Jill
South Florida
@Cathy, if your 3-year-old did the Sunday NYT crossword, I think he can handle a scientific explanation.
@M, I agree with you on the theme. For once, it helped me to fill in the rest of the answers once I got it on the first, but I didn’t have much satisfaction from a fun cohesion or aha moments. Re: the architect: I only had the first I and instantly entered IMPEI. Although I didn’t know he was the architect for that specific building, he was so famous, and so frequently featured in the crosswords, that it was a gimme for me. Five-letter architect (no matter how it’s clued)? I.M. Pei. Three-letter singer? Ora or Ono. Four-letter place in India? Agra. Four-letter Native American tribe? Otoe or Cree. A lot of the skill in doing these puzzles (and the part that becomes easier the more you do them) comes from remembering these frequent flyers.
Well, it appears that I am a MINORITYOFONE today, because I loved this puzzle! Sure, it was more challenging than the typical Tuesday, but even on a few of the unknowns (or partially deduceables), I was able to get them from the crosses. I thought the theme was clever, once I got it. I had already gotten the lengthy theme answers, so it didn’t help me fill those, but I enjoyed spotting it. My favorite days are the late-week puzzles, and for me, Mondays and Tuesdays have gotten a little too easy (after lots of practice). So I enjoyed the challenge! I look forward to more from Paul Coulter.
@D, I think you would be very lonely on that hill! For many of us, Thursdays are our favorites!
@Dakota, I assume you are younger, because those of us who are a bit older are very familiar with her. Hopefully, by now you have Googled and learned about the seminal case of Anita Hill v Clarence Thomas—a travesty of justice with consequences that have endured for decades.
Yes it was only the easy side, but when I read the story behind the constructors, it warmed my heart. I love that this was a collab with a center for the aging. I lost my parents back-to-back two years ago, and they were both avid, daily NYT puzzlers. They would so have loved to take part in this project! 🥰 A fun theme, a nice break from the earlier puzzles in the week, and now I am ready for the challenges in the next two days’ worth.
@Momerlyn, soon-to-be grandma here (in May). When my children were toddlers, I limited their sweets and junk food. Inevitably, they would come back from their paternal grandmother‘s house having loaded up on those things. I was so dismayed because I thought it was sending mixed messages. I’ll never forget our pediatrician telling me that children know the difference between Mom‘s house and Grandma‘s house, and it’s perfectly OK to be spoiled by Grandma. Now I can’t wait to do the same!
Loved this fun theme! I got the trick at 35A when I had a partial fill from the crosses and thought, wow, this must be Tarantino but… TARNAT…?? I already had DOUBLE at 62A, and RE… at 63A, and suddenly everything made sense and the rest fell into place. Knowing that even with a theme like this, the entered words have to be a real word, the theme answers filled in quickly and helped with a few of the downs. I used to find Thursdays extremely difficult, but I have been working through the archived Thursdays, so far back to 2020, and I now find them much easier and love them! I highly recommend the archives for people who find Thursdays too challenging or frustrating. I believe you will come to look forward to them!
@Byron a bialy is similar to a bagel but softer and with no hole, just a divot. Typically filled with onions. They’re delicious! For bear meaning gnarly problem, think of “wow, that was a real bear of a puzzle.” That’s the way I read it, unless I missed something more directly correlated.
@Tony, it asked for the time that marks the beginning of Taurus season (which spans more than one month). That time is late April.
I enjoyed today’s puzzle. I look forward all week to the increased difficulty of Friday and Saturday, and often, Sunday is a bit of a letdown. Longer, but usually relatively easy. Which is unfortunate, because that’s the day I have the leisurely morning to take my time completing it. The extra challenge with the rebuses today gave me a good, fun workout. I welcome a long and challenging Sunday. Monday and Tuesday are easy enough that we can whip them out before work. Great job, Amie Walker. Keep ‘em coming!
Not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but can we get a hats (caps?) off to the developers for today’s Strands grid? Bravo! 👏👏👏
I loved everything about this puzzle! I caught on at 30A [3,065, in ancient Rome]. Favorite clues: 1D [Red rover home], which I puzzled over till halfway through and then laughed out loud; 70A [Your business start-up?]; and 126A [Happy companion]. Very clever! Never noticed the whole alphabet in the rebuses till l read the column at completion—what an amazing feat! 👏👏👏
I loved this!! Took me right back to the hundreds of thousands of miles spent on airplanes, American specifically, and that feeling of disappointment when you open to the puzzles and someone already wrote in them. (I always wrote on a separate piece of paper as a courtesy.) Great misdirections at first, and an awesome April Fools’ Day puzzle. Bravo! 👏👏👏
@Sandip please don’t add spoilers for the other NYT games! I look forward all day to doing them after work, but I do the Crossword first thing in the morning.
Loved this crunchy challenge! Almost twice my Saturday average. Bravo, Katie! Scanning the grid, re-scanning, and scanning again repeatedly, filling in a letter here, a letter there, and finally gaining a toehold with a few words and phrases (with glorious aha moments) made for a super satisfying solve. The NW corner hung me up the longest: I had “I HAD A BLAST” for far too long at 1A, combined with “MOFU BREWER” at 15A, and therefore, obviously, the youth baseball supporters were “DUES,” leaving 1D a mystery. What a lulu! I mean a doozy!
@LJADZ, hmm. I loved it! One man’s obscure nonsense is another [wo]man’s pleasurable challenge. I look forward all week to this Saturday morning mental workout, and today’s fit the bill perfectly.
Fun puzzle. I wish the rebus puzzles would *only* accept the rebus, not the first letter in one direction. I got the completion and the music having only filled in the Fs in the acrosses. Was a let down to get the completion without discovering the trick. It should have forced me to rethink it and enter the PH/F and enjoy that aha moment. There should only be one single convention for double rebuses: “across/down”, and no other accepted variant. (And for single rebuses, only the full spelling, not the first letter.)
Wow, fantastic! Bravo to Dylan Schiff! I was completely 92D for quite a while, totally 2D. “36A!!” Figured out the trick at 97A (speaking of ear worms!), and then little by little, I got it all 42D. Fresh fill in the rest, absolutely no 42D. Several misdirects that felt like gimmies at first (e.g., RAPPER at 13A) made this even more challenging. Perfect puzzle for a lazy Sunday, basking in the glory that we still have one more day of R&R tomorrow. Happy Memorial Day, everyone. Thank you to all who have served, and bless those who lost their lives defending our freedom.
Having never heard of UNDIE RUNS, I assumed that must be a gaming term for streaks of successful wins without dying. Ha!
@MmmmHmm, I felt that way about Friday and Saturday puzzles in the beginning, often taking we’ll over an hour to complete them (and often with a few lookups). But fast forward a couple of years, and I am usually getting them pretty well between 20 to 30 minutes. Keep at it! Half the secret is remembering the usual suspects (not too many today!) Another is deducing word patterns (based on tense, plurals, etc.) And finally, you sort of catch on to the puns just from experience. I didn’t know several of the answers today, but they eventually filled themselves in from their crosses and that deductive reasoning.
Cute theme, enjoyed it. Kept getting the oops message and spent way too long looking for my typo and finding nothing amiss. Turns out I had an error at 86A/71D that seemed perfectly reasonable: SOMETHINGGOLD for the sequin jacket, and therefore, DRAG for lackluster (as in a party). Anyone else?
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight, your NIECE is your mother’s [other] daughter’s [i.e., your sister’s] daughter.
I was so stuck on DRACULA being correct. Vampires are ‘out” (as in, like a light; asleep) for breakfast, right? Worked for me. The children’s cereal never entered my mind. That kind of stuff was verboten in my childhood home, and in that of my children. Thus, my NE corner was a hot mess for far too long. Being confident that the mysterious wax collectible was some kind of …CARD further added to the muck. (I knew the physics measurement had to be PHI or CHI, but what is a LCRECARD?? Ha!) Still eked it out slightly under my Saturday average, but not by much thanks to that stubborn mental block. Loved this puzzle with all its fresh fill! Makes me sad that we’ll be back to the easy ones for a few days.
The reason why many tried to enter rebuses (aside from it being a Thursday) is that not only did it make the answers work (across and down), but also, it showed a progressive series (top to bottom) of “grade inflations”: F/D, D/C, C/B, B/A. Had they not been in order that way, the rebuses wouldn’t have seemed so correct. Easy enough to fix, after fly-specking to find my error, but it did add to my pleasantly fast solve time.
Deb, I am so sorry for your loss of your father. Your column was a beautiful tribute to him. It sounds like he was a wonderful man and father. I lost my dad two years ago this Saturday (and my mom right after), and the slightest thing still makes me cry, including your column today. I take solace in the good memories, and it sounds like you’re doing the same. Take care of yourself. Bravo to the constructor(s) and editors today. Great puzzle, very clever!
@Mike S waving hello from Fort Lauderdale – even though I completely disagree with you! I loved this one and got it right away with Long John Silver.
@Tex same. I can usually tell where suffixes are going to go, like S, ED, ING, IC, ESE, ISH, EST, IEST, ER, IER…, and then I play the “what if” game on the corresponding crosses to see if they work. Little by little, I can usually get things filled in that were previously roadblocks.
@Elizabeth, what goes on means clothing, which goes in the closet.
@Laura Stratton, as soon as I saw Maryland crab, I knew it had to do with Old Bay but didn’t figure it out till I got the X from 46D. It’s not that obscure – try it sometime, it’s a very versatile seasoning blend.
I loved this crunchy Saturday puzzle! I had almost nothing on my first pass. And my second revealed only an entry or two. On my third pass, a few squares filled in by deductive reasoning on the word patterns. Then, very slowly but surely, it all came together. Just perfect! Funny, my first thought on 1A was indeed the answer, but I thought, [no way in hell] could that be it. A few downs proved me wrong (or right, as it turned out!)
Did anyone else confidently fill in EMILY at 35A on the first pass? (Since we still can’t search the comments, this may have been mentioned.) Got a laugh from the clue wording when I realized it was HELEN. Great puzzle, and a fantastic debut from Joyce Keller! Like many, my favorites were C[A]ESAREAN and MANSPREADING. As a mom and a new grandmother, I am thankful to not have experienced the former, and as a frequent flyer, I am all too familiar with the latter.
@The X-Phile, exactly how I solved today’s puzzle!
What a fabulous and fun Sunday morning puzzle! Thank you, Alex Eaton-Salners. Plentiful puns that made me laugh and clever wordplay with satisfying AHA! moments. So much more enjoyable to deduce than hunting and pecking to fill in trivia with crosses. My favorites were 25A: [How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying] and 91A: [Into the Woods]. Terrific! Alex, my condolences on your loss of your mother. It does get easier with time, but for me, it has been three years and I am still on that journey. This puzzle was a great dedication to your mom.
@Lewis Hear, hear! I understand NYT’s objective of attracting more players, especially with the expanded family memberships they are hawking. But please don’t cater exclusively to newcomers at the expense of your loyal, paying regulars!
@Hank, agreed, but anyone who grew up listening to Maria sing it would recognize it right away. She defined “so” (its homophone anyway) as a needle pulling thread, which “sol” would not be. Then again, one needs the British English pronunciation to equate “fa” with a long, long way to run!
@Jeff Z don’t forget every Brian or 3-letter musician is Eno (or Ono), every Rita is Ora, every fantasy creature is Orc, and every Australian denizen is emu!
I can’t believe how long I was stuck in the northwest corner at 21A (with no idea what 3D could be). My family had a vacation home for almost 25 years in The Broadmoor Resort Community in Colorado Springs, in the foothills of Cheyenne Mountain. We had an unobstructed view of the beautiful mountain (and NORAD!) right outside my bedroom window, and that was the first photo I took every time we arrived. D’oh! We sold the house three years ago, and I miss it dearly (and DEER-ly!)
@Sandip a Jersey is a breed of cow. That was one of my favorite clues! I chuckled when I figured it out.
@ad absurdum, that’s perfect!
Loved this one! I have seen several comments mentioning that the numbers in the grid clued them in to the theme. But for me, the numbers did not appear (in the app) until I successfully completed the puzzle. Was it perhaps only in the print version? Luckily, I didn’t need them, and got it fairly early on at 24D. I am positive they did not appear until completion, because I had a typo at 3D (had AGE, which worked when I misread my answer at 17A as PRE(E)MINENTLY), so I took a screenshot to flyspeck the puzzle for my error without running up the timer. Once I changed the E to an O, I got the mines and the numbers (and the happy music). Regardless, fun puzzle! My favorite clue: 26D (MINEallMINE).
@Jill OK, now I have read the Wordplay column. It seems they should have been there all along, per Deb when quoting Christina Iverson. Strange! I enjoyed it much better finding the mines on my own.
@Andrzej, that is a beautiful tradition and one I would love to start in my family. I will follow it in my own way today here in Florida. I scattered my parents’ ashes at sea two years ago (in the Florida Keys), honoring their wishes. I have no graves or tombstones to visit. But we have a lovely “cold” front today, sunny and 70°. Perhaps I will go to the beach and visit them. 🤍🕊️
Sheesh, it took me 15 minutes to nearly complete the puzzle (fairly easy for a Saturday) and another 10 to work out my problem in the northeast corner. For 34A, I have only ever seen and used OBVS, not OBVI. The devious clue misdirect at 18A (not had by) further muddied the waters and had me stuck on 14D (face justice) forever. When I finally realized 14D was not one indecipherable word, nor two, but three (!), I got the happy music. WHEW!
What a delightful Saturday puzzle! Lots of fresh fill, fun cluing, and very little trivia – except for the inimitable NEIL Peart at 23A, and the country singer at 37A who I didn’t know but got from the crosses. Bravo and thank you, Adrian Johnson! I agree with you that your clue for 51A [Take it back!] sparkled. I hope all my fellow Americans had a lovely and relaxing Thanksgiving spent with family, friends, loved ones, pets, peace and quiet, or all of the above!
@Darren, I loved it! Obviously, I had no idea, but knew it was a very long Roman numeral, and it gradually filled in from the crosses.
@Greg4734 the theme answers are fights (altercations) about altering things (copy editing).
Granted, it seems like the left-side clues would have worked better if they had said “…a clue for how to *read* the answer to the right side clue rather than *enter* it. Nonetheless, perfectly clear to me and I found the puzzle pretty straightforward. I only got stuck in the middle north at mis-entering Hawaii as the HOTTEST, throwing me for a loop at 1A and 15A. Knowing 9D was SMUG, I couldn’t make 1A work but was thrown by its being part of Jabberwocky, which is made up of nonsensical words anyway (till I remembered that old poetic contraction). As for the unfamiliar (to me) comedian Chelsea, it could only have been PERELLI or PERETTI, and though I didn’t know TAIO, it surely wasn’t LESTPREP. So, a very pretty solve for me.
@Jared, I had …SONATA with only four letters in front of it. Knowing it was the NYT Crossword, my first guess was OBOE since that is *the* default four-letter wind instrument around these parts. Luckily, that fit right in and gave me the train-jumping spider.
@Katie, I think you’re remembering “rock, paper, scissors, shoot,” a variation where you show your move on the fourth count, not on the third when you say scissors.