JPT

This puzzle brings my streak to 365. A full year of consecutive successful solves. This one was a bit of a toughie for me. Nearly 9 minutes over my average. Not sure if the anticipated milestone clouded the mind a bit, or if this was the challenge a Saturday grid should be, either way I think I’ll celebrate with a hearty breakfast.

I’m pretty sure I won’t be the only one saying they set a personal best time today. I just don’t feel a sense of accomplishment for it. Given that there was no Thursday-esque trickery, and the clueing was fairly straightforward, I think this puzzle would have been better suited (no pun intended) for a Wednesday or maybe even a Tuesday.

46A caused my head to hurt twice. I only got it exclusively through crosses. Even after finishing it made my head hurt trying to make sense of PRAGENCIES. Then I smacked myself when after 5 minutes P.R. AGENCIES finally dawned on me. Go Bills.

Don’t know if Andrew Colin Kirk is a regular reader of Wordplay, but some time last fall I learned from the column the “solving jingle” is called “The San Jose Strut” . Just one of those bits of trivia I have cluttering up the mind. Fun puzzle with a cleverly executed theme.

Great theme that I quickly caught on to. With 3 of the headlines coming from NYC papers, I’ve seen reproductions frequently. The only one I wasn’t familiar with was the one from Variety, but knew it referred to the stock market crash. It was an odd case of the theme entries helping with some of the crosses rather than the other way around.

Great Monday puzzle with approachable cluing and a fun theme. This also marks my 2000th NYT puzzle solved overall… not as a streak, but still a nice round number.

Saw the Sam Ezersky byline and knew I was in for a challenge. His last puzzle, a Saturday, was borderline impossible. This one was tamer. It was merely improbable. Somewhat more approachable, with a theme that I was slow to catch on to, but I eventually did. Perseverance got me to a 100 day streak.

Like many, I have a bit of an issue with 49A AMUCK. Seems to me it should have been clued with a “variant” to “archaic” caveat, and perhaps would be in a non-weekend grid. Gotta admit, I struggled with this puzzle… had trouble getting on the same wavelength with Mr. Kugelman, but perseverance and few guesses saved my streak.

Like many, I finished well above my average… in fact I was fairly significantly slower than my Wednesday average. However, I found the puzzle to be appropriate Tuesday difficulty. Even taking into account the “trademarked” name, I was kinda impressed that Adam Aaronson managed to work in 2 Q words that didn’t have a “U”. Anyone else immediately think of the movie “The Sting” when they figured out 32A?

Unlike last Saturday, this one was enjoyably tough. Misdirects made me chuckle rather than scowl. A couple of “gimmes” to give a jump start. The only pain this puzzle caused was by the memory of sitting through “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace”

My 1500th overall solve, but current streak if far, far, below that by more than 1400. Sometimes work, other commitments, and the occasional particularly frustrating puzzle gets in the way of long strings of daily solves. Today’s grid was a Tuesday-plus difficulty for me, but I found it clever and enjoyable.

Might have had a Personal Best time if the app accepted the word “LINE” instead of making me go back and inserting the dashes instead. I had initially left all those spaces blank debating if I should use dashes or the word. I chose wrong.

I have to admit, 58A gave me a bit of a wry smile, wondering if it would trigger a reaction in the comments. Obviously this puzzle was constructed and scheduled long before GULF OF MEXICO would elicit even the slightest bit of controversy.

*phew* that was a tough one. Well above my average time. That being said, i didn’t feel any of the clueing was “unfair” after the fact as is sometimes the case with very tough puzzles. As an aside… TIL Certs don’t exist anymore… never really noticed they were missing from the check-out aisle “impulse buy” candy rack for the last 7 years.

Set a new personal best streak at a modest 273 days. Typical late week puzzle where I just stare at empty grid, going through the clues until I see a “gimme” to get the ball rolling. In this case, not so much a “gimme” as a “worth a shot” with ON TAPE at 12D (age helped) followed by PAPER and RETYPED at 20A and 1D. From there it just kinda flowed.

I must be getting pretty good at these things… I finished a Sam Ezersky puzzle in under an hour.

I started the day (somewhat) within striking distance of a one year streak (sitting at 329). I saw Sam Ezersky’s byline. At first I groaned. He’s bested me before. But I buckled down. Determined to keep the streak going. Finally, heard the “San Jose Strut” after putting in the “M” in “IPHONE CAMERA” and even finished 6 minutes under my average. Not to count my chickens yet, but 330 down, 35 to go (or is it 36 since the streak started during a leap year?)

It’s taken 1200 total puzzles solved, and a current modest streak of 200 days, I no longer dread the Thursday gimmicks. I’m still not a fan of them, and Thursdays tend to be my least favorite solving day, but I don’t dread their streak ending potential. I caught on to the theme before I got to the revealer, and was impressed by how it was pulled off. Who knows? Maybe after another 3 years of solving I’ll almost begrudgingly admit the gimmicks aren’t so bad.

I’m guessing there weren’t to many “personal best” times on this one…

This was the payback for the complaints (who? Me?) that Thursday’s puzzle was too easy. Very few “gimmes” to get you going, and even those varied from person to person. For me GOLDEN GOAL, RIGG and YALE were all I had to start, after that it was a struggle even as the grid filled. Good mental workout in the end.

Ooph.. 42 minutes over my Saturday average. Very few obscure answers. Nothing “unfair” about the clueing. Just devilishly clever. Plenty of “D’oh” moments as answers were revealed. Kudos to Mr. Walden.

I saw ICEHOLE at 39A and immediately thought of the Michael Keaton movie “Johnny Dangerously”.

Unlike many, I found this puzzle somewhat more in my wheelhouse than a typical Saturday. Finishing (cumulatively, roughly half before sleep and half upon waking) about half my average time. 13A PHANATIC 20A COLT 32A CRUS and (perhaps oddly) 29D SMALLCRAFT were my personal first pass “gimmies” and went on from there.

This puzzle contains some of the elements I least like about Thursday puzzles, including rebuses and the [—] clue. However, this may be one of my all-time favorite Wordplay Column, as I learned from @Deb_Amlen that my favorite 3 second ditty is called the “San Jose Strut”.

Can we please limit the Thursday type shenanigans to Thursdays?

Like Sam, I get a thrill from hearing that 2 second ditty upon completion. It also brings up a way in which the app and print differ. On paper, you could fill in that last letter and feel a sense of accomplishment. You smile. Admire the totality of the completed puzzle. In the app, you fill it in, ready to do a dance with our favorite tune, only to get message akin to “not so fast…” and spend the next 5 minutes looking for that one wrong letter that you would never think to look for using pen and paper.

“Finished” the puzzle. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t hear my favorite 2 second piece of music. Thinking typos were likely in somewhat unfamiliar words and phrases such as TRINITADEIMONTI, LACUNA, or DISTROS I focused on those areas, but repeatedly re-checking the crossings showed everything was correct. My mistake? I inexplicably had LODi/ESTi 72A/64D *d’oh!*. An enjoyably challenging puzzle, completed less than a minute faster than my average.

Congrats on a well earned retirement, don’t forget your towel in your travels.

2 points. 1 I don’t quite understand COHORTS clued as “demographic group”. 2. As a New Yorker, “talk” (sounds more like “tawk”) sounds nothing like “TOCK” either by itself or in “OVERSTOCK”. Otherwise a reasonably accessible puzzle for a Sunday

Took a shot with DONT POKE THE BEAR after entering ASPEN, the first “gimme” for me, at 3D and was off to the races. I just seemed to be on the same wavelength with James McCarron. At the end, I finished with a PB.

As others have noted, this seemed Thursday-ish level of trickery for the themed entries. Even some of the non-themed clues came across as being a little more difficult than a typical Tuesday like 8D’s SPOOR and 46D AGLARE. I really didn’t quite catch on to the theme until reading the column, but somehow 52A did immediately register as GO ON SQUAD rather than GOON SQUAD, as it was the only theme entry I was able to complete based on the clue with help from just a few crosses rather than all, or nearly all, the crosses. Fun puzzle, and maybe a little more satisfying to complete under my average time than usual.

I think this quote from @Deb_Amlen’s column sums it up perfectly. “Good stuff, and at least it’s not a rebus.”

So somehow, somewhere, someone messed up and printed Wednesday’s puzzle on Thursday and Thursday’s puzzle on Wednesday and just went with it.

I am not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, however, I can’t be the only parent who has used Monday and Tuesday puzzles at one time or another to introduce their kids to the NYT crossword. PISSEDOFF is a surprising answer to see in The Times any day of the week, but perhaps the potential audience should be taken into consideration for early-in-the-week grids.

Curious as to why no “badges” are offered for the crossword in the app.

I had a tough, but enjoyable, time with this one for some reason. Finished well above my average time, but I didn’t find anything “unfair” about the clueing. I found the entries I struggled with quite clever and “obvious” once I got enough (most) of the crosses. Could be brain fog caused by the disappointing Yankees loss last night.

Finished the puzzle with a personal best time, and had no clue about the theme until I read the Wordplay Column. Of course, once explained I exclaimed “AHH/A”!

I with Sam Corbin on REUNES in particular… it seems contrived, but apparently has been in the NYT crossword 7 times in the Shortz era… this being the third time on a Tuesday.

I must have spent 7 or 8 minutes trying to find that elusive typo before doing my little dance to “The San Jose Strut”, but I finally saw I had “aMEN” instead of “OMEN” 62A. Still finished much faster than my average, but not so fast that I would have challenged my personal best had I saw my mistake sooner. After a few years my dislike for rebuses has slightly lessened.