Moops
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Canada
Another technical failure. Fine puzzle but a waste of time figuring out the hoop to jump through for the solution to get digitally accepted.
Obviously quite hard but eventually solveable with determination. I personally had never heard of GENOSMITH, BROS, ABBAS, BAI at least, and as a Canadian I didn't know BEALE or TROY or ALTA or that Cleveland was a DEM and Grant was on a LARGEBILL (is there a $50 bill?) Despite all that, I kept my very long cheat-free streak alive in about an hour. It just takes not giving up.
POPWARNER was one of the hardest entries in a long time. Totally out of left field for this non-american. I had POPWARmER because I couldn't come up with the crossing clue about hockey, which I am familiar with, but nothing about it hinted at sports or an abbreviation.
Of all the 1350 puzzles in my current streak, this was my least favourite for reasons that everyone else has already mentioned. Took about 10 minutes to solve just about the whole thing and many many more to finally guess around the remaining obscure references and 5 down. Pretty Awful, Honestly.
Hooray! I finally achieved a goal I had been working on for a while: a whole week's worth of puzzles (Mon-Sun) in a total time of less than 60 minutes. I had 19 mins remaining to solve today's puzzle and I was done with a mistake in about 14 mins, but took until 16 and a bit to find it. Total week's time: 58 minutes and 39 seconds. I'm sure many of you are faster but I feel it's still a pretty good accomplishment. It may be a fun idea for some of you to go for too if streaking isn't really a challenge anymore. About me: I like to solve puzzles on their proper date; the morning after they are released, not the night before. I sometimes complain about puzzles here, but all the times I don't comment I do usually love them. Sorry for being negative! My weaknesses are american trivia - especially colleges, spanish language, religion and pop culture. My strengths are word play, vocabulary, geography, technology and science. Happy Sunday and happy solving everyone.
It was just hard because I didn't know the poem at all. As a Canadian, the poetic Robert who we were educated with was Service not Frost. So the clue for the long answers was essentially missing which left a lot of guess work but at least we could assume they were a string of words. It's obvious many commenters knew the poem so not a bad choice by the editors, but for those who were unfamiliar it was indeed quite hard and unrewarding. (Also centre was misspelled!)
I really dislike when spanish is required to solve an English language puzzle. The "lunes" clue didn't even have an indication it was in spanish. Learning another language is fine -- I know French. Look at the French language clue in this puzzle, it says "in French." That's how you do it. Additiinally there is no possible way an English speaker would know that JOMO isn't a word in spanish. Sure sounds spanish to me. This meant the hardest word in the puzzle, judging by the comments, CAMPOREE, was locked behind a dead end in its top letter cross. Two bad clues turned a really fun puzzle into a frustratingly sour experience. I otherwise loved it.
My trick to solving Spanish clues is to pretend the clue is "-" and to get it from the crosses. I'm far, far, FAR more likely to get at least a vowel wrong and mislead me rather than to help me solve the puzzle by attempting to put in an answer. That's just my way of going about it, and honestly this isn't snark, it really helps me. I wish French clues were as hard as the Spanish clues instead of the hand-holding auto completes like "C'est la ___!" (That's life! Fr.) I wish it but I know that Spanish is more common so, así es la vida.
Hard, but not as hard as last Saturday, for me anyway. Certainly not as hard as the Stanley Cup playoffs which are less than a month away! My ego wants to think I can make quick work of any measly little puzzle but the rest of me is glad for some longer lasting fun. It's the weekend after all.
It's important to read the title of the puzzle so you know what precise solution is expected of you. In case you missed it, today's was: "". A very clever pun to be sure but it also makes it obvious how to enter the rebus squares as the author intended. Furthermore it is the basis upon which loyal commenters will rationalize their total rejection of any complaints about the puzzle and it forms the core tenet of their staunch defense of the author, the editor, the crossword, the New York times, the English language and even pineapple on pizza.
The hard pips puzzle took me longer than this breeze! The theme was a blur during the solving and wasn't clear until a brief examination afterwards. Obviously it wasn't necessary to solve since the clues were self-consistent and it was more of a fun fact. An early week confidence booster for most I imagine.
The Edmonton Elks are the city's professional football team playing in the CFL (Canadian Football League.) Warren Moon once played for them back when they were called the Eskimos. That is to say, 1 Down could have been clued exactly like 67 Across.
@Jane Wheelaghan The Edmonton Oilers are the city's professional hockey team playing in the NHL (National Hockey League.) Wayne Gretzky once played for them back when they were still called the Oilers. Right now the current best hockey player in the world, Connor McDavid plays for them, and we eagerly await him signing a new contract... As far what Oiler literally means? I suppose it is someone who works in the oil and gas industry which is the big show in the province of Alberta which Edmonton is the capital of.
That was such a perfect clue for 44A because it immediately made me think of the answer and I was so glad when it fit! I'm a cynical Gen Xer but I do like to keep my eye out for good new expressions from the younger crowd, even if the usual vibe is high key brain rot. (Ugh) Almost a record Friday for me as a result and the good fun was all over too quickly, even faster than Wednesday and Thursday's puzzles. Perhaps tomorrow will be a bigger test but just as enjoyable.
I don't recall this happening to me before but I got the exact same time today as I did yesterday. The main difference is that yesterday I didn't notice ARHAT but today I did. One step closer to abandonning the fetters!
NO problem! I was able to NAIL this one without too much trouble and POLISH it off in half the time of yesterday's puzzle. For some reason.
@Mean Old Lady I agree with you in theory, but in practice I don't know any of the other letters either. My policy is there to prevent me from making guesses where I shouldn't.
Judging by my time alone, this puzzle was over 3 times easier than yesterday's monster. Pretty smooth and fun. I have to say though, that I am completely sick of any and all american college clues, especially when it comes to which ones are in the big 15 or the pac east or whatever. Ugh. I realize they're useful glue for constructors and aren't going anywhere, but I just wanted to vent.
@Dave Munger It would be cool if you could pre-download puzzles, say, a week in advance but only have the app release them at the appropriate time for situations like that. Though I'm sure you were happy to unplug. The support is really good here though. I've emailed them when a bug has given me an impossibly short time a few times and had them manually set it to the correct time so my data doesn't look weird.
@Ed Yeah, it's possible that I was exposed to Frost in Canada (ha ha?), but I don't remember it like I do Service. So it would have been better to say it that way.
The nail polish clues quadrupled my solve time. Brutal clues, a real brick wall for half your solvers.
@Emma S That's an excellent time! I'm sure you'll manage a sub-60 sooner than later. I started tracking my times in April and had several weeks in the 60s but also many weeks which weren't close. All it takes is one puzzle which doesn't quite agree with you to foil your plans.
The last time a Tuesday puzzle lasted over 10 minutes for me was over a year ago. This one was a Friday or Saturday level in my opinion.
@Steve L Oh wow, yeah that is absolutely chock full of ancient references and some new ones too, often... uh... cross..ing each other. If that puzzle was posted here this comment section would certainly have something to say about it. Seems more geared to art and film buffs than general puzzle solvers. Still do-able though. Is Monday their easiest crossword as well?
@Eric I think part of people's frustration with this puzzle is due in part to previous standards of acceptance. Plenty of previous puzzles with squares needing a non-standard entry have been quite lenient, such as rebuses which are accepted with only their first letter entered or squares with a different answer for down and across which accept either answer rather than both. I'm sure there are other examples too. I think most of us expected this puzzle to be consistent with that standard, which it was most certainly not. I spent a bit of extra time looking for an answer elsewhere and only eventually putting in dashes while thinking, "surely this can't be the problem..."
@Steve L They used to be called the Edmonton Oilers, they still are but they used to too. It is alsp true that Moon omve played for the Oilers who used to be but aren't now.
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