NYC Traveler
Now In Boulder, CO
I honestly do not understand the hate heaped on this puzzle from a few hours ago. It was different, original, novel, a new experience - pick your descriptor - and fun to solve! I can not imagine the effort that goes in to making something like this work. Please, Mr. Sclossberg, do not be discouraged by some of the comments that you read here. A lot of us LOVED this puzzle and welcomed a new twist on the usual Sunday fare.
Spoiler alert: This puzzle has a rebus. (C’mon, *somebody*had to say it!)
I’m calling Natick. 24A and 26D are beyond the limits of reasonable knowledge for mere mortals. Throw in the unknown 37A and the highly suspicious 38D, and there you have it. It qualifies. There are those who will disagree with me. You’re entitled to your opinion, as am I.
Arrghh! Thought I had a shot to be the first commenter of the new year (sorta), but couldn’t get past the broken link. Oh, well. Loved the puzzle, great to start the new year with. Happy New Year, everyone! 🎉🥳🍾🥂🎈
@Charles Anderson, Turns out there is a worse president of this century. Or any other. Or those yet to come.
TIL about OBELI. I always just called them “.daggers”.
This was a great theme for a crossword puzzle. As others have mentioned, I’m sure there is a lot of overlap in the Venn diagram of NYTXW solvers and Jeopardy! fans. While my enjoyment of the theme does not reach the heights attained by HeathieJ with the Star Trek puzzle of a few days ago, it was still a lot of fun, especially for a Thursday. I thought I should give an update to my recent experience that I’ve mentioned here. My lovely sister-in-law unfortunately passed away during the night yesterday while in hospice care at home. Even though we knew it was coming, we were still surprised by how markedly her condition changed and that she was gone so quickly. I know that she was well cared for every step of the way, most especially by her husband, my awesome brother Joe. Please remember to show love to the people in your life that you love. It’s easy to take for granted how important they are to us. 🙏🏻
I liked this puzzle. Mostly because it was my 2000th solve in a row! That number has seemed so far away for a long time. But doing the crosswords every day has been a great source of entertainment, accomplishment, satisfaction, education, challenge, … I could go on. One of the best things has been getting to the point where my mindset is that I can always finish the puzzle. It might take me a while, and the hard ones won’t be done in one sitting, but I’ll figure it out. I think that carries over subconsciously to other areas of life, and that ain’t bad.
I have never used or heard of ALOP. Sounded kind of EELY to me.
I’m a little embarrassed to admit that after having __TS for 37D, my first thought was that there were 2.3 million RATS. 😖
Wow!!! What a puzzle!! I cottoned (or flaxed?) to the theme when I got the revealer, but still took me a while to see how the wormholes worked. They were rebuses? That were different types of worms? And they worked both across AND down??!? Unbelievable. Well done, Mr. Schiff. Took me nearly an hour, but how satisfying was that to complete? It also happened to be the five-year anniversary of the start of my streak. Quite a suitably challenging puzzle to finish a five-year run with. Thank you again, Dylan.
“Desirable formation for ducks” I confidently entered VEE. 😀 And it stayed there for a long time.
@Dave, I don’t consider @Andrzej a hall monitor. The guy has insightful comments, asks questions about quirks of the language, and contributes much to the upbeat vibe of the Comments here. All while solving very challenging crossword puzzles in a language not his own. My hat is off to him.
Liked the puzzle today, a good Wednesday, just the right amount of challenge. Well done, Aidan and Oren. I’ve been traveling lately and am still catching up on reading the comments from the last few days. What an amazing set of puzzles from last weekend! I seriously thought that my streak would end on Friday, then again on Saturday. The NW on both of those really kicked my onager (hah, emus!). And Sunday was a ton of fun! I felt like a real yegg by the end. (Flashback to the 70’s) A few months ago I bemoaned the fact that I wouldn’t be able to attend the ACPT event this year and meet some of the people that I have gotten to know through this forum. After I finally got up the nerve to actually go, I had to change my plans. But for a good reason. My first granddaughter Maya was born to my daughter on March 9! First girl in the family after four grandsons, much like my daughter was the first girl of her generation. I had a wonderful time being there with them all and glad that I could be there at her birth. Just wanted to share my good news with everyone, and maybe I can bore you all with pictures in Stamford next year!
Excellent puzzle! Loved the trick. Thank you, Ella.
Thank you, Garrett Chalfin, not just for the fun of solving your puzzle today, but for sharing your story with us. I got goosebumps reading about the joy you felt when your first NYT puzzle was accepted. Well done, sir.
Bold prediction: People are going to hate this one. It is a real challenge. Nice to finish.
@Greg Anderson, There is a mention in the Wordplay column today about the deliberate decision not to go with a rebus, and how the theme made the solve a little different today. The columnist is a new guy, so you might want to cut him some slack 😊.
I’m really not saying this just to contribute to the Great New York Times Crossword Comments Competition, but doing these puzzles from the last two days and reading their Constructor Notes and learning the background and reading everyone’s comments here, including those from the constructor herself, … I’m just so impressed and thankful to be a part of this community. May we never, ever take for granted the special space that we have here.
@Whoa Nellie, You’re in the Crossword today!!!
Liked the revealer. It wasn’t immediately obvious how the highlighted answers could be tied together. Well done!
@Derrick, I love it when constructors respond in the Comments. Thank you, Derrick, for this amazing creation. When I read here that the rebuses formed a pangram, I was stunned. @Lewis’s comment on your puzzle today is perfect. An awesome accomplishment. Thank you, sir!
TIL that PRINCEVALIANT and THEWIZARDOFID have the same number of letters. Ask me how I know.
@Jonathan, As opposed to earlien.
This is not a comment on the puzzle, which I greatly enjoyed, although I didn’t get the PERCENT/NOQUARTER link until I read @Steve L’s excellent “to a five-year-old” explanation. I’m writing to say that I was all set to reward myself with attending the ACP Tournament this year for the first time, after years of solving the NYT crossword and reading the Comments from all of you. I’ll admit to feeling nervous about the opportunity to meet so many people who I’ve only known through this column, but my curiosity and interest finally overcame my fear of possible rejection and I made plans to finally go. Alas, life got in the way, as it often does, this time in a good way. I’ll be occupied with caring for my grandson after my daughter has her second child (my first granddaughter) in late March. While I’m obviously looking forward to that, I’m going to miss the opportunity to meet many of you there. Usually I tell myself that there’s always next year, but at 72 I know how things can change from one year to the next. I’ll have to settle for just being there in SPIRIT instead. 🙂
Just had a thought. If some brilliant constructor could come up with a puzzle with rebuses and also used Pig Latin, maybe with a few sports and math references thrown in, that would have to set the record for number of comments and maybe even break the internet.
My son graduated from Tufts in 2008, so I sent him a screenshot of today’s puzzle with that answer filled in, along with PROUDPAPA(S) above it. Very nice.
Liked the answer for 32A, but thought it would be FINGER PAINTING. (Hello, emus)
David, That would be Tin PAN Alley, mon ami. Tin Can Alley is much less desirable. (Do emus nibble on tin cans?)
Boy, did that one kick my onager. Started with a lot of wrong answers. Sort of remembered Segovia associated with guitar, but not with Spain. So I came up with aruSSIansGUITAR for 3D. (Doh!) Had MeetS before MIXES, puLLUP before ROLLUP, erte before IVES. I was a hot mess. Took me just under an hour, but I finished. Truly a worthy adversary. Thank you, Mr. Slonecker!
Thought I might be the first to comment tonight, but no. I liked it. Went fairly fast. Always fun for me no matter how easy it might be.
@Janet, Hornworm was my first thought, too, but I only knew them to wreak their havoc on tomato plants. They were always visible to me when I grew tomatoes, didn’t know they burrowed underground. Extremely destructive critters. I haven’t read all the comments yet, so I’m guessing that MOL has already chimed in. Side note: I’m finding it very hard to keep up with reading the Comments these days. If I have anything else at all going on in my life, by the time I look at comments, there are 300-400 already, no matter the day of the week, even when there’s not a rebus involved 😄. I like to read what’s there before commenting myself, but knowing that no one will ever see anything I say after several hours have passed, I’m less and less likely to post anything. It is an odd thing to complain about. The fact that there are always so many comments really speaks to how active this section has become. Sometimes it’s from predictable back-and-forth, or carping about unfair clues, but a lot is from just having a growing online community that is supportive, funny, smart, and very caring. Getting reports from @HeathieJ about her trip to Honduras, the insights into Polish culture from @Andrzej, the always informative and authoritative posts from BA and @Steve L, et al/alia/alii — I’ve learned a lot from being here. I feel very fortunate to have gotten to know so many of you over the years. There’s nowhere else that I would rather hang out.
To the constructor: So, if you had NOT gotten into college and you had NOT gone to law school and had NOT gotten in to your SAFETY SCHOOL … Would we be calling you Zero Degrees Kelvin? (Have pity on me. I had to go a long ways for that joke)
Hoo boy, that was a doozy! Loved seeing the emojis and figuring out the answers. COMMODORES were a blast from the past. I loved the “Noted wildlife refuge”, too. But ESPIAL, srsly?
@HeathieJ, Let me be the first to wish you a very Happy Birthday!!!🎉🎂🎈🎁🥳 (I know it’s not technically for a couple of hours yet, but the Wednesday puzzle is here, so I think that counts) Will you be having that swim in the sea? 🤗 Have a great time today!
@Mike, I don’t have a pun to respond to you with, but it did make me think that it might have been clued as [John Cage composition].
Not as hard as most Fridays, but an enjoyable romp nevertheless.
Nice puzzle, Ginny! I liked the bird theme. Very cleverly done. Thank you!
@Don H, Like suddenly a 50-pound bag of bird seed showing up at your front door?
@Steve L, Further proof that the New York Times has sold out to Big Craft.
I came here to say that 22A is just flat out wrong. When a ballgame goes into extra innings, a runner is automatically placed on second base in order to — What’s that? Oh! I thought we were still NATTERING on about yesterday’s puzzle. My bad. 😆
@William Beare, Looks like Nathan CROSSEDABEAR(e)! (My apologies to all. It was just lying there waiting to be picked up, and I just couldn’t help myself)
Holy oleo, that was tough. The combination of Sam Ezersky and Saturday is a deadly one. I managed to make it through, but not without a lot of doubts. With the west side mostly empty, I just kept filling in a square at a time as I could, and lo and behold, happy music. There’s a lesson there somewhere …
Didn’t know that it was Jacque Tati Week for the crossword.
@Lewis, Whew! 😅 I speak for a lot of us when I say that I’m glad that had a happy ending! 🐻
A show of hands for everyone who thought of Barry Ancona and his favorite rejoinder when they filled in 57D 😄.
@Andrzej, You need to see The Big Lebowski, if for no other reason than to fill a hole in your cultural education. Which is exactly what I did about fifteen years ago, when I saw it for the first time at a special screening at the Boulder Theater. I was not prepared for the Rocky Horror-like atmosphere that I walked into — guys wearing bathrobes, strolling around with White Russians in their hands — it all makes sense if and only if (to borrow a mathematical phrase) you see the movie. You owe it to yourself, preferably somewhere on the big screen.
@kilaueabart, Happy Birthday!!! Wow, 90! Now that’s a streak! I hope you’ll be having a big celebration of some kind for this milestone. There are many of us here who look forward to your posts and are interested in how you’re doing. I admire you for continuing to solve the puzzles that you can and how you just refuse to give up. You are a real inspiration here. Have a wonderful birthday! 🎂 🎉🎈🎁
WOAH! First to comment? Be still my heart. Liked this puzzle. Not hard.
@Deborah Gordon, I for one didn’t know the details of a BOX SOCIAL. I appreciate the explanation. Happy New Year, everyone! 🎉🥳🍾🥂❤️