This is the crossword puzzle thread

it was a Wednesday puzzle and I had a few minutes to spare -- and it was all Latin themed clues, which was nice

omg ysi?

Yes and no. I mean, it takes me several hours to create the fills and usually I'm so relieved to be done that I can rush through the clues in mere minutes. But it's a challenge to make really good clues, ones that will make the difference between an easy and a (more interesting) difficult puzzle. For instance, I like to put a lot of pop-culture references in my puzzles, but a lot of times these are hard to create ambiguous clues for; some end up just being fill-in-the-blanks.

(xpost)

Re: YSI: Oh uh I did it and then recycled it. It might still be in my recycle bin though. But it'll have the answers.

Har, no worries Casuistry. Are we talking about cryptics or non- here btw?

Cryptic thread is another one, mostly UK posters, but jaymc and Casuistry show up too.

i can do ny times up through wednesday 80-90% of the time with a fair amount of ease, thursday closer to 50-60% (usually with some help), friday almost never, and i dont think ive ever finished a saturday ny times x-word

Oh. I have. Either I get hopeless stuck on a Saturday (30% of the time?) or it takes about 45 minutes. Or, it did when I was doing them all the time.

last week's sunday ny times crossword i did in less than an hour (this is not usually the case for me).

i cannot, under any circumstances, ever finish a cryptic crossword

New crossword from me.

Haha "what johns do."

The school clue is super-great, too!

I was momentarily thrown by two spellings not conforming to the way the NYT would render them -- and then in both cases yours seems more Korrect, and theirs seems more of the variEnt.

I'm pretty sure I know one of the two you mean. Is this the other? Because I think that's always spelled like that, even though a word that contains that word has a NYT-preferred variant.

Nope, two different ones -- 9 across and 48 across.

And actually, funny though it may be, I'm kind of annoyed with "what johns do," just because it's a bit of a stretch, even for a Tausig-type puzzle. Really hard to work with five theme fills, though!

Nope, two different ones -- 9 across and 48 across.

Ah! I had originally used the variant for 48-A until I looked it up in Wikipedia and saw that that was a common mistake.

my pops schooled me on that holiday sunday NYT puzzle. :(

i got ben tausig's book and i'm about halfway through it, although his cluing seems to have gotten harder as he went along.

I think you can get away with one giant stretch per puzzle, so long as it's , you know, funny.

Try to be a little sneakier with the clues, maybe? "When Romeo dies" -- the present tense gives that one away far too quickly. Make it past tense, so there's at least a chance that I'll panic for a moment trying to figure out if we know the year -- or, better, "Where Romeo died", and I might think you're going for "GENOA" and realize that won't fit and wonder if I am misremembering the story -- or, maybe even better, for a good Thursdayish clue, find some other character who dies in a similar place, but whose name does not immediately ring of Shakespeare, and I'll be mystified for a while, but it will eventually come to me. Because it's that sort of strip-tease, right?

"What johns do" is nicely phrased for sure, though.

That's a fair point, Chris. My thought process for that clue was basically, "I need something that happens there ... Oh, well, obviously: Romeo dies ... Is that too easy? ... What happens in Othello? ... *reads Wikipedia article about Othello* ... yeah, not really feeling that ... I should probably be working right now ... All right, 'When Romeo dies.'"

That's sort of what I meant about the clues being the hard part. But you saw the movie, right? How Will Shortz basically rewrites half the clues for the puzzles he accepts?

Anyway I'm not trying to discourage you, of course. I just want more awesome crosswords to do.

Speaking of Tausig puzzles: the numbering of the clues in the Onion one this week (the sports issue) is completely off!

Haha, rly? It was correct online.

Yeah, it's bad enough that 1/3 of the down clues are sometimes randomly deleted; this time I was like, "Yeah, that's not gonna work."

Another new one. Title is exactly the same as Ben Tausig's Ink Well puzzle last week but with a different interpretation.

I think this is your hardest one yet, for sure.

Good!

Do you have .puz files?

Wow, jaymc, that last one is really good.

I used to want to make my own crosswords, and looked for books on how to construct them, but never could find any. Are there such things, or do you just get in there and figure it out?

Most books about crossword puzzles seem to have an obligatory section on making them, I think. I read Eugene T. Maleska's book, and boy was he proud of the awful crosswordese he used to drill into his puzzles, but I'm pretty sure it had a chapter on making puzzles.

No, I don't have .puz files. I need to look into that. Also crossword constructors are always talking about a software program called Across Lite?

And thanks, Rock. I just sort of figured it out through trial and error. All you really need to know is the basic rules for what the grid needs to look like: no words shorter than three letters, diagonal symmetry. But any good software (like Crossword Weaver, which I use) will help you make sure you don't do anything irregular.

When I started out doing themeless puzzles, I would just start at the top-right and work my way around the puzzle intuitively. With themed puzzles, I do the theme fills first and then work outward from the middle.

I'm still a little wtf over this Tausig one from the other day (I'm working through his book). The clue is "Good Buddy" and the answer is "CBER". I assume it's CB radio, but still doesn't quite make sense to me?

cockblocker?

I'm guessing that someone who uses CB radio is a CBer, in the same way that Tausig uses the clue "Recipient of 'You've got mail' message" for AOLER.

just "CBer," as in one who does CB? seems ok to me

xpost dang it

http://www.filmaffinity.com/imgs/movies/full/31/317347.jpg

Yeah guys, I know that CBer is one who does CB, but how do you get that from "good buddy"?

that is CB slang, they say stuff like "ten-four, good buddy."

http://www.impawards.com/1977/posters/smokey_and_the_bandit.jpg

Across Lite is the program that you use to enjoy .puz files, and you can get it from the NYTimes website, and they distribute their puzzles to online subscribers in that format. Someone you know might have a year's worth of such .puz files, but he has perhaps already worked through them all.

Also, you're supposed to have no more than [a certain number] of black squares if you hope to get published by the big-leagues, and certain black-square formations are frowned upon (full 90 degree right angles -- basically anything Tetris-y).

I think it's 17% black squares, or 40 squares in a 15x15 puzzle. Though Tausig had one that was 46 recently.

certain black-square formations are frowned upon (full 90 degree right angles -- basically anything Tetris-y).

I didn't know this.

I'm not sure it's as hard-and-fast a rule as the percentage one, but on those rare occasions when I see such a puzzle, I'm always a little startled by it. I dunno, I should flip through one of my NYTimes books to make sure I'm not fooling myself about it.

Diagramless puzzles, of course, are all about that.

http://www.cruciverb.com/index.php/articles/htmlpages/120

A++ for "Paris's friend," Jaymc -- actually took me a while, with excellent payoff

Total pro-level theme on that one, too!

Ha, I sort of wrote that one with you in mind, N!

The "Paris's friend" clue, I mean.

I had to look that one up after I got the answer, I don't watch that show.

At first I thought it was going to be some Trojan warrior. But I saw the show out of the corner of my eye enough when my wife was watching it to figure it out.

I alread e-mailed this to jaymc:

Haha, on your crossword, I initially had CLASH OF THE TITS (crossing with CUTS DOWN)! I know it's CLASH OF THE TANS and GUNS DOWN now. It works with the theme, though!

this was fun https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/crossword/2023/07/14

Yes, fun. I don't think I'd ever encountered 4 down.

(And yeah the gimmick of two different words can work equally well takes a pretty skilled constructor to pull off.)

This is an incredible feat of construction: http://blog.bewilderinglypuzzles.com/2023/07/puzzle-212-two-for-price-of-one.html

Hard AF (needed hints to get NE and SW of the right puzzle), but yeah, impressive construction.

Re Saturday’s: I should just skip all of Sam Ezersky’s puzzles, we’re just on a completely different wavelength. I can appreciate difficult puzzles but I never feel satisfied or impressed by any of his

Freud puzzle was funny!

xp yeah the vagueness of his clueing is appropriately difficult for a Saturday but the solves are just kinda “sure…I guess”

today's is just groaners all the way down

56A was pretty good but yeah, otherwise meh.

ya 56a was hilarious

ok that two for the price of one puzzle was brutal - solved it as far as i could go by myself, then used a couple hints to get to the finish line. really challenging but pretty ingenious!

I’ve made the bitcoin joke a few times over the years re silicon valley types

yeah I needed hints just to know which puzzle I was in - don't think I could have done it on pen and paper. cool to see how far it's possible to take the heisenberg puzzle concept

Ugh today's is hard and bad.

I thought it was kinda charming but 16A was a new one for me

There's a fine line between "same old same old" gimmicks and "wtf, how dare you do this weird thing" gimmicks.

I am decades into this journey and I am along for the ride. If sometimes it rankles, well, ok.

Tomorrow morning it will be a different thing and I will do the best I can with that thing.

i thought it was fine, but that the revealer should have been a dave brubeck reference

I was mostly complaining about the NW corner (16A also rang no bells for me); I didn't understand the gimmick and didn't feel like trying to figure it out on my own.

13A just as annoying imho

16A is nice in that it also describes how I feel about the clue

today’s NYT puzzle features the most useless ‘theme’ i’ve ever encountered

embarrassed for everyone involved

Mookieproof, do you mean Tuesday's?

The theme wasn't necessary, but it wasn't that bad imo. I don't think I could have constructed very many pairings like NY|PA.

Or do you mean the Monday, which is unsurprisingly boring... because it's Monday and is meant for beginners.

I like Tuesday's theme but it was the kind of theme that only made sense after you solved the puzzle

Yeah I am pretty doctrinaire about solving top left to bottom right. There have been a LOT of puzzles that I solved 100% correctly without ever getting the theme, then I look back and I'm like "oh, okay."

yeah, i meant tuesday’s

there’s nothing about it that’s integral to the solving process; it’s just at the end you learn that — wow! — four whole times they managed to put the two-letter abbreviations of abutting states next to each other. so what? it’s not a marvel of construction and it adds nothing substantive to actually doing the puzzle. it is neither hat nor cattle. much rather see a themeless than a theme so tenuous

enjoyed today's theme

Posted my best ever time of 3:01 with yesterday's (i.e. a Tuesday)!

I'm only yet adept at Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday I can sometimes do without help, Thursday, Friday, and especially Saturday not yet. I hate that the NYT pushes the time in your face, I try to ignore it. They don't do that for Spelling Bee (my favorite puzzle), Connections (which I can take or leave) or Wordle.

Wordle fills me with the most anxiety. It is a great puzzle, but there are traps, and there is something about it that makes it a game I don't want to lose

That's all fair; the main reason I pay attention to my time is that I very occasionally do tournaments (not often though). I think maybe I was overly influenced by the Wordplay documentary, which I watched early in my solving days.

you can turn the crossword timer off in the settings

Leee do you do the crossword on the computer or on the app?

If I'm in bed, I'm using the app, but usually I'm on a desktop, especially if I'm solving for speed.

I use a laptop, not the app, and haven't found a way to turn off the time stats on the main page using the settings.

I try doing the crossword using the app on my iPad when I'm traveling, but it's always a mess for me

if by laptop you mean 'on the nyt website', uncheck this

https://i.imgur.com/IhzossD.jpg

(i also hate the running timer)

thank you mookieproof

Themed puzzle today. NE was incredibly hard for me to get into until I took a few chances.

i found the one a few thursdays ago very difficult - the one about black ops maybe it was just because i hadn’t done one in a couple of months? felt more like a friday or even saturday tbh. v enjoyable tho

Is anyone else having problems playing the NYT Xword on a desktop browser? It's not letting me log in, and so I have to play on mobile.

Clever puzzle today.

I liked it too but had the (frequent) sensation that I would solve it completely and correctly, and only get the theme later. Which is what happened.

I’m gonna stream some crossword solving on twitch in about half an hour

https://twitch.tv/silby89

very angered at ROLF on wednesday's xw

40-down in today’s NYT is wholly new to me

I think I'd heard the word before, but couldn't tell you what it meant.

The revealer is a 5/5 groaner.

yeah good puzzle today!

40-down is the name of a character in dune messiah iirc

wow

i guess you no longer need the weirding module

Tomorrow's NYT theme is reminiscent of a puzzle I submitted to them 15 years ago, which was rejected.

Mine:

Full-grown frontiersman?: FOX CARSON
Full-grown rock musician?: KOALA RAMONE
Full-grown inventor?: SAMUEL HORSE
Full-grown actor?: RYAN GOOSE

NYT, 4/16/24:

*Actor who played Oscar Wilde in "Wilde" [fish]: STEPHEN FRY
*Inventor who patented the first revolver [stallion]: SAMUEL COLT
*English essayist who wrote "Lawyers, I suppose, were children once" [ram]: CHARLES LAMB
*Mouseketeer peer of Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake [gander]: RYAN GOSLING
*Certain immature adult … with a hint to both halves of the answers to each starred clue: MAN BABY

Today's puzzle is admittedly better, conceptually -- but it's funny now to remember that one of the reasons I was given for why my puzzle was rejected was that Ryan Gosling wasn't famous enough.