Tim
NY
18
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NY
@Barry Ancona OMG! I see. Thank you. And my apologies to the proofreader. šš
I really didnāt like this puzzle. Maybe Iām tired, but my first instinct was almost never correct, and I didnāt care for some of the cluing. Iām usually a 6-minute solver of Tuesday puzzles, and for some reason this one took me more than 11. Itās just a weird puzzle all around, in my opinion.
Thatās the hardest Friday Iāve seen in years. Honestly, I hated it.
I donāt like this. It feels sloppy, like the constructor couldnāt quite make the concept work. Yes, when you plug in the H O R S E S, all of the clues suddenly work. But to me itās problematic and lame that some of the theme clues work without plugging in the H O R S E S while others donāt. Like, on its own, ORC doesnāt work. But EST and ATE do. When you add the H and R, of course all three now work. But they should either all work before and after adding the H and R or not work until the H and the R are added. There should be some continuity.
Nice and easy. 12 minutes. The long ones were pretty simple, although for some reason I kept thinking āchocolate coveredā instead of āchocolate coatedā, which held me back briefly.
@KB I average about 4.5 minutes on Monday. Sometimes I sneak in below 4 minutes, and on a few occasions Iāve achieved a 2-minutes-and-change time. But some Mondays just donāt flow for me. And my very best scores only occur when everything flows perfectly and I instantly know (and correctly type š) the right person answers. Iām really interested in how the best solvers (at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament) achieve their times. I wonder if they have a different strategy than mine. They might make fewer typing mistakes. And Iām sure theyāre processing clues more quickly. Anyway, I enjoy timing and sharing times. For me itās another way to assess the puzzles and myself. But if people donāt like sharing times on the app, Iām sure Iāll take the hint and hold back. Itās interesting to read the comments than my original comment sparked.
āCity of Honoluluās islandā??? What am I missing here? How is it Oahu? Oahu is the island. Am I crazy, or did the proofreader not do his job?
Not very hardy. Pretty quick to solve. But I still donāt understand three of the clues/amswers. Bussing on the street, eg, in brief = PDA Bad singer? = rat Certain wings = ells
Easy. And WAY better than yesterdayās puzzle.
@Fact Boy I was thinking the exact same. How does the Times mess this up?
@The X-Phile I first noticed solving time as a statistic when I read about the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. And the app on which many of us do these puzzles certainly encourages an interest in solving time by showing us our best and our average and by displaying a running clock. When I used to solve the puzzles on paper, I didnāt time myself except on very rare occasions.
@Kathryn Thereās some ill-fated ocean waterskiing in Jaw 2
@Paul Turner I like creative cluing, but I donāt like sloppy cluing. I felt the cluing wasnāt up to par today. It violated the standards weāve come to expect of The NY Times puzzles. Itās interesting reading the comments here and on Rexword. This puzzle was not well liked.
@Teresa I enjoy timing myself bc itās another way to evaluate the puzzle and another way to evaluate myself. I think Rexword used to post his times, and I enjoyed seeing them and having something to shoot for. I am somebody who enjoys that kind of goal setting and āself-improvement.ā
@Sam Lyons One thing that I hope isnāt lost on people is that every puzzle resonates with each of us differently. With regards to this puzzle, if I had a slightly faster time than someone, it doesnāt mean that Iāll have a faster time tomorrow.
I donāt think the rebus quite works. The down clues require both of the letters to be attached to the word, whereas he across words get each one separately as the root is repeated. So for the down clues, you canāt really use the slash to separate the letters in the rebus, and for the across clues, you have. Itās a decent idea that should have been abandoned.
@Jim even without the slash, the double letter still implies that both letter goes both both words (the down and across).
@Dave K. Yeah, itās not a good clue considering that Japan and the US are members. It should be something like āIntāl alliance.ā
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