this is the thread where we complain about the new york times crossword puzzle

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said seminal punk band has absolutely no relation to 'the'

mookieproof, Friday, 23 July 2021 01:09 (three years ago) link

colloquially i hear them referred to as "the xxxx" and "xxxx"

Yours in Sorrow, A Schoolboy: (forksclovetofu), Friday, 23 July 2021 01:41 (three years ago) link

two months pass...

what a terrible theme

mookieproof, Sunday, 3 October 2021 05:25 (three years ago) link

Do you mean the Sunday puzzle? I could go either way on the theme but I only avoid getting Naticked through sheer luck.

Leee Tigre (Leee), Sunday, 3 October 2021 17:22 (three years ago) link

I checked Rex Parker's blog to see if he complained about that one bit and then I saw a bunch of comments about WOE. What does that stand for?

Leee Tigre (Leee), Sunday, 3 October 2021 17:35 (three years ago) link

one month passes...

gtfo with this other saarinen

mookieproof, Friday, 12 November 2021 12:58 (two years ago) link

Hard AF today.

A Frome of One's Own (Leee), Friday, 12 November 2021 18:59 (two years ago) link

Hm. I did ok, except I had a hard time with BEERKOOZIE. If pressed I probably would spell it COZY, but then I generally drink beer quickly enough that they don't have time to need them.

21D didn't come easily, even though I was able to dredge up 20A from my antediluvian print-era design career.

weregoats of boston (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 12 November 2021 20:05 (two years ago) link

NW and SE were the toughest corners for me, and I had to lean on a Spelling Bee word that I'd recently learned to crack 1D. Didn't help that I had BAY- for 1A for the longest time.

A Frome of One's Own (Leee), Friday, 12 November 2021 21:50 (two years ago) link

seven months pass...

mildly disappointed by this yesterday, in an otherwise fun puzzle:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/biceps-plural-singular

Tracer Hand, Sunday, 10 July 2022 22:28 (two years ago) link

I mean, it's a fair point, but also a trifle churlish.

Personally I want to see some stretches and some catachresis and some ambiguity; otherwise you're just plugging in synonyms.

Nutellanor Roosevelt (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 12 July 2022 02:56 (two years ago) link

Plenty of that in Saturday’s puzzle otherwise!

Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 12 July 2022 06:58 (two years ago) link

three weeks pass...

In Wed’s puzzle, why is the fourth circle an “s”… I get that “D” would be the right answer but why is “s” “filling out the circle”?

marcel the shell with swag on (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 3 August 2022 06:01 (two years ago) link

supposedly the fourth circle is meant to be, all together as a rebus, SHADE

as in shading in a circle on a test i guess? it’s terrible

mookieproof, Wednesday, 3 August 2022 06:48 (two years ago) link

sorry, should have spoiler tagged that i guess

mookieproof, Wednesday, 3 August 2022 06:49 (two years ago) link

How is S on a D = "SHADE"

marcel the shell with swag on (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 3 August 2022 15:35 (two years ago) link

It is counterintuitive, and I will not strive to defend it.

But the answer has to do with what you do with a standardized test, which is to SHADE in the circle.

Some folks have suggested that this is inappropriately difficult for a Wednesday. Others, that it was just too idiosyncratic to be allowable.

Personally I got there (not without difficulty), but I can totally sympathize with those who found it too tricksy.

your marshmallows may vary (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 4 August 2022 00:15 (two years ago) link

imo it was a bad idea poorly implemented

which is almost par for the course on a thursday, but not wednesday

mookieproof, Thursday, 4 August 2022 00:58 (two years ago) link

I understand writing SHADE as in “shading the letter D” like a Scan-Tron or whatever but why is just writing “S” a correct answer on the app?

marcel the shell with swag on (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 4 August 2022 01:44 (two years ago) link

the app will accept a lot of vaguely related things simply to keep people from complaining

often enough it's still too strict. imagine getting your years-long streak broken on this bullshit

mookieproof, Thursday, 4 August 2022 03:04 (two years ago) link

woof, today's! feel like the clue on 29D is trying way too hard to be clever (and failing). spent so long in that corner in general because i've never seen 'frozen' and had multiple wrong fills for 59A as well (also couldn't get 62A for the life of me).

donna rouge, Friday, 5 August 2022 21:14 (two years ago) link

latter-day disney and harry potter are definite weaknesses for me

by know i at least know elsa and . . . sven?

mookieproof, Friday, 5 August 2022 21:46 (two years ago) link

Not a hard puzzle today but one answer is tricksy - not as tricksy as Wednesday's infamous SHADETREE.

All the theme answers (but one) share a theme, but they do so while also making sense. The last one breaks the pattern. Spoiler: The other ones have revealers elsewhere - "TRIPLEA" about an answer that already has three As in it. Or "FIVEO" about an answer with five Os. But 118A only works after you apply the revealer "ZEROG" to it. I knew I was right on all the downs, so I had to look very carefully at "OINOINONE" until I saw "going, going, gone."

I will say that it's definitely one where it helped me to solve it methodically in order - top to bottom - rather than hopping around.

your marshmallows may vary (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 7 August 2022 17:12 (two years ago) link

yeah i didn't like how the last one stuck out

mookieproof, Sunday, 7 August 2022 17:14 (two years ago) link

It's possible that 2022-vintage Shortz is feeling stung by the criticisms that the puzzles used to be harder. I dunno.

For me it's a voluntary leisure activity. So far I am okay with the occasional dud or something that didn't quite work. Because: Overall, NYT has consistently brought me a thing that I don't mind doing with my brain. Like, every day for decades.

your marshmallows may vary (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 7 August 2022 21:36 (two years ago) link

I do the mini crossword, and a couple of days ago one of the answers was UPBIG. I wondered if it was US slang, but the internet doesn't seem to agree. The clue was "winning by a lot" or something like that.

"Winning up big" and "win up big" throw up a tiny handful of google results and just googling "up big" returns (a) a lot of stuff about the Union Pacific Big Boy train (b) "big up" (c) sentence fragments etc.

I fee as if I'm missing something. The internet hasn't erupted into an uproar so it's obviously not that weird. But it baffles me.

Ashley Pomeroy, Monday, 8 August 2022 21:09 (two years ago) link

it's something you would say in a colloquial conversation but not something you would necessarily ever say in writing. "are the patriots winning the game?" "yeah, they're up big" or "did you guys finish that monopoly game last night?" "nah, we quit and went to bed. i was up big." you'd only use it in relation to winning but "winning up big" or "win up big" aren't ways in which it would be used. it's an inelegant clue no doubt & i don't think you should feel bad for not "getting" it but i think minds of the sports inclined would know the phrase

J0rdan S., Monday, 8 August 2022 23:16 (two years ago) link

up big is an often used phrase to count winnings and to big up the home team

Dan S, Tuesday, 9 August 2022 02:00 (two years ago) link

'up big' does not have a life of its own as something repeated frequently. it's merely a case of the puzzle creator coming up with a phrase they would like to use in their puzzle because it fits nicely, imagining how it has plausibly been used from time to time in real life, then basing a clue on that supposition.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Tuesday, 9 August 2022 03:21 (two years ago) link

well no, it does have an independent life of its own. jordan and dan s have literally just explained it!??

Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 9 August 2022 06:49 (two years ago) link

So I wasn't hallucinating. The odd thing is that the mini crossword is generally easy. Upbig seemed to come from nowhere.

I felt for a moment as if I was a German spy trying to blend in with English people, except that I was an English person trying to think like someone from the United States. Thank gosh I never applied to MI6 to become a spy. I would have given myself away almost immediately. "Aiieee! mainer gams est brennen" or whatever.

I'm still puzzled by the mini-game where you have to match pairs of shapes. There doesn't seem to be a catch. You just match pairs of shapes. There isn't even a time limit.

Ashley Pomeroy, Tuesday, 9 August 2022 18:31 (two years ago) link

well no, it does have an independent life of its own. jordan and dan s have literally just explained it!??

jordan and dan's explanations both cited a further context that would make explicit an element missing in the clue. Also "big up" is most certainly not the same as "up big" as a standalone phrase and it gets used in a completely different way.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, 10 August 2022 19:19 (two years ago) link

"further context that would make explicit an element missing in the clue" - this is how crosswords work - they all have elements missing in the clues - otherwise it wouldn't be a puzzle, it would be a mechanical box-filling exercise

"big up" was an excuse to make a joke, playing on the words, not an example of a phrase with the same meaning

and now we're all caught up!

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 10 August 2022 21:39 (two years ago) link

‘THE[NOUN]’ is bad but perhaps, occasionally, necessary; you sure as hell can’t use it twice in the same puzzle

mookieproof, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 14:50 (two years ago) link

two months pass...

‘doesn’t wax’ ≠ WANES ffs

mookieproof, Thursday, 17 November 2022 02:57 (one year ago) link

That’s a good clue

insane oatmeal raisin cookie posse (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 17 November 2022 04:24 (one year ago) link

most things that wane do wax or have waxed. most things that simply 'don't wax' could are in a perpetual steady state that also never wanes. in terms of logic, it's a horribly formed clue. in terms of most crossword clues' sheer blasphemy-worthy cussedness, it is only a bit worse than average.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 17 November 2022 04:36 (one year ago) link

If anything you should complain about them platforming a Billboard clickbait list

insane oatmeal raisin cookie posse (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 17 November 2022 07:13 (one year ago) link

nine months pass...

really?

mookieproof, Wednesday, 30 August 2023 05:27 (one year ago) link

Pretty cringe, no lying

Grandall Flange (wins), Wednesday, 30 August 2023 06:52 (one year ago) link

three months pass...

You know, I've had a NYT subscription through work for years, but it didn't used to include the crossword. For a year or two, I ponied up for an add-on crossword subscription, but eventually let it lapse. So I haven't really been in the habit of doing it at all. (The only crossword I've regularly done in recent years is the one on the back page of The New Yorker.)

Then, a few weeks ago, I decided to download the NYT Games app because the mobile site kept pushing it to me when I played Wordle every morning. Which is when I discovered that now I *do* have free access to the crossword! And not just on the app. So I've been enjoying getting back into it.

jaymc, Saturday, 23 December 2023 04:20 (ten months ago) link

I'm still puzzled by the mini-game where you have to match pairs of shapes. There doesn't seem to be a catch. You just match pairs of shapes. There isn't even a time limit.

You match elements of pairs, right? When you select two shapes with at least one matching element, it removes those elements, but you only get one point however many were removed. So in order to get a perfect score, you need to plan ahead so you are only ever matching pairs with one element in common.

Andrew Farrell, Saturday, 23 December 2023 17:30 (ten months ago) link

I think the bad things about this app and its games can be summed up by the fact that the subtitle for wordle is “untangle terms”

Boris Yitsbin (wins), Saturday, 23 December 2023 18:34 (ten months ago) link

four weeks pass...

otm

there are so many extraneous and useless words and i hate them

Good morning. New puzzles are waiting for you.
(at other times of day it displays even worse things about ‘winding down’)
Crack the clues in today’s puzzle.
Fill the grid with answers. Ready?
Untangle terms
Group words
Connect characters
Match motifs
Decode digits
Go fuck yourself

mookieproof, Saturday, 20 January 2024 08:04 (nine months ago) link

you are being interpellated as an extremely basic aspirational dimwit

Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 20 January 2024 09:48 (nine months ago) link

one month passes...

wtf

mookieproof, Thursday, 7 March 2024 16:29 (seven months ago) link

that is bewildering

symsymsym, Thursday, 7 March 2024 16:40 (seven months ago) link

Sucks

The SoyBoy West Coast (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 7 March 2024 16:48 (seven months ago) link

I still don’t think that makes it “modern.” The puzzle column seems to imply its “colloquial” but those words don’t mean the same thing to me

The SoyBoy West Coast (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 7 March 2024 16:54 (seven months ago) link


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