Teddy
NYC
Network connections, digital work, subreddits, broadband connections, battletoads console, social posts, the grams--what poetic cluing.
Perfect Friday puzzle. Just challenging enough; fresh, clever ideas. Two quibbles. Don't we say "who knew" when we are surprised by some bit of information? I don't see it as a sarcastic response to the obvious. And I don't think "spicy" has the negative connotations that "salacious" does. Also, just one day without a gaming clue--please.
I thought this was a great puzzle. Challenging for a Sunday but eminently fair. Nicely balanced in its references. Clever theme. Elegant structure.
Picture perfect Friday, I thought, with fresh cluing (Eroica aside) and clever misdirects (My Word!, Simpson younger daughter and Source of Schadenfreude.) Lots of fun.
@Grumpy I'm with Grumpy. To do this puzzle is to dwell in a very narrow, Gen-X world of references.
Fun puzzle (despite the requisite gaming questions). One quibble: are Old Saws "tired"? I think of Old Saws as warm, folky, clever, enduring, imbued with common sense. Cliches are tired.
I know I'm supposed to want a more difficult puzzle on a Saturday but I didn't today. This was fun. I thought "grams," heat setting" and "way out" were all pretty clever. A lot of fresh, fun word play in this puzzle.
@Michael I don't mind the foreign, musical and math terminology. Happy to know/learn those. I do find the out of proportion use of cutesy Gen Z slang in puzzles like this grating. Maybe one clue, but four, five, six? And there's some really bland fill here: kneel at, age line, rent roll. Grrr and yawn.
I thought this was a fun Saturday exercise. "Math teams" my favorite. With "I hate you," "love languages" and "galentines day," would have been an appropriate puzzle 8 days ago. '
The theme wasn't hard to discover but was kind of annoying anyway and some Naticking going on in that Northwest corner.
Fun puzzle. Easy for a Friday. Refreshingly void of pop culture (it can be done) with the exception of the government mandated Star Wars clue. And a couple of sexy references to boot. What more could you ask for?
This was a fun puzzle. A little more challenging than the typical Sunday puzzle, at least for me or at least until I caught on to the gimmick. Even then the cluing wasn't as obvious as many Sundays. A cut above, I thought. Even if it does include "obvs."
@Teresa Can't agree with you on "you've changed"; that seems pretty natural to me. But I think your spot on with your other four examples and would add "hexer" and "statelevel" to the list of awkward fits.
Fun puzzle. Probably too easy for a Thursday but some fun cluing (made do, noodle nuggets.). I tire, though, of the constant references to gaming in puzzles.
@Michelle I had the exact same experience; found the puzzle easy until I had to fill out the bottom left. A lot of stuff I didn't know there.
Is "edgy" high strung? Isn't that more being "on edge."Doesn't edgy refer more to something novel and daring? I think "songs" for singles is pretty weak too. Otherwise I agree with several who have described this as a mostly easy Saturday with a couple of gnarly spots and a few clever ideas.
@redweather I'm not a great fan of Harry and Tonto, but it wasn't a bad film and Art Carney did win an Oscar for it so I guess it has some claim to fame.
Some clever cluing here but that same recurrent experience of having dwelled in the bland referential world of the gen-x mind.
@Jim. Barry is the self-appointed cop on the crossword puzzle beat.
A fun puzzle with a clever theme. Nice to see Horace make an appearance. Nicer still: no Marvel comics or gaming questions.
Excellent puzzle for all the reasons stated, except for rowr, which is a little too cute and the ubiquitous Star Wars clue. Could we have a year long freeze on the latter?
@Nancy I second all of Nancy's thoughts here and would only add that "I'm set" doesn't seem as emphatic as "couldn't eat another bite."
@TeresaWhoops.Okay, Barry's point taken. Strike "reston" from the list."
@redweather Not sure I buy the dull blade idea. But Barry is right, there are as many definitions that stress the cliched nature of "old saw" as there are that stress wisdom. I'll stubbornly stick to my warm feeling for the phrase, nevertheless.
@redweather Sorry, I was moving too fast and didn't take in what you were saying. Your explanation of the derivation of the phrase makes perfect sense.
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