Jo

@max Ta for asking this question. I really love the NYT crossword but my least favourite clue has to be anything indicating that TA TA is how us Brits say goodbye. Perhaps TA TA was a British farewell of old… but I lived there from birth until I was in my 20s and never once heard TA used to say goodbye - it was, however, frequently used as a quick thanks. In fact, I only learned that Americans understood it as a goodbye in my 30s when, after IMing “ta” to a US colleague multiple times over months of working together, he wrote to me “TIL that ‘ta’ means ‘thanks’. i thought it meant ‘bye’.” Meaning he’d send something helpful my way, and then believed I was replying with a blunt “bye” rather than any gratitude. Hi Jim if you’re reading this. Anyway, seeing TAS clued as it was today brought me a lot of joy :) so, ta for that!

@Jaebum congrats on your progress! Four years ago I couldn’t even finish a Monday, and now I can do most days of the week (Saturday aside!) almost without lookups — the typical exceptions being certain US-centric knowledge, like state politicians for example. It’s been pleasing to see my progress over the years, and I love reading about yours which is obviously very impressive given that English is your second language. As well as my crossword hobby, I try to learn languages (it’s not a strong skill for me but it’s nice to try) so I am in awe of you :) I agree with the advice from @Andrzej to attempt a later-week puzzle anyway: my method early on was to simply start with Autocheck On for the whole puzzle. It meant I didn’t get lost with a wrong guess (or ten!) and if I felt I would *never* get a word I’d let the program fill it in for me etc. But as @Andrzej mentioned, seeing the clueing style for later week crosswords helped me learn the tricks. Then I moved onto attempting one or two runs through the clues before doing a Check Puzzle to find all my errors :) and now I almost never use it — occasionally on a particularly difficult Saturday, but very rarely now. Anyway, congratulations again on your progress!

@Beth, on an iPhone at least, you can click the lower left “more” keyboard button then on the lower right you’ll find a “rebus” button; once you click on that you can enter multiple characters in a single cell!

@John Carson I do the same. And I too solved the SW corner last!