This is an incredible feat of construction: http://blog.bewilderinglypuzzles.com/2023/07/puzzle-212-two-for-price-of-one.html
Hard AF (needed hints to get NE and SW of the right puzzle), but yeah, impressive construction.
― Jean-Paul Satyr (Leee), Monday, 24 July 2023 22:52 (eleven months ago) link
Re Saturday’s: I should just skip all of Sam Ezersky’s puzzles, we’re just on a completely different wavelength. I can appreciate difficult puzzles but I never feel satisfied or impressed by any of his
― Roz, Sunday, 30 July 2023 15:59 (ten months ago) link
Freud puzzle was funny!
― symsymsym, Sunday, 30 July 2023 16:56 (ten months ago) link
xp yeah the vagueness of his clueing is appropriately difficult for a Saturday but the solves are just kinda “sure…I guess”
― KPH, Sunday, 30 July 2023 19:13 (ten months ago) link
today's is just groaners all the way down
― donna rouge, Sunday, 30 July 2023 19:37 (ten months ago) link
56A was pretty good but yeah, otherwise meh.
― Albert Canoe (Leee), Monday, 31 July 2023 02:12 (ten months ago) link
ya 56a was hilarious
― flopson, Monday, 31 July 2023 02:29 (ten months ago) link
ok that two for the price of one puzzle was brutal - solved it as far as i could go by myself, then used a couple hints to get to the finish line. really challenging but pretty ingenious!
― donna rouge, Monday, 31 July 2023 20:59 (ten months ago) link
I’ve made the bitcoin joke a few times over the years re silicon valley types
― Grandall Flange (wins), Monday, 31 July 2023 21:04 (ten months ago) link
yeah I needed hints just to know which puzzle I was in - don't think I could have done it on pen and paper. cool to see how far it's possible to take the heisenberg puzzle concept
― symsymsym, Tuesday, 1 August 2023 01:36 (ten months ago) link
Ugh today's is hard and bad.
― Albert Canoe (Leee), Thursday, 3 August 2023 19:48 (ten months ago) link
I thought it was kinda charming but 16A was a new one for me
― KPH, Thursday, 3 August 2023 21:35 (ten 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 (ten 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 (ten 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 (ten months ago) link
13A just as annoying imho
― donna rouge, Friday, 4 August 2023 00:09 (ten months ago) link
16A is nice in that it also describes how I feel about the clue
― 龜, Friday, 4 August 2023 02:44 (ten 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 (ten 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 (ten 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 (ten 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 (ten 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 (ten months ago) link
enjoyed today's theme
― 龜, Sunday, 1 October 2023 14:19 (eight 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 (eight 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 (eight 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 (eight months ago) link
you can turn the crossword timer off in the settings
― mookieproof, Thursday, 12 October 2023 03:05 (eight months ago) link
Leee do you do the crossword on the computer or on the app?
― 龜, Thursday, 12 October 2023 11:56 (eight 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 (eight 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 (eight 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 (eight months ago) link
thank you mookieproof
― Dan S, Saturday, 14 October 2023 00:06 (eight 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 (eight 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 (six months ago) link
Clever puzzle today.
― Rimbaud: First Blood (Leee), Sunday, 17 December 2023 15:51 (six 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 (six 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 (six months ago) link
very angered at ROLF on wednesday's xw
― flopson, Friday, 22 December 2023 23:51 (six 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 (two months ago) link
Cute theme today, which I didn't notice until I'd solved it.
― The Mandymoorian (Leee), Monday, 13 May 2024 17:35 (one month ago) link
Clever theme today.
― Bottom Cruise (Leee), Thursday, 23 May 2024 16:58 (one month 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 (one month ago) link