Nom De Plume
California
98
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35
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28
Neutral
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Negative
California
Well good riddance 2025, and here’s to peace, love and more loving thy neighbor, regardless of who they are, where they come from and who they love, in 2026. Looking forward to 365 more crosswords too!!!
Super annoyed that the only acceptable answer was putting an actual dash.
1,000 day streak!
Note to self - don’t stare at the puzzle willing the clue to solve it self. Put it aside and come back to it and it will. Now if I can only remember this profound realization.
Always a good feeling to figure out the trick without reading the column. Today was a good feeling! Helped that the clues were fairly straightforward. Fun Thursday puzzle!
I had a mistake in my grid, but assumed I needed to twist the dials manually before finishing the puzzle. Thankfully that error actually revealed my error DAM not GUM. Have to agree the instructions were clear as mud.
Can I make one request to the puzzle maestros - stop with the cutesy puzzles, please. When you start creating a flowchart of possible responses based on input criteria you have changed lanes - you are now cruising down the programmer nerd lane and not the crossword nerd lane.
@Dan As one on the cusp of leaving the 50s and seriously dreading the big 60, I know how you feel. However looking back, 50s was probably one of my best decades. 10 years from now I hope to have a similar epiphany.
‘We’re so dead’ strikes again. What’s that ? 3 times in the last couple of months ? Can we take a break from using this for a long time please ?
@Bellevue Bob Thank you for sharing this important piece of information. My time was 10 minutes and 9million milliseconds if you must know.
Almost lost my streak to this one - can’t say it was fun. Never heard of a heliostat, a fire boat, taffy pulls, a pan loaf … I’ll stop there. This felt more like ‘eat your Brussels sprouts’ because it’s good for you, and not ‘this is fun’
Don’t like it when I finish the puzzle and still haven’t figured out the clue. I’ll take the ‘w’ anyway I get it though.
This one I I had to work for, harder after a big turkey dinner and too much wine. Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow puzzlers!
This was fun - not super hard, but definitely took a looong time to finish. Enjoyed solving the clues (once I caught on). Thanks!!
Had trouble with a WAMP shirt because my ophthalmologist was interested in selling eyeWARE instead of doing eyeCARE. TIL of a Camp Shirt. Loved the execution of this puzzle. Ingenious!!
Merry Christmas to my fellow crossworders! It’s a rainy, windy Xmas here in the Bay Area, and I am keeping fingers crossed that the power stays on.
@Jane Nothing wrong with getting help IMO. The more crosswords you complete with some help, the less you will need help in the future. Personally after a 3+ year streak I still get help, and I look at it as an opportunity to learn about new things. TIL what a ‘sweeper kicker’ is.
@Emilie You should absolutely check out Netflix’s movie ‘Rustin’. Everyone who knows of MLK should know of Bayard.
@Elaine I hid for 3 days, stopped looking at the front page of NYT and deleted all my podcasts. I am slowly emerging from this fugue now, joined a zoom meeting hosted by Gavin Newsom and there were 35,000 other Californians in attendance. Together, we will get through the coming madness and resist the worst of it. It can only make us stronger,
Took a long time to unlock the clue, but that made it more worthwhile, More non traditional puzzles please.
Nice pairing of Lent and Orgy!
After blowing a 1800 day streak accidentally, I decided to stop chasing streaks for a new goal - finish without any lookups or help (asking my family doesn’t count). I was quite happy to finish this one without any help. Great clueing and no OREOS!
I felt like I was trying to find my way out of a dark cluttered room, strewn with legos. Thankful I made it out, bruised battered but still victorious. Glad that one is over!
Is this the second appearance of Estonia in one week ? I like to have left overs for Sunday but finished out early, this week.
@Andrzej stick in (one's) craw To rankle or irritate one. It really sticks in my craw that he would lie and take all the credit for my idea! Not sure if this a uniquely American idiom.
Took me much too long to guess Raita and Assam, but thoroughly enjoyed the references to Indian cuisine, geography and mythology.
Thanks to the Dennis Hopper line in Speed, I always associate WildCats with Arizona, which made the lower left hand corner quite the game time stretcher. One of these days I will start following sports!
Ken and Spade two days in a row ?
Turbo Tax gives you the option to print and file manually, so using one does not necessarily mean the other. They will also annoy the heck out of you by popping up Ads for any number of products and services you don’t need in the process.
I heard ‘All the Pretty Horses’ read by George Guidall and was hooked on Books on Tape/CD. I am going back to Books on Paper and loving it, and in a full circle moment I am reading ‘the road’. Only tangentially related to today’s puzzle, except it made me go on trip to the 90s. Enjoyed this puzzle!
Not super hard but definitely super fun!
At first I wondered if they switched Wednesday and Thursday puzzles. After reading the column I see and admire the cleverness of the construction. Wish it demanded more of me to solve, however!
Karl the fog ??? I have lived here for decades and never heard it called that. Jeopardy question or not, I’m calling bull!
Hats off to the constructor! Smart and tough puzzle. If you had to lookup Sanaa and Tamil Nadu are real places in the world, hopefully you thanked the constructor and did not gripe. You learned something new!! Thank you NYT for bringing in diverse set of constructors in the fold.
This was so fun, make mine with Tito’s. Graphic at the end was a nice touch.
@Larry Because it’s a bear to solve.
Joggle is a thing ? I misspelled aisle and kept trying to replace Joggle with anything but…
Today’s theme is Eggcorns. I just accept the weird answers expecting Deb to clue me in, eventually. But, now I’m curious - are we supposed to guess the theme or is it known upfront to some subset of solvers (not on the iPhone). Not my favorite puzzle.
Orbed ? I had Orred for a bit and was scratching my head and wondering if we were looking at Boolean operations. Neither words suggests encircled, but one gave me happy music.
Never heard of Yer Blues, and I thought the Beatles song would be a gimme. I liked this one in spite of, or maybe because of all the weird and wild misdirections.
Amazed to see folks report sub 15 minute scores. Does it make solving less fun when it’s so easy ?
Happy 4th everybody! Didn’t notice the start of our anthem until I read the column, but still pretty cool. Very clever.
Needless trickery and too clever by half. Rebus here, but not there. Big thumbs down!!
Ok - two, too easy ?? I’m not complaining - with all the literal and figurative fires around us, I can use a reprieve.
Not having encountered pig latin until my 30s, I understand it conceptually but never quite tried to or learned how apply the coding and decoding. I am not going to start today, so happy to accept jumbo entree and the 8th underway without further inspection.
I wasn’t sure if I had to enter the first two letters (rebus fashion) or not. Spent more time with that, than actually solving the puzzle. Great construction, tedious solve
I managed to solve without understanding the trick and reading the column did not help. I’ll take the W to keep the streak to 1000 alive, but otherwise this was a meh for me.
Why are ERAS best kept low ? I started with ETAS, but couldn’t think of a woman’s name that began with IT, and was quite surprised by the happy music when I finally settled on ERAs.
Batarangs?? Zounds! That one almost did me in.
It took a bit to get going - with all these big open swaths , but once it started revealing itself the going got quicker. Good one!