Morgan Wick

In the iOS app, I've just discovered that when I have Auto-Candidate Mode on in Sudoku, any candidates that I've removed come back whenever I fully fill in or remove a number. This isn't how it's behaved before. Is this intentional or a bug? I know any sudoku players who happen to be in these comments aren't likely to be sympathetic to someone who's not a "real" sudoku solver who does it exactly the same way someone with a pencil and eraser working on a paper puzzle would, but this still frustrates the way I play the game without feeling like a natural challenge, and might chase me away from playing the Times' Sudoku.

I used to be into college football (boo realignment), yet when msst proved to be a bust for 42A I needed to get every last cross to figure out what was meant. Also had loot for 52A and take for 15A. What does it say about me that my thought when reading the clue for 41A wasn't "tic-TAC-toe" or "out of office", but "castle queenside"?

Who else thought of the Simpsons after figuring out 18A? My first instinct for 78D was "eula" as an example of something that could be considered "terms and conditions". Doesn't quite fit the terminology of the clue, but whatever. And I figured 82A was asking me to emphasize the "draw" but thought it was something you do at the end of a *draw*ing. Also took me way too long to figure out 17D even with _E_S filled out.

Got to the end, got told I had at least one square wrong, wondered if it was the 11D/28A cross that was the last square I filled since I didn't recognize TABOR, but couldn't figure out what else could fill MADE _ACK. Confirmed TABOR fit the 28A clue, couldn't figure out where else my error could be, thought it might be EApE in 56D but thought the error was in the first square even though I didn't know what else could complete GAUCH_. Ran the autocheck for the first time ever on a Tuesday puzzle... and it was the 58D/67A cross I got wrong, even though 67A was covered in the column. I think I got misled by the column saying the two words were similar, so even though I'd just read it, after filling APIAN on 14A I naturally drifted to ApIARY on 67A and didn't bother to wonder if it was right until the end because "it was in the column, therefore I already know it's right!" 🤦‍♂️

Alternate clue for 65A that would have further obscured the "animal" theme, but which might have been easier for some solvers: "Twitter alternative" (or, fine, "X alternative").

My initial interpretation of the theme, before reading the explainer in the column, was that the LIEs were hidden in the black squares for the Across clues, but only the IEs were hidden in the black squares for the Down clues. Which didn't make sense but that was the only way I knew to make sense of the Down clues I knew vis-a-vis what 26A seemed to be pointing towards (and would have been marked correct in the app based on how it interprets rebuses), and coupled with how I was interpreting the 41A clue made me think the answer there was peLL once the column gave away the 25D answer.

If you're like me, 47A was another tricky clue - not because the state Hochul's the Governor of is obscure or hard to look up, but because my first instinct was to write in New york. When the crosses started to look nonsensical I started wondering if I was misremembering her state, and only after figuring out one of the crossing Downs in full (and I'm not sure I'd have figured it out if it weren't 34D specifically) did I get NY STATE.

I actually got the revealer first. I wondered how we might get a more Halloween-y puzzle than Wednesday's and was surprised to find only one obviously themed clue, relating to individual squares. Then I realized MONSTER MASH was a plausible answer to that clue and thought "Oh God, is this a rebus puzzle?" I figured out DESDEMONA and PROGRESS BAR with minimal lookups but didn't get any of the crosses until after looking at the column, though since I try to read the "Tricky clues" before the "Today's theme" section I was able to pick up MANGO LEMONADE on my own once I had the MONGOL EMPIRE cross.

Incidentally, Saturday's mini was surprisingly tough. Needed a couple of look-ups (including figuring out 1D if not Mai taiS - hey, I don't drink) and even using the autocheck multiple times.

Regarding the mini, imagine me wracking my brain staring at o_ENT in 5D as the last square needing to be filled (not being terribly familiar with Chappell Roan's oeuvre). Now I may not be part of the hoity-toity martini crowd that makes up the NYT's typical readership, but the idea that BRAVo is specifically for male (or mixed-gender?) performances seems not merely obscure but outdated, in terms of larger cultural norms if not necessarily actual practice.