Chris

@Jim the thing is that the NYT crossword is very happy to accept payment from international customers to access the puzzle (remember its not free like the mini or connections), so complaining about people complaining it's american specific is asinine as alot of the complainers pay and have a right to voice what they like and what they dont. Personally I don't mind the Americanisms and put up with it because as you say, it's an American publication. But todays was extreme in that regard, but tomorrow's another day and the odds are that whatever they put out will be a big improvement over whatever the hell this was

@Phil This term does pop up on Crosswords fairly often so it's one to remember. Basically it's a title of respect when addressing speaking to an Indian, like how we would use sir. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sri" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sri</a>

@Peabody while I dont like non description sounds in puzzles, I still have an irrational hatred for "playground retort" which irks me more

@Marshall Walthew although one Newcastle is much bigger than the other (Newcastle upon Tyne is one of the biggest cities in the UK with a relatively well known Premiership team). There is an easy way to seperate the two, If this ever comes up again which is very unlikely; it's Newcastle UPON Tyne and Newcastle UNDER Lyme. This may help or not but wanted to put it out there all the same

@MDB The commenter really don't like criticism on the blog, every puzzle is fantastic and brilliant and won't be told otherwise.

@Wayne I wouldn't worry about it, the commenters usually praise all puzzles with the odd exception which is fair enough if that's what you want. On r/Crossword it's getting panned with most votes skewing towards poor/terrible as they tend to be more critical over there. I like to read both sections to try and balance out my opinions and biases.

@UE I went back to have a look and while it's not entirely obvious; I think you may be right about it being a revealer, albeit a 'stealthy' one.

@john ezra I've added my vote to this, but I have to say the inclusion of the Robert Frost and Art Heist puzzles in puzzle of the year is a controversial one

@Paul while I get that some people will hate this for being too hard, for me it wasn't the case. I do like a good hard puzzle on occasion, only when its well executed. This can be measured by how many "o's" a good hard clue will have. To elaborate when you get a hard clue after getting enough from the info available I.e crosses, a good answer will make you go oooooooooooh and feel satisfying to get after the work it took to decipher. A bad clue is the same but you go "oh" instead, which means the juice was not worth the squeeze. Today for me there were too many "oh's" and not many if any ooooooh's. I really hope this makes sense.