Agent86

Shagged it

Beat my average by 27 minutes. Some of you are probably wondering how high my average must be that it can be beaten by 27 minutes. Your average may well be less than 27 minutes. I like to think that I get more time to enjoy a good puzzle.

Just realized I could recommend my own posts. What fun. Now I’m twice as popular. Thanks Mom.

No naticks. Challenging. No awkward fill or clues. Great puzzle.

More of a crossword-look-up-the-answers-you-don’t-know or a crossword-guessing-game than a crossword puzzle.

I liked it. Difficult, different, not too much trivia. Plus I like most puzzles I solve. The ones I can’t solve are often unfair. Funny how that works 😉

If I keep on beating my average like this then pretty soon I’ll have the puzzle done before it’s published

PB. Less than 20% of my average time. I still enjoyed it. Just not for long.

Reminds me of the time I changed the command prompt to something like “C:\Fatal error”. The service tech couldn’t figure it out. He ended up reinstalling the OS. I didn’t have the courage to tell him what I did. I guess I remember it because it makes me feel guilty when I think of it. So I try to expunge my guilt - anonymously.

Apt theme today. Confirmation bias is especially damaging these days with all the fake news and sketchy information sources. Hopefully the rebus issue doesn’t overshadow it.

Never would have noticed that bit of theme without the app’s reveal.

Missed it by 👌🏻that much….

One of my favorite puzzles ever. Difficult but solvable. The foreign clues at least gave a hint to their subject matter. When I say foreign, I mean completely unknown to me. My first pass resulted in very few filled squares, some with dubious confidence. Long answers were very difficult to guess without crosses. Luckily a few came to mind with only one. The good news is that once solved, confidence is high and a lot of information gained. Thank you Fritz.

Interesting theme that didn’t interfere with a straightforward solve.

That was fun

My beast was a beaut

Ended with 2 letters I didn’t know. So I gave my phone to my pet monkey and voila. Lookout AI. Merry Christmas Y’all

Guessed at least 7 squares… Keep trying. Amazingly changing only one letter a couple times rang the bell. Lots of naticks for me. I thought my streak was surely over. Glad I didn’t give up. Happy 21st Birthday Adrianne.

I’d rather guess than Google. Guessing feels fair. Lookups count as a loss in my rule book. Yours? Had to guess 3 letters in 5 entries today. I was pleasantly surprised when the music played. That’s the feeling I play for.

I won. It was tough. No lookups, as always. If I hadn’t won then I might be complaining about the nouns. But I did win. And it feels so much better when it’s tough.

The typing monkeys got a day off. I was able to puzzle out the few remaining squares in the brutal NE. That’s the sign of a very enjoyable crossword. Even though you don’t know it you can work it out. Happy New Year Y’all

I solved in less than half my average time, yet it didn’t feel easy. I had only a few answers after my first pass and was able to build on those. That was the rewarding aspect of this puzzle.

Weird how I feel like I adapted to the new editor. I find myself making guesses that I wouldn’t have with Will. And they’re right more frequently than wrong. A few weeks ago I might not have solved this one. Did Joel make this one easier or did I learn his style? Anyone else feel this way?

One thing I like about long difficult wordplay answers is that once I get them I’m pretty confident they’re right. They’re not like proper nouns where any letter could be different than expected. Actor’s stage names are the worst. They have to be unique and are dreamt up by creative people. I really enjoyed today’s puzzle, but for less time than usual.

I got to enjoy this puzzle for over an hour. Had to make some wild guesses in the NW. Eventually some partially correct answers poked through. Lots of backspaces and zero lookups later I got a gold star. That’s how good puzzles are supposed to work. Thank you Marshall.

All the obscure proper nouns didn’t bother me because I was able to get them with crossings. A good example for constructors.

Hard bottom. In a good sense.

Got 49 down by guessing. Still don’t get it. “Here’s looking at you kid”????? MAA?

I’m a bit disappointed that the theme answers didn’t have anything to do with the company names. For example, Ford makes automobiles and Walgreens sells drugs. That doesn’t relate to the answer at all. It’s just an anagram and all the fuss about companies making stuff is just noise. On the other hand, it may be nearly impossible to come up with combinations of company names that anagram to something relevant to the companies. I put that out there as a challenge.

A good challenging Saturday night Sunday puzzle

It’s a puzzle, not a fill-in-the-blank task.

Because it took me 2 hours and 16 minutes to complete does that mean I had more fun than you?

Alas, I used a hole saw in my kitchen reno.

Wish NYT could highlight cells of interest as opposed to the thin, black on gray circles. The circles are barely visible on an iPhone. If you zoom in to see them better then you sometimes lose perspective and context.

I was thinking muscles when I answered 14D correctly. Didn’t think of the sporting event gizmo until reading this column.

Now that was a puzzle

Limit one as in “I’ll pass. I’m driving”, then Ella, then my cross world puzzle falls to pieces.

Utterly shocked when I filled in that last square and got the gold star.

Had alligator on my mind for shoe covering. Since I had no idea what a pied-a-____ is, terro seemed to work. Was closer than my first guess -galosh. Suppose that’s what happens when you puzzle while watching football.

After solving over 3,000 puzzles I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of this. Please don’t tell me the puzzles are getting easier. BTW, where’s Jim the crossword dog? Haven’t heard from him in a few days and want to make sure he’s ok.

Is this what happens when the inmates run the asylum?

Didn’t think I’d get that but I did. Lots of names, but I was at least vaguely familiar with many. Luckily they were not uncommon. Happy women’s day y’all.

PB. 47+ minutes faster than my average. My longest streak ever. Consistently beating my average. Either I suddenly got smarter or the puzzles have gotten easier. This is not a complaint. Just an observation. I still heart NYT X-words.

Too many proper nouns for my liking. I never look them up - or anything else for that matter. One might as well just look at the answers. Where’s the fun in that? I’d rather loose my streak. I feel like I accomplished something by solving today’s puzzle.