Haha "what johns do."
The school clue is super-great, too!
I was momentarily thrown by two spellings not conforming to the way the NYT would render them -- and then in both cases yours seems more Korrect, and theirs seems more of the variEnt.
― nabisco, Thursday, 27 December 2007 19:43 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm pretty sure I know one of the two you mean. Is this the other? Because I think that's always spelled like that, even though a word that contains that word has a NYT-preferred variant.
― jaymc, Thursday, 27 December 2007 19:51 (sixteen years ago) link
Nope, two different ones -- 9 across and 48 across.
― nabisco, Thursday, 27 December 2007 19:53 (sixteen years ago) link
And actually, funny though it may be, I'm kind of annoyed with "what johns do," just because it's a bit of a stretch, even for a Tausig-type puzzle. Really hard to work with five theme fills, though!
― jaymc, Thursday, 27 December 2007 19:53 (sixteen years ago) link
Ah! I had originally used the variant for 48-A until I looked it up in Wikipedia and saw that that was a common mistake.
― jaymc, Thursday, 27 December 2007 19:54 (sixteen years ago) link
my pops schooled me on that holiday sunday NYT puzzle. :(
i got ben tausig's book and i'm about halfway through it, although his cluing seems to have gotten harder as he went along.
― Jordan, Thursday, 27 December 2007 19:55 (sixteen years ago) link
I think you can get away with one giant stretch per puzzle, so long as it's , you know, funny.
― nabisco, Thursday, 27 December 2007 19:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Try to be a little sneakier with the clues, maybe? "When Romeo dies" -- the present tense gives that one away far too quickly. Make it past tense, so there's at least a chance that I'll panic for a moment trying to figure out if we know the year -- or, better, "Where Romeo died", and I might think you're going for "GENOA" and realize that won't fit and wonder if I am misremembering the story -- or, maybe even better, for a good Thursdayish clue, find some other character who dies in a similar place, but whose name does not immediately ring of Shakespeare, and I'll be mystified for a while, but it will eventually come to me. Because it's that sort of strip-tease, right?
"What johns do" is nicely phrased for sure, though.
― Casuistry, Thursday, 27 December 2007 20:13 (sixteen years ago) link
That's a fair point, Chris. My thought process for that clue was basically, "I need something that happens there ... Oh, well, obviously: Romeo dies ... Is that too easy? ... What happens in Othello? ... *reads Wikipedia article about Othello* ... yeah, not really feeling that ... I should probably be working right now ... All right, 'When Romeo dies.'"
― jaymc, Thursday, 27 December 2007 20:35 (sixteen years ago) link
That's sort of what I meant about the clues being the hard part. But you saw the movie, right? How Will Shortz basically rewrites half the clues for the puzzles he accepts?
Anyway I'm not trying to discourage you, of course. I just want more awesome crosswords to do.
― Casuistry, Thursday, 27 December 2007 23:58 (sixteen years ago) link
Speaking of Tausig puzzles: the numbering of the clues in the Onion one this week (the sports issue) is completely off!
― nabisco, Saturday, 29 December 2007 22:37 (sixteen years ago) link
Haha, rly? It was correct online.
― Jordan, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:06 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, it's bad enough that 1/3 of the down clues are sometimes randomly deleted; this time I was like, "Yeah, that's not gonna work."
― jaymc, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:17 (sixteen years ago) link
Another new one. Title is exactly the same as Ben Tausig's Ink Well puzzle last week but with a different interpretation.
― jaymc, Monday, 31 December 2007 17:32 (sixteen years ago) link
I think this is your hardest one yet, for sure.
― Jordan, Monday, 31 December 2007 19:28 (sixteen years ago) link
Good!
― jaymc, Monday, 31 December 2007 19:35 (sixteen years ago) link
Do you have .puz files?
― Casuistry, Monday, 31 December 2007 20:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Wow, jaymc, that last one is really good.
I used to want to make my own crosswords, and looked for books on how to construct them, but never could find any. Are there such things, or do you just get in there and figure it out?
― Rock Hardy, Monday, 31 December 2007 20:45 (sixteen years ago) link
Most books about crossword puzzles seem to have an obligatory section on making them, I think. I read Eugene T. Maleska's book, and boy was he proud of the awful crosswordese he used to drill into his puzzles, but I'm pretty sure it had a chapter on making puzzles.
― Casuistry, Monday, 31 December 2007 20:53 (sixteen years ago) link
No, I don't have .puz files. I need to look into that. Also crossword constructors are always talking about a software program called Across Lite?
And thanks, Rock. I just sort of figured it out through trial and error. All you really need to know is the basic rules for what the grid needs to look like: no words shorter than three letters, diagonal symmetry. But any good software (like Crossword Weaver, which I use) will help you make sure you don't do anything irregular.
When I started out doing themeless puzzles, I would just start at the top-right and work my way around the puzzle intuitively. With themed puzzles, I do the theme fills first and then work outward from the middle.
― jaymc, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 15:57 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm still a little wtf over this Tausig one from the other day (I'm working through his book). The clue is "Good Buddy" and the answer is "CBER". I assume it's CB radio, but still doesn't quite make sense to me?
― Jordan, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:04 (sixteen years ago) link
cockblocker?
I'm guessing that someone who uses CB radio is a CBer, in the same way that Tausig uses the clue "Recipient of 'You've got mail' message" for AOLER.
― jaymc, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:06 (sixteen years ago) link
just "CBer," as in one who does CB? seems ok to me
xpost dang it
― n/a, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:06 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.filmaffinity.com/imgs/movies/full/31/317347.jpg
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:08 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah guys, I know that CBer is one who does CB, but how do you get that from "good buddy"?
― Jordan, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:18 (sixteen years ago) link
that is CB slang, they say stuff like "ten-four, good buddy."
― n/a, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:21 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.impawards.com/1977/posters/smokey_and_the_bandit.jpg
Across Lite is the program that you use to enjoy .puz files, and you can get it from the NYTimes website, and they distribute their puzzles to online subscribers in that format. Someone you know might have a year's worth of such .puz files, but he has perhaps already worked through them all.
― Casuistry, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:50 (sixteen years ago) link
Also, you're supposed to have no more than [a certain number] of black squares if you hope to get published by the big-leagues, and certain black-square formations are frowned upon (full 90 degree right angles -- basically anything Tetris-y).
― Casuistry, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:52 (sixteen years ago) link
I think it's 17% black squares, or 40 squares in a 15x15 puzzle. Though Tausig had one that was 46 recently.
certain black-square formations are frowned upon (full 90 degree right angles -- basically anything Tetris-y).
I didn't know this.
― jaymc, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:57 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm not sure it's as hard-and-fast a rule as the percentage one, but on those rare occasions when I see such a puzzle, I'm always a little startled by it. I dunno, I should flip through one of my NYTimes books to make sure I'm not fooling myself about it.
Diagramless puzzles, of course, are all about that.
― Casuistry, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 17:00 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.cruciverb.com/index.php/articles/htmlpages/120
― jaymc, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 17:01 (sixteen years ago) link
A++ for "Paris's friend," Jaymc -- actually took me a while, with excellent payoff
― nabisco, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 19:09 (sixteen years ago) link
Total pro-level theme on that one, too!
Ha, I sort of wrote that one with you in mind, N!
― jaymc, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 19:10 (sixteen years ago) link
The "Paris's friend" clue, I mean.
I had to look that one up after I got the answer, I don't watch that show.
― Jordan, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 19:13 (sixteen years ago) link
At first I thought it was going to be some Trojan warrior. But I saw the show out of the corner of my eye enough when my wife was watching it to figure it out.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 19:15 (sixteen years ago) link
I alread e-mailed this to jaymc:
Haha, on your crossword, I initially had CLASH OF THE TITS (crossing with CUTS DOWN)! I know it's CLASH OF THE TANS and GUNS DOWN now. It works with the theme, though!
― Jordan, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 19:17 (sixteen years ago) link
Derived from CLASH OF THE TITITS?
― nabisco, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 19:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Suddenly I feel like Jordan knows some way of spelling "titties" that I don't
Ha. Well, that was the first theme answer I got and I thought the theme was maybe just removing two letters.
― Jordan, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 19:23 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, it does kind of work both ways! If only there were an old book about fashion trends and female body shapes, entitled CLASH OF THE "IT" TITS
― nabisco, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 19:26 (sixteen years ago) link
Just finished this week's Ink Well puzzle. Jordan, let me know when you've done it, because I want to complain. :)
― jaymc, Thursday, 3 January 2008 05:57 (sixteen years ago) link
Do you guys do the Harper's crossword puzzle too? Cause I always look at that thing in wonder.
― Mordechai Shinefield, Thursday, 3 January 2008 06:04 (sixteen years ago) link
That's on the other thread The official bored-at-work cryptic crossword pass it on thread.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 3 January 2008 14:02 (sixteen years ago) link
Also just found this in the archives Favorite Oldschool NY TImes Crossword Clues
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 3 January 2008 14:55 (sixteen years ago) link
Was I drunk that day? How did I miss that thread. Gah.
― Casuistry, Thursday, 3 January 2008 19:29 (sixteen years ago) link
Maleska thought he was making the world a better place by getting people familiar with variant spellings of AERIE. If he didn't preserve such knowledge, who would?
― Casuistry, Thursday, 3 January 2008 19:30 (sixteen years ago) link
Ugh today's is hard and bad.
― Albert Canoe (Leee), Thursday, 3 August 2023 19:48 (nine months ago) link
I thought it was kinda charming but 16A was a new one for me
― KPH, Thursday, 3 August 2023 21:35 (nine months ago) link
There's a fine line between "same old same old" gimmicks and "wtf, how dare you do this weird thing" gimmicks.
I am decades into this journey and I am along for the ride. If sometimes it rankles, well, ok.
Tomorrow morning it will be a different thing and I will do the best I can with that thing.
― Steely Duran (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 3 August 2023 21:58 (nine months ago) link
i thought it was fine, but that the revealer should have been a dave brubeck reference
― mookieproof, Thursday, 3 August 2023 22:25 (nine months ago) link
I was mostly complaining about the NW corner (16A also rang no bells for me); I didn't understand the gimmick and didn't feel like trying to figure it out on my own.
― Albert Canoe (Leee), Thursday, 3 August 2023 22:38 (nine months ago) link
13A just as annoying imho
― donna rouge, Friday, 4 August 2023 00:09 (nine months ago) link
16A is nice in that it also describes how I feel about the clue
― 龜, Friday, 4 August 2023 02:44 (nine months ago) link
today’s NYT puzzle features the most useless ‘theme’ i’ve ever encountered
embarrassed for everyone involved
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 8 August 2023 07:06 (nine months ago) link
Mookieproof, do you mean Tuesday's?
The theme wasn't necessary, but it wasn't that bad imo. I don't think I could have constructed very many pairings like NY|PA.
Or do you mean the Monday, which is unsurprisingly boring... because it's Monday and is meant for beginners.
― Bonobo Vox (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 8 August 2023 11:20 (nine months ago) link
I like Tuesday's theme but it was the kind of theme that only made sense after you solved the puzzle
― 龜, Tuesday, 8 August 2023 14:07 (nine months ago) link
Yeah I am pretty doctrinaire about solving top left to bottom right. There have been a LOT of puzzles that I solved 100% correctly without ever getting the theme, then I look back and I'm like "oh, okay."
― Bonobo Vox (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 8 August 2023 14:49 (nine months ago) link
yeah, i meant tuesday’s
there’s nothing about it that’s integral to the solving process; it’s just at the end you learn that — wow! — four whole times they managed to put the two-letter abbreviations of abutting states next to each other. so what? it’s not a marvel of construction and it adds nothing substantive to actually doing the puzzle. it is neither hat nor cattle. much rather see a themeless than a theme so tenuous
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 9 August 2023 06:41 (nine months ago) link
enjoyed today's theme
― 龜, Sunday, 1 October 2023 14:19 (seven months ago) link
Posted my best ever time of 3:01 with yesterday's (i.e. a Tuesday)!
― Hoisted by your own Picard (Leee), Wednesday, 11 October 2023 17:14 (seven months ago) link
I'm only yet adept at Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday I can sometimes do without help, Thursday, Friday, and especially Saturday not yet. I hate that the NYT pushes the time in your face, I try to ignore it. They don't do that for Spelling Bee (my favorite puzzle), Connections (which I can take or leave) or Wordle.
Wordle fills me with the most anxiety. It is a great puzzle, but there are traps, and there is something about it that makes it a game I don't want to lose
― Dan S, Thursday, 12 October 2023 00:05 (seven months ago) link
That's all fair; the main reason I pay attention to my time is that I very occasionally do tournaments (not often though). I think maybe I was overly influenced by the Wordplay documentary, which I watched early in my solving days.
― Hoisted by your own Picard (Leee), Thursday, 12 October 2023 03:03 (seven months ago) link
you can turn the crossword timer off in the settings
― mookieproof, Thursday, 12 October 2023 03:05 (seven months ago) link
Leee do you do the crossword on the computer or on the app?
― 龜, Thursday, 12 October 2023 11:56 (seven months ago) link
If I'm in bed, I'm using the app, but usually I'm on a desktop, especially if I'm solving for speed.
― Hoisted by your own Picard (Leee), Thursday, 12 October 2023 14:36 (seven months ago) link
I use a laptop, not the app, and haven't found a way to turn off the time stats on the main page using the settings.
I try doing the crossword using the app on my iPad when I'm traveling, but it's always a mess for me
― Dan S, Thursday, 12 October 2023 23:18 (seven months ago) link
if by laptop you mean 'on the nyt website', uncheck this
https://i.imgur.com/IhzossD.jpg
(i also hate the running timer)
― mookieproof, Friday, 13 October 2023 23:54 (seven months ago) link
thank you mookieproof
― Dan S, Saturday, 14 October 2023 00:06 (seven months ago) link
Themed puzzle today. NE was incredibly hard for me to get into until I took a few chances.
― Hoisted by your own Picard (Leee), Saturday, 14 October 2023 15:42 (seven months ago) link
i found the one a few thursdays ago very difficult - the one about black ops maybe it was just because i hadn’t done one in a couple of months? felt more like a friday or even saturday tbh. v enjoyable tho
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 27 October 2023 18:25 (seven months ago) link
Is anyone else having problems playing the NYT Xword on a desktop browser? It's not letting me log in, and so I have to play on mobile.
― Rimbaud: First Blood (Leee), Tuesday, 12 December 2023 20:01 (five months ago) link
Clever puzzle today.
― Rimbaud: First Blood (Leee), Sunday, 17 December 2023 15:51 (five months ago) link
I liked it too but had the (frequent) sensation that I would solve it completely and correctly, and only get the theme later. Which is what happened.
― CthulhuLululemon (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 17 December 2023 15:56 (five months ago) link
I’m gonna stream some crossword solving on twitch in about half an hour
https://twitch.tv/silby89
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 22 December 2023 21:29 (five months ago) link
very angered at ROLF on wednesday's xw
― flopson, Friday, 22 December 2023 23:51 (five months ago) link
40-down in today’s NYT is wholly new to me
― donna rouge, Wednesday, 27 December 2023 20:33 (five months ago) link
I think I'd heard the word before, but couldn't tell you what it meant.
The revealer is a 5/5 groaner.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 27 December 2023 21:07 (five months ago) link
yeah good puzzle today!
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 27 December 2023 23:03 (five months ago) link
40-down is the name of a character in dune messiah iirc
― 龜, Thursday, 28 December 2023 02:28 (five months ago) link
wow
i guess you no longer need the weirding module
― mookieproof, Thursday, 28 December 2023 02:30 (five months ago) link
Tomorrow's NYT theme is reminiscent of a puzzle I submitted to them 15 years ago, which was rejected.
Mine:
Full-grown frontiersman?: FOX CARSONFull-grown rock musician?: KOALA RAMONEFull-grown inventor?: SAMUEL HORSEFull-grown actor?: RYAN GOOSE
NYT, 4/16/24:
*Actor who played Oscar Wilde in "Wilde" [fish]: STEPHEN FRY*Inventor who patented the first revolver [stallion]: SAMUEL COLT*English essayist who wrote "Lawyers, I suppose, were children once" [ram]: CHARLES LAMB*Mouseketeer peer of Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake [gander]: RYAN GOSLING*Certain immature adult … with a hint to both halves of the answers to each starred clue: MAN BABY
Today's puzzle is admittedly better, conceptually -- but it's funny now to remember that one of the reasons I was given for why my puzzle was rejected was that Ryan Gosling wasn't famous enough.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 16 April 2024 03:36 (one month ago) link
Cute theme today, which I didn't notice until I'd solved it.
― The Mandymoorian (Leee), Monday, 13 May 2024 17:35 (two weeks ago) link
Clever theme today.
― Bottom Cruise (Leee), Thursday, 23 May 2024 16:58 (five days ago) link
I didn't love it because there's two ways to fill it in, one of which leads to writing down some non-words. Which, when I put it like that...
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 23 May 2024 18:13 (five days ago) link