Kim

@JohnM I am almost speechless at your comment. It surprises you that they don't want to dumb down their puzzles so that you and other "occasional" novice players can feel better? That you, as a new solver, should never have a puzzle to aspire to solving? This was indeed a challenge, and you can continue to play Monday and Tuesday puzzles and get better. You'll appreciate a challenge as you progress. That's part of growth and it's actually fun.

@Cara Did we do the same puzzle? To which clues are you referring?

@MTL The first thing that comes to mind for Thursday puzzles for me, is rebuses. Now you know.

@Heidi Me too! I had the little handheld one. It was a total addiction for a while.

@Rachel The double clue doesn't work for the initial variant, just for the second one - that's the case for all of the clues. "Mayim of show business" does not solve to "the show must go on", for example.

@Bill That clue was one that made me amazed (ever amazed) at how the brain works. I've never seen the movie, yet when I read the clue, I instantly thought "HUD?". Why is that in my brain? How did I dig it out - back there under all the other stuff?

@Samantha Umm, I might have broken that rule.

@William Schrader Generation Y = parents to Generation Alpha (demo=demographic)

@retired, with cat There are going to be puzzles that don't appeal to people, that's not what the OPs issue was. He explicitly wanted the NYT to appeal to novice players and not have challenges like the one presented today.

@Nancy J.I once knew a woman who did extreme sports and from what she described it was like a compulsion, and not in a good way. Stemmed from stuff that happened in childhood, and seemed that there was no way for her to feel alive other than to be risking her life.

@Sara But, now that you've seen this puzzle and then learned how it worked, your brain will file that away for the future.

@TLC If you look for offense, you are sure to find it. Also, we don't spay women - so not sure how that fits your offended narrative.

@NanuNanu Before the 1970's we called our main doctors GPs, but it's been at least since the 80's that PCP had been used regularly. So, I guess it depends on you define "relatively recent"!

@jes Yes! So often, after watching the trailer, I have absolutely no desire to see the whole movie. Kind of defeats their purpose...

@Matt The brain is amazing - it's doing just that, working on stuff while you aren't actively thinking! I went to bed with 3 clues filled in and very little hope - and then woke up and breezed through this.