Things I can do in the 2.76 seconds the Polish kid needed to solve the cube: Select a knife Select a potato Speed cube the potato Go get the bandaids Mind you, that’s 2.76 for each one separately.
@Cat Lady Margaret Comment of the month!
Speed cubers like to do the twist. (They're a hit at the block party.)
@Mike And their *Chubby* little fingers ain't playing *Checkers* either. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CCgDvUM4TM" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CCgDvUM4TM</a>
@Mike If the wizards don't show, no nerds is not good nerds.
I've heard Ryanair being referred to in a lot of ways but never as Ryan
@Ciarán I lived in Germany about 20 years ago and we always called it just Ryan. We had friends who would fly from Dublin to Hamburg to get their hair cut & colored and save money doing it! Hair salons in Hamburg would do any 1 thing for 10 Euro!
My heart really goes out to the poor nation of Haiti. They've been plagued by bad government forever, fostering violence, poverty, misery. Then a huge earthquake hits that kills between 200,000 and 300,000 people. Did you know that? American news wasn't all that on top of it in 2010. Haiti is a great example and a terrible warning for nations that can't dispose of their petty dictators. There was a great New Yorker article about the history of Haiti I read many years ago. It was devastating, and it's gotten worse since then. A few get a break and get to come to this country, and are immediately accused of pet murder and ingestion, and are sent back to the rubble. If karma is really a thing, then I greatly fear for our future.
@Francis A side note about Haiti's poverty. When France agreed to independence for Haiti in 1804 after revolution, France later in 1825, using gunships as a threat, demanded reparations from Haiti for lost income, including lost slave income. Haiti agreed, literally with a gun to its head, and paid France yearly from 1825 until 1947, including payments to other debtors, mostly American, who helped finance Haiti's payments. In all, it's estimated that this "independence debt" cost Haiti around $560 million in 2022 dollars: the main reason for Haiti's poverty.
@Francis FWIW, I’ve read that karmic debt is incurred only through volitional action, such that simply being born American would not create karmic effects. However: woe to those setting our policy. And to those Americans who choose to harden their hearts toward the suffering of our neighbors to the south.
@Francis I did know about that and I'm devastated with... well, with how we are treating them now. And so many others who we, a once kinder nation, tried to help. There's so much to say about this topic, but I'll refrain from saying it here. Just know, I get it and I hear you and feel it too.
@Francis Not to mention the introduction of cholera after the earthquake by UN "aid" workers (thanks a lot) from Nepal who set up their latrines to drain into the rivers where locals got their drinking water. That killed thousands more and continues to plague the country.
Cool prize at the end! Fun Wednesday puzzle.
A lovely Wednesday that I confess I found easier than Tuesday this week. I hadn’t come across the term SPEEDCUBER before, but it’s self explanatory so helped me unSCRAMBLE the name. RYAN. Never called Ryanair that. Many other names, none complimentary, but not that. Not a big fan of Mr O’Leary, but he’s a clever so and so. I SAY. Yeah, no. Maybe in Eton. Yes it’s a not uncommon parody of a British Toff, so a perfectly cromulent clue. I’m afraid my immediate response was far more Anglo Saxon. I wanted to pop cider into the Hazy clue as that’s one of our best sellers in the Hall bar. A strong, cloudy, locally brewed witches potion. Now then. The flags are out, the bunting is up, the bar is stocked. We’re ready for kick off against those South Americans Who Shall Not Be Named. We’re still looking for justice against the ‘hand of god’ of 1986. If you don’t hear from me tomorrow I’ll be in mourning. Or hungover. Or both.
@Helen Wright, Festively hungover, I hope! (Since that was the only “positive” selection you provided.)
This is how you do a tribute puzzle about Erno and his creation. Normally tribute puzzles present random facts about the subject, but look at what this puzzle does. Sweet wordplay theme answers – I adore the double meanings of TURNING PRO and FLYING COLORS -- and an animation that visually represents the subject morphing from scrambled to unscrambled AND consists of the inventor’s name. Wow! I loved the lively longs – MAD SCRAMBLES, PEDAL POWER, POETRY SLAM, SPEED CUBER, and TURNING PRO. The grid has six longs, these five, which are NYT crossword debuts, and FLYING COLORS, which is a once-before. Again, wow! Oh, I’ve seen those videos of people solving a cube in under five seconds, and every time my jaw drops and I think, “Man, we humans are one heck of a species!” After seeing how artfully and creatively, J&J, you two tributed the Rubik’s cube, I found myself once again thinking the same thing. Thank you for this!
PS. – Lovely to see a rare-in-crosswords five-letter semordnilap (TESSA).
@Lewis Yes we are a heck of a species. We evolved to chase down large animals and pick fruit but our natural skills also allow us to do things like solving a Rubik's cube. Stuff like this always amazes me.
I had no idea what a mortarboard was - I looked it up after the solve and was surprised to learn it's the academic cap I know quite well from my work at university. We call it "biret", apparently from the medieval Latin "birretum", small cap. I wear mine once per year, along with a toga, during the official part of the students' graduation (obviously we all take the costume off for the garden party/picnic that follows). It has no square board on it though - academic staff birety never do, unlike the student ones. Ours are just soft, square caps. I look utterly siIIy in mine, like an old-timey Catholic priest - I always take a selfie and send it to my mother-in-law so she can have a laugh 🤣 2024 graduation at my faculty: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/luai9qd" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/luai9qd</a>
@Andrzej I was fully expecting you to have attached a photo of your dog wearing the cap. I'm ever so slightly disappointed.
@Andrzej Oh, I kind of like it, very 16th-century vibes! My doctoral robes (UK) had a round cap, which I quite liked, but the effect was rather more Victorian...
@Andrzej Wow, an unexpected discovery as i clicked the link to admire Andrzej in his biret: Imgur, the image hosting site, is blocked in the United Kingdom, where i am now! I jumped to shout “censorship!” but on closer examination, apparently Imgur blocked itself after the UK regulator fined it. I had no idea!
@Andrzej I'm just impressed by those who aren't native English speakers who do the crossword. I couldn't imagine many Americans attempting a Polish crossword.
@Andrzej And there I was thinking you'd make a childish reference to motorboat...
@Andrzej Thanks for sharing your photo. You're right! Those "birety" look quite clerical! It makes one wonder where are strange traditions come from (and makes me realize that we don't even recognize that our traditions are strange until we see that others do it differently). I couple of notes on American usage (for future reference): Americans don't call graduation attire "togas", but "robes". Judges, too, where robes professionally. And we Americans use "faculty" to refer to the academic staff; a professor is a member of the faculty. What you are calling "faculty", we call a "department" (for example the Biology Department in the College of Arts and Sciences) or "school" (e.g. the School of Law at the University of Michigan).
@Andrzej Maaaaan! I was hoping for more of a Greek style toga! What a major let down!! What could be better than academics showing off their legs!? 😏
Two things most of my friends and colleagues know about me is that I am a daily NYT xword solver/addict and my son is a world-ranked speedcuber. I may have to turn my phone off today.
I thought this Rubik’s Cube themed puzzle was ADORBS. Once I saw the theme, I wondered if there would be a color element, and I was pleased to be rewarded at puzzle’s end. Perhaps erroneously, and certainly immodestly, I consider myself a decent puzzler. That said, I’ve never successfully completed a Rubik’s Cube, and stand in awe of those who can do them, especially those who can do them in less than a minute. I loved the clue “Place for hot dates?” for OASES.
I'm good at RCs ... only in the sense that I can generally identify one when I see it. (My birding skill is similar: "yes, that's a bird"). Solving, however... nope. Not a chance. This puzzle, thankfully, doesn't require as much twisting and swearing. (My autocomplete suggested "resignation", lol.)
@Isabeau 😃 Apparently we're much alike - in two things, anyway 🤣
Hands up all who had ARGoS crossing LOoIE...
@mjtw 🙋🏾🙋🏾🙋🏾🙋🏾🙋🏾🙋🏾🙋🏾🙋🏾🙋🏾🙋🏾🙋🏾🙋🏾🙋🏾
@mjtw We’ve been singing “Louie, Louie” after “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at the seventh inning stretch for decades. (The Kingsmen is an Oregon band that became wildly popular in Seattle.) Then, a couple of years ago, it was replaced with “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis ( a wildly popular Seattle duo). Which was ok. And the kids loved it. But we’re back to “Louie, Louie” now. Which I like. Cuz I’m old! Me gotta go now.
@mjtw For some reason started singing "Hang on, Looie, Looie, hang on!" (which is, of course, "Sloopy," with a double O.) The dangers of small Latin and less Greek.
@mjtw Last square I filled, cuz I just couldn’t commit to either. If I guess early on a square I always forget and have to flyspeck. So, only spared by knowing my own weakness.
I blame the Odyssey, but if I had scanned this puzzle with 100 eyes, I would not have seen the error in ARGoS.
@mjtw Nah, “Looie Looie” is the song about an elusive toilet. (“Me gotta go now” takes on a whole new meeting in that one.) Sorry, I’m just feeling a little cheeky.
What a theme. Could not have been executed more perfectly. Loved the theme clues, loved the revealer, loved the center cube, loved the animation. Kudos and well done
This made me break out into a huge grin! I loved the theme. The animation at the end was cute. On a personal note, I'm currently stuck inside a cabin on my last day of vacation due to an enormous smoke cloud blowing in from the Superior National Forest, where there are 17 wildfires burning. Its heartbreaking. I have a simple request: be more mindful of how you are polluting this earth. Drive less, buy less, use less water. Really think about what you do that might be making these fires worse.
@Katieim So sorry your visit to our fair hamlet has been marred.
@Katie those are all noble goals but the personal decision that has the greatest impact on climate change happens in the voting booth.
Like many others, all I saw was a blue square with a ? Kinda feel cheated, but I enjoyed the game anyway. My cleaning crew was late today, so had to cancel/change plans for the day, so I am going to head over to the hospital where I volunteer, and walk in their air conditioning, have lunch there, and drop some stuff off for the food bank we have for employees. Isn't it sad that we pay health care workers so little that we need a food bank for them? Have a safe day, people.
@Marlene Well, if we didn't starve the people actually doing something worthwhile in our society, then we'd have to tax the billionaires.
This was a fun puzzle. Fortunately, when I heard that the lyrics to "Louie, Louie" were dirty, the name and spelling of the song became permanently embedded in my 13-year-old head. So I missed the hardest cross, which we know defines the difficulty of a puzzle, right? 😉 I am currently refraining from going outside, because the greater Grand Marais metropolitan area has the worst air in the country at the moment. It's climbing down (so far) from a peak almost doubling the floor for the worst Air Quality Index of "Hazardous". Super hot and dry conditions are fueling wild fires near the Boundary Waters area. Sensors in the Boundary Waters registered 100 F. Let me repeat that: Temperatures got to at least 100 F in the Boundary Waters. And no, Mr. Clever Pants, this was not in the midst of a fire. There's a strange sickly yellow-orange hue to the sky. It feels quite apocalyptic.
@Francis Good grief. Stay safe my friend. Was just reading horrendous reports of multiple casualties in the Spanish wildfires. We have a lot of fires here at the moment also, but generally confined to moorland, with low risk to human life. The sheep are clever enough to get out of the way.
@Francis Ours is “Moderate.” But the birds are affected so it’s unusually quiet. I can’t imagine how eerie a yellow hue and less birdsong would be. Stay very safe, sir.
@Francis It's supposed to come barrelling into Michigan tonight or tomorrow, so, Thank You, in advance! Even more around our place Up North, where the air is supposed to be cleaner and fresher. I'm planning to head up there early next week; hopefully by then a couple good thunderstorms will wash the soot out. After all, we have our *own* State and National Forests to burn up there!
@Francis Stay safe. I am right on the lake and I cannot even see it. I'm headed home to St. Paul today, where there's less smoke but more heat. Thua is our new normal.
@Francis Wear an N-95 mask if you have some. Being a vet of many a SoCal fire, I say, protect your lungs!
@all Thanks for pointing out the bird behavior. I hadn't noticed, but Grand Marais sparkles with the sounds of sea gulls night and day. One of the charming things that I love so about this town. But not now. Just an eerie, brooding silence.
My heavens, am I ever a sucker for a wee bit of animation with the solve. What am I, five? Don’t care, it makes me instantly feel all whimsy-like. And one of my boys is a speed cuber. Ergo, 👍👍
@CCNY, I no longer get the animation and I'm sad! I've checked my settings, all is as it should be, overlays turned on. 🤷🏼♀️
I came here to nominate this as Worst Puzzle of the Year. But first I read all the comments and learned that I'm a minority of two. Oh, I solved the puzzle, filled in the theme answers and the reveal with the help of the boring fill. Never heard of SPEEDCUBER, so I had no idea what that was or how those theme answers related to the reveal. I'm good at anagrams, but was still thinking it was sports-related, the usual kind, not like twisting a Rubik's cube or downing hot dogs. And my dead tree edition doesn't do any animations. On the rare occasions that I don't get a theme, I read Wordplay and all the comments and then feel enlightened. This is not one of those times. My mileage did indeed vary.
@Times Rita I have heard of speed cubers because my kid likes watching Rubik's cube videos, but I agree this puzzle was pretty bad. There were a few fresh references, but so many tired old standard xword clues and answers that it still felt really dated. I did not enjoy this one.
@Times Rita, It certainly is A Choice for a constructor to hinge their revealer (which nobody has heard of or has said) on an anagram, thus making both ungettable.
This puzzle clicked into place for me. I’ve completed 6k+ puzzles on the NYT app over the years (time well spent if you ask me) and this was my fastest Wednesday ever. Guess I was in the zone. I’m not the fastest crossworder you’ll ever meet but I’m pleasantly surprised that it happened with a puzzle theme of speedy solving!
I enjoyed the theme, was ambivalent about the graphics, and lamented the cluing, which seemed too straight-forward for a Wednesday. Did enjoy reading a bit about the development of the Empire apple by pomologists at Cornell University. The original seed for the variety, a cross between Macintosh and Red Delicious, was sown in 1945. In 1966, Cornell commercially released the Empire with no restrictions or brand management. This certainly was generous; for comparison, the Univ. of Minn. has made more than $16 million from royalties for its development of Honeycrisp.
@Xword Junkie Cornell does a lot of great stuff, research-wise, for the Empire State. They also make delicious maple syrup.
CALS is one of the State colleges at Cornell. <a href="https://www.suny.edu/campuses/cornell" target="_blank">https://www.suny.edu/campuses/cornell</a>/
@Xword Junkie It might be worth pointing out here that Cornell has about double the endowment the University of Minnesota has. Roughly 12 billion to 6 billion. Takes a lot of apples to make up the difference.
I was reading about Spain's World Cup victory over France and came across this sentence: "By the end of the game, Spain were playing keep-ball, toying with their opponents as ‘Oles’ reverberated around the stadium." So I searched for a video and found an Instagram clip from USA Today Sports of fans celebrating after the match. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaylAeKxI6U" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaylAeKxI6U</a>/ I got a kick (!) out of seeing that little bit of crosswordese come to life.
As a speedcuber myself, it took me *way* too long to catch on. Fun puzzle!
Listen, I’m not blaming the people who make them, but I do long for the days when Rubik‘s Cubes were more challenging. Not sure if it’s the way they’re scrambled, or fine-tuning of the inner workings, or the colour-editors making the blues more vibrant, but the solve times just keep going down. I’m sure it’s just to sell more cubes to people with shorter attention spans caused by TikTok. And don’t suggest it’s just that I’ve been doing them for a few years - because I still can’t solve one. (Still, even I can see that this was more like a Tuesday cube.)
@JohnWM Is your actual name Johnathon Swift? 😂
Never heard of it being referred to as RYAN. Many names, few pleasant but never RYAN.
@Ιασων Perhaps you’re responding sarcastically and it went over my head, but I’ll bite. I know and have worked alongside many folks from Ireland over my career, and they’re often using this airline when flying back and forth from the US to Ireland. I’ve only heard of it being referred to as Ryan or RyanAir, and by no other name.
2.76 seconds???? Seriously??? It takes me longer than that to think, "Oh, look! A Rubik's cube."
@The X-Phile Since I read the comments before the column, as I’m interested in how my experience of solving compared to others’, when I read yours, I thought, “2.76 seconds” to solve a crossword?!?! Is that even physically possible?” Context, as I used to tell my students, is everything.
Even with the highlighted central squares I don't know how anyone could have guessed the theme before getting the revealer. A kudo or two if you did! Still fun. And I love the column photo of the guy who's completely flummoxed as he tries to spell out YMCA to an empty arena.
poem made from words in today’s puzzle a/ maybe the moon’s bluffing flying in its path a rock, a thing it rose a million million d/ days to rest there like a finger a/ alas
@Peter Valentine Just amazing what you do with the puzzle words. What a fabulous idea!
How fun was that?! Loved the animation at the end!!
Emus ate my first, so I apologize if this ends up being a dupe, but in short- I love animation like a kid on Saturday morning in the 70’s. One of my boys is a speed cuber. So, two thumbs up.
What is the animation I’m supposed to be seeing? After completing the puzzle I turned on overlays and it now shows me the central 9 squares in different colors, but there is no “animation” (iPhone with iOS 18.6.2)
@Jeb Same thing happened to me in the app. But I saw other comments referencing animation so I tried looking at it in the browser on my phone and that worked. It unscrambles the letters and colors in the middle to “solve” the Rubik’s cube and give you three strips of color plus the letters in the correct order to spell the inventor’s name (Erno Rubik).
Nice ODE to the Rubik’s Cube! I remember getting one for Christmas the year they came out. I was never able to solve it completely. I could only do two sides. Fast forward ~25 years…my oldest son got one for his birthday and had it mastered within the week 🤯 He was one of those speed solvers that blew my mind. I also liked the cool animation. Thanks, Jonathan and Jeff!
A beauty! Not too easy, not full of hopeless trivia, with a theme I couldn’t guess - but then the light appeared!
Loved the animation at the end. And for those who may not have heard of it before, highly highly recommended this documentary called The Speed Cubers on Netflix- perfect mix of entertaining, interesting and heart warming- <a href="https://youtu.be/-wrTIWx_Z6k?is=uV6eXmyXHD-OFTAa" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/-wrTIWx_Z6k?is=uV6eXmyXHD-OFTAa</a>
I got the theme after the second themer, and noticing the nine circles (but FLYING COLORS was my favorite) . . . "Ooh, let ther be animation, let there be animation!" Maria Muldaur singing about warm fruit: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x_IwuXzbKM&list=RD5x_IwuXzbKM&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x_IwuXzbKM&list=RD5x_IwuXzbKM&start_radio=1</a> (There were several YouTubes of this song, live--all featured a tambourine and a yellow rose. I chose this one because its graphics uses Peignot, the official font of the 70's.)
This was fun. Never had what it takes to be a “cuber” of any type. Just not in my wheel house. Did enjoy the revealer at the end. Thanks! Y’all have a great Wednesday!
Well... tough one for me. Long workout and must confess that I wasn't quite grasping the trick even when I was done. Had to come here to get it. No big deal - that's just me. And... puzzle find today. Don't recall another one quite like this. A Sunday from May 27, 2001 by Dana Motley with the title: "A Matter of Degree." Theme was a string of answers, each clued as "Start of a quote," "Quote, part 2," etc., etc. Here those are: CANYOUIMAGINE DRFAHRENHEITANDDR CELSIUS TALKINGDRFAHRENHEIT WOULDSAYMANITSHOTIN HEREAND DRCELSIUSWOULDSAY ITSNOTTHATHOT Whew (and wow). Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/27/2001&h=21a" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/27/2001&h=21a</a> ....
Wonderful puzzle with a great Wednesday “twist”. Much better choice than a rebus with MPH. I too had ARGOS first but on reflection that spelling seems to be reserved for Odysseus’s dog (although the Greek spelling is the same), one of the most poignant scenes in Homer which I won’t spoil for those about to see The Odyssey (I can’t imagine it not being included, and I think I saw a snippet in the preview). The other is Hector holding up his infant son on the walls of Troy in The Iliad. These are the personal moments that show the true genius of the Homeric epic and why they resonate with us over two and a half centuries later.
Not an enjoyable puzzle. One that sacrifices enjoyment to fit a poor revealer with milquetoast themed answers. Constructor trying to be too clever and forgot to inject the fun. Pass.
@D, that's a real downer of a comment. I found it very clever and entertaining.
@D I'm sorry you didn't like this one. I thought it was pretty fun.
@D "constructor trying to be too clever". Please stop projecting motivations on the constructor and then condemning them for it. Is this too mean?
Lifelong resident of the Great Lakes State, we do not use that acronym.
@JJ It’s not an acronym, it’s a mnemonic, and thousands of little kids have used it to remember the Great Lakes for a long time, including myself.
@JJ I grew up in Akron (south of Lake Erie) and knew it immediately. As SP indicated, it was used in our case by teachers to help us remember the names of the Great Lakes.
@JJ Here in Michigan, we only have to remember MESH. But seriously, there's only five of them--why would you need a mnemonic?
Clearly you haven't been in a T-shirt shop lately. Or would you contend those are all aimed at tourists?
Best Sam Corbin column yet, and that’s saying something. Today I have a new emotion: “I wish I felt otherwise!” Thanks, Sam 🙂
@M. Biggen I guess that's Sam's version of Bartleby's "I would prefer not to."
Read the theme as “TURNING SCRAMBLES COLORS.” Which it does.
A perfectly fine Wednesday from Jonathan and Jeff even if I could care less about Rubik Cubes. And how come no one has mentioned that once the squares rearrange themselves the Across entries are no longer words? Where are the nit pickers this morning? A few posters have mentioned The Kingsmen song in reference to 21 Across. My brain went to Brother Louie by Story, cover of a Hot Chocolate song*. <a href="https://youtu.be/d1WYhN6zdxI?si=uHmAXpudFwosYKzV" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/d1WYhN6zdxI?si=uHmAXpudFwosYKzV</a> *A Hot Chocolate song, You S*xy Thing, is also featured in the movie The Full Monty.
@Vaer One of my favorite movies, So that became one of my favorite songs. Awesome link. Thank you!
@Vaer *couldn't* care less -- a nit picker
I have never done The Cube, but found this puzzle pretty easy. Had ARGOS / LOOIE until the end tho ;) Went to Chrome version to see the animation. Now back to reading hard news :(
Wow is that a wonderful puzzle. I had no idea what a SPEEDCUBER could be, but knowing that the cross would be BORSCHT, I filled in the "C" and hoped for the best. As a patent attorney, I was mildly embarrassed that I couldn't unscramble the inventor jumble at the center, but sometimes it's nice to be surprised too.
What a fun puzzle! And I loved the animation, too!
In the past I would go to look at the Wordplay column and it would open in the NY Times app. Now it opens in the Games app. I miss the old way, it was easier to flip back and forth when it came time to cheat a little. I mean c’mon, I’m already frustrated enough when I can’t solve without help!
@Here’s Johnny it’s so annoying. The only reprieve I’ve found is going to the wordplay column on a browser tab on mobile and then making it appear as a button on your screen with the rest of the apps. Better than nothing - though not as fun when your playing from the archives
@Here’s Johnny I also liked the old way—so many commenters refer to clues like 41 Down and the like, and I have not memorized each puzzle quite to this extent.
Nice to see this tight Wednesday, a tribute but hardly arcane for non-cubers like me, from a newer constructor and an old hand (POW!). Solved on my stone tablet clockwise from the NW, guessing what would be in the circles after seeing the revealer, but finishing the clock face before filling in the jumble and then unscrambling the letters in my head. I did the puzzle shortly after it dropped last night, but didn't post, reasonably sure the early comments, if not all of them, would be dominated by the success or failure of the animation.
Unusual for me, I got all three of the theme answers before getting the revealer at all. I was going through it quickly, but that area around the revealer was my slowest, for whatever reason. Well, part of that reason was because, again for whatever reason, I was bopping around the grid, which I don't usually do. And it turns out I missed seeing a few clues that were actually gimmes. And they were surrounded with a few names I didn't know, so that was a bit silly of me. However, it was kind of fun to bop around instead of my usual method... kind of the same way that I now like to change my wordle starting word everyday. Such a wild risk-taker, aren't I!? Born to be wild!! So I focused on trying to make sense of the three theme answers and finally got the aha that it might be about the Rubik's cube, and verified it by correctly unscrambling the middle box, which I haven't bothered with at first. Anyhow, I thought it was a fun solve! I enjoyed it! Well, other than inclusion of the dreaded APED. It, and cur, clued as they typically are, are just so distasteful for me. Poor pups and apes. It must feel really bad for them when they do the NYT crossword and see themselves mocked. 😏
@HeathieJ Bopping around the grid? I do that sometimes - just to make for a different kind of challenge, and perhaps a surprising 'aha' moment. I'm not going for speed, so it's just fun to do something else sometimes. ...
@HeathieJ Bopping around the grid? I do that sometimes - just to make for a different kind of challenge, and perhaps a surprising 'aha' moment. I'm not going for speed, so it's just fun to do something else sometimes. ...