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The columnist’s comment about pencil sharpeners made me feel ancient! Yes! Manually operated! It gave rise to such clear & happy memories of the metal crank-operated sharpener in the utility room in my parent’s house - permanently screwed into place on a wood shelf. As a geeky kid I found no greater joy than sharpening a whole box of No. 2s when school started. Loved the puzzle. Perfect Monday. Breezy, amusing and while I got the theme almost immediately there was enough unknown fill to keep my interest.
A good deal of the joy I get from completing these crosswords daily stems from the anticipation of making sense of the completed puzzle via the insights and humor in this column. I still struggle with rebuses but Deb’s explanations always make them understandable and make me better-prepared the next time a rebus pops up. I can only reflect your words back at you Deb: <a href="https://youtu.be/s9P71s8Zc4k?si=y3HwWFHA8CYFNbaC" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/s9P71s8Zc4k?si=y3HwWFHA8CYFNbaC</a>
Rebuses usually make me sigh because I find them engaging but challenging…this was way too easy for Thursday. I’m not a master but if I can finish Thursday in under 30 something is off…but it felt ok since yesterday was very hard for a Wednesday — to me at least.
I must be getting a little better at these! I’m nearly 700 solves in so Monday and Tuesday are usually a breeze now. What made this puzzle so great was the cluing! A new Oreo clue and what feels like the millionth time for Elan - but clued just a bit better than I recently remember. Missed my best time by a few (mostly because my warm and fuzzy Boston Terrier kept trying to get through my fence and the puzzle stays open when I jump up to get him.) Stay cool - maybe avoid getting hot dogs at Coney Island this week! (There was definitely something fuzzy in my fries last time I was there!)
Feels like I’ve been doing these forever but my best time for Monday is still 11:42. BABY steps led to WEE better times but to get a 5 minute solve I need to head to the MINI. Have a great solving week y’all! 😉
Thought I was on my way to new best time and then got caught by what always seem like simple clues (simple only after I’ve solved) in the very last third of the puzzle. Lovely Tuesday theme.
@Linda Jo You know when you fill in a clue but even as you’re doing it you’re thinking I don’t know this — it fascinates me that this dog from a movie I haven’t seen in decades is somehow embedded in my brain and comes out automatically. I love how doing these puzzles keeps my brain bouncing!
30D. When I envision a [Pitch catcher?], I imagine someone squatting over home base holding a catcher’s mitt. This is a business pitch, however, and the catcher would be another person’s EAR. I simply thought pitch was a reference to sound and thus the “ear” is what is used to hear an unmodified voice warbling off-key.
Wow. This was trying but ultimately rewarding. It’s been a while since I came out slower than my average. This week I hit my best ever Tuesday but Thursday and Friday kicked my butt into just above-average speed. I do these to be challenged but I think it’s okay to get frustrated at times…I get dismayed when some of these comments read like vitriolic personalized attacks. There are many ways to express feelings that do not impinge on others experiences of same.
Anyone else annoyed at how comments appear in the app now? I’m sure I missed some hullabaloo about it in the comments over recent weeks. Plus if you want to find the Wordplay column in the paper there’s no longer a link on the bottom of “puzzle info” drop down like there is in the app - so even if I solve in the paper I still have to hunt for the column. The app is preferable for me because of me old eyes.
I love anything that’s not a rebus on Thursday and this was fun. One of my better times for a Thursday puzzle…not sure why I knew yoink but once I had the Y it just filled itself in without me thinking. I love when that happens! ( I, uh, mean, that does happens to other people, yeah?)
Congrats Nate! A fun Tuesday solve. Not sure why but I love the clue at 49 across - maybe because I get hung up on this particular kind of clue fairly frequently and a singer’s pitch could be construed as a tool to sell music? It produced that giggle/groan that I love about doing these crosswords! (Autotune would’ve been a great clue in this puzzle — but I bet Queen never used it!)
Solved significantly faster than average Wednesday which partially accounts for how much fun I thought this puzzle was. But, c’mon, this was a greatly enjoyable puzzle!
So if I don’t know what a word means - and I cannot ascertain the meaning from a root and/or crosses - does using the dictionary count as a “look-up?” Sometimes the definition is the answer (which feels not-so-great) and other times I’m still left befuddled. Not worried I’m “cheating” - who cares but me? - but I am curious what others think as I see the term “look-ups” frequently in comments. Great puzzle today! After the annoyingly long slog through rebus hell yesterday (even if you didn’t like it you’ve got to admire the construction!) today was just right for a Saturday lead-in.
Not my best Sunday time but my best time on Sunday! Echoing others but that was the most fun I’ve had on a Sunday puzzle. Once in a while it’s nice to have a puzzle filled with-in from left to right, top to bottom, NE to SW without much of a pause…and it’s rare I figure out the spanners so quickly.
@Cherry I have similar times so your post made me feel better…I made the mistake of asking ChatGPT the average solving times by day and was somewhat devastated by the short solving times AI spit out. As the saying goes you can only compare yourself to yourself so I will enjoy that my solve times on average are at least half of what they were at the beginning of last year. I’ll might never be a super speedy solver but I no longer fear the late-in-the-week puzzles.
@Ian Never tell a dragon boater they are rowing! They will snap at you that they PADDLE and likely tell you why paddling’s form is completely different from rowing (and of course how a paddle and oar are apples and oranges!) 😂
Once again I muse how relatively recently these comments were FULL of vitriol about the puzzle being dumbed down. Now it’s too hard. 😢
Whenever I see those circled letters I tell myself to focus on the solve and I’ll understand the puzzle when I read the column. Half true today. I actually figured out the theme early on and the circled letters helped me fill in what felt like some odd cluing and particularly archaic language. True to form I just ignored the years in the clues…not sure what the years added to the puzzle overall but so what? It was a fun solve and came in at nearly half my average Wednesday speed!
Challenging but ultimately rewarding puzzle! What a debut! 8 mins better than average but twice my best time. The northeast corner tripped me up and when I finally got it all, it felt obvious and I thought I’m dumber than I thought! The twins! How could I not have got my favorite city in the world on the first run through the field of clues!
Ease is in the eye of the beholder? I didn’t think this was too easy or too hard but I came in at half my average Thursday time. I solved without figuring out the trick - which does not bother me. I’m not a fan of Thursdays because I find rebuses and the ploys like the one in this puzzle beyond my current skill level…but I always finish them.* Everyone has different perspectives because we all have different pockets of knowledge. I love to read the banter about any clue that people get passionate about because “it’s wrong.” There’s often a playfulness in those exchanges that makes me smile! (But I do have reservations (!) about the daily posts that get vitriolic about perceived errors…are there people who do this every day simply to find something incorrect?) (*) I do these these puzzles on my ridiculously large iPad but last Thursday was kicking my butt so I put it down (even after I got “ALDI” and figured out the revealer) but picked up my phone because an answer popped into my head and was surprised to see all the rebuses squares highlighted with a yellow box. Is that normal on your phone? Thought it was weird.
Fun Monday. If my iPad hadn’t bugged out twice I think I would’ve beat my best Monday time - it felt that easy. Which only goes to show how differently folk’s experiences can be. Yesterday I just about gave up! I couldn’t get a foothold but finally finished it around midnight. Comments included those that would disagree about its difficulty.
@Anthony Apu was an answer earlier this week and was still floating around my brain or I wouldn’t have gotten either!
Ack! Argh! (some American cries?) seems most comments thought this was an easy puzzle but the moment I see rebuses I panic and it slows me down. Who thought of the rebus? Despite years of doing these puzzles I still feel like it’s just wrong and a bit of a cheat. Am I alone in this?
@Chris Cenkner I don’t think any one ever called it a cd drive but it makes for good wordplay 🤷🏽♂️
@Grant The old SNL skit was overriding all logic so I couldn’t get it until I had enough crosses! Silly as it is it still cracks me up. Hers the skit link <a href="https://youtu.be/eSxv6IGBgFQ?is=nTxyMGEANtuCIuO0" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/eSxv6IGBgFQ?is=nTxyMGEANtuCIuO0</a>
@Susan Berg Run a lap around the track and repass the slower person who is still on their first lap
@Mean Old Lady Allergic to fire ants? As if the pain they inflict is not sufficient suffering! I saw a documentary that showed exactly how they avoid sinking in floods. Fascinating little demons.
@lucky13 Congrats on the Wednesday victory! Wednesday used to be my “throw your hands up” day when I started doing these intermittently a few years ago. Now I’m compulsively addicted and usually finish today’s puzzle the prior evening. Oddly, I average longer solve times on Friday — logging about 550 puzzles with longer average Friday solve times than Saturday or Sunday. 🤷🏽♂️ (I still cringe at rebuses!!) Happy solving!
@jp inframan Vegetables in a spa made me think of terrible jokes from childhood - most of which were in poor taste then and would be pounced on today. But I’ll risk blowback and say the second I saw veg and spa I thought hot tub and “Stew.’
@lucky13 I can smell the syrupy vanilla wafting off of a just-poured-over-ice can of Pathmark-branded cream soda, bubbles against my nose, while sitting on the “redwood” patio furniture of my parent’s backyard in S.I. in the 70s. Funny how even the idea of a memory of a scent draws vivid memories.
@SP 1 - I’d rank this as a right down-the-middle for a Thursday. Not too easy but certainly less laborious than many a Thursday Puzzle. 2 - Comparing just this week, Thursday seems just a tad incrementally harder — but I had great times all week but notably none that beat my best times. Tuesday/Wednesday seemed easier than usual to me — but that’s just how some weeks are. 3 - Outside the theme - which I thought was harder than it should’ve been because I did not have the visual clues on my iPad - I’d rate the clues as on the easier side for a Thursday. It’s all relative though. 4 - I don’t think it’s a “premise” that later-in-the-week puzzles are increasingly difficult rather it’s the blueprint according to NYT instructions on solving. But on any given week one experiences a Tuesday that feels like a Wednesday or vice-versa…but I always know Saturday will kick my butt. As the saying goes: you can’t please all the people all the time. I enjoy the challenging puzzles but I think I enjoy a new record time more than anything! .
@katarina Never evah heard or seen this. 😉
@Matt Thank you. That was more annoying to me than cd drive! 😂
@Grant Just streamed that Jeopardy last night about an hour before starting this puzzle! Serendipitous. I suppose folk who do crosswords would be drawn to Jeopardy —there is certainly a lot of crossover content. :-)
@Anna in Bellingham Earnestly, maybe you need a new obsession if doing these puzzles doesn’t bring you joy or exercise your brain enough. Sometimes something new can get the blood flowing again.
@Judith nelson Yep. Minimally twice, yesterday and today, on ipad in the app (which is just easier on my eyes).
@Jake Wow! It amazes what we can read into others can read into comments. I wasn’t aware I was avoiding using any particular language but I could see how you one might feel a gotcha moment there. Why is the default to think the worst of each other? Sad.
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