Elly Zee

@AllieW Rent is used as the past particle of “rend,” as in to “rend one’s garments,” which is to tear or RIP them. Extremely devious clue!!

@Eric 17% of Americans speak Spanish (50x as many as speak German, and infinitely more than speak Latin, which makes frequent appearances without comment). About 4% of this puzzle had Spanish language answers. That seems like a fair ratio.

@tom I don’t think this is a fair criticism. The revealer says that trading names will fix four pairs of answers, not every answer they touched. Making the downs work with ways would be almost impossible, if not completely impossible, and likely would have made the grid a lot less clean for minimal extra benefit. I thought this puzzle was admirably conceived and constructed.

@CRO you seem to be missing the rebuses.

@John it’s a term in the Black community for a condition fairly unique to their skin.

@Mike Musical score terms are a longtime mainstay of crosswords, and maybe we should be questioning why OGLALAS is considered trivia instead of complaining about it. With the variety of answers you have issue with, I wonder what you *do* expect to see in a puzzle?

@Sam I don’t want this to become a thread about “Latinx.” I’ll do my research on that. I did not know the constructor’s gender or pronouns and used the placeholder I had mentally at hand. For now, people should just pretend I used whatever word they think is most appropriate and focus on the content of my message.

@Jeff P. There’s nothing about this that isn’t a crossword. All the rebuses still make words in both directions. Without the rebuses, it would be the same puzzle with an extra perimeter of squares. It is 16x16, not 15x15, and has a relatively high ratio of black squares. But it has rotational symmetry and the same number of words as any themed puzzle. It may not be to your taste, but it’s absolutely a crossword puzzle, by even the strictest definitions.

@Remy A nickname is an additional or familiar name for something. Since the city is now known as Hanoi, Soaring Dragon (which is an English phrase) can correctly be called a nickname. (Cheshire cat voice: “We’re all pedants here…”) . . . Emu

@Bonnie Ann I’m delighted whenever there is an emu in the grid.

@Elaine Wilson They gave her a statuette, which means she is “with” one, even if she didn’t “win” it.

@Mr T Agreed. And there are very compelling reasons to either remove that word from lists or clue it completely differently. Recommended reading: <a href="https://www.orangutanssp.org/orang-vs-orang-utan.html" target="_blank">https://www.orangutanssp.org/orang-vs-orang-utan.html</a>

@Steve L A scale goes on a staff. With no sharps or flats, C Major is one of the most common scales, and CDEF is the “leader” of that scale. Yes, it is incorrect and not a perfect fit to the clue. But to say that those of us who were misled don’t know the difference between a staff and scale is not a fair criticism. And for some of us, a DAYOFF *would* be considered extended inactivity. Those were both viable answers, even if not precisely correct. I think that makes it an unfair crossing.

@Evan I was so mad and happy at the same time when I finally entered SLEIGH!

@ImmodestyBlaise This isn’t a homonym gag, so it doesn’t matter how you pronounce the state. No one says “floor it duh.” There aren’t any states that sound nearly alike, no matter how you pronounce them, so you only need a tiny bit of context to guess which one belongs. It’s much more about figuring out how to answer the riddle of the clue using real words. I think that’s a huge part of why this was actually so successful. True homonymic puns are much rarer and harder to pull off.

@CV these are two paintings (among many) that are so much smaller than I expected them to be!

@Wendy ahahahaha, I loved that! … AAAAAAA

@Lawillibug I think the term “stim” is coming into more favor because it is a clinical behavior for some neurodivergent people, while “fidget” has negative connotations of misbehavior. Perhaps the term “toy” will be the next to fall. As someone with strong ADHD myself, I get extremely anxious without, say, a paperclip to mangle or a pen cap to bend to pieces. I even had a “fidget” wedding ring, which has proven a sanity saver.

@festy I think they’re all the same format. Clue words first; answer words follow. Though I do agree that PREMIERS felt slightly askew. I put it in and took it back out then put it back in too.

@Gregory Akin to saying “ish” or “more or less” with a gesture. “I’ve completed 200 or so puzzles.”

@Steve L I’m a horror movie buff, and sometimes I forget that most people are decidedly not. EDGEIN was the inspiration for many iconic cinema villains, including Hitchcock’s Psycho, Leatherface of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Buffalo Bill of The Silence of the Lambs.

@Bill in Yokohama et al What is Sabadi? I don’t think that’s the word for Saturday (singular) in any language, so I’m not sure how it would be confusing.

@Steve I think there should not be an intersection where one letter change can result in two viable pairs of answers. I’m not saying CDEF/DAYOFF were perfect answers, but when looking for mistakes, I’m looking for obvious typos or one viable answer that makes its cross gibberish. I had no reasonable way of self-checking to figure out where my mistake was, which is why I said “unfair.”

@Rich in Atlanta Interesting artifact you’ve found in this old puzzle. It wouldn’t have a place today. In 2024, it’s now generally known that chromosomes and pronouns are not necessarily related.

@Dan I’ve been working my way through late 2019 and enjoying it. Just don’t do Nov 7, which is the worst NYT puzzle I’ve ever encountered. Fun to read the comments though!

@Wayne C I think even if you are “completing” something, you may not complete it. A thing isn’t complete until the doing stops. (As someone with serious ADHD, I spend a lot of time “completing” things that never get done lol)

@Katie 👏👏👏