Griffin
New Mexico
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New Mexico
I've become pretty skilled at doing the NYT crossword over the years. But much of that skill is having learned NYT's cluing style, which is less about skill and more about fluency in that style. Which is why I loved this puzzle. The cluing felt new and unexpected. And solving clues rarely unlocked the puzzle. It challenged me in ways that few puzzles have in quite a while, which is what I'm here for. I'll take a tough, occassionally frustrating puzzle over a mindlessly familiar one any day.
Took 25% longer to solve than my average, and loved every second of it. I long for challenging puzzles like this, that have me going through a mini-hero's journey of struggles, and triumphs, and red herrings, and re-considerations of my intelligence and self worth. So many wonderful 'Aha' moments as the clever clues revealed themselves. And letting go of assumptions I'd held from the beginning, to watch a corner then fall beautifully into place. A perfect puzzle. Bravo! And my Id somehow survived the ordeal
Joining the chorus of masochists who loved the old-school challenge of this puzzle. More like this please! Took me 1/3 longer than average and couldn't be happier
Another upvote on how wonderfully challenging this puzzle was. And such clever clues. This is what I hope for in a Friday-Saturday. Kudos! Maybe I'm a masochist, but I love that sense of dread when I just can't figure a corner out (the southeast today), and then the elation when one good guess makes it all fall into place.
@HeidiWhat you write makes perfect sense, but let's not forget that there are 7 crosswords every week to cater to a full spectrum of subscribers. It would make sense to have the Friday and Saturdays do the work of keeping the longtime solvers happy (and subscribed), the Mondays and Tuesdays to attract newer solvers, with the Weds, Thursday, and Sun as populist attractors for all. This would distribute the frustration more evenly between the noobs who may find the end-of-week puzzles too challenging, and the longtime subscribers, like me, who only do the Mon Tues puzzles out of habit, and get no real pleasure from them (now that I think of it, it really is a kind of addict mentality) Basically, it's my contention that keeping Friday and Saturday old-school challenging would cater to a broader spectrum of their subscriber base That's my proposal, thank you for your time, and I hope I get the job Mr Shortz
Fun one! Fingers crossed that this week's Friday and Saturday puzzles signify a return to (challenging) form 🤞
@Rod D Perhaps referring to an ant farm? That one had me stumped for some time as well
@dutchiris Here! Here! Saturdays are my favorite BECAUSE they challenge me the most, and I can only get better by being challenged. Which this puzzle certainly did
Great challenge! And man oh man, that NW corner had me stuck. But it was a mistake at 'double-Rattled' and 'IntRo acts' that added minutes to my solve
@Nick Agreed. I get that games are a major revenue driver for the times, but there are 7 puzzles per week—why only cater to the new players? (eggs -> basket) By keeping the Friday and Saturday old-school challenging the paper could cater to a much wider market. And it would help keep subscribers longer. It was the crossword that first got me to subscribe (though I do value the rest of the paper as well) but I've been feeling that tipping point you speak of, and have begun looking elsewhere for puzzles that challenge me.
@Getting Better or swimming with Orcas
@DT A speaker with a line through it
@lucky13 Very cool. Thank you for sharing this!
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