Tom S.
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Phoenix
The VA is a resource for former service members. CJCREGG and RAPANUI are too obscure and right next to each other. No wonder they weren’t mentioned in the Wordplay column. I rarely complain, but this puzzle was not fair for any day of the week.
@Marshall Walthew The best pun I ever made was when I would not hand over the keyless entry device for the car to my son. I said, “Matthew, I am your fobber.”
@Hugh A reasonable rule for constructors should be, IMO, that a proper name as an answer should not be highly uncommon. NIECY fails that test - by a mile.
I had ROTTED crossing MOODSTONE. Did I discover a legitimate alternate solution?
@Patrick J. Actually many (smaller) firms run by partners who hold themselves out as CPAs offer “bookkeeping services.” And, did you know that bookkeeper and bookkeeping are the only English words with three consecutive double letters? (I am a senior staff member in the Department of of Pedantry.)
@Caitlin - Ford did not lose his party’s nomination in 1976. He lost the general election to Carter.
@K. H. Under a rock? I resent that. Growing up in the New York area as the child of immigrant parents, I grew to love opera and ballet. I dislike (putting it mildly) amplified music. That’s what radios are for, ELPHABA is new to me, and I’m proud of it.
@Ed I’m a baseball fan, but I could have done without Yelich. It’s obscure, uncommon and unedifying. I.e., classic proper noun glue. I’m also a tennis fan. ELISE is equally obscure and unedifying, but at least it’s common.
Excellent puzzle, despite the pop culture cross of BIEB and CARELL. Too much for this old stick in the mud.
@Steven M. “Spin serve” is a valid tennis term. Any serve that is not a “flat” serve is some sort of spin serve.
@Francis We all pay to play — with both money and our time. This is a place where some of us choose provide feedback as customers. There is nothing inappropriate about that. Perhaps this perspective will allow you to not take some of the comments so personally.
TPAIN? ADIA? NENE? Not a fan of the northeast. Otherwise, excellent and fun.
@Tom S. That said, this was the best Sunday puzzle in a long time.
@Beth All I can say is that the premise of your question is more than false. It is unfounded. You don’t know me. I am a retired professor and like to think of myself an eternal student. And what does “???” mean? I am glad to learn a new word, especially in a language that I have studied and use. That said, crosswords are supposed to be fun. I did not find getting a long word through 100% crosses to be fun.
@dutchiris I had to look up ROSA. It might have been a lost cause without that. Great Saturday puzzle!
@Andrzej The spelling in the clue is consistent with the rest of the newspaper. More accurately, it is a transliteration. For example, you will see “Swiatek” in the sports section. How would you suggest that the NYT present Russian, Arabic or Hebrew names?
This was my kind of puzzle: lots of wordplay, no rappers.
I ran MOLCAJETES through google translate and came up blank. Ergo, IMHO, too obscure. Filling a long word in with 100% crosses is a slog. FYI, I speak Spanish pretty well. And, not to flex, I finished in half my average time.
@Deb I’ll take “literary trivia” over rap/rock group trivia 24/7.
BABYGROOT crossing STAX is not fair.
@Susan Rodriguez I think the spelling in the puzzle is an anglicized version,of the German. A German would pronounce the “b” much harder — close to a “p” — than a speaker of English. Take my comment with a grain of salt. I’m not fluent in German, but my parents were born there.
@Ari C The Haggadah we used this year recounts the story of baby Moses through the tale of the burning bush.
No rap, rock, pop or Harry Potter clues. How refreshing! A little sports trivia would have been nice, though. :)
Cash bar at a wedding?
@Jake Common song form - ABA Former professional hoops league - ABA Lawyer’s group (abbreviation) - ABA
@Megan I spend my summers in Fort Collins. Also marched in college (Cornell). My wife was in the first class of Computer Science majors at CSU.
@Andrzej I’m on your wavelength, which is a little bit off Deb’s. Moderately challenging, and no pop culture. A-minus from me. YMMV.
@Ed I had never heard of Geddy Lee until today, when a friend recommended I read his memoir. During the same conversation, I admitted to being a crossword addict. And, now, despite knowing nothing about rock music, I was able to recognize his name in youth e Wordplay column. Amazing.
@Marshall Walthew Don’t ask @Chris. Apparently all he needed to know to dismiss it was the title.
@Julie IMHO, just right for a Saturday. About 20% above my average time. To Caitlin: please tell me why you think a puzzle with CRAPPER as one of the answers is “erudite”? :)
ADAM SILVER was my toehold. No chance without him. Great puzzle.
@Scott An owner doesn’t have to be a person. It could be another kind of legal entity, e.g., corporation or partnership. Perhaps the first corporate owner of a major sports franchise was CBS in the 1960s.
@Puzzled To the synonyms for eating fast, I would add “inhale.”
@Fred I’ll be more frank: Star Trek? Are you kidding me? What a waste of time!
I would have preferred a reference to two ELIS who actually were admitted on the basis of merit - instead of just one.
@Marshall Walthew I listened to JS on WOR in the 60s. In bed, on my transistor radio with an earpiece to keep my parents from knowing I was still awake. A treasured memory.
@SBK Think Aida. Second act finale.
Critical typo in the Wordplay column: Either the first or last word of the Greek example of a palindrome is misspelled.
I speak enough German to get LIED without any crosses. But I’d like to know if this is a common enough foreign word to be fair game for a sword puzzle?
@Aaron I live for opera and sports clues. Pop culture, especially rappers can be my downfall without a lot of help from the crosses.
AREPA? Obscure, and especially since it’s non-English, pretty weak. (BTW, I am pretty proficient in Spanish, but I don’t speak Colombian cuisine at all.)
The link to the obit of Elvis was worth the price of the puzzle.
@Kroobey I’m slightly younger than you. Now that the puzzles are a separate subscription service, there is clearly a target market — and it ain’t us no more. That said, I got the Segovia clue without any crosses.
SULA and NELLA are not fair, no matter the crosses.
@Joya I’d say there is a difference between “girl friend” (AMIGA) and “girlfriend” (NOVIA).
@Mike John Oliver. Just saying. 😁
@SP I’m not a fan of movie clues. But, the theme was so cute I forgive the (rookie) constructor.
@Elizabeth Connors AMIRITE is out of bounds IMHO.
@Roberta Most especially LILNAS.