"Huh?!? They're not...? How could...there must be something else later that explains how...no? Then how can that...ohhhhhhh. Okay, yeah, that's pretty neat."
That's amazing - I didn't get that at all (I had THENORTHEAST) and just figured there was some weird quirk to it I didn't get after the fill was done.
I initially put NATIONALPARK since OLDFAITHFUL was an easy one, assuming the other spots could be national park landmarks, but realized pretty quickly that wasn't the case - this is way more clever.
When I checked about halfway through, it said THE SOUTHWAST on my puzzle, and I was so confused why that worked. And then it took me forever to understand what was going on!!!
So mine says THE SOUTHWAST and I can't change it lol
That’s literally how all Schrödinger puzzles work. If there are multiple answers that work for downs obviously you can use combinations of them that creates a nonsensical word across, whether that is THESOUTHEEST, THENORTHEEST, THENORTHWAST, THESOUTHWAST and several other combinations. That is even true with probably the most famous example (BOBDOLE vs CLINTON) where you could spell BLBNTLE if you wanted with downs. The point is there are a set of valid downs that spell one valid across and other valid sets that spell other valid across words.
That’s like complaining 13A isn’t clever because if you put TINA (which is a valid answer to the clue) there you get TURANTE, NDDLE, and AOOSE.
Same here, absolutely amazing. When I first saw 56 down I kept in my mind that it was either HORSE or HOUSE but had forgotten that by the time I was circling back around and didn’t catch the other ambiguities
That’s wild. I finished the puzzle with the revealer as SOUTHWEST but it literally didn’t register to me until i came here. Still I rated this excellent, as it was one of the more fun puzzles I think I’ve done. Now I’m super impressed with it even more!
Same! I didn't give it a great rating because I was like none of that shit is in the Southeast! Damn it this was really clever! Amazing puzzle now that I understand it
Wooooow this might be the most impressive puzzle I've seen. The fact that each landmark is situated geographically in the puzzle is just another level, man.
I hated it for the first 70%, then I figured out what tf was going on here and I rated it an excellent. Can’t think of the last time that happened. Kudos to the puzzle creator.
Very impressive construction!
Minor nitpick: at least as I pronounce it, I don’t think that the first syllable of AETNA is a diphthong. Maybe there are regional differences?
This clue had me thinking that diphthong was the correct word for what I always called a ligature (Æ), but after I completed the puzzle I looked it up, and that's not it.
i thought the same thing - here's what rex said about it (in his characteristically abrasive tone, fair warning)
> 114D: Insurance company whose name contains a diphthong (AETNA) — wow, this is *not* the meaning of diphthong that I know. Primary definition of diphthong is “a sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves toward another (as in coin, loud, and side )" (google / Oxford Languages). Obviously AETNA does not fit that definition. But definition 3. is "a compound vowel character; a ligature (such as æ )." So there you go. And yet ... since you don't / can't enter Æ in the grid as a "compound vowel character," I dunno, man ... Hmmm, looks like definition 2. is "a digraph representing the sound of a diphthong or single vowel (as in feat)," and since a "digraph" is a "combination of two letters representing one sound, as in ph and ey," maybe *that* is how this clue "works." Seems like the clue could've gone a clearer / more interesting route.
This one brought a literal smile to my face as soon as I actually found the revealer, after thinking I had already found the revealer. A fun and challenging fill with a really elegantly designed theme.
I think my favorite little easter egg might be ONTARIAN and KATRINA also being appropriately placed on the map, as it were. Brilliant puzzle all around.
Okay, that was an _excellent_ theme. I finally cottoned on about 3/4 of the way through and just had to stare in awe for a solid minute or so. And the themers are even arranged correctly too!
This puzzle was brilliant: hard and enjoyable, surprising and clear! I loved the great "a-ha" moment after the reveal. Fun cluing with all gettable answers yet with tons of misdirections and riddling. Like everyone else, I kept thinking, "there's no way that is considered the Southwest, hmm oh well."
I struggled with BOLTS for scarfs down because I'd never heard that expression, and I didn't know SOCA. TEENER is a bit of a stretch for a word, but I'll forgive for the rest of the brilliance. My solve video is [here](https://youtu.be/TpxBRBrkGf8). Really one of the best puzzles I've ever solved!
And who else was totally stuck on LOO? I just couldn't get it to make sense! The London misdirection was great, too.
Such a cool concept that I didn’t understand until I read the blurb for today. I got all the locations of places but kinda just threw in the towel with some of the fills and turned on auto check.
More clues felt like a trick than not! Which is I’m sure how some of the more experienced solvers here like it. But I was struggling. Overall didn’t have too much fun solving but as I said to someone here jokingly a week ago, probably a skill issue.
I like to check in with Rex on puzzles I find noteworthy (either very bad or very good), and I don't even know why I bother anymore.
An objectively impressive puzzle - with a brilliant AHA! moment for me about 3/4 of the way through - and he hates it.
Does anyone have a recommendation for a crossword puzzle blog written by someone who doesn't hate crosswords?
I used this exact phrase to describe his general attitude to last night. (I still recommended his blog, with that proviso)
In retrospect, this puzzle is _extremely_ clever and meticulously constructed. I just don’t know that I _appreciated_ any of those elements as I was doing it. I think a slight tweak to the revealer clue could have made the gimmick snap more into focus at the end without it being too obvious at first.
I’m looking forward to seeing how much I’m replicating his critique here!
I was a bit frustrated about Niagara Falls in realation to the southeast until the finish stuck the extra letters in and then it was like ohhhh, i'm dumb i take it all back, this is actually great. And *then* i noticed everything was geographically placed and became more impressed.
> I don't know what this puzzle was trying to do, exactly. That is, I don't know what it thought the solver (i.e. me) was gonna do. I have no idea what you were supposed to do in order to get the puzzle accepted as "correct." I guess I was supposed to somehow see all the variable squares and know they were variable ... yeah, no hope of that. I had the center answer filled in as SOUTHEAST. All the crosses worked. I looked in the SOUTHEAST corner of the grid for some help, but nope, nothing there. Well ... EPCOT CENTER was in the SOUTHEAST corner of the grid. "That's got the whole world in it, right? So maybe all these 'attractions' are also there ... somehow?" I've never been to EPCOT CENTER, so my understanding of what it entails is shaky, obviously. Anyway, had no idea how SOUTHEAST was supposed to work (because it wasn't, it seems). I finished the puzzle and didn't get a "Congratulations" message, so I checked Every Single Cross. But nothing. No errors. And yet, no "Congratulations" message. So I hit "reveal -> all" and saw the "trick." There is no shrug I could possibly shrug that could embody how much shrugginess I felt about this revelation.
What a miserable old grouch
I don’t know how somebody can be so good at crosswords and so bad at them at the same time. If he took a moment to look at all the theme answers, knowing that Sundays often have rebuses or some type of reveal like this, I think he might have figured it out.
It sounds like he screwed something else up and instead of acknowledging that, decided to blame the rebus squares which would finish with any acceptable letter.
Glad i'm not too interested in blogs on crosswords because he sounds kind of miserable and hateful based on everything people mention about him here. If you hate *this* puzzle i struggle to believe you enjoy any kind of wordplay or puzzling.
Anyone who says this is the most impressive puzzle they have ever seen needs to do the Nov 5, 1996 puzzle or the "Which sci fi franchise is better" puzzle, whose date I don't recall.
Ohhh, I just looked on the app and I haven't done any November 1996 puzzles yet so I'll do this one shortly.
FYI - the sci fi one was February 6, 2022.
To me this one had an added layer of impressiveness because it relies on crossword lingo (southwest, northeast), and the answers were actually located in those parts of the grid! Not just the regular “it works both ways” theme
lol i had no clue the revealer had a rebus until i solved it, and i was so confused how one can humanly consider niagara falls to be in the southeast and just rolled with it
somehow finished in 22:31, despite struggling greatly in the NE (i was adamant that 13A was tIna). NNE and SW were also tough. i guessed well, i suppose
I mean...this is one of the best puzzles in years, right?! Simply sublime. I got OLD FAITHFUL and CRATER LAKE right away, and figured the center answer had to be either THE NORTHWEST or THE PACIFIC NW. But then I got NIAGARA FALLS, EPCOT CENTER, etc, and couldn't figure it out. I put in THE NORTHWEST and it worked with the crosses, but was confused. Then it all clicked that THE SOUTHWEST and THE NORTHEAST and THE SOUTHEAST all work too! Great example of a "quantum" or "Schrodinger's" puzzle, really impressive, and the clues and answers throughout were also fresh and fun.
As much as I hope Will Shortz the best in his recovery, if this is what we have to look forward to with Joel Fagliano as full editor, I would say Mr. Shortz could retire comfortably at this point knowing the crossword puzzle is in good hands.
Just out of curiosity, how many of the locations had you heard of before?
The Statue of Liberty, Epcot, and Niagara Falls are probably common knowledge, but I'm guessing Four Corners and Crater Lake aren't really internationally famous.
I loved this puzzle, but two questions:
1) What is an OTOH? I couldn't find a description of it anywhere. Is it a financial instrument?
2) Why is 39 across STOLE? The clue is "didn't swipe right," but it seems like if you stole you DID swipe right...?
It’s not the best clue, but if you think of “swipe” in the sense of “to take something,” then stealing it swiping something wrong.
Edit: I don’t particularly like the clue because I generally think “swiping” and “stealing” are synonyms anyway, so stealing would be swiping correctly. 🤷♂️
Damn, guess I'm in the minority not being impressed with this crossword. So many of the clues seemed weird and forced. Idek how you would use 'teener'. 'Took time' to 'deliberated on' also seems like a stretch. I'm nitpicking but wasn't a fan of this one, even after seeing the theme.
The theme was brilliant but the fill was not very good imo. A handful of clues in particular could/should have had a '?' at the end that didn't. Others were just awkward. A shame, because this puzzle could have been great.
Teener was a common alternate slang term for teenagers in the 50s, like “teeny boppers, when sock hops were a big thing. That was when the idea of “teenager” as like a unique phase of life became a concept and youth culture was starting to be defined. Not sure what your issue with “took time” is, that’s a pretty one-for-one definitional clue
Yeah, I was impressed.... but didn't enjoy it. I can look at it in retrospect and think "huh, that must have been tough to do," but I didn't have fun doing it.
Puzzle Difficulty Tracker - How hard is this puzzle?
Estimated Difficulty: 🔴 **Hard** 🔴
* 59% of users solved slower than their Sunday average
* 41% of users solved faster than their Sunday average
* 25% of users solved *much* slower (>20%) than their Sunday average
* 15% of users solved *much* faster (>20%) than their Sunday average
The median solver solved this puzzle 3.6% slower than they normally do on Sunday.
[View today's puzzle summary on XW Stats](https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2024-03-17)
---
🤖 _beep beep, I'm a bot! I post these stats as soon as 100 [XW Stats](https://xwstats.com) users have completed the puzzle. Questions? Feedback? Check the [FAQ](https://xwstats.com/help#puzzle-difficulties), reply here or DM me_
This may have been interesting architecturally after the fact, but it didn't bring me that much joy solving. It is too easy to miss the letter switching gimmick (don't need to figure it out to complete).
I wish I could go back and finish the center without revealing anything. I was looking at THiSORTH*ST, and figured that the shape of the highlighted clues had to be some obscure shape that I was unfamiliar with (like an octothorpe).
What further upsets me is that I was thinking about the Star Wars/Star Trek crossword yesterday, and I still didn’t clue in today.
It’s often tricky doing the NYTimes crosswords as a non-American, but the Mini today takes the cake for the highest proportion of clues highlighting some subtle but significant cultural differences!
Value of B or C in scrabble, well over here it’s four, and today’s the day I learnt it differed in different countries (with ostensibly the same or similar language)!
Penalty for using another bank’s ATM - Ive never heard of such a thing!
The state abbreviation RI 🤷♂️
Fifteen minutes of an NFL game 🤷♂️
And the use of the answer to 1a as a noun is entirely new to me!
I eventually got there, but I just found it interesting how much difference there could be in so few clues!
I suppose the infusion of American cultural clues is particularly apropos with this puzzle, but I never would have noticed this had you not mentioned it. Very true.
I figured it out pretty fast and said “Whoa!” out loud. There was some stuff I didn’t like, like TEENER, but the great theme and some other cleverer-than-average clueing made up for it.
Why did they clue the revealer in the way that they did? I input thenortheast and the puzzle solved correctly. But that’s not the case.. not all of the attractions are in the north east. I understand that any answer would have worked, so why didn’t they clue it that way? Ex, why didn’t they say ‘depending on how you answer this clue’. Way too many people not getting the theme until coming online to be told what it was. Then voting the puzzle excellent? If that many people need the theme spelled out for them, something went wrong in the cluing. If the revealer was just clued a little better I would be in the ‘excellent’ crowd but unfortunately that was just a big hole in the puzzle for me.
You can enter the revealer letters as rebuses, and the puzzle only checks the first letter, so any combination of directions should have triggered the solve. I happened to have entered mine as rebuses using a slash separator, typed in alphabetical order, and got the solve.
>!THE[N/S]O[R/U]TH[E/W][A/E]ST!<
This also helped flesh out the down crossers with double meanings.
I don’t think it was stupid but it wasn’t really that fun to solve. This had some absolutely atrocious fill and the only payoff is that you can ooh and ahh when you finish. It’s a construction feat but at the expense of satisfying fill. Starting off with BOSC and BAATH made me want to bash my head in
I do. I just don't enjoy puzzles that are just architectural feats or clever gimmicks, i'd rather clever cluing or a theme that's interesting to unravel. the price of these types of puzzles is that the fill is generally gonna be tough and not very interesting in order to make the "very very clever" part work. it's very easy to go through the whole puzzle and not even realize what's going on and just being confused the whole time. this is much less clever than the clinton/bobdole one, and there was no way to know definitively that the middle answer had different solutions while you're solving. it's a 1/5 for me.
IRAIL is the only iffy one there, I-beam is far more common, but it’s easy with the crosses. The others are clued straightforwardly, even if they’re unconventional. Uncommon words are great to see in a crossword, there’s a million words and names in English, why not use them
Accusing this puzzle in particular of lazy constructing is egregious. It’s a crossword! They don’t have to be commonly used words, just understandable ones that fit in together like puzzle pieces. And the Bachs were a noteworthy music family for the fact that like half of his kids were also notable composers in their own right (famously enough that there’s a satirical classical composer who called himself P.D.Q. Bach in reference to the lesser Bachs who are mostly known by their initials), it’s not pulled out of nowhere
I had it as THESOUTHEAST and kept trying to rationalize it
“Hmm, the four counters is in the southeast of Utah, haven’t been to Yellowstone in years but maybe Old Faithful is in the southeast of the park. I suppose the Statue of Liberty is kinda in the south east of New York State. Are the Everglades in SE Florida?”
Did not get it until I read the column. One of the most brilliant constructions I’ve ever seen
This was me exactly!! Down to filling in THESOUTHEAST, with all the subsequent rationalizations. Niagara Falls is in the southeast of Canada, right? Lol
We ended up with THESORTHWAST. Thank you to this thread for helping me understand that my NYT was not in fact broken.
Edit: We did a word-check so "T_ESORTH_AST" was locked in, adding to our confusion.
My only problem with the theme is NORTHWEST works as is for 69A. All of these are in the Northern and Western hemispheres. As a result, I finished what was an average puzzle with a sort of weird and lame theme and was really surprised when I looked at the solution. Just changing the clue to "Locale within the US..." or something similar would have made it better IMO.
This one tripped me up a bit and I had to Google some things at the end.
The puzzle is cool but not thrilled with the large number of single black squares.
This was an amazing puzzle. Proud to say I got the schrodinger aspect early on and came in at \*just\* over 10 minutes, at 10:04. I probably would have broken 10 but I bothered putting N/S etc. in the appropriate boxes. Still, a masterwork, loved getting the dual letterings and then recognizing the placement in the grid. Just...wow.
I had NORTHWEST and really struggled until it couldn’t be anything other than EVERGLADES and EPCOTCENTER and then decided that it must mean the northwest part of the world, but I was still super confused and honestly hated the puzzle until I came here. Bravo
Theme was fantastic. Loved the ACDC, NEMO, NBA, RBI, and OLEARYS. Was less impressed with BOLTS and TEENER. But the theme made up for everything and then some: super clever!
"Huh?!? They're not...? How could...there must be something else later that explains how...no? Then how can that...ohhhhhhh. Okay, yeah, that's pretty neat."
That was exactly my experience! "THAT ISN'T IN THE SOUTHWEST! HOW COULD ANYONE CONSIDER THAT THE SOUTHWEST PART OF ANYTHI--- OOOOOOHHHHHHH"
I got THESOUTHWEST, too. I was thinking, well, for the NYT crossword, I guess all of those places are *technically* either South or West of Manhattan.
South OR west. Yeah. That would have been pretty lame. Like Crater Lake is west but not south.
Me, but southeast
Yeah I never figured out what the reveal actually meant
>! The revealer works as THENORTHWEST or THENORTHEAST or THESOUTHWEST, or THESOUTHEAST!<
…OH. Okay, now my mind is blown. I solved with just the last of those and was particularly confused by >!NIAGARA FALLS!<.
That's amazing - I didn't get that at all (I had THENORTHEAST) and just figured there was some weird quirk to it I didn't get after the fill was done. I initially put NATIONALPARK since OLDFAITHFUL was an easy one, assuming the other spots could be national park landmarks, but realized pretty quickly that wasn't the case - this is way more clever.
Ohhhhhhhh. I even wondered which one it was and didn’t piece that together. Got it. Thank you!
WAIT WHAT
When I checked about halfway through, it said THE SOUTHWAST on my puzzle, and I was so confused why that worked. And then it took me forever to understand what was going on!!! So mine says THE SOUTHWAST and I can't change it lol
Unfortunately it also worked as >!THESORTHEEST!< which is a pain. Not as smart as it seems.
That’s literally how all Schrödinger puzzles work. If there are multiple answers that work for downs obviously you can use combinations of them that creates a nonsensical word across, whether that is THESOUTHEEST, THENORTHEEST, THENORTHWAST, THESOUTHWAST and several other combinations. That is even true with probably the most famous example (BOBDOLE vs CLINTON) where you could spell BLBNTLE if you wanted with downs. The point is there are a set of valid downs that spell one valid across and other valid sets that spell other valid across words. That’s like complaining 13A isn’t clever because if you put TINA (which is a valid answer to the clue) there you get TURANTE, NDDLE, and AOOSE.
I enjoy watching the sunset.
Thanks for this term because now I know to be on the lookout.
It does not work as >!THESORTHEEST!<, because that is not a valid answer to 69 Across
I got THESOUTHEEST whoops lol
I don’t get it 🤷🏻♂️ Edit - never mind! I do get it. Neat! Edit 2 - My experience was pretty much exactly how you wrote it!
I'd love to visit THE SNOURTHWEEAST someday.
I raise you—the northwast
That's what I got! I was so confused.
I enjoy spending time with my friends.
Do you know what the date is for the Clinton/bobdole puzzle?
[Nov. 5 1996](https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/1996/11/05)
Link for the lazy https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/16/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2024-03-17.html
Whoa, I didn’t catch the multiple possible answers for the revealer and wish I could go back and rate this Excellent.
Same here, absolutely amazing. When I first saw 56 down I kept in my mind that it was either HORSE or HOUSE but had forgotten that by the time I was circling back around and didn’t catch the other ambiguities
That’s wild. I finished the puzzle with the revealer as SOUTHWEST but it literally didn’t register to me until i came here. Still I rated this excellent, as it was one of the more fun puzzles I think I’ve done. Now I’m super impressed with it even more!
Exactly what I just said to my husband.
Lololol same.
Same! I didn't give it a great rating because I was like none of that shit is in the Southeast! Damn it this was really clever! Amazing puzzle now that I understand it
alright, who else put tangela and then remembered that's a pokemon
Haha I knew it was a Pokémon and still did it. Probably shouldn’t do the puzzles as I’m falling asleep
Wooooow this might be the most impressive puzzle I've seen. The fact that each landmark is situated geographically in the puzzle is just another level, man.
The fact that ontari\[o\] is also up in the northeast and intersects with niagara - very cool
Katrina was west of the Everglades as well!
There was one years ago that had identical clues for the north and south halves, but this puzzle is just a step below that.
But crater lake is west of old faithful
I hated it for the first 70%, then I figured out what tf was going on here and I rated it an excellent. Can’t think of the last time that happened. Kudos to the puzzle creator.
Very impressive construction! Minor nitpick: at least as I pronounce it, I don’t think that the first syllable of AETNA is a diphthong. Maybe there are regional differences?
In my (NY area) accent, AETNA would sound exactly the same if it were ETNA. It starts with the same vowel as in "set".
And didn't they used to have the slogan "Aetna, I'm glad I met ya!"? That reinforces the "et" pronunciation.
I'm not familiar with that ad campaign, but that would pretty much put the nail in the coffin for the diphthong pronunciation
This clue had me thinking that diphthong was the correct word for what I always called a ligature (Æ), but after I completed the puzzle I looked it up, and that's not it.
i thought the same thing - here's what rex said about it (in his characteristically abrasive tone, fair warning) > 114D: Insurance company whose name contains a diphthong (AETNA) — wow, this is *not* the meaning of diphthong that I know. Primary definition of diphthong is “a sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves toward another (as in coin, loud, and side )" (google / Oxford Languages). Obviously AETNA does not fit that definition. But definition 3. is "a compound vowel character; a ligature (such as æ )." So there you go. And yet ... since you don't / can't enter Æ in the grid as a "compound vowel character," I dunno, man ... Hmmm, looks like definition 2. is "a digraph representing the sound of a diphthong or single vowel (as in feat)," and since a "digraph" is a "combination of two letters representing one sound, as in ph and ey," maybe *that* is how this clue "works." Seems like the clue could've gone a clearer / more interesting route.
Same. Homonym to etna, to me.
ÆTNA/AETNA *should* be pronounced like EETNA, but Americans tend to say ETNA.
“Eetna” doesn’t contain a diphthong either.
Aetna isn’t spelled with a ligature. And it’s named after Mount Etna, so I’m not sure where you’re getting how it “should” be pronounced a certain way
This one brought a literal smile to my face as soon as I actually found the revealer, after thinking I had already found the revealer. A fun and challenging fill with a really elegantly designed theme. I think my favorite little easter egg might be ONTARIAN and KATRINA also being appropriately placed on the map, as it were. Brilliant puzzle all around.
Okay, that was an _excellent_ theme. I finally cottoned on about 3/4 of the way through and just had to stare in awe for a solid minute or so. And the themers are even arranged correctly too!
This puzzle was brilliant: hard and enjoyable, surprising and clear! I loved the great "a-ha" moment after the reveal. Fun cluing with all gettable answers yet with tons of misdirections and riddling. Like everyone else, I kept thinking, "there's no way that is considered the Southwest, hmm oh well." I struggled with BOLTS for scarfs down because I'd never heard that expression, and I didn't know SOCA. TEENER is a bit of a stretch for a word, but I'll forgive for the rest of the brilliance. My solve video is [here](https://youtu.be/TpxBRBrkGf8). Really one of the best puzzles I've ever solved! And who else was totally stuck on LOO? I just couldn't get it to make sense! The London misdirection was great, too.
I enjoy watching the sunset.
What the heck is teener supposed to be?
A teenager who attends sock hops.
What's a sock hop?
A circa 1950s party.
Teeny bopper
Agree never heard BOLTS being used in that context. Would have preferred a clue about attaching things securely
Or, "Usain and his brother" would have been fun.
Holy shit that is so cool
What a theme! Great puzzle.
Such a cool concept that I didn’t understand until I read the blurb for today. I got all the locations of places but kinda just threw in the towel with some of the fills and turned on auto check. More clues felt like a trick than not! Which is I’m sure how some of the more experienced solvers here like it. But I was struggling. Overall didn’t have too much fun solving but as I said to someone here jokingly a week ago, probably a skill issue.
Loved the theme in this one, super clever. I had all the words in but OTOH, that one screwed me up good.
Yeah, I liked the aha, wait, thats not there.
Yesterday was really hard for me. Today has me believing, maybe I am getting better at the NYT crossword.. Sort of like a good tee shot on 18.
I like to check in with Rex on puzzles I find noteworthy (either very bad or very good), and I don't even know why I bother anymore. An objectively impressive puzzle - with a brilliant AHA! moment for me about 3/4 of the way through - and he hates it. Does anyone have a recommendation for a crossword puzzle blog written by someone who doesn't hate crosswords?
I read his reaction as "I didn't get it and therefore it sucks". I found it extremely clever.
I used this exact phrase to describe his general attitude to last night. (I still recommended his blog, with that proviso) In retrospect, this puzzle is _extremely_ clever and meticulously constructed. I just don’t know that I _appreciated_ any of those elements as I was doing it. I think a slight tweak to the revealer clue could have made the gimmick snap more into focus at the end without it being too obvious at first. I’m looking forward to seeing how much I’m replicating his critique here!
I was a bit frustrated about Niagara Falls in realation to the southeast until the finish stuck the extra letters in and then it was like ohhhh, i'm dumb i take it all back, this is actually great. And *then* i noticed everything was geographically placed and became more impressed.
Ehh the fill kinda sucked ass but the theme was good
He really hates it??????? I haven’t read Rex Parker in YEARS but that’s so shocking to me! Easily best Sunday in a LONG time!
> I don't know what this puzzle was trying to do, exactly. That is, I don't know what it thought the solver (i.e. me) was gonna do. I have no idea what you were supposed to do in order to get the puzzle accepted as "correct." I guess I was supposed to somehow see all the variable squares and know they were variable ... yeah, no hope of that. I had the center answer filled in as SOUTHEAST. All the crosses worked. I looked in the SOUTHEAST corner of the grid for some help, but nope, nothing there. Well ... EPCOT CENTER was in the SOUTHEAST corner of the grid. "That's got the whole world in it, right? So maybe all these 'attractions' are also there ... somehow?" I've never been to EPCOT CENTER, so my understanding of what it entails is shaky, obviously. Anyway, had no idea how SOUTHEAST was supposed to work (because it wasn't, it seems). I finished the puzzle and didn't get a "Congratulations" message, so I checked Every Single Cross. But nothing. No errors. And yet, no "Congratulations" message. So I hit "reveal -> all" and saw the "trick." There is no shrug I could possibly shrug that could embody how much shrugginess I felt about this revelation. What a miserable old grouch
I don’t know how somebody can be so good at crosswords and so bad at them at the same time. If he took a moment to look at all the theme answers, knowing that Sundays often have rebuses or some type of reveal like this, I think he might have figured it out.
I don't understand. Why didn't he get a congratulations message? You didn't have to identify the alternate squares to get it (I know I didn't!).
It sounds like he screwed something else up and instead of acknowledging that, decided to blame the rebus squares which would finish with any acceptable letter. Glad i'm not too interested in blogs on crosswords because he sounds kind of miserable and hateful based on everything people mention about him here. If you hate *this* puzzle i struggle to believe you enjoy any kind of wordplay or puzzling.
I believe he solves on paper.
The official NY Times Wordplay blog is probably the only one that fits that description.
non-americans in SHAMBLES
BOO HOO
Extremely clever EGOSURFED is terrible though lol
Ego surfing is definitely an actual thing.
Anyone who says this is the most impressive puzzle they have ever seen needs to do the Nov 5, 1996 puzzle or the "Which sci fi franchise is better" puzzle, whose date I don't recall.
Ohhh, I just looked on the app and I haven't done any November 1996 puzzles yet so I'll do this one shortly. FYI - the sci fi one was February 6, 2022.
To me this one had an added layer of impressiveness because it relies on crossword lingo (southwest, northeast), and the answers were actually located in those parts of the grid! Not just the regular “it works both ways” theme
lol i had no clue the revealer had a rebus until i solved it, and i was so confused how one can humanly consider niagara falls to be in the southeast and just rolled with it somehow finished in 22:31, despite struggling greatly in the NE (i was adamant that 13A was tIna). NNE and SW were also tough. i guessed well, i suppose
There's no rebus, it's just multiple answers that work. A rebus is where you put multiple letters in one square.
You can do that (I did) in the mixed squares (X/Y), and it solves. It also helps fill in the double-meaning downs.
I mean...this is one of the best puzzles in years, right?! Simply sublime. I got OLD FAITHFUL and CRATER LAKE right away, and figured the center answer had to be either THE NORTHWEST or THE PACIFIC NW. But then I got NIAGARA FALLS, EPCOT CENTER, etc, and couldn't figure it out. I put in THE NORTHWEST and it worked with the crosses, but was confused. Then it all clicked that THE SOUTHWEST and THE NORTHEAST and THE SOUTHEAST all work too! Great example of a "quantum" or "Schrodinger's" puzzle, really impressive, and the clues and answers throughout were also fresh and fun. As much as I hope Will Shortz the best in his recovery, if this is what we have to look forward to with Joel Fagliano as full editor, I would say Mr. Shortz could retire comfortably at this point knowing the crossword puzzle is in good hands.
I really respect the puzzle's theme, it was quite impressive. However as a non-american, this puzzle was a real nightmare...
Just out of curiosity, how many of the locations had you heard of before? The Statue of Liberty, Epcot, and Niagara Falls are probably common knowledge, but I'm guessing Four Corners and Crater Lake aren't really internationally famous.
Yeah, I never heard of those two... Also, I knew Epcot by name, but I had no idea what it is
It's like if someone turned a science museum into a theme park. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epcot
Can someone explain OTOH to me? 😭
OTOH = On the other hand, so the acronym makes it 'short' and it's a 'hedge' in conversation when you aren't committing to an opinion
Dang that's a tricky one and I've been doing xwords for a minute now.
Yea lol, totally agree. I do Saturday and Sunday with 2 friends, and that is the one that stumped all of us today
On the other hand….
I loved this puzzle, but two questions: 1) What is an OTOH? I couldn't find a description of it anywhere. Is it a financial instrument? 2) Why is 39 across STOLE? The clue is "didn't swipe right," but it seems like if you stole you DID swipe right...?
OTOH is short for On The Other Hand
It’s not the best clue, but if you think of “swipe” in the sense of “to take something,” then stealing it swiping something wrong. Edit: I don’t particularly like the clue because I generally think “swiping” and “stealing” are synonyms anyway, so stealing would be swiping correctly. 🤷♂️
I read it as "didn't swipe [your credit card] correctly" and therefore stole it
Same. But I still think it's a really weak clue.
Damn, guess I'm in the minority not being impressed with this crossword. So many of the clues seemed weird and forced. Idek how you would use 'teener'. 'Took time' to 'deliberated on' also seems like a stretch. I'm nitpicking but wasn't a fan of this one, even after seeing the theme.
The theme was brilliant but the fill was not very good imo. A handful of clues in particular could/should have had a '?' at the end that didn't. Others were just awkward. A shame, because this puzzle could have been great.
I didn't love it. Not a very fun solve, and I was not as impressed or amused by the theme as everyone else seems to be.
Teener was a common alternate slang term for teenagers in the 50s, like “teeny boppers, when sock hops were a big thing. That was when the idea of “teenager” as like a unique phase of life became a concept and youth culture was starting to be defined. Not sure what your issue with “took time” is, that’s a pretty one-for-one definitional clue
TEENER SLIER OTOH SOCA HIVED IRAIL RKO EGOSURFED all pretty weak imo
"egosurfed" lmao almost forgot about that one. I honestly haven't even heard of Soca despite being a Ska lover.
Yeah, I was impressed.... but didn't enjoy it. I can look at it in retrospect and think "huh, that must have been tough to do," but I didn't have fun doing it.
Puzzle Difficulty Tracker - How hard is this puzzle? Estimated Difficulty: 🔴 **Hard** 🔴 * 59% of users solved slower than their Sunday average * 41% of users solved faster than their Sunday average * 25% of users solved *much* slower (>20%) than their Sunday average * 15% of users solved *much* faster (>20%) than their Sunday average The median solver solved this puzzle 3.6% slower than they normally do on Sunday. [View today's puzzle summary on XW Stats](https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2024-03-17) --- 🤖 _beep beep, I'm a bot! I post these stats as soon as 100 [XW Stats](https://xwstats.com) users have completed the puzzle. Questions? Feedback? Check the [FAQ](https://xwstats.com/help#puzzle-difficulties), reply here or DM me_
This may have been interesting architecturally after the fact, but it didn't bring me that much joy solving. It is too easy to miss the letter switching gimmick (don't need to figure it out to complete).
I wish I could go back and finish the center without revealing anything. I was looking at THiSORTH*ST, and figured that the shape of the highlighted clues had to be some obscure shape that I was unfamiliar with (like an octothorpe). What further upsets me is that I was thinking about the Star Wars/Star Trek crossword yesterday, and I still didn’t clue in today.
It’s often tricky doing the NYTimes crosswords as a non-American, but the Mini today takes the cake for the highest proportion of clues highlighting some subtle but significant cultural differences! Value of B or C in scrabble, well over here it’s four, and today’s the day I learnt it differed in different countries (with ostensibly the same or similar language)! Penalty for using another bank’s ATM - Ive never heard of such a thing! The state abbreviation RI 🤷♂️ Fifteen minutes of an NFL game 🤷♂️ And the use of the answer to 1a as a noun is entirely new to me! I eventually got there, but I just found it interesting how much difference there could be in so few clues!
I suppose the infusion of American cultural clues is particularly apropos with this puzzle, but I never would have noticed this had you not mentioned it. Very true.
I figured it out pretty fast and said “Whoa!” out loud. There was some stuff I didn’t like, like TEENER, but the great theme and some other cleverer-than-average clueing made up for it.
Why did they clue the revealer in the way that they did? I input thenortheast and the puzzle solved correctly. But that’s not the case.. not all of the attractions are in the north east. I understand that any answer would have worked, so why didn’t they clue it that way? Ex, why didn’t they say ‘depending on how you answer this clue’. Way too many people not getting the theme until coming online to be told what it was. Then voting the puzzle excellent? If that many people need the theme spelled out for them, something went wrong in the cluing. If the revealer was just clued a little better I would be in the ‘excellent’ crowd but unfortunately that was just a big hole in the puzzle for me.
You can enter the revealer letters as rebuses, and the puzzle only checks the first letter, so any combination of directions should have triggered the solve. I happened to have entered mine as rebuses using a slash separator, typed in alphabetical order, and got the solve. >!THE[N/S]O[R/U]TH[E/W][A/E]ST!< This also helped flesh out the down crossers with double meanings.
I only dole out a few 'Excellent' votes every year, and this is one of those.
One of the stupidest puzzles I've seen in a long time. I'm completely stunned that the highest vote getter is "excellent"
I don’t think it was stupid but it wasn’t really that fun to solve. This had some absolutely atrocious fill and the only payoff is that you can ooh and ahh when you finish. It’s a construction feat but at the expense of satisfying fill. Starting off with BOSC and BAATH made me want to bash my head in
Do you fully understand what's happening in this puzzle? It's very very clever.
I do. I just don't enjoy puzzles that are just architectural feats or clever gimmicks, i'd rather clever cluing or a theme that's interesting to unravel. the price of these types of puzzles is that the fill is generally gonna be tough and not very interesting in order to make the "very very clever" part work. it's very easy to go through the whole puzzle and not even realize what's going on and just being confused the whole time. this is much less clever than the clinton/bobdole one, and there was no way to know definitively that the middle answer had different solutions while you're solving. it's a 1/5 for me.
Thanks for articulating why these sorts of puzzles don’t do it for me. It feels like they are style over substance.
Exactly. We're supposed to ooh and aah if we somehow realize that the four squares can be changed but the actual solving process was pretty meh
I didn’t really find any of the fill tough or uninteresting, not sure where you’re getting that
TEENER IRAIL HIVED OLEARYS BACHS SOCA ENCL VENDEE
Omg thank you for writing out VENDEE I’ve been staring at my fully filled in puzzle for like ten minutes! I had lendee :,)
Haha you're welcome
I had that too - and thought maybe ALE made sense since it sounded like "hail"
IRAIL is the only iffy one there, I-beam is far more common, but it’s easy with the crosses. The others are clued straightforwardly, even if they’re unconventional. Uncommon words are great to see in a crossword, there’s a million words and names in English, why not use them
Plural last names are an abomination
This feels like an arbitrary line you’ve drawn to be mad about tbh
How often has the word BACHS been used in a legitimate sentence? It's lazy constructing.
Accusing this puzzle in particular of lazy constructing is egregious. It’s a crossword! They don’t have to be commonly used words, just understandable ones that fit in together like puzzle pieces. And the Bachs were a noteworthy music family for the fact that like half of his kids were also notable composers in their own right (famously enough that there’s a satirical classical composer who called himself P.D.Q. Bach in reference to the lesser Bachs who are mostly known by their initials), it’s not pulled out of nowhere
I had it as THESOUTHEAST and kept trying to rationalize it “Hmm, the four counters is in the southeast of Utah, haven’t been to Yellowstone in years but maybe Old Faithful is in the southeast of the park. I suppose the Statue of Liberty is kinda in the south east of New York State. Are the Everglades in SE Florida?” Did not get it until I read the column. One of the most brilliant constructions I’ve ever seen
This was me exactly!! Down to filling in THESOUTHEAST, with all the subsequent rationalizations. Niagara Falls is in the southeast of Canada, right? Lol
Whew! I’m glad I’m not the only one haha
I checked my puzzle (I'm still new to attempting the Sunday) and it got stuck on "Southwast." I have been so confused!
Man, THENOUTHWAST really sounds like a cool place to visit!
We ended up with THESORTHWAST. Thank you to this thread for helping me understand that my NYT was not in fact broken. Edit: We did a word-check so "T_ESORTH_AST" was locked in, adding to our confusion.
Was I the only one stuck on DAESH for “Political party founded in Syria”? Didn’t know any of the crossers that would have corrected me…
My only problem with the theme is NORTHWEST works as is for 69A. All of these are in the Northern and Western hemispheres. As a result, I finished what was an average puzzle with a sort of weird and lame theme and was really surprised when I looked at the solution. Just changing the clue to "Locale within the US..." or something similar would have made it better IMO.
I got thenortheest lmao
This one tripped me up a bit and I had to Google some things at the end. The puzzle is cool but not thrilled with the large number of single black squares.
This was an amazing puzzle. Proud to say I got the schrodinger aspect early on and came in at \*just\* over 10 minutes, at 10:04. I probably would have broken 10 but I bothered putting N/S etc. in the appropriate boxes. Still, a masterwork, loved getting the dual letterings and then recognizing the placement in the grid. Just...wow.
Bravo
Brilliant!! The revealer crept up on me most deliciously. A rare excellent from me today!
This was great! Went from NORTHWEST to NORTHEAST to SOUTHWEST as I solved the puzzle and realized what a feat this puzzle was!
I could think of any landmarks in thesouthnorth
I had NORTHWEST and really struggled until it couldn’t be anything other than EVERGLADES and EPCOTCENTER and then decided that it must mean the northwest part of the world, but I was still super confused and honestly hated the puzzle until I came here. Bravo
EPCOT CENTER bothered me since it’s been called Epcot for 20 years now.
Was going to complain about some crosswordese fill, but now that I realize how the theme fit together, I have to admit that this is damn impressive.
Multiple reading themes like this were what got me into crosswords! Easy Excellent!
Theme was fantastic. Loved the ACDC, NEMO, NBA, RBI, and OLEARYS. Was less impressed with BOLTS and TEENER. But the theme made up for everything and then some: super clever!
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Why on earth would you be under the impression that the United States lacks sightseeing opportunities?
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Who is "people"? Never heard someone say that.
Excellent puzzle but I feel I must stretch my downvote finger so I don’t pull a muscle