Steve
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Even though I've not heard the term "tuxedo cat" before, I'm still a bit ashamed that my last clue to be solved was OREO!
I can reassure Sam that a lot of her foreign solvership will be aware of the Grand Canyon, that Alaska's in the north and Georgia's always on my mind. Philadelphia-based snack brands not so much...
Yay, my first golden month To quote one of yesterday's: "Go, me!"
@Shrike "obnoxious" - extremely unpleasant - seems a little strong A bit silly, maybe, bit I enjoyed it.
One of those puzzles where I gave up in despair 1/3 of the way through, picked it up a few hours later and whizzed through it. Subconsciouses are amazing.
@Kim GEENA's always a gimme for me - but only after I've put in Bette and found that it's wrong again
WOW, that was hard work, very few have taken me over the hour. And while it might allegedly be a thing, if anyone sends me a mail with "Nice to e-meet you", they're on a one-way ticket to the Junk folder
@William James I've thought of posting before that there is nothing more pleasurable after spending 50 minutes struggling than seeing comments saying "Too easy"
@Mohammed K. It'll be the Calcium Oxide lime rather than the fruit, so no
Managed to scupper myself in all 4 corners but got there in the end Chaos for HAVOC Pretzels for STRUDELS Open top for TOPLESS and one I still think is right (!) Postnup for BACKPAY
@Andrzej Agree that the trivia was way too obscure for those outside the US. This turned into one of my quickest finishes as I felt entitled to Google so many entries. I didn't even recognise the BREXIT date, like, I expect, 99% of the population despite that wasting 7 years of our lives.
@Dave S Coins that you shake and throw that leads you to a section of the Chinese Book of the I Ching that is meant to provide guidance for your future actions
@Grumpy Aromantic (aro) is an umbrella term that describes people who typically don't experience romantic attraction Google aro queer if you want to learn more
Congrats to anyone non-US who solved 8D from the clue rather than three crosses or just Googling (and that wasn't straightforward!) ... but I might not believe you.
@Vaer I wonder if the NYT would consider prototyping a new puzzle version where if you typed THATDALIONEWITHTHEMELTINGCLOCKS then AI would kick in, say, "Yeah, he's got the gist" and fill in the answer
@john ezra Reminds me of the time I tried to order a beer in a cafe and was presented with a postage stamp. Of course, I thanked, paid and left. I've found everywhere else in France lovely and forgiving when I've butchered their language but not Paris.
Enjoyable journey from opening up and thinking that looks a rather vanilla grid for a Thursday. From the first pass across, thinking HEH, it's the NYT, that should be eelier, to the pass down where ELLIE revealed the rebus and, oh, it is indeed EELIER. From being about to look up the spelling of Rorscarch (sp) only for POLYGRAPH to suddenly spring out. From the rashin' and a fashin' a la Muttley for the crossing of a purely US-centric organisation and a Kardashian to ooh, another rebus. From realising that the hyphens included the SPIKEd LIEs so it wasn't my reluctant Wholesale but WHILESUPPLIESLAST (we say While Stocks last over here) To the final fill of what sort of damnfool word is INOT to ah, of course, IN OT Good fun.
@Steve L Ah, but if I come into the clubhouse exhausted after a 100-shot mauling and Tiger Woods comes up to me and says, "Found it rather easy, actually", he's not going to get a good reception...
@Erma No, it's because T Rex were a glam rock band from the early 70s
I'm guessing that some days the Tricky Clues column is more difficult to write than others... .
@Wilson Anyone ever? William Shakespeare (Macbeth) Ever in my life? No
Hmm, ICHOR was a gimme while my last fill was KAMALA. Maybe I should read the actual newspaper a bit more...
@Steven M. If there's one thing I've learned from the NYT. it's that SEGO is the state flower of Utah.
When I finished without the music, I had so many questionable answers, realised the pleasure of getting gold rather than blue wouldn't match the slog required and hit check puzzle. Turned out to be two areas so glad I did
@Turing Yes, completely incorrect. Also an absolute gimme
@Fact Boy Filled it in without a second thought as 40, 50 years ago I was helping my Dad with the Daily Telegraph crossword and asked who on earth would know what an Icelandic saga was. "EDDA", he said, looking at me as if I was an idiot...
@Shrike I think Deborah Kerr will have been an absolute gimme for just as many. Whereas I haven't heard of NPR let alone Ari Shapiro. The last man who knew everything died in 1829...
I accept that "near" is subjective but, according to Google, I'm the same order of magnitude distance away from the North Pole as Siberia and I would describe my proximity to it as "nowhere near". Bah humbug, merry Christmas one and all.
@Steven M. NENE is one of those words that I only discovered from the crossword and now fill in without a thought. Coincidentally, there were two others today with ERNO Rubik and Coeur d'ALENE
My crossword nous short-circuited today when faced with a place-name _A_U and went for Baku
Wasn't helped by first thinking that the x's were specks on my phone. Nor that ["Same"] which I always think should be ditto but then always turns out to be asami now has cousin ASDOI Lot of cultural references had me googling like a loon but got it done in just over an hour in 3 stints. No complaints! (except, of course, it's maths not math...)
@Khabib Nurmagomedov I expect she's used to it! .
@Andrzej Aren't they embassy staff forging relationships between the two countries? Or perhaps they're just spies.
I claim the prize for being the first to be slower than yesterday. Too many beans and noodles and I don't see why swatting a fly is sacrificing it
From a word I'd not even encountered a month ago, SCADS is fast becoming as much of an automatic fill-in as OBOE and EPEE.
Wonder if it'd be useful to have a "Tricky Clues for Foreigners" in the Wordplay column? I had DOGMASTER for way too long...
@Francis Yes, that's exactly how it works. Before he was knighted, Paul McCartney had been awarded the lower MBE and every time he met Leona Lewis he had to bow and pay her homage
@NYC Traveler If they didn't get this one, they were probably fibbing about the other 999. .
@Lidia To give someone or a team a pasting wouldn't be an unusual expression over here Someone pasted me or I received a paste would.
@DeaconClues I had FAKEPAN as I took Bundt as bunt and thought it was a baseball term Also guessing that Murse must mean Monday in some language hence MONTAG, didn't help much either
@B So are you saying that trivia shouldn't be based on popular works of fiction or that it should be more highbrow like Bach or Turner & Hooch?
@Haim Wright Well, that's your opinion so fine with that. Why anyone would recommend it is what amazes me
@Rich in Atlanta LOL, I thought the answer was parsed as ONE G, and the US use a different naming convention for blood types! What a BritNitWit...
@Adam Smith Since the dawn of time... ...or since when the movies didn't want to imagine Tolkien's fictional characters having sex in Lord of the Rings.
I wonder if 0.5 or 1/2 were acceptable ways of entering the rebus to cater for those who like some numbers in their puzzle... .
@Kevin Shannon Sudan's also valid. As Roy Walker would have said "It's good but it's not right"
@DocP I think the 60s got there first... Or has Shatner been cancelled for some reason?
@Steven M. Over here, learning French is (maybe was) a compulsory subject. OISEAU would have been learned in the first month.
@Mark Cousins ... and being an archer just means you can pick up a bow and arrow, it doesn't mean you're any good at it.