Convoid-04

Glorious puzzle! No word checks but two lookups and puzzled by the cross between Wildcats and Ball pit! Haha: SOCKET.

Not too surprised that the NYT didn’t allow comments on this awful story featuring Russell Vought(Project 2025 architect): “Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him”

Well that was something new and different! Wow 🤩

I thought there was something special in this Monday and liked the tribute to Anne Lamott’s writing.

Very funny puzzle. Loved all the theme answers and it was a good column by Sam. Tuesday POY!

At first I thought the clues were in some kind of British cryptic style…and eventually got that the clues were PUT IN REVERSE. Wouldn’t it be too fiendish if the answers were, as well? I liked it! Took me longer than my Thursday average.

Somehow my memory yielded GARGANTUA and CAESURA but in addition to more than ten word-checks I also had one look-up. My last to fall was COT for “Base unit”. I kept thinking it was the unit with which they measure Acid vs. Alkaline. But I really enjoyed what I did get. It was a lot of fun! Also not having COT kept me from getting LOS CABOS(also had a typo on the B). Took me out to 41:27! Again, this was very good I thought.

Fun puzzle. No cheats and faster time than average.

I don’t know if I’m just tired but I found this hard. Loved DEER for Does as a group and my favorite was they come in fours: PAWS. Congrats to Coz Berlin. Was fun!

Well this took me a reasonable amount of time, 30’+ but I didn’t do any word checks. I’m patient because am sitting here while they check up on my car maintenance. Glad to know I can still refrain from checking if there are no distractions! At first I wasn’t sure but like somebody said “I just kept getting more downs.”

Good puzzle 🧩 but what is Sport-UTE?

I realized this grid looks hard to make everything fit, for the constructor so he set himself a task!

I thought it was easy but then realized I hadn’t understood the theme having read too quickly through Sean McGowan’s crystal clear column. Really a delight! Today I did a challenging themeless New Yorker puzzle by Paolo Pasco but only with the help of an old colleague who visited and saw it sitting on the kitchen table just not getting done(the issue of July 20th). Barely started, really! We searched a book title and an author’s name and downright got the literal crossword answer for Crossroads of New Jersey. During that we found out the NJ was thought to have been the crossroads of the American Revolutionary War. I thought “Pigeons on the grass ____” (rhyming Gertrude Stein line) was funny! We found it hard but my friend had also lived in New York and done her share of NYT crosswords picked up en route to work.

Cute theme!!! Took me a while to get BLACKBART. I had BriCKBART for a second or two! Good one.

I just have to say I am finding the Spanish crosswords very hard! Kudos to everyone doing this for whom English is a second language.

Wonderful debut. Some word checks and one puzzle check in the end. I thought GLASS BLOWER and DON’T BE A HERO were funny and in the end I was stumped on the E of THE for “Off the grid connection.” D’Oh! I know.

Good puzzle. I only word-checked two words. One of them was wrong. I knew Stoicly wasn’t spelled that way but somehow I still tried it.

I love the sleepy Cat photo here! Definitely screengrabbed it for posterity such as it is.

Well I logged in on the website to see the animation and wow it was so worth it! I had one mistake and checked puzzle. The name of the movie I had one letter wrong: TAKuN for TAKEN. Wow loved that groovy trick!

Today looks fun although suspiciously like “Save the King from Drowning!” lol I have Boswords Crossword Tournament today so may not get to Sunday’s today but have fun whatever you’re doing this weekend!

Haven’t solved Wednesday, Tuesday or Monday yet but my only complaint with the revamp of order of games in the App is my Crossplay friends can’t find me and they really help me prep for Scrabble Club! I couldn’t find Crossplay at first either.

Oh whew! My Crossplay games are back! Thank you. Also that AI at <a href="mailto:nytgames@nytimes.com">nytgames@nytimes.com</a> was a big help.

Chrystia McFreeland is calling for Americans to speak out for Canada. 🍁 And for one of many overwhelming things: I was sorry that the opening of the new bridge between Michigan and Canada became such an intense deal and was not more of a celebratory occasion, because of our dear leader was trying to profit.

This was fast, but not as fast as my fastest. I liked it. I will be so sad when they stop having these old lady clues like The Moonlight Sonata.

A very neat puzzle. I word checked some in the tippy Northeast and also had CLONed instead of CLONAL when I checked puzzle. Not until after struggling 48’. I love the comment from someone who said, “I finished in 17’ and I’m not good!”

My problem is I feel that on NYT Crossplay somewhere they can’t find me.

I loved how the top down entries all mirrored each other. That would be difficult to construct. I couldn’t recall whether or not you can have the same answer twice in one crossword but I see you can and more than once!

Have you noticed this recent phenomena on the NYT where right after you read an article, you go to comments and the first thing you see is the author summarizing the article and asking for opinions? I’m wondering whether after analyzing all the mined data information including keystrokes, the NYT has figured out that people are skipping the articles and jumping to comment? I did that yesterday on Wednesday’s puzzle, myself! Almost forgot to read Sam Corbin’s Wordplay and delighted in the photo of a spread-out Cat. How low can we go? The journalists are now spoon-feeding us their articles.