Ken Burk
Arlington Heights, Ill
102
Comments
-0.237
Avg Sentiment
14
Positive
49
Neutral
39
Negative
Arlington Heights, Ill
I found a lot of the clues incongruent with the answers. Not a fun solve.
Too many “for short” and “informally” indicating a weak effort to find a decent grid. The theme is in Sam’s head, just not clever enough to mean anything to the solver.
32 teams 32 logos 32 starting QBs 32 franchises 32 ownerships, even But, even excluding the Green Bay packers corporation, there are many teams with co-owners: see Bills, Browns, Giants, 49ers, Jets. It’s a common noun and an easy fix with a better clue.
No answer started with “pee”
I enjoyed this puzzle a lot. Some different clues to old standby answers. Didn’t bother with the rebus of oh. Worked quite well with just Fs everywhere.
Potter’s wheel not pottery wheel. Sometimes knowing the correct term trips you up.
@Megan Maybe because it’s a potter’s wheel. No such thing as a pottery wheel.
@Kristopher Social movement like metoo, blm Generic - just believe Political - maga, maha Public service - a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Only you can prevent forest fires.
Bleah. Very hacky. Read through the answers and most are nonsensical. Theme was okay, but too much German, sports, turn of phrase. Needs work.
Bit rough for a Monday, I thought.
This a crossword puzzle for puzzlers who’ve grown bored with puzzles. Feels like constructor trying to show off by using c-list celebrities, obscure references to normal words, culture adjacent (no one cares about FIFA in America, seriously), and fits that need a few shoehorns to get in there. The multiple clueless pairs? author is clueless on how to make something fun.
I rarely use the timer as a measure of how easy or hard a puzzle is. That said, this was definitely a cruise to the finish. Well, time to get choring. House doesn’t clean itself.
@Shimmer No issues with counties and townships. Heaven and Eden are both referring to idyllic places, neither of which are real except in the imagination.
@Tain And inside.
Love music. Hate puns. Puns about things I love are the worst. This was vomit inducing.
A lot of quibbles about the clues and answers in this one. It has an okay idea for a theme, but didn’t feel like it was fully formed. There is only one L in Chicago and it refers to the system. That would be equivalent to Trains for Wimbledon? Tubes.
Only gripe is that all of the clues with bends solved to a real phrase except the revealer.
Don’t know why the reviewer isn’t familiar with Sloth being one of the seven deadly sins. The non-themed clues were often very obscure. Either better clue writing or less eccentricity would have helped.
Spurs and cowgirl boots. Wow. Two errors in one clue. Spurs are not a part of cowboy boots, they are an accessory worn with cowboy boots. It is strapped to the boot, not part of it. Cowgirls wear cowboy boots. Read a Wikipedia page.
@Post Mortem Can you please provide the GPS coordinates?
Felt a little regionally biased. Never met anyone with an oil tank. Hoagies - those are subs? People say “tether to a hotspot” instead of “join a hotspot”? Never seen a recipe for curried anything - chicken curry, fish curry, mutton curry….
@Nancy Not wrong. Key word is “or”
@Ace I don’t think it is you.
@Indy Puzzler It amazes me that someone who does crossword puzzles expects the puzzles to remain equally difficult for them instead of recognizing a pattern that learning = more proficiency. The more you do crosswords, the easier they get. It’s a you problem, not a NYT problem.
Really cute. Great job. Hope you guys had fun and bring more like it.
@Steve L Yep. Too old for the millennial stuff and too young for the baby boomer stuff. Welcome to GenX 55 was the only square that I got by guessing, too. Agree with OP
Connecting Desi to diaspora seems unnecessary. Desi refers to anyone with ties to South Asia, diaspora notwithstanding. Just seems overly clumsy the way it’s worded even if I didn’t stumble on it.
How did the magnets connect? This was a lame puzzle that could have been much more interesting if the dashed lines lead somewhere. As it was; meh. Too much niche, not enough constructive cleverness.
Cute puzzle. Lots of old-school fillers, apropos to the theme.
@Calig It’s a very common answer, finding different ways to clue can be challenging for authors, especially when there are two gas station clues.
RVER - there is a distinct difference between a camper (which is a trailer) and an RV, which is driven. Easy - home on wheels resident Medium - “On the Home” Hard - Drives home
@Oikofuge Hope the statute of limitations has run out for your prior activities
Euphoria and Last of Us? HBO? HBO Now? Max? HBO Max? I think it’s HBO Max right now. Given the way that gets renamed, I would used a sopranos or Wire reference instead of something that is ambiguous and currently incorrect.
@EnviroLawProf Maybe if the answer was strictly about a carpenter’s level - you might be right. But I spent the summer doing some hardscaping and I can say for a fact that leveling the under-layers is paramount to stability.
@AGW Same. For a Sunday, could have been less obscure.
I liked the theme but I’m not a big fan of name trivia especially clustered together like today. Nothing to puzzle out - you either know or don’t.
Good puzzle, imo Personally, I’m glad two airport codes or two Spanish fillers weren’t featured in the same set of clues.
@Andrew Hollywood celebs have star power. They are cast in movies (screens) to grab an audience.
@Asher B. Letters to the editor are regularly published. I also had a comment on an article recently published, humble brag.
@Laura Stratton a rebus wouldn’t fit the gimmick. It’s not an expansion, but a substitution.
Fun solve. Kudos to the author.
@Scott All true, yet Aldi’s footprint is more of a medium box and I haven’t seen a big box Gap in forever - the one near us became an AT&T store and is now a chase bank.
@Amy I don’t think you were wrong. The clue should have been different as the plural for Aura is Auras unless it relates to pathology use for the sense that a seizure or migraine is coming. That definition isn’t common and it is just a flaw in the puzzle.
Overall a fun puzzle. Paste felt like an overreach. Reintroducing isn’t the same as repeating. The clue fits better for UNDO in its intent.
Needed IMDb a lot for this. Hate having to look that stuff up, but the other directions weren’t helpful.
Square 55 had me thinking “ok, boomer”
@Dylan Didn’t need to be about sports at all. No league has an equal amount of owners to teams any more. For a common noun, the clue wasn’t clumsy - it’s just flat out wrong.
Puzzle was a nice challenge. Hints were useless. Tricky clues for me were 54A, 2D, 43D, 48D
@Elon Group of seals is a herd or a pod Shakespeare didn’t have spelling rules. It wasn’t until the 19th century that you could spell something “wrong”
@A Llama It’s the thing you’ve never ordered at a real Japanese restaurant