Endall
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Washington, D.C.
Who are these people who do crosswords and get angry when they don't know a clue? You are invited to become more educated. The crosswords have already become far easier over the years. your not knowing something is not the fault of the puzzzle. It is totally possible to solve this without reading about it.leave blanks, keep an open mind and enjoy figuring it out. You don't need to know every single clue to solve. i assumed that people did these to be challenged and learn, not to prove the very limited knowledge they already have. If you thought a clue was hard, take it as an invitation to learn beyond what you know.
I absolutely loved this puzzle. 100% correct level for a Thursday. Tough. Clever. Timely. Had me going through the colonies in my head. LOVED IT! Excellent puzzle and very rewarding to complete.
Loved this! Excellent puzzle that made me think. More please!
The comments here are wild to me. People noting "quite a few things I didn't know," as though that is something to be noted. First, we are sadly losing knowledge of anything not pop culture. We should know way more, and we should feel bad that we don't. Second, you're really, really not supposed to be able to easily fill in every clue with your "knowledge." It's supposed to require advanced knowledge, thinking, and over all, PUZZLING.
@SupHip absolutely not. Once you figure out the trick (and you should have to figure it out, rather than being told), the fun part is to figure out where the clues fit. That is the logic. They are not random abbreviations. They are in a very clear category. The glee is jn figuring this out for yourself. An extra pattern is just hand-holding and takes away the thinking fun
@Down_Home I vote we just make them appropriately difficult again. It is okay if the majority of people cannot solve it. That is supposed to happen.
Completed without ever understanding the theme. Not sure it's a great theme when the majority of people (it seems) can finish the puzzle without ever understanding it. Disheartened by all the tech industry clues, just personally. Sure, that's a terrible reality we live in now (technopoly), but the lack of balance with more cultural clues left me rather depressed. Maybe it's just me today.
I loved it. Challenging but very doable. Took some thought and patience, as it should. Clever!
These answers are just full of way too many things that are the #1 things to come to mind. They don't require the cleverness and depth of knowledge that Saturdays used to have. See, for example, TATERTOTS. Or even ONEMOMENTPLEASE. They're just not Saturday answers. More puzzles with fewer easy cultural references, incredibly common phrases, and cheap slang! More knowledge and tricky thinking. I see all these comments celebrating fast solves--what's to celebrate?! I have my longest solve streak going. But I don't feel good about it--it's just been very easy.
Is it Tuesday? It must be Tuesday and a breezy one at that. Seriously friends. Go ahead in the archives and do this week's Friday from 2015. Then tell me these are not becoming exponentially easier.
@Barry Ancona yes to #1. If you don't want to puzzle over your puzzles, go do anything else. These are supposed to be tricky. There is no point to grids everyone can easily film in (sadly an increasing trend as well).
@Dan yes. I set a personal best here, but I know better than to feel good about it. Playing in the archives reminds me that I am not actually becoming a super-solving genius. The puzzles are becoming super solvable.
This puzzle was fun, good level of difficulty matching the day, and just remarkably created. Really fine moment in my day, to engage with a puzzle this thoughtul.
@Terry making us think differently, creatively, and pushing what is expected is, in clear fact, the opposite of dumbing down.
I mean this with no disrespect but am genuinely curious. Did Saturdays not used to be a lot harder?? I remember doing NYT books even ten years ago, and I would genuinely be stumped for even one clue on some Saturday puzzles? I fully expect to go through and not have anything easily come to mind. Here, you have very easy common clues (Lee with oscars; pop culture stuff; love languages, etc.) that require no real knowledge. If you exist and have done any crosswords before you're getting these. Not saying it was a bad puzzle, but I guess I am sad if this is now the standard for Saturday. Nothing wrong with requiring more of people and making puzzles that not everyone can get, which used to be Saturday for me!
@Reader I would encourage the NYT and ethical people everywhere to avoid using AI to generate anything. Including cutesy clues. Do not participate in the copyright infringement, intellectual property theft, and educational and environmental dmamage.
I truly miss the days when Saturday would have me stumped and I would have to come back to it throughout the day, possibly never solving it. Now it's a quarter of an hour Iater and I'm done. There is nothing wrong with harder clues and relying on specialized, non-contemporary, non-pop/slang knowledge. Learning and thinking are fun. To the archives, I suppose. Sigh.
@Ron this is the best puzzle of the year thus far. It should be challenging.
@Mo everyone here acting as though playing a silly video game when you were a kid is the same as knowing Latin or classical music or literature or other things leaned as an adult...wild. It is not like you studied Mario, or learned about it for its cultural importance, or even really loved it. Your knowledge of it is purely incidental and mostly juvenile. There are differences between the things you are talking about.
@Ryan agree wholeheartedly. Longing for the days when puzzles catered to serious solvers. I delighted in being stumped. This is becoming sad.
@Andrzej there is, in fact, a lot wrong with pop culture and a world that valorizes it above all else. No problem with learning and not knowing. Problem when not knowing is presented as a complaint about the puzzle. A world that does not respect and encourage depth of knowledge because it is "busy" should be our greatest fear, our own contributions to it, our greatest shame. But I understand. I am not welcome.
@Nat K "there SHOULD be Saturday puzzles most n people are unable to solve" Yes-say it louder for those who still don't get it. Again, if you're going to say things are the same, you CLEARLY have not been puzzling for a while or doing archives. You just have no basis for your claim. All of the evidence stands against you. If you are going to say you PREFER easier puzzles that most people can solve, then I just fundamentally disagree with you. That is certainly what Monday is for, but it has no business in Saturday. The phrase "dumbing down" comes regrettably to mind. And I don't think one needs to use the elitist word here. We all have access to books and now we have access to endless archives of crosswords where we can hone our skills. What an odd reaction to complain about puzzles that might require work, effort, and know-how. Everyone can struggle and improve.
@Matt No, this is the easening, and it made me very sad. Personal Sunday best for me today because I grew up at the right time. If you had a passing knowledge of Mario, there was really nothing stopping you from flying through this very easy puzzle. The complaints about relying too heavily on a niche universe don't mean that the puzzle was actually difficult. It just means it awkwardly relied on a niche universe. To the archives it is.
I feel I'm being gaslight at this point. A Saturday where I am able to put in many answers easily on first run through? Quick trip to the archives says I am not the crazy one here. Cling is not Saturday level. Bring back Saturday level.
This was a fun, challenging, excellent puzzle! I loved it. My favorite was TYPO. That had me stuck for a while. Thanks for a perfect Wednesday!!
The comments here are very kind. I PR'd without being particularly focused. This makes me sad. It was too simple, and the range of clues, vocabulary, and knowledge one expects on a W were very lacking.
@ I have to agree. Thursdays were often undoubtedly for me, 10-15 years ago. And yet every puzzle has scores of comments complaining how hard they are. Heck, even Mondays used to feel like something of an accomplishment. Now they don't take m more than ten minutes. It makes me sad. As you point out, there were ALWAYS plenty of easy crosswords for anyone. There was ONE NYT for those who enjoyed being challenged. I am not a great crossworder, but I enjoyed sitting with a puzzle I could only get three words on. I wish the NYT would not aim to be popular to people who just want ease and a false sense of ability.
@Brett unfortunately the puzzles are getting easier. This was the level of a Tuesday from 10 years ago. Go in the archives and try a Friday from 2010s or earlier. When I do that, I often cannot even solve the puzzle, let alone in under 15 minutes.
@Anonymous I have been completing one corresponding day from the archives (at least ten or so years back), and you are 100% correct. On Friday and Saturday I often simply cannot complete those puzzles because they are so much more difficult. For anyone who hasn't, I also encourage you to test this out. There is simply no way to say the puzzles now are of the same difficulty if you do this. Maybe people like the easier puzzles. But it really makes me sad to see the difference. Puzzles are supposed to be hard; a lot of people should not be able to solve them. If that makes someone upset...oh well. I would also love for the editors to actually acknowledge this and hear them say whatever their rationale is. It feels a bit like gaslighting to just act as though the puzzles are the same and we're just getting so much better at them or soemthing.
@BR using razor as a verb. When you MOW you RAZOR BLADES of grass.
@Tracy If born after 1980 and unwilling to learn prior history, maybe don't do crosswords, which should draw on historical knowledge that sometimes predates us all.
@Endall p.s. not being able to solve it is a good thing. This is supposed to be challenging.
@Isaac Right. Populism come to puzzling. Make the people happy! Give them all literally gold stars! Signifying nothing... I want the challenge back.
@Kirsten From the "hater" to the dismissal of adult subjects as "esoteric" this comment makes me sad for my generation.
@Anonymous Perfect. This is it. And seriously, you are not allowed to have a stance on puzzles or complain about people saying "easy" until you try literally any Saturday puzzle from at least 10 years ago.
@Byron I don't understand spree either.
Very, very easy. In fact, not sure I've EVER encountered an easier nyt crossword. Good to give a young person a chance, but maybe should come with a disclaimer?
@JohnWM in all honesty, it is hard for me as an educator to keep my sense of humor about something that is actively threatening my students' literacy and ability to learn.
After a great Tuesdsy, this week has been a bit of a let down for me. Found this far, far too easy for a Friday with clues like "_____ incognita" which everyone can get without the ensuing explanation and the TEA KETTLE clue that went on with its explanation for a very obvious answer. Very little pondering, and some awkward phrasing, Like ON ESTROGEN and RAWEST.
@The X-Phile For a Friday, this is way too easy. Fridays should not be solvable by many. Go back and do some 2010s Fridays or earlier. I think it is sad to remove a lot of challenge.
@Ethan S. This. If the answers just keep popping easily to mind, we have missed the point of Friday entirely.
@IZ yes but the ward is the one kept, not the state doing the keeping.
@Norwood thanks for this. Aside from going back to these older puzzles, which I will do, does anyone publish harder, more challenging puzzles currently?
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