Jake G
Wisconsin
I’ve heard of jack squat and I’ve heard of diddly squat. I’ve never heard of JACKDIDDLYSQUAT. That’s OK. I figured it out. I guess it’s in an extreme form when you combine the two into the longer one. Fun Saturday puzzle and not a stretch. Thanks.
@Barry Ancona when I solve a puzzle “the night before“ as I have done tonight, you are almost always one of the first comments. It must be a big part of your day to be here at the moment the puzzle drops. I enjoy it when I can make it fit. I find myself making it more of a game with myself to focus and get it done, then, as quickly as possible. I was confused a few months ago when I was the first one “here“ to post a comment on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday. I’m nowhere near the fastest solver. As fast as I thought I was, I’m not in the top 20%. Perhaps there was a glitch with the system that night. Anyway, I enjoy the three puzzles a week that I do and I enjoy reading the comments. I have gone back now in the archives five or six years. It goes faster because I only do those three days a week. I enjoy reading your comments. Have a good weekend.
My goodness! There have been some inane arguments on this comments page over the years. This one about rebuses and not rebuses and whatever is really an all-time low. It’s a beautiful puzzle. There is a revealer to tell you exactly what you need to do. What more do you want? Somebody to hold your hand? It’s not your puzzle. It belongs to the creator of the puzzle. We get to enjoy their creation, much like we get to enjoy a painting. You don’t get a vote.
Perhaps they figure that we’re all going to be hung over when we do the puzzle or still drunk. It was fun, though.
Challenging, despite the fact that it wasn’t one of those mind breaking 45-minute jobs.
This puzzle is why some people think of us hard-core CW enthusiasts as masochists. It took me over 50 minutes with no assistance whatsoever. And I’m happy about it. One of those wonderful days where I begin to think I’m not going to get it. A little bit in the center S. A bunch in the SW. And then the entire NW. That’s what was left. And then an insight here and an insight there and I got it all done. Great puzzle.
Amazing. Like the good Saturday puzzle, I begin to think that I’m stumped about halfway through. Then, the familiar insight flashes. Fun puzzle. I’m sure nowhere near as fast as many. I’m pleased I got it in just under half an hour with no assistance of any kind.
@John I really don’t like to complain about Friday puzzles and I get your point. I only got it by guessing the “A” in TNIA. I haven’t looked her up yet and I guessed that maybe it was T. NIA Miller. I wasn’t going to be defeated. Why would anyone guess that a name could be spelled TNIA?
Thursday? No. Tuesday. Sometimes a puzzle can be quick and fun. This was just easy. I wait for Thursday to even do the puzzles. Disappointing. Sorry.
I love that it was difficult mainly because I actually finished it with zero help whatsoever. I couldn’t care less that it was 46 minutes. The southwest and the northeast both had me. I went out for some Chocolate Shoppe ice cream, came home and figured out that I had GEtS instead of GEMS… that quickly solved the southwest because then I immediately got COMEHITHER. Ten seconds later, an inspiration gave me METRIC. The northeast fell just as quickly. Who knew that the best ice cream in the world would have such an effect? As their slogan goes “if you want healthy, eat carrots!“. As high of a butterfat content as any superpremium ice cream. I had a double scoop of Zanzibar chocolate, which has actual dark chocolate in it and what they label as “This $&@! Just Got Serious”. Great day. I told my wife, this might be the one that just totally gets me. She told me “don’t worry, honey, you’ll get it.”
One of those easy puzzles that is still fun. Finishing a Thursday puzzle quickly can be the thrill sometimes.
Cute. SW was last. Challenging solve. Satisfying.
It seemed tough and then it was done. Nicely constructed. A good workout.
Even though it turned out to be easy, it was fun. Enjoy!
Fun, challenging AND quick. Nice.
Fun puzzle. Great to get it done before I go to sleep. Like so many times, I thought it was getting me and then it came together. I like to think I’m good at these and then I see the times of people who beat my good times. It keeps me going. 😊
Fun little Christmas Eve puzzle before I go to bed. Not tough and that’s OK. I think there’ll be fewer complaints given that it’s Christmas Eve. Ho ho ho! And…. Mehhhhhhrry Christmas!
Cute. Smart. Challenging. Relatively quick.
ON THE ROAD as the first fill helped. 13:20. Way under my average. Seemed real easy for a Thursday. I know many people don’t want to hear that. Sorry. It was still fun. It’s nice to be able to feel that it can be a race sometimes.
Given the fact that I had an almost 4-Hour drive . across Florida to get to Daytona tonight, I could say that I’m glad that it was an easy Friday puzzle. I’m not. Now I have to hope that Saturday is a good one. I may have to give up doing the puzzles entirely. They just aren’t as much fun if they’re this easy. It’s just getting worse.
Fun puzzle. SW corner was nasty.
Puzzle 1. Jake 0. Two lookups vs. almost never any.
Cute. Very easy and still fun. It often makes Thursdays easier if I figure out what the trick is first. Today, it was then no challenge to solving the eight starred clues. XXX OOO to the constructor. 😘🤗
@Mike may I politely ask why you do this with almost every puzzle? I would ask the question my mother would: what would happen to this message board if everybody indulged themselves this way? Has no one ever asked?
I made it through. That’s all that can be said. It wasn’t enjoyable at all. I don’t mind difficult puzzles. I looked at it last night and had hardly anything. Then, this morning, somehow I saw TRADEWARS. It began to feel from there. The southeast corner was nuts.
@Benji Roger Daltry will be glad to hear that. 😉
I guess only doing Thursday, Friday and Saturday puzzles as they come out and using the archives to go backward is honing my skills. I immediately got 17A because a part of my brain has begun to think like the clever constructors. That really helped early on. I really enjoyed the puzzle. Completing it in just over 30 minutes gets my Saturday off to a fantastic start. Since I don’t get to talk to people in my life who do the NYT puzzle, is that a good time?
25:19 and a genuine gold star. Zero assistance. I’ll take it. SE and NW had me until they didn’t. Very enjoyable.
@Hobby Gardener looks like a landslide in support of the rest of us. Thursday, Friday and Saturday used to be and are supposed to be very challenging. Most of the time, now, they aren’t. Why make us wrong? We’re not making you wrong for enjoying them being easy.
Yay! The once a month puzzle that makes me think I might actually get stumped. Thank you. Lots of fun.
Some terrible obscure clues that had nothing to do with the solutions. Still solved it though.
@dutchiris all we can do is watch as a 250 year-old constitutional republic is dismantled. He and his minions have all the power at the moment. No one will stand up to him. Hang in there.
@Paul you said it much better than I did. Thank you.
As a “103-seconds” Minesweeper nerd, what a fun puzzle! I had a 1995 Panasonic 8 MB RAM early laptop. So it had one of those eraser-tip joysticks in the middle of the keyboard. It took a while, and when I mastered it, I could really move on that game.
@Mos years ago, IMO, it used to be a geometric curve. On a scale of 0 to 10, Monday was under a one. Tuesday a 1. Wednesday a 2. Thursday was a 4-1/2. Friday a seven. Saturday a 10. I get both sides in this long, running argument. The fact remains, Friday and Saturday puzzles used to be generally harder than they are now. I’ve seen many conversations about the whys and wherefores. People are going to have their opinions.
@Marc perhaps neither the constructor nor the editor were aware of the rule change a couple of years ago.
@Tom S. I will lay 5/1 odds that your word invention will appear in a New York Times puzzle. Stay tuned.
Like dominoes… it all tumbled down past a certain threshold. I feel good about a sub-19. Then someone will say they did it in 12. 😜
Enjoyable to complete before bedtime. Thanks.
@Cara judging by the responses and the “likes“, yours is a small minority opinion.
not a Natick. If for almost everybody it’s the only square, then you can figure it out.
Fun. Like popcorn. Figuring out the trick helped. I always solve the hint first by working the clues around it. “ALLTHUMBS” helped. 20+ minutes.
Cute. As with a few others who have finished it, I didn’t quite get the trick at first. I thought that they were totally upside down. Still a lot of fun.
@Maggie congratulations. I broke my gold star streak because I had to check the puzzle for a couple squares that were wrong. I always hate to do that. Impressive to get this one with no help at all.
Enjoyable puzzle. Just under 27. It took three or four minutes to find my boo-boos. Not unhappy with some of the stuff that others are expressing dissatisfaction with.
@Jon I could never have a long streak, even if I chose to want one. I don’t do Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. They are too easy. I don’t do Sunday because they are pretty much just time-consuming. As far as their difficulty, they aren’t as challenging as Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Perhaps it’s my ego: I choose to believe that a lot of people, meaning a significant number of people, who report lengthy streaks are not being 100% in integrity as to how they complete the puzzle. For me, it’s pretty meaningless. In a bizarre way, I enjoy it when every few weeks, that I am not able to finish a puzzle unassisted.
@Andree you speak for everybody in Quebec?