BC
Massachusetts
If IGA was a tricky one today, I warmly recommend learning her name as I suspect we'll see her for quite some time in these pages. She's a tennis player, 23 years old, who's already spent over two years at the #1 ranking in the women's game and won five Grand Slam titles. She has a beautiful style of play and seems kind and gracious in interviews.
@Dan Thanks for sharing this disheartening feeling. That's not fun at all and I wish this comments section could be fun for all of us at all times. My experience in seeing times shared is rather opposite yours. A handful of years ago, I was just starting to solve late week puzzles and those fast times were so far from my understanding that I skimmed over them. Now, I enjoy seeing someone post their time and getting a sense of the realm of solve times out there. I hesitated to write this comment because anything bringing negative feelings into crossword solving is worth attention. And yet, I wanted to provide a counterbalance too that it can help some people (me included) to feel joy in celebrating and learning from fast times here in the comments section. I wish you many happy solvings.
What beautiful triple stacks! Thanks for such a fun puzzle, Alex, and looking forward to seeing more from you in times ahead!
I absolutely loved this one. Gender euphoria? Security blanket? Avengers: Endgame? Yes, yes, and more yes. A lovely start to a wintry weekend across much of the US. And congratulations, Adrian and Annie, on your engagement!
I absolutely loved this one! Crunchy in the most delicious of ways, this was my favorite Saturday challenge in a long time. Thank you so much, Katie!
Puzzle difficulty can be so subjective and I find some days treacherous that others fly through. Ones like this, when I'm one of those flying through, make me appreciate all those other times when it seems like the editors matched the challenge level just right with the day of the week. For me, this played too fast - a Saturday best five seconds slower than my Monday average - and I'd love a bit more crunchiness in future editions. Now perhaps we'll get a Sunday that'll send me spinning futile wheels for ages....
Mmm, crunchy! Thank you, Kareem, for a delicious puzzle.
@SP Typing speed (and, as P notes, reading speed) absolutely factors into solve speed. I grew up before the true digital natives but had to type up all my essays in college and grad school, which gave me years of experience both typing at pace and typing-while-reading-a-line-you're-quoting-from-a-printed-document. Crosswordwise, this has helped me gain the once-elusive skill of reading-the-next-clue-while-answering-the-last-one on my computer; my Monday best currently sits under 2-1/2 minutes and I solved today's puzzle in just over 5, which included some pauses to think through clues. So yes, P.'s time is totally doable (and huge congrats, P., on the PB!). And I hope that amidst the chaos of this time, we all keep comparing ourselves to our own bests and just go from there.
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