Susan
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@Ken W. Accessory dwelling unit. A second small dwelling built on the same lot as a primary dwelling. In some areas these are a relatively recent innovation to permit denser use of space. Could potentially house relatives or be a rental unit.
Like others, I had the problem that I finished (solving on a laptop) and did not get the gold star even after flyspecking for mistakes. So I switched to the phone app, used the list view of the answers, and found that some of the breakdancing squares had random incorrect letters filled in (not sure if I had inserted those letters or a computer glitch did so). But when I fixed those letters in the app using list view, I got the gold star. No way I could have found this on the laptop since those squares just included the breakdancing pictures.
Frustrating DNF for me. I thought it was a puzzle where you filled in the different answers both ways: M/L for mobster/lobser. XS/S for exspouses/useless and S/M for aquarius/masks. Consequently, I could make nothing of the weird answer AXLES for drinks in a pub. After spending far too much time on that answer and finally realizing it was supposed to be ALES and I did not understand how to enter the answers, I took the DNF. Clever gimmick - not up my alley today.
TIL that ! = Bang. I'm neither a copy reader or editor nor a recent programmer. That said, I'm not sure I understand why the software would not accept !/BANG. Having understood that the themed across clues ended in ! and the corresponding down clues ended in BANG, figuring out what the software would accept was quite frustrating. That a correct entry depended on knowing the equivalence of ! and BANG felt a bit like a Natick (though not the same as a Natick) - i.e., a single piece of information that could not be deduced from the puzzle clues and answers.
There was an advantage to entering the rebuses. Not a gold star, of course, but it did make the visual of grade inflation very evident- both in each rebus square and top to bottom in the puzzle. Here's the visual, which was evident on a quick perusal of the rebus-filled version. F/D D/C C/B B/A
Loved the math aspect. But, for me, 3 natick areas ruined the experience. Sambar crossing Ari (Uri which seemed like it could be short for Uriah) and red (LED?); JK (R?) Simmon(s) (?) crossing awake/aware and Al(s); and # of bits in Nintendo crossing Fantastic #. Ironically, I sussed all of these out correctly in the end. However - I spent so much time thinking and rethinking those that I never rethought Kvasa, RSA which I had originally thought didn't seem quite correct - so got tripped up by that final a instead of s after spending a horrible amount of time on those naticks.
Personal best for Saturday - and well below my Friday personal best.
@Xword Junkie Bias is also a term applicable to fabric. You can cut fabric "on the bias," a 45 degree angle to the straight grain of the fabric.
Wow! I'm a minority. Solved it completely except for the center. I did get the first ICE, but not the others. Totally overthought this one! It absolutely never occurred to me that the same word could appear repeatedly in the center square. And I couldn't (obviously) make the crossings work. Since I knew the Zamboni was waiting to enter the center, I concluded that the center must somehow be a muddled mess created by multiple skaters and that the Zamboni would clear that mess. So I spent time looking for rebuses, wondering if letters were buried around the outside, putting different letters in squares for across and down clues - everything except the obvious multiple ICEs. Not obvious to me! Not too happy about a cratered streak, but Congrats to the constructors who clearly delighted the very large majority of solvers.
@Jane Wheelaghan Sooners are U of Oklahoma sports teams and Longhorns are U of Texas. So they are rivals in college sports, notably American football.
@Jill Totally agree with this.We have seen a number of puzzles where the across and down have a different letter or letters and you are supposed to enter both. I spent a ton of time flyspecking this puzzle as a result of doing that here. As Jill states, when you enter the double answers, each of the answers includes a grade inflation - very overtly. Unfortunate that this solution to the puzzle was not accepted!
@Nom De Plume One meaning is a type of law textbook that contains excerpts from past legal cases. Perhaps such textbooks exist in other fields of study as well????
@Susan A footnote: Since there was to be no grade inflation in the down clue, I suppose that's why entering the double rebus is technically incorrect - because it puts the inflation in both the Across and Down. Entering the single letter puts the inflation in the Across and not in the Down. E.g., High Five is written as High Dive, inflating F to D. But Add is written as Add - no inflation. If you enter F/D, there would be inflation in both Across and Down.
@Joya in past puzzles I believe that use of the / has meant the 1st item goes with Across answer and 2nd item with Down. Slash is used to make that clear. So i don’t think there’s a doubling problem but I must be not understanding something in this situation that makes it different.
@Steve L Nope I knew the corollary. Just got sidetracked by lots of other possibilities. Just on the wrong wavelength today.
@Endall Interesting. Just went back and did the puzzle from Friday, July 10, 2015. It was definitely slower for me than today's, about 37 minutes versus 20 minutes. But 37 minutes is definitely right around normal time for me for current Friday puzzles; 20 minutes is not my norm. I will say that the 2015 puzzle had items in my wheelhouse that may not be in everyone's wheelhouse today - and also that the modern slang in some of today's puzzles is not in my wheelhouse. Evaluating relative difficulty across decades seems to me to be quite difficult.
@Bill Same problem. Flyspecked the puzzle for a single incorrect letter forever. Even tried replacing JDATE with ADATE (thinking that way back when there were audiovisual clubs in high school). Finally ran the vowels on MARS and got the music when I changed A to E just like you. Very familiar with rebuses, but was completely focused on the visual aspect of the puzzle so a rebus never occurred to me. Not quite a solve for me today!
@Wendy I shared your reaction to the theme, that it was inconsistent - as you said because the letter reversals occurred in different places and also because the nature of the answers was different. e.g., a common phrase (lesser of two evils) versus a tv show (dancing with the stars) versus an item (cotillion dresses). That said, my guess is that making this theme work at all was very difficult - and more consistency may well have not been possible. But I do agree that the lack of consistency made the solve less satisfying for me, both during the solve and on completion. I was surprised to find that reaction not more widely shared, but it appears it was not.
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