There are also those of us who refuse (or can't afford) to pay extra for a puzzle subscription and photocopy the puzzles out of the paper at the library. This time the usual black-and-white copy would have been impossible to use, so I sprang for a 25-cent color copy and managed to do the puzzle, although many of the emojis were far too small and blurry to identify.
As the world tends more and more to presume that everybody is reading everything on a screen, those of us who have more than enough screen time (viz. this column and reader comments, which are fun to read) are going to be left out in the cold. It's sad.
1
96A .. Ageing? That silent E is a British thing, not American, so I am wondering why the British reference wasn't mentioned?
7
Hard at first, in no small part because emojis were impossible to make out. But since these were mainstream movies, it fell into place. Most short non-theme clues were too easy for a Sunday. "Umped" and "Epipen" are among the best puns of the last five years!
2
I enjoyed this emoji puzzle. It was something new and fun. However, iyour reviewer's comments on Sgt Preston (10D) were sadly deficient. I undetstand that the tv show was before her time, but just to say he had a dog and a horse and was in the Yukon in the 1890s, hardly captures the story. Much of he show was about Sgt Preston (of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police--not some local cop) and his malamute lead dog, King, pursuing the bad guys by dogsled through the wilderness. King was not just "a dog." He was a Northwest Rin Tin Tin and Lassie combined. And the horse, Prince, was a beautiful pure black stalion with the smarts of the Lone Ranger's horse Silver. For a 1950s action show, it was pretty good. Bad guys never threw their guns at the hero when they ran out of bullets (even as a little kid, I knew that was a really stupid move), and Sgt Peeston was true to life in that he was the only lawman for hundreds of miles around. The plots were better thsn the Lone Ranger's, and, unlike in the Lone Ranger shows, the bad guys didn't have epiphanies and suddenly decide to go straight because the Ramger showed them the error of their ways (oh puleez). Anyway, the comment should at least have mentioned the dogsleds (different from al the other 1950s shows) and that the dog and horse often saved the day.
1
It was fun!! I am not an emoji fan. But I enjoyed this thoroughly. And thank the construction for good word clues!! 😄😂🥰🍷
This is a bad idea. If you don’t understand a clue, it is because of words or a word.
2
I loved this—one of the most fun Sunday puzzles you’ve given us in a long time. Recently, I have found the Sunday’s too hard for me and a bit dull. And since Sunday’s are big, I get tired of them, and have been skipping some. So I really appreciated this one, -Brian K.’s two-year work, his son’ part, and, Deb, wow, all those clips! Thank you! ❤️😀⭐️
2
@Ruth M Sorry, I meant Caitlin, of course. I love you both, Deb and Caitlin— amazing.
Please make the emoji icons MUCH LARGER so that someone other than a Millennial can read them!
9
@Dave ==I completely agree. I'm 76 and could barely make them out even with my bifocals!
5
@Dave - needed a good magnifying glass!!
3
Hard to make a judgment about the emojis, because I CANT SEE THEM! At the very least, a clue should be, like, um, visible? What am I missing?
8
I enjoyed the puzzle, thank you. About the column, I’d like to share that the “emo” in “emoji” has noting to do with emotion (unlike the English portmanteau “emoticon.”) “Emoji” is Japanese: “E” is “picture” and “moji” is “letter.” I’m certain about this.
(Sorry if someone else already commented about this by the way. I am late to the party).
1
I LOVED this. It was so much fun in a tee-hee way. As a new solver, I doubt always the thematic tricks constructors put in. But I was able to get this one, and had fun. Thank you for being creative!
That was the most enjoyable Sunday puzzle I have solved to date. What fun!
4
This is one of my All-time favorite NYT Sunday crosswords! It was fun, a bit of a brain-teaser, and clever. Love, love, love it!
2
Super enjoyable and a PB for me on Sunday. Love the emoji twist! Keep the fun themes coming!
4
Who’d have thought I could hate emojis more than I already did?
Did myself no favors by doing the puzzle on my aging MacBook Pro with low resolution (non-Retina) screen which made the emojis near illegible. Piecing together THE LORD OF THE RINGS on crosses, coupled with the fact I breezed past some Oscars stuff on the NYT homepage before clicking over to the Crossword told me this was a movie theme.
The emojis were precisely zero help. It was all in knowing the theme and crosses.
8
Really? I got all the emoji clues easily (once I got the movie title theme) then used them to hang the crosswise answers.
This was a REALLY fun and quick (for a Sunday) solve!
2
Can anyone explain 73A: “Runaway #1” to me. I’m ready to feel super dumb for not understanding how the answer relates.
3
@Sam M Not every #1 film vastly outstrips the competition, but if it does, we might call it a SMASH hit.
3
@Warren M I had to think a bit on this, but a “runaway hit” is a term used for a very successful show or film, or smash hit as Sam M says.
Belatedly, another BIG Thank-you to Caitlin for the movie clips. Awfully nice to visit and re-visit, and to remember some good times.
We'll have two seats on the aisle in the balcony, please.
3
@Leapfinger Ummm, back row in the balcony?
1
Please don't ever do this again. One of the greatest of human developments was the invention of alphabets and letters -- representing sounds -- that could be combined into words. The use of emojis is an enormous step backward.
I am proud to say I have never studied emojis, and don't intend to.
However, I was able to solve the puzzle using crossing entries and figuring out what the emoji-clued words must be. I didn't look at the emojis and don't have a clue what they represent.
8
@Michael
Perhaps you missed the irony of the picture in Caitlin's column. Heiroglyphs were actually the original emojis.
10
@Dr W
No, I didn't miss it. As I said in my post the invention of alphabets and letters that could be combined into words was a major step forward. We appear to be regressing.
1
The miserable crankiness of the people who hated this puzzle is really assuming.
7
This was an awesome puzzle—loved the emojis, they brought a smile to my face.
12
Had a concert this afternoon and dinner with Mrs W so didn't get back to the laptop until just now.
I decided to simply ignore the emojis -- and whaddya know -- it worked! Nice smooth solve. Got it all except 76A, 70D and 71D --which I did nit know and had to lookup. Eh bien ....
1
I am old, I never used text-speak abbreviations like “u” for “you,” and I love using emoji and I loved this puzzle! Fastest ever Sunday, to 🥾! It was a bit hard to make some of them out on an iPad mini in the app, which doesn’t allow for pinch-gesture enlargement (although it seems I could have tried increasing the clue font size, which I’ll try to remember), but I thought it was delightful anyhow.
12
Fairly smooth, but I did have to research to get the country club nook--seriously, crossing yachts and skiing is about the WASPiest Natick I've encountered.
4
Anything out of the ordinary is better than an "old and worn," STALE offering. Most of the emojis were clear on my color printout but that didn't matter much --- even if each of the emoji clues were replaced with the single word "movie" this would have been a super easy solve.
4
I guess this movie/emoji puzzle was appropriate for Oscar Sunday. I didn’t find it too difficult but I did have to guess at the answers since I couldn’t enlarge the emojis on my iPad and I couldn’t make out more than half of them.
2
I’m with all those who found this debut to be a surprise and a delight. Seeing KING KONG right away made it all very smooth and easy, but not at all boring. I loved the emojis and enjoyed being reminded of some wonderful movies. I think the only ones I haven’t ever seen were DRACULA and TED—and don’t really feel the need to change that. I vaguely remember Sgt. Preston from my childhood but didn’t come up with his name immediately. Everything else was pretty accessible. Thanks for the Sunday fun, Brian Kulman, and I’m sure we’ll see more of you in future.
7
I often elect to ignore the Notepad, just to see if I can solve without the crucial info. In blissful ignorance, I solved the word puzzle that AcrossLite gave me and enjoyed it quite a lot, as I'm by way of being a minor cinephile. Found this to be a movie buff's delight with delectable morsels hidden throughout:
Admired the subtle way BK threw Laurels to STAN, Stacy KEACH, GAL GADOT and Rin TIN TIN, to OTTO Preminger and a Raft of acting British NIGELs. Not to mention how cleverly aLEWDed to a wide array of TALKIEs, ranging from
ANTS/z
SWISS Family Robinson
HOGAN's Heroes
The World of APU
all too many MEET the Fokkers
Dune (by way of Duke LETO)
Cool Runnings (by way of LUGE)
and FORT Apache, the Bronx
It's just a shame to have misspelt DONS DELOUSE, as DOM DELUISE was quite memorable in Blazing Saddles and History of the World., Part I.
In a word, all these supporting acts backing up the inordinately large number of themers had me reeling. I'll admit I needed a refill on my hot buttered popcorn and will call this a BIG if not a TITANIC success.
6
Leapy,
Too bad you missed the real puzzle...
@BarryA,
If you read closely between the lines, you can tell how absolutely devil-stated I am.
I took a look at the clues on the app, and I would have been flying as blind as St-Exupery when he was flying the night mail over the Andes.
5
Leapy,
You missed the irony emoji in my post. Regards.
2
Got one clue into this puzzle before I knew what the comment section would be like. FWIW I loved this puzzle. The emojis were unambiguous, and the movies were all famous enough that anyone without any movie knowledge, or an inability to understand emojis, could easily get. I'm glad the editors take chances on puzzles like this, and I'm glad they did so with a set of movies that no one can honestly complain about being obscure or unknowable.
So far, this is a top-3 puzzle of 2020, and my Sunday is better for it.
11
Before I read any of the many responses, this puzzles was extremly easy despite the fact I still have yeat to figure out what half of the emojois are because of how blurry they came agross in the printout, for instance the first one, a claw a girl and a grid of some king becomes KING and there is this that one with some kind of globe a pair of smiley and somethiing that looks like stacked smiley faces coming out BAG. Those werent the most confusing. The only one that made sense to me was the ALI answer because I figured olut that what looked like a wad of chewing gum was actually a boxing glove. Whis I had known there was a print version of what the emojis actually were. Still it was easy to get answers with other fills. Just wish I were more into pictographs
3
mike,
For future reference, there is a print version online for *every* puzzle; the PDF of the paper version is available on the Crosswords home page.
3
@Barry Ancona I always solve from newspaper edition pdf, But my point was that the Emojis didn't come out like how does someone get BIG grome a double face emoji, a keyboard, and a globe (or is it a robot head)? The puzzle was an easy solve around the emojis despite the confusing tiny emojis. Wonder what the readers who get there puzzles from the print ecdition thought.
1
@Barry Ancona I always solve from newspaper edition pdf, But my point was that the Emojis didn't come out right. How does someone get BIG from a double face emoji, a keyboard, and a globe (or is it a robot head)? The puzzle was an easy solve around the emojis, despite the confusing tiny emojis. Wonder what the readers who get there puzzles from the print edition thought.
Cute idea, but hard to identify what the emoji pictured because they appear to small on a computer screen. Maybe it's easier in the print version.
1
My previous streak got interrupted a week ago so I didn't have much to lose today, but it's still odd that after I fixed an error in the completed puzzle, the app doesn't seem to notice that it is now complete and correct. When I go back to it, it says "Resume" instead of "Review". Oh well!
Has anyone gotten the 2 word solution for Letter Boxed yet?
Yesterday’s and Letter Boxed solution was
COMPLEXION NAVY
I-R (9) R-T (7)
2
@Lou I found a different one than Liane -- q(6) - h(10)
1
@Sarah I found A-T 5 T-E 9. The two prior days I could not come up with any 2 word solution. Although yesterday's seemed quite fair.
1
We thought we were sunk and our streak was over when we saw the emojis in the clues. I agree they were very difficult to discern, even when magnified to %175. Other than that technical challenge, we figured out that we were going for movie titles by the second or third emoji clue and then ended up beating our average solve time by a huge margin. It was really fun when you figured out what was going on.
3
Terrific fun!
And I finished in 13:02. My all time best for a Sunday!
3
Personal Sunday best for me too! It doesn’t show as that in the “stats” section of the app, because for some reason my solve of the previous Sunday on the iPad didn’t get stored in the server so I redid it on my phone (artificially fast, since I’d already done it and was really just transcribing a lot of it) and that’s the “best” time it’s remembering, but I know it’s really today’s and that’ll have to do.
I had a bit of trouble at the finish, stumbling over DIECI / LETO; HOGAN / HARPO and then catching a typo at HER / FORT.
Clever cluing with CASED, EPIPEN, REPOS and TAME.
As far as the theme goes ... I am working on an iPhone and the keyboard is already a diminutive typing / reading surface. I liked the emoji concept but they were a bit hard to identify.
Otherwise fun and approachable challenging.
Cheers
1
SPELLING BEE GRID
posting it separately for those who aren’t able see past the first few thread replies. there is a large bee thread started by @Kevin last night containing his hints, first 2 letters, others’ clues, etc.
words: 26
score: 98 pts
pangrams: 1
bingo: yes
F x 11
I x 1
L x 5
N x 1
R x 1
T x 3
U x 4
4L x 13
5L x 7
6L x 3
7L x 1
8L x 1
10L x 1
4 5 6 7 8 10 TOT
F 4 4 1 1 1 - 11
I - - 1 - - - 1
L 5 - - - - - 5
N 1 - - - - - 1
R 1 - - - - - 1
T 2 1 - - - - 3
U - 2 1 - - 1 4
TOT 13 7 3 1 1 1 26
3
@a.
FI-2, FL-4, FR-2, FU-3
IN-1
LI-3, LU-2
NU-1
RI-1
TI-2, TR-1
UN-4
2
@a.
Anyone who wants to see past the third reply CAN. All they have to do is to get out of the NYT app. Open any browser and go to nytimes.com and click on the link to the main puzzle page on the home page. Save this page in your Favorites. Then click on "Read About Today's Puzzle on Wordplay." (Don't get to the current Wordplay column and then save it to Favorites, or today's column will always open up.)
2
Haven't read the column or comments yet, so whatever it is I missed, I'll find out later. I almost passed up trying to solve because of the mysteriousness of the artwork. Thought about checking your rave-o-meter first, but decided later in the day to try it anyway. Suspecting the non-thematic clues would be easy, I was rewarded. As for guessing the movies, that turned out to be easy, too, even though only one or two of the emojis made sense to me. Those clues were enough, given the relatively easy crosses. Solving kind of reminded me of a qualitative analysis class I took in chemistry in high school. To get extra credit, there was a solution to analyse, and I didn't allow myself enough time at the end of the semester to do other than to dump in the various testing reagents all at once and look for a general impression. I guessed right, even though I had far less confidence in my guess then than in any of the movies today.
1
i’m now remembering that a few years ago, a few friends and i got caught up for hours — maybe even days!? — in a virtual game (on a facebook thread) of “writing“ the names of bands in emoji and having others guess them, and had SUCH great fun. i think it was probably an internet meme at that time.
all the emoji-haters are missing out. honestly i think it’s the visual-verbal thing, and as a visually-dominant person who’s had no choice but to adjust to a verbally-dominant world, just for once it would be nice to see the verbals stretch in our direction.
5
OK, so I solved the puzzle with little difficulty. But the emojis made little sense to me. Even with a magnifying glass many were hard to make out (I print and solve on paper). Crossings did the trick.
1
@SteveG
Oh, King Kong was an exception. That one jumped out immediately.
1
Geez Louise. I'm shocked by the number of folks who are complaining about this puzzle. I did it in AcrossLite and had no issues at all. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I'm gonna be 70 next month and hope I never get as grumpy as some of today's posters!
15
McBean,
In AcrossLite, you had no issues at all because you saw no emojis at all. Many solvers seem to have liked the emoji experience, others did not; you didn't have it.
Man, I can't see the emojis.
a teacher,
I assume you solve in AcrossLite. Did you miss this in the third paragraph of Caitlin's column?
"Our amazing tech team managed to render these emojis on every platform except for Across Lite, where you’ll be given bracketed descriptions of each of the three ingredients for each clue."
😕😕😕
💡💡💡
😄😄😄
24
Sunday best! 💯🎉🥇
6
😄❤️👍🏻
4
I’m unable to see the emojis clearly. Do we really need “innovation “ to enjoy a crossword puzzle? I may be old and grumpy, but the inability to see clues does not enhance the experience. Worst Sunday puzzle in the 40+ years I’ve been solving.
2
Only 315 comments by 10am PST? Knowing some of the purists in this community I expected more. ;-)
My Sunday solve was slowed because, for the first time ever, I failed to read the title. It was hard for my old eyes to see the emojis even after increasing the magnification. But once I read the title and saw some crossings, the 💡 came on and I enjoyed the ride.
My favorite and hardest clues/answers: REPOS and SMASH. I couldn't get anything in Australia to fit the former and I read the latter so badly that I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to figure out which biblical character was the first to runaway from home.
3
Deb,
You had JUMBO instead of COMBO. I had JUMBO instead of DUMBO.
3
This was a treat! Clever idea, nicely implemented, and fun to solve!
For 23A, my first thought was also JOE AND THE VOLCANO, but it didn't much to head in the right direction.
Thanks for the vids!
3
A very enjoyable puzzle with a new twist. Once I figured out the theme, I thought it would be quite difficult, but much to my surprise, the theme emojis clicked for me quickly. well done.
4
Delightful Sunday puzzle! The icons were cute and easy to decipher. Nice change of pace, even for word lovers, even someone (like me) old enough to have watched Sergeant Preston on black-and-white TV. Well done, Brian!
8
What a fun Sunday puzzle! Using emojis reminded me of solving rebus puzzles when I was a kid. And I learned a few new words today too, such as the answer to “bug-eyed primates”. Thanks for an enjoyable solve.
4
As a relative newcomer to solving crosswords, I sometimes struggle with Sunday puzzles, requiring much more help than on this one. My time was not particularly good, but it was because I didn’t give up as quickly to look up something online or use other sorts of help because I was able to decipher the emoji clues pretty quickly. That said, I have to say this seemed like too easy a puzzle for a Sunday because of this. It was harder than a Monday, and maybe even a Tuesday, both of which I can usually solve relatively quickly and without any aid these days, but easier than many.
2
Like many, perhaps most, subscribers to the crossword I am old. And I don't use emojis ever. I know that I never will. I did solve this but not without a great deal of frustration. Please use word clues. If I wanted hieroglyphics I would have arranged to be born four thousand years ago in Egypt.
7
today's xword was fun and easy, solved in under 20 minutes ~ the only answer with which i struggled was the "bug-eyed primates," which i got with the crosses ~ just one of those words that escaped me, but when it came up, i saw them quite clearly in my mind!
1
I hate to be "that guy," but emoji shares no etymology with emoticon.
From Wikipedia: "Originally meaning pictograph, the word emoji comes from Japanese e (絵, 'picture') + moji (文字, 'character'); the resemblance to the English words emotion and emoticon is purely coincidental."
6
@Allan
"That guy" who posts without reading other posts first?
3
Martin,
"That guy" is just one of those guys.
When the error is uncorrected for more than 18 hours (David Connell pointed it out in the second thread in the comments), we know to expect multiple "discoveries."
3
it’s unrealistic to expect blog readers to read through every comment before posting. just let it go. no need to serve as the blog equivalent of a hall monitor.
21
At the risk of being a curmudgeon I hope that the use of emojis in puzzles does not become common. First, on an iPad it is difficult to see them. Secondly, they seem like a stretch. I got the answers through crosses and guessing from the clearest emoji. So, yes the constructor has been clever, but this was not as enjoyable as most puzzles. And yes, I know, get with the times.
6
@Sylvia Johnson Yes, it was actually easier solving the puzzle using Across Lite because the emojis were named. Except for the most common among them, they were very difficult to discern as images.
2
Sylvia,
Using the two-finger swipe on my iPad to maximum enlargement, the emojis are 1 inch tall - plenty big enough to make out.
No disrespect intended, but you do know how to enlarge on an iPad, yes?
I solve in the NYT puzzle app on an iPad mini, and in that format enlarging is not possible. The screen simply does not respond to that gesture, which I do indeed know how to do.
1
I don't get UMPED for 74D. Can someone please explain? And I loved this puzzle! TITANC was the first one I got and then slowly it cliked into place. First I had Eve for 16A.... duh!
2
@Julie
When baseball players slide into home plate, the umpire oversees the action.
1
@Julie I also had EVE, which delayed the lightbulb going on until DUMBO. I don’t think it qualifies as a ‘duh’ but rather falling for a solid misdirect. Yes, let’s say that. 😊
1
I loved this theme! I figured it out right away with 1A, which in any other puzzle would have annoyed me. But the emoji clues were so cute I enjoyed myself to the very end. This is an excellent debut!
10
Over 300 comments by noon. I'm not surprised.
https://nyti.ms/39pry9Z#permid=105110926
4
Congratulations, Brian Kulman! Your creativity and obvious penchant for innovation are showing.
There's nothing else like opening the NYT and seeing your name at the top of the crossword. Your walking today should be a little easier on that cushion of air. Well deserved!
12
As said, many times already. I definitely appreciate experimentation of crossword to reflect current times/trends. Always fun to mix it up a bit.
I like how the theme was movies, given Oscars are tonight: PARASITE!!!
help?
38D: superseder of silent: TALKIE?
82A: did MARYPOPPINS have a carousel?
3
@Newbie 38D: cinema at first included only silent films. Then, the talkies arrived.
82A:
https://youtu.be/L00hML8a3HQ
6
@Newbie
One of the highlights of the film, combining spectacular special effects and animation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L00hML8a3HQ
3
@Chief
@Chungclan
Ah, makes sense. I guess realizing, just now, that supersede means come after (not before) helps in understanding the answer...
This place never disappoints. Thanks for the MP link!
Julie Andrews (circa Sound of Music) was my Gal Gadot for a long time. My Gal Gadot is still Jessica Alba, but Gal Gadot is in my top 5 list of smokeshows. N.B. Smokeshow is a gender-neutral term.
5
I love using emojis on my phone. Some of today's emojis were hard for me to make out, but the cross clues were so easy. It's interesting to see how crosswords are transitioning to accommodate the younger generations.This is good because when I'm dead I like to think people will still be doing crosswords. It's forcing me to keep up so the kids won't yell OK BOOMER at me.
7
@Mark D As a pre-boomer it took me a while to get the cheer
Two of the movies in the puzzle were directed by the same woman, (see 102 and 103 across) which doesn't make up the fact that there are no woman nominees for best director tonight, but yay for Penny Marshall.
And for those wondering why there's a piano keyboard emoji in the clue for BIG, there's this.
https://youtu.be/CPoCndjSGYg
8
The piano emoji helped me with that entry. I feel like the keyboard scene is ubiquitous for that movie.
1
Quick tip for those solving in a browser who thought the emoji were too small to see.
On a Mac (I'm sure there is a similar functionality on the Windoze boxes), just hit command+ (command-shift+) Hit it until you see what is there. Then, hit command- (command minus) the same number of times to return to previous magnification.
I didn't need to do this, but I have a high-res monitor and good reading glasses. But I tried it and they looked great when they were enlarged.
2
Good puzzle but I am stumped on runaway #1 - smash
@Arnold a smash hit, as in a song or movie that rapidly becomes popular.
Like a musical hit, is how I interpreted it.
@Arnold, Thanks to both of you.
Good to hear that so many in our number enjoyed this puzzle. Not me. I solved it without looking at any of the emojis, and found it predictable, boring, and devoid of charm. I came away with the impression that this is a gimmick rather than a puzzle. That said, I understand that each solver's mileage may vary.
6
@archaeoprof
I followed the same path Prof...fortunately never had to figure out what these emojis were supposed to signify. Hopefully we won't see this trend continue...it's hard enough to work through weekend puzzles without having to decipher these types of 'clues" ...maybe hieroglyphics or Thai language characters will be next if this stuff catches on.
It actually motivated me to go back and watch an old episode of Sgt Preston on You Tube. And yes, I remembered that his dog was named Yukon King. They don’t make them like that anymore.
3
At first I couldn't make out the emojis on my tiny laptop and was going to abandon the puzzle.
I had a cup of coffee, put a load of laundry in the washer and came back to it. After reading reading a few comments here, I grabbed my phone and used the camera to blow up the emojis.
It definitely helped but I wish there would have been some sort of index to the emojis so I didn't have to guess at so many of them. Just my two cents.
Allan,
Wouldn't an "index to the emojis" be sort of like solving word clues while reading a dictionary?
2
The emojis did not all display correctly on my computer. Half of them were empty squares - presumably the computer's way of saying "Whaaaa?"
1
@Andrew S Yes, I had the same issue and put it down to poor vision that so many squares looked the same.
OK now that I can see the emojis (that is not a slam) those are supremely funny!! No crying in baseball. Floats like a butterfly stings like a bee. Hilarious! (IMHO)
12
A rebus puzzle! Where the rebuses, in this case emojis, are in the clues rather than in the entries.
As a senior Boomer with life-long visual orientation and failing eyesight, I've learned to adapt to solve these puzzles and other real life challenges. First big step was switching to a modern tablet so I could read the clues. Next step was learning how to use the tablet's font resizing and magnifying features.
Emojis are amBIGuous. Many words are too. I use a limited set of emojis rather sparingly, because I feel like I can express myself better with words. But when it comes to Xword puzzles, whatever makes the puzzles more puzzling is usually a good thing. I like it when there's a new twist.
What really puzzles me are the regulars here who grouse at whole categories of clues: rebuses, pop culture, classics, opera... you name it.
The ultimate value of these puzzles are not just their entertainment value, but the way they refresh our recollections and introduce us to the unfamiliar.
So keep the new twists coming.
28
@Mike R well said; I aspire to have your even attitude.
For my old eyes, some of the emojis were hard to make out. But that only slowed me down slightly. I breezed through this puzzle in 80% of my average time.
That would be my only complaint. The non-emoji clues should have been clued harder. This was like a big Monday puzzle and I am no great fan of Monday puzzles except to work on my speed. But the amusing and clever emoji usage (once I could make them all out) made up for the lack of a challenge.
5
Some of the movies were unknowns for me, and the little SE corner was the most challenging...but anything looks good compared to the Saturday puzzle (Fail) or the Saturday Stumper (of which I have solved one corner. Battleground littered with bodies.)
Fortunately for me, ALite printed out just [emoji descriptor]s, so I did not have to figure out the minuscule pix.
Oh, the Oscars....our chance of staying up for more than the intro is...oh, in the negative numbers, I'd say.
3
This was a great Sunday puzzle! I found it challenging, but not impossible. There were barely any words that I had never heard of. I loved the emoji clues, although I had to use a magnifying glass to see them on my cell phone.
2
I completed the puzzle without even looking at the emojis since they looked too small to decipher on my IPad. Fortunately the puzzle was so easy, I had no problem with the clues. I give this Sunday puzzle a D . You can do better.
3
Anyone who is interested in a linguistic perspective on the role that emoji fill should checkout this episode of the podcast Lingthusiasm:
https://soundcloud.com/lingthusiasm/34-emoji-are-gesture-because-internet
Or read one of the cohosts books: "Because Internet"
pmb
3
I really liked this puzzle, and finished in record time.
That said, I'm very sorry to hear of David Connell's frustrations, which would have driven me nuts if I had faced them.
I solved on my computer, with a very hi-rez monitor, intended for photo editing. After reading David's comments, I checked the puzzle on my Android (Pixel 2), and oddly enough, the emojis were much clearer and easier to read on my phone than they had been on the computer screen. But in both cases, all of the emojis were present and readable.
I am in no way a movie or pop culture maven, but I had no problem identifying any of the films from the emoji clues.
For me, a nice swerve and a fine, if quick, Sunday outing.
2
Fun but could have been more challenging - my Sunday PB is now faster than my Monday PB 😳! More of these sorts would be fine IMO if not too often, but you need to solve the problem many commenters had not being able to see the emojis. That’s no fun.
@Eric H
Not that this matters but will correct anyway. My Sunday PB is NOT faster than my Monday PB. My app appears to be showing me that in two places but not in a third place that I trust more. If emojis broke my app, I might have to rescind any positive comment I made about them 🤨.
Eric,
The correction matters to me; it stopped me from wondering if you were dyslexic!
I've been doing these puzzles for about a year and a half now, on the phone app, so I always start the night before at 10pm. This was an absolutely delightful puzzle! Fitting for a movie theme on the day of the Oscars, and I finished in record time. Thank you Brian!
8
Absolutely delightful!
3
Emojis were difficult to make out on my laptop although a few of them led me to the correct movie title. Mostly I solved this with crosses, then went back to look at the emojis to figure out what they were supposed to be, e.g. the Rock of Gibraltar turned out to be a gorilla/ape, Ms Pacman is really a girl aka Fay Wray, and the pair of ice skates became the Rosebud sled - but only after I knew the answer was Citizen Kane.
Still had fun with it. Maybe this will spur me to upgrade to a hi-res laptop.
2
@joyce rudman weeks I was coming here to write almost exactly this.
1
I loved 88D. Although I might have made the order, butterfly, boxing glove, bee. It is after all, "Float like a butterfly" then "Sting like a bee"
3
I hated it at first, because it's hard to make out what the emojis are pics of (I thought the boxing club looked like a glass of soda), but once I got the idea it was a lot of fun!
2
A lot of fun but hard on old eyes when solving on a iPhone. Thought I was going to have to use a magnifying glass but managed to sis’s out the emojis with the help of the crossing letters. Really was a good time though.
3
No one else (I think) has mentioned the same difficulty I had. Maybe I don't understand emojis but I first attempted to interpret them by sound, expecting each triplet to become a word or two. It was only when I got one of the movie titles by crossings that I went back to the emojis and saw what Mr. Kulman was doing.
Nonetheless, I think I solved them all by the crossings revealing the movie titles. So I appreciate it in retrospect.
1
Meg H.,
Now I think you do understand: an emoji is not a rebus. An emoji image is supposed to convey an idea; a rebus image is spoken to produce a letter or word.
@Barry Ancona
You're right; you've defined it exactly. Now we'll see if I actually remember it.
This delightfully fun puzzle reminded me of the game show of the 60s, “Concentration”, emceed by Hugh Downs. I really breezed through it. Thanks for the memories!
2
A quick correction to the commentary — the “emo” in “emoji” isn’t from “emotion”. The true etymology is “e” for “electronic” “moji”, Japanese for “character”. See for example https://www.etymonline.com/word/emoji
2
@John Scudder
There’s lots about this lower down but not sure you want to read it all... the e- in emoji means picture in Japanese.
Frances,
Thanks for correcting John and mentioning the much earlier corrections to Caitlin's column.
N.B. People who can only see the first three replies will miss David Connell's etymology post in the second thread in these comments.
This was a supremely, satisfying “SOLVE”. (All capital letters.) I nailed the theme early on and wound up with a new PB - even after having to fly-speck my mistaken REdOS at 52A.
At first, I was a little annoyed with the idea of emojis. (This IS an arena for “words” after all - and I rarely use them myself - and then, only a very few.) But, once LOTR tipped me off to the theme, it started to be FUN - - LOTS of fun - - deciphering the emojis.
I wasn’t familiar with TED - and not familiar enough with HER and BIG to make use of the clues - but falling back on letter patterns did the trick.
I feel sorry for the whiners who couldn’t persevere to get past theIr initial frustrations with emojis - or switch away from Across Lite just this once. They missed out on some FUN.
Kudos to the techies who managed to pull this one off!!
And to Mr. Kulman - both on his debut and on a supremely clever puzzle concept.
2
@PeterW
But - - - WAIT!!
I’m seeing comments suggesting a puzzle made up entirely of emoji clues!
That would be a fate worse than having one’s fingernails removed without benefit of anesthesia.
There are already more emojis floating around than any mature adult has need of and one needs a separate “dictionary” to understand some TXT’s.
If there is to be a puzzle made of all (or mostly) emojis - - let it be a NEW puzzle - far away from here - and with a new forum for discussions of same. Here, WORDS are the stock-in-trade.
AMEN!
5
Just the opposite for me. In the SW corner, as I was flying through looking for easy sections get a toe hold in, and after cursing the emojis, I got EGAD then ABET which gave me BIG and TED, then the “aha, they’re movies” moment. Then, cursing no more, it was a fast and fun ride the rest of the way. Except for Lorises that is. Stuck on gORIllas for way too long. Thank you SALAMI for getting me out of that jam.
Anyway, I agree with you; Please limit the emojis, they are generally not fun, at least for some of us who prefer words.
Mush, you huskies!
I loved Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. Where did they come up with these ideas?
3
Didn’t hear/see it myself but I recall my dad talking about it a lot.
1
The emojis were too small to see on my laptop, but I was able to magnify the screen and see them just fine. Interestingly, the print version used different emojis than the online version! I loved the puzzle. I look forward to the day when all text is replaced with emojis 😍
1
@Layla
Heavens FORFEND!!!
3
Given all the IOSs, platforms, versions, apps and other variables, it's inevitable that the emojis will render differently or error out on various devices. For TITANIC, emojis showed as ship-artist-ice cube on my online print version but ship-artist-scared crying face on my android phone.
I enjoyed the emoji solves, especially MARY POPPINS. ☂️
3
Thank you for such a fun-filled puzzle! I'm looking forward to seeing more of these in the future.
2
Movies aren't my strong point and there were several here that I've not heard of but I got them from the crossings. The emojis were hard to make out online too, so that was a little frustrating. But it was awfully fun all the same. I think this was a clever idea, and I'm surprised at how many of the movies I got from the emojis (7) and how obvious it seemed once I'd figured it out.
1
Eugene Maleska is rolling in his tomb. For us AcrossLite users, this puzzle is USELESS. Many more of these, and I'll cancel and stick with the LA Times. Where's the "disgusted" emoji when I need it.
2
@Joey Dee
I think we get your message without benefit of an emoji.
Enjoy the LA Times.
8
Nope.
3
This puzzle is so funny and so witty in so many places -- and yet I came within a hairsbreadth of not attempting it at all.
Look, I'm no more an EMOJI GAL than I am a GAL GADOT and when I saw those teensy tiny little figures that I needed a magnifying glass to make head or tail of, I thought: This is going to be really annoying, plus I'm not up to date on all that many movies, either.
But then I said: let me see how many non-EMOJI answers I can get and whether that will be enough to enable me to solve this. And, of course, I could readily get them all; the surrounding fill is very easy. Add to that the fact that these are really well-known and familiar movie titles, even to me, and it was all smooth sailing. After which came the reward: much appreciative laughter at the EMOJI jokes:
My absolute favorites: the big teardrop in A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN that represents "There's no crying in baseball!!!" The butterfly and bee in ALI, as in "Float like a butterfly; sting like a bee"; and the black humor of the ice cube for TITANIC. And where there wasn't outright laughter, there was always delight: the Statue of Liberty in PLANET OF THE APES; the piano keys in BIG.
Innovative, imaginative, clever and funny. I'm so glad I did this, Brian. It's a real hoot and immensely enjoyable to solve.
31
@Nancy
👍😸
Super fun puzzle. Solved on my laptop - even with zooming it, a couple of emojis were a little difficult to decipher. When to the phone app - they were crystal clear!
1
Congratulations on a fun puzzle!
1
Super cute! A few of the emojis didn't show up for me (all three of the PAN clues, in fact), but the crosses were easy, except for Sgt PRESTON. I guess I was born too late for that one. I've been saying for a while that writing will give way to picture symbols (Universal Design?) but I'll be gone by then, so I won't worry about that, in true OK Boomer fashion.
2
Loved this ! Great time of year for a movie puzzle with the Oscars approaching , TCM's 31 days of Oscar filling my need for some classic beauties and Greta Gerwig's masterpiece " Little Women " in theaters . THANK YOU from this baby boomer who can swing with the younger crew - delightful !
2
The puzzle was fine and fun for me. I solved it in well below my average time.
After seeing the emojis in the clues in the online version (Win10, Chrome), saw "A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN" peeking out through the crossings, read the title (I always forget to read it), things clicked.
The solve was fun but a little frustrating only because the emojis in the online version are so low-res that I couldn't make them out. I looked at the print version, and they were SO MUCH CLEARER.
The solving experience was a bit like doing the crossword while doing Pictionary. It's a multi-layer puzzling experience, and I'm all for that.
So, puzzle idea was great, especially given the rules the constructor used. I thought at first they were all Oscar winning movies, you know, for tonight. The limit of 3 emojis each that would tell you the movie - that was a pretty nifty idea.
The implementation could have been better. I had trouble with a number of emojis on my screen. Particularly the gorilla one.
I ended up using the crossings, limited movie knowledge, and guessed the movies and then guessed what most of the emojis were.
Liked the clues for CASED, REPOS, -ISH, UMPED, STAR TREK.
2
The title of the puzzle? Like most of the time, using the NYT app on an iPad, I don't see the title anywhere.
@Charles Hartman , on Sundays (only), if you click the little “i” at the top, it will give the title and also any instructions or comments.
Loved this puzzle, but SO glad that I solve in Across Lite. I'm pretty sure that emojis would have been largely indecipherable to me. And for once, my terrible memory actually added to my enjoyment, as for almost every theme answer I would have to put the implied images together and then ponder and ponder before the film finally came to mind. PAN and ELF were not known to me so those came from the crosses, but managed to get all the others on my own. I think the clue for ALI was my favorite.
And... this was not a successful solve in the end as I was completely stuck in one little area: the LORISES, EPIPEN, SUPERG section. Just couldn't work that out. But still had a great time with the solve.
A little personal note in a reply.
4
@Rich in Atlanta
I tried a SLALOM for the SUPERG....you can imagine how well that went...
I love the Slow Loris...
and I guard my $600-dollar EPIPENs with fierce attention. (Sheesh.)
2
"A little personal note in a reply."
Rich,
Standing by for the personal note...
@Barry Ancona Sorry. I typed it out and then changed my mind. In brief, it was partly inspired by the discussion of Boomers and other generations. My older brother was a war baby who was born when my father was in a German POW Camp (Stalag Luft I).
The other inspiration was 5a (HOGAN). I was always surprised that Hogan's Heroes was one of his very favorite TV series (and Stalag 17 a favorite film). There was a bit more but I'll leave it at that.
3
Although I do text, I really never use emojis when I communicate. At first, as other commenters have stated, I thought the little, barely discernible, pictures were rebuses, but quickly caught on. The puzzle was quite solvable without them, since the movie titles were far from obscure. Some very original clues including those for 52A, 74D, 70D, and 80D. A fun and very easily solvable puzzle on Oscar Sunday. Good job Brian!
1
cute as it seems, this puzzle is a bad idea. Many of us pay no attention to emojis, and it is frustrating at best for those of us with aging eyes.
8
Although I enjoyed the theme, I had a difficult time seeing the emojis clearly, even after zooming to 175%. Solve time was slightly longer than average.
3
Didn’t like this at all. I never use emojis, think they’re silly. Didn’t find this challenging either. I’ve never solved a Sunday puzzle in such a short time.
5
It is possible (I did it) to solve the puzzle without using any of the emojis.
3
I’m doing this on an iPad mini, which I cannot zoom on, in a dim room, and even with reading glasses (which I rarely need), I cannot read the emojis. I could figure out the theme and the answers using cross clues, but it was not a pleasure trying to do this puzzle.
1
First ⏱ getting a Sunday under 🕧 for me, and I use the📱to solve. Theme entries were generally easy to get quickly, but nevertheless kudos to the constructor as the theme 💡 is a good one. Looking ⏩ to more emoji clues.
8
I think I was born before they had gens ,(1937)
Although not my cup of tea ☕️ I really think it’s fun to try different things occasionally .
9
Close to my fastest ever Sunday. Cute puzzle but I could not see the emojis on my phone without removing my 👓. I solved most of those without looking at the emojis, just filling in the blank squares after getting a good number of the crosses (realizing they were movie titles).
1
...and a personal best in time, too. No wonder I liked it so!
2
Well that was fun! An arched eyebrow to NAMER for being a bit too contrived for my taste, but otherwise, a very clever puzzle.
3
"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." I loved the emojis for ALI.
2
As one of the Oldz, I actually thought the emoji clues were fun and clever. I can't remember which clue was the "aha!" moment, but once I figured out they were movie titles, all of the emoji clues were fairly easy to solve. (There's an errant clue or two I'm still trying to suss out, but I thoroughly enjoyed today's emoji clues.)
2
197 comments by 7:30AM (EST). YOWZA!! :-)
I didn't think this puzzle was 💩, in fact I ⛵️ed through, since the clueing was kind and the 📽s were all familiar.
I 👍when boundaries are pushed, but I realize that folks will most likely say 🚫,🚫,🚫 to these types in the future. Congrats on a great (and maybe controversial - I haven't 👓 the comments yet) debut, Brian!!
15
My laptop is old, so some of the emojis didn't show up...which was frustrating. I was able to solve the puzzle quickly using cross-clues, but I didn't love it. At the very least, there should have been a warning when I opened the puzzle, letting me know what I was going to see.
My husband - who doesn't use a cell phone much - is going to have a heart attack when he sits down to do this puzzle, lol.
2
Just thought of a great challenge, I think emoji are pretty inexpressive of any complex thought, so try to come up with three emoji for other movies:
Last Year at Marienbad
Woman in the Dunes
My Dinner with Andre
Tokyo Story (really any Ozu film)
Makioka Sisters would just be 🌸🌸🌸
1
@Frances
ah, My Dinner with Andre is pretty easy: 🍽👴😴
3
@pi
That could be Diner. My point is it’s hard to be specific.
I cannot do this puzzle. The emojies are nearly invisible. I have enough trouble seeing them on my smart phone. Please, please, please don't do this again.
12
Fun puzzle! Got a bit of a FLAKY start. With emojis in mind, I had A LEAGUE OF THE FROWN (! ) at first which threw me off a bit. That corrected, I sailed home!
I did the puzzle in well under my usual time without looking at the emojis at all. What I could have done without was Nigel F-.
3
Please, No more emojis. I am a adult. These made no sense to me. These are crossword puzzles.
11
Joie,
Most solvers here are adult (if not also adults).
Emojis seem to "make sense" to most of the adult(s) here; whether they like them, could read them here, or like to see them in a puzzle, are other matters.
This *is* a crossword puzzle. Look at the grid; all of the crossing things are words.
9
ATTENTION @EKA FROM SPELLING BEE:
You are not seeing more than 3 Replies because you are opening the Wordplay column and comments in the NYT app, which is a problem with the app.
To see more than 3 Replies, including the full Spelling Bee grid
and first two-letters list, as well as replies to your comments, you need to open the Wordplay column and comments through your internet browser, not through the NYT app. There are many ways to do this, including by going to the following site and then clicking on “Read About Today’s Puzzle On Wordplay”:
https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords
(Hope you see this).
3
@Puzzlemucker Many thanks! I’ll try!
2
I don’t speak emoji. I don’t need to. I am literate. Go make an emoji puzzle on some other page and let people who like words have the crossword.
12
@Portia
Ok 💣
13
Congrats Mr. Kulman on your debut puzzle and on generating so many comments. I had trouble seeing the emojis clearly enough for them to be of any use in solving, but t was still completed the puzzle in my average Sunday time.
3
Fun!
I was going to just fill in a few on Saturday night and save the rest for Sunday but then got hooked in.
I couldn't decipher two or so of the emojis, but this was not a deterrent. The clue for "Citizen Kane" was the aha moment. (That memorable sled!) Although I first arrived at "Her" through the crosses so the clue was after-the-fact, but the light began to dawn.
I've learned that glancing at the info page early on when beginning a puzzle has saved some headaches. The warning about the emojis helped set my expectations. (Using the app version.)
Personally, even with the glitches, I thought it was a nice change and a delightful solve.
1
Why use a thousand words when a single one will suffice: meh.
3
Couldn't make out some of the emojis. I solved the puzzle once I figured out the theme was movie titles. But honestly, even when I could make out the emojis, I didn't get it.
4
"Rendezvous" is a misspelling and not used as a verb in French, although I know that someone will come back with a M-W link that says otherwise. To use the misspelled and distorted version in English would be beyond pretentious. [insert cringe emoji]
2
@Tammy
Bonjour Tammy! From your location indicator above, you appear to be living in France. Where you can go to la Pharmacie du Drugstore des Champs-Élysées (a real place) and buy some shampooing for your hair. That's clearly English there in the French language, but the former is a bit redundant, and the other is a gerund serving as a noun with three unnecessary letters. But it's all good if you're speaking French, not English.
After you wash your hair, you can go to the BISTROT, and get a nice, juicy STEACK. Two words, one of which we borrowed from French with a misspelling (as "bistro") and the other just the opposite.
The point is, words are altered when borrowed from another language. There's nothing wrong with RENDEZVOUS as an verb in ENGLISH, and this is an ENGLISH crossword.
You've entered the steack trap, which is the French version of the tamale trap. That's when you have a boeuf with something that's incorrect in another language--but correct in English.
8
@Steve L
Point taken about the distortion of words borrowed from a foreign language.
But just because you can doesn't mean you should.
I don't agree with appropriating foreign words and phrases and then mutilating them in any language.
So the correct answer to "Shall we rendezvous in front of the Louvre?" would be "Non, merci."
3
Tammy, how is it a misspelling of French? Because "rendez-vous" lost its hyphen? Many words' coming from one language to another change spellings and/or pronounciations.
SPELLING BEE
I have clues for all the words I've found, but am at 25 words 92 points 1 pangram. I need about 6 more points. Anyone find any tricky, obscure, or slangy words?
20
@Kevin Davis I’m exactly where you are. I think we are looking for a 5 , 6, or 7 letter word
1
@Kevin I have 25 words at 97 points so the missing word(s) are likely between us.
4
@Kevin Davis I'll post my obscure word hints & someone can tell me what I'm missing.
Restless sleep
Stone to make a spark
Engage in casual sexual banter
Move swiftly & lightly
Clump of soft fibers
Decorative edging
Productive or fertile
Carry out an obligation
Roll up, esp. flags
Outstanding example, slang
Small stream
Unproductive, pangram
Opposite of roll up
Dark candle or cold stove
12
A nice change, Brian, and I appreciate all the work you put into making it relatively easy. Glad to see most people enjoyed it.
4
Had a lot of fun with this - eventually. I solve on my iPad and at least one out of three emoji were indecipherable. Couldn’t enlarge them, so I kept going till I figured it out. First had LORDOFTHEMANOR, just because. But CITIZENKANE (the sled) and PLANETOFTHEAPES got me on track. Very clever clues for STARTREK and UMPED. Ditto Outbacks taken back. Lots of smiles. Thanks for a fun time. Oh, and I recognized Sergeant PRESTON but guess I never ran into LORISES or RENNET.
2
Fastest Sunday puzzle solve I've ever done...the emoji movies were super easy for me and tons of fun! :)
5
Clever, refreshing, and fun - and the movie theme is perfectly timed for Oscar night:
5
Being crazy nearsighted worked for me with the emoji’s (don’t tell anyone but I do the crossword puzzle with my phone mere inches from my face). They were crystal clear on my phone.
I really liked that they were descriptive of the films, not literal titles. When I’d get a title via crosses, the lightbulb would go off on the emojis.
6
I know the plural "s" is legit but to me Elks is a fraternal organization and numerous antlered animals are elk
5
@coloradoz
It's the "two rainbows are trout but a rainbow and a brook are trouts" rule. Both wapiti and elk would normally be used as plurals, except when you're talking about different kinds. The many kinds, including Rocky Mountain elk, Eastern elk, Manitoban elk, Altai elk, etc., etc., are elks or wapitis. A herd of one kind are elk or wapiti.
9
@Martin
Thank you. Did not know that distinction
1
This seems very much like a love it or hate it puzzle, I'm squarely in the former category! The puzzle kept me grinning pretty much throughout.
Really enjoyed the constructor's notes. Love that the inspiration came from a bonding moment between father and son 😊
8
I started solving on my tablet and switched to my desktop but still the emojis were too small to see clearly. Fortunately enough of them were decipherable so that the crossword was easily solved. I'm not sure my eyes could take an entire crossword of them. Today was easy but fun.
4
Took me an hour and a half almost, even though there were no really hard parts. I like easy ones, as long as there are a few places that require thinking. Not that I didn't need research. Research told me SUPERG was wrong, but it was forced. Right after I filled in NORI I thought maybe they want kelp, and then when I wanted to see if that would help, I couldn't remember kelp, a bit of a worry but no harm done. And I confess I haven't figured out any of the emoji yet. Maybe in the morning.
@kilaueabart Can’t see what’s wrong with Super-G. It’s a form of slalom skiing and “gate” means the same as in the other versions.
1
@Peter Biddlecombe
I just meant that when I tried to web-search (DuckDuckGo) "super g" nothing called that turned up. There was only a variety of things starting "super g..." including "super gate." Weird because I just tried again, and the slalom thing is all over the place.
Emojis are completely illegible on iPad - puzzle not too hard so was able to get some on crosses despite having zero idea of what the clues were. Two thumbs down on technical grounds
3
I had two emoji Naticks 😥😥😥
2
As soon as I opened this puzzle in my NY Times crossword app on my iPad, I saw that the icons are too small to be legible, even when I activate “zoom in.” Maybe I need a magnifying glass as well. Hopefully @Caitlin’s hints and the comments will help.
3
@Kevin Davis I took @As suggestion and adjusted the clue size to largest. That, zooming in, and magnifying glass still leaves some icons indecipherable. I’ve gotten most of them due to familiarity with movie titles and crosses. The bottom of the puzzle still has lots of holes, but I know I can finish
I don’t recommend using multiple icons in clues ever again.
@Kevin Davis I just finished 4 minutes slower than average. This column and comments here helped. I had to change our to ONE when I was done.
1
Fast and fun.
1
@Caitlin, the clues were not rebuses. As the following definition, as well as the definition you linked to, state, the pictures in a rebus should be pronounced to suggest the words. These are just little pictures which are hints to a movie movie. If they were a rebus, you would *pronounce* those words to get the title of the movie.
"A puzzle in which words are represented by combinations of pictures and individual letters; for instance, apex might be represented by a picture of an ape followed by a letter X."
1
I'm sort of surprised about the comments that the emojis were too small to see. They were too small for me too, but changing the level of "zoom" on my laptop made them big enough to easily see them.
2
The crystal ball is a SPECIFIC reference to Big, not just magic in general - the fortune telling wish-granting arcade game (Zoltan?) has one. Loved this theme!
3
I SOLVED THE PUZZLE WITHOUT DECIPHERING THE EMOJIS which were too small to decipher on my computer . Overall reaction? ANNOYING!!!
17
Thanks. Creative puzzle - the emojis were difficult to view online in the app.
3
Different, in a good way. It was fun! Very creative.
3
I'd love to launch into a diatribe regarding how difficult it is to say what we mean, and how revisiting pictograms as language doesn't really help at all.
But the puzzle was surely fun, and highlights the problem.
How do you make a noun pictogram into an adjective, or adverb? How, to indicate time, or 'tense'?
I have completed my noise, am awaiting any reply,
and might reply further.
Yo! Tenses, for the win. Ooh, and pronouns.
How does emoji world handle that?
Is it a language, or just ever-changing graffitti?
4
jnathanj,
If you don't know the past and don't care about the future, you don't need tenses. If it's all about you, you don't need pronouns. Sounds fine for some folks....
@jnathanj Reminds me of the time and effort the nuclear scientists & linguists put into pictorial warnings about nuclear waste dumps. In case of Armageddon.
1
For the emoji phobes: it coulda been worse: what if the *answers* somehow had to involve emojis? (Briefly tried to find the wapiti emoji,
🦌 , might be a deer though)
4
Saw the emojis, (many too small to make out), with Windows 10/Firefox. Once LORDOFTHERINGS showed that it wasn't a rebus exercise, the grid filled easily.
Nice theme for Oscar weekend.
My reaction to the "Keep Trying" message probably says something about my feelings for this puzzle. After a quick scan for obvious typos I hit Reveal with no sense of regret or loss.
Turns out that it was GAzED/GAPED that did me in.
2
I am amused that the answer for 32D had another word for “rear” in the middle. 😂
3
I admire the inventiveness of this puzzle theme. Certainly a new twist!
I wish, however, there had been a note to alert solvers to possible technical issues and solutions. Solving on a laptop, the emojis displayed fine for me but way too small for me to be able to identify. I solved the entire puzzle by skipping every emoji clue and filing in the answers once I had enough crosses. I'm sure the constructor would be sad to hear that after all his work putting the clues together.
Based on a comment below, I discovered that by using the zoom feature of my browser I could enlarge the clues *including the emojis* (and not the puzzle itself). Hurray! So I enjoyed the cleverness of the clues but only after the puzzle was completed. It never occurred to me that it was possible to enlarge the clues because I have never had need to do it before. Again, a note with a suggestions along this line would have been very helpful.
So kudos to the constructor along with a gentle suggestion to the tech crew for future experimental works. :-)
5
Do you get a note when you click the “i” at the top (between the life preserver and the gear)? I find that most days, this just provides a title page of sorts and a link to WordPlay. But on Sundays, there’s a title and sometimes a little hint. Today’s was a note about the potential for a technical error.
2
@Jenna G.
I don't have an "i" anywhere on my screen, nor anything that looks like a life preserver. I solve on the NYT web page in the browser on my laptop. Normally when there are notes about the puzzle, they appear in a grey box just above the puzzle. There's nothing today.
And anyway, I needed more than a vague note about possible technical difficulties. I would have liked a specific suggestion to enlarge the clues. I know, it should have occurred to me on my own that it was possible, but since I've never needed to before, it didn't.
This theme was awesome! Not to brag, but I was able to get them all right away without having any crosses filled in. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Guess I can list “emoji” as an additional language on my résumé now. 😂
The rest of the puzzle was also quite enjoyable. This was a much needed “win” for me! Thanks! 😊
15
This is certainly the cutest puzzle I've seen yet! The notes on its construction elevated it beyond 'just' cute for me. Having solved most of the movie titles from the crosses, it was fun to go back and appreciate the emoji selections too. Thanks for an entertaining diversion on a sunny Sunday, Mr Kulman; I hope early retirement gives you time to create many more puzzles.
22
I’m still solving but I popped into say how much I ❤️this 🧩 !The 9th is my birthday and I’m planning something relating to the theme so I may not get time to say that tomorrow (Sunday).
18
@Pani Korunova happy birthday!!! It’s mine too! Already half gone here in Oz.
4
Happy birthday to you!I hope it’s good from start to finish!
Speaking of, I just finished the puzzle in record time for me on a Sunday. The theme was perfect 👌🏾, and the emojis were so much fun. More, please!
96A: AGEING as an unavoidable process was a timely reminder today. 🎂 🗓 🤦🏾♀️➡️👵🏾
7
@Pani Korunova @Bml
Mine too. Happy bday to you both!!
1
The clip from Dracula reminded me of the line
"I never drink... wine... "
:)
5
Wow there are a lot of early commenters today.... I’m excited to see the emojis, what fun! but (like others) I’m having trouble seeing them on my phone.... so solving is postponed until I can get to a larger screen.
2
I’ve been travelling for ages so any hope of a streak or even enough time to sit and solve anything from Wednesday onwards in one go has eluded me. Sat down today, at home, to dedicate my usual 1 1/2 hours to the Sunday puzzle. Finished in about half that time (it will never happen again). Not great at emojis but I know movies. Enjoyed my fairly easy reentry to daily puzzling. Oh and it’s my birthday too.
10
@Bml happy birthday! I hope your corner of Australia is as lovely today as Adelaide is. 🎂🎉
3
@Barbara sunny QLD beautiful one day. Gorgeous the next. Especially after some good rain out here in the west. Thanks
2
❤️ it, one for the 📚!
27
Wheaton IL in the house!! We made the puzzle 😊🤓😉
29
This one was super easy, but so fun! Loved the emoji hints.
5
I'm afraid this comment is going to put me in with the haters; I'd hate that.
The combination of my aged eyes, my super-thick glasses and the display made the emojis appear as undefined splotches of color. So I solved the puzzle with the emojis eventually signifying "insert movie title here". Still the puzzle was easily completed, not far from my best time ever.
I don't need any more reminders of my physical condition so I can't say the puzzle counts as a favorite, but I liked the idea.
4
Barry,
Your comment isn't hateful, but it is a bit puzzling (as it were). If you can read the clues just fine in whatever format you solve in, I doubt the age of your eyes or the thickness of your glasses was the problem here. Lots of (presumably) younger and better sighted folk were having trouble seeing the emojis. I'd say it was the display and/or the currency of your software.
2
@Barry I had to enlarge the emoji clues on the computer, after which they came into focus.
1
@Mike I kept trying that but it didnt work on my phone this time. Tho I'm sure I was able to pinch the puzzle larger (responsive) in the past. Weird.
2
I came into this unversed in hieroglyphics and finished no more enlightened. (Thanks, David G, for pulling the curtain back a bit.) Nevertheless, the puzzle brought to mind Barbara Strachey, the British author and niece of Lytton Strachey. Along with more serious work she published "Travels of Frodo", an atlas of Middle Earth.
Ms. Strachey was a whiz at crosswords in The Times, where every day is (for me, anyway) at least as hard as NYT Saturdays. She reportedly dashed them off in well under ten minutes. Once, she accomplished the feat of solving a puzzle presented in hieroglyphics. Not an Egyptologist, she had only the aid of the family library, which was well supplied with dictionaries--including a dictionary of hieroglyphics.
6
@Speede
Glad to help 👍
I thought I would hate it. Kind of liked it. After some initial consternation about not being able to make out the emojis because so small, I realized I barely needed them to solve the themers. If needed at all, just a gist did the trick (“oh, that’s an ape” for POTA, etc.). Puzzle turned out to be as easy as lemon meringue pie.
May not read comments. Puzzle is bound to be a punching bag.
6
@Puzzlemucker I determined the same thing. Though I couldnt see the emojis the movie titles were easy to figure out from the crosses.
1
@Puzzlemucker I did at first wonder if 1A would be FAYE but the downturned KAT set me straight
1
@Barbara
Well, I ended up reading the comments. Glad that you enjoyed this one so much! It has generated many more positive comments than negative so far. I am an emojiphobe but I lightened up enough to let myself sort of enjoy the solve.
1
Very glad I use AcrossLite.
As usual when I see one of those notepad thingies that tell me that there's stuff AL won't show and I should solve in another format, I just check out the other format(s) to check what is being said and then go back to AL.
So I looked at the print and the app and whatever else was available. Went back to AL, looked at some stuff. and tried to relate the things in the brackets to the emojis. It didn't take too long, especially since I quickly figured out that the entries were the names of movies.
So, for example, looking at 16A, the blurry blue thing was supposed to be [city at night] and the flick was "ELF." No more real problems after that. And I could just proceed with AcrossLite and not worry about the emojis. Yes, after I read each clue with its bracketed translations, I would go over to one of the other formats to see what was done with it, with what kind of blurry result, but it was a pretty backwards approach from what I believe was intended.
(to be continued)
3
@Deadline
C-i-C part 2:
I won't go into a crossWORD vs. other-kinda-puzzle debate. I've said many times before that I am not a visual person, for instance one who never "gets" grid art. OTOH, I enjoy rebuses (however defined). But my solving experience was that I was fine with the bracketed descriptions of the un-figure-outable emojis.
I was also glad that most of the movies were things that I knew well enough to figure out, even though there were several I'd never seen.
Is it generational? Dunno. Don't much care. Finished anyway.
7
This was a hoot! The emojis were super easy to see. And I’m a 55 year old boomer using my iPhone 11. This one was much faster than a regular Sunday for me since the emojis were so easy to guess.
10
@Stacy K.
Agreed. It was a hoot. But, hey, 55-year old, wait until you're 81. It may not be so easy to see. Nevertheless, cross clues were helpful, and I finished pretty quickly. And I do know about emojis.
3
@Sue Koehler Aren't you supposed to say "OK, boomer." ?
4
Stacy,
If you turn 56 yet this year, you just squeak in as a baby baby boomer. Or are you Gen X but Boomer at heart?
3
As I always do, I printed up the across lite version on Xword Info and worked it with pen, so instead of emojis I got actual words; eg. (gorilla) (woman) (building) for 1A/115A. Needless to say, this made it waaay easier, something I realized when I got here. It moved it from the usual Thursdayish difficulty to about a Tuesday. So I was able to go through it and fill in the theme answers without any crosses, and almost quit at that point. Is there an emoji for sheepish guilt?
2
What are emoji? And why not a normal puzzle? One more like this and I cancel my subscription.
1
Emoji are little pictures which appeared originally on cell phones in Japan..but now are in use pretty much everywhere including facebook and IPhones. and other places.
Typically an emoji can be a smile or a frown...But they are also shoes and champagne glasses and animals and so many others.
They are a way to expand a conversation without using words.
A person might post a Heart + Champagne Glass + and Birthday Cake to announce that they are drunk and having a good time at a birthday.
4
@Ron kubiak one purpose of emojis is to express body language. For example, there's a big difference between Thanks😄 and Thanks🙄. I see it as a realization that written words can be ambiguous in meaning. As for being in a crossword puzzle, it actually enables rebi and more.
11
I thought this was a fun and refreshing twist. Congrats Brian!
ALI was my favorite.
But I hope they don’t do this too often. It seems like it would get old quickly.
1
@TxMary
So you liked ALI ET ALII?
1
for anyone using the iphone app, the settings has a “clue size” option. it turns out i had mine set to “small”. changing it to “larger” made the emojis easier to see.
27
also, outside of the app (should have posted this first!) — most phones and computers have a “zoom” option in their accessibility features nowadays, that you can use in any app. macs 100% do, but most others should as well. on my iphone and it’s under Settings —> Accessibility —> Zoom, and it allows me to access a zoom option by double-tapping with 3 fingers.
3
@a. OMG!! I love u I love u! I couldn't figure out why an orchid website wasn't responsive on my phone. Turns out it was me all along! Well, my phone settings...
At any rate Thanks!
1
@K Barrett you’re so very welcome! i worked tech support once upon a time long ago and it makes me happy to know i can help people more easily use these darn devices that rule our lives now :-)
Really enjoyed it. Probably because I slashed my Sunday best. Favorite clue was ‘Looked over slides at home, say’. As for the emojis... had to go find my glasses - but once I had SPEED, they all fell pretty quickly.
1
Emoji derived from emotions? No way! That is true of the emoticon, but the Japanese word has an entirely different derivation. It means picture character and has nothing to do with the way we feel. I was expecting Fact Boy to weigh in on this one.
Emoticon GiFs can't be posted here, because they are images, not characters.
4
Kiki,
David Connell mentioned it hours ago in one of the first threads in the comments (in a reply to himself).
I was 😁 & 💃🏻 all the way to the end of this 🧩. Fun ☑️.
For all the complainers 🤷🏻♀️. This boomer 💕 it!
52
@CaryB
Whatever it was you said, I'm sure it was nice.
9
@Deadline
🤦♀️
(And #gthc 🏀)
@Deadline I completely 🦃🍔🌴😃⛺️🔦🧿 with you. It was 💊🧻🛡🧲🧨!
2
Loved the puzzle, except where HOGAN crossed HARPO and NATCHEZ.. that was an ugly set of hard to guess words. Similarly LORISES crossing ALDEN. Overall fun, but didn't find those crosses very fair!
Just not as fast and swift as I was "back in the day." Solve as good as I can, but, the images are really small. Checked the notes to see what the emojis were trying to tell us. It almost seemed like 🔩 U though I’m sure it isn’t. 😇
2
I had expected MOE rather than the more controversial APU.
VERY glad I was working from hard copy. My old MacBook was not up to displaying all the emojis.
@RAH
The clue is correct as written, but Hank Azaria has stated that he will no longer voice APU.
6
This was very cute, and since I’m an oldie, but a kid at heart, I enjoyed it a lot. My favorites were CITIZEN KANE, MARY POPPINS, and PLANET OF THE APES. The tech advances, from getting our first TV borrowed from my grandparents, to getting my first computer, to my first smartphone, learning to code, etc., it all makes me laugh and say wow! I use emojis with my family and friends, and some of them have even become a code among us. My fastest solve for a Sunday, but then, more time to do more puzzles! 👏🤪👍
11
What an absolutely wonderful puzzle. I love it when the NYT brings modern clues and answers in their puzzles. This also happened to be my fastest Sunday solve, likely because i got a majority of the movies in the theme right off the bat. Bravo!
27
Oh my gosh, all the bellyaching. We have puns, we have misdirections, we have fill-in-the-blanks, wordplay of all kinds intended to mislead and confuse the solver. It’s a puzzle, people: put those thinking 🧢 s on. A few pictorial representations won’t kill you.
And for what it’s worth, pretty much every one of the emoji groups were GIMME-level movies. PROTIP: think about the emojis as words instead of pictures. They’re not some unique language. Just pictures. “Newspaper-money bag-sled” is obviously CITIZEN KANE. “Ring-Elf-Volcano” LORD OF THE RINGS. &c.
54
@David G - I'm looking at your post, and right after "thinking" there is a square with a question mark in it. I'm sure it was meant to be a picture of a cap. But I don't see a picture of a cap, I see a square with a question mark in it. Just like I saw an engagement ring followed by two squares with question marks in them followed by a volcano.
A few pictorial representations would be nice. A bunch of question marks doesn't make for a pleasant puzzle!
1
@David G
Which is why it was solvable in AcrossLite, when it was impossible while trying to read the blurry little pix.
2
@David Connell
Yeah, that would make for a very un-fun puzzle. I am sorry you had to deal with that.
(And yes, it was a cap.)
2
Print version, if you haven't already looked...
https://www.nytimes.com/svc/crosswords/v2/puzzle/print/Feb0920.pdf
9
Cute idea but many of the emojis online were just too small to see clearly. Anyway, I was able to solve it without being able to discern the tiny images using crosses once I realized they answers were movie titles. IMO execution fell a bit short.
2
Unexpected, but still fun -- and fast. (A new Sunday best for me, in half my average time). Part of the enjoyment of a Sunday puzzle is giving yourself over to whatever ride the constructor has in store for you, so I'd count this one as a pleasant surprise.
10
Lots of fun to do, but it helped a lot that the crossings were very easy, as the emojis were often too small to see. It was easy enough to enlarge the screen on my Mac, but annoying to have to do so. And some of them--the square ones especially--were still hard to see. I don't think I 'get' the one for KING KONG--a blond man, the symbol for woman, and a square building?
4
Liz B,
I've got a gorilla there...
2
@Liz B What happened there is that your Mac didn't display the emoji correctly because you're running older versions of some software. Newer versions of the emoji standard know to display "man + symbol for woman together" as one emoji, "woman" (or "elf + symbol for woman" as "female elf", for 23A). Similarly, the gorilla emoji was added in 2016, so your computer wouldn't be able to display it if you're running software from prior to then.
What you should have seen was gorilla + woman + skyscraper (or square building).
2
PB for me on this one, and I thought it unique and fun. I do agree with some of the others that this should probably be a once-in-a-very-long-while type puzzle, but it was a nice break after the last two days.
No problem solving on the computer, but looking at it on the iPhone I could see where it would be difficult to decipher the emoji clues. On the iPad, it doesn't work well in dark mode, but the emojis were a little bigger than elsewhere. I could have printed out the puzzle to see the emojis better, but really didn't need to.
The crossings alone were enough to be able to start seeing the movie names and they were well known enough that even I, a non-movie goer, could recognize all of them.
Solved on web using Mac and Chrome browser. About half of the emojis didn't show up. There were empty boxes instead. Could figure out what the movie titles were nonetheless, but thought you should know.
@Jamie
iMac/MacOS 10.15.3 (latest version); tried Safari, Chrome, Opera and Firefox; no problems seeing any of the emojis on any browser.
Quite enjoyable, not overly difficult.
I briefly considered Joe Versus the Volcano, too, Caitlin. Thanks for all the movie clips.
The emojis looked really good on the Android app in Dark Mode.
To all the youngsters out there, don't assume that all the boomers are automatically going to hate the emojis. I didn't.
6
Pretty zippy weekend overall
2
Fun puzzle with some world class clues ("Looks over slides at home, say" and "Reaction shot?", for example). Emojis were fun as well. I gave my 16 year old a first shot, and he got several. Not Citizen Kane, however. I think I don't want emojis on a regular basis, but a couple times a year, maybe. I see the NUT crossword as a somewhat sacred space for word play.
2
NUT > NYT
EmojiEmojiEmojiEmoji!!!
1
i really enjoyed the use of emojis and found this solve went quite smoothly. age differences aside — i’m a gen-Xer — i think this may be because i’m much more of a visual than verbal thinker (which put crosswords outside of my wheelhouse for a long time). so i can’t wait for an all-emoji clued puzzle — bring it on! 🎉
4
Loved it. I’m a millennial though. 🤷🏻♀️
11
This Boomer loved it too...👍👩🦳😄
21
Accurate today but historically awkward calling the company that owned the Lusitania a "Cruise line."
(Deb will need to chime in to reiterate that her Times time on a Cunard Line ship was a crossing, not a cruise.)
7
@Barry Ancona Yes my beef too: as someone who crossed the Atlantic six times in the 50s on Cunarders, that clue annoyed me. The rest of the puzzle was fine and, although like some of the other oldies the emojis were difficult to see, I got most of the movie titles from the crosses. Straightforward and no naticks.
1
I actually like emojis and with the help of a strong magnifying glass I was able to make out most of them. Yes, they were a bit too small for my eyes. That being said, there was some great cluing in the puzzle such as Looked over slides at home (my favorite), Quick comeback, and Looked over before knocking over. Good show!! No real hang ups. Good way to finish the crossword week.
4
Hated it. I was able to finish it without using any of the emojis by figuring it out from the crosses. Hope this is the last time a puzzle is based on this idea.
4
Great entertaining puzzle. Wanted to express my thoughts via emojis, but not sure comments would accept. 👍👍👍
6
Super fast solve today! I could see all the clues just fine, understood all the clues just fine, and just had a very fine time racing through it. Made me feel a tiny bit smarter than usual. I appreciate the variety.
Cheers, fellow solvers-of-a-certain-age,
;-) <-- That there is an emoticon, an ancestor of emoji
31
I think we'll get well over 300 comments on this one.
Doing it in the paper, I was actually able to see the emojis, and even though I don't use them, I figured most of them out. In any case, the themers were easy enough to get from a cross or two even if I hadn't known what the emojis meant.
To those who have complained (and will complain for days) that this is supposed to be a crossWORD, look again: those things crossing *are* words. Get a clue!
Clever and colorful construction, very easy puzzle.
15
Yeah, ignore the haters...I cant say that it was my favorite puzzle..but i thought it was creative and worthy of a NYT Sunday.
I didnt really use the emojis...since you could pretty much guess where it was going and work backwards to get the emojis....But lots of puzzles are like that....And trying to keep it interesting shouldnt be a crime.
7
Refreshing and fun to have pictures as clues; it throws the brain into a place bypassing letters and words -- a "con-text" zone, if you will.
It's easier to remember faces than names, and, in the same way, I found it easier to remember answers using pictures rather than words. Oh, it was great fun, and thank you for that, Brian, and for coming up with such a cool idea. And for working so consciensciously and long on this.
But Will, I am a word/wordplay guy -- it's why I do and love crosswords, so please, pretty please, space these picture shows, however lively and amusing, as today's was, far apart!
15
@Lewis - very equably stated, Lewis. You always shine.
I would urge: 1 Astronomical Unit apart...but then, I'm not so equable!
2
I would like to replace "picture shows" in my last sentence with "picture puzzles", as the former sounds pejorative, and I didn't mean it that way!
@Lewis - I merely took it as a reference to the films in the theme!
1
In the beginning I hated it too. I'm old and not into emojis or anything else current. I love words, not tiny moronic cartoons. But by the time I finished I had picked up on the gimmick and sort of enjoyed it.
Apart from the emoji obstacles, the puzzle is way too easy; like others I finished much sooner than I should have. But that probably had a lot to do with being anger-free by the end; a really challenging puzzle with emojis might have been too much.
5
I recognize this was a clever theme. Kudos for originality. That said, the theme portion of today's puzzle was a non-starter for me.
I found the theme to be an obstruction to solving, and an annoyance. Each of those clues could have simply been "[movie]" for all the good they did me, since I solved every one of them from the crosses. In many cases, I couldn't tell what the little pictures were trying to depict.
I get it that there is a standard "language" of emojis among the texting crowd, so these may have been more familiar and readable to other solvers. Being a non-texter, I do not emoji (at the risk of verbing a noun). Emoji language is totally foreign to me. You could have clued the movies in Urdu and I wouldn't have been any less informed.
Luckily, the crosses were kind, so I was able to complete the puzzle in reasonble time. For that reason, I was okay with the overall puzzle.
Now you young 'uns keep off my lawn, y'hear?
17
@Alan J
Sorry for the dupe. I only submitted once. The system duped it. Ignore second copy.
I recognize this was a clever theme. Kudos for originality. That said, the theme portion of today's puzzle was a non-starter for me.
I found the theme to be an obstruction to solving, and an annoyance. Each of those clues could have simply been "[movie]" for all the good they did me, since I solved every one of them from the crosses. In many cases, I couldn't tell what the little pictures were trying to depict.
I get it that there is a standard "language" of emojis among the texting crowd, so these may have been more familiar and readable to other solvers. Being a non-texter, I do not emoji (at the risk of verbing a noun). Emoji language is totally foreign to me. You could have clued the movies in Urdu and I wouldn't have been any less informed.
Luckily, the crosses were kind, so I was able to complete the puzzle in reasonble time. For that reason, I was okay with the overall puzzle.
Now you young 'uns keep off my lawn, y'hear?
9
Cute but easy...if I'd known, I would'a (could'a, should'a) typed 2 seconds faster to get a new PR.
1
Congratulations, Mr Kulman--I'm a movie buff and I loved your puzzle. The emojis made me think in different ways to solve.
I will say that it was difficult to read the tiny emojis: hoping that can be addressed by NYT
M
4
Ignore the haters. This was a great puzzle. The emojis are a fun change-up!
74
I love the Emotion Picture Industry.
(But if you don't like who wins, you're Oscars the Grouch.)
18
This is supposed to be a crossWORD. You know, with words. The app I use doesn't do emojis, and I don't that they would have done me much good in any case, since I barely use them.
As it turned out I solved the whole thing, fairly fast, without the emojis. But please don't do this again for the main crossWORD.
9
@Kathy Sorry... but the answers were all “words” that “crossed” each other. 🤷🏻♂️
There have been plenty of other puzzles where the clues have been numerical symbols or dashes or other means of conveying the answer. Just saying...
15
This is the reverse “hello, kids”! This was fun. 🤓
8
I don't get emojis very well, and I don't know a lot about movies, but the crossings were mostly easy to get and the movies well known, so I finished much faster than usual, with only a little trouble in the SW corner.
6
I Paid for a crossword puzzle. I have no interest in this. Bad
decision on your part.
5
@rnrnry
I paid for a crossword puzzle, too. I got a crossword puzzle, as all the words did, in fact, cross. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy yours
11
This was fun. Everything worked fine on the Android app and the puzzle went smoothly. Well under my average.
11
I've never, ever commented before solving, then reading the blog, until today.
If the online, official, paid-for subscription cannot show all of the information needed to solve the puzzle - it is a FAIL.
It is a total, unqualified FAIL.
I don't know if there is an emoji for it. But if there is,
insert it here....
Or else, insert this finger...here...
Don't do this again!
10
Out of curiosity...what couldnt you see? With my Firefox browser i could see everything...it was too tiny for me...but it was there.
4
@Paul - first of all, all of the emojis, as with all emojis, are too small to see. Secondly, these appeared as square boxes with question marks in the middle - the middle two of 23A and the third in 42A - that's a FAIL. I'm in Firefox, and it is updated to the "latest version," according to Firefox. And I'm solving on the NYT website as a paid subscriber - which means I should be able to see the clues in the bleepity bleep crossword puzzle.
To be clear, I solved the whole puzzle in 75% of my Sunday average time. It's not about being unable to solve it. It's about being supremely annoyed the entire time!
The
Entire
Time!
Of course, my reaction is based entirely on how very very much I detest emojis!
9
@David Connell - I won't take another Comment-in-Chief to reply to Caitlin, but I'll put it here for whoever cares:
There is _no_ emo or emotion in "emoji"; it comes from the Japanese for "e" (picture) and "moji" character). Period. Emoji as emotion or "emo" based is folk etymology at its worst. As emoji is communication at its very, very worst.
They are pictures that fail to communicate. That's the point.
9
emojis? give me a break
13