Dale M
Eugene, OR
130
Comments
0.072
Avg Sentiment
27
Positive
82
Neutral
21
Negative
Eugene, OR
I don't do passes. I solve by quadrant. I don't time myself. I turned off the timer. I don't need bells and whistles and a pat on then back from a computer program. The more daydreaming and fact chasing I can get out of a crossword puzzle is a win for me. I am not in a race to finish. -- The NYT does keep records of my solve times and I wonder if my deck sitting and bird watching has an effect on solve time averages for everyone. Anybody?
I may be expecting too much but I would've liked to have seen more of a connection between the particular hook (the movie) and either the fish or the cross containing the fish. It seemed a bit random and not really bait worthy. I was snagged but not landed.
I am picturing a tornado at a tomato farm. SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT Onotomatopoeia!
I am kind of shocked at how well liked this puzzle seems to be. I just don't appreciate all the clever frou-frou, and the light show, as much as most seem to do. Go figure! I am a big fan of Earth Day, though. Go Planet!
@Elbridge Gerry No. I would never call our president the R-word.
@The X-Phile Thanks, X, for taking me down that interesting hole with you.
I had to work this one a bit but in a good satisfying way. I thought it a nice puzzle once I re-remembered how to work the rebus option. (I am more used to cramming in the letters with my ball point pen.) Today I learned an awful lot more than I needed to about slime mold. Fascinating stuff!
I swear there was a "search comments" option yesterday. I am not offered that function today. Anyone?
@Chin Did I happen to mention that I am an Ivy League Doctor?
Yet another user friendly LSD reference. I never would have predicted that while expanding my optic lobe in the 1970's. I suppose, now, I could call 100 acid tabs an excellent sheet.
I was off to a slow start, with not much more than IGGY and TWILL, when I hit with REGGIE JACKSON . After that it was a romp. A fun romp!
@Karl M Now I feel nostalgic.
What am I missing? Doesn't the gerund "exploiting" in the clue for 1 across call for a similar form in the answer? And the double abbreviation means what? I'm not getting it. And how do I fill in the rebus? (just kidding)
My own career in electronic gaming consists of PONG (on the big console) but never-the-less I managed to piece the puzzle together. Oh, I'm forgetting pinball and "Operation." I prefer Virtuous Reality mindsets.
Just me but I don't really care for rebuses and I find that I like them even less when they are not in the circle.
@Valerie They might not get SAY IT/SPRAY IT because they are so rarely in the same room with each other any more.
Totally not pesky! + = o No Jive!
1 Across -- I have had a few copies of Abbie Hoffman's "Steal This Book" pass through my shelves. I never bought one nor did I begrudge the friends who "owned" them after me. Lifted is the verb I was looking for.
@Paul "The devil made me do it!" Also "Here comes the Judge!" and from Geraldine "What you see is what you get." Hah!
Has the Games editorial staff ever publicly commented on the "puzzles are demonstrably easier" phenomenon? I'm curious. Hmmm.
In the pen and newsprint days I would have tentatively put the "e" in Bess and Telugu and been forced to wait patiently for tomorrow's paper delivery to know for sure.
@Kate You mean Columbia as in the "gem of the ocean" or perhaps you mean Colombia, (with an "o") el pais de habla hispana?
@Down_Home I feel seasoned. I've been doing NYT puzzles for almost fifty years but I still took a bit and maybe that is why. I had not remembered Shamash nor Nas and I've never heard of Aldi and didn't connect it with Lowes so the big box thing eluded me for a while until Ikea. (Though I do love Vivaldi and got the trick right away.) I didn't know slime mold so I wavered a tad between eldest and oldest. My favorite clue was 51D.
I do love to hate a contranym (aka Janus word).
@Bill The counselor was Troi I first thought. 68A
@Susan E It has to do with spoken English and the free flow of air through the lungs. Whoa!
@SBK I see an obvious need for a rebus (though I kindly offer to agree to differ).
@lucky13 It's a natural proclivity exacerbated by the automobile. The Tongva had a word for LA's San Gabriel valley, "yongna", often interpreted as "place of the hazes" or "valley of smokes".
@The X-Phile Please don't include me in "the rest of us." Thank you, I prefer to speak for myself.
@Lucia I came here to say just that! Now I'll start from the oldest comments and probably see it 30 times. I won't pull out my cockeyed locks.
@Anna Wilde You may have to click on "keep playing". But I'm no techie.
@Dale M Oops, found it behind the magnifying glass. Geeze folks!
@Niall Top o' the morning! (for me) I had to look up "biro" as it is new to me. An Irish (and UK) term referring to Laszlo Biro the Hungarian born Argentinian inventor (patentee) of the first ball point pen. Hence (the incorrect answer) "bics." I feel like I've traveled.
@Hugh I don't use the timer. The more thought-provoking puzzles take longer, just the way I like them, and an active bird feeder can add several minutes I'm sure. I thought this puzzle was somewhat interesting and fairly easy. Probably not Wednesday easy nor tricky enough for a Thursday and definitely no Saturday. Goldilocks says "Friday!"
@Bob T. Same here! This happened to before, I now remember and I concluded then, and again today that the glitch is all them and it doesn't matter what I do on this end. It was good to clear my cache and toss my cookies.
Or else what? Or so what? I give this a gentle but both thumbs down. Save it for the midi.
@Dan Yeah. Exactly one of the reasons my interest in TV sports has dwindled. But OK by me in a puzzle as there is no sponsored logo in the center square.
I haven't seen a Disney movie since Tron so I was a little apprehensive when I saw two Disney clues (two seconds in) among four movie clues in my first quadrant. Fortunately, that's around the time I first saw The Cars. So, that was "Just What I Needed". I sort of sailed through the rest trying to avoid thinking too much about the themed clues and boxes and boxes and boxes ...
@Andrew Huh! I usually say igpay atinlay. My grandmother and great aunt amazed me with their fluent pig Latin conversations way back in the 1960's. They learned as children in the nineteen-tens. Ankthay for the ucklechay!
@Times Rita For me, if writing I would include the "a" with the "an". While speaking, I wouldn't.
@Charles Nelson Reilly I think a retri. (P.S. Loved you in "The Music Man" outdoors at the San Diego Zoo circa 1972)
@SBK In regards to otro vs. otra, I've often thought that the noun in the clue should be a match in gender to the answer in the grid. Instead of Octavio's otra, perhaps use a feminine palabra.