Lynn

Loved, loved, loved the puzzle! Streak reached 1400 today on my 70th birthday. Didn't somebody else do this recently?

One reason I posted my personal solve saga was to illustrate what I suspect was a more traditional learning curve for NYT XW. The advantage of a learning curve that long was that it started off fun and continued being fun even after many years of solving. A shorter learning curve can mean fun for awhile, then a ceiling effect where all the tricks and strategies have been learned. That's what happened with me with Wordle. For two years it was fun, then I had the tricks and it was no challenge, so I stopped. It is hurtful when we are grieving the watering down of a long tradition to be told we are humble-bragging and should go elsewhere. Maybe those who feel that way truly don't understand what has been lost. How can you if you never experienced it? When the NYT crossword clues become like all the others out there, there will be nowhere to go. There has been a flavor to the misdirects, a particular kind of cleverness to the clues found no where else, emerging from wonderful interactions between constructors and editors. Cryptics are hard but don't have this flavor. Saturday Stumpers are hard but I don't laugh as I do them. It's the character, the layered surprises, that I, at least, love when they are allowed to appear and grieve their rarity. The constructors and editors are brilliant and dedicated. And I want the NYT to have income! I wrote before they established the paywall asking them to establish one, and I subscribed the day it appeared. Peace out.

I recommend today's puzzle for people who complain about "Too much new trivia" or "Too much old trivia" or Too much ...." take your pick. I tried making a list of areas of knowledge drawn on for today's puzzle. This is not inclusive: Chinese, British, and American cinema; Broadway theater; opera, pop, and modern music; French & Spanish; organized and pub sports; card games; Asian food; perfumes; geography; Greek and Indian lore; Cuban and European history; physics; art; modern slang and online terminology; American Sign Language. No one knows all of these, but with a working knowledge of about half of them, I was able to complete the grid with no lookups. Last to fall was 21D. I knew that somewhere in my memory was a Sultanate that ended in "i" but had to run the alphabet a few different ways before, when in a completely different part of the alphabet, the answer got jostled loose from a hidden cranny in my mind and slotted itself into place. My hat's off to the constructors.

I am completely humbled. Over a half hour in, I was still staring at a mostly blank grid and could count the entries I was reasonably confident of on one hand. Interestingly, what finally broke it open for me was trying out two little words I didn't really think were right, PIE at 7D and RAD at 20A, just to shake up the old thought processes a tad. Those led to taking out most everything I had in that quadrant, which then quickly fell, then everything else fell, and I completed the rest of the puzzle in about half the time I'd sat staring. Can't believe I made it through with no lookups. Came very, very close, my finger itched for the search bar. For 40A, I kept thinking of the DOT as a staccato mark and came here looking for complaints. Don't have time to read through to see, but finally sheepishly realized it meant a dot _beside_ the note. Ryan, next time I see your name, I'll meditate first, and maybe drink an extra cup of coffee.

Took longer than my usual, a lot of taking out and putting back in. But I knew when something was finally right, even when it was completely unexpected. Such as the responders to cruise ships and what is pulled in car chases. Who knew there are no less than three women's names that fit the clue for E_ _ IE? I thought this was masterful cluing. Every quadrant was incremental but eventually approachable and I, like other commenters, found it tough but was able to complete with no help. May nominate it for Saturday POY. Later. Gotta go wave a sign.

Discovered that "keep your shirt on" has the same number of letters as PLEASE BE PATIENT. I tend to react better to the second one.

On Tuesday, unless I get flattened by an early week puzzle, I should hit 2000. If I make it, I may post a bit about my solving saga next weekend. I'm not a purist and will (again) disclose my cheat rules.

So many delightful stories about Barbie memories below, especially from those of us who did not have Dreamhouses. Here's mine. When all the neighborhood kids of the female persuasion were playing with Barbies, my mother finally broke down because she was concerned that not having them was affecting our socialization. So she decided to get us some, but she did it her way. First, she did not believe in gendered toys. (This was in 1964.) If one of us got a doll, we all would. Finally, she compromised and got a Barbie for my little sister, a Midge for me, a Ken for one brother and an Allen for my other brother. Then she told us that this was _all_ she was buying, what they came in. Any accessories, we'd have to make for ourselves. This lasted until my father's mother jumped in. An accomplished seamstress who made all our clothes (including our winter coats and most of our underwear), she fashioned all kinds of jewel-like clothes from scraps from her regular sewing, including tiny bras and bathing suits. I really wanted a Dreamhouse, though. Until one of my friends got one. I took one look at it and thought, "Meh." No where near elegant enough for those wonderful clothes. As much as my mother tried not to treat us differently according to gender, her efforts with the dolls failed. My sister and I ended up with our brothers' dolls. We still have them.

I just realized that this comment section is heavily biased toward those who can solve the crosswords within a day, or reasonably expect to solve the crosswords within a day, or are willing to call it quits within a day. I wonder if there are still those out there who like to spend a week or two chewing over a chewy NYT Sunday puzzle, the way I did when I first started a couple of decades ago. There was no online puzzle page back then, and I was not aware of any online community of solvers, though there may have been. Just wondering if there is a place for a gentler onramp. In the other direction, now that my average Sunday solve has gone from two weeks to about 20 minutes (and my average Saturday solve has gone from 'never' to about the same as Sunday), wondering whether there is a place other than the archive for stiffer puzzles. Don't suggest cryptic crosswords. My average for them is still approximately 'never'.

This has to be one of my favorite puzzles ever. I adore the series, but the amount of thematic material that kept popping up was a continual delight. I think this was the first time I ever figured out a theme after a single word. As soon as I saw the clue for 4A, I knew what this was about, could recognize that shape. Got 3/4 way down the grid, filling in an amazing amount on my first pass, and thought, wow, I'm going to have a fast time. Then hit 90A and went, "Whaaa? I already have USS up top." That was quickly solved, but then I reached the bottom of the grid and saw I had nothing on the last three rows. Just blank. Then I started on the downs. Got to 3D, saw that the circled squares were supposed to refer to a character, but there is no one in that universe with 29 letters in their name. Finally, when I got to 36D, I knew that had to be SPOCK, and things fell into place. OK, now things will go fast. Except--in the midst of easy clues, there were a couple of places that held me up. Haven't read the other comments yet, but having COL__ for Cherry or Lime tripped me up because the "or" indicated the answer was single, but surely it was COLas? and 51A was DEbasE? In the end, this took slightly over my usual time. And then I had to just sit back and admire it. The density of the theme words, the theme letters, and the theme visuals, this was nigh on perfection.

Nice! This one revealed itself in four layers. What a treat. First, the awareness that something was going on at 32A and there weren't enough spaces for any puzzle I could think of. Second, when I got to 107D, thinking I understood the theme. I put PHI in for Regis and a few other places, working my way back upwards. Third, again at the top, staring at PphiNGPADDLE. Realized we needed a bidirectional rebus. Tried various combinations of /phi and phi/. Realized that nothing I was trying would work consistently throughout my remaining gaps. Fourth, rereading the reveal at 107D and interpreting it more literally. Very literally. That worked in the four places I had phi's and in the four places I still had holes. Wish I'd thought of pasting in a Φ the way Rob from Boston did. But I found this puzzle packed with delights.

Yes! Yes! Yes! I hope solvers who prefer easier puzzles can forgive my excitement. This was the first puzzle in awhile where I couldn't solve it in a straightforward march through the clues with most of my solve occurring in my second pass through the Acrosses. Very predictable. Today's solve was about as far from predictable as one could get for a themeless. My pathway was loopy. I wish I could draw the most fun one because I think it would have formed a rather elegant baroque design. The access I eventually found into my mostly blank NW started from 30D STARTER KIT but did not progress to AESOP at 29A. Instead it veered eastward to 34A and 39A, then northward up to 12D in the far reaches of that quadrant, then back down to 25A, then back up to 21D, and then back down to AESOP. Finally it found its way up into the NW, continuing to switch between downs and acrosses. I am dizzy. My time was several multiples of the mean at XWStats, as it often is, but I enjoyed every moment.

First time through the acrosses I had exactly one answer I was confident of, and it was only 3 letters. First time through the downs, not much more. Second time through the acrosses, answers began to fall all over the place. It was kind of a transcendent experience, having just a few letters in a row or column suddenly come into focus as a complete answer, over and over again. Had to jump away to attend a Zoom work thing (it was great, actually) but just now was able to come back and finish. Delightful puzzle. Delightful column. And delightful comments so far. Do I keep reading down or stop? Tis a quandary.

Rethinking what "score" meant is what finally got that little area on the right to fall. That spot seemed especially tough because I didn't know the phrase about boasting, so didn't have a lot to go on to narrow down "way out in space" or "learning center?" But remembering my sheet music did the trick! That phrase about boasting is so wonderful, wish I'd known about it soon enough not to be 25A. What wonderful cluing. So many seemed entirely too vague to think about until, with a few crosses, they shape-shifted into meaningfulness.

Yes! An unwritten rule in crossword puzzle land, beautifully broken. I loved that the revealer was in the Down clues so that I had been through the grid once before getting to it. Through the years, I have seen a similar convention in other types of puzzles that have unwritten rules and then break them: whenever you are going to do so, you have to signal in some way that this is what you are doing, and have a plausible, thematic reason. This puzzle started off very soberly and ended as a delight.

So interesting how different people's experiences are with the same puzzle. I am terrible at recall but great at recognition. Maybe this is why I'm terrible at Scrabble but good at crosswords. Today's I found easy because I had seen all of these words in crosswords before except for CHIANG and TIMON. I remembered Timon from lists of Shakespeare's plays and got CHIANG on crosses. The only thing that held me up for a moment was that I forgot AGGRO had two g's. But when crosswords have a lot of sports references or pop music and TV from certain of my misspent decades, I am sunk. On those, I can spend a couple of hours or more after getting the 'Something's Amiss' message trying to figure out how to cheat within my personal parameters of cheatingness. (Confession for the purists: when it gets much after the 2 hour mark with Something's Amiss still there, I have been known to Google my answers to check the spelling. Especially if it is a proper name who is a current sports figure who is not: a) an ice skater, b) a gymnast, c) a swimmer, d) a cyclist, or e) a rock climber.) But NYT, please do NOT tailor your puzzles accordingly. If I don't learn pop and sports culture here, I won't learn them anywhere.

I loved this puzzle. I especially liked the switcheroos from formal Latin to wildly informal vernacular and back again. A cultural yo-yo. IZZATSO is, now that I think of it, exactly how I pronounce that phrase. (Emphasis on the AT: izATso?!) This puzzle provided a much needed refresher on logical fallacies. Which have inundated the airwaves recently. This was a true delight. Thank you Mr. Ewbank!

The theme was fun once I realized what it was about. My favorite constructor comments ever.

I said earlier this week when I completed a 5-year streak that I would disclose my cheat rules. So, for anyone who cares, you can tell what kind of streak it is. I actually have a long list, but it boils down to this. When solving on paper in the aughts, I would use any reference book to help. This included Wikipedia. It included most anything short of the answer key. When I began solving online in 2014, I discovered that as long as I didn't do "check puzzle," if I had an error somewhere, the software would alert me but not tell me where. If I found it on my own, even by trial and error, it would give me the star. So I reformed my rules around that as a guideline. This meant not doing anything that was akin to revealing the answer, such as using search terms that would bring up the clue and answer. Other kinds of research, I still allowed myself. As I've become more acquainted with typical crossword fills and misdirects, I've used fewer kinds of help. This streak began about 6 years into my online solving experience and I honestly can't remember how much help I was using at that time. I can say that by now, maybe once a month I can't find a mistake and resort to verifying the spellings of my answers. If I use any word or part of a word from the clue in my search term, I consider that an asterisk in my solve. This streak includes probably four or so asterisks.

This one was an unalloyed joy. I got the first part of the theme very quickly but those cut marks took awhile longer. I left a hole to the right of each of those until I realized that what was needed was not a rebus. An anti-rebus? It took longer than my usual although I was never stuck. Just extra time steadily uncovered its delights. A perfect Sunday! I loved that the apparent primness of the 4A clue was belied by just going ahead and saying the word, alright, already! in an answer that crossed it.

Was pretty much in my wheelhouse today, although I was lucky my first guess at 24D/39A was correct. Got held up in the NW because I really, really was proud of 'assorted' at 17A and waited way too long to give it up. You have to admit it could fit the clue in a Saturday kind of way. Nice to see my grandmother's sewing machine in there. She sewed all our clothes when we were growing up, including our underwear, bathing suits, winter coats, and blazers for my brothers. Everything except socks and shoes. I and my sister still have the gorgeous Barbie doll clothes she made us, including teeny tiny underwear and bejeweled bridal crowns. No telling how many bridal gowns she designed and made for church members, refusing compensation for anything but the materials. Grew up on a hardscrabble farm and lived her life as an artist at her machine.

Loved this puzzle. I don't remember finishing a puzzle before with no earthly idea of the theme. Usually I have some inkling. Was about to scroll down to Wordplay and then decided to give myself an extra 5 minutes to figure it out. When I finally did--how rewarding! I feel as though I gained 2 IQ points. Hope your solves went well. No time to read down now, will save all your provocative comments until this evening.

An interesting week for many reasons. One of the most benign was that my streak was stuck on 1776 from last Wednesday until this one, when Puzzle Care fixed it. I found that poignant and thought provoking each day I saw it. Quick one for me today, with fill that was fresh and fun. For some reason I really like the word DAP. Watching new words emerge is something I find fascinating, and the ones that take root often have a musicality about them. People complain about new words emerging, but what annoys me is when some single word, often an old one, begins to replace all adjectives. I'll never forget when my minister father gave me a cussing lesson when I turned 18. He said I should never rely on a curse word to the extent that it depleted my vocabulary, but to be sure that when I cursed, I did so creatively. He then gave me a few examples. I won't repeat them here, but they were definitely creative.

Thank you, Deb! Hope your next stage is lovely. This one has been a real gift to all of us.

Wow. Took triple my usual time. That top left--. Just kept taking out answers and putting in new brainstorms to seed that corner. Can't believe I finally got the happy music with no look-ups, but it blew my morning. What finally got that corner open, although just a crack, was going back to the top right and working my way backwards. After being away from the right corner for awhile, 11D, then 6D and 7D, finally all came into focus. That suggested some new ideas to try for 22A other than finding a word that ended in "pits" (as in pitted paint). My fingers are still white-knuckled from clinging onto a few favorite (non)answers in that corner for far too long. Feel bad for those who lost streaks, but this puzzle was what I needed to bring me back down to size. Chewy enough that I'm going to go vegetarian the rest of the week. Thank you Barbara and Matthew! Will read the column and other comments in a little, while eating my sorely delayed breakfast.

Interesting. I just had four posts eaten. Tested it, and it turns out the offending word was the word that refers to repairing socks. No matter how it is used in a sentence.

No lookups, but each bit of ground in the center was long fought and hard won. Took as long as Saturdays used to take me years ago. Didn't know a lot of the pop references. Had to stare at several different areas forever (seemed like) and mentally run the alphabet for inspiration because the clues were giving me nothing. Nada. Like many others, couldn't believe that the RCKND at the end of 24D could be right and had COuntryChic for way too long. At the end, had to fly speck the whole thing, but fortunately I thought to leave a square blank until done. Then was inordinately pleased with myself for getting the happy music. A long way of saying that I loved this puzzle. And that was before reading the column and the constructor response, which blew me away.

Wow, I thought this one was going to do me in. No lookups, but took about 50% longer than my usual, almost at my cumulative average, which I almost always beat these days. This felt the way Saturdays used to. Thank you for the challenge!

I wonder how many of the responses were due to this puzzle being on a Wednesday, when tricks are less expected. I think this constructor shows a lot of talent (they just started college!) and if this one had been published on a Thursday, I can imagine a slew of complaints that it was too easy. I loved it and solved it with no problem--after resetting my expectations about the difficulty level. Because I was not familiar with the album, I had to count Ks at the end to confirm that my error was not in the number but elsewhere, and only then noticed I had misspelled IDEM. Jackson, best wishes for your college career and look forward to some Thursdays and Sundays from you!

I'll join the chorus: this puzzle was delightful. I knew that something was afoot immediately, the instant I got to 5A, and had fun with a series of guesses about that until I hit 5A the second time. Then all the theme answers fell at once. A nice little clatter of ice. Deb, are you working remotely from a sunny Southern clime? Just asking.

OK, I've gotta say it, folks, "Gets dragged along on a beach trip" is a misdirect. It tempts you to assume things it does not actually say. Nowhere does it say that sand is what the item is getting dragged through. No where does it say that the beach is an ocean beach. It also does not say that the unknown item is getting dragged _to_ the beach, only that it is getting dragged while you are _on_ the beach trip. Clues that force me to identify a series of unwarranted assumptions I just made help me maintain mental flexibility. I would call this one a most excellent misdirect.

Worthy Saturday. I didn't know a single one of the long answers, but they all eventually fell through crosses. I really enjoyed the slow but steady solve and finished slightly under my rolling average with no lookups. Each time I was stuck in one part of the grid, there was a tiny way forward in another part. WREAKING was an unexpected delight when it finally fell, reminding me of the beauty of Albert Paley's wrought iron work. The only time things suddenly fell into place was on the very last word, SPOONERISM. As others say below, delightful.

Curious solve. Did not get a single long answer--across or down--on the first pass, but, though I did not rush, was done in less than half my average. So I came here to see what other folks' experiences were. Was the puzzle easy for a Saturday?Were the crosses just in my wheelhouse? Did my extra sleep last night make me smarter? The comments seem to suggest that other solvers' experiences were quite a mix. For me, the mix was within this single puzzle. Some really crunchy clues with surprising answers, but every sweep through the hints yielded more ahas, resulting in a smooth solve time. Learned a few new things, too.

Best kind of Saturday solve for me. About a quarter hour in, I started feeling stuck, but each pass through the puzzle yielded at least one or two new letters, enough to keep hope alive. As I was approaching my normal time for Saturdays, I still had dismaying expanses of open ground in both the NW and SE and thought this was going to be a long one. But then in less than a half minute both quadrants fell and suddenly I was done. What did it for me was finally letting go of FOrced in the SE, and then, feeling newly confident, realizing that what I needed in the NW was not to imagine watching a cat, but imagine _being_ a cat. Now to see what the rest of you think. I'll admit, I've begun to find these comments more intimidating than the puzzles. Although there are always jewels that make the intimidation (mostly) worth it.

Fun! Approachable! A trip down memory lane! Had no idea about the factoid concerning Bill Nye. Although it may be trivia, it doesn't sound trivial. Will read the comments tonight.

A thoroughly enjoyable solve. It was not easy, had almost nothing after my first pass and I had to leave some areas blank for awhile, but ended up solving in less than my usual time. But the crunch during the solve left me satisfied--kind of like a few bites of a very rich dessert. First filled in the Roman numerals as MMMDDDCCCLLLXXX and was momentarily nonplussed when I came back around to the instrument and realized it had to be a SAX. Stared a moment, then FACEPALMed when I realized you'd never use two D's or two L's together in standard notation. (I'm assuming this has been discussed below, but not going to read all ya'll's comments right now.) One more comment before getting back to the writing I'm supposed to be doing. Something that helped speed things along today was, whenever I was stuck, assuming there was some more interesting logic the constructor and editors were using than what I was using. I find this is usually a pretty safe bet for this venue--and often jostles the synapses enough to get me going again.

Really enjoyed this puzzle. Didn't find it as easy as some because I got bogged down in the SW. Could only think of Quik for the chocolatey drink. After deleting that, I had a pretty empty corner. Aha! Had to pull myself away from thinking about Jalapeño as food. Then I could see it as TEXT with a TILDE, and the entire SW quadrant fell. Robyn, thank you for the brief respite. I needed that.

Quick one today, a lot quicker than yesterday's. For me, a fun, breezy (for a Thursday) puzzle with enough chewiness to keep it interesting. A lot of answers that I knew that I knew, but just couldn't quite remember. But once I got the theme, then yes, I did know the name of that long-time judge and the city in the northwest. My favorite was 3D. It was unexpected.

Can't ever remember a puzzle that was both this hard and this quick. I was surprised when I got the happy music and even more surprised that my time was less than half my rolling average. I pretty much guessed at the last two letters and conclude these were correct only by a fluke. Now want to go learn more about a certain rock bed. Thought the clue for 30A was inspired.