Jon
Orlando, Florida
ABYSM? Oh, dear. Not a fan of that. MYST... Great game.
That was tough, but rewarding. Please keep the difficult ones coming!
What a wonderful Earth Day puzzle. Thank you, David. (and Joel, for editing.) I think people who complain about this being a bit more difficult than a typical Monday should keep in mind what day it is and that the NYT does not create these puzzles out of thin air even if it tweaks them a bit. Out of all the submissions, this one was well thought out with an environmental theme and "easy enough" for early in the week. It wasn't exactly the level of a typical Monday, but the theme was more important. I don't think any of the clues were particularly tricky myself.
It is simply wrong to clue ETUDE as Bach exercise. I am disappointed that was not caught in editing.
One of the best Saturday puzzles in some time. It trusts its solvers to be well read and reasonably intelligent. Nice to see the sublime LEASALONGA in there. And a reference to differential GALOIS theory? Wonderful! More like this, please. Saturdays have been a bit too easy lately.
@Lynn The London in question is London, Ontario, Canada. This is not the first time I've seen that London used as a bit of a trick in a NYT crossword.
Superb Tuesday puzzle. Loved the themers. Can't find anything to complain about!
Easiest Friday in a long, long time. Felt like an easy Wednesday. Hope for a challenge tomorrow.
Great start to the week! Good job on the theme, too. Easy and fun!
Good puzzle with some fun clues. As for difficulty, maybe it was put on a Friday due to the sports entries? SHOHEIOHTANI, COACHK, BATTERSBOX.. These were instant gets for me and led to one of my fastest Friday times ever, but I imagine if someone is not familiar with Shohei Ohtani, the puzzle becomes a bit more difficult. Still probably not Friday difficult tho.
@Fact Boy Indeed. One could easily figure out what they're going for, but there was a lot of questionable cluing in this puzzle. (See my "pedantic" comment elsewhere about the dinosaurs clue.) The NYT is supposed to be the gold standard for these puzzles. Getting the details right matters.
The SO/SOL debate is ridiculous. As someone who is big into classical music and used to sing in choirs, I know for a fact the SO variation is not as unused as some of you are making it out to be. As for the difficulty, I felt it was just right. Challenging, but so satisfying to solve. Well done. Thank you Peter for a good puzzle. More like this, nyt, please!
Thoroughly enjoyed this one. But like the many potty humor entries the other day, I am once again wondering if there might be some twisted humor going on here that generally would be a bit inappropriate for the NYT Crossword. I guess since it's April Fool's Day it's OK to chuckle a bit.
@Francis Ask any paleontologist and they will tell you birds are dinosaurs. Not an asterisk, not with qualifications, literally dinosaurs. We've learned a lot since the 80s. Birds are the only dinosaurs that survived the KT extinction event. Once you understand this, it should make sense.
@Al in Pittsburgh Also, one of the two possible pronunciations for12D makes that also a bit suspect.. Seems like a lot of potty humor may be involved here...
@B It was as easy as a Monday, for me, but I think some of the themers justify it being a Tuesday. Lyle Lovett and Jed Clampett are somewhat difficult references in 2024.
Neat idea, but the execution wasn't so great. I didn't really enjoy the solve. And very easy for a Thursday.
Dinosaurs are still around. Birds are literally dinosaurs. It was a tad disappointing to see this common misunderstanding make its way into the crossword.
@Xword Junkie 40 minutes for a puzzle like this? "Skill issue" as the gamers say. I thought it was delightful. Delightful, easy, good fill, nice flow to it, and a very creative idea and grid.
Loved it! Neat and creative idea that was executed well. It must have taken a lot of work to turn that idea into something that was also a solid crossword on its own merits. No complaints!
@Boodles A ? type of clue would've been good for that one instead of trying to clue it straight given how many things are.. well, things. It's my only criticism of an otherwise good puzzle.
@Shaleen I'm sure most here will agree with you. In my opinion, it's a scientifically important distinction. It would have been easy to clue the entry in a way that didn't contribute to the spread of this common misunderstanding. Of course, I did get it and the puzzle overall was on the easy side for a Thursday.
@Charles I'm certain the creator of this puzzle understands the medium just fine. Some of us enjoy more of a hard trivia/wordplay mix like this to the simpler ones put out recently that are almost all wordplay or common knowledge.
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