Ray T

What the puzzle note said: "Standing between you and the score of a lifetime are the seven locks of this safe. After completing this puzzle, rotate each dial 90°, 180° or 270° to the only other position that forms four valid crossword answers. The new letters in the 12 o’clock (circled) positions will spell out an appropriate exclamation. What the reality was: "There is nothing standing between you and the puzzle solution, not even the seven locks of this safe. After completing this puzzle, there is a sketchy and inconsistent code that will rotate each lock automatically to another position that forms four valid words that have nothing to do with the crossword clues or answers. No mental effort is required on your part. The new letters in the 12 o’clock (circled) positions will spell out an exclamation, which is, at best, tangential to the supposed theme."

I'm a physician, but not a neurologist or neurosurgeon. I don't ever recall coming across "pia maters," to refer to pia mater in the plural. Although technically it may be correct, it must be a rarely used form...

I guess it was a cute (but obvious) idea, but I really didn't need a calculator to solve the theme clues. I solved it as a themeless puzzle. The 34A and 29D Natick (for me) was solved by a brute-force attack... Sometimes a cute idea doesn't make a clever puzzle...

Not sure what the point of the theme was since I didn't actually need to figure it out to solve the puzzle. So, basically, I did two easy puzzles, then a superfluous "theme" presented itself. Mildly clever by the puzzle creator, not really all that challenging, interesting, or relevant to the solver. My guess is that if an unknown puzzle creator had submitted this puzzle, it would have been rejected.

Solved it on my desktop. Had an ad for Star Trek: Brave New Worlds above and below the puzzle...

First, I tried it on my Mac and did not get the rotation. Then, I manually changed the letters, either using Safari or Chrome. Nothing. Then I tried the puzzle using Windows 11 - again, nothing. Then, I closed everything and went back to my Mac (M1 MacBook Pro); instead of using the app, I opened the New York Times website and went to the puzzle after signing in. I cleared the puzzle, then redid it, and the solution popped into place without me doing anything. The title suggests cracking a safe, but one didn't have to "crack" anything—at least, that's how it worked for me. And the "word" had really nothing to do with "cracking" or a "safe." And, of course, keyholes have nothing to do with cracking a safe, either. Yes, it was kind of clever, but I feel sorry for people who lost their streak over this exercise in futility. Clearly, this was a failure in coding.

Since this was a "numbers" theme, it was too bad numbers weren't accepted in the Rebus answers. A lot easier to fill in.

This seemed more like a Wednesday, or even a Tuesday. Solved it fairly quickly without getting the theme until the Money talks clue. For those interested here's a YouTube video showing the unusual percussion instruments used in Parade by Erik Satie. <a href="https://youtu.be/aePrSe6DMsc?si=dl6w01fqOh7167Av" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/aePrSe6DMsc?si=dl6w01fqOh7167Av</a>