Calypso
Texas
52
Comments
-0.033
Avg Sentiment
13
Positive
23
Neutral
16
Negative
Texas
Way too much obscure trivia. No thank you.
if ROAM/ROVE is in a crossword, I am certain to choose the wrong one every time
what a horrid slog of a puzzle filled with trivia instead of the fair balance of wordplay to give your solver a fighting chance -- even the revealer was trivia
A dairy farm can also be a (cow) tipping point!
Somehow I convinced myself that [Royal adversary] was TWIN because of king and queen bed size and completely missed the baseball reference
I didn’t enjoy this one. The theme was too niche and not even required for solving the grid. I expected more fun from a Sunday puzzle.
Much to my chagrin both ABEL/BASES and CAIN/ACIDS fit at 38-down and 41-across with no other letters filled in and I wasn’t sure of either pair! What a brilliant piece of construction if intended or a very fun coincidence if by accident
As someone with a RARE DISEASE, that was fun(?) to see and I knew the answer almost immediately
I don’t think I understand the theme or the idea of letter banks even after reading the column but I managed to finish the puzzle with little struggle so that’s a win I guess?
Very fun puzzle! Even the more obscure clues fit all my niches/generation today so I breezed through it
I kept trying to figure out if "Xing" was a Chinese app or social media site I hadn't heard of -- only at the very end did I clock it as X-ing or crossing
Surprised by the negative responses! This puzzle was challenging in a good way — really fun to figure out and watch the letters fall into place. I thought for sure that I would need a lookup, but managed to get all of the unknown trivia thanks to the crossings. I sat with this one for almost an hour today, which is nearly twice my average time! I will agree that there was some weak clueing, though — the “lunged” one mentioned in the column being the most egregious.
Not my brain skipping straight to Medieval history for "Normandy" and wondering what William the Conqueror had to do with D-Day...
I listened to the Wicked soundtrack while solving this morning so Oz really through me off! I didn't catch the very important period in the clue
@Michael I always leave that first letter blank because I've spent too much time online and never know if it's going to be IMED, DMED, or PMED
@Bruce I believe it's "Get thee to a nunnery" but there is "Hie thee hither" in Macbeth!
@Andrew F I feel like that clue is wrong, though. Taylor's fanbase is largely in their 20s and 30s too
Confidently put in GRILLMASTERS with no crosses for the outdoor party toasters; it took me a while to give that one up
@Joe P I had LOON instead of SWAN so mine solved to OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW at first
@Zachary CROWING is a noun, too. See: gerunds
@Barry Ancona I didn’t need to look it up, and no TIRADES here, just noting an error in the blog
@Wspd 90s kid here, grew up on Ricearoni, so not really obscure
I’ve never heard of hair being “teased up” just “teased”
@Jerry “ I often wonder how many young people find solace in solving a good crossword puzzle.” What an exceptionally weird take
I tried to put "TOYATATHON" for the [beginning of Taurus season] :D
very rude for CORPORATE SPIES to fit in 48A (without the rebus)
A really fun puzzle to suss out! That is until the triple crossing of PANANG, GSIX, and KASBAH did me in
@Oikofuge Laura Ingalls Wilder's books were an integral part of my childhood and I still got caught off guard by "the" prairie!
PRELL is a little before my time so I thought of PERT for the green shampoo bottle! Alas, a letter short it is, as YODA would say.
Not me confidently typing FREUDIAN SLIPS for the revealer clue...
Fun puzzle, but I hear (or read) "chronically" online more often
The “tricky clue” for 38D [Philippics] doesn’t actually include the answer?
I felt real fancy with COTERIES for party people, only for it to be much simpler
I'm proud of myself today for getting the "SANTA SUIT" pun with very few crosses. Also, I find it very hard to believe "PLAY ACTION" is a compelling enough phrase to warrant a duplicate word
The real "bending" in this puzzle that's frustrating is the *medium* bending...it seems like the constructor couldn't decide between books and film when setting the puzzle theme.
@J.K. Yes, I think "oppa" is more recognizable going back to Gangnam Style and now the more recent popularity of K-Pop and K-Dramas
@Dakota oh please. I am 35 and was able to fill the whole puzzle easily despite having no idea the two top names
"TEC" is also used in the comics world, as shorthand for "Detective Comics" in which Batman stars :)
I understand the complaints about ESPIAL but I didn't even notice it because it filled in easily from the crosses...
I knew SAPIOSEXUAL immediately...I spent too much time on tumblr back in the day
I've never in my life heard PAREN but an otherwise fun puzzle. I believe we've had RE[STAR]EA recently so that's what tipped me off and assured me I wasn't crazy for thinking M*A*S*H was the most viewed television episode
@Elon Miss Marple is hardly obscure but I agree with the rest of the muddiness!
@Mean Old Lady I went to school in the 90s/2000s and we had normal calculators in elementary school and then in high school some classes used scientific calculators that had displays like the one in the puzzle. However I do have vivid memories of passing detailed notes back and forth in geometry class using the graphing calculators you mentioned!
Oof I didn’t like this puzzle at all. FAUX NAÏF was a stretch, PIT STAINS was gross, and now we have to know lyrics from random rappers?
@Nic Clark Kent vs Superman as the alter ego is a topic of much debate in the DC fandom!
@The X-Phile even within the context of the Big 12, there are also the ASU (Arizona State) Wildcats
@The X-Phile from Merriam Webster: US slang : a dim-witted, silly, or foolish person —often used in a joking or friendly way
@SBK I saw "shoot" first and thought the theme would be plants! I was a tad disappointed because it would be a fun spring puzzle
I thought TANGENT crossing with GENT was a little lazy and uninspired