Tony Lewis
Sydney, Australia
I, too, am mightily p.o.’ed that my streak is now over because I got so frustrated trying to find my “error” (went back over the puzzle at least six times) that I just had to find out what it was: ONE (1) square only! In (4)D, “op-ed” apparently just had to have the hyphen included which meant that (22)A then read “LIN-WORKER”. Now, I wouldn’t have minded so much if all the other across clues that included “LINE” also meant that their corresponding down clues “KAL-EL, MUST-READ, MID-AIR, ORE-IDA, RE-UP, AGE-OLD {Ok, not sure if age-old has a hyphen 😊}) had to have the hyphen included, but noooo … just “OP-ED”, apparently. I included the word “LINE…” in all said across clues and that didn’t matter; it was just 4(D) which was an issue and now my streak is history. To paraphrase another contributor to this comment thread , I hate losing my streak because of a gimmick.
@Min Many thanks to you and the same message back at you from Australia 🇦🇺
@eatnik Me too.
@Geoff Howes Me too.
@Seb I’m with you, mate. How, in the name of god, are we supposed to figure out that the first two letters of the CLUES have anything to do with the DOWN ANSWERS? I have never come across anything similar in my life. It may have been different if there was some kind of hint as to the relationship between clue and answer in the copy somewhere but there was nothing. Obviously, I’m a bit dense because plenty of others worked it out. Kudos to all who did; I just don’t know how one is supposed to even think that there may be a link. Colour me frustrated and a little angry.
@Janine Hi, Janine - I did post another comment yesterday explaining how I went back to the puzzle and replaced every horizontal clue which included “LINE…” with dashes. Only then did I get the happy music and realise that I had, in fact, finally solved it. But my streak was still gone because I used the cheat feature to reveal where my mistake was located. I suspect that my last comment wasn’t published because I included a little political message in it; obviously a no-no for the NYT Games forum. Anyhoo … wishing all my American mates a safe and happy Noo Year 😊🙏
@Francis Thank you, Francis. Much appreciated.
@Teresa Many thanks, Theresa.
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