This is the crossword puzzle thread

Friend described it as underwhelming.

kind of stunned by the ‘popular st. patrick’s day cocktail’

Yeah, me too!

really bad

this, on the other hand, is nuts:

last time tweeting about a crossword solving time i promise pic.twitter.com/ucJaPWu78B

— pa(ol/sc)o (@gpaolopasco) April 24, 2022

Yet another reason for me to have given up speed solving.

I don't even know how you can type that fast while reading/processing the clues?

my time today was 5:45 on my phone (might have been faster on desktop idk) and i thought that was good enough

I don’t how people can physically do it either, some kind of freakish wiring.

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/10/nyregion/how-to-be-the-fastest-puzzler-in-town.html

Or exact same thing here: https://www.crosswordtournament.com/articles/shortz0302.htm

But best version is in this interview with Peter Gordon: https://wordplay.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/ring/

i consider myself a fairly fast solver (avg monday solving time is about 3-3:30 minutes, almost never over 4), and 53 seconds is unthinkable to me!

also is anyone else a stickler for doing the puzzle on the day of instead of the night before?

I'm new to the NYT crossword and am not sure what was so bad about today's puzzle

are you all so good that this was a trifle?

Wasn’t that it was too easy, although it wasn’t really that hard, just that the theme seemed kind of tired.

Obviously no stickler here. When I used to read the blogs many of them just wrote about them soon after they dropped so I started solving then as well.

I remember years ago when people were talking about two minute puzzles, which a lot of top solvers could already do but they didn’t want to submit in the contest like that without checking, so not really surprised now at one minute.

http://dandoesnotblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/acpt-2013-it-takes-me-four-ever-to.html?m=1

http://dandoesnotblog.blogspot.com/2015/04/acpt-2015-eke.html?m=1

He also points out that Puzzle 1 is a Tuesday, not a Monday.

https://www.brendanemmettquigley.com/2018/03/crossword-1040-themeless-monday-2018-acpt-recap.html

So a Monday less than one minute solve at home is still pretty crazy and impressive but also not quite unthinkable for someone whose fast twitch muscles are in overdrive.

Wasn’t that it was too easy, although it wasn’t really that hard, just that the theme seemed kind of tired.

― H.R. MacGufnstuf (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, April 24, 2022

I'm pretty sure it was hard for most people attempting it

The themes are all over the place. I guess unless you've done a shitload of these you wouldn't think this was more tired than any other

Sunday is not supposed to be particularly hard, just tedious.

xposts it's always on the day of for me, living in Asia :)

re sunday's puzzle: aside from the theme which was very meh, there were some incredibly bad clues/fill that not sure anyone would be able to get without crosses e.g. who calls a "Program after undergrad" a POSTBAC? is NULLVALUE really a commonly known term for N/A? and as alluded to upthread, CARBOMB for "Popular St. Patrick’s day cocktail" is just awful and tasteless.

i had PREWWW instead of PREWEB early on, and honestly wish that had been the answer, as it would at least have been slightly more creative

ah damn it - not sure what went wrong, that last sentence was also supposed to be behind spoiler tags

apologies if I spoiled it for anyone

It is behind spoiler tags, don’t worry.

On the other topic, looking at Crossword Friend I see that Stella typical solves the LAT Monday in just under two minutes, so I guess that is still kind of where a typical fast solver would be.

I had problems with the exact same answers as you did.

Jeff Chen gave it a good review though.

Guy is a senior in college, sold his first puzzle to the NYT at age 15 and has sold 22 so far, so yeah, he is next generation hella fast. https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/2/2022

Also not trying to make light of the time it takes to build up stamina to complete the Sunday puzzle on one’s own without fainting.

If I ever start timing my crossword solving, let alone comparing my times to others in terms of seconds elapsed, you all have my permission to shoot me. As many times as needed to ensure I never do that again.

And he won the B division this year: https://www.crosswordtournament.com/2022/standings/divb.htm

Maybe more impressive is being 6th in regular play, between Stella and Joon, despite not usually solving on paper. https://www.crosswordtournament.com/2022/standings/rank.htm

you are all way beyond me

thought carbomb was an interesting answer, although Bailey's, Jameson's and Guinness as a combination sounds revolting

Sunday’s 33A not popular on Crossword Fiend either.

Rex Parker hated it too, the whole puzzle, along the answers we didn’t like, especially that one, despite hanging out with the constructor a lot at XWord tournament outings.

Speed solvers are another breed, as I've only ever cracked 4 minutes ONCE. As for Sundays, I actually like them fine, but this last week's was not fun (kind of prosaic fill/cluing) (even ignoring 33A).

I just passed a year-long streak a few days ago and felt good about it.

While I am not TOO into speed, I do like to finish quickly - for example today I finished under 5 minutes (4:54), which is almost as fast as typing.

But that's not my main goal. I like improving my average over the long term. Unfortunately a system glitch has given me some bizarre 1-minute "best" times.

Anyways.

Solve how you like, do what you like, this is all a voluntary leisure activity

I started getting into the NYT hard sudoku because I'm good at it, but I really don't like the idea of timing in puzzles. I want to walk away and not worry about the clock.

My brother-in-law has OCD and won't even try the timed NYT crossword or sudoku puzzles because they are too stressful for him

I like that Spelling Bee has no clock

I do crosswords to quell the shrieking worries in the back of my mind, so a longer solve is value-adding for me

Speed solving is not for everyone, that's for sure.

I do crosswords to quell the shrieking worries in the back of my mind

I hear you, brother. I do them to stop thinking about cares and stress, not for the mental challenge. The Sunday puzzles take longer, but are solvable without too much brain-sweat and are therefore better for my purposes. I go months without doing any, but save them up and drag 'em out when I need to empty my head.

Agree with Dan S in principle - speed-solving the Bee would not be good for my sanity.

That said, my current routine is that I like to get to Genius on my own, generally before getting out of bed. I can usually get to QB using the Forum grids (but no Hive hints) before work, but it's okay if it leaks a little into the day. Then I turn to the puzzle.

If I haven't finished the daily puzzle by lunchtime, something is probably wrong.

i now have a 25-month streak

friday and saturday are the only interesting ones to me at this point, although one can hope for a truly insane thursday that's all mirrored or some shit

honestly hate sundays; they're almost never interesting, and among so many answers a bunch of them are gonna be lame

i guess 1000 days is within reach and i'll keep going but also i kind of wish i would just forget about it one day

Have to say I am kind of impressed that you guys can solve for years without hitting the check button.

500 days around the corner for me

if it weren’t for the app clock i wouldn’t care at all about timing (well except maybe for those mega-large puzzles they put out every december) - when i solved mostly on paper i never timed myself

friday and saturday are the only interesting ones to me at this point, although one can hope for a truly insane thursday that's all mirrored or some shit

honestly hate sundays; they're almost never interesting, and among so many answers a bunch of them are gonna be lame

Have to say I am kind of impressed that you guys can solve for years without hitting the check button.

For some of us the motivation is purely an irrational worship of the Streak.

I'm going to brag for a bit and say that I usually hit Genius by the time I've had breakfast, though QB is a much rarer achievement (though today I managed to do it without hints, and while I was sitting on the can).

I am not ashamed to say that I do sometimes hit the check button on archived puzzles.

(Like, in addition to doing each day's puzzle, I am also working backward through the archives. I am in 2011 at present, just doing Thursday/Friday/Saturday. Using check on an archived puzzle does not affect your streak or statistics.)

My first sub-5:00 Tuesday puzzle today!