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@BamBam Wow. FYI, Donna Tartt has one a Pulitzer prize and been included in a Time "100 most influential people" list. Kara Swisher has written prolifically about tech and silicon valley (hardly just "twee girly" things) for the Wall Street Journal and NYT. The film adaptation of Cheryl Strayed's "Wild" won multiple academy awards. Dismissive of women, much?
@Travis Every across theme answer has exactly one EI and one IE, and the down crossings always use the opposite order of the across. IMO it was impressively consistent.
Loved this one! The theme made for a satisfying "aha!" moment about halfway through the puzzle. Lots of fun cluing, too - loved "Oxford Institution", "Many hit Wonder", and "stuff of Persian myths" in particular. Thanks Jeffrey for a bright start to a gray drizzly Sunday.
IDEMPOTENT is such a good word. A crossword full of tech, math/science, and female authors is about as "in my wheelhouse" as it gets. So much fun to feel like I'm breezing through a Friday, and so many great entries! Thanks Alina, this was my favorite puzzle I've done in a long time!
Naticked on a Tuesday! EHUD/DEKES tripped me up - I clearly need to brush up on my hockey lingo and my knowledge of former world prime ministers. This one was fun! I didn't even notice the TYPOs in my quick first reading of 17A, and I enjoyed the "aha!" when I came back to it.
I really wanted "party people" to be "comrades", but alas. Also, I spent longer than I'd like to admit wondering what "URANtUM" was.
Oof, got sports-naticked with IONA/NATS as well as the much-maligned APIASAMOA/SAPOR. But I *did* figure out the theme on my own, which was a very satisfying aha! moment - and it let me get that pesky P in place for the last theme answer. Overall, I think I'd rather be too puzzled than finish a late-week crossword before I finish my first cup of coffee. I appreciate a puzzle that really makes me work for it.
Love a Thursday where I can tell there's *something* going on as I work my way down, but I just have to have faith for a while that all will eventually be revealed. A really lovely "Aha!" moment when I got SALLIE/KYLIE and the revealer at about the same time. A smooth solve from there - aside from my inability to spell "supplies" for a moment - doh!
If you look up “samlet” in the Merriam Webster online dictionary, you find simply that it is a “parr”. What is a parr? Well 3 of the definitions are: - Called also samlet, skegger, and fingerling. - A young leveret. - A young salmon, younger than a smolt. And now I know.
"Sound made when something snaps into place?" indeed. Just a perfect Saturday in my opinion. Halfway through my first pass I was sure it was impossible, but then it slowly filled in, section by section, with at least half a dozen very satisfying AHA moments.
I'll admit I rolled my eyes a little to see "Els" in a puzzle yet again, but that was before I got to the revealer - in retrospect, it couldn't be more fitting. ONE L of a great, puzzle, indeed.
This was phun! If you squint, the f/ph verticals almost make a couple of mini-themes - fabric-y FRAYED, FELT, FUTON at the top, and ELF, DWARF, HALF(ling?) at the bottom.
A really satisfying "aha!" moment about 2/3 of the way through - made the rest fall into place quickly. Thursdays are my favorite, and this one was extremely satisfying. Thanks Aidan & Jacob!
Shortly before quitting the PCT because of plantar fasciitis, I earned the trailname "Footrest" because of how often I had to stop to park my dogs for a while. Lots of big grins and fun "aha!"s in this puzzle!
@dk I don't believe Santa's workshop is incorporated.
I was *so* certain that "religous right?" had to be AMENtothat. Took forever to get that corner straightened out.
CRISSCROSS/APPLESAUCE plus IKNOWRIGHT and TINFOILHAT had me beaming from the start. Such a fun one today, thanks Adrian & Jess! Also interesting to see the choice of SAPID/SERVE rather than the easier VAPID/VERVE - was that to up the difficulty a bit? Like many here, I learned a new word today, which is always fun.
@Ken Burk I assume because the suit is known as "spades", plural, they had to clue a single spade as only being part of the suit.
I got Altair only because I recently ate at the surprisingly-fantastic restaurant by that name in midtown Manhattan. Definitely a star worth adding to the cross-country road (flight) trip.
@cfmoore Personally I was impressed the constructor managed to find enough items that people *actually* keep in pants pockets. There aren't very many options!
From a favorite mis-heard lyric, I've got Alanis Morissette stuck in my head crooning about "the cross-eyed bear that you gave to me" (you, you, you oughta know).
Lots of fun details in this one - loved the crossing of UHYES with OHHELLNO Also seemed like nearly a mini-theme with 90-degree mirroring in the corners? MINECART/WINEGRAPE, OBAMANIA/NAMATH, DEEPDISH/IDIDINDEED/NEED, FELLOW/OHHELLNO
@Gray Nick Offerman identifies himself as 55 years old in the article you're commenting on here. Christina Iverson is one of the puzzle editors and identifes as "mom of two" on Twitter, though I don't know her exact age. I don't think the issue here is with the times failing to give adequate notice about overly-"online" references.
@Rick Per the wordplay column, subscribers can take a peak at the answer key: <a href="https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/53b84f8eecf10f09/b5278091-full.pdf" target="_blank">https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/53b84f8eecf10f09/b5278091-full.pdf</a> I've had to resort to that before to find my missing typo. In this puzzle, my last mistakes were MeYER instead of MAYER and REeDE instead of READE in the southeast corner. There are a few names down there that were tricky for me.
The tech union has dropped the picket line, so I rushed here to enjoy my fastest time ever on this fun, smooth Monday. Hoping for a good contract for the tech workers, and glad to be back :)
@Steve MOISTT ones it appears, though I'll pass, thanks.
@Amy Aha, thank you! That's what I was missing. I had convinced myself it must be Aymee because clearly it had to be shyest. Got my happy music now thanks to you!
@Zack I had pretty much the same snag - could not figure out TYPEA/TYCOON/HOER/NENE. Had to come to the comments where you saved me - thanks!
@K *won lol can't believe I made that mistake
@MJ "Eta" is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet.
@Xword Junkie, yes, I wanted CUDGEL, or maybe BUDGET, but had to go read the wordplay column to get NUDGER. I did *love* the theme on this one and am willing to let it slide for the sake of a great theme, but I did wince a little at some of this fill.
@Nora Levine Yes, I spent so long dredging my brain to remember "Deja" because I was sure she was the oldest. I was disappointed to be led astray!
@latenightsolver After the epic struggle I had yesterday, I was relieved this one was more in my wheelhouse!
@CNS "Hippocampus" <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocampus" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocampus</a>
@keyaseoul Yes, it's one of the theme answers, so H[EI]GH HO is the correct answer, crossing the matching rebus from D[IE]T. But as per the description in Wordplay, any of the following would be accepted as fill in the rebus part: IE/EI EI/IE IE EI I E EIIE IEEI
@keyaseoul Correction: H[EI]GHHOS is the correct answer
@Nancy By "the wordle site", do you mean <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html</a> ? I don't have any problems there, but it sounds like a pretty terrible experience!
@Ian I had also never heard it as a baseball term. But I was figured oh, if you smash the word "potato" it turns into "tater", sure that makes sense.
@Andrew I had that as my first guess, too, but the (ancient Greek) Amazon women are famously depicted without a bra.
@RozzieGrandma I definitely had a reaction of "what did I just read?" after finishing this one. But I believe we are supposed to be horrified by the protagonist - and of course, unlike Akkad's book, this is fiction - so no actual gipsy children were harmed in the writing of the story. I think I enjoyed being horrified/surprised by this one, but I am glad it was quite short.
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