Hitch

'Arid' as an answer to jejune is tenuous at best!

Bit of a 'meh' puzzle. Unsatisfying in so many little ways, but I can't quite say exactly why.

A bit too trivia-heavy for my liking. Probably should have been a Tuesday puzzle with some better clues. There's always a fine line between an enjoyable, difficult puzzle that stands on its merits, and a simple puzzle made difficult with random trivia and overly obscure clues. Unfortunately, this fell into the latter for me. It didn't have the substance to be challenging on its own merits.

Creators are getting way too lazy by using arcane trivia to make puzzles hard. It's OK when you can infer by other answers, but that wasn't the case today. All in all, a bit of a disappointment. Feel like I wasted my time today, with very little satisfaction when done.

Not my kind of puzzle. A lot of trivia I didn't know, and no answers around those clues to help me solve them. I like a puzzle where the random trivia can be solved, or inferred, from other clues. This was not one of them. My biggest gripe has to be 'stripe'. I get that it's technically correct, but it felt obtuse for no good reason. Just a creator trying to be clever. I'll take the blame for not knowing my US trivia, so I'll give this puzzle a B-.

I have to disagree with the general sentiment here - That this was a good puzzle. We've been so starved of good puzzles lately, we are conflating difficulty with quality. This one felt like a slog, with very little reward.

Very 'USA' puzzle today. Not so fun as a foreign solver. I'd assume it was quite a simple solve for North Americans. I'm not a fan of puzzles made difficult by brand names and foreign languages. It feels lazy to me. Anyway, those are my two cents. I hope Friday redeems the last two days.

Very weak and disappointing puzzle! Some extremely obscure answers to tenuous clues, interspersed with random trivia. As for 7 across the clue could have been, "insert random letters here." Absolutely nothing clever about this puzzle. If I wanted a general knowledge quiz I would have gone elsewhere. I'd suggest that debut creators cut their teeth on a Monday to Wednesday puzzle, certainly not a Friday or Saturday.

Personally, my hardest Sunday solve ever! Some words I was unfamiliar with, some US trivia I had no idea of, and some tricky, obscure clues! Tool me the better part of one and a half hours - excluding breaks... 😬😬😬. Nevertheless, an excellent Sunday puzzle that challenged me immemsely! After a relatively easy week, I'll give this one a solid A! Great effort by the creator.

A little too 'clever' for the creators own good. When I was done done didn't go 'aha', or 'that's clever'... I went 'meh'. Did of a waste of my Sunday.

As a non-US solver, I always struggle with how the clues 'dagnabbit', and 'bah', are used for any kind of backwater colloquialisms. Surely there are better clues to be had.

Been asking for a difficult one, and boy we sure got it! Now if we can just go one step further - difficult and clever. I want 'aha' moments, not obscurity. Especially when that obscurity is down and across in most of the puzzle. I'm a relatively new solver (5 years), but the archived puzzles seem to be so much better.

I really enjoyed this one! The perfect Thursday puzzle. Well done to the creator! Not too US-centric, and not too esoteric. The few answers that leaned this way were infinitely solvable using knowledge, not guesswork - a rare privilege in recent challenging puzzles. All in all a great crossword, and a clever puzzle!

Tough one with I good few words or terms I've never heard of. The U.S trivia, along with those answers, got the best of me. Definitely didn't hate it like yesterday's grid, but it's always a bit disappointing to miss a solve. The problem for foreign solvers is that the 'gimme' U.S answers are quite the opposite for us, and when they cross words or terms that are close to guesswork without them, the solve is tedious and intractable.

I'd be interested to see if anyone else feels the crosswords are beginning to feel dumbed-down? I used to be a 4/7 each week, now I'm hard-pressed not to be able to finish one. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays in particular have been excessively weak lately. Is there a large turnover of puzzle creators? Are puzzles published on merit, or some 'other' metric nowadays? The NYT crossword used to be at the pinnacle. The best way I can describe it recently is 'meh...'.

Meh...

Excellent puzzle. One of the best we've had in a while! Not particularly difficult, but perfectly fitted to a Wednesday slot. Wonderful wordplay, and an extremely fun and satisfying solve. Well done to the creator! After yesterday's 'non-puzzle', my faith has been restored for the week!

I read an article in my local news today titled, "The plague of celebrating mediocrity". Didn't realise how quickly it would resonate when I sat down to this 'puzzle'. I understand it's a Tuesday, but I don't think one synapse had to fire in solving this disaster. I hesitate to even use the word 'solve', because, as I've stated before, this felt more like data-capturing than having to apply any form of thinking. I give good puzzles their due, but I can't help but notice the insideous decline of quality in NYT crosswords. It brings to mind the decline of other things...

As a non-US solver I found that tough! Quite proud to have managed to solve it only slightly below my average Friday time. My standout today was flatmates, but I think it may have just been schadenfreude knowing that some US solvers might get a taste of my struggle 🤣🤣🤣. All in all, I loved the difficulty level and liked the puzzle.

Took me more time trying to figure out why the answer to 15 across was 'seered' than the rest of the solve. And why they'd use a word that doesn't exist. Then the penny dropped 🫣...

I found this one rather difficult for a Tuesday (I like that!)... Quite US trivia heavy, so I understand the polar reactions to the puzzle. Either exceptionally easy, or too difficult. I'm now familiar with rolaids advertising and weenie roasts (for all the good that'll do me 😬😂)... As a non-American, I'm gonna have to give this one a B-. It felt a bit exclusive.

From all the love for this puzzle, I'm going to assume it is popular amongst Americans. For anyone not intimately familiar with American history and culture this was unsolveable. There was no balance between difficult answers and getable ones. So for now, I will say that this was a terrible puzzle for everyone else. What has happened to the creators that could make a difficult puzzle without resorting to arcane and regional knowledge? All that being said, I thing the clues were very challenging and unique, and if the creator would close the encyclopedia for a second I think she could create some legendary puzzles!

All good until 'lon' and 'counting noses.' Still don't really get 'lon', as it isn't a homophone for lawn. And 'counting noses' is not a term anyone ever uses. Ruined a satisfying puzzle in the end. As usual, this seems like an editor issue, not a creator issue. Could have easily been corrected.

Thought it was oldie but goldie? And I agree, let's keep the 'creative' names out of the actor clues. On the whole too much random trivia, not enough actual clever clues. It seems to be a 'shortcut' too many puzzle creators are taking lately to create difficult crosswords.

Nice Wednesday puzzle. Not easy, not difficult. Just enough thinking for the middle of the week. Plus a fun little theme at that! Well done to the creator. This puzzle left me well satisfied!

A bit the easy side, but overall a nice, fun puzzle. Well done to the creator. I always feel that Thursday must be the hardest puzzle to select. Finding that balance of difficulty is extremely hard, and it takes a great creator who knowingly submits a Thursday!

Great to see someone going through so much effort to create such an excellent, well constructed, and fun Tuesday puzzle. It's a lowly day to have your first puzzle published, but you've done yourself proud! It takes a lot of skill to create an 'easy' grid that brings so much joy to the solver.

That challenged me. I kept looking for the theme reveal and there was none. I was pretty much done when I eventually got the trick. I'll be graceful and call the cross-sections of "siva (never seen that spelling. US?), hairy (bit of a push for tressed), and Vieira (random gameshow host no one outside the US would know), a bit ill-conceived and clunky. If I hadn't been able to finish, I'd probably have had harsher words 😬😬🤣🤣 Apart from that one section, I thought it was a solid Thursday puzzle.

Really enjoyed that one! Didn't take too long, but kept the 'little grey cells' working all the way to the end. Well done to the creator. Maybe not Thursday difficult, but excellently constructed nevertheless!

Going into independence day for the US, I'd like to give a shout out to France, who made it all possible.

That could possibly be the easiest puzzle ever published by the NYT. Solving it felt more like data capturing than thinking...

Finished by hook or by crook. Tough mix of the obscure, the esoteric, and (1 across) downright recondite! There was nothing fun in this solve and no interesting new words I'll be adding to my vocab. Nevertheless, it was a good Saturday puzzle. Suppose not all puzzles can be enjoyable. Some just need to challenge 'the little grey cells'.

Suppose everyone comes here to praise the puzzle(r), so I thought I'd give it some balance. Not the best! It's very hard to make small puzzles difficult, and I don't feel the author did a very good job here. If you have to rely on obscurantism in your questions to make it difficult, perhaps it means a puzzle of this level is beyond your perview...

Really didn't enjoy this puzzle. It's another very ordinary puzzle only made (slightly) difficult by US trivia. I'd assume US solvers would have found this way too easy. The theme provided so many opportunities for something fun and clever. Unfortunately we were left with the mundane.

Really tough one. Some very nice clues and solves, but also some abominable ones! 'Hecka' sticks out for the wrong reasons. I always say, creators seem to have lost the ability to create a hard puzzle without reverting to arcane trivia and tenuously linked answers. I was really enjoying this one until I got stuck. Revealing those answers made me roll my eyes instead of having an 'aha' moment. I love a hard and clever solve. This puzzle was one of those...

Great Wednesday! I found that harder than I should have, probably because I stubbornly stuck with 'reproach' for way too long 😬. And as usual a couple of US themes answers took a bit longer to infer. Always the mark of a good puzzle when you feel you're not going to finish it, even as you finish it.

Was about to have a rant about a stupid puzzle with tenuous clues... Until I got it 🤣.

Stop trying to make 'the olds' happen. It is a term old people think is common amongst the youth. It is not! I cringe everytime a creator uses it. Also, while I'm moaning, creators need to pick their lane, and that lane is 'amok', not 'amuck'.

Nice Sunday puzzle. Well done to the creator. As a non-American, I spent a bit too much time trying to figure out why the rebus was what is was. Penny dropped with Western Union, but a few too many 'americanisms' for me made me throw in the towel after I had to check hbcus. I'm a 'finish unhelped, or check the puzzle as soon as there is an answer you cannot get' kind of guy.

Great Friday puzzle! Well done to the creator and editor! Difficult without becoming too obscure, vague, or ambiguous. Something we don't see that often recently! (And nothing too US-centric for us foreigners 🎉.)

It looks like a lot of effort went into this well balanced Wednesday puzzle. Perhaps a tad on the easy side, but that would be nitpicking a very solid, and well-executed grid.

Seems quite a few non-US people disliked the theme. Personally had no issues with it. Firstly, it added a bit extra into what is usually a pretty boring puzzle, and secondly, even though I know little about baseball terms, they were all easily 'guessed' with the intersecting answers.

Flew through that one. I think the only thing that added difficulty was the grid structure itself, otherwise I don't think this would have made a Saturday. I won't beat it down though, because I really enjoyed solving it! It was a good, well-executed puzzle, if slightly misplaced...

Clues too cryptic and obscure to enjoy. No balance in this puzzle. Every clue was so vague you couldn't get a foothold...