Brian
Philadelphia
101
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Philadelphia
Remembering AGLET instantly from a previous crossword makes me feel like my vocabulary really is improving
Did I like this puzzle? Initially - heck NO Halfway through - still NO By the end - definitely YES A hallmark ride of a clever fun puzzle (for me at least)
@Beth I’ll be honest, I did not know this. Thanks for the education. Just another reason I always scroll the comments after finishing the puzzle. Never know what you’ll learn!
Can we find more ways to insert ASP into the puzzle? SI SE PUEDE!
Couldn't get anything in the top half on my first pass through and thought I'd have to turn auto check on. Then a lot of the bottom half started coming together. After a a slog through the NW, what do you know, I finished my first ever Friday with zero lookups! I'll take the little victories these days.
I should have my parenting license revoked by not getting BLUEY right away.
@bill count me as one adult who enjoyed it. I did not see it as a “trick” but more so clever wordplay, which is what crosswords essentially are. To each their own.
So close, but filled in CROPCIRCLE off the bat, which later threw me off course. Couldn’t quite get AUTOMAKER or TROJANHORSE until the very end but enjoyed those clues in retrospect. Feels like I’m finally improving my solving abilities at least.
Loved the FBOMB and CAMERASHY clues for a Monday. Speaking of APT names, I once knew a gynecologist by the name of Dr. Harry Beaver. Not sure if that was their real name. Apologies for the early week potty humor as I can't help but think of it every time the apt clue pops up.
The perfect crunch for me. Really enjoyed chipping away at this one until it finally all clicked. No KINDA SORTA MAYBE. This was definitely an awesome puzzle.
I found it amusing that Sam said ELPHABA was a gimme when that part of the puzzle stumped me the most. The SALATA, PROST, and NOHOW crossings were not in my repertoire either. Still a good puzzle and I liked the theme.
Worked hard for the star this morning. Gonna need a nap now
Fantastic puzzle Adrianne. I hope you continue making more crosswords for us and in memory of Arjun.
@JohnWM it's embarrassing that I first put CHICKEN for Popeye's 🤦
So much fun. I didn’t actually figure out the full trick until near the end of my solve. My thought was the spin word just needed to be unscrambled since COMICS works on its own. Then talked myself into BRIEFSUM and even ZAGATRY. It was only with EMPTYSP and WHYD that I made the bridging connection. Wonderful! Don’t get me started with lychees and litchis though, lol
I liked this puzzle until I didn't. The downturn was NOODLE BOWL for Japanese menu item, which is like saying MEATBALL for an Italian dish. I was also looking forward to finding out the second layer of the theme that I always miss, but the Wordplay explanation didn't really make sense to me either.
@Nancy Sculerati MD Besides the horrible and inaccurate generalization, why do you need to air this on a crossword comment board? This isn’t the place.
I love figuring out the theme and then going back to see the hidden layers. I didn't even realize the raised T's as I thought T's Up just meant to remove them. Then reading they were the only T's in the puzzle is chef's kiss. Bravo. Let's not talk about the NE corner though!
@Bruce Catcher in the Rye is probably my favorite book yet I only got ESME through crosses. Although now I know where my friend's cat probably got her name from. Hilarious last paragraph btw, haha
POINT OF NO RETURN? proves that even Mondays can have great clues. That said, I have a small gripe when almost the same clue/answer is used on back to back days like TRIO with ZZ Top. Or maybe that was Saturday. It’s a long weekend (at last) in the US so forgive my scattered sense of time. Same gripe with repeating more obscure answers like NERDALERT in the same week.
My only gripe is there were only 4 nested clues. I was excited to do more once I figured out the pattern. Fun puzzle overall.
I love the puzzles within clues like MANDARIN. Couldn’t quite think of it without any crosses but sure had fun trying.
The top middle took me twice as long as the rest of the puzzle. ETUDE, SICEM, INGENUE, SEURAT, yikes
Sundays are my favorite but could barely answer half of this one. Just wasn't my day today.
Fun theme and a perfect Wednesday difficulty. Just a small gripe with time WAS, which felt ambiguous to me.
Tough Weds even without the cereal names. Enough with the REOs, feel like they’re in every other puzzle now
Loved the puzzle. My wife has always known cotton candy as fairy floss. Once my daughter found out that alternative name, it instantly became her favorite carnival/stadium snack.
I filled in INAILEDIT on the crosses and kept looking it over thinking it was wrong. I literally smacked my head when I finally realized it was I NAILED IT. Oh the irony.
@Lynn I found myself nodding when reading the original comment, but now appreciate your perspective as well.
@Carla I just borrowed the story from my library after reading this comment
Add me to the NUEEN gang
Such a fun and clever puzzle. Icing on the cake that Miranda is from my city as well. Way to represent!
Top left stumped me for a whole but I eventually got there. Nice puzzle overall
@Jane Wheelaghan All of those are definitely USA-centric but perhaps not exclusively. The hash sign is called a pound sign here. Bae is slang for baby/babe. I admit I have never heard of clam as slang for dollar, and only got it with the crosses. Do not attempt to dine and dash! It means skipping out on the bill :)
@Shrike Jays fan and familiar with that channel but never watched the Stieb one. Can’t wait, thank you.
This was the perfect amount of crunchiness for my skill level. The fruit plural for DATES (correctly) tripped me up more than I’d like to admit.
Top and right sides stumped me. Sticking with MEDUSA was my undoing. I feel like every other day I tell myself to study up on Greek and Roman deities. Maybe I need to put it on a POST-IT.
@Elke I was stuck there for a while too because I was thinking AZ and not ARI has the other Cardinals. I was convinced SLIMED was right though. Glad you got through it!
That was a grind for me today! Not having any idea about Duck Soup and some other proper nouns made the middle section especially tough. Aside from that, I am so impressed by the youth of so many puzzle constructors. Bravo.
Understood the first two layers of ASYMMETRY, but only saw the A after the solve. What a lovely Tuesday treat.
That’s a new term for me. Found out the hard way it’s not called a SPOOF PRISM
Still don’t fully understand MATH TEAM and Day of Reckoning. Searched it briefly, is this a saying commonly associated with math competitions? Never heard it before.
@MA I knew NBAJAM right away as it was one of my favorite games as a kid. But ADJ(ective) really stumped me as I was convinced the clue was a reference to TLC and NBA Jam had a different name I didn’t know about! Very clever clue in hindsight.
@Steve congrats and I had a similar experience too. I love it when the puzzle starts coming together after looking so bleak at first
Today's puzzle just spoke to me. Omakase, Final Fantasy, 90s alt-rock, sci-fi, Canada... so many of my favorite things!
Disney and Shakespeare are two of my crossword and trivia Achilles heels. Dastardly to combine them! The puzzle was overall great though
Worked hard on this one and enjoyed slowly figuring out the theme. At first I thought it was a rhyming mechanism because the only time I had in full was ORDINARY with Jordan and the first half of STANDTRIAL with Iran. I wasn't familiar with those currencies so it wasn't until I saw WON with Korea that I solved the revealer. It made the remaining theme clues a lot of fun.
Fun puzzle that I found easier than yesterday’s. My duh moment of the puzzle was SHAQ. Great clue that had me thinking about Disney for too long.
Almost got it without lookups. Once I fixed SPREAD for SPARSE, the rest fell into place. Nice puzzle!