Leon NYC
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NYC
Ooooh this one was FUN! Frustrating at first with big swaths of empty squares, but as it fell into place the payoff was delightful. And a stupendous job fitting in so many on-theme words and clues. This might be the closest thing I feel to patriotism all weekend!
I was convinced I was going to fail at this one right up until I didn’t. A great puzzle!
Loved this puzzle! Can’t imagine the additional mental gymnastics it must have taken to create it, but bravo! And I see the tired debate about whether pineapple is ok on pizza has been thoroughly eclipsed by an equally passionate disagreement on whether rebus belong there either. I say yes to both! And if not everything is to your specific taste? Welcome to life as an adult, where not everything is designed specifically for you.
@Mike not true! I do a ton of technical writing for my job and have relied on the em dash for years! It’s upsetting that AI now means I have to use it less so I don’t get accused of using ChatGPT. It’s a super helpful punctuation mark that I sorely miss, and my colleagues say the same :(
@Brian I loved this one and hope we see more from them! You’re totally welcome to skip those days if lightening up is not an option.
This was a fun one for me - after dropping in just a smattering of guesses on my first sweep I became increasingly worried I’d have to resort to extensive googling to make any real progress. But gradually (and sometimes suddenly) things started to click, and feasible answers slowly emerged for the clues where my knowledge failed me. Super satisfying!
An enjoyable puzzle and super clever construction. I just always feel a little disappointed when a Thursday puzzle doesn’t require me to do anything quirky to solve it. There was no catch in this one (despite all the hooks! lol), just filling in the answers in a straightforward fashion revealed something cool. I like a Thursday that comes with a trick!
TIL that “cast parties” has the same number of letters as “victory laps” — and this knowledge was hard earned. Great puzzle!! One of those satisfying ones where I got close to nothing on my first pass and struggled for quite a while until suddenly it started to click. Bravo!
Enjoyed this one a lot! Labored for a while under a frustration of knowing *something* was up, but not *what*. Then got that aha moment that keeps me coming back, and it all clicked together satisfyingly. Thank you Kareem!
Congrats on a fantastic debut, Evan! Lots of sparkle and joy in this one - looking forward to your next one already!
Congratulations, Ricky and Adam, on a thrilling, aggravating, laugh-out-loud, fresh puzzle! A real achievement!! It nearly defeated me several times, and elicited a couple of groans when some answers finally revealed themselves, but exactly the challenge and fun I want from a Saturday puzzle. Thank you!
Loved loved loved this one. For me, a perfect balance of “I’ll never get this” and “omg now I get it”. Thank you for a real work out!
This was a fun workout. Felt despondent on my first pass then slowly chipped away at it. And while much of the trivia was unknown to me, it came within reach as the crosses revealed themselves. Thank you!
My confidence in “on the HOUSE” rather than “on the LOOSE” really slowed me down right at the end there. But a fun time all the way through!
@Darian i think they might both be jean/clothing brands. The capital G in Guess is hidden at the start of the sentence.
LOVED the chewy challenge of this puzzle. Took me a long while to get the theme, and several clues stumped me until they didn’t. Unexpected and refreshing cluing. And such a satisfying feeling when the final letter clicked into place. Thank you!
I enjoyed this puzzle and kind of got the trick as I was completing it, but not totally. I was trying to do something with the S at the end of AXLES but couldn’t work out what AXLEM might mean and figured I hadn’t understood what was going on. In the end I just let the down clues guide me in all cases and let it work itself out. But there was some fun clueing in here, so it felt satisfying.
Loved this one! Got very few on my first pass and ground to a halt half way through. Then I managed to piece together the central cross and suddenly things started clicking. Often with a d’oh! or aha! from me, thanks to the spiky clueing. Great job!
@Dan as a Brit it sounds pretty natural as a synonym for “unfortunately” to me. Similarly “I’m afraid that…” is still largely used as an apologetic lead in, like “sorry to say…”
@Weak sounds like today gave you a great opportunity to learn new things, slightly outside of your wheelhouse! If I can learn the names of (to me) random baseball players and football team names, I think you can learn the names of (checks notes) platinum selling albums and canonic American shows. Congrats on broadening your knowledge base!
Wow what a nostalgia rush! And a lovely puzzle to boot! Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Thank you!
Loved this one. It put up plenty of resistance but offered some wonderful “aha” moments as pay off. A proper work out, but achievable with my tired Friday brain. Thank you!
This was a joy from start to finish for me. Thank you!
Oof my brain resisted this one, but was satisfying when it all came together! (With, admittedly, some light googling and a total guess in a couple of places.) thanks for a fun puzzle!
@JD Gold the idea that the constructors and editors of these puzzles are “lazy” is wild to me. The amount of thought and smarts they must put into these blows my mind! I can hand on heart say I’ve never heard of a fursona - but it slowly came into view as a possible answer from the crosses and my awareness of the words “fur” and “persona”. Similarly I know nothing of Toyota models or of a movie about someone called Hud (oh how confidently wrote in Hur 😅). But that’s part of the joy for me! Still, if it’s not for you it’s not for you. There’s probably some I’ve grinded teeth over that you’ve sailed through with glee.
Great fun! Just the right amount of resistance and challenge for me, and a satisfying pay off. And, yet again, I marvel at the kind of brain that could both think of this theme and pull it off. Thank you!
Now *that’s* some clever word play. Impressive!
@Westchester, NY I *think* it means that, at the “heart” of the word “black” - ie its center - is a short a. As in, the letter a with a short pronunciation. But I gave up on this crossword halfway through so don’t trust my interpretation.
Had so much fun with this one! A classic Thursday where I feared I’d never crack it and felt totally at a loss until all of a sudden I just got it, and the rest flew by. Loved the double head scratchers, v appropriate. Thanks Dan!
What an excellent workout for my tired brain! Gave me so much to fret over until finally the pieces fell into place. The best kind of satisfying. Thanks!
@Michael it’s the Thursday puzzle. They become available late on Wednesdays.
This one was a toughie for me - lots of resistance and then sudden rays of sunlight, to mix my metaphors. But huge fun. Some groans and hahas as answers revealed themselves. Thank you!
@Francis I think psychoanalysts would call it displacement rather than transference.
@Mos thank you!! The endless gripping over whether each crossword meets an arbitrary standard of difficulty is wild to me. Enjoy the crossword! It’s like some angry manifestation of consumer entitlement that is preventing people from just relaxing and thrilling in the lovely unpredictability and discovery of an unsolved crossword puzzle. It’s also—to me—the least interesting form of engagement and critique, which has eroded some of the joy of this forum.
@Zack the clue made me want this to be “not one bit” so badly
@Joe Horton I’ve made peace with looking something up as a very last resort. I don’t and can’t know everything, and that’s ok! Plus, once I’ve looked it up, there’s a greater than zero chance that word will appear in another puzzle and I’ll be ready for it.
@Jesse R. I hear your frustration and we all have those days, but is there a chance that this was just one you found to be challenging, and not that the clues are wrong? Once the trick clicked for me halfway through, I loved this one! Other days, not so much.
@Heidi “I’m not sure who to blame for this”. Maybe nobody needs to be blamed for anything? You completed a crossword that wasn’t your favorite. That’s all.
Can someone help me understand the difference between an estimate and a guesstimate? Not trying to be facetious, just curious!
@Nancy luckily Sam explains exactly this in her column accompanying the crossword. The answer has been just one click away from you this whole time!
Does anyone know how to access the monthly bonus puzzle through the app? I can’t find it!
@Adam yes!! Especially as Lon sounds nothing like lawn in my accent (if that’s what it’s going for?). N was the last square to fall for me, and even when I got it right I couldn’t see why
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