Rachel R.
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New York
In the days before digital printing, one way of proofreading was two people checking galley proofs—one reading aloud from the original and one checking the typeset proofs, and there had to be a way to read aloud the punctuation. An exclamation point was read as “bang.”
I’ve been doing the NYT crossword for, oh, about fifty years now. I gotta say I did not solve this thinking, “Oh, easy, bah humbug.” I solved this thinking, “Ooh, clever theme, enjoyable solve, yay!”
I too missed the word “clues” in the revealer, and did not understand the theme before reading Deb’s explanation. This does not make me feel intelligent. Oh, well, can’t get them all!
Re: “Cheating”— a crossword is a game that you play for yourself, so I say play however you like and pfui on the idea of “cheating”! And this is why I rarely look at the mini—the “how fast can you solve it” puts me right off. I don’t do crosswords for speed, I do them for fun and for waking up my brain in the morning, and the very idea of rushing through annoys me!
Re: Puzzles being easier nowadays—I’ve been working the NYT crosswords for over 50 years, and I find them harder now, if anything. The biggest change over the years isn’t “easier” or “harder,” it is that they use a lot less crosswordese (which is good) and a lot more current pop culture, which for me is definitely NOT easier! There is also more wordplay, which I suppose some would find easier and some harder, and which I find a good stretch for my brain. Just my observations, and now I’m done.
While it’s true that a Mobius strip has no end, that’s true of any old loop, circle, or sphere. A Mobius strip is more fun than that—it has only one side and one edge.
Re: Satins— By itself it may not be common, but “silks and satins” is a not uncommon phrase.
I always love an animation as a reward for finishing the puzzle, and this was an especially fun one!
The yellow overlay was a double delight, because I did not see that part of he theme until that popped up. Great start to the day!
Aaaand now I’ll have that song in my head all day! Fun solve, I really enjoyed that.
I love it when some entries change on a correct solve!
I really do love it when I get a graphic “prize” on finishing correctly!
@From LA You know, it could just be that you’re getting better at doing crosswords after years of practice.
@John Yes, they are both legitimate answers to that clue. Sondheim actually uses “career” with its two meanings in “I’m Still Here” in the same line: “Then you career from career to career.”
I’m not what would be called a Swiftie (although I think she is a very talented songwriter, a hard-working performer, and an all round admirable person, I am not her target audience), but I have only heard her called “TayTay” from the young people in my life, never a single “Tay.”
I got the trick immediately—I guess my mind just works that way!—and it was a nice, smooth fill. I am in deep admiration of the construction!
@Michael L As in “an apt student,” meaning one quick to learn.
…and now I have the Woody Woodpecker song stuck in my head! (Thanks for the fun solve anyway. ;))
@Magnolia They show up for me on both my iPad and iPhone, but they are VERY light on the phone.
@Fleming Don’t worry about it. I started solving when electronic editions weren’t even an idea, and I always think those puzzles in the folded up print paper were much easier. That’s because you couldn’t check your answers until the next day, and I never saved my papers (I’d drown in a sea of newsprint!), so as long as I filled in every box with something, I could tell myself I did it. 😁
@Fred Katz The word “sin” goes in the circle, so it’s a little sin, as opposed to the full-sized “sin” in the shaded boxes.
This one was a lot of fun! I had seen only one of the sequels—and only one of the original movies—but none of the movies were at all obscure, so it was easy to figure out. I have to admit I had to figure out the theme before I could see what the “art” was—I kept trying to make all the black squares fit into one image, and they don’t, of course.
This theme was possibly made easier to grasp by this very bad allergy season…
Aaaand now I will have the song from ‘Kiss Me, Kate” stuck in my head all day…
@Grant When the musicals cited in that quiz opened, their songs WERE popular music, and a number of songs from musicals hit the top 40. Indeed, “What I Dud for Love” from A Chorus Line was famously put in the show specifically to have something “for radio”.
And a Happy Chanukah to you, too!
@Nom De Plume Part of it is surely that pop culture lasts about thirty minutes, not thirty years.
@Michelle “!” In mathematics means “factorial”, the product of all the integers less than or equal to the whole numbers in front of the !. 4! = 1 x 2 x 3 x 4= 24.
I really appreciate how 34A preempts critique of the humor in the theme… ;)
Re: “Career” (not “careen”!) has “I’m Still Here” from Sondheim’s “Follies” stuck in my head: <a href="https://youtu.be/3Xz1TUgdG6A?si=ec6iGDNF1nCO57H5" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/3Xz1TUgdG6A?si=ec6iGDNF1nCO57H5</a> (You’re welcome!)
Totally missed half the theme before reaching the revealer, and thoroughly enjoyed it once I saw it! Great start to my Monday.
I do adore a puzzle that rewards me with an animation!
I got the music theme almost immediately, but although I love Baroque music, I had to get the revealer from the crosses. Never mind, it was a fun solve anyway!
Ooookay—you know that you can zoom in on the digital grid, right? Do that and the little dancers are suddenly great big dancers. (I was surprised that I had to go back and fill in those three letters, but that’s on the digitizing crew, not the creator—and it wasn’t hard to figure out, imo.)
I got the March theme almost immediately, but had no idea what was going on with the recipe entries until I came here and read about it. Ah, well, the theme I did get was fun enough!
I didn’t get the quip—I had to come here and read the explanation. But that is not a quip, it is a collection of dad jokes! (Okay, yes, it’s clever—and maybe funny!)
@Robert Her Royal Highness, which is the title for a princess or prince. Kings and Queens are titled “Majesty”.
Aww, that was so much fun! It certainly helped that I got the revealer right off the bat, so I was able to guess what the circled boxes might be, but the nostalgia, it is real.
@Suzanne Ah, the difference between upper and lower case initial letters…
I do love an animation (or graphic) as a reward for finishing 5e puzzle correctly! I still don’t get all of the theme answers, though, which makes me feel dumb. A very strange combination of emotions!
@Deb Amlen Thank you, that was a lovely thing to say!
Well, I just flew through this one since I knew the stories behind all the inventions mentioned. Great fun!
Took a while to get the theme, but what a satisfying “aha!” moment when I did! (Thinking about the construction aspect made me dizzy, though—great job!)
That was fun! But I must confess that while I was able to figure out that there were missing letters by being directed to the relevant rows by the revealer, I didn’t understand what the theme was until it popped up on completion!
That was fun—a smooth, fast solve.
All I needed was ACME and I had all the theme answers! That was a lot of fun. :)
A nice, fun fill—but I couldn’t get the theme until after I’d finished and thought about it for a while! Oh, well, better late than never. :)
@Francis DeBernardo Totally agree! For me, this was “give a kiss” and “steal a hug”, so I was left slightly discombobulated.
@Chef Kevin “Careen” and “career” are synonyms.
@Average Joe In Follies, Sondheim used “career” this way in “I’m Still Here”: “Then you career from career to career.”