Sammy
New York
Deb-- out of curiosity why don't they put the technical note in the "i"? They could make it flash like how they do on Sunday's. Seems like a very easy fix that can be done at any time (even now...) Incidentally I solved it without knowing there was an issue and that I just couldn't figure out the theme. Would have been so much more satisfying (and a quicker solve) to have gotten it.
Easy for a Thursday! Boy I feel bad for all the new solvers today...I hope they come back next week!
Welp broke my 55-day gold streak, and by a mile. I got like 4 answers. Not a friendly puzzle. Just to start, "Uh Oh" is two words. Argh.
Took more than 2x my average time for a Friday. Not a fan of the clues. Not fun, just difficult and vague. I wonder how many were made by looking for the biggest stretches of synonyms in the thesaurus.
I've been doing the NYT crossword obsessively for a year and a half. I only rarely stop to take a peek at the name of the constructor, and it's usually when I loved the puzzle. I hope over time I will retain some of these names after seeing them repeatedly (I'm bad with remembering names). And as for now, the only name I remember offhand is Simeon Seigel.
I never understand why an app with perfectly fine UI suddenly changes. Anyway. To the devs: can you please at least put the completion times back on the crossword tiles on the Home Screen?
Good puzzle, thanks! Don't know if it was the flu, RSV, Covid, but this one made my brain hurt.
@Sammy (meaning I love his puzzles)
Great puzzle thanks! I also would love to have someone knit me that nifty gold-star streak hat. TIL SETTEES. I had SETTlES (lowercase L) for the longest time thinking "couches" is like "tables", which I think still doesn't make sense. Is there a term for when you try every letter in the alphabet for the final unknown box until you get it? There should be. Like, "today I ____ until I got the E in settees."
Saturday puzzle on a Thursday, not sure how that counts towards a cycle. Some difficult puzzles have challenging clues, others have sadistic ones. I'd count this as the latter. Maybe it's just me but sometimes it feels to like the puzzle maker is thinking of the solver as a foe. In my head I call it "bad faith clueing."
What a great booty call of a puzzle! Thanks!
Very PSYCHED to have solved this one. Thanks for a great puzzle!
What a delightful Monday puzzle!
@Barry Ancona Im positive Davenport will be in tomorrow's puzzle now. Thanks!
The crosswordese glue is strong in the one. ERIE and EIRE, OREO, ODE, AHA, TTOP, AIDA, ADOS, TSKS, SKA, you get the point. I love creative Thursday puzzles but not when it's just a theme held together by glue, and even less-so when the glue is tried to be gussied up with new takes on the clues that would make no sense to people who have never done it before (a round sandwich??)
Really fun puzzle, thanks!! A little pet peeve here: NIT and NeT (like a hair net) both work, and THREEPIO is really 3P0. So, if there's more than one problem area in the puzzle this can compound the issue. Sorry if oversharing. Still, really loved the puzzle so much.
@Barry Ancona Oops maybe the word crosswordese was used incorrectly here! I just mean the old tired words that you see in every puzzle once or twice usually. But this seems especially heavy-handed today. Fun fact about me, I started doing crosswords only the beginning of last year, and became so consumed with it that I'm now able to do most puzzles with no lookups. I'm on a 53-day gold star streak right now, my longest yet! Though I am still a bit of a slow solver. Some Saturdays take me over an hour and a half! Anyway because of this quick change from being a beginner, I am really in touch with what makes NYT crosswords inclusive vs exclusive. It makes me feel like like anyone should be able to solve any crossword if they have the gumption, but not need to be part of an inside crowd. I've seen clues in the past that were just completely self-referential, like "common crossword cookie." How much more inside can you get? Sorry for the rant!! Just something that came to mind as I did this puzzle.
@Browncoat mine just says "Congrats" and the day of the week. iPhone
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