Atavistic Cringeworder

The wording of the pronoun clue was very clumsy.

The answers weren't what I expected. But that's what you get in this doggy dog world.

This crossword should have helped find the precise point where a puzzle gimmick becomes annoying. But as an experiment it's poorly controlled, with a lot of confounding variables. Generally I find rebuses enjoyable, though slightly awkward to enter. While the "This square has a different letter in it for the across and down answer" to be the lowest form of crossword. This should have been a slightly improved version of the latter (constructing a flimsy, but valid, excuse things). But it also adds a pseudo-rebus into the mix, and leaves incoherent text in the grid. Which kind of cancels out any benefit.

KIL is a terrible answer. Most obviously because it's not used anywhere as an abbreviation for KM. But also in French "kil" as an abbreviation seems to be more associated with mass or volume. Unless it is a reference to engine size here? There was an easy opportunity for some sly misdirection by referring to Le Mans the place in the clue, rather than the race.

Not a horrible puzzle. E-word clues just roll of my back at this point. But it's a rookie error confusing "Wii Sports" and "Wii Play". Wii Sports was ubiquitous due to being a pack-in with the Wii console. And was a massive popular and critical success on top of that. It is well remembered to this day. Wii Play is a terrible collection of glorified tech demos. It is widely hated, and many people only ended up owning it because it came free if you bought a second controller in PAL territories. It is not a "hit" by any definition of the word (except that you hit a billiard ball in one of the minigames). According to Mobygames' "Mobyscore" metric (based on contemporary critical reviews) , Wii Play is ranked 22136 of ~25.6K Wii games. Which is even worse than it sounds, because some games don't have a score there. Of games with a score, it is in the bottom 150. Easily Putting it in the worst 1% of all games on the system.

A clue referencing Australia and/or Australian culture that doesn't have an egregious error? Well done.

Interesting interpretation of both "For The Win" and "Modern Lingo"

It's rare to have general knowledge themes that take up so many squares with their answers. As a result I was able to finish in record time for a Sunday even after getting stuck on overlapping weirdness and Americanisms.

I feel like I'm slowly building up an image of an alternate reality Australia from NYT crossword. One where more than zero people say "Boyo", Canberra is in New South Wales, and Rugby League and Rugby Union are the same sport.

I regret to inform fellow Australians that it is not the NYT crossword that has erred in 4 down. This was an entirely voluntary marketing choice.

Given that "goal" is spelled in English. 'Olé' would typically be used after a each successful pass in a long string of possession, normally while your preferred team is ahead and just trying to run down the clock. And not after a goal.

Really hit the JACKOPT with this one. I didn't like the gimmick at first. But then I realised it's more of a limitation with the platform. Strange that NYT is adding more and more games, but can't improve the online crossword to better support the semi-frequent gimmicks in Thursday/Sunday crosswords.

Alaska shares a timezone with the Gambier Islands

This crossword has me imagining someone shoveling yellowcake straight into a powerplant and wondering why it's not working.

Under no reasonable definition of "Tech" could AOL be considered an "Early Giant"

Please get with the times. Something like Discord is far more popular and utile than Zoom is for such purposes.

"Infinite" and "Very large but finite" famously synonymous terms.

Birds aren't descended from dinosaurs. They are dinosaurs.

The notion that the Japanese had a term for the 1983 video game crash (that only happened in America and only affected console video games), let alone "Atari Crash" specifically, is almost definitely an invention of Americans talking about things in the past tense. Like a lot of Atari Myths, it probably originated from Nintendo's attempts to differentiate themselves from Atari when they attempted to move into the American markets years later.

I thought 72A might be a referencing a famous work, or be a cultural reference, or at least have some tangible connection between the clue and answer. But sadly it's just someone asking chatgpt for a crossword clue for EYES. This possibly overtakes "Canberra's State" as my least favourite clue. At least the setter apologised for that one. I don't participate in the moral panic over most "generative" AI because I think overhyping the "evil" only minimises the much more dangerous snake-oil aspect. I do however think it's mostly a load of garbage scam products, of which 99% aren't fit for whatever purpose they purport to do.

Ctrl-f "Rugby"... *nothing* ... very disappointed. Rugby League and Rugby Union are completely different sports. The clue makes as much sense as saying Association Football (Soccer) and American Football are the same sport because of the word "football". Something like 'Sport with "Sevens" and "Fifteens" varieties' would have worked better given the existence of Rugby Sevens.

96 Down is very much in the "I mean... I've seen worse clues" category.

The (relatively) recent Jon Bois documentary series on Dave Stieb should have helped at least a few.

The definition of "Alt(ernative) Metal" used here has the same "ahistorical invention of a wikipedia editor" feel as numbered video game generations.

Interesting interpretation of tic-tac-toe in 82 down.

Decent puzzle as far as these things go. That said, the NYT puzzle app is continually woefully insufficient for this sort of gimmick. In trying to find the last typo, I genuinely spent 5 minutes trying to re-enter the gimmick clues multiple ways because I had no idea if the gimmick squares only wanted a specific input or not. Also 48 across had two dodgy clue/answer combos AND a questionable method of input. Surely some kind of record for one clue.

An admin for an online forum is the "admin". A mod(erator) is generally considered a different concept.

I'll be extremely generous and assume the word "wild party" in the clue refers to the actions of an out of control or "TURNT" individual.

ONEIRON is a type of answer/clue combo that is one of my least favourite. It can't be solved using strictly literal facts about golf, nor can it be solved using only "common sense". It's only solvable through a very specific combination of taking some things literally (technically the one iron exists, even though basically nobody uses it) and using common sense/jargon for others (The One Wood is called The "driver", novelty clubs like the Zero Iron are not common even though they technically exist). Thankfully the generous crosses mean it was only a minor complaint and an easy solve.

1. NOR is right at the edge of acceptability IMHO. And only using a generous meaning of "negative". It's more mystifying than annoying though. It's probably the only context where it's remotely possible NOR wouldn't be considered 'negative'. 2. Australia does not automatically grant citizenship on birth. There are many "birthed in Perth" who are not AUSSIE (in the eyes of the law)

Can't say I expected a Collingwood(?) training photo in the New York Times Crossword Column.

You can bet I was readying my "Well Actually..." comment the moment I realised 8 down was SSR and not a rebus [US]SR like I suspected. There were only 14 SSRs in the Soviet union at the time (Russia was the RSFSR). And if you're talking about the coincidental 15 (of 19 total) boycotters aligned with the Soviet Union, then only one of them has SSR in the name and it does not qualify as "One of".

Sadly hangs a zero on the "Days since atari in Go has been compared to check in Chess" sign

Asking about 24 Down seems like the beginning of a low-effort meme

AMIGA is a good answer. (Even if it's a "brand" in the "iMac" sense not in the "Apple" sense) But I think the Wordplay column is conflating two phenomena. The Amiga itself is not very obscure, particularly for any fan of video games, and even moreso outside of the USA. It was commercially relevant well into 90s, and there were usually still Amiga versions of big computer games, and they were often still the definitive versions even then. But the subject of the linked article is about the emulation scene, and largely about the bizarre phenomenon of the operating system AmigaOS still being updated to this day. Which is only for the truest of true sickos.

I'd never considered TEAMSTERS to be a "World Series" type situation until this puzzle until now. (Not a complaint about the crossword)