This is the crossword puzzle thread

figured out what the meaning of it was

Agreed that this one was tough - I think I got the Snowbird/Steamboat one and said "aha!". Couldn't get the Jeopardy one because I didn't expect it to span across words. Ultimately finished it but it was a slog.

Generally I'd say there are some pretty high-quality puzzles lately. Surprisingly good theme on Wednesday (the crossing of Greek and Roman deities) and Sunday had really good cluing, like noted name in clogs = LIQUIDPLUMR

However the standout of the last several days has to be the deeply tricky Thursday July 13, with "paradise" being rendered as DIE DIE, "paradox" as DOC DOC, and "paradigm" as DIME DIME. That was an extremely satisfying solve.

yeah had to use the checker a few times - I figured out what the zzz’s were but there was some weird clueing on some of the other fill too.

I really liked the theme on Tuesday though - the answers and revealer all came together really nicely.

xpost Tuesday, meaning the Wednesday one mentioned in YMP’s post :)

Yeah Roz that was a very well-executed puzzle and I was a bit surprised to see it appear so early in the week!

i also really liked the thursday the 13th puzzle

gimmick today was fine but yeah some of the cluing -- 33A, 38D pop to mind -- was pretty sketchy

also absolutely no one needs a clue about a 25yo everlast song c'mon

re: Everlast especially when the answer itself is so meh.

Yeah that struck me as an odd way to clue, but whatev

tough one today (saturday).. got super stuck in the top left corner. i was alternating between folk/home/cold remedies on 11a, edgar and degas on 23d, employ and deploy on 15a, gales and gusts on 18a, also totally fell for the diversion in 19a where i was thinking of economic inflation and had CPI then PPI. good puzzle

This is an incredible feat of construction: http://blog.bewilderinglypuzzles.com/2023/07/puzzle-212-two-for-price-of-one.html

this was fun https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/crossword/2023/07/14

Yes, fun. I don't think I'd ever encountered 4 down.

(And yeah the gimmick of two different words can work equally well takes a pretty skilled constructor to pull off.)

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.

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

Freud puzzle was funny!

xp yeah the vagueness of his clueing is appropriately difficult for a Saturday but the solves are just kinda “sure…I guess”

today's is just groaners all the way down

56A was pretty good but yeah, otherwise meh.

ya 56a was hilarious

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!

I’ve made the bitcoin joke a few times over the years re silicon valley types

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

Ugh today's is hard and bad.

I thought it was kinda charming but 16A was a new one for me

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.

i thought it was fine, but that the revealer should have been a dave brubeck reference

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.

13A just as annoying imho

16A is nice in that it also describes how I feel about the clue

today’s NYT puzzle features the most useless ‘theme’ i’ve ever encountered

embarrassed for everyone involved

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.

I like Tuesday's theme but it was the kind of theme that only made sense after you solved the puzzle

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."

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

enjoyed today's theme

Posted my best ever time of 3:01 with yesterday's (i.e. a Tuesday)!

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

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.

you can turn the crossword timer off in the settings

Leee do you do the crossword on the computer or on the app?

If I'm in bed, I'm using the app, but usually I'm on a desktop, especially if I'm solving for speed.

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

if by laptop you mean 'on the nyt website', uncheck this

https://i.imgur.com/IhzossD.jpg

(i also hate the running timer)

thank you mookieproof

Themed puzzle today. NE was incredibly hard for me to get into until I took a few chances.

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

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.

Clever puzzle today.

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.