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I had Tims instead of Toms and was struggling as to why there was a rude word in 26D
What would a jaNITORLIZARD even be?
People talk about stacks... I see LENT next to ORGY
@Atavistic Cringeworder I originally put IBM. They were about a century ahead of AOL.
If we're going to exclude words based on whether or not you'd want it shouted at you, this is going to be an awfully small puzzle every day.
@Sam Lyons what's wrong with Karl Marx? Most people would do well to understand more of his writings.
@Kim yeah, but we're not conversing in Italian, we're in English. The singular grilled sandwich is a panini, multiple would be paninis.
Good puzzle, my only complaint is "MIKE" is a name. "MIC" is short for microphone. The grid is fine, clue could been altered to be grammatically correct. It gets really confusing (and plain wrong) when NYT reinforces but common incorrect spellings. It seems to happen at least once a week in x word.
Can we just acknowledge that proper names of people are like proper names of places? They are Naticks. Worse, they are usually ancient celebrities, further making NYTXW exclusive to specific demographics 🦕
For our column writer, ear worms are from the brain fixating on the unresolved melody. The best way to get rid of it is to just listen to the song all the way through. Your brain gets it's satisfaction, then moves on to the next thing
Graphs and charts are two distinct things. Pretty bad clue for 21A when there were countless options that weren't objectively incorrect.
@Zoe same here! But I had to read through to figure out the joke, so it doesn't feel like a 100% to me
@SP just because a term is misused so often that the misused definition enters common language, doesn't mean it's a good clue. Words have meaning and it's quite annoying to just make up new definitions for words. Graphs and charts are still two different things and it's improper to use them interchangeably.
@K. H. ELPHABA is a gimme, but I'm sure NBAJAM is too obscure, right?
I like this puzzle's pun. This is a fun way to make a puzzle. It's just as punny as wormholes, but doesn't break so many rules of crosswords as to be frustrating.
We all knew 16A wasn't INVENTOR, otherwise the clue would have referenced Elisha Gray, not Bell.
@Ryan I really don't get why obscure pop culture references aren't treated as Naticks. It's random trivia applicable to a very small subset of the population
@ClifFL IDK why you're getting so many negative comments. Pictures are just a gimmick too far. If you need put a warning that it might not render correctly, it's probably not good to make a puzzle out of it. FWIW, I didn't have issues, but I'm not going to attack someone who did, especially given the extreme likelihood of rendering issues.
@Regine NYTXW commenters are quite the group of elitists. For a while there was a guy mocking "haters", again making puzzle enjoyment level a matter of intelligence, and something to boast about.
@Heidi I disagree. I am being very deliberate when I say Sunday puzzle was lazy. It doesn't take any skill to redirect words the way that puzzle did. I compared it to a sodoku that allows duplicates: it makes for a lazy puzzle maker and needless (bad) complexity for the solver. Add in fillers, like "ACAI" and you have an incredibly bad and lazy puzzle that I blame the editors for ever allowing through. Yes, it was a 100% "lazy" idea by the creator that's not impressive, at all.
Why do crosswords need to be symmetric, besides aesthetics? It seems like this puzzle was delayed by about two years to fit the symmetry rubric, based on authors' timeline.
38A should only be LEEROYJENKINS with that clue.
Cool! I've been saying trivia is the same thing as a Natick, so we get a puzzle that's almost all celebrity trivia. Thanks, I guess....
@Salvo as always, my complaint is with the editors, not the constructors. This puzzle is great, but belongs in People, not NYT.
@Cat Lady Margaret it's quite a cromulent nonce word
@Katie of course there's no "rulebook" for crosswords. That's an absurd point to make. But it is completely on the the constructor and editors for publishing a puzzle (on a Sunday, no less) that is one gigantic Natick
@Mark you really aren't paying attention to critics if you think it's because puzzles are "too hard". I honestly hope NYT is paying attention to more than just their fanfics
Quite the yawner. Rebuses should be fun, not a cheap gimmick.
@G there's a world of difference between "tricky" and "forced". One of the biggest differences being enjoyment, of which this puzzle was severely lacking
@Steve L just because a puzzle is easy or difficult doesn't make it good or bad. Today's and yesterday's are equally unimpressive. At least today's wasn't quite as lazy.
51D should be DIScS or clued differently. A "disc" is a round thing. A "disk" is a computer drive. Yes, they might mean the same thing according to a dictionary, but in the real world, they are two different things.
@LarryF people keep saying that, like Shakespeare isn't known for making up words and those words are somehow relevant today because they haven't been used in five centuries? No, they are nonce words and further out of place in a crossword than proper nouns.
I don't mind the plural of Octopus. I mind that it's seemingly insinuated that octopus are adolescent squid, which is just laughably wrong. Could have absolutely been clued better because now it's just wrong.
@Erica not ska, but definitely inspired it.
@Tex I like tricky puzzles and rebuses. This puzzle was absolutely stupid, with tortured fills. Is this the third or fourth puzzle this week with "ACAI" as an answer? Flipping where words go in the puzzle isn't skillful. You could do that anywhere. It's about as complicated as a sodoku with duplicates, and equally pointless and unfun.
The problem with trying to start crosswords when you're tired, is you put fAkE in for "Like a $2 bill" and you don't notice it until much later during review.
23A could also be clued the worst film ever made (it's on Wikipedia)
@Lewis 3/4 and 0.738% are drastically different numbers. Or maybe it's just Verizon math (where $0.08 and 0.08¢ equal).
@LBG you are engaging in the textbook definition of straw manning. The fact is, this puzzle is full of trivia and Naticks and simply isn't fun, regardless of skill or time involved. I took slightly less time than average but had was less fun than average.
@JS no, they are 100% correct. Charts and graphs are different things and there's no such thing as pie "graphs". A polar graph is the closest you'll get. For such a rigorous discipline, it's quite funny you think mathematicians are loose with language.
@JUDITH CONRAD it is a stance more than anything, short for "anti-fascist", which says a lot about the people who get enraged over it. Also, being "antifa" should be as basic as it gets.
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