Reuben
Australia
Nice puzzle and cool theme, but a hard for a Tuesday for me, considering I got the Friday last week. Lots of intersecting obscure names - BELA / LENAPE / ANG and SILAS / ASTAIRE as well as SHA / ANNAN. I feel like where possible, pop culture references shouldn't intersect each other this early in the week, and instead intersect a vocab or wordplay clue. That way more people can have a go.
Google tells me that "flyer" is the preferred spelling over "flier" when referring to a promotional leaflet. A bit rough to have the less-accepted spelling, in a crossing with a US-centric brand name.
@Paul The clue does say "what the starred clues must have...". I have learnt to read clues like that carefully because I have made a similar mistake before.
Good puzzle. I was stuck on the PEI / ELIA crossing, but I suspect that may have been easier for the North American cruciverbalists.
Cool puzzle. I foudn the theme clues fine, but it was a lot of the other clues that I had a hard time with as I'd never heard of them, eg. ROENTGENS, AMNIO, MAME
PB for a Thursday for me. Nothing too tricky. It was (TILTED) AT WINDMILLS that gave away the theme for me.
@Atavistic Cringeworder I disagree. They do have a lot of their core elements in common that are not in other sports (eg scrums, knockons, tries and conversions), and come from the same origin. Sure they are different, but that is why they are "varieties." (Besides, wordplay is the point of crosswords - I would even accept and enjoy a clue like "a fruit with pine and crab varieties" (answer: apple) )
I hadn't heard of any of the books, but that's fine. My only gripe was "OYS" for "pained cries". "OWS" would be a much more obvious answer, and my searching even seems to indicate that OY is a variant of OI, which isn't a pained cry at all. Perhaps it is intended as a variant of "oy vey"? Seems like a stretch but happy to be corrected.
Nice puzzle. I hadn't heard of EMEND before yesterday, but luckily it was in the crossword then so I could remember it for today.
Cool puzzle, unfortunately ruined a bit for me by the online interface - I imagine on paper would be more fun as you could just write the extra letters outside the grid. I imagine it accepted either the rebus or just the second letter? I was putting in the second letter and it made it harder to find and keep track of where the "extra" letters were, especially since the interface doesn't let you replace things that have already been autochecked as "correct".
Cool puzzle, I didn't have too much trouble for a Wednesday. Did get a bit stuck on the top left HAJI / ODOM / HOFFA
I found the SAHL / SHAH crossing particularly difficult here. Apart from that, good puzzle!
I was amused by the theme, nice puzzle. I did get quite stuck on some of the crossings (OPI / GILA, DIANE / ERSE, ODAMAE / TET), but got there eventually.
Didn't get the theme until I had already filled all the theme answers in through help with crossings. Cool though.
Cool theme. Was made pretty obvious by the big grey text box at the top telling you to fill in each grey square with a numerical digit, and by the multiplication symbols between each of them. Unfortunately I got stumped on a couple of the crossings where the answers were things I was unfamiliar with. But I enjoyed it nonetheless.
@B I think the themed clues in italics, and the removable "i"s in circles would have made for a much cleaner crossword.
@Confused German I believe "will call" is an American term for ordering something online to pick up in person, and is particularly common for movie tickets. Where I live in Australia we call it "click-and-collect"
@andreaoz44 It's actually an interesting origin. After scoring a "try" in rugby, teams have a chance at an uncontested goal (called a "conversion"). Originally, these tries were not worth any points on their own, and the only value in them was the chance at a goal, or as a tiebreaker. Hence the name "try" - the team has an attempt to score. These days, the try is worth more points itself than the conversion, but the name persists.
@Mat There is a rebus button! On the phone it is just a pencil icon, but on the computer there is a big button that says "Rebus". They might seem confusing at first, but they are actually pretty fun once you get used to them (and there is normally more of a clue as to where they will be than there was in this crossword).
@Sam I also got this Thursday without lookups, but not the Tuesday this week.
@Andrzej I find it easier to remember it as just being every second letter of the alphabet (musical notes go up to G before looping again)
@Anita Can you explain how SOLO is the answer to "stag"?
@Caroline It has nothing to do with it. 117A (WESTERN UNION) is the revealer clue, and the themed squares are at 23A/3D, 41A/12D, 57A/44D, and 91A/87D. Every other clue and answer (like the one you're talking about), is just a regular crossword clue. AROACE is short for "aromantic and asexual"
FYI - In this article, the first tricky clue (14A) is quoted as [Signal a stop, say], but the actual clue is signal *to* stop.
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