SP
Cincinnati
I usually don’t complain about puzzles—especially debuts—but this one was extremely disappointing. The theme was cute but not that funny or remarkable. Given that you absolutely need the crosses I’ve never seen so many ambiguous clues that could be filled by very close words—BASE/BASS MOTE/MITE, MICRO/MACRO, CEOS/CFOS/CIOS. Then there’s SMOOVE and MAMA which is a horrible Natick—I don’t mind learning new cultural references but a cross like that is really questionable especially when you can clue MAMA differently. Same with PEG and YUNG—I don’t mind PEG so much although it’s a reach but when crossed with an obscure rapper. No really fun or clever clues. I’m so sorry this one left me cold. I will put a lot of this more on the editors and I would encourage this new contributor to keep at it, as the idea had a lot of potential.
Loved the puzzle theme overall and a really cute idea but some of the clues were torturous at least the way they were clued. I had two absolute Naticks, UZI and SUZIE and ADELEH and BELLE, all fairly obscure references, and since three of them could have been clued less ARCANEly it seems like it would have been fair to make at least one of the references more accessible. Anyone else feel that way or is it just me?
@Richard Irell A few thoughts: First, I wish this community would stick to constructive criticism and not blanket nastiness. Lots of reasons you might not like a puzzle but calling it “garbage” is uncalled for. Second, FYI, puzzles are accepted months and months in advance so I have little doubt Will Shortz approved this puzzle. Occasional tweaks on clues at the last minute, yes, but the grid itself, unlikely. And Sam the constructor is also an editor so I doubt there would have been much different if Will were here. Third, Sam’s contributed lots of puzzles and this is his style, like it or not. Exasperating, stretchy, sometimes obscure but in my opinion usually entertaining and thought-provoking. Don’t agree? Sure, say why in a polite thoughtful manner and move on.
@Alan Parker I’m fine if you think puzzles lately have been too hard, too obscure, too much trivia, whatever. But you lost me with “there’s never any reason to have a rebus in a puzzle” especially when you were recommending the NYT puzzle a year ago—rebuses have been in these puzzles for years and years. And there IS a reason—they provide challenge, variety and LOTS of people like them even if you don’t. This one especially seemed pretty benign.
We don’t always give a lot of love to Monday puzzles, either solving or constructing—at least I don’t. And I’m really not a fan of word ladders generally. But let’s give credit where credit is due—this was an extremely tight Monday puzzle with a ton of theme content, and to do that and make it entirely accessible to Monday solvers deserves a lot of applause.
The most irreproachable puzzle in a while, I hope, not withstanding another ARHAT. The clue for KENS is the funniest I’ve heard in a long time
Great puzzle, but there’s got to be a cleverer clue for GOATYOGA. How about “fitness class that might lead to firm butts?”
@Rebecca B I can answer that. I’ve contributed puzzles and my first Sunday was trashed by Rex Parker who hated it and basically accused me of plagiarizing it from a Sporcle quiz without reading my comments that it was MY OWN Sporcle quiz. Guess what, the world didn’t end, my ego wasn’t shattered and I got lots of other very positive comments both in his column and this one. So give your own opinion if you liked it, let Deb have hers which was thoughtful and not unkind and let’s all grow a backbone!!!
@Michael Weiland C’mon people of all the things to nitpick over! I suppose he could have said “if parsed differently” and left it at that but he was trying to be clearer. Besides if I asked you how many words is the sentence “W is my favorite letter” what would you say? Certainly not four? W is the noun in this sentence. It’s a letter being used as a word.
So the theme was EEZPPZ since EEONDOWNTHEROAD was a gimme to me. But oddly enough another theme could have been Trivia I’ve Never Even Heard Of (but maybe should). TABOURET, VOILE, STAYMAN, PUENTE, ENSOR,SINEBAR, EMILIO and ANTIHERO (as a Taylor Swift song) as a start—a long list for me for a Sunday. If I were like many commentators lately I suppose I would just say it’s the worst puzzle ever and blame it on the editors in Will’s absence. Instead I’m going to chalk it up to one of those days the constructor just has a wider experience than I do in those areas, or else dug further in their word bank to make a really tight clever theme work. So I'll just be grateful that today I got to learn a lot of new things and managed to get through the puzzle regardless, admittedly having to run through the alphabet a few times.
Really really clever. I figured out the trick easily enough—a missing letter where the asterisk was—which made it pretty easy to guess the themes, but I love a theme where you can’t wait to see what the revealer would be and this one didn’t disappoint. A quick solve but extremely fun. LOL before I realized that the missing letters were always B or N I was looking for COVID of Ancient Greece and imagining some sort of mythological epidemic!
So for everyone giving Joel Fagliani a hard time: Folks, the grids are accepted months even a year in advance. It’s pretty likely Will accepted this puzzle. Occasionally there are tweaks on clues late in the game so that may be on the recent editing crew but if you didn’t like the grid because it was too obscure then please don’t put that on them yet. And this is the same editing crew who worked on most of the clueing (with Will’s approval) before his stroke. For my two cents, I haven’t seen a lot of difference since Will left. There have always been irregularities in complexity and enjoyment before and always will but I think overall they are similar and I think people are just looking for things to grouse about.
I was very afraid when I came here today that the haters would be out in force and was pleasantly surprised, so far at least. For the record, I liked it, I thought it was well constructed and a fun challenge. But here’s a recipe for disaster: 1) rebuses (divisive on their own) 2) needing specialized knowledge and reading the title which not everyone does 3) no clue where the rebuses would be and not symmetric (not that it would be possible for this complexity) 4) overall higher level of difficult clueing for a Sunday (and if you think no one is going to complain about having to know the name of an obscure discus champion guess again). Just fair warning they will come, and this is certainly a harder than average Sunday for most. But again I really enjoyed it, thanks for stretching me.
@Listening It’s awkward but in the dictionary. I think it’s a little like “fishes” and “fruits” and “breads” which aren’t used very often but can be especially when speaking of different types as opposed to a lot of one type. Look, let’s just face it, this puzzle required a lot of awkward fill in order to work (the constructor admitted it took a year to create) so let’s chalk this one up to some fill you have to grit your teeth about in the service of a really clever and fun theme. If the theme is good enough I let them slide as I did with this one.
Interesting the constructor’s name hinted at two clues Kate (KATY) and SADIE(S) Hawkins. I thought this was a well constructed puzzle, not much to nitpick about.
Fun and challenging puzzle. Had to flyspeck at the end because I had RAP instead of RAG (POSEE seemed vaguely possible). Finally, I had __CK for canoodle and you can bet my first thought wasn’t NECK.
So much to love about this puzzle. I love a ZIPPY start like the Napoleon clue. Love the cross of COMFY and WARMFUZZIES. Love those 5 O’s clustered in the middle. Never heard of BOOMROASTED even though I’ve seen The Office, but just watched the clip—hysterical. Love the clue for RUB but I guess that’s the Hamlet lover in me. Loved that WOOKIEES was spelled right even though I forgot it. Love the clue for EROSION. Loved the pace of this puzzle. Some start slow and then fall fast, some start fast and then one corner is a grind, this just kept slowly building but I was guessing to the end (the middle for me). One of my favorite themeless puzzles in a while. My only nit—how is BAILS dips? Like bailing a boat?
One of those themes that definitely make me say “I wish I had thought of it”. Clever, elegant and well executed. While I didn’t deliberately try to get the revealer first, I dropped down pretty quickly there naturally and it helped me get all the theme clues very easily. Without that it would have taken me longer because I do think the non theme clues were intriguing and appropriately challenging for a Thursday. But once I got the trick I solved well under my average but no matter I was delighted all the same.
Just want to lends my voice this is really is this the best Monday puzzle I can remember. Believe me this is a feat to create and still keep all the fill straightforward. I can’t even imagine
Typical Sam Ezersky puzzle, at first pass you think you will never solve it and then somehow painstakingly it comes together. Stretchy clues like the POLISCI and SOB and gloriously hysterical ones like DOGNAP. The NW had me in a bind forever because I was set on ELDEST or OLDEST for Beth (been awhile since I read it) which made me guess HELL for the barber’s call, and was certain the Troy location was UPSTATE. I was also guessing on DOH for the face slap. Not to mention, any other blackjack players enter SAFETYBET? Anyway, fun, educational and somehow got it done at slightly less than my Saturday average.
@Petrol My only comment is that one bad clue doesn’t necessarily make a bad puzzle. This had a couple for me, so I thought it was borderline, and I respect the people who hated it—just pointing out that almost every puzzle has at least a few clinkers but can rise above it. I admit BADTHING was probably the poorest clue I’ve seen in a long time.
I don’t know how to post the sign but B natural = GONAKED ?
Ok, yeah, pretty straightforward for a Thursday. But some really clever words that can drop their tees (oops hope that doesn’t get censored) especially FItNESStESt, and impressive to make it all work with no extraneous Ts except in the revealer. So style points for that. No standout clues, really, except I liked “last but not least”. I expect we will get the usual “my streak got broken because I couldn’t fill it in” and it sounds like for Android users that might be fair, looks like a bit of a rigmarole, and if that’s true it’s reasonable to question puzzles where the tech can’t support the gimmick. But for the record I had no problem on the iPhone app.
@Steve L You are of course right about Kosher rules but I thought “say” meant “for example”. So I thought the point wasn’t that this encompassed all Kosher rules but that there are other reasons people might an avoid pork and shellfish—for example people who are vegan or allergic.
@J-J Cote I think accessible isn’t necessarily easy (and she even said it wasn’t easy). I think she means there wasn’t a ton of obscure terms or trivia or proper names and I agree with that (a few but generally gettable with crosses) it took me a bit to get a good handle (CABINFEVER did that) and the it gradually came together, a fairly fast time for me but never easy.
Oh,to answer the constructor’s questiion, I think hundo is pretty obscure but at least gettable in context. “Hundo p” would be have been completely incomprehensible and yes I would have been annoyed. I’m also glad the editors turned down “cylindrical side piece” for TATERTOT. “Side” could be short for “side dish” but “side piece” seems unnecessarily obfuscating. Maybe “Piece of a cylindrical side?” might work but still clunky. It’s like the dozens of clues I’ve submitted which seemed clever to me at the time but were edited, and in retrospect, for the better.
Count me in in the way too easy for a Thursday crowd. Cute idea but there must be someway to clue it without totally giving it away in obvious pictures. Also agree that HORNBILL doesn’t exactly fit the theme pattern.
@Decker Also, David if you only want to see Saturday’s comments go to that puzzle’s column and look at the comments there, those will be restricted to Saturday.
Fast solve for me. Most of it was very smooth and steady. I agree the clue for CLAY is pretty stretchy (no pun intended) and I already gave my rant on MOMALA elsewhere, but there’s always nits and I’m not going to let it spoil an otherwise stellar puzzle especially one with an “I Love Lucy” reference.
A fine Monday but can anyone explain the italicized words? I kind of get it for Captain Obvious (he “must” because it’s obvious) but not the other two.
On ABYSM/ABYSS— this got me too, I had to go to the column to see my mistake. I put MAXIMUM first and changed it. It’s not the end of the world, and I’m glad I learned a new word, but especially for a Wednesday it would be nice to get some inkling of nonstandard or poetic usage. Otherwise clever puzzle and kept me guessing what the theme could be. Funny coincidence, was listening to a lecture on tape today on particular physics and the topic was—wait for it—mirror symmetry. Go figure.
@Alan Parker I wish before you criticized the editor or the constructor you proofread yourself. The name is spelled perfectly correctly PAVAROTTI
This was really really brilliant I just wish I was brilliant enough to figure out the theme myself without reading the column. But despite that it was a lot of fun!!!
Wow. I think the best part about solving crosswords is the insight it gives you into the human mind, both my own and the constructors. I have no idea how I solved this, first pass through I had maybe ABIDE and CAR and AÑOS and TRA and not much else (and those were guesses) Like everyone else NW was a bear and stared at it for ages, put it down and then it just comes to you. I think crosswords will be the last bastion against artificial intelligence because I don’t see a computer solving anything like this in a long while nor creating it with such elegance and cleverness.
@David O Selznick The instructions in the puzzle note were very clear. You rotate the locks 90,180 or 270 degrees to spell different words (and only one position works). When you do so the position spells JACKPOT, which is certainly what you might say after cracking a safe in a heist. There are a lot of legitimate reasons to dislike this puzzle but unclarity about the theme or its construction shouldn’t be one of them. Unless you don’t read the puzzle notes but honestly unless you are completely new to NYT crosswords you should always go there first on a Sunday especially when you see a gimmicky grid like this.
My 2 cents on the DAM/JAM controversy: unchecked letters are normally not allowed both for this reason and to allow solvers two chances to enter the letter if they hadn’t heard of one answer. In this case the lock gimmick and message were meant to be the second check. As far as DAM/JAM goes that’s good enough because JAM won’t make a word when you rotate it. I’m not sure the puzzle completely justifies this because, for example, if you had never heard of STAB for pain it could be STAG or STAT and it could rotate into -OLD and work. I’m sure the constructor and editors were dutiful at making sure the unchecked answers were all straightforward and easy to get for this reason and I think they were fair in this regard.
@Nancy So, in defense of Deb, everyone seems to be up in arms because she is “comparing” two puzzles which isn’t the point she was making. The point is that while this was a perfectly well constructed and enjoyable puzzle, that the idea of an “escape room” might have been given a more interactive or engaging treatment than just a straightforward rebus, and she gave an example of that. That’s all. I’m a contributor, and have had plenty of rebus puzzles rejected because a basic rebus puzzle isn’t necessarily so interesting anymore. I think this one is elevated a bit more because the construction and fill are excellent and I think it still posed a fair challenge for a Thursday. So that’s just the point she was making and construing it as a negative attack on the puzzle overall or the constructor is just wrong.
@Barry Ancona Not just baseball themes, literally the end of the clue were baseball positions. When I said EXACTLY the same theme I meant it.
I didn’t hate this like so many others, although I have to agree that BADTHING was beyond the pale in arbitrariness and HOSER as clued was also a bad decision (it seems like if you said “Rome delicacy” and the answer was PEACH and you said well I mean Rome, Georgia.) What was weird to me is at first I thought I would breeze right through it as I had a lot of toeholds (like DOGIES) but most were wrong like IHATEDIT, TSARISTS, MEAL (something people share) IGOTIT for AHISEE etc. TSARISTS led me even to try SILENTMOVIES which I knew was wrong but couldn’t get Rudolph Valentino in The Sheikh out of my head. Somehow I did manage to get through it without lookups and it did take me quite awhile, but I thought there was enough here to appreciate and I enjoyed the challenge.
A breezy but fun fresh themeless, easier than the last few weeks for sure. I whizzed through the NE then went clockwise pretty quickly. Thought I might get close to my best time but the NW gave me some pause. Loved BLANKETHOG!!!
Agree with Sam. Can’t get a tighter theme than this. Really clever
I think I was on the same wavelength as the constructor also, pretty fast solve. I was skeptical of GASSTATIONSUSHI but guess it’s really a thing and certainly a brilliant clue. I think the Prince Harry clue was a bit of a giveaway, I like the constructor’s original idea better. My only hitch was guessing that “Buy U a Drank” sounded more country than rap and going for Shania TWAIN, which gave me a WETPSYCHIC. I do think most of them are all wet lol. Anyway I’m always impressed by a debut themeless and this was a great one.
@Crossy I think the slot isn’t the physical slot on the calendar but the “slot” of whatever is being held open. For example if you had weekly speakers and no one signed up for two weeks from now, that would be an empty slot, and you might put TBA on the calendar to account for this temporarily
@SP I got I it. NW corner: OKED RILE CRIB… Bam! Pangram!
@Joanne Jordan I’m going to keep defending Deb. “Snarky”? “Derogatory”? What column did you read? Did you miss the part we she called the puzzle “perfectly enjoyable”? Did you miss the part where she called the theme “tight and impressive”? All she was saying is as a veteran solver she can’t help but think of how it could be better, and of course hedged that not everyone might feel that way. That doesn’t seem very inappropriate or beyond the pale to me.
Wow PB for a Monday and finally broke the 5 min mark! Although I could have sworn “Feel like a woman” was a TPAIN song??
@Janine Agreed. I’m not saying you shouldn’t say anything negative, just let’s have a little civility and fairness about it. I don’t think that’s asking too much of what should be a thoughtful, intelligent community.
@Richard Um… but you just wrote it as one word? A hyphenated word is still one word.
@Mary A. Agreed or just credit it for either position. They have multiple solutions for rebuses, after all.
Nice debut Mike! I’d say the theme itself, dropping down two letters for the musical notes, is a little on the light side. But I think it is made up for by two nice revealers and a plethora of music references both in and out of the themes. The fill is very good (nice program) and the solving was smooth and just about right in difficulty. My only nit, anyone else notice that 10 across and down can be solved equally accurately by PRO and POO instead of BRO and BOO? (Maybe better I don’t think of BRO as necessarily a jockish type).