Ali J
NC, US
NC, US
I typically don’t comment on puzzles, since my experience with them waxes and wanes because I tend to fall asleep working them, or I get distracted, so my thinking isn’t always clear and quick and my solve times are erratic. That said, I feel a strong desire to call out probably my favorite answer I’ve ever encountered in my now 2+ years of solving: LEONIDS just delighted me! I am often staring at the sky in wonder, picking out constellations or taking a moment to be dazzled by the moon. I’ve done this since I was a kid, when I learned how easily I could find the Big Dipper. I have witnessed more than a few meteors streak across my view while driving home at night or standing in my backyard after midnight. I managed to just catch what I’m pretty sure was a fireball meteor last week! Each time I’ve seen one, I’m left awed by the vast unknown expanse before me, and so deeply connected to my humanity. It’s as if I can envision being alive thousands of years ago, seeing the gods in the stars, while at the same time I feel myself connected to those YET TO COME, knowing they will certainly one day experience the very same beauty. It’s simultaneously a super grounding and weightless feeling. Thank you to constructor Katie Hoody for inspiring this reflection in me today! I hope all of you get a chance to look up at the stars once in a while. The Lyrids will be at peak visibility in the US at the end of April!
I had DOUBLETROUBLE for the longest time and just couldn’t make sense of the middle 🤦♀️ I re-read the clue several times when I suddenly realized I was missing the incredibly obvious, lol. This was my first puzzle since taking a long break from NYT games in August, and it was exactly the kind of challenge I was hoping for. Nothing felt particularly out of reach but it still required some deep thinking. Ironically, the one error keeping me from gold at first was 7-down, though I’m a native of NY (not S) so I think I get a pass!
This was one of those Thursdays that managed to sit PURRfectly in my trivia wheelhouse and honed crossword skills, so I sailed through, which usually doesn’t happen on the weekends. I loved it! I was especially proud of myself when I confidently filled in ELS, and didn’t balk at timiL. “ITS BAD” made me laugh out loud. I also really enjoyed the combo of TUXEDO, FERAL, and PURRS in this one. It instantly reminded me of my special little one-eyed soul cat Baby. He died suddenly from complications of a birth defect last year, at only 8. I didn’t get to say goodbye and it devastated me. (I’ll never forget the puzzle that day had the word “CAT” smack in the middle of it, which I filled in while we sat at the emergency vet.) I still miss him and think of him every day, but for whatever reason I’ve happened to feel a lot of memories and reminders of his presence all over the place this week. This puzzle felt like an extra touch of his paws to my heart 💛 Thank you, Zhou and Mallory!
@Ali J So I just went back to the crossword from March 18, 2025 and upon seeing it remembered being spooked by the answers that day, because not only was CAT right in the middle, but the answer immediately preceding it was HERNIA - which is what ultimately took his life that night. (A tear in his previously-repaired congenital diaphragmatic hernia.) It was an awful day, but regardless of the life-long heartbreak I’ll carry, the bond between me and that affectionate, feisty, runt of the litter, formerly feral, physical anomaly of a cat was more than worth every bit of it.
Captivating, clever, and heartwarming (like a bowl of warm ____) are all adjectives I would use to rat(e) this puzzle! I’ve been improving my crossword game on and off for about 2 years now, and I’ve had a few favorite themed ones (I remember a pizza-shaped reveal early on that really tickled me), but this one seemed to touch on a lot of my own personal strong points. ESTOS, NIHAO, MME and SCUSE (though I also had SCUSi for a long time) helped me fill in a lot of otherwise totally unknown spots, as did a lot of those simpler three-letter fills and I had a lot of those lovely little aha moments that have kept me coming back to the NYT Games. I think my favorite discovery was AERIES. I have shopped a fair amount at American Eagle Outfitters, so that answer was PLEASE-ing when I suddenly realized that’s why their sister store is called Aerie, hehe. Thank you to the creators and editors for this delightful Wednesday! :)
@Francis Thank you!! I must admit I always enjoy reading your comments when I scroll through so I’m almost a little… starstruck! Haha. I’ll try to come back more often 🤩 Yes that’s totally true, and a fact I love about the stars! I believe I’ve read it’s because the universe is ever expanding that the constellations will always be shifting. I wonder if in another millennium, assuming we’re still inhabiting the planet, what we’d see them as! And yet like you said, we have managed to see the same things in them over thousands of years. I really do find it an inspiring and comforting thought. Funnily enough I’ve never actually gotten myself a telescope but I really should, huh? Maybe before this next meteor shower! I’ll definitely check out that course too. I wasn’t brave enough to take an astronomy class in college, because a friend told me it was much more mathematic and challenging than I’d like but I sort of regret it now. I did get to see Neil Degrasse Tyson speak a few years ago though and that was pretty cool!
@Anthony Haha, I love the way you described that because that’s exactly how it felt trying to solve that one until I finally got the P from the cross. “Is there some sort of social media detox camp program I’ve never heard of? Are we talking about Apple Screen Time?” It’s like when RANDB for “R&B” or AANDM for A&M show up in a puzzle and I question my ability to understand English!
@Francis What I wouldn’t give to have seen Carl Sagan speak!! He’s definitely a hero for me too.
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