This is the crossword puzzle thread

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

immortality is hers

I'm thinking of doing Boswords, but maybe signing up for Smooth instead of Choppy?

Do it! I switched to choppy from the hardest level (stormy?) which made it a lot more fun, still plenty challenging under time pressure.

Really liked this last NYTimes Sunday, simple idea executed elegantly

Signed up for Boswords as a Smoothie, hopefully that'll ease my ego!

Today's NYT has a very cool grid.

this was, for me, the most interesting sunday nyt in quite a while

Yeah, I enjoyed it, particularly after the Friday provided no resistance at all, a new (not globally impressive) record for me.

33D was the last in and I still don't really understand it? It wasn't helped by me blind-guessing ALLOW instead of ALL OF for 11D.

But I should have known that the answer to 39A is what the answer to any near-similar clue always is, a vast maw consuming everything.

8 themed clues though!

I am such a compulsively linear solver that I completed the puzzle without getting the theme. That happens to me with fair frequency.

Hit me like three minutes later. OH!

33D: I imagine it's play on beer keg and soda fountain.

I liked today's theme, hard as it was.

33D was the last in and I still don't really understand it?

RIP to my NYT streak, not because of a Natick but because I somehow just forgot to do it, which I didn't even realize had happened two weeks ago.

you're free now

Welcome to the camp! One of us, one of us, we accept you, one of us!

I don't feel free. :(

I skipped a day a month ago, and said goodbye to a 500-day streak. Ah, well. Life goes on.

We’re all normal and we want our rebus.