This is the crossword puzzle thread

i don't entirely know how to go much faster than that? I can often get to 5 on mondays but doing any quicker than that on any difficult level seems impossible because of the time spent reading and inputting clues. do people faster than that just immediately know all the answers?

yes

seems like that would get a little boring but what do i know

Mondays are boring, no doubt. It's basically just typing. But streaks and low average times are nice so I just do them, like taking medicine.

can someone explain Thursdays crossword to me?

i thought i understood the concept of rebus but im confused by

Stage a coup RGAONTROL

grABControl

Thursday’s broke us too, we had a really nice streak going and I had just been thinking “60 more days of working from home in lockdown and we’ll finally crack the previous streak record!”

thx!

I loved Thursday, but then I am a 1970s person, aware of the now-dated gimmick.

I could see that numbers were going to be involved when I filled in 3 down, but it wasn't clear yet what was going on so I just went ahead and kept solving.

I think what gave it away (for me) was GENGHIS not fitting unless you did a rebus for the GHI and that was my "aha" moment.

We stupidly attempted plugging in the actual numbers into the rebus a couple of different ways

Yes, I'm hearing that it was picky about how you typed it in, but I didn't have trouble.

i hated it but i am a crossword noob

tom what was

Bisected INA

It was In 2. The conceit of the puzzle was that in one direction the answers were a number and in the other direction they were the 3 letter sequence paired with the number on a touchtone phone.

I signe up for Boswords w/ a friend, on the medium difficulty. Incidentally, I am not fast and he is. Proud to be deadweight.

Stage a Coup: grABControl
bisect: In2

so that one square was ABC/2 which was unpleasant to type and requires you to remember push button/rotary phones.

You could just leave it as ABC though?

Iirc it accepted 2, and then once the puzzle was complete it displayed as ABC.

didn't try that!

It was In 2. The conceit of the puzzle was that in one direction the answers were a number and in the other direction they were the 3 letter sequence paired with the number on a touchtone phone.

― justfanoe (Greg Fanoe), Saturday, October 3, 2020 4:28 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Omg... mind blown

completed my first Saturday today :)

The most recent Saturday was another tough one, especially the SE. Nearly a DNF.

Did pretty well for Bosword's week 1!

Boswords week 1 wrecked me, but I did much better on week 2

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/27/crosswords/do-you-play-spelling-bee-lets-talk.html

Made a boneheaded error in week 2. :(

Did the puzzle today for the first time since, well, whenever I last posted here. Seemed super easy for a Friday.

Same re: Boswords. 'loci' for 'foci' and another error took my score to the crapper.

oh that was my week 1 mistake too!

434 monday is my new top speed. I think i am approaching apex there for me.

some nice chewy answers on saturday. loved it.

Saturday was really challenging! But well-constructed enough that I didn't get naticked.

I see the Bosword standings for week 2, and they did not dock me for my incorrect answers (unless I had a major brain fart and actually answered correctly).

I don’t seem to have shown up in the week 2 bosword standings?

boswords week 3 was tough, got in under 12 minutes clean

Tricky Thursday!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/16/crosswords/spellingbee-puzzles.html

i finally went back to that thursday y'all were tripping on... it's a pain!

if you want a thursday trip, try 15 september 2016

will peek

just looked at that one again, brutal. probably my worst thursday time ever

Oh yeah i remember that one too

odd wednesday

I had to cheat today. :\

yeah this was real tough for a Wednesday, also I think I said this upthread but I really hate running quote puzzles - they’re never really worth it

I forgot who carrie bradshaw was but somehow didn’t have any trouble today.

am incredibly close to Queen Bee as well today (I think) but feel like I’m at the limit of my vocabulary.

man i got SO close on spelling bee today

i realize that rex parker only actually likes about one puzzle per week, but sometimes it's funny to do one you know he's gonna absolutely loathe

I think writing a crossword review every day for however many years has driven him mad

I never remember to check how many clues I've gotten wrong when I submit in Boswords, does anyone know of any way to check after I've completed (besides waiting for the final standings to post)?

it shows you when you submit your answers, but if you miss that you might have to just wait for the results or for the solution to post

Oof, Boswords this week is tough, needed almost 20 minutes to solve, though it came out clean at least.

yeah killed me too

Dammit I forgot to do Boswords this week before the cutoff and so I'm saddled with a 0.