An easy solve is sometimes a perfect puzzle if it lands on the right day, and this one did. The clues were fun the entries were satisfying. Good job, Andrea and Dena. Nice to see you again.
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Pipe organ? (4) 2. Completely savage (3) 3. Expert in worldwide fulfillment and distribution operations? (5) 4. First full word sung in "The Alphabet Song" (3) 5. Personal circumstances, so to speak (5) LUNG PAN SANTA AND SHOES
My favorite encore clues from last week: [Jabbers on a plane?] (6) [Flute section] (4) ELBOWS STEM
Shakespeare play about bananas: "Bunch Ado About Nothing" (I watched it on a split screen.)
@Mike All joking aside, it is likely neither Shakespeare nor his audience ever encountered a banana.
@Mike Didn’t Shakespeare also write “All’s well that bends well “ and even” Two gentlemen of Banana “?
@Mike Interesting how your posts can plantain idea in so many peoples' minds. This one especially; it has greater peel.
I was all in on the yuminess. Banana boat. Yum. Banana bread. Super yum. Banana split. Yummie. Banana slug. Yu—wait, what? Ugh! Still, loved the puzzle – so much so that it felt over too soon. Thank you, Andrea and Dena! This was a 10 out of 10 Monday; most definitely not a ZERO, but I did think of this song – The Fixx, "Saved by Zero" <a href="https://youtu.be/JOiZP8FS5Ww?is=zyJrUL6Wkz7SUwzQ" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/JOiZP8FS5Ww?is=zyJrUL6Wkz7SUwzQ</a>
Loved this puzzle, though I didn’t understand how the revealer related to the four entries until I read Wordplay. Maybe I need to do the “D’oh!” puzzle now.
Delightful Monday puzzle from ACME and Dena. Now how about a round of banana daiquiris?
Smooth Monday with a lot of a-PEEL. Monday level I’m guessing since I had no problem with just acrosses, but nice accessory fill. WEIRD that we had IBEFOREE right after yesterday’s puzzle and its rule-breaker.
@SP And Mike I’m sorry if I stole the obvious pun today but you have to admit it was pretty low hanging fruit, as they say. I’m sure you’ll come up with something better.
@SP That's what I came here to say, after yesterday's long comment thread on the topic. Love coincidences like that!
@SP There was also a big to-do(or should I say "to be") yesterday concerning SER.
@SP Missed this entirely but I too like the time loopiness. Must have gotten it on the crosses. It occurs to me that a nice themer could be constructed around the exceptions to the spelling rule.
As I contemplated the completed grid, "banana boat" caught my attention. I realized us Poles don't call that inflatable banana you can ride on the water an actual boat - it's simply a banana, to us. I googled "banana boat" out of curiosity, anyway, and learned that not only is it a name for a novelty seaside ride - it was also a type of fast cargo ship used to transport bananas from the tropics before modern technology allowed them to keep for longer. Also, generally speaking, our "łódź" has a narrower meaning than your "boat" - in English "a boat" may be a synonym of "a ship", but in Polish łódź is a small vessel by definition, so a ship (statek) would never be called a łódź. Our cultures may be different but "Break a leg!" functions as an expression in Polish, too. We say "Połamania nóg!" which translates into "May you break your legs!" (Noga is the nominative case of a singular leg, nogi are plural legs in the nominative, and nóg is the genitive case of nogi; nogi is also the genitive of a singular noga - I can only imagine what horror learning Polish must be to an English speaker 🤣). I rarely encounter unknows in Monday puzzles, especially ones solved very quickly, but today there were two such things: I was very confused by "Is it bigger thana BREAD BOX", but for once an unknown of mine was actually covered by the column! BASE HIT is mentioned in the column but not explained so it and its clue remain a mystery. All I get is that it's a baseball thing.
@Andrzej I appreciate your often interesting and informative comments here, so here's my attempt at explaining that clue: in baseball, a team scores by having players advance through all the bases (from home base to first base, to second, to third, and finally back home) -- a "single" is a hit that results in the hitter advancing by one base, a "double" by two, a "triple" by three. Thus, they are in the category of a "base hit".
@Andrzej Actually, the distinction between boat and ship exists in English as well. A ship may be called a boat ironically or informally, but don't let a sailor hear you.
@Andrzej By the way, lovely exposition about genitive and nominative cases; in that spirit, it should be "we Poles". :)
@Andrzej If you'd like to see how many celebrities used to speak English in the 50s, try Googling an episode or two of "What's My Line," which was a beloved and must-watch show when I was a kid. The patrician intonation of most of the regulars (though I think not Steve Allen, who was quoted), is something else! Actually, movie actors used to speak that way, too, in the old 30s and 40s movies.
Spark lights up a puzzle, and today, not only did the theme answers have it, but it also popped up among the non-themers – MELEE, SNARKY, EGO BOOST, and LATE BLOOMER. My brain worked hard trying to figure out, before uncovering the revealer, what the theme answers had in common. Oh, I failed, but loved the effort. Strong faunal presence today, with GNAT, OTTER, SLOTH, HORSE, EWES, STEER, HIND, and SLUG. Lovely cross of GIRL and MAID. And given the two constructors with schwa-ending names, ‘twas a lovely serendipity to find DORA, ORA, and EVA in the box. So, more than just a flash-sweep through a Monday grid, but rather a potpourri of pleasure. Thank you, Andrea and Dena!
All my life of 74 years, I've heard about comparing something's size to a bread box, and I've only seen one, exactly one, breadbox in my entire life. And that was probably 40 years ago.
@Francis. You’d think we’d go with shoebox, which is about the same size yet something everyone has seen, and is pretty standard.
@Francis A breadbox was the starting size for a guessing game. My grandmother, born in 1868, wanted to teach it to us, but even though we had a breadbox, we never understood why a breadbox, and thought the game was dumb. Five kids in our family, and one of the few things in life we all agreed on.
@Francis I never heard the term until I watched the original (UK) The Office, but across the pond it's a bread bin (clip NSFW) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOO0l2r3uJ4" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOO0l2r3uJ4</a>
@Francis When I moved into my house 32 years ago the former owners had left a few things behind. One of them was a bread box. It is metal and the shape of a slice of bread is pressed into the door, which is how I knew what it was. During the periods when I baked whole-wheat bread at home I would keep it in the breadbox (it goes stale quickly if you refrigerate it). So "bigger than a breadbox" is just as vivid a description to me as it was to Americans a hundred years ago.
@Francis so strange. Every house I’ve lived in we’ve had a bread bin/box. The gift you bring to a new home is bread and it needs to be somewhere. Where do you keep your bread? Plastic bread (aka toast which I do like very much) can go in the fridge but real bread not really. Baguettes of course can only be eaten immediately but the German bread that can double up as building material needs a bread bin/box.
@Francis I'll second Ιασων: What?! I've seen countless bread boxes in my life, and Ikea stocks them: once something is at Ikea, it becomes ubiquitous in people's homes.
@Francis I'm not that old but we even had one in our house, and so did our neighbors.
@Francis, Yes, but every time you engage in navel gazing, you are sure to spy your BREADBASKET.
Dale EVANS, EVA Gabor, and IS IT BIGGER THAN A BREADBOX? in the same puzzle. Boy, does this puzzle skew old. Why, it's as old as I am! Younger folk may be perplexed by the BREADBOX clue. It was a standard question the panelists asked in the TV show "Twenty Questions". (Or was it "What's My Line?") It was a wee inside joke and, as I remember, it never got old. If you've never heard Dale and Roy's "Happy Trails," I'm sure you can find it on YouTube. But why bother? While this is a style of theme that always bores me, I'm nevertheless impressed with how much substance there is in the Down answers. EGO BOOST; STEP COUNTER; LATE BLOOMER; I BEFORE E. I actually like the long Downs more than the themers. A very nicely-made grid, especially on a Monday.
@Nancy There's always the version by Van Halen: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwYcsMiB2UM" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwYcsMiB2UM</a>
@Nancy The Breadbox question was frequently used in the guessing games of my youth. It came in handy for I Spy and other car games too. I never knew of its game-show origins. Who knew??
Anyone old enough to remember The Banana Splits? Isn't Snorky just the dreamiest? -- <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMl6HnhFFIA&list=RDXMl6HnhFFIA&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMl6HnhFFIA&list=RDXMl6HnhFFIA&start_radio=1</a> How about Harry Chapin? -- <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeZJ6WSVVAk&list=RDXeZJ6WSVVAk&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeZJ6WSVVAk&list=RDXeZJ6WSVVAk&start_radio=1</a>
ad absurdum, As with so many of these 60s kids programs*, I think the adjective that applies to Snorky is “trippiest”. *See “H.R. Pufnstuf” and “Lidsville”
Bob Marley’s Buffalo Soldier always reminds me of the Banana Splits’ theme song.
@ad absurdum I had no idea that Harry Chapin was so funny. (RIP) And I had no memory of the Banana Splits having names. But I do remember my nieces liking Raffi. <a href="https://youtu.be/E5b-oUqmqCQ?si=wEghEUiRzx32RdMv" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/E5b-oUqmqCQ?si=wEghEUiRzx32RdMv</a>
@ad absurdum "Uh-oh, Chongo!" . . <&:-#
Since we are GOing BANANAS for this fine Monday grid, I offer you BANANArama <a href="https://youtu.be/l9ml3nyww80?is=IA4PFrUVhNhdXAaz" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/l9ml3nyww80?is=IA4PFrUVhNhdXAaz</a> I had the furthest thing from a Cruel Summer. This summer was filled with amazing adventures: road trips across the country; a planned family trip to Kauai that was actually canceled at the last minute by the airline due to hurricane Lala - we ended up in Newport Beach instead and our oldest got engaged while we were there; and Labor Day weekend we celebrated our daughter’s sweet 16. A very busy but cool summer indeed.
4/10. Reasonably easy, fine Monday level, but some cheap difficulty from an overuse of Spanish language clues. After the third or fourth I was rolling my eyes.
@RL Yeah, there have been a lot of Spanish clues lately. Both of my parents know Spanish so I am somewhat familiar with the language (but I'm forever mad at them for not raising me on both English and Spanish). I usually team up with my mother for NYT crosswords with Spanish clues.
@RL - There were two Spanish clues. Agree that two might be a lot, though I prefer them to French or Yiddish or Hebrew clues, often used in crosswords. The other two "Spanish" clues are people or characters on US kids TV or on Broadway.
@RL When I encounter Spanish-language clues, I roll my Rs.
@RL I love foreign-language clues! I've never had a minute of formal Spanish but between French classes, US television, and many occasions to hear Spanish spoken in person, somehow it's oozed into my brain. I even love Asian-language clues. I have pretty well zero vocabulary or experience with anything west of China and east of Iran, but I love the challenge.
Note on 68A: The great writer of speculative fiction, Stanislaw Lem (Hi, Andrzej!), has a short story--one of his "fables for robots"--titled "the Three Electroknights": There exists, in the remotest regions of the Cosmos, the planet Cryonia, whose surface temperature is just a degree or two above Zero Kelvin--cold enough that elemental gases--hydrogen, argon, krypton--exist as crystalline solids, from which the Cryonids fashion gemstones of legendary beauty. Cryonia is raided, successively, by the titular electroknights, who attempt to steal the jewels; but in each case their heat causes the stones to vaporize. A metaphor for vanity and avarice.
Bill, In the sequel, did the majestic head Electroknight just rename the planet “Thermonia” as a show of strength?
@Bill To think we once needed metaphors for that... And not that ling ago, either!
Let’s go bananas all the way! Banana house: some greenhouses in Iceland. Really! <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_production_in_Iceland" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_production_in_Iceland</a> Banana box: valuable acquisition from the grocery store. Perfect for firewood. Banana decision: ripe or green? Big or small? Two or five? Banana fest: Really! <a href="https://slowfoodoahu.com/bananafest" target="_blank">https://slowfoodoahu.com/bananafest</a>/
@Cat Lady Margaret Let’s not forget Bananas foster and Banana republic
@Cat Lady Margaret Some will instantly recall the bananafest in Gravity's Rainbow. It's where I learned the excellent word 'musaceous'.
Today’s poem is for my pal Diego who is heading home to take care of his dad for Diego a/ all the stars are the beginnings of a song and so it is, the song trails back to the stars it is the song of giving d/ and after the things you gave me the poems travelling through me the words can be sung to you to let you go first and be a/ new
bravo Andrea and Dena - this is what crossword is all about hilarious fun silly sage wise all the things. no A.I. please just ingenuity and human thinking
Always nice to see a puzzle from ACMe and Dena. Thanks for a nice Monday, ladies!
Super fresh. Best Monday puzzle in memory.
@kkseattle thank you!!!
Nice Monday puzzle. Typical slow start for me, but everything fell together with some crosses. And... the reveal was one of the last things I worked out. Just a nice moment when I stopped and pondered and caught on to the theme. And... appropriate puzzle find today. A Saturday from April 16, 1955 (!) by Margaret Farrar. Some theme answers in that one: NOSMOKING NOPARKING NOTALKING And... the theme clue and answer that led me there: "Yes, we have____." NOBANANAS Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/16/1955&h=50a" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/16/1955&h=50a</a> ....
@Rich in Atlanta And one more puzzle find. A Thursday from June 3, 2010 by Elizabeth C. Gorski. Four theme answers in that one, and the first letter in each of theme answers was circled. Those answers (with the initial letter in caps): Rollingblackout Onthehalfshell Floortoceiling Laughingjackass Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/3/2010&h=14a" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/3/2010&h=14a</a> ....
Yes, Virginia, there WAS a time when Roy Rogers was THE Cowboy, and nobody had heard of John Wayne... Next, folks will be claiming that The Lone Ranger is outdated. Ah, the days of yesteryear... Nice Monday, and since I hadn't had anything to eat OR drink since 9 last night (I meant to wake up at 11:30 for a glass of water, but I didn't...) ...I found the puzzle welcome distraction. ACME, we haven't seen you in so long! Time for my COFFEE!!!
@Mean Old Lady There used to be a museum in Victorville, California where you could see taxidermied Trigger. Lots of other Roy & Dale artifacts too. Apparently it all got moved to Branson MO at some point but I don't know what happened to it all after that.
@Mean Old Lady I really enjoyed the Roy Rogers trip to my childhood too. I have a favorite childhood photo where I’m dressed in the cowgirl outfit I got for Christmas that year. Big grin on my face.
@Mean Old Lady I once did some work at the Rogers-Evans home in Apple Valley near Victorville. Did not get to meet the cowboy. Dale, though, answered the door and was quite gracious yet strangely keen to show us to the guest bathroom replete with its gold plated fixtures. I hope I came across as dutifully impressed.
Well, this should wake you up for your Cheerios and milk. (Watch out for the deadly black tarantula.) The great Harry Belafonte Day-O <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5dpBWlRANE" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5dpBWlRANE</a>
Super-smooth Monday to ease on in to the week. With lots of echoes of recent puzzles, even the I-before-E discussion of yesterday. How many kitchens still have breadboxes? My childhood home, built in 1952, had a bread box built into one drawer, lined with tin. I haven't had a breadbox since.
@Linda Jo I never did figure out the WHY of breadboxes; they do not keep the bread fresh, so maybe it was to keep it from the mice...
@Linda Jo I have a breadbox in my kitchen, definitely for keeping out mice. No idea how they keep getting into the house.
Having a fully developed crossword brain, I immediately thought of bananas when I saw SPLIT. Having no attention span, I immediately moved on and needed the revealer to get the theme. If you clicked on Sam's link to bananas, you may have noticed the amusing-to-me juxtaposition of these two sentences: "Today, the average person in the U.S. eats more than 75 bananas a year. Tarantulas like to hide in banana leaves."
@ad absurdum Ah, as I noted below, Harry Belafonte's famous BANANABOAT song--"Day-O"--warns of "deadly black tarantula." With a little research, I learned that the song is about stevedores who "work all night on a drink of rum." Apparently, they work all night loading and unloading bananas to avoid the heat of the day. He sings: "Come mister tallyman, tally me bananas." In other words, tally up how many bananas I've loaded and pay me so I can go home. Thus, "Day-O." BTW, I believe I read somewhere that bananas are the most popular fruit in the American diet. It makes sense. Great in smoothies. Here's that link again: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5dpBWlRANE" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5dpBWlRANE</a> By the way, Harry Belafonte goes along well with Dale EVANS and that BREADBOX for old-timers.
Lots of Monday fun, didn’t speed through it as sometimes happens on Mondays. Just smiles. Favorite spot was the Roy Rogers memory. I had a cowgirl outfit when I was little, maybe even a gun belt with it—not sure but I bet there’s a black and white photo somewhere, me and my cousins.
This one was thoroughly enjoyable. Well done kids!
I guess I had it wrong my whole life, but I always thought a hit, a base hit, and a single were the same thing.
@Randy A single is a subset of hits. If the runner ends up on second or third base, it's a two base or a three base hit, aka a double or a triple. A home run is also a hit, but rarely called that because it's a special kind of hit that leaves no runners on base. The batter is also credited with a hit with a sacrifice play, where even though the batter is out, the runners advance on the bases. The most common example of that is a sacrifice bunt which moves a runner from first to second.
@Steve L I saw this news item today and thought of you - even though the incident wasn't nearly close enough to Haverstraw, even for an emu. :) <a href="https://abc7ny.com/post/escaped-emu-captured-break-rockland-petting-zoo/19826399" target="_blank">https://abc7ny.com/post/escaped-emu-captured-break-rockland-petting-zoo/19826399</a>/ ...Funny that with all those little words in the grid today, and so many of them starting with E, we didn't get an EMU! So I guess that makes my post off-topic. Sorry-not-sorry! With every entry I thought I'd get my tie-in: ECO, ERA, ELM, ERE, EAR, EVA, ERS, EVER, EGGS, EWES...
@G Close enough. Google says it’s 24 minutes from me. But I didn’t even know there was a petting zoo in Ramapo. It’s funny what you learn from crosswords even when it’s not actually in the crossword.
Easy breezy and exactly what a Monday should be. For anyone starting their NYT crossword journey, this is a perfect starter.
A most musaceous Monday methinks. Nit: In 65+ years of baseball fandom and intermittent obsession, the term 'base hit' has always meant a single. Always. It's not a category. Nobody ever calls a triple an example of a 'base hit'. It might be called a '3-base hit', but a "base hit to left" is a single. I'd say by definition. Now I'll look it up and eat crow if necessary.
Charles Peterson, Awaiting your corvid-consuming comeback comment. Cuz “base hit” definitely applies to more than a single, and is used that way very often.
I quote: "Base Hit from the Baseball Dictionary 1. A batted ball on which the batter advances safely to, but no farther than, first base; a single. 2. A batted ball that permits the batter to get on any base safely with no error being made and no baserunner being forced out on the play. See also hit." I'll eat part of a crow. Like, a wing maybe. Perhaps it's archaic usage.
@Charles Peterson Beginning to seem like a Sixpence moment for you (four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie). Your hole seems to be getting deeper…if I were you I’d give it up and eat the whole pie. We all have to eat it sometimes.
UGH! This crow tastes like jack-or-jenny. I humbly stand corrected. Thank you to the cite-detectives.
I forgot to check who the constructors were before solving, but was not surprised to see that it was an ACME co-productin. Thanks for a very pleasant Monday Andrea and Dena.
Personal best, 5:55. That will stand a long time.
In case you haven't reached your RDA of potassium, here;s a little Shonen Knife: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H8J_A13AMw&list=RD5H8J_A13AMw&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H8J_A13AMw&list=RD5H8J_A13AMw&start_radio=1</a> CHIPS AHOY!
Looking for a 5 letter word beginning with S in teenager’s language seemed a bit obvious. Maybe it was the paucity of Ses A rather straightforward Monday even by Monday standards Thanks to the setters
@Ιασων The sarcastic "thanks to the setters" indicates you're back home from your sailing adventure 😢
@Ιασων And I definitely over-thought it and tried to come with a way to get ANGST. NYT xword teens are usually ANGSTY, AMIRITE?
Anyone else think of Wrangler and Cherokee JEans? Fun misdirection for me.
@Rosy Sam called it out in the Wordplay column. The very first listing under Tricky Clues. ;)
Some evocative old-timey answers today, like BREADBOX, Dale EVANS… and it’s been a while since I saw anyone with a plug of listening tobacco in their EAR. But then the reference to the more recent trend of always having some “Go bananas” ready for an emergency was a nice balance.
@JohnWM I thought the piercing or plug-hint was about earplugs - having never heard of tobacco plugs, noise cancellation seemed more intuitive to me.
@JohnWM EAR, ERA and ARE are all in this puzzle. I wonder how many times triple anagrams have appeared in a puzzle. Too bad Issa Rae didn’t make an appearance.
@JohnWM Is this just deadpan humour or are you really unfamiliar with earplugs? 😯
Pen danced across the grid til it stumbled at EVA. Eva, Ava, can we just name them OREO or ERIE. Wonderful start to the week
@dk Spelled EVA, pronounced “Ava.” Green Acres is the place to be!
I can't decide whether this is insensitive or not: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ie-H1Tfron8&list=RDie-H1Tfron8&start_radio=1&pp=ygUUVGhlIGJvYnMgYmFuYW5hIGxvdmWgBwHSBwkJ_gsBhyohjO8" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ie-H1Tfron8&list=RDie-H1Tfron8&start_radio=1&pp=ygUUVGhlIGJvYnMgYmFuYW5hIGxvdmWgBwHSBwkJ_gsBhyohjO8</a>%3D
Newer solvers who weren't around in 2024 might enjoy solving the March 4 puzzle from that year.
Very clever theme. Fun Monday solve! Rating: 9/10
Pretty standard Monday. The only square that took me a bit was the U in DRUID. I don't know why, I think because I kept thinking DRYAD which I knew wasn't correct but it ran interference for another D&D forest related term.
@Chris I had to resort to a consonant run (on a Monday!) to get the square where SER crossed ORA
@Chris I mean, you could encounter both a DRUID and a dryad in an ancient oak grove, so your mistake kinda made sense 😃
@Chris Ignorance on display here. I thought that Druids still existed.
68 Across, "coldest possible temp on kelvin scale" is incorrect. Zero kelvin is immeasurable and therefore only theoretically possible.
The clue was not [Coldest possible Kelvin temperature]. Every Kelvin *scale* I've seen has Zero degrees at the bottom.
@Casey I've heard certain arthropods can survive extreme temperatures. Who knew nits could not only endure, but thrive at, Absolute Zero?
I happened to have watched this video the other day--how to grow bananas from a banana in a container. It helps if you live in the tropics. It's a hoot. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfTvcJJvFZg" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfTvcJJvFZg</a>
By my measure this was a bit too hard for a Monday. In other words, i tried the “Across only” challenge and failed. Did anyone succeed?
@Petrol EVANS precluded a strict across only (not even looking at the downs) solution very early on.
@Petrol I always try Mondays on Down-only and couldn't quite make it today. So I'd say at least ATAD harder than average. And of course it meant that l didn't see the revealer but since I had gotten all the theme entries, I can't claim it would have helped.
Easy to solve without having to find out the theme, I think this should've been done on a day with a more difficult crossword. I could've appreciated the theme more. Besides, go bananas is an idiom.
Anyone solve on mobile and have done a sub 5-minute Monday? No matter how quickly the answers come I just can’t thumb-type that fast.
@spurious according to xwordstats, the *median* solve time was 3:54, meaning half the solvers it monitors finished below that. I got a personal best today, love the speed runs.
@spurious I finished in about 4:30 going as fast as I could type. I definitely slowed down when I went from a smaller iPhone SE to a newer, larger model, and used to solve much faster on the PC with a real keyboard.
Same here, I'm at a 5:44 best solving on my smallish iPhone SE. TBH I might not be much faster on a laptop or on paper. I definitely a tortoise rather than a hare.
@spurious 6:00 is my Monday fastest time, achieved on a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (that is, a huge phone).
@spurious I've done it several times, but I also text a lot. I've never gotten under 4 minutes, though.
@spurious 3:48 for me today on mobile (a PB!) Make sure you have “jump to the next clue” enabled, and on your first pass, skip long answers or anything you don’t know immediately.