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 (six years ago) link
is DANK MEMES really what we’rve come to
― mookieproof, Saturday, 7 July 2018 05:10 (five years ago) link
YesAnd why is Saturday easy now
― El Tomboto, Saturday, 7 July 2018 09:55 (five years ago) link
Oh wait j. and I complained about this a year ago
― El Tomboto, Saturday, 7 July 2018 09:57 (five 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 (four 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 (three years ago) link
Britishism, I believe.
― Judd Apatowsaurus (Leee), Wednesday, 29 April 2020 17:43 (three years ago) link
nobelist wieselnobelist wieselnobelist wieselnobelist wieselnobelist wiesel
― mookieproof, Thursday, 21 May 2020 03:53 (three 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 (three years ago) link
i mean... i beat it but I still don't understand the connecting clues. shit makes no sense today.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Sunday, 24 May 2020 19:35 (three years ago) link
there was an error in the print edition
It has been brought to our attention there is a numbering error in this weekend's @NYTmag crossword. The row with a repeat "92" should read "93, 94, 95".This error is not related to the puzzle's mystery hunt and the digital puzzle is unaffected. https://t.co/sHrwdtyDVu— New York Times Games (@NYTimesGames) May 23, 2020
― ruin a band name by changing one litter (voodoo chili), Sunday, 24 May 2020 19:36 (three years ago) link
this puzzle was laaaame
― mookieproof, Sunday, 24 May 2020 19:52 (three years ago) link
yeah i'm not sure why any of those people were 'aptly' named??
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 24 May 2020 19:56 (three years ago) link
the butler was gerard, the page was ellen, the porter was cole
but yeah, was very lame
― ruin a band name by changing one litter (voodoo chili), Sunday, 24 May 2020 19:57 (three years ago) link
but how is that “apt”?
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 24 May 2020 20:36 (three years ago) link
i thought it was fun regardless. that said i’m starting to really appreciate the wednesday puzzle. no tricks, no puns. just straight up.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 24 May 2020 20:37 (three years ago) link
ok, just revisited that corner. calling the numbering mistake 'minor' is an undersell. it's really quite something. 3 clues with the wrong number. clue 95D is answered in 94D, clue 94D is answered in 93D and clue 93D is answered in 92D. what's more, there are two 92 acrosses in the grid, but only one 92A clue.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 24 May 2020 20:41 (three years ago) link
there’s logic to it, but “apt” is a weird word choice
― ruin a band name by changing one litter (voodoo chili), Sunday, 24 May 2020 20:56 (three years ago) link
the digital one didn't have any of the explanation about the butler, porter, etc! I didn't know what the fuck i was looking at until i opened the magazine.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Sunday, 24 May 2020 23:24 (three years ago) link
crossing oleo with olio is an absolute cry for help
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 27 May 2020 02:35 (three years ago) link
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 27 May 2020 02:42 (three years ago) link
Ah, did not know that. Thanks.I had the same thought re:olio/oleo
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 27 May 2020 02:49 (three years ago) link
The constructor wrote:
My original version was more difficult: ELLEN, MINNIE, TIKI, etc. were clued normally — with no indication that they figured into the story. The solver needed to discover the names hidden in the rooms, unlocking the rest of the mystery. (I kept other first names out of the grid — a surprisingly challenging restriction!) But after extensive testing, Will and his team decided to indicate the suspects more overtly.
That would have made the meta much more interesting.
― fatuous salad (symsymsym), Thursday, 28 May 2020 17:04 (three years ago) link
At some point it would be nice to frey a really challenging Sunday puzzle. Sunday Extreme.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 28 May 2020 17:14 (three years ago) link
a challenge today
― mookieproof, Saturday, 6 June 2020 22:23 (three years ago) link
Yes. I did the lower half. Taking a little break.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 6 June 2020 22:38 (three years ago) link
HATE IT
― mookieproof, Thursday, 30 July 2020 03:34 (three years ago) link
Easy breezy for me, got into a groove somehow where all the down answers leapt out
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 30 July 2020 04:41 (three years ago) link
Yeah I think the down clues were closer to Tuesday difficulty to adjust for the gimmick, but it led to beating my Thursday average by like a half hour
― unashamed and trash (Unctious), Thursday, 30 July 2020 11:28 (three years ago) link
yeah it was super-easy. still hate it
― mookieproof, Thursday, 30 July 2020 14:40 (three years ago) link
Only 3/4 the number of clues as usual - I feel ripped off
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 30 July 2020 16:00 (three years ago) link
I enjoyed it. I also did it at an insomniac 12:27am moment, so that might've had something to do with it. I like puzzles that make me slow down and, you know, puzzle a little more.
― america's favorite (remy bean), Thursday, 30 July 2020 16:41 (three years ago) link
except the gimmick means you race through it faster, surely
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 30 July 2020 16:43 (three years ago) link
I actually misunderstood the gimmick! Because of some early errant answer, I thought that the two-word answers were supposed to be broken apart in novel ways that formed other words. For example, I thought the two word answer SKI SLOPE was meant to be input as SKIS LOPE. When I figured out out the real (less interesting answer, I had a good little aha moment.In other words I did the crossword wrong and felt smart when I got it right, even though my version was clearly more fun.
― rb (soda), Thursday, 30 July 2020 16:54 (three years ago) link