Aaron
Iowa
138
Comments
0.255
Avg Sentiment
53
Positive
58
Neutral
27
Negative
Iowa
Never heard of RAGBAG. Started with RAGtAG, but fortunately the error was obvious from the cross.
I'm too old for yet another playground retort.
Got my 1,000 day streak on this puzzle, and what a good one to use as a reference point to reflect on how much I've improved at solving these things during that time!
@Jamie Didn't do any research, but I suspect most definitions of puzzle would include something about challenging your skill or ability, so seems odd to hate a puzzle which does exactly what a puzzle is designed to do.
Long time since I was so far off the constructor's/editor's wavelength. Nothing easy about this one for me, but made it through.
Me seeing UNDIERUNS: I'm so glad my kids have outgrown the phase where I dread seeing those streaks in while preparing the laundry. Maybe someday they'll have to deal with my undie runs. Also, that's really kind of a gross clue/answer for the NYT crossword. Surprised they went with it. Am missing something ...spends way to much time thinking about it... Oh, wait. That's not at all what it means. Ha, it's actually kind of funny.
Wow, what a puzzle. I started doing the NYT crossword in 2021 and, in addition to keeping up with the new daily puzzles, have been working backwards through the archive. I got to a point in 2015 when I felt like the difficulty level, especially of Fridays and Saturdays, became consistently higher. This puzzle felt like one of those tough pre-2016 archived puzzles and I really enjoyed the challenge.
Opera strikes again. I was convinced the Puccini cross was 'lets lie' and it took me way too long to figure out my error even though Malama seemed off. Oh well... I guess opera is to me what sports were to a number of yesterday's commenters!
Today I realized that buck naked has the same number of letters as au naturel. Fittingly, 32D was the cross where my error became apparent.
Really struggled to connect with this one. The cluing just didn't do it for me.
@Francis Comparison is the thief of joy, maybe? Sometimes I think a puzzle is difficult, but then log in and see that there are a large numbers thinking it was easy. Naturally, I think, people will comment when they feel a puzzle was easier than when they struggle with it. But, often, if I reflect on my own accomplishment and not others' opinions, I feel satisfied with what I've done.
I don't really get the hate for this one. I guess if you haven't done one like this it could be frustrating, but once I realized there were letters missing around the edges I didn't find the fill overly difficult or obscure.
Filling in SnIT for [Small drama], crossed with a dish I'm not familiar with, slowed me down. I like SnIT better.
T__ _ell-deserved thumbs up from me.
@Paul Similar feeling here. It doesn't help that I don't take the extra step to get to the notes before solving, leaving me without a way to identify my error on MODEL A/t.
@Lpr 100% agree we all make our own rules!
@Steve L It's their third most streamed song on Spotify, after Riders on the Storm and People are Strange. I don't think your conclusion that it's know to only diehard fans of The Doors is correct.
@Megan Penn is in Philly. Two totally different schools.
@Tarun Krishnamurthy congrats on your puzzle!
@Steve L even if my mind had gone there, I wouldn't consider it the gutter! While I've never had to think about my cup size, I assume that for a large portion of the population it's just a normal thing.
I liked the theme and found the puzzle on the easier side, yet enjoyable.
To people who complain that puzzles are too easy, and to those who are bothered by this, here is some personal data with my thoughts on this topic. I started solving in 2021 and working back through the archives while also keeping up with current puzzles. During 2025 I've worked the 221 2025 puzzles, and 324 puzzles from 2012/13. Below is the daily percent improvement in time for 2025 vs 2012/13. I was completed these puzzles during the same timeframe, so this is not a matter of improved skill. I will allow that there are occasionally answers in the old puzzles are made more difficult because of the gap between the publish date and my completion date, but these aren't common and wouldn't move the numbers much. Monday: 12% Tuesday: 17% Wednesday: 21% Thursday: 29% Friday: 50% Saturday: 47% Sunday: 37% I believe those who want a more difficult puzzle are likely having a similar experience. I enjoy the older puzzles that are more difficult, and would like to see more of them. Fortunately, I still have many years of the archive to work through. But, someday, when I run out of archived puzzles I'll lament that there are rarely new puzzles of equivalent difficulty. My wanting more difficult puzzles is not a boast. It's commentary on how the puzzles have changed in recent times, and hoping that if I and others make enough noise, maybe we'll get more of the puzzles that bring me more than a few minutes of enjoyment.
Cries of shear terror? Made me sheepishly grin.
After the first pass through the across clues, all I had were ERIN, OCTET, ACELA, and ELEARNING, the latter probably only because I work in that industry, and I was pretty worried about how this was going to go. But on the downs things started clicking and I made it in pretty good time. Despite living in Iowa, which I would presume is prime - pardon the pun - COW TIPPING country, I'm sad to say I've never met someone who has actually done this. I'm guessing that's because cattle lie down to sleep, and attempting to tip a cow that's awake might be a losing proposition for everyone involved, aside from the cow.
Wow, I was just totally on the same wavelength as the constructor and editor and somehow cut over 20% off my PB. After completing over 10 years of puzzles, I thought the days of the big Incremental time drops were well behind me. Fun theme, to boot!
@Steve L I'd just like to note that clutching pearls is 15 letters and could make a fun spanner.
@Weak I also find the theme on this puzzle to be difficult. It's just not clean to me, for some reason. I wouldn't assume that someone who says they don't understand the theme only lacks understanding because they haven't spent the requisite amount of time thinking through it. Perhaps we just don't all react in the same manner regardless of how much time we spend thinking about the theme.
@Roberto D.L. = Down-Low. Something done on the down-low is something done slyly.
Going to call my effort on this one The Persistence of Crosswording. Took a while to get traction, but it paid off when I managed to pull PIAF from some dark corner of my mind to finish!
Hopefully others have as much fun as I did and achieve... AVERAGE ××
@Eric Hougland Here in what many would call yokel or hick country, most of my friends don’t take offense at the labels—some even wear them like a badge. But nobody forgets they’re looked down on, and that fuels the urban–rural divide. From a U.S.-centric view, I’m less worried about hurt feelings and more about feeding the “us vs. them” fire for those who already feel unheard. Just my observations.
This puzzle manifested a Scorigami in the Bears/Panthers game!
I like when the grid matches the theme, which seems to be the case here. Happy May to all!
TIL VIAND... and I wonder if I'll ever use it again!
Fun puzzle. Took me a couple passes through to get a decent toehold, but after that it fell more quickly that I expected.
Not an expert here, but I believe the primary reasons that companies incorporate in Delaware tend to have more to do with their business-friendly laws and their courts which specialize in business matters than with their corporate tax scheme, which does tax corporations which do business within the state, as most of the Fortune 500 presumably would.
@G If 17 seconds was 0.01% if yesterday's time, then yesterday would have taken somewhere north of 40 hours. If so, I have to say that I admire your persistence!
Great puzzle! Took me quite a few laps through the grid to a US everything out, but I enjoyed seeing it come together bit by bit.
@Aaron Teasdale 😂 glad to know I'm not the only one
Solid Saturday. The trivia wasn’t exactly in my wheelhouse, but I managed to puzzle it out. Funny enough, the last square to fall was #1. I had a G there, convinced it was something to do with a glow up—even though glow dry made zero sense. Glob seemed reasonable, too. Eventually, I figured out my mistake. As a proud bald person, ignorance is baldness—at least when it comes to hair-related terms.
@Cat Lady Margaret won't be long before LAKE ITASCA ICES.
My favorite part of this puzzle was the combination of 33A, 36A, and 41A which I'm reading as some kind of secret message to the CIA: JUST FYI on a RUSSIAN SPY, who happens to be ON HAND. (Apologies if this is a duplicate... tried posting this last night but it didn't go through, so giving it another go. Maybe with a little luck it will actually post!)
I know that the answer to 39D is not especially friendly to constructors, but I'm surprised it's only appeared twice previously - in 1952 and 1961 - in the NYT crossword.
I am, fortunately, unfamiliar with antidepressants and my initial reaction to [Something added to a plot] was fOIL. Took me a while to figure out my mistake.
@Ken That's definitely the crossword solver's go-to computer pioneer!
@SP Fun Costco fact for business nerds like me... Last time I looked, a couple years ago, Costco sold through their inventory in an average of 27 days, which was less than their average payment terms with their vendors. They are so efficient at managing inventory that they receive payment from their customer before they've even paid for the goods. For comparison, Walmart was taking around 90 days to sell through their inventory.
I started typing in limos for 17D and was sad to see it didn't fit.
@Mortiser It's been 10pm ET for Tue-Sat puzzles and 6pm ET for Sun-Mon puzzles since I started in 2020. I haven't noticed any change.