This is the crossword puzzle thread

otm

Enjoyed today’s.

How did people feel about today’s puzzle?

nice concept once i got it but found some of the other fill kind of tricky/annoying

I liked it after I figured out the gimmick, but yeah, my initial run through the grid also made me feel like I was wearing a helmet of needles.

^thirded
was that a reference to an episode of Married With Children?

solid premise imo

33A is bullshit tho; hazards/traps are explicitly not on greens

Tea kettles let off steam not teapots or am I crazy

I did it too late at night and didn't understand the revealer correctly, drove me insane until I stared and it clicked. Clever tho. I'd no idea that word referred to a firework, either.

I like Sunday 65D

Oof, today's is hard.

I did OK on it. Faster than the time on crossword fiend, anyway

can anyone here do diagramless crosswords? I think I lack the spatial intelligence to get anywhere

I used to do them, but didn't feel strongly about them either way. Are you looking for tips or something? I can't remember but they didn't seem particularly difficult, just potentially tedious.

either tips or commiseration I guess

I was just able to use the numbering and the symmetry along with the clues to fill in the grid I guess, don't remember any specifics unfortunately.

xps yeah it was a workout but managed not to irritate me, which is impressive

today’s is fiendishly hard, can’t get into the NE at all for some reason

yeah this was a real struggle

tough one for sure. boo to 12D of course and I've never heard of 6D

I managed to finish clearly and without cheating but yeah, pretty brutal. As for that NE, I'll give 18A some side eye (as well as echoing the sentiments for 6D and 12D).

*Cleanly

Yeah I originally had CLAMBAKE and TEATRADE, and both took a while to set right. Like, wtaf is BONEATH?

same

I didn't like doing today's but, after solving it, I can admire its cleverness.

bleh - the gimmick was fun but the fill was fckn awful I thought. Stupid non-phrases, obscure proper names, even one abbrev I felt was misspelled altho Google tells me the two spellings are close in usage.

cute gimmick today even if I did spend ages trying to figure out how to fill in the rebus solutions

Well, how? I have tried several ways. Like I tried QUEEN HEART, QUEEN/HEART, and QUEEN OF HEARTS. I know my answers are right. Last time this happened it varied widely by what device, browser, app. I shouldn't care but it is frustrating

I had to look it up too but this worked for me on android:

For the Queen of Clubs, you can enter any of these options: "QUEEN", "QUEENOFCLUBS", "Q", "CLUB", "C", "QUEEN/CLUB", "CLUB/QUEEN", "Q/C", or "C/Q". The easiest would just be either Q or C, both of which work.

For the non face cards, I entered the numerical values eg 10 and it worked.

I did it the second way YMP said and it worked first time (on the app). Are you sure your answers are right?

Well, I normally do Sunday on the website (old eyes), so now I'm trying it every which way in the app. And yes I am sure.

...which worked, thanks, Streak intact at 450+

Was there ultimately some kind of streak amnesty given?

first puzzle I have quit out of boredom

https://i.gifer.com/7PFN.gif

Was the diagramless question in reference to the recent AV Club puzzle? I ended up really enjoying that, even if at first I was despairing.

I used the hint about which column 1-across started in though, it would have been extremely hard to get going without that. And yeah, it's all about the symmetry. Early on I messed something up enough (in pen) that made me print out a new grid.

yes, that one and the aries puzzles one (https://www.ariespuzzles.com/2022/06/diagramless-3.html)

I was able to hack through the av club puzzle using the hint of course. still couldn't make out the shape without looking at the answer, my grid lacked artistry lol

Can someone explain 39A today?

On another note, I've noticed that Rex will bitterly complain about a puzzle if it has facts and trivia that he doesn't know, and prefers stuff that he's already familiar with, which seems awfully close-minded and incurious to me.

A “shampoo and set” is a process in which ladies of a certain age put their hair in curlers and emerge curly-haired for an extended period

*hair rollers I meant

easy easy easy then HARD

Saturday’s puzzle by Lance Enfinger was really good.

agreed

can we really do no better than APT ANAGRAM OF ‘VILE’

ffs

Great revive

Clever theme today!

Today's grid is really impressive.

Less than a week until Lollapuzzoola

Think I will probably pass this year

44A

https://www.brendanemmettquigley.com/2022/09/crossword-1502-themeless-monday.html