John

@Heidi I’ve been doing these for decades. I’m not suddenly getting better in my impending old age. They’re easier. Like many others, I don’t like that. This paper generally gives me less and less reason to read it, but I’ve been holding on to the puzzles. I’d hate to stop, but…

@Yael You mean the one you’re imagining? 😊

@Brian In contrast to your N of 1, xwstats has thousands of users. The puzzles are easier.

@cfmoore Yeah, a noticeable number…and fairly obscure to boot. Not entertaining.

@Steve L No, the Triborough is the bridge, just like the Tappan Zee.

@SBK No, it’s for when the score uses the same staff for two players, indicating that both should play it. A not uncommon answer, it strikes me.

@Brunsworks Agreed. But the one that gets me use of transliteration in 19A. That’s the process of rewriting a word from one writing system in another. Zhu and Tso are both already in the same alphabet. Each is a transliteration of the same original, but they’re not transliterated forms of each other. The loom clue is also a bit iffy for me. Probably within crossword limits, but you don’t really organize threads on a loom.

@Francis Zee was my last as well. I agree with @Andrejz. But sad trombone is perhaps even lazier. Frankly all the sound clues are lazy: often tough to guess because there are alternatives you can’t possibly distinguish between, so they offer the illusion of challenge, or better, a challenge that is met with the roll of the dice.

@Dave K. Recently popularized(?) by Liz Lemon on 30 Rock.

@Neil Bellinson What you post doesn’t even include the word subject. It was a bad clue.

@Barry Ancona Please. I’ve never read, much less heard, espial that I can remember. Completely new word to me.

@Vaer Yeah, the difficulty was like a Wednesday or themeless Thursday. That said, really bad language in the clue for 56A. The value of something isn’t worthless, the thing is. The value is zero or low. So “made gold almost worthless” should have been it.

@Andrzej I’ll once again note that the editors surely have access to compilation times and could easily tell us, if they so desired, what the average completion time was, what the standard deviation was, and so on. Yet they don’t. Want to know exactly how guesses were distributed in Connections? No problem. Want to see how many people guessed the right word on attempt #3 in Wordle? Here you go. Want a poorly constructed UI for your personal crossword completion times? Done.

@Nick I already posted about this, but “it’s wrong but understandable” is hardly acceptable for a clue.

@Caitie I keep saying this. They have the data. They release it for other puzzles. Why not the crossword?

@Felix Things you shout out, from various contexts.

@Francis This calculation is a little off. A basketball is 7.5 liters. The density of gold is 19.3 g/cc or 19.3 kg/liter. So a basketball of gold weighs 144 kg and you’d need 7 of them to make a (metric) ton, not 2. Indy’s idol was how big? 30x20x10? That’s 600cc or 0.6 liters for a weight of 11kg or 25 pounds, so yeah, kind of heavy for what he does with it. Even if it were half that size, it’d still be pretty hefty for what he does. More obviously though, he replaces it with a sandbag of slightly smaller volume, so no way it has the same weight. :-)

@Dan Yeah, brah is very California surfer dude and not having even a hint of that in the clue is poor form. In fact homie is basically a misdirect because those terms come from very different social contexts.

@Greg Anderson Agreed. Usually the app takes either letter or both, no? Today it needed one specific one.

@Andrzej Me too. Weak cluing, I think. Eggshell isn’t a kind of sheen, it’s the finish that gives a sheen, unlike, say, matte that has no sheen.

@Nora It’s almost never needed in the way it gets used.

@Andrzej I put this in the annoying category, along with all the Grimms’ fairy tales for which the answer always relies on Disney movies.

@Michael Goho Merry Christmas right back! I was hoping for something to keep me busy while the (adult) kids slept in. Oh, well.

@Brian I assume it’s a stool pigeon.

@Michael Very disappointing. Monday/Tuesday difficulty. Overall time was Wednesday range. I didn’t even glance at the theme. Nothing clever or obscure. Really poor job by the editors here.

@Alexis Will, we used to have two-dollar notes. They’re out of print, but technically still in circulation. Seems more like a Canadian clue with their loonies and two-nies.

@Weak Saw the city clue and guessed the theme right away. Sad.

@Christine Sites like xwstats provide the data, which the Times won’t for some reason, so we know they’re getting easier. It’s not an impression. At the end of this week of easier puzzles, for example, we have this Sunday where 72% of users of that site report faster than average times.

@Ιασων That was exactly my thought actually! Also strong agree about gene set. Ugh.

@Barry Ancona Only just under my Friday average for me. If only there were some way for the people with all the completion data to share it with us…

@Divs Thats just a plain ol’ Natick, not just for you. :-)

@el Yes, as usual the puzzles seems to be constructed by people whose accents are far from that of the city in which the paper is published.

@Heidi It’s the editors. Seems like we get some words that appear in relatively short spans of time and then go away again. Poor performance on their part, IMO.

@Barry Ancona Or maybe just no Monday themes? As usual though, I ignored the theme. No point slowing down to suss it out. Personally it was close to a PR for me, so I’d wish for a little more challenge in place of theme.

@SP Very easy clueing today, I thought. I had to use the theme to get the last two squares, but that was it. Disappointing Thursday.

@Michael Regardless they are surely large-toothed and not large toothed whales, being rather diminutive for the category.

@coloradoz Ok, but both brands are pretty old.

@Matt Opposite of insipid, of course.

@Stephen Slightly slower than my Wednesday average.

@jennie Its basic meaning is to land, so you can alight from a vehicle that is elevated, like a bus or a plane. Not my favorite clue.

@SP Speak for yourself. I would absolutely use the correct plural. Why wouldn’t I? This is just a bad answer.

@Daniel This is a pathetic error. Easily checked. A first-semester student could tell you it’s wrong. Just infuriating.

@Marshall Walthew Betting zero when you think you won’t know the answer is also common, though not common enough. Jeopardy betting is remarkably poor, given how much the contestants train.