Elle
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Melbourne, Australia
I enjoyed this one. The first penny to drop was the Pineapple dessert at which I laughed out loud and my partner wanted to know what had happened! Then it was smooth sailing after that...liked the circled answers too. Thanks Barbara, for an enjoyable puzzle,
@Eric Hougland I think the problem arises in a few instances. First is when you are in a key which has a sharp or flat as part of that key. So for example, when in the key of G, an F is assumed to be sharp and that is indicated at the start of the piece and one never sees the # when reading the music. So in the music sheet if at some point you want the musician to play a normal F without the sharp you have to put in the natural sign to let them know not to sharpen it in that instance. Second, if within a measure you add a sharp to a note, e.g., a G#, that sharp is assumed to remain until the end of the measure (so you do not keep putting in the # sign for G during that measure after the first one). But if you want to remove that sharp from the G in that measure, you need to add the natural symbol to undo the change. Others can correct me if I am wrong!
@Rissa Sorry to hear that! Have you tried using Autocheck when the puzzle is challenging? It helps you know which letters are right if you guess the wrong word so you make some progress and don't go down blind alleys. I figure it is better to get help than get frustrated! Also I found the link on How to Solve the New York Times Crossword very helpful for getting into the mindsets for different puzzles across the week. I hope you both recover from this Friday's puzzling !!!
I thoroughly enjoyed this one!!! A fun theme and I did lots of giggling when I shifted my thinking and got the answers from the many less-than-straightforward (but all completely sensible) clues. Thanks Simeon - from my point of view the perfect Sunday puzzle.
Clever puzzle - very enjoyable! I got the revealer relatively soon, but somehow missed for quite a while that the circles were rebuses! After realising that (on the negotiator question clue) it all fell into place quickly. A big thank you to the editors for adding the circles, without which I think I would still be trying to figure out the puzzle on Saturday!
@Helen Wright I hope you feel better soon!
I enjoyed this puzzle. Was perplexed for quite a while. Got Wilmington from crosses and had no idea how that related to the clue, so I Googled it and it came up with Wilmington, North Carolina, not very helpful!! Came up with Kamehameha from crosses and decided the clue might possibly be the greeting, "Hi, King!" which too went nowhere. Finally had my breakthrough with POTATO, rechecked my other answers and then all clicked into place from there. Love the mind-shift that unlocks a puzzle.
Completely forgot it was a Thursday, until PEWE started me thinking "that must be a rebus!", Checked the day and the theme and started popping them all in. Smooth sailing from there.
I love, love, loved this puzzle - so clever and multi-layered. And it is so nice to see a comments column where ALL the comments (well, with maybe a rare exception) were positive!!
Although I usually prefer themed puzzles, I really enjoyed this one. Some of the shifts in mind set required for interpreting the clues were fun and brought the sought-after smile, including the see, 11a. On reading about the origins of the puzzle, I was delighted to learn it was constructed by a fellow Melbournian (umm, Melburnian?). Thanks Sam, including for the Kelly clue!
@Francis. no misdirection there really. "secrete" \sih-KREET\ is a verb that means "to deposit or conceal in a hiding place", i.e., to hide
I love clever puzzles like this that result in lots of little laughs when the penny (2 cents?) drops and I switch thinking about what the clues meant. For many puzzles this switch involves just reading the clue more literally, but this one required a more creative re-thinking of the meaning in many clues. Lots of fun, The wheels were clever too. Well done on this debut and may we see more puzzles from you, Kyle! All the best on your retirement, Deb, thanks for your contributions and enjoy your new life directions!
As soon as I saw the title, I knew this puzzle would be fun, and indeed it contributed to an enjoyable, punny Sunday. Well done Randolph!
Loved this one. I just went through and solved it all, occasionally wondering what the circles were doing there, figuring they would eventually spell something out. Finished the puzzle and took a few minutes pondering the theme until the penny dropped. Laughed out loud with delight. This is the joyful "aha" experience I do these puzzles for! Many thanks, Daniel!!!
@BrianQ Ha ha, I went through the same process of second guessing myself, and ended up asking my husband how many are in a __ gun salute? How many Winks is it when you sleep? Very happy when I got the trick.
This was a lesson for me - pay more attention to revealers!! I got all the letters in the puzzle but none of the numbers I tried entering were working when I did Autocheck (aside from the fact that the numbers conflicted conceptually between down and across answers). So I tried rebuses, thinking "maybe it is some complex combination of double digits or words? That did not work. I started to wonder if my mac computer system was not working (maybe ALL my inserted numeric digits were being rejected?). Eventually, using Autocheck, in one of the squares I went through every number sequentially and one of them was accepted! Then the penny dropped! Those aha moments are why I love the NY Times crossword! ...and lesson learned.
I confess, I had to look up what the San Francisco treat was, but so glad I did because that was the clue that got me to the wormholes! Then it fell into place. Before that much time was spent scratching my head and completely at sea about what on earth was going on - eventually I figured it MUST be rebuses in the circles, but even that did not help much. I wish that Rebus squares did not accept just the first letter of the rebus as I then have to spend a lot of time subsequently inserting the rebus in my head (especially a long one), when I realize the they are there. Congratulations on a very complex puzzle, amazed that the wormhole worked in both directions!
I had ODD ONE OUT for the longest time. So while I figured out the circled letters had to be dropped, I could not for the life of me understand why! Finally, with just a few letters to go, used Autocheck and then it all made sense and could finish! Umami bomb was a fun one
@Ben I wonder if possibly you may have missed some of the clever puzzle construction? I find sometimes I miss themes and twists when there are several elements to them - until I go back and look more carefully (or read others' comments). Maybe take another look?
@Francis In this puzzle focusing on NATO representations of letters as an initial hint, the "Golf" part is just telling you the answer starts with a G. So the "course" part is what to focus on for the sought after word (i.e., look for a course starting with G). Gazpacho is meant to represent a course at a meal. I do agree it is a bit of a stretch to think of gazpacho as a "course" rather than just an item on a menu!
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