Christ, the lower right corner of today's is driving me batty. I have all but three spaces & am totally stumped & frustrated. Guess it's time to walk away for a moment.
― Broney, Pt. 1 (Pillbox), Saturday, 22 September 2012 00:58 (eleven years ago) link
Is that Friday's or Saturday's? This morning it was the left and lower left that were giving me trouble for the longest time.
― a shark with a rippling six pack (Phil D.), Saturday, 22 September 2012 12:16 (eleven years ago) link
Friday's. If I have time tomorrow, though, I'll do Saturday's. Saturday Times puzzles are the best - far prefer them to Sundays tbh.
― Broney, Pt. 1 (Pillbox), Sunday, 23 September 2012 10:17 (eleven years ago) link
They are rillllly hard
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:57 (eleven years ago) link
imo this past weekend's puzzles were a rare instance of Friday being more challenging than Saturday.
― Broney, Pt. 1 (Pillbox), Tuesday, 25 September 2012 02:44 (eleven years ago) link
"blown out?" = error
???????!
that, i am not buying
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 30 December 2013 10:14 (ten years ago) link
baseball term, I think?
― zanarkand bozo (abanana), Monday, 30 December 2013 14:31 (ten years ago) link
nope
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 30 December 2013 23:16 (ten years ago) link
sure it is - the fielder was supposed to make the play but he blew it, and instead of an out it's an error. a "blown out"
― Panaïs Pnin (The Yellow Kid), Monday, 30 December 2013 23:32 (ten years ago) link
ARRRRRRRGH
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 30 December 2013 23:38 (ten years ago) link
(hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 30 December 2013 23:39 (ten years ago) link
i fuckin
fuck
today's suggestion that daytime tv is called a "Soaper" for short was kinda...
― Strangers look on with a discernible, barely contained ‘wow’. (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 31 December 2013 04:20 (ten years ago) link
"pulling a prank outside a house" = TPING
really dog?
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 12 January 2017 15:46 (seven years ago) link
i started doing these again, after abt > 10 years
have they gotten a lot dumber? they seem dumber
― j., Saturday, 14 January 2017 02:57 (seven years ago) link
That's pretty standard crossword-ese tbh.
I stick to the American Values Club though, they minimize cliches as much as possible. Best crossword going.
― change display name (Jordan), Saturday, 14 January 2017 03:02 (seven years ago) link
i think they're a little dumber since when i started yes
― A big shout out goes to the lamb chops, thos lamb chops (ulysses), Sunday, 15 January 2017 05:35 (seven years ago) link
Saturdays are still p brutal
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 15 January 2017 09:41 (seven years ago) link
Usually the more common form of that one is TPED.
Still on extended hiatus from solving now for the past few years since I stopped going to tournaments, not sure when I will feel compelled to jump back in. Also, don't mean to humblebrag namedrop derail thread but speaking of The AV puzzle, I ran into Ben Tausig on the street several weekends ago and learned he now lives down the block from me. Come to think of it, a certain drummer who recently won a Grammy and several other awards for Best Original Score lives right across the street from me, so Jordan, feel free to jump on the 7 train next time you are in NYC and I will show you the local sights.
― Moog and Stan (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 15 January 2017 19:56 (seven years ago) link
One more vote for feels like these are dumber than just a couple of years ago, even.
― The beaver is not the bad guy (El Tomboto), Monday, 16 January 2017 01:06 (seven years ago) link
Dumber in what way? i'd say there are definitely more artificial, not-in-the-language entries like "TPING" than ever before. But the level of obscurity remains pretty consistent, therefore puzzles are not necessarily easier. Of course obscurity used to mean Latin scientific names and foreign rivers whereas now it means subsidiary characters in sci fi TV shows or some such.
― Josefa, Monday, 16 January 2017 02:38 (seven years ago) link
Btw I have a namedrop too: I went to elementary school with Patrick Berry. I can attest to the fact that the dude was creating xword puzzles at age 9.
― Josefa, Monday, 16 January 2017 02:40 (seven years ago) link
I would have impressed if you had named any of the Patrick's but The Crossword Jesus himself, I am doubly so.
― Moog and Stan (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 16 January 2017 02:44 (seven years ago) link
I only realized it about 25 years after the fact when I finished a NYT puzzle and was like, damn that was a good one, and then looked at the credit… and then I was like, no way, is that the same dude from my school? So I made some inquiries and found out it was.
― Josefa, Monday, 16 January 2017 02:51 (seven years ago) link
Dumber in the sense that during Sunday afternoons a while back, we might still have some work to do; on some tough Saturday clues, or even the occasional Friday holdout, or an actually difficult Sunday with a gimmick we haven't figured out (our attention spans are horrifically bad)
Now, by early Sunday afternoon, all of the week's crosswords have been completely and utterly defeated, not 8 blanks left from Saturday, nothing.
― The beaver is not the bad guy (El Tomboto), Monday, 16 January 2017 03:17 (seven years ago) link
yeah that, and they seem to be going way faster, for the end of the week puzzles too. last go round i was generally doing it every day and those would take me forever, and often go unfinished. my impression now is that there are a lot more inane repeat clues that reward regular solvers, even more so than ye old oleos of yore or whatever. and an influx of post-smartphone internet cultural ephemera that has supplanted some more of the facty trivia-style clues/answers i remember being stumped by.
i'm also doing them diffrently, tho, which may matter for the subjective experience. i used to work in pen and be way more cautious about committing so i wouldn't have to cross anything out, but on the nyt web site when computer-solving i just delete stuff left and right when i see i used something that wouldn't work.
― j., Monday, 16 January 2017 03:50 (seven years ago) link
i mean it is also possible that my amazing brane has just gotten that much better in the intervening decade. actually, let's go with that.
― j., Monday, 16 January 2017 03:51 (seven years ago) link
RIP ankara btwI feel like that answer just got straight-up banned at some point a couple of years ago. oleo may have suffered the same fate recently?
― The beaver is not the bad guy (El Tomboto), Monday, 16 January 2017 04:19 (seven years ago) link
i saw an olio a while back
― j., Monday, 16 January 2017 04:26 (seven years ago) link
ha, nice James.
― change display name (Jordan), Monday, 16 January 2017 20:19 (seven years ago) link
will shortz thinks rae sremmurd is one guy!!
― j., Tuesday, 17 January 2017 03:20 (seven years ago) link
oh
nevermind
I AM DULY CHASTENED
― j., Tuesday, 17 January 2017 03:21 (seven years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7NaWvbVwAEw_i3.jpg:large
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 19 March 2017 09:51 (seven years ago) link
Nazi what
― SFTGFOP (El Tomboto), Sunday, 19 March 2017 11:36 (seven years ago) link
Are they confusing pan (horizontal) with zoom in?
― You're going to see a lot of love. Okay? Thank you. (Dan Peterson), Monday, 20 March 2017 18:32 (seven years ago) link
yes
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, 20 March 2017 19:54 (seven years ago) link
"emgrans"?
fuck off
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 6 April 2017 12:16 (seven years ago) link
somebody explain to me the reason why "UNACMETTED" happened to me yesterday - I fucking hate reasonable answer collisions
― your cognitive privilege (El Tomboto), Thursday, 11 May 2017 03:17 (seven years ago) link
is DANK MEMES really what we’rve come to
― mookieproof, Saturday, 7 July 2018 05:10 (six years ago) link
YesAnd why is Saturday easy now
― El Tomboto, Saturday, 7 July 2018 09:55 (six years ago) link
Oh wait j. and I complained about this a year ago
― El Tomboto, Saturday, 7 July 2018 09:57 (six years ago) link
Does anyone do the mini each day on the app?
https://www.nytimes.com/puzzles/leaderboards/invite/fde227aa-82b8-400c-807b-6512a6cba5e6
― S-, Thursday, 5 September 2019 20:42 (five years ago) link
‘no soap’
― mookieproof, Sunday, 5 April 2020 22:21 (four years ago) link
Clue: They’re usually closed at night Answer: eyes😊
― calstars, Sunday, 5 April 2020 22:57 (four years ago) link
why won’t Wednesday load on my phone arrrrrrrgh
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 8 April 2020 14:14 (four years ago) link
never heard of today's 35A before
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 29 April 2020 17:39 (four years ago) link
Britishism, I believe.
― Judd Apatowsaurus (Leee), Wednesday, 29 April 2020 17:43 (four years ago) link
nobelist wieselnobelist wieselnobelist wieselnobelist wieselnobelist wiesel
― mookieproof, Thursday, 21 May 2020 03:53 (four years ago) link
yeah that was bad. making up for it with a better clue about him in today’s sunday puzzle.today’s puzzle very fun and ambitious but - and i know i’m always wrong when i think this, but hear me out - is there an error? the answer for 92 down actually goes with the clue for 93 down. and there is no clue for 92 down. leaving the answer for 93 an orphan with no clue. annoyingly i can’t quite solve that corner. but perhaps this is one further wrinkle in this puzzle that i haven’t figured out?
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 24 May 2020 08:34 (four years ago) link