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Yay!! Finally a rebus again! With no revealer hint - extra tricky. Makes me extra proud I eventually figured it out. To everyone who hates them: just skip Thursday and let the rest of us enjoy without the snark - please?
@NS I would guess that there are far more people who enjoy the added puzzle of figuring out whether there is a rebus and do not want to know that at the outset. Genuinely sorry that the NYT Crossword is not for you, but for many of us the added difficulty is a welcome challenge. This was one of my favorite Sundays in a while!
@Steve maybe "it's a word like "uncle" for when you want someone to stop tickling you"??
@Marcia If only we could post memes here. "Old Man shouts at cloud" (from the Simpsons, no less) seems very appropriate!
This was a great and unusually difficult Sunday - so creative and I loved the challenge and the gradual realization of the theme/gimmick - which for me is always more fun than one that's revealed too quickly! First time I've had to look something up in a while, but I was just stumped in the NE corner. After revisiting a couple times, I finally looked up the Poe answer, and that was what I needed to finish the rest. Still finished around my average time. Thanks for the fun!
@George Wish there was a way to "un-recommend." "Dis-recommend?" or just "dis-like."
@RozzieGrandma Unfortunately they are both Elon-Musk related. He was a big fan of the coin, and that led to his "jokey" development of the name for the cruel US department.
Thought this was a perfect Friday! At first nothing was coming to me, panic starting to set in, but kept gradually plugging away and finished in about my average time. Just my favorite kind of puzzle- feels so awesome when you’ve solved it!
Enjoyed this, ten seconds slower than my fastest Friday. To answer Deb's question, I prefer themeless - but maybe that's just because they're more challenging. I love that feeling every Friday and Saturday of approaching the empty grid with that slightly ridiculous feeling of nervousness - will I be able to finish it with no lookups? Like - who cares?! But obviously ... I do. HA!
I pretty confidently put in FIREWOOD for [stick around camp?] and was sad when it became apparent that it was definitely wrong. Ah well! Nice puzzle, thanks!
@Han Wudi GQ is an abbreviation for Gentleman's Quarterly, and Cosmo is an abbreviation for Cosmopolitan!
Absolutely, incredibly brilliant puzzle. I'm in awe of the talent of the constructor. Thanks for the fun!! And happy birthday, USA! May it survive another 250 years.
I LOVED this one - fun and fresh!
It took me the longest time to get the "trick" - really glad I stuck with it and didn't look at the column. Frustrated because I was so sure GUTTER was right, and didn't know the comedian or singer and that whole section was toast. Eventually had PERETTI as a guess, because I figured the intermediary had to end in an R and had TEST PREP and ITTY. But erased it again. When I finally looked up Chelsea and put it in with more certainty, remembered TAIO Cruz, and ended up with PETSIT. I then looked at TSTORM again - and the penny finally dropped. Truly amazing puzzle work - I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been to create this! Very fun to figure out - sorry to Hannah for all the hate coming from elsewhere.
Thought that was really fresh and fun - and enjoyed watching the Muppets jug band too. So creative, that Jim Henson was a genius. The porcupine needles sticking out of the coat - hahaha!
Just a perfect Friday! After the initial pass through all the clues, a slight panic when I had hardly anything. Told myself I had to work a little longer before I could google anything ... Gradually, picked away at it, then had to let it sit while I did some errands. Came back and actually finished just under my average with no google at all. Just the best kind of crossword. Thank you!
@CS Sorry, I don't get it. What is "Hyster Dressing"?
Anybody else have "SToodOUTLIKEASORETHUMB" first? Caused such problems for me in that section!
Absolutely perfect Friday! I thought I was never going to finish it - but kept plugging away and even managed under my Friday average. Great feeling of accomplishment. Thank you, Jack!
I've been doing these maybe a year. I admit that while I often find clues and/or answers amusing, have never actually laughed or even smiled (guess I'm a tough crowd). But when it came clear that the answer to ' "Of course I remember you!," perhaps' was LIE - I couldn't help but let out a real chortle. Thanks for that! :-) Challenging but finished with no lookups, which is definitely not often true on a Saturday. Fun puzzle.
I'm wondering why you weren't allowed to do the !/BANG with this puzzle. I didn't, but seems weird that it wouldn't be accepted. I suppose it must be a technological answer.
@Robert The blocks helped make the C in the puzzle grid into an O
I thought it was a fun theme - and I was surprised to learn that Portugal has never won! I don't think anyone has mentioned that every letter except 'Q' was used! (Speaking of the crossword lingo discussion below, can't remember the term for a crossword that uses them all.) Was super surprised to see a word like "JAZZ" at the very top of the grid. Good Wednesday level, I thought.
Just chiming in to say I LOVED "Samantha Who" and was so bummed when it got cancelled! Good Saturday puzzle!
Stuck for a while because [scrap] can definitely be BIN and [like much adult programming] could easily have been ONLINE. Fortunately PIRSE didn't make sense and neither did ONLANE - but it took me a bit to figure out what the problem was! Enjoyed it - especially BOOTY CALL, which made me laugh!
@Amy Except in this puzzle, it's BOBO! Don't know why that occurred to me before BOZO. George would not be pleased!
I put in LOCOMOTIon almost without thinking (obviously) and that caused more than a few minutes being stumped in the southeast! Having no idea about Krypto, thinking maybe related to Doge Coin and maybe was some sort of NFT starting with NS_, but also trying to figure out what kind of doctor was an OE_ and what disease started PE__! But still finished short of my Wednesday average, so I guess that makes it a good Wednesday puzzle! Very much enjoyed the Spanglish!
@Anthony I feel like Elon always gets the love! When I first started doing crosswords, I would always fill in my alma mater, Duke, for the 4-letter answer to 'NC school,' or similar clue. I soon learned that the answer is almost always ELON. This one was more of a gimme, as it was 'NC college town,' not just school/university.
@Gregg Almost exactly my solve experience! That corner was tough for me too.
@Molly in Wake Forest I put in nErd - isn't that just as likely?
Fortunately I didn't notice the Sam Ezersky byline until after I had solved it, or I would have gone in with more than usual trepidation. It seemed hard as I gradually chipped away, but ended up under my Saturday average somehow. Seemed like a perfect Saturday difficulty to me. One of the last to fall was BOGEY, which just had to be right due to BEFOG - but I didn't get it until I read the column - what a fun clue! Thank you, Sam!
I enjoyed this! I appreciated the shaded squares, especially when I figured that Janet was probably wearing braids of some kind. Took me a while to figure out what kind, especially since I had BIOme instead of BIOTA, and don't know craps or Picasso's muse. Also had app instead of PDF for too long - but still finished under my Thursday average. Love Thursdays, thanks for a fun one!
I started at 1 Across and thought "BOO? Nah, couldn't be right." Then had so many problems in that corner - first had "airplane" and "Inventor" but then figured "ARENA" had to be right, so erased those. In the end, "BOO" was the last word to drop - kinda ironic, I think! Just the right difficulty for a Thursday, IMO. Only a hair faster than average.
Not surprised Robin Weintraub was one of her mentors - this puzzle was fun and fresh! And just the right trickiness for a Friday. Thanks!
Loved it! I initially had HAlt for 35 across, which became Hold when I caught on to the puzzle theme. I then deleted WII thinking it must not be right, then stared for a while with that whole box as the last unfinished - until I realized it could be HANG, and then ERSATZ dropped in when I thought of ZIG - and WII was correct after all! Perfect Wednesday puzzle, just under my average. What a lot of theme material - bravo!
@Hardroch Good point! And, I seem to recall there was at least one comment that day stating that "no one" calls it WashU. Here we have proof from a student, herself! Agree that it's a great school. I really enjoyed this crossword - perfect Thursday! Almost exactly my Thursday average time, and that lovely feeling you get when the "trick" clicks near the end of your solve. Thanks, Rena!
@Mean Old Lady when learning a foreign language, one speaks of a "false friend" when there is a word like "embarazada" in Spanish. You think it's a cognate, and means "embarrassed" in English. But no! It means "pregnant!" You can get into a lot of trouble that way ;-)
@MFSTEVE Me too - but mine was BETATaSTER.
It was impossible - until it wasn't! Perfect Saturday, thanks!
@Nitpicker Most tennis matches are won by winning two sets out of three, or three sets out of five. I think you're thinking of a tiebreak, which is within a set, when the set gets to 6-6.
@Michelle And your name is Michelle too! You should really learn more about the Beatles :-)
I'm really bummed I didn't realize the rebus - and I love Seth Meyers (and rebus puzzles)! I first very reluctantly and petulantly put in "aMASK" (A MASK), thinking that was a very lame answer, and who the heck is Seth MaRS? When there was no music, I realized that square had to be wrong, and then thought it could be some sort of text slang for "eye mask" and put in "I" - and got the solve. But the resulting effects showed me the actual solution. Wish it had not scored as correct though - forcing me to figure out the rebus would have felt much more rewarding. Ah well! Cute puzzle though.
@CB In England they will sometimes say "Ta Ta" as a goodbye. Famously Tigger in Winnie the Pooh would say TTFN (ta ta for now!)
@John Patterson "A Bug's Life" was about ants too!
Tricky but doable - and so rewarding when I finally got the happy music! Nice Thursday challenge, thanks.
@Steve L Agree with all you've said, and you said it very well! One nit: it was "I SAY SO". My first instinct was "I SAID SO" - but alas, it wouldn't fit :-) Also agree that "I SAY NO" would have seemed green paint-y to many.
@Paul R Don't think mILLION or bILLION would have worked, by the way, since the clue stated "facetiously." I did however, have zILLION in there for a while before finally realizing it had to be JUDGESROBES.
@Lpr Me too! And the funny part is that when I initially put in "RATS," I mumbled to myself, "but I don't like it," since it was so similar to the clue [Drat]. Only when looking at it later did I remember my dissatisfaction. And of course after I deleted it, everything started falling into place!
@Marshall Walthew She was also really great as Annie on Community!