I've composed and orchestrated for 40 years and never heard of a b flat trombone. If you need a lesson on why we say an instrument is b flat or e flat etc. I will be glad to give yoy a lesson.
1
None of my posts ever come through, yet I persisted:
This is a great example of this case: when you “kind of” know what’s going on and you “kind of” have a hunch as to entering the solution:
In that case:
Delete a letter that you’re sure of and that you’re equally sure is not part of the shenanigans.
Fill in everything else and only then enter that letter you earlier deleted.
This is advice for all those who are disquieted by the vagaries of rebus entry, without regard for platform.
Now if only it didn’t take 27 hours for this post to appear ... sigh ...
Is it cheating to read this column before you start?
2
Love the crossword app, but hate the "streak" rules that allow you, after being told you have a wrong answer, multiple tries to correct them and extend your streak. It's just cheap.
Instead, players should be given a chance to review the puzzle once the grid is filled and then hit submit.
@Thomas Clark
True enough...and the fact there are six different forms multiplied by several letter combinations multiplied by four arrangement possibilities; and then the added red herring of the function of the slash makes a correct solution nearly a random event regardless of the reasoning process. The clues were easy. MESON and OOCYTE weren't that difficult for science folks.
2
Trash.
Yesterday was better.
DOSED before DOPED, STEAL OPEN before STEAM OPEN.
On an iPhone it took me 18 minutes to fill in the grid and 40 additional minutes to figure out how to put correctly add the 48 letters and six punctuation marks to satisfy the theme.
Sorry
2
I thought the puzzle was fun and not terribly difficult. However it took me a long time to find out the correct way to enter the rebus. For example on the cartoon network/ramen noodles I entered OONNNNOO which is the complete answer in correct rebus order (across then down) but the puzzle in the web version did not accept this. It was only when I went back and entered just the first OONN (and similarly for the other 5) that I got credit for finishing the puzzle. I thought that was particularly unfair because according to the nyt blog on the subject gives the example
In Mr. Stulberg’s puzzle, the Across rebus element is CHICKEN and the Down rebus element is ROAD, as in the classic CHICKEN crossing the ROAD joke. In the case of a double rebus, the following entries would be accepted:
CHICKEN/ROAD
C/R (The first letters of the two words)
So the puzzle is supposed to accept the full spelled out answer and today it did not do that for me.
With persistence I finally got it and kept my streak alive but it was pretty frustrating to get there.
3
After a relatively quick fill but still “something amiss,” I popped in throughout the day to try to find it. Was it the rebus entered incorrectly? Tried three variations and figured it must be a typo. Just before heading to bed I caved and revealed. Turns out my mind couldn’t get beyond “personal record” for Puerto RICO. I’d been eyeing AeDA all day as a weird one, but chalked it up to not knowing operas. Alas. Broke my 4 week streak - a long one for me.
1
P
U
G oo\zz D
L
E
7
I thought the theme was lots of fun. Thanks for a good sunday
2
I think those of us who print the puzzle and solve it on paper had a better time today than the ones who solve it electronically. I really enjoyed this. I learned a few new words and quickly understood the rebus squares.
6
MESON/OOCYTE was just cruel, but I'm glad to see the constructors recognize that it was a necessity for their theme. NEODADA/VOLGA was also unkind. But a nice grid and fun theme. Some nice clue/answer pairings. Enjoyable until the "fix-the-typo" phase when I didn't know if I had typos or a misfilled theme (turns out it was both). Thankfully a friend had already solved it and determine that I had the theme improperly input so I could focus on those rough typos.
7
Less than two minutes to say I loved the puzzles I just binged on after four days of an Internet outage (thanks a lot, Xfinity!). Loved especially Saturday's and todays. Time's up!
4
I don't mind when people ask the same question over and over, and I don't think they should have to look it up on their own (even if I would). I do mind when somebody asks a question and says it is never answered in the comments when it had been asked and answered in the comments just an hour earlier.
You could look it up.
5
@Barry Ancona et al
It is worthwhile using the "find" function on appropriate words in the "comments" sectionto look for the desired entries.
1
Not much to say, just that I love the rebuses (nine characters, no less!)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4
As many have already pointed out, comments have been delayed or lost altogether, as mine of much earlier in the day was.
I solve in my delivered edition of the NYT. In this case Saturday morning. As such, I had none of the technical problems that many have complained of who solve on computers and phones. I also have the advantage of seeing the title of the puzzle as a hint. My only “technical” difficulty in this case was fitting the four letters into the rebus square.
I think the first rebus pair I filled in was RAMENNOODLES/CARTOONNETWORK. Not many tricky clues. Buddy Ebsen will always be remembered as Jed Clampett, but if not for a very bad skin reaction to the metal based makeup, he would be known as the Tinman in the Wizard of Oz.
Nice bit of construction Tom and Tracy.
7
As usual, we who use the website to do the crosswords miss out on a lot of the fun with this kind of puzzle because rebusses aren't handled properly. Accepting incorrect answers doesn't help; in fact it makes impossible to figure out the "trick" of the puzzle. I can't believe that solvers who use the website or the app are an insignificant minority. How about fixing the problem?
8
How does it make it impossible to figure out the "trick" of the puzzle? The rebus button makes it possible to fill in the letter any way you want, just as in the paper version, no?
5
@Konrad Schroth
I use the app on an iPhone. I have access to the title of the Sunday puzzles, the notes if there are any and a simple way to enter the rebuses. I certainly do not feel like an “insignificant minority.”
7
I loved this non-slog Sunday puzzle! Often I don’t have the patience to finish what is sometimes just an oversized Monday and will leave the loose ends for later in the day. This however was was an engaging delight—and perhaps even an entry-level rebus for the rebus-resistant? It left me lots of time to enjoy some of the nice mild temps and even start some Marie Kondo-inspired projects inside. With any luck, I’ll finish them at some point!
More Sunday puzzles like this, please!
6
Can someone please explain what “emu” is? In these comments there has been a long-running and frustrating avoidance of answering this straightforward question. Always a cute tautological answer. But why are they/it called EMUs?
3
Why not?
4
@Barry Ancona
Aw, Barry; now, you be nice!
Donald, it just got to be a pet name, sort of, for the individuals tasked with approving Comments. Deb took to blaming 'the emus' when comments went astray or got nixed for obscure reasons.
A lot of times I don't come back for late comments, but today I did...this is my good deed.
20
@Donaldrlong In my experience, when people in a forum don't answer a straightforward question, it's usually because the question is asked constantly, and would be easy to research.
I'm guessing you never googled this, because it took me 10 seconds to find this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/crosswords/faq-wordplay-crosswords.html
And even more enlightening, this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2019-06-21.html
The second link is worth visiting for the delightful official crest of Wordplay. Enjoy!
9
Got "keep trying" and assumed I had messed up the rebuses. Spent 5 minutes futzing around with them to no avail. Then I went back through the clues and found a simple misspelling on an easy answer. Finally!
8
My experience as well!
1
@Carol
Same here, except that I couldn’t find my mistake, got frustrated, and hit “reveal.”
In retrospect, my mistake was pretty obvious reading the down answers.
1
Hello Caitlin
From the modest number of posts actually appearing, *lots* of people are commenting that perfectly normal, innocent posts are disappearing into the ether today, never to be seen again. In my case for instance, a recent post appeared OK, but one from 10 hours ago has vanished without trace.
Is there a technical issue at the NYT end, or was there earlier today? It might save people some angst and paranoia if we knew that was the case.
6
@Rupert Raynor
Last Sunday's puzzle garnered 337 comments and there are less than half that number so far today, 17 hours after release. I've lost count of the number of my posts that have not gone through (duplicate attempts).
Agree with Jim in NC's comments below.
3
Does anyone think the EMUs blocking posts causes more dissatisfaction and disruption than the following alternative?
Let everything post (except for the 7 words not allowed on TV). Generally speaking, I want to hear what people think regardless of how much I might disagree with what they say. If someone disagrees with a post or finds it inappropriate, then reply to it and state why. If for some reason someone finds a post should be taken down, the flag option should still be available, at which point human moderators will review, and remove the post as they see fit. People who swear or act uncivil towards another poster, should be warned directly, and account revoked as necessary.
6
@Jim -- You suggest a perfectly workable option, and others have been suggested at various times. Although today's embargo suggests something more than the usual sifting is affecting primary comments, I'll just say that previous experience of over a decade indicates that -- come H!!! or High H2O -- the NYT will retain the algorithm it has utilized since Ptolemaic times.
They shall not, they shall not be moved
They shall not, they shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's standing by the water
They shall not be moved
6
In thinking about why the rejection rate seems extraordinarily high today it occurred to me that the software that governs the comments to Wordplay could also manage all the comments for all articles across the platform. Given our current "high alert" situation in the US could it be possible that the system is overwhelmed with vitriol and therefore hypersensitive (if algorithms could have feelings that is)?
6
@John that is my exact assumption...that they've turned the filters up to keep the nastiness down in a time of heightened tension.
thus forcing the messages into a manual queue and that takes time to read through,
1
Lost time because slash "upper left to lower right" implied the use of a back slash in the rebus. Very frustrating.
14
When I saw the rebus, I wanted to skip this puzzle. I’m glad I didn’t because most of the clues made me feel smart for knowing them. Took me longer than I expected (bottom left quadrant had some stumped for a bit), but persistence and gumption win the day.
8
I keep seeing references to “emu”. What does that mean?
Are the emus real?
Of course they’re real. The emus used to run this entire operation, and readers occasionally witnessed their handiwork when something broke down.
Nowadays, with the advent of modern technology, they are mostly retired. They still live in a large nest in the Legal department, however, and they help Wordplay out by sniffing out off-color comments and eating the surplus black-and-white squares.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/crosswords/faq-wordplay-crosswords.html
3
@Queenie
EMUs refers to both the rule-based software that automatically reviews and may block posts, and to the humans that review blocked posts afterward to see if they can be published.
6
@Jim Thanks. Hard to believe anyone could write a cross word in the crossword comments. Isn’t that the preferred venue of FB and Twitter users?
6
In the digest version, the slash for 76A is in wrong spot (the B box
of strobe instead of ee/ff) which I finally realized after being totally stumped!
Trying again to ask a question here, emus...
I give up: what is the digest version?
ADHOC
Tedious and too much like work!
10
I had puzzle done correctly but didn't get a star until I started putting in slash marks. Half way through the slashes TA DA, the smiley face or whatever was given.
It seemed to accept the double letters in either before or after positions but only after some slashes were added. Strange, but it’s nice to be able to “peek” without getting penalized.
Hup hup
2
@Carl Hupert
Solving with the crossword app, I entered the two letter pairs as one contiguous string of four letters without separating slashes and got the music, and when the puzzle was displayed the software did not add the slashes (sometimes the rebus squares get reformatted after the solve).
3
Apparently, either the name of Genghis Khan’s invading tribe or the demonym for the modern country north of China (which is a bit longer) bothers the emus, because three times I tried to post a reply to a comment saying it’s racist to refer to the latter (modern) people as invaders.
So I’m avoiding both names and posting it as a new comment.
@Steve L
I had said the M0ng0ls and M0ng0lians aren’t the same thing.
@Steve L -- perhaps the words are side-lined on account of Trisomy 21?
I wouldn't be surprised...
4
I'm bracing for the screams...but you know? I had a good time, I enjoyed thinking of how much work the constructors had to do to create this puzzle (don't they deserve to suffer?), and I learned a new word--MIOTIC. I would never have guessed the meaning, as I would have focused on the -OTIC bit.
So, total win. The sun is shining, the skies are blue, the air is bracing (see what I did there?) and my chores are all done. Breakfast was sourdough French toast, fresh fruit, and --yum! bacon! I'm getting ready to walk my 2+ miles, and my knee doesn't even feel like it needs bracing (heh) so Life is good.
Three. More. Days.
44
A real brain teaser, but a fair one!
(However: It might be nice for the basic puzzle instructions to include a bit of info on how to enter rebus letters, as a general point rather than for specific puzzles. I always put the across letters on the left of the slash line, the down letters on the right and this seems to work.)
MEANWHILE: FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO MIGHT OVERLOOK TODAY'S ACROSTIC PUZZLE—IT'S FANTASTIC! KUDOS TO COX AND RATHVON FOR A REALLY MOVING AND TIMELY PIECE OF WORK. (If you don't want to take the time to solve it, just read the quotation and notice how many clue answers relate to it.)
6
@mmm The Quote Acrostic is the twice-monthly highlight of my life (Yeah, I know, I gotta get out more) and today's was a great one. Took me almost half an hour to complete it and made me hope for better days ahead after Wednesday for our great neighbour to the south. Stay safe America.
5
Quick and fun with some good clueing. Particularly like 6D and I love the word ARCANA
2
Love crosswords and am usually okay with rebuses. But having the letter order be different for the across and the down is a bridge too far for me. It becomes a guessing game of which way to enter...
3
@Babel64 Across by convention always goes first in rebuses (rebii) where the across and down answers are different.
3
Emus, once again, I give thanks to you. No matter what I've said (or thought) about you in the past, you will always be A-ONE to.
Sunday Rebi
Sunday rebi, can’t trust that day,
Sunday rebi, you just get in the way,
Every other day, every other day of the week is fine, yeah,
But when Sunday rebi come, but when Sunday rebi come,
They leave noobs (and some vets) cryin’ all of the time.
Sunday rebi, the box is too small,
Sunday rebi, I don’t like ‘em at all,
Oh Sunday rebi you gave me no warnin’ of what you would be,*
Oh Sunday rebi go back to Thursday with your trickery.
Sunday rebi, can’t trust that day,
Sunday rebi, you just get in the way,
Oh Sunday rebi, Sunday rebi too convoluted for me,
Even after the column I just couldn’t see . . .
* Unless you read the note accompanying the puzzle, view the newspaper edition (available by pdf at the Crossword site), or rely on past experience.
14
@Puzzlemucker
Great lyrics, and a tip of the hat to the Mamas and the Papas ("Monday, Monday"), no?
2
@Jim
Thanks, yes. That song, along with many others, is on a continual loop in my head.
1
@Puzzlemucker
Just checked back to find out that my reply of congratulations was emu'd. You will have to be satisfied with my reco, I suppose.
So, sorry to say, there may be a duplicate post from me coming up. I posted it a few hours ago, but it didn't show. So I just posted it again, and once again, nada (my posts usually come up immediately). At this point, I'm just going to wait it out; can't figure what triggered the no-show.
1
@Lewis
The emus are particularly voracious today. They ate a song fragment I tried to post — “Sunday Rebi” to the tune of Mamas and Papas’ “Monday Monday.” Then they ate my follow-up comment noting that the song didn’t post. Is the NYT not feeding them enough? (Must I resort to transparent flattery? Emus, we all think very highly of you and thank you for your selfless service on behalf of Wordplay).
5
Lots of posts out there either waiting for an emu to wake up or lost in space. Welcome to the club.
(Second reply attempt, of course)
3
Solved the puzzle without aid but for 67D. Could anyone explain how Bothered persistently is answered by “ATEAT”? Thanks in advance.
@Robert McDevitt, the item "ate at" me too until I saw the word division. :-)
5
@Robert McDevitt separate the words: ate at
1
I solve the puzzles on my computer, and it took a long time to figure out how to enter the rebus squares to get credit for the solve. Finally figured out to just enter the across letters in the rebus squares, not the slash or down letters. I also thought maybe I had a typo somewhere, so carefully checked the whole puzzle. Really blew up my Sunday solve average time!
17
I guess it's only "arcana" when it's something I've never heard of, so the solve to this one was fairly straightforward and fun.
But my eyes! Literally! Am I the only one who struggled to work with those looooong strings of letters in those tiny boxes. (I suspect not.)
¡No mas! Please.
5
Two rebuses in one week = two too many.
10
OK, let's try this again (anybody home?)
Great fun.
RE 45D: How could "beer in a green bottle" be anything but Rolling Rock?!?! (double interrobangs for emphasis from PA native)
19
@John as a PSU grad that was my first thought as well:) “33”
2
@John - Sadly "skunk p!$$" fit only if one ignored the circled square.
6
@Robert McDevitt
DHubby is a PSU grad! but he has 'gone native' and is drinking 'Southern Pecan' ale (ugh.) I am not even sure I can get Rolling Rock here...
1
You have to put it in the “across” order for it to register in the app. Slash is optional. 957 day streak intact! Day 1000 is my wife’s birthday....priorities....
9
@Neal M way to go on your streak! And I was feeling proud as I approach 500.
4
Oh wait... ‘Alabama’? (Not that my original query re 19A has ever shown up, and that was five hours ago). I’m more familiar with your two-letter state abbreviations, rather than three.
I’ve resolved my other query too (from the same non-appearing post) re the Z4 and Q50. Evidently they’re both brands for cars sold in the US. Live and learn.
I wonder if this post will ever appear (interrobang)
2
IM(H)O a smooth and fun solve. I like rebuses. Just pick a direction and spell the words.
10
Way too tricky.
2
Truly dislike complex rebuses.
11
I did the puzzle on my laptop. In my mind, it's all correct. Yet, no happy music. I have the rebus answers correct, I'm sure, but I am not sure if I filled them out correctly. How many letters need to be put in the rebus box: 2,4, 8? What is the correct order: Across first or Down first? My streak is small (this puzzle would make it 30) but I don't want to ruin it, especially because of a technology problem, as it has been hard won. Thanks in advance for any help!
1
Now I've just read elsewhere that it is a regular slash! I don't know!
1
Francis,
Did you try the suggestions in the column?
(What letter combination works? As far as I can tell, using the above example as your sample letters, you probably need to use the rebus and pop in OONN or NNOO. OO/NN or NN/OO also work, but not in Across Lite. If you’re pressed for time, however, try using a single letter, either N or O. I’m told that this will work but somehow leaving out the other letter seems a bit shady.)
Interesting. My first reply -- which didn't appear (yet) -- was virtually identical but named the author of the column. Do our resident ratites deem her chopped liver?
TEARS
2
The instruction in the online version is ambiguous, and I interpreted it incorrectly. It says - ...contains a slash that divides the square in two, from the upper left to the lower right.
I understood that to mean that the slash was from the upper left to the lower right, and used a \ (back slash) accordingly in the rebus, which did not prove acceptable. Apparently it is meant that a / (forward slash) separates the upper left from the lower right.
Actually, the way I interpreted it works better for the theme anyway. With the \, the across naturally hits the lower left before the upper right, and the down encounters them in the opposite order. With /, both first encounter the upper left.
Caused me to spend a great deal of time looking for errors elsewhere that it turned out I didn't have. Once I'd read the Ms. Lovinger's column, I removed the \'s and Bingo.
Great puzzle, great theme, but IMhO needed to be either clearer, or more forgiving about the form of the theme squares.
14
@Mike
I was a little concerned about the slashes in entering the rebus squares, as the backslash is not available when you ask for “more” and the forward slash is in conflict with the newspaper depiction. So I just entered the 4 letters in across/down order and got the happy music.
3
Trying a third time to tell you your first interpretation was correct (even if you ended up not needing to enter them). You can see the slashes for yourself online in the PDF of the newspaper version.
(Once is not enough? LESS is more?)
1
STATS THREAD
A non-competitive spot to share times and streaks
Suggested format (and mine for today):
37:25 (A 1:09:18, B 35:25) Steak 463, Mini 00:46
My kids are 1 and 4. It doesn't happen often, but today I snuck the puzzle in before they woke up. Bliss.
5
@DOUG
I'm struggling with today's Bee and needed the grid. The Emu may have eaten Doug's grid, so I'll post one.
words: 59
score: 210 pts
pangrams: 1
bingo: yes
A x 5
C x 13
H x 7
L x 6
O x 2
P x 10
T x 16
4L x 29
5L x 16
6L x 6
7L x 6
8L x 2
4 5 6 7 8 tot
A 2 2 1 - - 5
C 5 4 - 3 1 13
H 4 2 1 - - 7
L 2 3 1 - - 6
O 1 1 - - - 2
P 5 2 1 1 1 10
T 10 2 2 2 - 16
tot 29 16 6 6 2 59
AL x 2 AT x 3
CA x 5 CH x 1 CL x 2 CO x 5
HA x 4 HO x 3
LA x 3 LO x 3
OA x 1 OC x 1
PA x 4 PH x 2 PL x 2 PO x 2
TA x 7 TH x 2 TO x 7
112
@Kevin
Thank you, Kevin. I've got to 52/187, and am totally stalled. Let's see if the grid will get me to QB.
3
@Kevin - Indeed it did. Thanks.
11
Limped to 42/147 and not found the pangram yet. Only the second time i cant find it
3
Where are all the Busy Bees? I fell asleep and came late to get QB at 59/210 but not a peep from y'all? Did everyone get emu-ed? Should I post a grid????
5
Second attempt.
People of Mongolia have not done much invading of late. There are other countries that fit this description of invaders better (when I explicitly mentioned which country the moderators didnt let me through). Maybe such borderline racism in a crossword ia unnecessary.
12
LETTER BOXED
V-E(6), E-M(9)
Trip codeword
9
I own two calendars so I can double date.
(That was a week one.)
28
@Mike
No no no no no!
2
On my first pass, I saw 88A (pros and cons) and put in "prison"...🤣
12
This puzzle was a slow solve for me. Ultimately, the RAMEN NOODLES and CARTOON NETWORK crossing elucidated the theme and the rest became easy.
4
The featured photo is from Montana State University (Bozeman), Puzzle entry is for the University of Montana (Missoula).
9
Very true, but I figured it was referencing 6D. For the record, until the mid 60s the Missoula school was Montana State University and the one in Bozeman was Montana State College, with an ag program that lives on and apparently teaches students how to avoid being BAAED at sheering sheep.
14
Huh. All my posts are being swallowed up. Trouble sleeping, emus? Didn’t get fed before the humans went home for the night?
9
@Sam Lyons
Me too.
Well, not all my posts. I did make one post, and it showed up. But my C-i-C has disappeared.
Not saying that what I posted was so important, but why should it have been poofed? Not like it was nasty. Quite the opposite.
3
Sam and Deadline,
I tried two original posts and a reply early Saturday evening. Nothing has shown up (yet?). I wonder if this reply at 7:29 a.m. will...
OK, now that the emus are letting me post again, I will report that I did the puzzle early yesterday afternoon on the stone tablets delivered to my cave. My water clock says I made good time. No format issues with the rebuses, but getting four letters in one square does require a steady hand with the chisel. Thanks, Tracy and Tom.
12
I know I’m in the minority, but puzzles that have rebuses are annoying. I have no doubt that they are difficult to construct, however, they are more irksome to solve
26
@Navcad82
I'm a daily solver and not bothered personally, but I can see that someone who only does Sunday puzzles might be unaware of the concept and thus confused
3
@Navcad82
I'm learning to love the Rebus puzzles. Once I realised this puzzle included rebuses, I couldn't stop until I had it solved. Brilliant work by the constructors!!!
20
@Navcad82 There's no way to see the puzzle title ("Double Crossed," in this case) from inside the browser page showing is there? With the vast expertise of the New York Times, it really seems like that would be possible. (I hope I'm not making a false claim, that would be embbaarraassing today.)
7
Interesting! Never heard of a BASSOBOE! Had to make sure it was for real and just now read that it is used in one of my favorite pieces, by Gustav Holst: The Planets.
13
@eLizard It's obvious. Bass swim among the reeds.
19
I really wish they'd keep (especially) Sunday a standard puzzle and keep the gimmick-y rebus stuff to one day during the week.
32
Kevin,
There have been rebuses in the Sunday crossword since 1965, and there were four rebus Sundays in 2020. Sorry, but I don't think you're going to get your wish.
8
@Kevin (and others)
Suggest printing out the clues and grid on real
paper and solving that way. Much more fun. I do it in ink.
2
Thought it was a fun puzzle. Would have been a DNF on paper, as I had fLOOD DRIVE rather than BLOOD DRIVE, thinking that BFC must be a British organization that I should know (that mistaken “F” came from originally thinking it was fOOD DRIVE before I realized the rebus squares took 4 letters instead of two) . BBC and BLOOD DRIVE were much more satisfying.
Can’t accuse Jeff Chen of going easy on his regular co-constructor, Tracy Gray. He was lukewarm on the theme and wanted there to be another level. Geez, I thought it was hard enough to make the theme work gracefully as it was.
Once again, Caitlin’s column is a gem. “Predigital hacking” to describe steaming open letters is ingenious.
p.s. Not to name drop, I don’t know GLORIA ALLRED, but I do know a lawyer who worked with her on a case a few years ago, and she had nothing but good things to say about the experience. Fwiw.
20
There are two kinds of constructors: those who challenge solvers’ abstract thinking by twisting and stretching the quirks of language, and those whose art lies in how the grid itself is stretched and twisted in novel ways. In the latter, the entries are mere trusses holding up the elegant geometry of design and the language can feel like an afterthought.
Friday and Saturday were the former: full of brilliant puns and misdirects, with multiple possible answers crossed by same — a delicious workout. Today solved like an oversized Monday, with literal clueing of too easy entries. I was done in record time, then spent 10 min. trying to figure out what solution would work on my particular app. That’s not brain work, that’s tedium, particularly for one who can neither see the circles without zooming in nor the rebus fill of 9 (!) tiny characters. I for one didn’t enjoy today’s puzzle.
With two Mongolian entries, though, I get to share a track by The Hu: classically trained musicians who blend modern rock with Mongolian folk music, performed on traditional instruments and incorporating traditional Mongolian throat singing. It’s not for everyone, but I heard them at a world music festival and immediately felt myself racing on horseback across an Eastern steppe, wind blowing under my reading glas... er, through my hair, the wind blowing through my hair.
(You can fast-forward through other first minute of the video’s “opening story.”)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v4xZUr0BEfE
12
@Sam Lyons
At least as to the themers, I thought solving this in the paper was much more satisfying than online, because each rebus square was divided by a back slash. The paired letters fit snugly on either side of the line. Here’s a link to Xwordinfo, so you can see the filled in solve as it looked in the paper (except mine had a couple of scars): https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/17/2021
3
@Puzzlemucker It is a very elegant constructed and yes, I think solving this on paper would be more satisfying because you’re done when you know you’re done — no need to second-guess the programming to earn the (oh so Pavlovian) gold star. It wasn’t too long ago we had a puzzle with an excellent concept and execution on the constructor’s part that nevertheless left Wordplayers gnashing their teeth because the rebus coding made no sense. Also, I think that maybe I tend to give Sundays short shrift in general because they’re by design a step down in degree of challenge after the Saturday puzzle, for which I wait all week.
5
@Sam Lyons
You’re done when you know you’re done — unless you have an error you don’t realize.
3
Sometimes I only figure out the theme after completing the puzzle. Not this time! 34A fell quickly, and then knowing the trick made the rest of the puzzle pretty smooth. Mostly in my (aged) wheelhouse - but I had to Google MIB after I got it.
3
@ReidD
I found 34A really tough, thinking a nickelodeon was a kind of jukebox. Apparently it's a "network" on TV. (But I'm not sure if I've ever heard of Cartoon Network either.)
I have decided that when I see a note like the one that accompanied today's puzzle, I will print the newspaper version and solve on paper. It was a refreshing change and solving in pen I had surprisingly few write-overs. (TRIVIA before ARCANA, VEXED before ATE AT, and EUGENIA before EUGENIE).
I was surprised to see TIDE POD appear again, (fortunately not too close to ATE AT), and what was really spooky was that I had a hockey game on in the background and there were several commercials for TIDE PODS as I solved. It was the first time I have ever noticed a commercial for TIDE PODS.
Time now to figure out how to enter the puzzle into the grid in order to keep the streak going. This will seriously affect my solve time for the better!
9
Andrew,
Two original posts haven't posted; trying a reply. Doing laundry right now with TIDE (but not in a POD).
This is a test...
@Andrew - Hi, Andrew Ottawa -
I exist.
Friday, 10:45 pm
“selF FOOd”: I just made that term up, to describe things like MOONPIES or yesterday’s CORNISH PASTY, where one part of the food is a wrapping for the innards.
Then we have “greaseprOOF Felafel” as another instance of the genre.
Tracy and Tom make it look so easy!
6
Single words with two pairs of consecutive repeated letters are pretty scarce, although triples seem to be the holy grail . . .
How about bookkeeper?
11
At first I thought maybe this was one of those puzzles where the theme entries take a 90 degree turn at the circles. But that didn't pan out. I could see what most of the theme entries were intended to be, but it took a while to figure out the best way to enter the letters. I finished with an error, but when I found it, it was because I had originally tried to put in CREMORA for COFFEEMATE and hadn't fixed the first R. MIRTIC/MIOTIC, who knew? The importance of flyspecking!
I did not know the term NEO-DADA, especially for Yoko ONO, but for the past couple of weeks I've been reading Jonathan Gould's _Can't Buy Me Love_ about the Beatles and their music. After I finished this puzzle earlier this evening, I continued reading where I had left off--which was where John meets Yoko--and there's a chapter about Yoko's life up to that point--which discusses how Yoko and her then-husband became associated with Neo-Dadaists through John Cage. Weird coincidence!
16
Good Sunday puzzle. I had TRIVIA for 65A for a while, even though it seemed too obvious. But it worked with VEXED for 67D, which seemed plausible (though not necessarily persistent). It was STROBEEFFECT that led me to COFFEEMATE and to reworking that area of the puzzle.
How I came up with Eugenie and Gloria Allred I do not know, but I did and I got my gold star! Yay for my one-day streak.
17
Arrgghh! Finished but it was a death match (RATEDR) with the technology long after the actual puzzle was solved.
First of all, the trusty rebus box was completely invisible on the iPhone version of the NYT app. No problem, I say, just type the letters as single letters (DO, ON, etc.) and after hitting "Done", they'll show up in the circle. Sure enough, they do, but then after they're all filled in, I get the dreaded "aw, shucks, you're not done yet" message. So, I go back and try to put them in with a slash. Still, no happy music. So then, I try putting in double letters (DDOO, OONN, etc.), but then they're soooooo tiny that I can't tell if I typed the correctly or not.
And then I realize that the longest river isn't, in fact, the Volta (and the accompanying 109 down didn't really make any sense for "scram!") LOL.
Anyway, downstairs to the (t)rusty desktop, where, the rebus box works, and all is right with the world. Streak intact at 357.
20
@Jane in Mosier
Congratulations on keeping your streak alive.
I too thought it was the rebuses that were keeping me from getting the silenced “happy music,” but it turned out to be a typo. I got impatient trying to find it and let my streak of 100+ days end.
6
To other solvers & the editors: I’ve also been having trouble with the crossword on an iOS platform all week. The same issue this solver described (invisible rebus box) today, and puzzle too big for the screen several days earlier this week. Thank you for any updates you may be making to the code, and please pass this feedback along to the testers!
2
fun! ~ an enjoyable way to end my saturday afternoon ~ a very clever construction and just enough crunch to keep it interesting
but now i am sorry i don't have a sunday puzzle to do tomorrow, when it will actually be sunday
enjoy the weekend, everyone!
11
@artlife
You could do a Sunday puzzle from the archives!
9
@artlife
It's Acrostic week!
8
TIDEPOD two days in a row. Is this a sign I should do laundry? PIgnoli before PINENUT. True confession, once I figured what was happening in the circled squares, I looked at the answer key to see how the double double letters were entered, because life is too short to be aggravated by such things. (I've mastered the art of only seeing the thing I'm looking for in the answer key.)
Enjoyed the puzzle, Tracy and Tom. I'm gonna GIT now.
42
Great puzzle, medium difficulty. Surprised that 70-across RRATED wasn’t clued to match 68-D NICHE: not for mass audiences
1
@SP
Movies that are RATED R are not NICHE movies. They are definitely meant for the masses.
6
I was TEARY until TEARS fell when I realized that I was contorting ASSESS into ASSAY being somewhat MYOPIC. Aside from that, the MYOTIC effects of my old eyes endlessly missing one of the doubles either at the beginning or end of the rebus square and having to squint, read, and renter, it went rather well.
2
I really dislike these puzzles that have multiple options for filling in the "special" square. None of my attempts to "correctly" solve the puzzle have worked in spite of knowing the solution.
35
@Robert Ljungquist
Here are a few tips I hope will help:
Entering the first letter of the rebus is a good bet to work on most platforms.
Entering what works for the across entry works better when the across and the down rebus entries read differently. (In other words, enter the DDOO of OVERHEAD DOOR, not the OODD of BLOOD DRIVE.)
If your platform of choice is Across Lite, you’ll encounter more technical problems. If you want to keep track of your statistics, the NYT Crossword app handles most oddities well, but can’t handle slashes like today’s. If you want the best duplication of oddball grids, Puzzazz is the best, but sometimes, like today, the puzzle doesn’t drop at the same time. (It took opening Puzzazz three times to get the Sunday puzzle, but when it finally opened, the slashes were there.)
Solving in the actual newspaper (or printed out from the website) always allows you to solve the puzzle as it was meant to be solved.
12
Put the letters in the correct order for the across clues. They are read backwards for the down clues.
13
@MissPlace
I am forever in your debt!
1
I wasn’t particularly rushing but this fell pretty quickly.
5
I didn't mind MESON crossing OOCYTE, but CARIB crossing MIOTIC got me.
28