Bruce
Birmingham (actually Hoover)
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Birmingham (actually Hoover)
First time ever: I filled every one of the acrosses in the first pass! If I hadn't had loot instead of HAUL and key instead of CAY it would have been a perfect finish. As an aside, I've been making my way through the archives by working my birthday puzzles year by year. I completed that round a few days ago. Now I think I'll restart using my wife's birthday. It's fun to observe the evolution of clues and words through the years.
As impressive as it is to have all the words with alternating consonants and vowels, it's even more impressive that the pattern holds true across all the blank spaces as well! In both directions, even when there is more than one blank adjacent.
EINK, ECIG, EBATES EMAILME your thoughts on this Epuzzle trend.
@archaeoprof Same here. After my first pass through across and down I had only three words filled, and one of those was iffy. I said to myself I've got better things to do on a Saturday morning. Reading the Wordplay confirms my suspicion that I would have not been any closer after multiple passes. Some days it's better to just walk away.
I had ASHAMED right off the bat, but after several passes through the NW with only that and ESSO to go on I erased it. Finally looked up the mascot and the sea lice, and lo and behold my initial word came back like the Phoenix rising! Now if only I could have figured out FIR, FISTS and RENEE.
@Katie ACUPressURE instead of ACUPUNCTURE
Quite a coincidence to have 51D Hoda KOTB on the day she announced she's leaving The Today Show. Enjoyed the puzzle. Once I figured out what was going on it came together quickly.
@Bill ... or muy good to stay with the theme.
@Lynn I solve on my phone almost exclusively. It's easy to toggle between across and down by tapping on the clue itself (instead of the advance arrow to the right of the clue). The few times I've worked the puzzle on my laptop I found it quite distracting to see both across and down clues at the same time. The disadvantage of phone solving comes when reading the article and comments. It is not easy to refer back to 14A or 30D (for instance) since the puzzle is not in view.
@John Carson DORA the explorer. Nice reference! 😁
@Becky Culbertson Exactly! I thought it WAS a rebus puzzle and had to come to Wordplay to find out why I didn't get the happy music with the circles filled that way.
@Mean Old Lady I guess Elphaba's green fingers look like OKRA.
Haven't read the column or comments yet, but I just want to say I entered all the silly rebuses once I caught on to the trick, only to be met with the "close but no cigar" message. So I went back and undid them to single letters and finally got the gold star. Seems like it should have accepted either format.
@B I completely agree! I work the puzzles on my phone, and it's way too much of a pain to flip between Wordplay and the grid to see what 5D or 32A might be.
@Mean Old Lady that would be I-10, not US 10.
For a while I had enough of 1A filled that I thought it was SOVIET-something and it took some time for that to clear from my brain.
@Marlene I've never seen a WaWa but I knew the answer immediately because of a funny story my wife tells of a business trip years ago (before we met). She was driving a rental car in New Jersey, well before the advent of GPS and turn-by-turn maps. She stopped to ask a policeman for directions, and his first instruction was "go up the road and turn at the WaWa." She had no idea what a WaWa was. It took several minutes of her bewildered "excuse me?" and his insistent repetition of "turn at the WaWa" for her to get an idea just how to get to her destination.
I've been working the puzzle for a few months and recently started reading the Wordplay column and comments. I've figured out TIL and CAPS vs lowercase for correct/incorrect fills. But one thing eludes me, and I need someone to explain "emu(s)" to me. Thanks! PS- I have reported the fact that Pencil Mode does not work in the Android app and have received an answer that they will investigate how to fix it.
@Strudel Dad since German Vs are pronounced as Fs, perhaps the phrase is referring to something "hitting the fan." I can't say the something because that would rouse the emus.
I entered OLDSCORES, PARSING and BUTTERED before discovering they needed to be INSIDEOUT. Clever puzzle today.
@Lorel Don't try TOO hard! 😊
I had GASH but changed the A to E thinking a TEe is what caddies carry. At the end I realized it's a different caddy which does indeed carry TEA.
@Joe Gazella the clue included a superscript 2 which makes it A-squared.
Both Mr Tomlinson's puzzles have ASOF in the top left section. The first (15A) was clued "Since," and today's (16A) "Lead-in to a date."
@Bruce ... and now that I've read the constructor notes I see that he unintentionally intended it.
@Margaret Don Johnson was in Miami Vice. Don Henley is in the Eagles.
@Steve L you beat me to it! I was singing the song as I scrolled the replies and planned to reference it if nobody else did.
@Steve L I call the last quarter of the year Hallowthankshanachriskwanzamas, with Labor Day and New Year's Eve as bookends.
@Amy I thought CRANKSup before IT too, until I realized it would break the crossword rules to have "up" in both the clue and the answer.
@Amy I noticed his name being in the puzzle as well and was a bit surprised it wasn't mentioned in the article.
@Ken I very confidently entered AREYOUKIDDINGME for the first theme answer, only to have it quickly destroyed when I got to the Down clues.
@Mean Old Lady "... tapped for a blood donation by my workplace blood bank" Are you implying NONvoluntary blood donations? That's an activity that should always be at the discretion of the donor and not something coerced or mandated.
@B Please explain the emu reference. I've been reading here only a few weeks, and I see 'emu(s)' often enough to know that it's a thing, but I cannot figure out what that thing is. Thanks
@Sean I completely agree! I never click the "i" until I've finished (or given up) the puzzle, and today I'm especially glad I didn't because figuring it out on my own added so much to the enjoyment of this puzzle.
@Nancy J. The movie is a hoot! Be sure to watch it if you get a chance. That reminds me, I need to pull out my DVD and see it again.
@Joel Kentucky and KSU are both Wildcats. Skidmore is the only college I can find with Thoroughbreds as the mascot.
@Helen Wright I recently came across craic for the first time reading The Irish Cottage by Juliet Gauvin. Had to look it up then and had to look it up again today. Maybe this time it will stick.
@DC Click on the settings cog/gear and check the box for "Show overlays" to the the graphic elements.
@dk I think that use of 5-0 came from the TV show Hawaii 5-0, and it has been used as slang to refer to law enforcement in general.
@Steve L I use the Games app (Android) and the only way I know to get to the Wordplay column is by opening the puzzle and tapping the "I" at the top. I've often thought there should be a more direct way to access the article. Am I missing something?
If you've never heard of this social media apps the theme makes no sense at all.
In my opinion the plural answers WORMHOLES and SORESPOTS should have "and" clues instead of "or" clues, and therefore they do not belong in the theme set.
@Seward Parker On my phone clicking that link opens the NYT app which does not include stats or the bonus puzzle. Those only appear when I access the URL on my computer. Now that I know about it I'll have to remember to check for the bonus there.
@CeCe Auto-correct? In the puzzle? My app doesn't do that.
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