Chet
Tx
213
Comments
-0.584
Avg Sentiment
18
Positive
59
Neutral
136
Negative
Tx
Most self indulgent and tedious puzzle of the year, easily. No stars.
XDIN is a very very clunky bit of fill. Bad choice, and should have been edited out.
And with that, my streak hits FIVE YEARS. Whoa.
Wow. Serious contender for clunkiest puzzle in my 4 year streak.
No surprise that NYT still doesn’t understand that “okras” isn’t a thing people say.
I’m 2,212 puzzles into a streak, and this is the absolute worst one I’ve seen for enjoyment. I got it done, but it was an ugly slog full of deeply questionable fill. Zero stars.
Yet another example of why, on Thursdays, I read the column before I bother even attempting the puzzle. What an un-fun slog.
Bollocks to Rebuses. Doubly so if they break the central idea of crosswords. If you get to insist on different letters across vs down, you’re playing tennis without the net.
@John McGuinness Plenty of garbage fill in this one.
“ABYSM”? Seriously? And in a puzzle with LIMN?
Clunky and self-indulgent. The inclusion of yet another contrived “e” word answer just cements my opinion of this awkward and unsatisfying grid. I’ve spent more years online than nearly anybody, and at no point did I “emeet” anyone.
Lots of awkward fill here, and definitely punching well above the usual Tuesday difficulty. Given eHow's longstanding rep as effectively a content mill and spam factory -- some search engines no longer list it -- I also find it problematic that it'd show up here.
@Erin It's super weird how offended the "every puzzle is awesome" crowd gets when legitimate beefs are raised. Sure, some folks are just upset whenever everything isn't sunshine and rainbows, but given the endless flood of (often unearned) positivity in these comment threads, I'm thankful for folks who will raise their head, ignore Barry, and note problems in construction or executions.
@Heidi Yeah, same. This was hard, but in no way elegant or artful.
Nice easy Sunday but the colored cells made tracking the cursor a lot harder. :(
@Andrew Correct. But you have to remember that the editors absolutely do not care about accuracy.
What an absolute unrewarding and self indulgent puzzle. Zero stars. It’s bad enough when yall do this crap on Thursday.
In re: the mini, 1A is just plain wrong. In computing if you are differentiating laptops, Macs run MacOS and PCs run Windows. Chromebooks run neither, so the clue (“Chromebooks but not MacBooks”) is nonsensical.
@David Hancock Again, we see Barry never met a valid complaint he wouldn’t try to deflect.
Zero stars. Bad even for a Thursday.
TINCT? Seriously? Zero stars.
Using the official app, I still had to type in the (nonsense) rebus to get the completion. This is a bad puzzle. The rebus boxes only work in one direction; they render the crossing answers to gibberish. That’s not a crossword, since the whole point is crossing words. Zero stars for the concept, and negative stars on execution.
@Barbotus Barry never met an error he wouldn’t defend.
I found this to be loaded with pretty clumsy fill, honestly. Saturday was a much stronger puzzle.
This one had some seriously clunky, substandard crosswordese fill. The most glaring examples are ITEN (which is written that way, uh, never) and the endlessly grating made-up ETAIL. At least it was free of the usual Thursday annoyances.
Very crunchy indeed. 12D is perhaps the most diabolical misdirection I’ve seen in 1700+ puzzles here.
Full on self indulgent waste of time. Zero stars.
Yet another self-indulgent Thursday that requires instructions to complete properly. I guessed rebus at first, even though the crosses wouldn’t work that way, because we all know the editors don’t care if the grid works. No joy, so I just put in one letter — which still resulted in nonsense entries — but that got the solve. Do better, NYT.
I really hate that the new iOS app opens the column IN THE APP and not in the browser. Please fix this.
@Steve L when an unpopular puzzle drops, it’s always fun to watch the “defend at all costs!!!!” crowd find ways to invalidate the inevitable criticisms.
@Calig You have to remember that accuracy is not important to either the constructors or the editors. Whenever I encounter a clue that appears to involve an area I have specific knowledge about, I ask myself “how would someone ignorant of this topic answer?”
Please confine this self-indulgent foolishness to Thursdays.
Tricksy gimmicks on THREE puzzles this week? Jesus.
It’s only in clunky crossword clues that I have ever heard “skeet” pluralized with an “s”. In actual usage at shooting facilities, saying “skeets” would get you laughed at as a rube.
@Barry Ancona Imagine my surprise that you're still out here trying to refute each and every factual error in the cluing, regardless of how egregious the mistakes are.
@JohnWM Barry never met a clue he won’t defend.
Ole Miss doesn’t really have a rivalry with Alabama. Mississippi State is a big, big deal for them. Traditional Bama rivals include Tennessee and Auburn. Signed, UA ‘92
49A was an amazing bit of synchronicity bc I went to see a retrospective of the artist YESTERDAY.
I could not have enjoyed that less. Bummer.
Lots of sketchy fill here. C- at best.
George H. W. Bush did not name his son George H. W. Bush, Jr., and so is not George Sr.
I didn’t even notice any chicanery until I read the column after finishing. What a great Thursday!
Wow, some SERIOUSLY clunky fill in this one. SAWSUP we might forgive, but when it's in the same puzzle as NO HIT GAMES (vs. the actual term NO HITTER) I lose patience. Also, as a lifelong gulf coast resident, I inform you that creole mustard is not really a common topping on po-boys. Roast beef poboys will be dressed with a gravy, not a mustard. Fried seafood examples (oyster, shrimp, catfish) will have remoulade if you're lucky, or simple mayo in less interesting locations. Catfish probably follows the seafood standard, but sometimes has a slaw as a topping. And boudin po boys -- my favorite -- probably boast a Louisiana hot sauce, not a mustard (tourists pick Tabasco; locals will pick Crystal). Generally, that's just a long way of saying it's an example of someone not really knowing the subject, and mashing together something that might get answered right, but isn't actually real. Sadly, that kind of thing is endemic in crosswords.