Sam

@CCNY I always appreciate when names can be filled in completely by crosses (especially ones that aren't also names), like in this one.

@Lewis A year one would be good: When it really was a Good Friday, or Aoine an Chéasta Ninety-eight Or a number with some other meaning: Inter-war music speed Seventy-eight

@Oikofuge Yeah, the poet one caught me out too - never heard that description of him! But I agree, it does seem to be a valid answer. I think "on a lark" might be a UK/USA difference, because in my part of the world it's always "for a lark." Very good crossword overall!

@Heg How do you think 35A should be spelt? I can't see any spelling errors at all. I don't really like OK'd, but it is a valid spelling.

@Batya The crossing letters are in the "stolen" answers, so not only are they missing letters, but they have an extra one added. And I agree that flam isn't a word on its own, and cres is wrong - the abbreviation for that is cresc.

@Robbie What's wrong with it? And why would it be Telemachus? Genuinely curious!

@Sam Lyons I hope none of the crossword setters use ChatGPT for "research," given that it's not a search engine and doesn't even claim to give accurate answers, which is good, since it very rarely does. Which "Irena" did it suggest for Turgenev? Happy Tuesday to you too, but please reconsider using ChatGPT as a research tool.

@Barry Ancona I'm afraid that's not the solution. I had only entered a t as a letter. Like I said, I hadn't even noticed the rebus button was there in this particular puzzle. I have deleted the letter and re-entered it (to be clear, entered it via the letter t in the normal keyboard), and it's still highlighted as incorrect. If you click on the rebus button in any square you see the letter you've entered there, and that's all I'm seeing. It doesn't mean the letter was entered as a rebus.

@Steve L They're actually still in current use in some dialects. My step-relatives from Sheffield (Yorkshire, England) say thou and thee all the time. So to me they're not even archaic or from older literature, they're current dialect words.

@SBK I thought it meant those would have used those characters in their writing, not that their names include those letters. Just like a recent clue that was "a Corinthian character," which had nothing to do with Greek myths/history or characters from the Bible, it was just a way of saying "Greek letter."

@Steve I did, but I've subtitled a lot of SNL. It is broadcast in the UK (or I wouldn't be working on it), but I don't think many people watch it at all. Most of the humour doesn't really seem to translate.

@Jim I didn't write the word five in backwards either. It's only backwards in the across clue, not in the down clue. Putting in digits rather than words has been allowed in rebuses before, so it was entirely reasonable to think it might be allowed this time too.

@jdc I was a bit puzzled by that, but check the clue for "take a penny leave a penny," and it explains it. It's connected to the BOGOF clue - one "one" is taken and one is left.

@Tim V. I got it due to the words crossing it, but to me those don't seem similar enough to be given as a synonym.

@Vaer TY - people's references to the "theme" always make it sound like an official part of the game (and they sometimes chastise people for not knowing the theme name), so I assumed it was in the print edition at least.

@Sam Lyons There is no Irena Arkadin in Turgenev's A Month in the Country. I wouldn't call it an excellent research tool when it makes up an answer instead of finding it. The problem is - quite aside from the ethics of using a tool that steals from writers - ChatGPT is just wrong so very often, like just now, that you should always double-check its answers before sharing them, which makes it not terribly useful. I know it's a losing battle, and writers and artists are all going to lose their jobs followed by many other professions, but I still want to go down fighting.

@Helen Wright Hit me up = contact me. I've heard it a fair bit, but probably more in the media than real life.

@Alex Yeah, to me a canteen is primarily for food (and is a very common word in the UK), and it seems to be that way in the US too. Maybe the focus on water was to guide people towards the other meaning of canteen.

@Barry Ancona Yes. I've just clicked on the rebus button (I hadn't noticed it was there, TBH!) and all I've put in is t, just once. Was I supposed to put it in twice, or add something else? Nothing else is highlighted as an error.

@John Carson I got all the answers except for the longest one and the spangram, and although the general category was obvious, the specific one wasn't. They are eaten over here, though not by me and they're not as big a thing at in the US I think the range of flavours we have here is pretty different. So not the easiest one from this side of the pond!

@JohnWM Tu and thou have a common Indo-European root, but thou comes from a Germanic root, like du in German. Fun fact - before the Great Vowel Shift in England, thou was pronounced thoo, making the connections even more obvious.

@Michael THANK YOU! I've been going through the whole blooming puzzle repeatedly thinking I'd got something wrong, when it was the format at fault. Good puzzle other than that though!

@Mean Old Lady You have to read 17d as two words for it to make sense (and it's not about cooking). I've never seen the take a penny, leave a penny sign in person - think it's more of an American thing, and maybe it's regional in America too. I have seen it in movies and seen people refer to it.

@J They are compound adjectives, but bald and bold both modify the modifier "faced."

@Tim Ah, TY. I wouldn't get sports clues if they were cricket, either, but it's fair enough to include some, even if it's hidden, like the sports ones in this all were (so no giving up and looking them up). But they should be real words, though, not just a way of completing the grid!

@Keith That was a good idea, but unfortunately it didn't work either! Oh well, it's not a big deal - I don't keep track of my streak or whatever. Wonder what's caused it, though, especially since it seems to be just me!

@B To check it is the right answer, you mean? But it's been confirmed that the answer itself is correct. There is only one app I'm aware of. Entering the answers somewhere else wouldn't correct the problem in the app, which is what I'm asking about. I think I must have misunderstood what you mean.

@Lauchlin It would be nice if you didn't have to come to this page to find the instructions, especially since most days you don't even need instructions and this page isn't even linked to the crossword page.

@Matthew in WeHo As one myself, I can confirm that some lesbians are femmes, but none are *ever* fems. That's simply an error and it's an annoying one.

@Barry Ancona I am in the UK, but the New York Times uses Merriam Webster. It certainly does for all its other games, and points that out if anyone asks why a word wasn't allowed in Spelling Bee. It would be extremely inconsistent to allow an obscure, "dialect only" word that is not not in any US dictionary, and break their own rules. And the crossword setter is in the US, so I suspect he wasn't thinking of an obscure British dialect word that I bet you hadn't heard of either 😁 It does have another meaning in the US, though, so it could still have been used with that meaning, if the editor had picked up on it.

@Jim Where are the instructions that say to write it in words? There's nothing on the app.

@Jim OK, but if it *had* to be the word written backwards then that would mean it didn't work for the down clue, because it would become the fab evif. It doesn't have to be backwards, though - the game does accept both five and evif - so that clue can't have meant "enter five backwards." Lots of other people have the same issue despite thinking it was otherwise a good Sunday crossword. I have no quibbles otherwise and like the ones like "seered" that took some thought to understand.

@Paul Personally I think both versions are fine, but your cite does not include the information you quoted here. Did you maybe read it somewhere else and then post the wrong cite here?

@Grant Do you mean it was the market of a specific bar/nightclub, like the Rathskeller was? I guess it could have been. (Ratskeller, no h, is the usual spelling in German for that type of venue, except occasionally as part of a name). The usual meaning for canteen over here is any workplace (or school) restaurant, not a specific place. Just another time when doing an American crossword can be a bit more confusing if you're not American. Though, bizarrely, I did immediately think "CNN" for the "this is" clue despite never having watched that channel in my life. It must have been used in several TV shows or something.

@Barry Ancona That only partly backs it up TBH, since ump is only listed as a verb and the puzzle required a noun.