Mark
Phoenix
Phoenix
The amazing coincidence of Einstein's birth and Hawking's death both occurring on Pi Day is akin, in long odds but delightful symmetry, with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, long-time rivals and later pen pals, both dying on the same day, July 4, 1826 -- and, for the perfect icing on that cake, that date being the 50th anniversary of the signing of the document -- the Declaration of Independence -- to which they were both so indelibly attached. The universe gives us some fantastical stories. I wonder, if you gave Einstein, Hawking, and Euler the task of calculating the odds of both of those coincidences, which one would hit the buzzer first.
@Bill Love stories like this in the Comments, much more than reading people complaining about a puzzle because they are just oh so fast. Which, anyone is certainly entitled to post, and I know, I could just choose not to read the Comments, but then I'd miss out on cool stories like this. Please keep them coming!
@Lewis That might be a good passage to read every morning upon waking up.
Excellent puzzle today, lots of great clues that were difficult but for the most part fair. I got it with just three lookups (ones I had never heard of -- NEOPET, RANEE, LABDEH and wasn't getting quite enough cross-clues). The one I don't understand (and I'm not sure I've seen anyone else saying they had trouble with it, so maybe it's just me), was, why is a minister a part of a cabinet that's made overseas? (Oh wait, I'm getting it just as I type this -- cabinet members in some other countries are called ministers; although, question mark, are there also ministers in cabinets in any North, Central, or South American countries, ones that are not "overseas"; and if so, doesn't that de-legitimize 59A?)
I agree with the comments that this didn't have the difficulty of a Thursday puzzle. A lot of the clues were Tuesday-level challenging. And I got the theme pretty quickly, so I finished in a PB time for Thursdays, by quite a lot. And, I would have finished sooner, but I was looking for more of a trick; in particular, I kept trying to figure out which square to use for a rebus for "DOUBTS" (even though, ultimately, I agree that DOUBT (singular) is an acceptable synonym for "RESERVATIONS" (plural). In fact, I have no DOUBT about that, just as I have no RESERVATIONS about that. But, this was fun, with a clever theme and some well-thought-out clues and answers. Kudos to the constructor for an enjoyable debut puzzle. I hope to see your work again!
@Dan Tre is a pretty common name for someone whose birth name is ____ ____ III.
@Barb Prillaman 54 Across is a tennis score. After "deuce," i.e., 40-40, if the server wins the next point, the score is "ad in," short for advantage to the server. (If the other player wins the post-deuce point, it's "ad out").
@The X-Phile I usually pronounce it "ab-STANE" or "shun." But, on a rare occasion, "e-SHOO." Although it feels like it's somewhere between "ess-CHOO" and "e-SHOO." Good question, curious how others would answer.
I admittedly have nowhere near the experience of a lot of NYT solvers, but I have done at least a couple hundred or more. And nothing has ever given me the idea that I can type a letter in a black square. So when I got the theme today and it started to click, I filled in the extra letters as rebuses (rebi?). Yes, they are uni-directional, but I thought I had read somewhere that this was one possible use of the rebus. I had more of a thought that this was permissible than typing letters in the black squares. Today was one of the not-all-that-frequent times that I completed a Thursday puzzle. I even got that the "trick" involved HORSES both Across and Down, and I found and rebused all of them. But lo and behold, the pop-up window told me I've got mistakes. I went through the puzzle four times, clue by clue, word by word, and couldn't find a mistake. So, I had to hit Reveal, which was a huge disappointment. And that's when I learned that the puzzle called for typing letters in black squares. If they had only made those squares gray, or given them some way to be distinguished from the other black squares, I would have gotten it. Thus, on a day that should have felt like a big triumph for a guy who can complete a fair number of the puzzles but only a relatively small minority of Thursday ones, it felt like a kick in the nads. Which is too bad, because it was a beautifully clever puzzle / theme.
@Times Rita Sorry, when I visited my niece IN LONDON. That probably helps the story a bit.
Wow, what a lot of fun -- challenging, and sometimes bamboozling, but extremely clever and fair. NEC was the slowest to come to me -- I was stuck for a while on ILLCALLYOU, IRA, and STRATA. Absolutely loved "List of qualifications" (didn't get it right away, not until about 25-30% of the fill, but then I almost laughed out loud) and "Parody of _____" (only needed three fill letters, the first visual that came to me was Courtney Cox, then the movie name, big smile). Five stars for this puzzle. (I agree with Katie on ARFS -- that's probably the only one that would get this puzzle a 99 instead of 100).
I'm in the camp of having enjoyed this puzzle, despite the relatively easy fill of shorter words once I got a couple of the themed entries. I'm pretty sure it was CONTACTLEOS that was the key to the dominoes falling in the SEC and that got me "clued" in for the rest. (NWC was the last to register and complete). And it's pretty impressive to have made this many lengthy themed entries work with the added trick of PLUSONE. Yes, some of the short word clues could have been made more difficult, but I have plenty to do today and my step son is coming to visit from out of state, so I'm okay that it didn't take me a lot longer to solve. (Then why, you ask, am I spending time browsing and responding to Comments. Because I did enjoy this one and was curious to see if I could fairly accurately predict the breakdown between "like this one, clever, fun" versus the "too easy, boring, waste of my time" comments. Answer -- yes.)
@Steve L I agree, one could say "doubt" or "reservations" interchangeably. I have some doubt about that. I have some reservations about that. Just because you could also say, I have some doubts about that, doesn't make the first one wrong.
Rats, I got almost all of it, but despite having just recovered from the flu I couldn't get 119A without turning to Wordplay. Makes me sick.
I'm a fairly decent crossword solver but not yet on a level with what I would call the skilled and highly skilled in this community -- in golf terms, I'm probably a 3 handicap, but not scratch, and certainly not a + 4 (if you're a skilled solver but don't get the reference, look it up, this is a chance to expand your knowledge). So, having gotten through today's puzzle without a ton of difficulty (I originally had inserted a "LIT" rebus at the end of banana, until I followed the circles, and struggled with the SEC because I couldn't get the answer for 73A), I can empathize, at least to a degree, with the "plus handicaps" who complain that this was not worthy of a Thursday placement. I do think, though, that as the "middle" puzzle of the week (Mon-Wed being the easier three, and Fri-Sun being the progressively more challenging), it should be okay that the difficulty varies on Thursdays, sometimes more to the liking of the Mon-Wed crowd and other times delighting the Fri-Sun afficionados. Not all Thursday puzzles have to have the same course rating and slope (again, with this being Masters week, look it up and enjoy!).
@Anonymous As a decent but not yet highly skilled solver, I tend to agree. Over the last five years, I'm finding some - certainly not all - of the Thursday - Saturday puzzles more doable than earlier. I'm sure some of that is just me getting better at it, but although my ego fights the concept, objectively I have to acknowledge that part of it is that these "second half of the week" puzzles aren't quite as challenging as they used to be. If I'm able to do more of these puzzles than I used to, and in significantly faster times, that doesn't speak well for their difficulty -- realistically, I shouldn't be able to complete many of them yet. Now, in defense of the NYT, I'm betting that a lot of people subscribe primarily for the puzzles, and in this age of declining readership and trending away from traditional newspapers, they have to keep the majority of those "I'm here for the games" subscribers happy -- even if that means disappointing the small minority of "elite" solvers.
I made what was admittedly a lucky guess with B as the cross-letter, but I don't get 85D NABOB or 96A BAE. I'd be happy to have someone elucidate.
When I got the first HOH, filling in the adjacent across words was easy. I assume the other three-circle sets would be different clues, maybe different molecules, or maybe entirely different trios. That would have made it more challenging. But, once I got the HOH and saw it repeating, the rest were pretty easy. As I noted in a Reply comment, I got hung up on the Roman Elder / Younger (had to be PLINY, right, but how to fit it in, was it a different type of rebus?) and RMONTHS (have never been a fan of oysters).
@Cat Lady Margaret Excellent, CTM!
@Aaron P. Pretty commonly heard on sports fields and courts.
Also, point of minor interest, as soon as I completed the puzzle, all of the triple letter rebi (rebususususes??) converted to single letter squares. I honestly don't recall if that's a standard feature of genus rebus.
@Adam Crapper is clever; a perfectly acceptable reference to a plumber who obtained several patents relating to the much-appreciated advancement from chamber pots. For those offended by Crapper, you'd probably be even more horrified by a clue where the answer is one of his patents, the floating ballcock.
@Matt Agree. It would have been great if every "number of nine" was JERI. More JERI please.
@lucky13 Thanks for putting us onto this video. I've seen videos like this before, and they never get old. Fascinating skill and patience.
@Andrzej I get it about golf. I can see why a lot of people wouldn't have any interest in watching it. Thus, the slogan, "Golf, a good walk spoiled." But, millions and millions of people do enjoy watching it, many of them love it, and some are addicted. Name me what you like to watch (sports, types of movies, etc.) and I'm betting we can find plenty of people who would say, "How could anyone want to watch that?!" And yet, that wouldn't detract one iota from your right to enjoy it. To each his own; live and let live.
@SP Carrie and SP, thanks for the positive spirit of both of your posts. SP, I think what Carrie is getting at are the comments that are not as constructive or diplomatic as yours in the way they convey their "point of view," particularly those who come across as angry, or as insulting to the constructors. I think a lot of us want to keep the tone more in line with these two posts.
@Ann Yup, also got stymied with BUSINESS SAVVY for awhile.
@Keith Thanks for adding this one to the mix, I hadn't been aware of it!
@Steve L I admittedly have nowhere near the experience of a lot of NYT solvers, but I have done at least a couple hundred or more. And nothing has ever given me the idea that I can type a letter in a black square. I fill in rebuses (rebi), and yes, they are uni-directional, but I thought I had read somewhere that this was one possible use of the rebus. So, today, it's one of the not-all-that-frequent times that I complete a Thursday puzzle. I even got that the "trick" involved HORSES both Across and Down, and I found and rebused all of them. But lo and behold, the pop-up window told me I've got mistakes. I went through the puzzle four times, word by word, and couldn't find a mistake. So, I had to hit Reveal, which was a huge disappointment. And that's when I learned that the puzzle called for typing letters in black squares. If they had only made those squares gray, or given them some way to be distinguished from the other black squares, I would have gotten it. Thus, on a day that should have felt like a big triumph for one who can complete a fair number of the puzzles but only a relatively small minority of Thursday ones, it felt like a kick in the nads. Which is too bad, because it was a beautifully clever puzzle / theme.
@Bill Bill, I LOVE questions like this. Hope you get an answer from Francis, who is to be commended for her very interesting and diverting "comment."
@Times Rita I've never understood why driving in Manhattan gets such a bad rap. I get that it can be quite busy and noisy, but I'll take driving on a grid any day over the haphazard, apparently-laid-out-during-a-hangover mazes that you find in a lot of major cities. I visited my niece several years ago while she was there for ten months working in a high-level job on the set of Mission Impossible. They rented her a nice house and a car, and on the first day she tried driving from the house to the set, she ended up pulling over in tears. And she's a good driver, having lived in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Nashville.
@Katie Agree. I'm not a particularly skilled solver, and even though I sometimes eventually get them, Thursday puzzles are usually quite a challenge for me (even when those more skilled are complaining that they're too easy). This one, though, came together without a lot of trouble. I struggled with Roman Elder and Younger (how could it not be PLINY), and had never heard of RMONTHS (not being an oyster guy), but overall it was fairly straightforward. Removing the circles and arrows (or at least one or the other) would have made it a little tougher to find the Waldos.
@sonnel You weren't alone in getting stuck on the "O" for a while, before changing it to "U."
@Nancy Yes, while Trey is the more common spelling of this nickname, a number of them go by Tre.
@Barry Ancona Okay, now I see it, thanks. Wasn't looking at it the right way.
@Jane Wheelaghan We had a laundry chute in our house growing up. There was a small door just above floor level in the main floor bathroom that opened to a "chute;" we would drop clothes through it and they would fall through the chute into the laundry basket in the basement, where the washer and dryer were.
@G Sorry, Francis, I was just groggy enough still to not have paid attention to e v. i, but of course, yes, I should have discerned yours was the male version of the name. I put "comment" in quotes because while that's technically what it was (being in the Comments section and all), it was substantively more than a comment, with its interesting / academic / educational diversion from the more standard fare we generally see in the Comments. It was an enjoyable read, thanks.
@Francis In case you come back to this, Francis, my bigger gaffe was not commenting on your Grand Marais locale, what with me having spent many summer vacations at Lutsen Lodge and my dad and brother and his family living a little ways to your west, on the Iron Range.
@Bob T. Love that, I'll get some good mileage from it! Thanks.
@Anonymous It's probably too late for you to see this, and I agree with much of what you say, but as to you having more difficulty with puzzles from 14 years ago than current one, I think you'd likely acknowledge that a certain percentage of clues are always going to be more accessible to the synapses in real rather than historical time.
@SBK in TO Northeast corner (upper right quadrant)
@PoloniusMonk What would be a better system / approach, to give solvers a chance to complete the puzzle? I don't fret over those, they just tell me I need to keep looking harder and put in the work. You could always just ask for the reveal. Any other system would feel like getting a "participation ribbon."
@Sue Yeah, that was probably the one clue I have a bit of a problem with. Mostly because of the hyphen, I just don't think that's an accurate clue.
@Mu Our laundry chute was through a small door just above floor level in the main floor bathroom, through which we would drop clothes down the "chute," where they would land in the basement laundry basket.
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