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I wouldn't know that EHOW existed if it wasn't for its frequent appearance in the NYT crossword, so just how much of a "popular website" is it really?
This is the epitome what a Saturday NYT puzzle is to me. I do two rounds of the clues, filling in only a smattering of answers (some end up being wrong). I think to myself in despair, "This is the week I'm finally not going to be able to solve a puzzle without outside help." But I keep going at it on my own and somehow through some kind of brain magic, in the end it all falls together. Some fun clues in there, perfect challenge level. Thank you!
The instant I saw the clue for 12A I thought, PEDIATRICIANS, but then I thought, "Maybe pediatric-something, pediatricians is too short for such a long entry." Well glad I typed it in anyway because it turns out that some words are longer than they seem in my head. I was totally on the same wavelength as the author today. One of my fastest Saturdays ever.
New Wednesday speed record for me, despite time wasted having to guess AIDY/OYE. I guess it helps when the big long across clues are very straightforward.
@Chris Maybe I'm misreading your comment, but did you notice that they didn't just "appear *somewhere* in the answer" (emphasis mine)? The location was specified by the answer (opening, center, ending) which made the answer define the clue. I would say it's on the basic side as a theme and a very fast Thursday, but cute enough cluing.
I never have felt so tempted to write "touch grass" in a comment section. My goodness, it's a crossword puzzle and some of these comments are so over the top. And worst of all, needlessly cruel. Does it make you feel better to be nasty about one single day of a puzzle you personally didn't enjoy? Such weird entitlement.
"10/4 celebration ... as suggested by this grid" ...the mess I had in the lower right corner because I took "as suggested by this grid" far too literally and was convinced it was CHECKERDAY for quite a long time (the 4x4 squares looked checkerboard-ish to me). Anyway, the October 4th holiday I celebrate is Cinnamon Bun Day. I invite you to join me.
If you started with a guess of TED instead of NEO for 37A, you probably are GenX like me.
Looking forward to seeing the Google Trends over the coming day or so for BOX SOCIAL. Surely I'm not the only one who found that entirely new. Ending the year by learning something, can't complain about that!
Hey, I'm in the puzzle!
I knew the circles were going to spell something but I didn't get the second role of the circles until I had every letter of DROP IT, even as a SKIer who triple checked the verb tense of 9D because I couldn't believe it wouldn't fit. Really really cleverly done to the point that it reminds me that my brain could never write one of these grids! Sadly I think that it will go underappreciated due to the relative ease of the clues.
I absolutely know about blow dry bars and I loved seeing something different from the modern world in the puzzle! I'm curious what exactly about them makes you call that answer unserious?
I'm late to post but let me say how happy this puzzle made me! My ultimate in puzzle design is when a word/phrase that's cut off or somehow misaligned also spells a legit word/phrase on its own. I'm in awe of the constructor! What a fun and skillful puzzle.
I appreciate the puzzle author agreeing with me that WOAH is a spelling that needs to stay on the internet! ;) I felt foolish after immediately filling in MA___R_ with MARBURG. (I didn't understand why it would be a virus "of sorts" but my brain seems to be stuck on the spread of infectious diseases for some reason that I just can't imagine...)
@Tim V. TIL. I have a jar of sauce labeled "galbi" in my fridge right now. Your comment is the first time I've seen "kalbi", but now I googled and see other jars labeled that. Guess for today's puzzle purposes I lucked out with my HMart purchase!
There must be things other than TEEs that you can buy at a concert, but when I see "souvenir" in a clue I know where it's going.
I found this a somewhat hard but satisfying puzzle (only 30 sec under average time which has been heavily weighted high by my early Saturdays and some big outliers). It was an extremely helpful to have the big long down restricted to a limited number of letters even if I wasn't 100% certain of where some of them would fall. I do have a question about TINDERBIO, though. I didn't get that first swing through because of the clue ending in a question mark. I thought that implied that it's not the obvious answer to the clue, some punny meaning, or such. But the obvious place to me that people stretch their heights is dating apps? Is there a more common answer I'm missing? Are people out in the world lying on torture racks to try to be taller or something?
I'm quite certain I am not the only Taskmaster fan here. Did anyone else hear Kumail Nanjiani in their head for 7D? (What?!) <a href="https://youtube.com/shorts/YUB9YiuJVHs" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/shorts/YUB9YiuJVHs</a>
Extremely satisfying Saturday! One of those puzzles where I read through all the clues the first time and only had a handful of answers...but with repetition and experimenting (this is why I don't do the puzzle on paper), it all fell into place without any hints. Actually faster than my average. [I have never heard of those sponges. Are they crossword fodder I should memorize?]
@Mean Old Lady Ever had the classic green wrapped crunchy Nature Valley oat granola bars? Those things are so tasty but are known for being crumbled right out of the package (there are memes and even this article: <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/how-to-eat-a-nature-valley-bar-crumb" target="_blank">https://www.gq.com/story/how-to-eat-a-nature-valley-bar-crumb</a>). I laughed when I figured out that answer because I had been way off track but it made sense!
@Alan respectfully disagree. A big reason I look forward to Sundays is the chance of a quirky surprise like finding an unexpected rebus. I'm glad there are puzzles for all of us.
Despite entering it many times in puzzles. I've never had an ICEE (or even seen one in real life). In my imagination it was not a drink but more like the Italian ice of my childhood that the local store would serve us kids with an ice cream scoop. TIL.
@Felix I really wanted it to be C-NOTE which is the term for a hundred dollar bill (from the Roman numeral C). I can logically figure out C-SPOT because I've on rare occasions heard "ten spot" for a ten dollar bill but never in my life have I heard C-SPOT.
Great puzzle! Secretly hoped that November 19 would be an Easter egg somehow in the grid/cluing. (A date seared into my brain in response to all the men who snarkily ask "When's International Men's Day" every year only on March 8 and at no other time).
What a fun puzzle! Love a Sunday puzzle with a solid, playful theme. Beat my average time but it wasn't excessively easy. It took me a bit to see why the crossing square was N in both RERAN and LANE, but once I did, I laughed at my obviousness to the word play in not just one but both clues.
@MaryEllen I put REDGRAVY and it totally threw off that corner for me!
@Jacqui J Happy to read a comment from someone else who also really enjoyed the rebus part today! Such a bummer to have had a blast then come to the comments and see so much hostility.
Despite having owned one back in the early years, I sat for a minute wondering if the Nook (also 4 letters) was discontinued 12 years ago which I guess maybe suggests that Barnes and Noble is losing in the marketing game.
What a talent it is to be able to construct something like this, without a single clunker word that seemed made up to save the crosses. What a fun change of pace! Thank you, Coz.
@Patrick J. When it comes to "Running Scared" songs, I'm embarrassed to say that Eurovision came to my mind first. <a href="https://youtu.be/_0tlQUW5X0U" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/_0tlQUW5X0U</a>
@Barry Ancona I couldn't disagree more. I hope they are paying attention to the aspects of puzzles that we say we love and keeping that in mind! I find that detailed positive feedback at my job is generally more useful to me than negative.
@Abe Thank you for saying it. The cruelty in the comments is depressing to me. Not everything is for every person and it's not a crime you need to attack someone over.
25% faster than my average Tuesday with a cute theme. Can't complain!
@Nate Red herrings appear frequently and I think they make Connections far more fun! Keeping all that sorted in my head is part of the challenge.
@Katie I'm with you: Proper nouns are my anchors on Saturdays. Every other clue could have multiple answers, but you know that every letter in a proper noun answer has to be correct.
@TJ I'm no "professional solver" and I enjoyed fighting through today. You do NOT speak for me. I love that journey from "not a clue, I'm never solving this" to "aha!" even when I have to walk away and come back in the middle. That's what Saturdays are for! It's such weird behavior to me for someone to come to the comments and demand that the puzzles cater specifically to their personal distaste of a certain constructor.
3 seconds more than my all-time Monday record because I have a cracked screen on my phone and it got me a couple wrong letters that I needed to correct. My new phone cannot arrive in the mail soon enough! As I am about to enter my second year of doing the daily crossword: have any of you regulars stopped doing Mondays? It's starting to feel a bit like a chore I guess and I'm not likely to start typing any faster at this point...
@Barry Ancona oh clever idea!
@Ash That's also how I felt about ZIPIT giving me a 7-letter ending in Z.
Really fun puzzle. Started with all the acrosses and was concerned about what long down would end with a J...then the final Js kept coming and I realized it had to be a theme! Thanks for keeping us on our toes.
Today I learned that the Swiss Army knife has a CANOPENER. I had guessed TOOTHPICK without hesitation, which along with its partner the tweezers, is a versatile favorite. Despite that, beat my average speed by a very wide margin, with the help of many clear trivia-ish answers throughout.
@Grant On the contrary: I'm not fancy enough for OCELO sponges. Hannaford store brand serves me just fine.
@Barry Ancona I actually kind of love the sponge-to-animal clue. One of those that is clever if you know it but solvable even if you have never seen the brand. Thanks for sharing it.
@Josh D I briefly wondered if it could be POTNOODLES based on crosses that looked too much like ending in "noodles" (also not helpful). Must have had MARINARA on the brain.
@Argh I just entered them as a 4-letter string, no space. Not sure if order matters, but it turns out I put them all in down then across.
@Ronell Miller I think you're replying to the wrong person? I didn't say any of that. I in fact struggled with the top themed clue and this was well above my Tuesday average time. Perhaps you didn't read the same mean and hostile comments I did. I have no problem with people sharing their puzzle experiences, good or bad. However I stand by my statement that it's not cool to personally attack a puzzle constructor or be aggressively mean and cruel.
@Desert Dweller I promise you that corn pits exist on some farms that have a big emphasis on attracting family visitors. Eat ice cream or cider donuts, pick whatever fruit is in season, feed the animals, jump on the hay bales, play in the corn pit.
@Francis Where have you heard that civics isn't taught anymore? My kids were all required to take it as a formal class in high school (US) plus traveled to Washington DC and the state capital in younger years, while old GenX me never did any of those things. So from my personal perspective things are actually better on that front. Not everything is doom.
@Ash I'm glad you said it because I was embarrassed to admit that "Hall of Famer Rod Carew!" jumped straight into my brain, Sandler voice and all.
I liked the clue but don't understand how it was sneaky? I think he is the most famous ring bearer by far and an instaget for me. What am I missing for alternate answers?