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

The Atlantic Monthly (right? not Harper's?) runs cryptics by Ravathon and Cox, who are hands-down the best cruciverbalists in this country.

I've never heard anyone talk about them getting harder as a month progresses, though. What do you do when the end of a month is on a Tuesday? Seems like madness.

I can do Saturdays about 33% of the time but it takes a few hours and usually a breather in between solving attempts. I am bringing some for my x-country train trip tomorrow.

Did they want the correct letter Ø in the answer?

You know, last I checked the NY Sun had a really good puzzle. Lots of well-known constructors. I've bought some of the collections.

OK, here's something.

WAAAAAAH!

Tracer: I'll complain that the Sundays are surprisingly boring and tedious considering their fame.

Saturday's NYT puzzle is really the hardest for me, because the answers are longer words. I can do it maybe 50% of the time. Monday-Thursday I can almost always solve, Friday about 70%. Sunday takes longer, but I can usually do it easier than Saturday's.

My complaints for this week are: "dais" twice in a row, with practically the same clue, what's next, "microphone's environs"?

I catch this thread a year after the fact, and wowee: I totally remember this one! I really enjoyed it! One of those dramatic Thursdays where figuring out the theme opens up a whole new world. It's like the moment in action movies where the hero's getting his ass kicked by an unstoppable creature and then suddenly the geek calls in and says "it's fire, he's only vulnerable to fire," and then the hero turns around all refreshed and lays his smack down.

plus did the circled spaces actually spell anything? i feel like there was something i was missing

the circles were "crossings", as in down-clue crossing the across-clue (or vice versa, I forget).

"columbus" was the first of those that i got, and i was all like "aha! columbus circle!" but no. i liked that. but then the circles proved to mean 0. i even took the circled letters and tried to anagramatize them, but they make nothing.

i obv thought "tee" at first, but then that makes the clue that goes through it "Big Eest" .. "Big East", surely?

WTF, Shortz?

Am I the only one who's a bit skeptical about this?

SLAWS may be the funniest word.

The Nintendo DS NTY Xword game is pretty sweet bcz you can have a friend (w/no cartridge even!) share a game & you solve the crossword together, each collaborating on yr own DS's screen. So much better than trying to arm in over each others' arms and omelettes and coffee while mutually solving.

Some of my favorite times have been tackling the xword with friends at a diner.

that "slaws" clue STILL has the power to bother me. more than three years later

i finally had coleslaw on a burger, yesterday - it was great - but no matter how many bowls of different peoples' coleslaw was out there, it would all just be "slaw"

the plural of "slaw", in other words, is "slaw"

ffs lads

Synonym found after deleting half the letters of EXHILARATE

Pulitzer-winning author whose name is found in nonconsecutive letters of “page turner”

i mean i’m sorry that james AGEE is inevitable fill several times a month but try harder

for all of the grid embellishments, that puzzle was kind of dull in general.

57A was brutal clue and answer.

not really a complaint, but it’s weird to go six years without ARHAT then get it on back-to-back days

I learned it from the NYT Spelling Bee!