Comment of Resignation

The clue and title of today's column, "Comment of Resignation", reinforced the notion that most of us have adopted a feeling of resignation about the state of the Wordplay comments.

Deb, concerning the correction at the end of today's column, my first thought, when I read "Bewitched witch", was Tabitha, not Samantha. Thank you for making me feel that I was in good company. Not sure who selects the photos for each column, but they always bring a smile. Thank you.

I was thinking, what if this had been a constructor's debut today and the comments were late and then just flat out disappeared? Ed is a seasoned constructor and knows his talent, but even he has to look forward to -- and deserves -- his day in the sun. The NYT is way too big to let this Mickey Mouse IT stuff to continue to go on. I am beyond disappointed.

The theme was close to being a mini-reprise of Sunday's. I finished it much faster than an average Tuesday, probably because Sunday was fresh in my mind. There were quite a few Names, but these were well-crossed except for one near-Natick (for me) at 60/61 (the Director's name and the Coors drink); but the former eventually drifted into my RAM-box, and the drink sounded OK too (but only because we had it before – I only drink craft ales and imports).

Did anyone else have NOOB instead of BOOB? (Or am I showing my age as an [elder] millennial?)

Well, at least the link from the puzzle to the column is finally working. Hope it will work for the Wednesday puzzle. And Deb, even if you did "do it" trying to fix things, there is something wrong at The Times if you're having to try to fix things. I mean, they don't ask editors to fly the presses, so why should the crossword columnist have to play IT GUY?

Glad the site appears to be back up. I tried to comment earlier but couldn’t. Today’s puzzle seemed more Mondayish to me. I completed it so quickly it left me with little to do as I sat in a waiting area. BUT, I didn’t understand the theme until I sat there and stared at the highlighted sections and finally went “doh”! Haven’t had LIFE BREAKFASTCEREAL or seen a LIFE PICTUREMAGAZINE or played the BOARDGAME LIFE in many, many years. I have a wonderful but dim memory of lying in my mother’s bed watching Jack PAAR while my daddy worked a night shift in the late Fifties. The thing that makes the memory particularly dim is the fact that we only had one TV and it was in the living room! I really liked the cluing for BOB. Also CRABCAKE (a food item I love) cluing was interesting since several seafood items come with a lemon wedge. I also liked the touch of Greek in RHO, the touch of Italian in CARA Mia, and the touches of Latin in ETTU and ERAT. OMAR Sharif is missed mightily for his Bridge column and his screen presence. Loved Dr. Zhivago—Mr. al-Sharif was one of my first movie crushes (sigh). Thanks for a pleasant Tuesday! :-)

Great puzzle and absolutely refreshing.

Oy! Searched forever till I finally realized TANKS was the answer, not masks. And my daughter is a Master Diver. She just laughed.

I enjoyed this one -- it brought back a lot of memories. Hey Mikey!

(Hope this makes it considering the system crash. Only 12 comments as I type this.) Easier than the last couple of Tuesdays for me. Still, a number of no-knows: STAN, ENDORA (I *did* remember Samantha, though), MELDS (The ENDORA/MELDS cross was a Natick for me, and my last entry), CARA, ERAT, and ZIMA. Liked the crosses ETTU/OTOE, BOB/BOOB, and NERO/TARO. Didn't need the theme to finish and couldn't guess the revealer without the crosses. Once done, a fond remembrance of times long ago ensued. " ... there are a lot of us "older" solvers still out there." Probably more that "younger" solvers. Cheers to us!

I'm reposting QB help for those who missed it in the first batch of comments (now erased!) 36/134; 1 pangram; no BINGO T 4L 5L 6L 7L 8L A 15 5 4 2 4 - F 7 5 - 1 - 1 G 8 6 2 - - - L 2 1 - - - 1 R 4 1 2 - 1 - Good luck!

Whoops! Looks like the entire Comments system crashed!

Somewhere along the line, "Let's get Mikey--Yeah, he won't eat it--He hates everything!" became "He eats everything." Some years back a Florida sinkhole got named "Mikey" for this reason. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-08-14/news/os-lk-sinkhole-summe... It drives me nuts because it makes NO sense. The whole ad campaign was based on getting people to see that Life must be great because the person who HATES everything loves it. Also, you might have a guess what the "m" in my handle stands for.

Yes, there are some "older" solvers out there--I'm one (70 years old). It was great to remember some of these answers. I was especially proud of myself to remember Jack Paar, even though I did initially spell it with 2 Rs instead of 2 As. :-)

A shirt has two sleeves, not two ARMs!

It looks like the gremlins ate my post so I am reposting - Solving crosswords is one of LIFE’s pleasures and this puzzle by Ed was no exception. One LIFE cover that always comes to mind is the “To the Moon and Back” from 1969: https://goo.gl/images/e175Lu Had mAsKS before TANKS and rescuED before ADOPTED but once that was cleared up it was smooth sailing.

The link from SB to Wordplay is broken. Takes several extra steps to get from one to the other.

36/134; 1 pangram 4 x 18 5 x 8 6 x 3 7 x 5 8 x 2 A x 15 5 x 4 4 x 5 2 x 6 4 x 7 F x 7 5 x 4 1 x 6 1 x 8 G x 8 6 x 4 2 x 5 L x 2 1 x 4 1 x 8 R x 4 1 x 4 2 x 5 1 x 7

Eagerly awaiting for the Bee grid to be posted by one of you kind queens. Got to G (31/103) but cannot find one. more. word.

I loved Mikey in those Life commercials. My mom used the phrase, "Mikey likes it!" from then on. So right there, I had to love this puzzle. THAT'S LIFE is the perfect reveal. I did wonder why 68A was clued as the definition of AT ONE rather than for the full word ATONE. No matter. This was a spot on Tuesday solve. Thanks, Ed Sessa!

To comment on the puzzle we first had to solve the puzzle of how to get here. Took this one leisurely, unfortunately, and finished just 29 seconds off my Tuesday record time from the end of February. THATSLIFE!

I got here just by typing 'wordplay' in the url box. Really buzzed through this pleasant puzzle though I couldn't immediately remember Jack PAAR. I had AS ONE before AT ONE. Also, since Gotham is a familiar nickname for NYC, I never even thought of BATPHONE but eased it in through crosses.

Shouldn't it be for a *Thursday* puzzle that a trick is required to find the Wordplay column? (I gather from the oldest comment times that it finally showed up -- on the home page only -- around 11 p.m.) Bewitched?

Problem with the page link, but a trip around Robin Hood's Barn got me here. "masks for TANKS..." Burbled Tom breathlessly. Family still plays BOARDGAMES and completes jigsaw puzzles. Constantly have to remind sister that an X-acto knife is a solution to a puzzle piece fit problem. Stared at Wayne Manor perched above the Arroyo as I drove from Pasadena to LA as a young employee of an initialed org. We had no BATPHONE only behavior profiles. Pleasant Tuesday that even Mikey might like. Thanks Ed.

The link to this page still doesn't work, if anyone's interested.

I'm guessing that the comments are not posting as there are but 14 at a time when there are usually at least 30. Fun and nostalgic puzzle. Glad to see Zoë Kazan's grandfather in the grid. Hey Mikey ... we like it!

I wonder how many people got hung up at first (as I did) trying to make HAM and cheese work.

I just wiggled my nose and this one filled itself in. Well, maybe not quite but it was a fast and smooth solve. Nice to see so many references to factual things I actually know.. Yes, we subscribed to LIFE. Downstairs in a bookcase I still have my parents copy of 'Life's Picture History of World War II,' which I remember poring over many times as a youngster. Can't think of much else to say. You'll have to excuse me; I need to use the BAT room.

Some random reactions: * I'm amazed that this is the first appearance of FRAGRANT in a NYT puzzle since 1981. * Tight and clever theme with a good reveal, the kind that makes me think, "Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? Credit to Ed for pulling it out of the ether. * In the SW's lowest 15 squares you have the crosses of ONE/ONE, NET/NET, TON/TON, and SAT/SAT. Cool. * When I was a kid, our family subscribed to LIFE, and the first thing I did was turn to the "Miscellany" page at the back. Now there's a word that would look cool in a puzzle (last time in 1985). * Here's a mini-lesson in puzzle-friendliness of words: ELIA KAZAN has appeared 9 times in the NYT puzzle, KAZAN 20 times, and ELIA 710 times. * I like the two Z's in the puzzle's lower half, giving it, as it were, a ZZ Bottom.

Even in my jet-lagged state ( I arrived home last night after about 20 hours of travel) I did today's puzzle faster than any I can remember, (probably 3 times as fast as yesterday's). Just one false move where I briefly had rescued instead of ADOPTED @ 55A, which the BAT PHONE soon sorted out. I didn't get the theme until the reveal however. It's just possible this says something about my age.

I enjoyed this puzzle & liked how it all fit together. I enjoyed all the retro items, and there were no obscure names or new “urban dictionary” or techie terms . Very pleasant .

and Elke Don't know how I got to this site-sure hope I don't lose it. Today's puzzle : So yesterday we were asked to be YOUNG AT HEART, and today we are to remember LIFE from our looong ago teenage years ? Actually remember Mikey and LIFE cereal but not the BOARD GAME. After we arrived on the North American continent, we got the weekly (at that time) Saturday Evening Post- mainly for the Norman Rockwell covers, and LIFE Magazine for the spectacular photographs. Some interesting fill : had BOOr instead of BOOB at first, and was impressed that Gotham had a phone for their rats... Stared at ATONE to mean 'agreeing with'? Oh- AT ONE.... Am also staring at - MAGA ZINE. ET TU, Ed Sessa ? Thanks for the memories. THAT was LIFE.

As a person who has Life cereal almost every morning (plain original, thanks) - I have to like this puzzle. My linguistic ramble today is inspired by the Mini. Graze belongs to grass in the same way that glaze belongs to glass. Both sets of words show the way an oblique sense of a word in English was indicated by the voicing of the final consonant (eventually the vowel was also adjusted). One glazes with glass as one grazes on grass. One bathes when one takes a bath, as one breathes when one takes a breath. And this ties into yesterday's thread regarding "bicep" as a back-formation from "biceps." The singular words staff and cloth in "pure, unsullied" English were pluralized as staves and clothes, according to the same rule of voicing. Yet in modern English we have the back-formation of the unvoiced plurals (staffs / cloths) alongside the back-formation of the voiced singulars (stave / clothe - now replaced by clothing, but still with the voiced consonant). Stave is a mistake; staffs is a mistake - and both are real English words. Clothe is a mistake; cloths is a mistake - and both are real English words. Mead (as in crosswordese, a grassy place, a lea; not the drink) once had the plural form "meadwe", which became "meadow", a plural noun. In modern English we end up with "meadow" as the default singular, with "meadows" as a false plural and "meads" as a poetic variant that is doubly back-formed. Shades and shadows belong to the same class of nouns. 11:40 pm

Nice crossword puzzle

10:50 and the link to the blog and Comments is still broken...

I enjoyed the puzzle but it's very quiet here tonight. Probably, because the link from the puzzle is broken...

Hi Deb, ENDORA was Samantha's mom and Tabitha's grandmother... Certainly a bit of TV nostalgia with inclusion of MR. ED, and all of the different versions of LIFE in the theme were all pretty old too. Fine and fun. No complaints from me.