT department. For the second day in a row, after finishing the puzzle and the Wordplay column, when I tried to read the comments I repeatedly got: "Due to technical difficulties, comments are unavailable. We’re working to fix the issue as soon as possible." And yet, as I refreshed and refreshed, the comment count kept rising, so obviously some were not having the same issue I was. But before I even got to the crossword, while doing the Wordle, Connections and Strands, the NYT site kept telling me (3 times) to log in, something that on other days happens automatically. And the only thing that changed when I logged in was that I had to get past a window that wanted me to upgrade my subscription to the family package. I get it, they need revenue, but come on. (all this using the web ste, on a desktop PC, not the phone app)
@Don H I had that recently as well a few times
@Don H I feel you. While I’m able to access Comments, the layout has utterly changed; Wordplay and the comments section are now on separate screens, with no toggling between. The comments themselves have been stretched across the screen, making a very clunky appearance. Bizarrely, if I come to comments from email to read responses to something I posted, then it comes up as the old format; Wordplay/comments sharing a split screen. So it’s out there, just not as the standard format. Intensely annoying.
@Don H I recently did upgrade to the family package and now I get a pop up every time I log in telling me my subscription is active or something. I hate it. Stop telling me what I already know and adding an extra barrier to accessing your content.
@Don H happened to me this week-end and this week and again today....grrrr