RL
Atlanta
24
Comments
-0.399
Avg Sentiment
6
Positive
2
Neutral
16
Negative
Atlanta
Thoroughly enjoyed this. Creative in a way that didn’t seem forced or overly complicated, which is always better. The cluing was great, loved the theme and the interplay between the top two corners. Very fun Wednesday. In other news, my app still will not connect to the wordplay column, yes I updated it twice, today and yesterday, I still get “page not found.” The app is broken in terms of linking to this column. Hope this can be fixed soon.
I’m over an hour in and not even halfway done. Slogging through a relatively unenjoyable puzzle. Feels more like a chore today.
From a cluing perspective, shouldn’t 38A include an indication that the answer is an abbreviation? ADOUT is the abbreviated form of “Advantage out” but nothing in the clue indicates we are looking for an abbreviation. I had ABORT in there for some time before the downs cleared it up,
@B I had a fast solve today too but I’m all for broadening the pie. There are plenty of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday puzzles in the archive if you find the difficulty aggravatingly low. You are also getting better with time. Consider that your complaints that the puzzles are getting easier may simply be a sign you are getting better. It may be you that’s moving as much, or more than, the perceived difficulty of the puzzle. Also give people a chance to learn how to play. This was enjoyable and yes, a bit breezy. But we don’t need more crusaders for demonically hard puzzles that only a small, and shrinking, cohort can ever solve.
Honestly just didn’t like this, PAH - which, whatever I guess, crossing PATCHOULI, having to translate an entirely Spanish clue to get ENERO, I could go on but honestly too much of a chore for Tuesday. Not a difficulty assessment necessarily, although I think this will come out on the harder side stats wise, just not breezy and kind of felt like a grind. Too early in the week to feel like I’m doing a homework assignment. Don’t really get the theme, read the word play column after solving and seems like a stretch. My own opinion, hope others enjoyed it.
I didn’t care for whatever this was. Appreciate the effort of course but this was absolutely awful as a puzzle to solve.
Rough Tuesday. Unnecessarily difficult for the day. For those in the comments talking about how good they are and how they didn’t have a problem, great, how quickly we forget what it’s like to be new. I would wager when you started doing this you probably started with Mondays and Tuesday’s to get better and grow. The whole point of easier days is to allow more people to participate and get better. Puzzles like this ruin the whole concept. Congrats on getting it. So did I, but making it this challenging on this day prevents others that may be newer from growing and getting better and participating. There are decades and decades of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sundays that may be more your speed if having slightly easier days is so annoying to you. This puzzle would make for a great Wednesday. But it is not a good Tuesday. No fault to the creator who made a good puzzle, this is a NYT issue. They put the puzzle on the wrong day of the week.
Good one today. Perfect Monday puzzle.
Good one today, congrats on the debut.
After 30 minutes I revealed the whole puzzle and I still don’t understand many of the dramatic leaps taken. “Intwoacts?” I get it kind of but it’s a huge stretch. love a hard puzzle but this was as close to unworkable as they come.
Too many proper nouns for a Monday. Felt more like a Tuesday. Still would have been too many names and places for my liking if on a Tuesday, but a bit heavy for a Monday. Otherwise about average. Maybe slightly below.
15 minutes in, I have 8 answers and I’m not confident they’re right. Today is not my day. I cant catch a single break with this puzzle.
Pretty difficult for a Tuesday, especially the OHDAMN and AWCMON as Downs sharing a difficult across clue, those were very openly clued and frankly weird entries. This one far exceeded my average Tuesday time. Apart from the theme answers it was a slog. The theme however is magnificent.
I’d rather have a themeless puzzle than one that forces a nonsensical theme. It reminds me of watching Darline Grahams debate performance and thinking - you know, you don’t have to do this and we’d all probably be better off if you didn’t.
Terrible Monday. This felt like a Wednesday. Leave Wednesday for Wednesday. I put it down honestly just lost interest for a long time. Begrudgingly came back, only for the streak, but otherwise I would have been better without it.
Yea I’m cranky about this too. Mondays are getting extremely difficult for the day. Maybe I’m just not good at crosswords but I’ve done every Monday and Tuesday for months now and this one is going to take me over twice as long as average and I’m still completely stuck on the right middle portion. It may be the first one in maybe 6 months I just give up on and don’t solve. Some obscure cheese crossing a cat clue? Pet cat? Lap cat? Fat cat? Whatever the clue about lying about the reason for doing something I have most of that and still have no clue what it could be, I used to have at least one a week I felt I could do enjoyably. Maybe it’s back to minis.
My time on this was extremely long for a Tuesday. Close to double my average time, I found it cumbersome and difficult for the day of the week. Felt like a Wednesday.
@Dan fair point. However we tend to get abbreviated cluing for several words whose abbreviated form is more commonly used, for example, the more commonly used “KO” v the crossword constructors “KAYO.” The commonality of abbreviated usage does not always seem to translate into non-abbreviated cluing.
It’s rare for me to dislike a Tuesday. This one was one of the worst I’ve ever played. I’m sorry. It feels clunky and forced. I’m still not done and I honestly may just give up for the first time in over 6 months and not finish a Tuesday. Ifs the puzzle version of nails on a chalkboard for me.
Average puzzle, A rebus puzzle in my book usually registers as a lazy way to inflate difficulty of a puzzle for no reason. Today is no different. It’s akin to a golf course with an easier layout making the greens exceptionally fast and challenging to increase scoring. I know some people like them it just has never been my JAM.
@Scott true. But one example - a Tuesday puzzle, in my opinion, should not have a clue that doesn’t fit in its square and instead bends around and into the downward RBG clue. We may say, “how creative,” but my fiancee, a very well educated attorney, who is trying to get more into these, worked on this for over an hour, got halfway done with hints and simply gave up. When I told her the revealer it wasn’t joy or surprise it was annoyance and frustration. “That doesn’t make sense it doesn’t fit there how do they make an answer that doesn’t fit in the space provided…” I have to agree. It’s a Tuesday, answers shouldn’t be wrapping around the board yet. Moreover slang for a 100 not being CNOTE threw everyone off, then we have a whole host of words nobody has ever heard of or used in decades. A Biggs bunny cartoon title from over 70 years ago, Feature wise, it seems more like an average Wednesday or a breezy Thursday.
This was the hardest Monday I’ve ever seen. I normally look forward to a casual Monday but this felt like homework. Too much obscure trivia too many obscure names. Not fun.
4/10 Tuesday. 3D was too much for a Tuesday, especially crossing an obscure basketball term that you hear a lot more in football. That particular term has never been used before in the format of an abbreviation and it’s not something people would think of. MEME is becoming overused. It seems to be in every puzzle as a solution to a different clue. USWNT I saw complaints, I think it’s fair. Although it felt like a Wednesday or Sunday situation. BOINK, eh - I mean whatever I guess. Otherwise fine. I also recognize that the skill needed to create this crossword is infinitely more than I have and for that I am appreciative and recognize my minor complaints are EXCEEDINGLY (dim witted).
All 24 comments loaded