Greg In NYC
NYC
Help! My entire fill is correct. (I’ve checked it now, twice, against the solution in Amy Reynaldo‘s blog.) But the official Times app on my iPhone will not indicate completion. On the rebus, I originally tried putting in the triple letters (e.g., PPP). That didn’t work, so I just put in the single letters. That didn’t work either. Anyone have any idea as to how to get this to work?
Help! I completed the puzzle (on an iPhone). Nothing happened, so I “rotated“ the circles by manually inputting the letters, so the letters were in the new configurations and the top letters spelled out “jackpot”. Still nothing. Checked and double checked for mistakes, and it’s correct. But the clock keeps running and it looks like an incomplete puzzle. Anyone else have this problem? Thoughts?
@HeathieJ Many thanks, Heathie (and thanks to Bill and Heather, who also answered my question). I was convinced it was an unannounced anagram, because I was reading the circled letters from “left to right,” but as you would in reading a book. Very clever additional twist.
@Greg In NYC never mind. I solved the problem by closing the app and reopening it. Weird. Kind of killed the enjoyment of the puzzle for me.
@Nora thanks, Nora. That’s helpful. I’m fine with Thursday puzzles having tricks and rebuses. But having the letters completely outside the grid and in no way incorporated into the puzzle just struck me as a bridge too far. I spent too much time trying to reverse the order of the letters and the rebus, all to no avail. I wish the Times would astrerisk stuff like this, with a caveat that the “information“ tab contains a spoiler (to alert you not to look if youyou want to sweat out the protocol on your own). The information tab would then alert to you that you should omit the letters that fall outside the grid and not try to cram them into a rebus square.
I enjoyed the puzzle, but was a bit perplexed by the FIR YEW meta-theme. When I read the letters, from left to right, I get WEIYFR. I get it. That’s an anagram that gives you the punning FIR YEW. But I’m only surprised it wasn’t clued as an anagram. Or did I missing something in reading those letters?
Completed the darn thing, but I can’t get the NYT puzzle app on my iPhone to say it’s complete. I double-checked, twice. I entered the dual letters as rebuses, but it still doesn’t click. Is there a special order to the letters if done as a rebus? Should I just put in the letters, and leave the outside letters invisible? An unpleasant slog.
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