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Berlin
NOMEGUSTA. Nice and challenging at first but six (6) random phrases (including one in Spanish)? One or two of them might be fixed expressions, like IMATALOSS, but the rest are just random things people might say. Why is that even puzzle-worthy? Add in a bunch of stuff I've never heard of, some truly weird cluing (chicken feed vis à vis breastfeed??), and two entries where the clue and the answer are in different registers ("commencement" is formal English, GETGO is the opposite), and it takes the fun out of it for me. And then there's the just plain incorrect: HOG isn't keeping to oneself, it's keeping *for* oneself. Before others can pounce, let me point out this is strictly my own opinion. There were some worthwhile words and a few gems, like TSELIOT, but the questionable entries brought me down. SPIDERMAN almost saved the day but even he couldn't quite spin it.
@matthew CALMEX sounds like a drug you take for nervousness.
Let's not lose sight of the incredible construction job here. What a bunch of challenges they set for themselves and they succeeded beautifully. I also looked askance at the terms for women at first, thinking how the comment-o-sphere would set up a howl. And ta-da!! The constructors are both women! Young ones too, by the looks of things. I could whine that the puzzle is skewed decades too young for the likes of me, but this aging dame loved it. Great fun!
@Ben Blackwell Am I the only one here who liked it? I *want* the Sunday puzzle to take an hour to finish. I *like* literary references and scientific terms and fancy words I might never use. In fact, the Sunday used to be more like this. Themes are of no particular importance to me, though I concede those with a theme are more fun. But challenging my brain is also fun.
"Unfortunately, he was laid off recently ... " Is this a euphemism for "Fell victim to Trump's purge"?
@Jannicut, thanks for your excellent point. And as Cokie Roberts of NPR once pointed out, men didn't *grant* women the right to vote. We had that right as citizens. They just finally acknowledged it and made it into law.
@Jake G We love Mike! We love Mike!
@Mikey Parmar Let's not pile on Mikey too hard here. Lots of people criticize the puzzles. But scientific knowledge is indeed different from word skill, as some have pointed out. For example, the latter would involve not using "me" as the subject of a sentence.
One of those rare ones where the constructor's skill is impressive AND the puzzle is fun! I think the name SIXTUS stopped at five popes because no one could get their mouths around Pope Sixtus the Sixth.
Not my fave. The gimmick was clever enough but we paid the price with no fewer than four brand names, six TV shows or actors, one car reference, at least three "words" that could be spelled several different ways along with one more that admitted it wasn't normal (the dreaded "alternate spelling" of the old days -- guess I brought it myself on by mentioning it the other day), and a good few Naticks. Oh, and one wordplay clue lacking the requisite question mark. Didn't finish and didn't care.
Due to mistakenly typing a Z in the first square for 66A, I was all ready to answer "breakout group" with ZITS. Future constructors, you may have that clue if you like.
@dutchiris I loved it too. I can't understand what all the whining is about. Best of all, it wasn't filled with pop stars, sports teams and car makes I've never heard of. Many of the words and clues were, dare I say, intelligent. For those complaining that the clues are too difficult, that's the whole point of late-week puzzles. It's what makes it fun for those of us who like a challenge.
@Deb Amlen: Loved your David Attenborough version! I can hear him saying it. (Sotto voice of course, so as not to startle the predator.)
Just when I'm thinking the puzzle caters to younger people, up come Li'l Abner and Henny Youngman, woo-hoo!
One of my favorite clues ever was for NOAH. And I was so busy assuming this would be yet another pop culture icon I didn't know that I didn't even think of it at first. Joke's on me! And thanks for the nice German clues, Herr Juhnke. ;)
More made-up entries than in any puzzle I've seen. Does anyone actually say HEYANYBODY? Is BESTADVICE even a thing? YOU'VE is not a particularly natural entry to "changed". BUTI is too lame even for fill. It's more like the answers were dreamed up to suit the clues than the other way around. And to surmount something doesn't mean to RESTON it. That's what you do after you have surmounted it. I avoided putting that in for the longest time because I knew it simply wasn't correct. Didnt finish and am not the least bit bothered by that.
@Francis My sentiments exactly. I continue to wonder what the big deal is about solving times, and why one could possibly want to do the puzzle quickly. For me it's all about the enjoyment of letting it challenge me for a good long time. And agreed about the welcome distraction ...
@Andrzej SBK's post was not aimed at you and has nothing to do with you. I find your post shockingly egocentric.
@Steve L Quickly? Oh, you men ...
@Paul I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's a US-American puzzle in a US-American newspaper, very probably constructed by US-Americans. I don't think anyone is trying to be US-centric as such, it's just the territory.
I found this puzzle pretty hard but I like hard puzzles. I think it's important to distinguish the puzzle's value from the day on which it ran. I concur with the many who felt it was too hard for a Tuesday but that doesn't reflect on the quality of the puzzle itself.
@SP Also called cosy mysteries because they're big in Britain, which is where I first heard of them. As with Agatha Christie, you get a puzzle, a mystery, an intriguing story, hidden rooms and long-buried family secrets, without the gore, graphic sex and swear words. Give me a cup of tea with a nice clean poison in it any old day. Or a pearl-handled revolver, provided it doesn't make a mess.
@acjones How do you know this about *nobody*? It would drive me batty to try to work a puzzle with music playing.
@Mike Your puns add a spark to my mornings.
Let's have more from this constrctor! Nice puzzle, hard at first and then less so, with fun, intelligent cluing and no junk. And just two random phrases, both of which solved to quite standard sayings, and only one comedian I didn't know 😊
@Ben Smith I can totally understand that. The only to know it is through experience. To me, the challenge of figuring out what's afoot is part of the fun. As is often stated in the accompanying article, these kinds of puzzles tend to run on Thursdays, with easier trickery or wordplay on Sundays. I can still remember a brilliant Sunday puzzle back in the '80s in which the long Across answers were all entered backwards. I banged my head against the wall trying to figure out why nothing worked, but I was overjoyed when I finally got it. That was my introduction to tricky puzzles!
@Francis If I had been one of those female humans in high school with you, I would have gone out with you just for your sense of humor.
@Sam Corbin, It's a shame we Americans have such a terrible reputation about geography (to say nothing of world history and a lot else). When I was a child in the 1960s, I got a birthday present of a US map as an inlaid puzzle. Each piece was an individual state (except for the very small adjacent ones fused together), so I got the tactile as well as the visual input as to the shape of each one. I loved playing with it, seeing the state nickname and flower on each piece, figuring out where it went and wondering about what to me were exotic western states like Wyoming and Nevada, places I couldn't imagine ever going to. Simple as it was, it was one of the best learning tools I can remember. To this day I can fill in all 50 states on a blank map. Highly recommended for kids or even adults. I hated geography in school and now I find it fascinating. (Travel helped too.) There are great online versions today, like this one: <a href="https://world-geography-games.com" target="_blank">https://world-geography-games.com</a>
STEAMYIRONY alone was worth the price of admission.
Loved this puzzle but for one tiny nit: 44D is the second number on a MEN's pants tag. Women's pants (trousers for you BE speakers) are not sized in this useful way. The only way I know anything about it at all is that my mother was a seamstress, and I worked in the menswear department downtown when I was a mere slip of girl. (Why they put me in men's I'll never know, but I wound up liking it almost as much as domestics, housewares, and the switchboard.) Otherwise a perfect Wednesday! Not too loose, not too tight and the clues were fun.
@Caitlin It's a good thing you qualified "*most* of our lifetimes" as being post-1980s or I would have said, "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Caitlin?" There are quite a few of us out here creaky enough to have GREER be a gimme. So here's a dad joke from my childhood, only I told it *to* my dad. (Important to note here, circa 1964.) "Daddy, what do you get when you put your finger in the president's ear?" Answer: "Johnson's Wax!" Only my dad had a dry wit. To my question, he said, "Hm ... 30 days?"
@Lauren I beg to differ. The great Duke Ellington classic SATIN Doll is not trivia. Neither was the tennis legend Arthur ASHE.
@Sam Lyons I'm with you on the books. We could also use more history, science, geography, zoology for that matter -- animals are fun! -- former presidents, justly famous historical figures, works of art. Stuff worth knowing. Sooo often answers are clued using TV or movie references when there are so many better ways. It does feel like unnecessary dumbing down.
For someone who has never watched an Oprah show in her life and couldn't care less who her best friend is, this kind of clue is absolutely silly.
Car makes, video games, snack brands, film actors, TV personalities, TV catchphrases, sport figures, text messages, fashion brands, fast food, and the obligatory drug reference. And we wonder where American education has gone. Even Beowulf couldn't save the day.
@Brent I can see your point, but once you've done the puzzle for a long time and encountered other such tricks (typically on Thursdays), you have the experience to figure it out on your own.
Loved it. Clever cluing and no junk, just right for a Tuesday. I didn't roll my eyes even once.
@Ronnie I am among the people being made fun of and I'm laughing with appreciation.
Loved it! At last a Saturday that took me an hour and 20 minutes like it should!
@Ιασων et. al. It's an American newspaper published in America for a largely American readership. Censorship these days is generally understood as coming from a government. The NYT has no obligation to publish any individual's views nor to give any individual a platform on which to expess those views.
If only we had listened to Al Gore ...
@sotto voce And then there's the hidden, if not identical, reference to the puzzle's theme in the song itself, TAKEONME/TAKEMEON.
@Lauren That's the point of a Friday puzzle.
@Patrick J. Sure, anyone can google. But some of us purists do it only as a last resort.
@Ιασων AMANDA Gorman is the youngest-ever inaugural poet. She recited her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration of President Joe Biden. It's well worth reading.
Beautiful job. Nice and clean, fun cluing, no junk. My only regret is that it was over too soon. Do come back and see us again!
@Petrol Thank you, that's really interesting. And the clue for TURBAN had me going. I was stuck on the dreaded MANBUN and couldn't get it to work!
@Mike, you're a rare gem. [Emus got my previous post]
@Eric Hougland This was the first I'd learned that a Ponzi scheme was a viable investment. Oh ... wait ... How nice to see an intelligent puzzle again! Took me a good long time to finish it and I'm glad it did.
@Mike Poor Mike! Deb nearly stole your thunder today.