marigold

@Ms. Billie M. Spaight Why do you come here to ruin Connections for us?

@Matt @Andrzej Like Matt, I hated history until I was out of school. I never could understand why memorizing names and dates mattered, especially those about wars. I'd be willing to bet that most people who like history don't simply want learn trivia, either. And being out of school and able to read what I care about, let's me find the history that interests me. I wasn't interested in the math we did in elementary school. It was arithmetic -- boring and repetitive. Similar to Matt's experience with Gödel, Escher, and Bach, my interest in math was sparked by a book that seemed to have no relation to the math we did in school. It was a self-paced book about set theory someone handed to me. I loved that book and spent an entire weekend working through it for fun. Like puzzles. In other words, Andrzej, I don't think I like the math that you don't like. And it's possible that there might be some topic in math that you wouldn't hate if you were exposed to it in the right way. But I can accept that you aren't interested in finding out. However, I strongly believe that there is no person who would not benefit from some knowledge of math beyond arithmetic. Among other things, in today's world, I believe an understanding of statistical concepts and statistical thinking is required to interpret most information we are faced with evaluating. So why are people willing to say "I don't do math" when they'd never say "I don't do reading"? They seem equally important to me.

@Andrzej Have At It. — I thought the same thing at first.

@Mishlev I was reading the comments about the Thursday puzzle roughly 24 hours ago. It occurred to me that the people with the fastest solving times would be making comments sooner than those who struggle more. Also, those who are more serious about solving the puzzles are likely to start the puzzle earlier. Two hypotheses which, if correct, would cause there to be fewer complaints about the puzzle being too easy as it gets later in the day. I didn't get a chance to check this out but it should be easy to get an idea of the trend using a simple visual method. I'd be inclined to simply make a list of the attitudes of the commentors over time. Something like EENENNDENN, where E is a mention of the puzzle being Easy, D a mention of Difficult, and N indicates the comment was Neutral or made No mention of difficulty. Regardless, people who comment close together in time are likely to be more alike in ability and opinion of a puzzle than those making comments further apart. Another thought about the comments was about those who compared recent puzzles to ones published several years ago. There are a few reasons the old puzzles may seem harder including changes in how words are used and commonly known trivia, as well as a learning curve for those who have been solving for a number of years. But there are also good reasons why the Times may be trying to make the puzzle accessible to more people as they rely on puzzles to help maintain profitability. Just some thoughts.

@Patrick @Francis @Ben The slope of the curve is defined to be the slope of the tangent line at that point. A small segment of the tangent line through the point approximates the curve in the sense that as the length of the segment shrinks the segment itself gets closer to the curve at that point. So, technically, it's the small pieces of the line that approximate the curve. This is actually analytic geometry which is commonly taught with calculus. So, any technical calculus book (one used for teaching math, science, engineering students) would be a good reference. Sorry, any specific book I can name is likely to be out of date.

@David Hancock Parade rest is the way to stand when not moving forward in a parade.

@Jane Wheelaghan The original Dial Soap was the first antibiotic soap. They advertised heavily about the disinfectant, hexachlorophene, that the product contained. Hexachlorophene was found to cause problems with the nervous system and was banned from consumer products in the early 70s.

There are two sides to every story and I thought maybe the other side needed to state theirs on this thread. Unfortunately, I'm not really inclined to write a lot. But I have a story to add that demonstrates the other side of several of the posts with specific examples given. When I was 11 or 12, I was given an assignment to write an essay. I believe this was the first time I was assigned to write, rather than a story or a report, nonfiction based on beliefs or experiences. A few days after submitting my essay about how to build a snowman, the teacher read it to the class as an example of how one shouldn't write. I was humiliated. Perhaps I was motivated to learn to write better. I definitely found it extremely difficult to write after that experience. Unless I feel strongly about my subject, I can rarely bother to put my thoughts in words. This made it difficult to get through college. It makes writing a comment such as this require more time than I usually feel is worth it. ⛄

@Bongo Are you hedging?

@HeathieJ My stepmother. 💙

@Marshall Perhaps people, of either opinion on the appropriate level of difficulty of the puzzles, are not intentionally insulting those who disagree. Maybe they simply saying, "Consider my opinion." Either of the two perspectives most frequently expressed regarding this issue could be the most important consideration to those who decide. IMHO, what matters to them is likely to include both and a number of other things that we may not have thought of. Maybe there is an answer between the two extremes. Maybe we are even seeing it? Just a thought from someone who feels strongly both ways.

@David J Thanks for saying this. I think that the number of Recommendations that this comment received shows there are many who feel the same as you do. Probably more than most people who comment on the forum realize. I tried to say before, but apparently didn't express myself well, that the people who speak up the most don't always represent the majority. Thirty-something years ago I lived in Tallahassee when a local TV station held a phone-in survey about whether people thought the city should have a professional hockey team. The station reported the results by saying that 99% of the people thought they should get a hockey team. (I doubt that 99% of the people in any city care about hockey.) It's usually the people who feel the most emotional about a question who are likely to volunteer their opinion on the issue. In most situations, these are the people who are most upset about how things are. Also, people who are most confident about their crossword solving ability are most likely to be confident about their ability to judge the quality of a puzzle. This means they are most likely to comment on a forum about specific puzzles. With no disrespect intended toward anyone, I just wanted to share a couple of facts that might lead someone to overestimate how common their view is among all those that care.

@Mark What salad?

@jf Didn't make sense to me so I looked it up. Appeared to specifically refer to a bachelorette party. I'm not even sure that the word "bachelorette" was used when I was that age.

@Jake G Or, to put it another way, the Times needs to recalibrate the difficulty of the puzzles in order to meet the ability of a larger share of their solvers. As more people try the puzzle each day, those people who have been solving it for years and like more challenging puzzles represent a smaller percentage of their clientele.

@Calhouri I hope it's not mean to say this. I'm not wanting to be snarky but Miss Piggy was one of the Muppets who never happened to appear on Sesame Street.

@Barry Ancona I believe “a standard of measurement” refers to a method of measuring something. This would be how one finds the length and width, along with the units of measurement used (e.g. metric system, imperial system) but not the values obtained for length and width themselves. So, a measurement is a number with units and a metric is a method for obtaining the number. But maybe this is too technical. I’m having trouble finding a place it is explained without getting too mathematical. I’ll keep looking.

@Heidi Wite-out. Mike Nesmith's (of the Monkees) mom. Definitely was an intentional invention. But an interesting story anyway. Shouldn't be too hard to find. I think it's in both of their obituaries.

@Rob I thought she tried to Speak French, in general. The problem was she only knew very few words. An example: <a href="https://youtube.com/shorts/ikAGW5zIp20?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/shorts/ikAGW5zIp20?feature=shared</a>

@Puzzle Pat It looks the same as usual to me on my iPhone. But you’re right the numbers are way off: 157 (approx) vs 429.

@Amanda Are you starting from a page that has icons for Games Friends Me across the bottom? Are you choosing Me ? You should see stats for 4 or 5 different games when you do. If not, you might have left it on one of them. For example, if you only see data about Crosswords, there should be an option in the upper right that says Back to game stats X Click the X and the others should come back. I hope. 🤞

@Steve L This sort of abuse of language does a lot to explain why so many people in this country don’t understand math.

@Paul R I liked the puzzle but I did wonder about the ear clip, too. Seems to me it's one use of blue-tooth but not an aid to blue tooth. Blue tooth can be used with other wireless peripherals, such as wireless mice or keyboards.

@SBK Fat?

@Andrzej I tried to take your advice. When I opened the archive, it was on March 2018. I figured that what you suggest would apply just as well to a puzzle from 4 years before your suggestion. I arbitrarily chose to work the one that was published on Friday, March 16. From my perspective, this Friday puzzle from 2018 was of very similar difficulty to today's. I may have happened to pick one that was easy for then. When I tried to check the comments from that puzzle, I only managed to get another copy of today's. I guess it could go either way.

@DawnW I tried both ways. No music. Checked the grid twice (across and down) first against the clues and then against the answer key. Tried deleting the squares with pictures since I couldn't be sure whether any response from me was entered. Still no music. Tried entering the letters for those squares. Nope. I can be a little slow but I realized that I could find out whether there was a problem by checking the comments. I did think to order them according to the number of responses. But I had already done what people were saying worked for them. Since I was working on my (Android) tablet using the games app, I decided to try something else. Pulled out the iPhone with its app, but no luck again, though the time it gave was lower. Went to check whether I did/did not have anything typed in those squares. Deleted what may have been in the first, deleted what may have been in the second -- Bingo! Music! Have added a total of about 15 minutes to my time, but my streak is intact. At least I think it is. Last time I lost the streak, I got a gold star that was taken back a day or two later. We'll give it a few days! Hope this helps someone who may still be having problems.

@JoanE I had to switch devices and then delete the letter. Figuring out what you need to do may be a puzzle of its own!

@Phil The actual link: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conte_(literature" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conte_(literature</a>) Looks right to me. Seems the English and French words don't mean exactly the same thing.

@jennie I agree with you that Antifa does not refer to any organized group. It is a term that many people who favor more conservative political views use to label people who are opposed to fascism. Both groups of people, those who refer to others as Antifa and those that are referred to as Antifa, are people who are involved in expressing their opinions about political issues. I think this provides legitimacy to referring to either as a political group. I don't see that the clue claims that either group is organized or is in any way "official," and so I have no problem with the clue. What is very different, and I do object to very strongly, is the claim that to be Antifa is to belong to a terrorist (or any other kind) of organization. I also believe it would be unconstitutional in this country to punish people for any belief, including being against fascism. 🏵️

@Paul I don't think of a trend line as being defined as strictly as a tangent line. It probably depends on what area of study the people using the term are in. I think the term is commonly used in finance but I think there the definition is not strict. In this case, 2 people could have slightly different trend lines. I have also seen the term used for what I would call a regression line. In both cases, I don't think people are starting with a curve and trying to approximate it. I think they start with a bunch of separate points and are try trying to approximate them.

@NYC Traveler Breyer's makes both.

@Blue Perhaps it was open on a college campus?

@SBK When the closing Parenthesis is included in @Phil’s link, it will open in Wikipedia at the following paragraph: “Conte (pronounced [kɔ̃t]) is a literary genre of tales, often short, characterized by fantasy or wit.[1] They were popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries until the genre became merged with the short story in the nineteenth century. Distinguishing contes from other literary genres is notoriously difficult due to the various meanings of the French term conte [fr] that span folktales, fairy tales, short stories, oral tales, and fables.” I wasn’t thinking about any body parts. My point was simply that the French word “conte” and the English word “conte” do not directly translate to each other, as is explained in the passage. If the clue in the puzzle is referring to the French word then the puzzle makes sense. @Phil’s post has been corrected but it originally was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conte_(literature" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conte_(literature</a> This link, as best I recall, goes to a disambiguating page. Maybe there is something on that page that refers to the word that doesn’t belong in this conversation?

@Steve L Sorta like newspapers?

@Barry Ancona Just curious, Barry. Does xwstats have access to the data for everyone who solves the puzzle on line, only people who pay for access to his site, or do people have to send their times to the site?

@Charles Peterson Once in the 80s I was teaching a class in Cupertino and the materials I needed didn't end up on the flight they were supposed to. I ended up spending 3 hours in the SF airport checking every flight that they might be on, while playing Q-bert, feeding quarters in the machine one at a time. Usually, I played at home. My favorite!

@Warren People working the NYer puzzle need to be aware that the difficulty isn't set by the day of the week. The difficulty of each puzzle is noted at the top. Yesterday's is labeled "beginner friendly." I hope those of you who want to try their puzzles find this helpful.

@Weak I may be the only one but I would have never been able to get all of the theme clues without the revealer. I think trying to solve this without the shaded squares would have been easier.

@Jay I think you need to work it on the day it comes out to get the gold 🌟. There is some leeway regarding what "the day" is but I'm not sure how it's defined. One time, I got a gold 🌟 but when I came back it had turned blue. I never figured out whether someone painted it or it was just cold 🥶.

@Linda Jo I can’t find a discussion of MODE below. I can’t help wondering what the problem is. There is no technical definition in statistics for the word AVERAGE. It’s a nontechnical way to talk about typical values in a set of data. The MODE is one of 3 ways that are generally used for that purpose, depending on the data and how the result is used. Check the definition of AVERAGE in Merriam Webster Dictionary, for example.

@HVK @SUSAN E Do you think the difference in how difficult the theme was for people might be age-related? Those who have used typewriters vs those who haven’t. I’m 71, not great at xwords in general, but I thought this was an easy puzzle.