Jonathan
Belgium
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Belgium
@Sam it was definitely a brain teaser, but it is consistent: the answer you need to write in the crossword is always the larger one: L instead of M (m/lobsters) S instead of XS (exs/spouses), M instead of S (aquarius/m) and indeed XL instead of L (al/xles). It may be confusing because XS is smaller than S, but XL is larger than L
Really enjoyable and as a relatively new player, my first Wednesday without any help or hints. One nitpick where I thought I may have been walking into a trap was the Italian main, I would have probably felt better if it was referred to as Italian-American, as you will need to look quite a while to find it on any Italian menu.
@Pat I can only speak for myself as a beginning solver, but I do find it incredibly useful to use the pencil feature for answers I'm not sure about. That way, they could help me in crosses, but if it conflicts with an answer I'm more sure about, I know the pencil answer will be the first to go. It also helps to, in the end, if I get the message there's some errors, I can go to the grey squares first to double check. Hope the emus allow my comment.
Surprised at the negative comments here, I thought it was a great puzzle with solid fill, and yes, on the easier side for a Thursday with a mild theme, but any spicy themes get panned here too, so there's no pleasing all people. Also after that very crunchy Tuesday (some of that fill was dreadful for us young'uns), it's nice to see a more approachable puzzle.
@Charlie Fuchs it's used in exactly that way in improv, "yes and" is almost a verb basically. It means whatever gets thrown at you, you take it and build upon it. I've heard it pop up a couple of times outside that world too already
Really vibed with this one, I think slightly more answers that favored younger generations (yeeted, gender euphoria, Avengers Endgame, Puth...) than older generations (Ochs?) but that's a nice change of pace from some recent themeless puzzles which were heavy on the pre-1980 trivia. Great puzzle and a faster time than yesterday!
Wow, that was quite the workout. In the end I had to break the streak as I really couldn't figure out my mistake. Turns out "ENCITE" is the old spelling of incite, and you can both "EnACT" and "EXACT" change.
@Johnny small but vital correction: Ray Eames was Charles' wife and business partner, not brother.
@Ginny Same! I was checking to see if Pierre Curie somehow maybe spelled his name with one R, but saw Irene mentioned in the related searches instead, after which things did fall into place there, but very tricky side indeed!
Having the triangles and circles not show up in the android app made this quite tricky, but not impossible to solve. That being said, very good fill for this kind of complex grid, especially having the dipping letters spell out chips and salsa!
@Mr Dave I can only speak to the situation in Belgium, but we have a few Oreo offerings in our grocery stores and I think I've also been exposed to that brand in media and online, however, I had almost never heard of Nilla before starting with crosswords.
Today's Midi had a fun self-referential clue with two equally valid answers, at 4A "Number of consonants in this answer". Not complaining, just didn't know if anyone else found it funny
Matt there is a grace period where you can solve the puzzle the next day, if you do it before that day's puzzle. I'm not sure how long the grace period is, however
@Gabe as a Dutch speaker I have the advantage that more often than you'd think, the more obscure English word is just a Dutch word. Lading/laden is Dutch, as are alas (helaas), stiver and dorp
@Allie RW yes, I came to the comments to see if anyone else mentioned Mt. Doom. It's not a huge barrier to solving, but it threw me off for a little bit since Mordor has the same number of letters and doesn't contain an abbreviation
@Wayne Harrison the Cosa Nostra is also a common expression for the Sicilian mafia, which would work better grammatically in this sentence
@drew exact same experience here, faster than average solve while completely blanking on the theme. I'm not one to complain about too many America-specific clues (it is the New York Times after all), but I can't deny being a non-American was a significant handicap today.
@Seth A Muphry's law strikes again. It's actually spelled Juliett (without the final e). I know you were correcting the correction, but I like quoting Muphry's law :)
Wow, that one took me a while. In the end I was nearly defeated over the [Paratha flour] crossing with [lacks], as HAS No seems a perfectly acceptable substitute for HASNT. Took me one lookup for that one in the end.
@Jonathan that's generally a rule yes, but I didn't see it broken here. Which one are you referring to?
@Spelling Marauder a rat as in someone who blabs or 'rats out' a conspiracy/criminals. The interrogators made them 'sing'
@ST I can thank Brennan Lee Mulligan's epic rant on Game Changer from Dropout for that one!
@Bill in Yokohama hmm, I was thinking Spain based on Europe/climate, but with the driving on the left perhaps it's Malta?
@Ian Livengood loving Pips so far! Was wondering if at one point it's planned to introduce streaks for Pips?
@Andree yes, it's not a common phrase in french and the clue doesn't match it very well. Belle dame, Belle femme, beaute, but the amie in there is completely out of nowhere
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