Darren

I hated this puzzle. Can we please have just one gimmick in a puzzle instead of two (that don’t work together) Okay, so you want to do a rebus? But you want to be really clever and add a double rebus? Well make them work. How does New Mexico (NM) and Oregon (OR) fit together in one rebus? They don’t. Neither do any of the others. This is how you get a sloppy puzzle. A constructor that wanted to create a creative, tricky puzzle without making any sense. Garbage. Please don’t use this kind of trash. Sincerely, Everyone.

The theme for this puzzle should have been SCREWTHAT! What a heaping pile💩 I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many one or two word clues that led to answers that were sometimes made up by the constructor. This was not clever, wasn’t interesting, it was extremely challenging, but that doesn’t make it a good puzzle.

This was not fun at all. Vague clues to nonsensical answers. It’s ok to have a few of those things if the crosses are doable but when the whole puzzle is filled with those clues it is infuriating. This is another constructor that is too busy trying to make an unsolvable puzzle to try and prove their intelligence. You want to show intelligence? Make a clever puzzle with answers that people actually have heard of…

Terrible puzzle for a Wednesday. Way too many obscure answers. And in some places with equally obscure crosses, this was not enjoyable nor clever. There seems to be a pattern playing out with the creators: see who can create a puzzle that works while using clues and answers that no one has ever heard of so that everyone can revel in their genius.

All the hate is warranted. The absolute worst puzzle in ages… When the Word play column starts out with: “I don’t think I’ll ever understand what went on in his brain to get us here. Is it silly or brilliant?” You know you are not alone in scratching your head.. Theme is trash. That is on the constructor. So many obscure word usages. ATLOWEBB? LDOPA? ADOLFO? This is on the editors. This puzzle should be on a Thursday-Saturday. ESPECIALLY with such a sloppy theme…

Solved it, probably my longest time ever. I hated this puzzle. Creators like this are trying to prove they are above the other creators or they are scouring the web for the most obscure words possible… Waaaaaaaay too many obscure clues intersecting making it nearly impossible to luckily get the word with crosses. As another person wrote:: Pewit, Uppish, Catsear, Arum, Arikara - and I am American Indian living in Minnesota - never heard of this tribe. If creating an impossible puzzle was your plan, you failed. You just made a frustrating puzzle that no one enjoyed.

Very inconsistent with very questionable obscure answers and/or made up phrases to fill the grid. This whole week has been sloppy puzzles.

SW was nearly impossible. Way too obscure answers and the crosses didn’t help either.

That SE corner! Whoa

Was really thrown off by GELID. Never heard that before. Odd since I live in a frozen state 8 months of the year…

I echo many other comments. This was ridiculously arcane and perhaps unfair. Some clues were not just vague thoughts in the constructors head but just plain loosely subjective. Though = GOON? That being said I understand Saturdays are always more difficult I thought this was a little over the top..

Like so many others have said, one of the worst (if not the worst) puzzles ever. Come on Times staff. Do better. So many one or two clues, clues using phrases no one uses- ever: Drug Den? And I don’t know about you but when I walk in buildings I often noticed that they are ducted. And let’s not forget the fire boats! We hear about them as often as we hear about a good radio set …. Good god… Did anyone review this puzzle? Answer: WELLSORTA

Terrible puzzle for a Tuesday. A Spanish girlfriend is NOVIA. Dumb.

I solved without lookups but did not like it particularly. I feel themes like this is cheating. I get the ODDMANOUT; so by removing the name the answer makes sense: cubing need = SkInDives (SID removed) makes KNIVES. But what is SKINDIVES or STARMAP, etc? That requires getting the crosses and when they used crosses like AVRIL, MĀORI and BITINGWIT it makes for a slog. This constructor is not the first or (unfortunately) the last to do this. I will say A well constructed puzzle will trace the clue make sense with both the complete set of letters AND the trick. 3 out of 10

The longest answer should be the theme on the Times crossword staff:SOMEONE IS GETTING FIRED (or all of them. One of the most dreadful weeks I can recall. I have no idea how this slip was published. I accept that there will be weeks where there is a poorly constructed puzzle or a puzzle that is so difficult (to me) that I have to look up an answer but this week had three garbage days. That is unacceptable for me as a paying subscriber. Do better. This is slop.

A very challenging crossword for a Tuesday. A lot of obscure answers clustered together with poor cluing makes for a frustrating solve. 1A Puccini heroine who “lived for art, lived for love” 2A Like the base-8 number system 3D Animal with chestnut-and-white fur There is a good possibility many people have never heard of the answers and this makes a horrid solve.

Another sloppy puzzle to complete the weekend. Why do the editors accept this type of slop. If the constructor cannot complete the fill with real words and real (actually spoken) phrases it should not be acceptable. LOOIE? I was in the Army (maybe different for other branches) at many different locations never heard that in reference to LT. There weee others I had issue with but I am not wasting any more time on this slop. 4 out of 10 🚮

Not a fan. Been playing the NYT crossword for 5 years and still hate the use of spoonerisms and ESPECIALLY when there is no reasonable way one would detect that they are being used. Add to this some crosses that were questionable and the solve becomes miserable. CRABS? I don’t think people eat CRABS. They eat crab. No “s” There were others as well but I am done with this puzzle.

I personally loved this puzzle but I also can understand the frustration if you didn’t get the T theme… I have said this often, but for me, I love a tricky puzzle where the theme (although tricky to discover) ACTUALLY helps you solve themed clues and essentially the whole puzzle.. This theme answer(s) were tricky though as the crosses were brutal. Perfect Thursday puzzle! Rating: 10/10

When constructors fail it looks like this. When editors fail we see it… Theme makes very little sense and clues were suspect. This is a Thursday - Saturday type puzzle…

I REALLY enjoyed this puzzle. Just the right amount of trickery (with the rebus) and the rebus was part of the theme. So often the theme doesn’t really add up.. Some may think it was too easy for a Thursday but I really enjoyed it…

Hey New York: Thanks for lending us the Boss today in Minneapolis! Springsteen soothes the soul….

I am 51. I have a 23 year old and 13 year old. Never seen Brah. Bruh on other hand all the time. Maybe that’s a midwestern thing?

A rather VENOMOUS Tuesday. Although it was a clever puzzle it definitely belongs later in the week. Jeez if this is a Tuesday crossword I can hardly wait until Friday or Saturday.

Another puzzle where the editors allow a constructor to make up words to fill the grid. I still don’t get the theme even after solving. I refuse to read the article as I wasted enough time on this dumpster fire. Seepy Bell lap Lae All in one area on a Wednesday… 🤦🏻‍♂️

I agree with others. Tougher than normal Monday puzzle. A lot of obscure words that are either obsolete or little known bits of trivia.. Thankfully they seemed to all have doable crosses that completed the difficult entries… (But if this is a Monday what does the rest of the week have in store for us) yikes 😬

Don’t hate the puzzle but I hate it on a Wednesday. The clueing and some of the obscure answers make this a Saturday puzzle.

I FRICKING loved this puzzle!!!! Mainly, because for me, the difficulty was there, and early on in the puzzle to me, this seemed like it was going to be unsolvable (without lookups) until the theme clicked. Then, I was able to get the three (themed) down answers which helped me fill the rest. These are themes I like. Themes, that while being difficult; actually help you solve the puzzle. Not just some obscure, arbitrary thought in a constructor’s head, that has no bearing on the rest of the puzzle… Bravo!!! My favorite puzzle of the year so far.

Horrible selection for a Tuesday puzzle. The theme was difficult even after getting the music hint. Techsavvy from E# of three of the crosses were not very difficult. This was meant for a Thursday or Friday.

Really clever theme. Challenging but solvable. I would not have been able to solve this without getting the theme

Like others have said, I don’t think I ever heard La-Di-Da spelled Lah-Di-Dah but thankfully the crosses made it pretty obvious. There were a few other questionable word uses especially for a Monday. If this any indication of how the week will play out for crosswords it should be interesting…

Wow, pretty Saturdayish for a Tuesday… truthfully, I don’t know if there’s ever been a puzzle with so many words I have either never heard of or very seldom heard used. This is one of those puzzles by a new constructor that wants to show the world how clever they are by inserting words that no one uses with poor clues.

The most despicable puzzle I have played in years. Constructing a puzzle like this is the constructors was of saying “LOOK how smart I am everyone!!!” (Without saying those words… Boring and painstakingly arduous does not equal smart or clever.

I hated this will all my being. So this was your best option for the day? Stop encouraging these constructors that use nonsensical answers to fill a puzzle.

Why? I’m guessing less than 0.0000000001% of the crossword world has ever heard of some of these words. Congratulations Luke, you have access to a thesaurus. We are impressed. NUMISMATIST USURER NEMATODE BARKER

Fast Monday. Would have been faster but apparently I don’t know how to spell Caribbean… 😜

Finished 2 minutes below my average but like others said; sort of a tough Monday. I only heard of two of the women and there were quite few other rarely or obscure words… Could be another brutal week. 😆

Although it took me 7 minutes longer than my average I cannot believe I finished this without lookups. After my first pass across and down the board was pretty empty… But word by word I made it. Tough Friday (for me)

Clever puzzle with a wonderful trip down memory lane… I can remember using my Magic 🎱 with very similar questions as a child! Oh the nostalgia! Of course I would shake and reshake until I got the answer I desired… 😂

I solved without lookups somehow. This puzzle is sloppy! The theme idea is clever the execution is horrid. Too many constructors try to create the ultimate puzzle and end up creating a puzzle that only (sometimes) makes sense when the whole thing is complete.

Like so many others said, fine puzzle but definitely not a Monday.

I hated this. Needed 3 lookups because of the sloppy clueing and multiple word usage. This is a crossWORD puzzle not Phrases… We often see two words some times three, but four? Garbage. Don’t even get me started on K Dramas, or YES for 60A No, no… or WAS for 55A Served as… Worst puzzle of the year. Rating: 0/10

I really struggled closing this one out because of three fills… For the clue: “Cry that might accompany a forehead slap” I had DOH it originally fit and well Homer says it all the time.. So on the cross I had MO_CH for “bed material”. Going down was my third problem. I could not figure out what the “Galactic scale” Well, let me say when I realized my mistake on the “forehead slap” I said “DUH” and everything fell into place… Duh!!!!!

Northeast was tough. Mainly cause I have never heard of Opioneers and although I am from the VCR generation I have never heard tapes referred to as TVTAPES… Add that to the rare usage of MTWTF vs, the norm of MTWRF made this tricky…

Did not like this for a Wednesday. Clues were not fair. A rocket shaped frozen treat is a Bomb pop. I googled to see if it could be called Astro Pop but couldn’t find a location. An Astro Pop is a sticky candy that sticks to your teeth for eternity. How is ALUM person of the year for short?

I can’t state how much I disliked this puzzle. The theme was cute once it was discovered. However, that is the problem. With very obscure answers to vague clues as crosses the five theme entries were nearly impossible to figure out. Fat Finger Syndrome was easy to figure out and had thumb, pinky and middle (the other two were easy to deduce) double digit was the theme but figuring out how to enter the answer took so much time it went from being fun to infuriating. I completed this puzzle in 1:39:22. I don’t normally have that much time for a puzzle. It seems these days a lot of creators are simply trying to one up each other on creativity leaving the solvers to read their mind.

Bad puzzle. Lazy effort on the clues. Theme was barely a theme that had no real connection to the puzzle. And waaaaay too many obscure answers. “Any of the six in footballs “new years six” BOWLGAME. What about all the other BOWL games. The clue was implying something significant about these 6 which starting this year are PLAYOFF GAMES but there are MANY bowl games through December and early January.