Eric
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This was a fun puzzle. My quibble is with the rebus “interpreter” in the app. The NYT crossword instructions explain that when a rebus requires different entries reading across and down, a slash is used to separate the two - ACROSS/DOWN. Because of this I entered “/HOLE” for each the the rebus spots in this puzzle; that’s nothing in the across direction and HOLE in the down direction. This solution was deemed incorrect. I checked my answers and then changed all rebus cells to “HOLE” which completed the puzzle. I think that the app could have accepted both “HOLE” and “/HOLE” for this scenario.
“Touch” is a sense. “Route” is a way. “Rant” is so many words. “Accent” is a manner of speaking. “Pecan” is a nutshell? Actually, I mostly wasted time with BAR instead of PAR, wondering if a PRIZEBOT was some kind of online gambling feature.
Tough! Sure felt like a streak-breaker upon first attempts this morning. But returning to it later proved successful.
@Richard G Count me in as well. Must have read it on three or four different passes through the puzzle, too. Brains are peculiar things!
@Joan I’m right with you! This one is better solved electronically for the big finish.
Enjoyable puzzle! I’m probably just missing something but I can’t get my mind around SPEEDRUN for “Completing a video game as fast as possible, say.” To me it appears to have a tense mismatch. The answer would need to be “speedrunning.” Such as “You might get more enjoyment out of an old tired game by speedrunning.” Or the clue could be “Complete a video game as fast as possible.” Such as “It’s cool to finish all the side quests, but I prefer to speedrun.” Or the clue could be “Completed a video game as fast as possible.” Such as “For that game, I’ve had the most fun when I have speedrun.”
@Rosalind Mitchell I read that clue to mean a supportive post-injury device. For a foot issue, one might wear a walking boot or an ankle brace. But yeah, I’ve said “suspenders” in the wrong context before!
I don’t always know the true rules of crossword clueing, but when I realized that the answer to 58A “Sleep on it” was going to be COT, it didn’t seem right. COT does not mean “sleep on it.” Aren’t these kinds of clues, where the answer is a response to the clue rather than an equivalent, usually written as “Sleep on it!” with an exclamation point? Or does the exclamation denote something else entirely?
That was tough! Since I spent an extra 15 minutes scrutinizing every clue to find my errors, I noticed something in 58A clued as “Held on (to)” and answered correctly as CLUNG. Doesn’t CLUNG already mean “held on” without the need for “(to)” in the clue? I held on to the railing. I clung to the railing. I have held on for dear life. I have clung for dear life. I tried to drop the plastic wrap but it held on. I tried to drop the plastic wrap but it clung. Just the sort of thing you notice when you’re confident that everything else in your solution is correct (it wasn’t)!
@Lynn I’ve had similar thoughts. But there’s a minimum that represents a length of time necessary for physically inputting a large number of letters - any letters. I can’t see ever getting to the point where I could fill each open cell with “O” in one second total!
@Francis I think that’s the gist of the clue. However I doubt many (any?) nuclear power plants receive uranium ore and refine it onsite. Rather they probably receive fuel from a different plant that specializes in refining/enriching fuel from ore. Nuclear plants rarely refuel, so having that equipment idle for decades at a time wouldn’t make economic sense.
Hope I’m not the only person who accidentally started to treat 32A and 33A as part of the theme… that wasn’t working very well! Fun puzzle!
@LisaJ I didn’t love that one either. I have a bag of rags, and I may have even called it a ragbag at times, but it’s no miscellaneous collection. It’s 100% rags. Rags are what I have collected in the bag.
Just a shout out from Medina, OH! Did not expect to see that in the NYT crossword. :)
That was hard! I had so much uncertainty in so many places that I started believing today would break my streak. Eventually I completed it in about 20% more time than the average Saturday.
Tough task today as already pointed out by many others! In a past puzzle I recall commenting that AGILE was incorrectly implied to mean “flexible.” But here it is again, so I must go forward expecting this usage in the future. Add it to the list of alternate word definitions that are required for solving crosswords, I guess.
The theme/quirk/wrinkle was super clever! I needed to see a couple of them almost completed by crosses to finally figure out what was going on. Fun to solve. I had RERUN for 31D initially. Of course the cross makes much more sense as RAH. However I’m having trouble with the tense of RERAN here. Can someone give me a sentence where one can substitute “reran” for “put on the air again”? The program was rerun. The program was put on the air again. The program reran on Thursday. The program put on the air again on Thursday? That show should be rerun. That show should be put on the air again. The network reran the episode. The network put on the air again the episode?
@Xword Junkie I had similar thoughts about cusp versus inflection point. Merriam-Webster’s website dictionary says the first known use of “inflection point” was 1708, and it was in the mathematics sense. But, ya know, crosswords. We figured it out. :)
@Jim Everyone got the word because we know that crossword clues have to be given a lot of slack. I don’t think of it as “fine,” but maybe “typical.” Why not “Power units” as the clue instead? It has roughly equivalent wordplay (perhaps leading one to think of components that supply power, such as a diesel generator power unit for a construction site). But it also has the benefit of being accurate in that power is measured in units of watts.
@kkseattle But “related to” is a slippery slope. Would GRAMS work because light bulbs have mass and can be weighed? Would DOZEN work because bulbs can be sold in a multi-pack? Or GROSS for the larger case that a building contractor buys? How about LITER since each light bulb takes up a particular volume? WEEKS because a commercially produced bulb typically has an estimated service life?
There must be dozens of ways to correctly clue ARETHA.
@Grant I just listened to Rats on the way home from work today for the first time in probably 20 years… that obscure reference is just too spooky!
@Manuel Pagan My experience exactly! My buddy who often drives a BMW detests that nickname, for whatever that is worth.
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