abelsey
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London, UK
7 seconds off my best ever Sunday time. I will die on the mEEP mEEP hill though.
Wooo! Today’s puzzle marks my 2000th gold star in a row and my 3620th puzzle in total! I’ll have some pretzels to celebrate. (Really my streak should be a little longer, starting 1 Sept 2019, but I didn’t understand how streaks worked when I started; also I think the qualifying rules have changed a little since then.)
MOST kids these days are Gen A. But I guess a few are still Gen Z. So it’s only a mild harrumph.
@MaryEllen I’d say “in a leather bar you have to wear leather”—very straightforward. Hope this helps.
I enjoyed this Monday puzzle.
Yes it's clever. Yes I got through it. And did I enjoy it? Yes. It was absolutely delightful. A classic example of a puzzle that was fun for the constructor and the experienced solver alike. Note to the editors: There are loads of positive comments today from people who actually enjoy solving puzzles. Maybe that should tell you something.
@Brian Murphy the first ever NYT rebus was on a Monday. In 1954. It has long since established its right to show up on any day.
I can’t recall seeing SBARRO, SERVER, or NEGLECT(S) in a puzzle particularly recently, but here they are twice in a row. (I mean, I didn’t look up when they last appeared. so I could be wrong.)
I forgot to announce my 2250th gold star in a row, but for what it’s worth, this one was my 2260th (and I liked today’s puzzle better anyway). Add a further 1700ish from the archives, and you can see that my life has a lot of little squares in it (and I’m the littlest square of all).
@TholosTB any puzzle that is harder than about a Wednesday level will have griping, especially if there is anything about the puzzle that elevates it beyond straightforward letters, one by one, in a grid. This is because those who have not yet developed the skills to do the NYT crossword daily nevertheless want to be able to say they do it daily. They don’t want to put in the hours of work that make them a skilled solver. They have failed to understand that if this crossword were solvable by everyone every day, it would cease to be an aspirational thing to be able to do. Nevertheless, I believe that with practice they could indeed figure out, for example, the straightforward and consistent rules for entering a rebus. With practice they’ll learn the words “nobody has ever heard of,” and they’ll figure out the general patterns that make puzzles that were impossible for them a year earlier solvable in record time.
@Phil telling the solver that there is a trick to the puzzle ruins any puzzle with a trick. It’s called a puzzle because you have to figure it out.
Easy peasy in the end. Adorable gimmick that helped me solve once I got it. And I got it fast, but not so fast that I felt cheated. Finished in about 2/3 of my average time. Can’t imagine anyone who enjoys crossword puzzles having anything negative to say about this one. I’m so secure in that belief that I’m not going to look at a single one of your comments. Byeeeeeee
@Sean Here’s why we love rebuses: you know the answer to the clue and it doesn’t fit. Ok we probably have a rebus. But where? What’s the scheme? Nothing to reveal? Now we solve the puzzle. You can’t even partially solve the clue because that wouldn’t make the answers correct. Just a brilliant puzzling puzzle to puzzle out.
I’m not going to look through all 200+ comments, but The Bartman (the song + dance) came from The Simpsons Sing the Blues album from 1990. Bartman the superhero did not appear in the TV show until the next year, and the Bartman comic books did not appear until 1993. So I rather think the dance inspired the superhero, not the other way around.
I’m curious if there are many/any long-time solvers who hate rebus puzzles. To me it seems that once you’ve learned the typical language and habits of the daily crossword, added complexity is really welcome. I’ll never really understand those who complain that a crossword puzzle should just be single letters crossed with single letters and nothing beyond that. If that’s what you want, there’s no need to come to the NYT. Just go pick up a church newsletter or a worksheet from your kid’s school. And if your response is that obviously you want something more than that, ask yourself why you would then want to limit your solving experience (let alone everyone else’s), and why you want to draw your limiting line as low as “letter cross letter ONLY”? Anyway this was a PB Sunday time for me because I caught on immediately (thanks to the big spoiler that was the grid). Sometimes I feel guilty when I consider a fast solve time against the hours it must have taken to construct a puzzle. I wonder if constructors prefer to stump solvers, or if they like it when we are on their wavelength and can race against the clock.
@Lewis are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?
@L Fantastic puzzle. Exactly the right amount of rebuses with a puzzle to solve that allows you to know when and where. This author is wonderful.
@Aaron this is not an airport; no need to announce your departure
@Phil and if you’ve never heard of MAMA CASS, not only is that very much on you, but I’ve also got a whole load of tunes to add to my “Hit Songs NYT Crossword Commenters Have Never Heard Of” playlist
@mistermiranda nevertheless, they are offerings at some Chinese restaurants.
Surprised to see so many comments about how tough this one was, given I finished 5 mins under my Saturday average. I think I was just on the constructor’s wavelength for the top half of the puzzle because 1, 8, 15, and 17A were all immediate gimmes. For me, “46 years” was obvious! But maybe that’s because I think about 45/47 too much.
As something of an international woman myself, I enjoyed solving this in record Sunday time.
@Istvan the online version works perfectly 👍
@z weird, my pet octopus told me that one was a gimme for her.
@Andrzej I would personally never tell anyone who dislikes rebuses to avoid Thursdays. I would tell them to avoid the NYT crossword altogether. We all have preferences; I’d personally prefer every puzzle to be at Saturday level with a difference kind of trick every day. I suspect empathy with my position will also be less than forthcoming.
Just looking at comments, I see two entries that people don’t particularly like. My thinking is that the time that is most likely to succeed (in the sense of “follow on from”) this moment is the next moment (which is the SOONEST). Maybe? It made sense to me while I was filling it in, in any case. And if you’re crushing on someone, you will be MOONY. Anyway this was very near a PB solve time for me; I was absolutely on this constructor’s wavelength (but I accept that I’m pretty weird).
@LinRP they don’t HAVE to; they do it to help people who need it. Every day. On every puzzle.
@Workingmom123 ACTUALLY I SOLVED IN 8 MINUTES ON AN IPHONE. Just use the rebus button. It’s been there for years.
@Andrzej You also do a prestige crossword in a language that is possibly not your first language. You're doing great.
@Phil they really don’t. Or, if you like, the “tell” is typically just like it is here: you can’t fit the answer in the grid without doing something unusual. Of course getting the hang of spotting a rebus can be tricky, but I’m sure you’ll get there if you just KEEP ON IT.
@MmmmHmm what is more productive than learning about new things?
@Jonathan Beautiful. The right amount of tricks. Sunday should be a crossword puzzle, with this kind of emphasis on *puzzle*.
@Amir they don’t HAVE to. They explain it for people who need the explanation, and there’s a column every single day that explains every single puzzle (no matter how trivial). Many of us solved and understood today’s puzzle with no explanation needed.
I haven’t commented since I last noted a general sense of utter contempt for app users. I am commenting again now only to note, once again, a general sense of utter contempt for app users.
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight that is the point of Connections. Sometimes there is a red herring set. You have to work out all of the categories, not just one. Honestly, so many people come here to complain that they had to figure out a tricky puzzle they willingly did. If you don’t want a challenge, why are you here?
@Francis also, if you want to know the process, I actually used CRIB as my first thought for “Home, in slang” and just immediately confirmed with the down clues. As in, ABBA was a gimme, CRIB was a maybe, but it gave me ACT, BRAIN, BIKE, and AB__ which I then immediately knew was ABET. So it was a tentative guess which I think was able to confirm straight away with crosses.
@Nate he’s SORCERER while they’re at work (ie being Mickey’s boss); he’s Yen Sid when they’re down the pub.
@Nancy throw away the element that makes this puzzle a playable bonus game and serves as the essential substance of a huge part of this incredibly clever construction—and what also serves to make the theme instantly clear to the millions upon millions of people worldwide who have played this game over the past 35+ years? Ok Nancy
@Mac sounds like they did give you a puzzle: one you couldn’t figure out.
To make this a pangram, 18A could have been WORK, changing 11D to NO WIN (and 21A to PINS).
@SP it’s all the same old exasperating nonsense. Someone else’s insecurity about their own skill issue has to be everyone else’s problem, x 500. This is unfortunately compounded today by the magazine’s mistake, not to mention the fact that rebuses have that annoying “first letter counts” feature hard baked into them.
@Francis it’s just practice. I’ve done over 3500 of these crosswords (nearly 2k in a row and the rest from archives) and, yes, SESH and ARCH came straight into my head. But they probably would not have presented themselves to me as the obvious answers in September 2019.
“Since there are no identifiable theme clues, of course, you’d need some kind of ESP to get this theme very early in your solve, I think.” Except it’s literally the title of the puzzle?
@Heidi International Men’s Day has been held every year on 19 November since 1992.
@Jake G seems logical until you work in the archives, at which point you realize the puzzles are simply easier now.
@David Blake next time, erase one letter from a square you know is *not* a rebus, then do your rebuses, and finally replace that non-rebus letter to finish.
@EB lots of people want to be the kind of person who does the NYT crossword but don’t want to develop the kind of skills required.
Is this really the way Thursdays are going to be from now on? This past winter in the UK it rained for 50+ days in a row. That’s what ... no, wait, maybe better: there’s a book by John Ajvide Lindqvist, “I Am Behind You,” where a grouo of people find themselves on an endless, flat, featureless plain that is completely inescapable. Put those 50 days of rain in the picture too, and THAT’s what Thursdays have felt like for weeks.
@Mango the first ever rebus appeared on a Monday in 1954. It has long since established its right to appear on any day. (And this is where my other comment saying the same thing was supposed to go.)