David

Just love these clues: Romanian city that becomes an Ethiopian entree if you swap the third and ninth letters while standing on your head and performing a Nicaraguan dance with your left hand.

"106D Alternative to truth" From the cross, I see that it starts with a D. But no matter how many times I try writing in "-onald," there don't seem to be enough boxes. :-(

As one who sometimes struggles to "get it," I'd like to suggest a little more compassion for the unfairly labeled "haters" here. Those of you who are so pleased with the constructor, the constructor, and the cleverness of the puzzle might just be pleased for the simple fact that you got it; whether you lucked into it, figured it out, or came to solve the puzzle in some other way, the fact remains that you're (deservedly) proud of yourselves and pleased. Good for you. Really. But you might have a little more compassion for those of us who come here to enjoy some time on a Sunday and don't get it. We work at it, we struggle with it, and it's increasingly frustrating. Instead of enjoyment and entertainment, we get frustrated, upset, and don't have a good time. And some post things they don't mean. That doesn't make them/us "haters"--a word I think is unfair. We are not all equally smart, equally clever, equally wise, or equally good at this game. But we ALL come here for enjoyment. Those of you who are smart or clever enough to solve the puzzle are pleased. Rightly so. But those of us who keep struggling and struggling get understandably frustrated. None of us are at our best when we're frustrated. But instead of calling us "haters," you might remember that there was (likely) a time when you struggled too. When you couldn't solve the puzzle. And have a little compassion. That doesn't excuse the nasty, uncalled-for language but a little understanding might help.

Why have crossword puzzles become less and less about words and more about ostensibly clever gimmicks? Decades of solvers were happily challenged by constructors who managed to find ways to create puzzles that were crossword puzzles. These days, puzzles are more often about gimmicks and less about the words, especially later in the week. Yes, there are still "old-fashioned" puzzles that are intrinsically challenging, but far more often constructors seem to rely on gimmicks that contribute little to the pleasure of solving the puzzle.

I get it. But no thanks. I guess I'm too old-fashioned. Straightforward crosswords for me. If I want games, I look elsewhere. I don't and won't detract from the, um, cleverness of the construction but it's not a crossword puzzle to me. I'd rather work hard on tough (and clever) cluing than games.

A big meh for me; despite a great solve time, this just struck me as the perfect illustration of "just because you can doesn't mean you should." YMMV

Mochi is described many ways but it is NOT a "rice cake" A dessert, a confection, conceivably even a rice ball (though that term properly applies to other things like onigiri) but it is not a cake. Just sayin'

The solution to the clue describing the "path of a baseball popup" is, in fact, true for any baseball hit. ANY hit. Jus' sayin'...

Many thanks to A.O. Scott for a truly wonderful introduction to today's puzzle. A real gem!

@Caitlin You explanation of the rules of Pig Latin, while admirably concise, also sacrifices accuracy for concision. It is not merely a matter of moving an initial consonant. Were that the case, the word "that" would have to be rendered "hattay." It's "atthay," though. Same with "phone." It's "onephay," not "honepay." If the initial two consonants form a digraph, both consonants have to be moved to the end of the word. At least that's how we spoke Pig Latin in my neck of the woods.

One doesn't "take" a shot as this clue would have it; one "gets" a shot. A bit of a reach.

Wow! "Cactus Jack" Garner. Now THERE is a piece of trivia I never expected to come in handy in this lifetime!

Pedant here! An arraignment is not a "call to court." It is a (first) reading of the charges to the defendant.

Other than as (arguable) misdirection, I do not understand the need for an exclamation point for the clue "Stay there."

I have never seen MLADY. I've seen MILADY and even M'LADY with an apostrophe. But then I'm sure I'll be overruled.

Just curious: does the NYT (which probably knows what I had for breakfast and who was at the table besides me) collect data on how many people start the puzzle and then don't bother to finish? I imagine so. But even more important: having that information, what does it do with it?

I'm just curious. The other game I regularly play is Spelling Bee where it is actually forbidden to list solutions (acceptable words) in the comments. Here, that is emphatically not the case...something I routinely forget. I am always pleased that I can review comments in Spelling Bee before tackling that puzzle without running across something that would "help" me but I often start to read the comments here only to run into frequent posts listing solutions. Anyone have any idea why it's permissible to list solutions here? (Lest there be any confusion, this is NOT a complaint or a rhetorical question.) Thanks.

SAYST? I must confess that I prefer puzzles in which the solutions (assuming that the solution is a "real" word as opposed to a rapper's name or a lipstick brand or Greenlandic slang) are actually words to be found in the dictionary.

I hate to be picky...but I will. The adobo that I happoen to be most familiar with--that used in Filipino cooking--does not have chili peppers at all. Yes, I recognize that some adobos do, but a qualifier here, such "sometimes" or even "often" would recognize that the ingredients for this particular item can and do vary enormously.

Never once in a long life seen CASSAVA spelled with a single 's.' Presumably a variant used solely by crossword constructors.

Okay, I'm completely baffled. I've looked up the definition in case I misunderstood the word, but it confirmed my understanding. Would someone mind taking a moment and explaining to me how "SATED" is the answer to "kept hidden, as information." According to the dictionary, there are two meanings: "1: to cloy with overabundance : glut 2: to appease by indulging to the full" Nothing about being hidden. I've never heard of information being "sated" in any event. What am I not understanding?

[soapbox] ACK! What happened? Suddenly my puzzle is being completed in gray, which for my old eyes is more difficult than high-contrast black. And the damn cursor is suddenly unable to move to the next blank box, instead insisting on moving merely to the next word, whether I've filled it in or not. I've checked and unchecked every box in settings and nothing fixes either of these problems. [/soapbox]