Prof. Toru Tanaka
east coast
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@SP I always enjoy learning a new word when doing NYT crosswords. Today, it was TABOURET.
A 50 minute solve for this Sunday’s edition. The “two by two” clue threw me for a loop as I had the wrong word for one of the down clues (the surfer’s hazard). A little trial and error for a few minutes provided me with the correct answers. To Ms. Robbins, thank you for a fun puzzle to solve for this Sunday! I was able to get all of the “el” clues with little difficulty which gave me a lot of down clues.
50 minutes into solving, I was about half finished and thinking that I might not be able to solve it completely. I knew the long answers had something to do with fingers. And then, the light bulb came on! “Pinky and the Brain” gave me the clue that all letters concerning the fingers and thumb were doubles. 15 minutes later, the music played and I was done in my usual 60-90 minute timeframe for the Sunday Special. A sincere “BRAVO!” to David Karp for a tricky and most rewarding solve!
A good puzzle overall that I solved in just under an hour. Most of the state puns were pretty good and I learned an interesting fact today just for the halibut.
@Min I agree for I have learned new words from solving the crosswords and playing Spelling Bee. And these games along with others like Strands, Letter Boxed, Sudoku and Connections are great mental exercise and quite enjoyable to try and solve.
I managed to solve in 38 minutes but I couldn’t figure out the circled squares until “come to Jesus moment”. I liked some of the clues like including Carl Sagan but I wasn’t that crazy about jumping around to get an entire clue. I normally don’t like “gimmicky” crosswords but this one was fun and rewarding to solve. Thank you, Mr. Ayas!
A 53 minute solve that had an interesting theme. I found it challenging (not overly so) and fun to work through.
A 27 minute solve- it has been a while since I have seen anything about the Spanish Steps. I wouldn’t have known the name of the place at the top of the steps but fortunately I was able to solve the down clues. Overall, a good Wednesday puzzle!
A fun 48 minute solve that had me chuckling at some of the clues like 30-across. I’m not usually a fan of puzzles with a gimmick but this offering from Mr. Grinberg and Mr. Musa was quite punny and an enjoyable solve. Thank you sirs and I’m looking forward to more of your puzzles in the future. It looks like temperatures will pick up here in the next few days so enjoy your Sunday, fellow East Coast solvers!
An 18 minute solve today which had me feeling buoyANT!
It took me 54 minutes to solve and it was very enjoyable. After I saw that the first long clue was indeed spelled the same both ways, the other long clues were easier to solve. Thank you Mr. Chen for an interesting and fun Sunday solve.
It took a little over an hour for me to solve- at first, I thought all of the clues in the middle boxed area had to have only those letters found in the clues. Once I figured this was not the case, it took about 5 minutes to solve these clues. I thought about “flute section” and finally, the champagne glass came to mind which gave me “stem”.
Geese generally fly in a V formation when they are in a group. The V6 and V12 were put in there to get the solver to think of something different. The clue originally had me thinking about automotive engines.
A fun puzzle that was a 33 minute solve. However, I had to google the Oscar winner in 2022 and then I searched “Angie Thomas” after I entered it in the puzzle. I am completely clueless on current pop culture. Also, I got all 35 words in today’s Spelling Bee. I’ve had more Queen Bee scores for July than I’ve had total going into this month. I’m hoping for another today! Be safe folks and enjoy your Friday!
As a hockey fan, I liked the theme clues and the little gimmick at the end when the puzzle was complete. Getting “Zamboni” opened up a lot of other clues but I was stuck with one error at the end. I carefully checked and I had 85-across “riding the pine” in the past tense instead of the present. The middle part that represented the rink threw me until I realized the sounds of the down clues were words. All in all, an interesting and somewhat challenging solve that took about an hour. Thanks for a good Sunday puzzle, Mr. Lieb!
A 45 minute solve but I had to look up Andres Segovia to get the 2-down clue. That upper left corner had me stumped for a while and it was the last part I finished. Overall, it was a good Saturday puzzle with some tough clues to figure out. Now back to Spelling Bee and (hopefully) my second Queen Bee this week.
41 minutes to solve, I got the idea with the MotherEarth clue.
I solved in 32 minutes which is one of my fastest times on a Sunday puzzle. Overall, I enjoyed the puzzle and it was nice to see there were no gimmicks.
An enjoyable solve (48 minutes) with a fun theme. Thank you Ms. Gray for this week’s Sunday puzzle!
I had to change the down clue for the NBA team on a hot streak from THUNDER to THE HEAT to THE SUNS as I started filling in the clues around it. I finished in my usual 60-90 minute period and I thought it was a fun puzzle to solve. No crazy gimmicks and the circled letters ended up being helpful to solve a long answer in the lower right corner.
@sotto voce I thought of Anita Baker and Omar Sharif at first, also. Then I saw they wouldn’t fit in the four squares for the clues. The clue for the French port was five letters, and I immediately thought of Brest (fortunately, it worked).
The “izzat so” clue threw me for a loop and added about 15 minutes solving time to my 90 minute total. Once I figured out 2 and 3-down, it gave me the clue. Also, the toddler clue got me until the light bulb finally came on and gave me “KNEE”. Overall, a fun puzzle to solve and we got a Latin phrase thrown in for good measure. Thank you and good job, Mr. Ewbank!
@Nancy I thought the same about Gaea but -ise is always the suffix ending that I have seen used. So I guess it could be either Gaea or Gaia.
@Albert MUSTACHE was my first guess, also. But I never recalled “the Hoff” being anything but clean-shaven so I ended up erasing it and then CHESTHAIR turned out to be the answer.
A 20 minute solve today with a little lightning show to go with the music that plays. A nice little warmup for the tougher versions to come on Thursday through Saturday.
One of my quicker solves (38 minutes) this week. I figured the four letter word represented by the dashes after seeing the 28-across answer and the rest of the puzzle came together nicely. Thank you Mr. Zheng for a fun Sunday solve!
There were some good puns this week; it took me 55 minutes which is a bit quicker than my usual norm. The “dough braided” clue took me the longest to solve as there were two changes here. Overall, a fun puzzle to solve without too many gimmicks.
@Aviv S. The Pizarro reference had me thinking Lima but I agree that normally they just ask for the city name.
@M J S I ended up skipping 1A also- the upper left corner was the last part I finished. That long across clue in that area had me stumped for a while.
@Dave I agree and to me it was like a game of Trivial Pursuit where the questions were mostly from the Arts & Literature category, which I always disliked.
@Aaron Hollon I had to do trial and error with a,e and then i to get hinky and the music when the puzzle is complete. Overall it was a good Sunday offering without a lot of goofy gimmicks.
@JohnWM I got a laugh, also….while wearing my trusty reading glasses! Without them, I probably would have misread a lot more words than Jeff did.
I finished in 23 minutes although at first I thought it would be longer. The “scotch and soda” clue gave me the puzzle theme because I had no idea the down clue was “unhand me”. A fun Thursday solve and a good warm-up for the Friday and Saturday offerings.
@Phil I grew up not far from Baltimore so “hon” came to me immediately.
Congrats to Ms. Baik on her second puzzle which was a punny and fun 48 minute solve. This the first time I used the Rebus button; in the past the puzzle gave me credit if I had the first letter right. I hope to see more of Adrienne’s puzzles in the future!
@Dave As an Oriole fan, I had to smile at that one. But congrats to all three of those teams on having successful seasons this year.
@Paul Well done! 😀.
It took me 52 minutes to solve and I had to look up the British actress in the lower left corner. A tough and rewarding solve which didn’t come together for me right away. On to the Sunday puzzle after dinner tonight!😀
@Bobby Salmon. It’s a term that is used mostly in the NFL. Now that the two-point conversion is used more often and extra points are no longer automatic as it is a 33 yard kick, some point totals arise for teams that were quite rare in the past. One score that a team will never reach is one point total for the game.
@Cat Lady Margaret I thought “brained” also before the down clue showed it was a “d” and not “n”.
@Lauren Being from Maryland made “UTZ” an easy solve for me as the company is based in Hanover, PA. And my wife loves those NILLA wafers so that was easy, also. I am a little ashamed to admit I didn’t know what Taylor Swift’s teardrops were on and I had to Google the song.
@Tom When I first clicked on it and saw “full house”, I thought it was going to be about poker.
71 minutes to solve and while I got the gist of the gimmick, it still was a chore to keep straight as the moon waned. Overall, it was a more challenging solve than the usual Sunday edition.
@Dan Perlman I noticed that also. I’m glad I checked for 2023.
@Mr Dave 22-across was a tough one for me (to “suss” out?). I only got it by solving the down clues.
@Adam I got the Big12 team early on but the strings attached clue had me stumped until I figured out that long across clue about the movie plot.
@Steve L and Hi hi, thanks for the tip. I have been entering just the first letter and as long as that is correct, I got credit for all the letters in the square. I am going to use the rebus button next week.
@Steve L. Yes but if the attempting team is trying to score a one or two point conversion, wouldn’t that mean they would already have at least six points on the scoreboard? I agree with you on the team defending against the conversion attempt forcing the attempting team over 80 yards backwards into its own end zone.
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