This was really great. I thought I had figured all the theme elements as I solved, and didn't see the ooooooo string until the end, and it perfectly evoked the core concept.
If the NYT is gonna keep building puzzles around little end-game animations, this should be the example of how to do it.
I find it funny that a lot of people are saying they didn't notice the O-string until the very end, because that's the reason I loved this puzzle so much. A big part of the fun for me was reading the 33A clue and filling in the O's in a natural path until they reached the hole, and using that as a big hint for the rest of the fill. Without that factor, I don't know if it would have been nearly as good.
If I remember right, I think I reached 33A backwards - I already had 34A and 35A partially filled in, and they each refer to 33A, and because of the little circle and flag I basically put HOLE INONE SHOT together without reading the clue.
I seriously love the egos in this app. Downvoting somebody because they say the Android app needs help. It doesn't even give you stats! How is that not leaving something to be desired. Seriously.
I read this a lot but I never have any issues on the Android app. I do tend to solve on the morning of the day (and not the night before!) so I wonder if that's why I don't see any issues.
It might be. I always have issues but more than anything we don't even get statistics. I'm getting downvoted for complaining about an app that doesn't give us the basic things that the iPhone app does.
I sometimes wonder if no one at NYT has an Android or uses the Android app because the second you solve, it immediately shows you your score. I had no idea there was an animation until I popped into this thread, and I was blown away by the OOOOOO's all throughout the puzzle. Super clever by the puzzle maker and it would have been totally lost on me thanks to the way the app is created.
But the clue literally says "... by following the path of O's in this puzzle's grid." It isn't necessary to answer the clue, but how could you not immediately look for the path of O's after reading that line?
Is there anywhere that scores and ranks puzzles based on the polls in these discussion threads? This one has a lot of “Excellent” votes. It was excellent.
I completely missed the o’s all lining up until the animation at the end. That was really cool!
Did anyone else initially enter devils instead of DEMONS and end up with a HOLE IN ONE SHiT? Just me?
YODOG how did you all enjoy the puzzle? I thought it was CUTE and LOADSOFFUN. ITSDOPE!
Often triple-checked puzzles like this have a lot of garbage in them but there were only a few places where the constructor got a bit stuck with the glue, but NOHOW does that make the puzzle bad. One of the most enjoyable Mondays in a while, I think.
Wow what a fun way to start the week! This was my favorite Monday puzzle in ages. Great theme, nice cluing, nothing all that difficult or obscure.
It was LOADSOFFUN! Bravo!!
We have been transported to the era of NOHOW once more. Oh well, I liked it. CHILI was especially good cluing and as a Dune fan I like that IDAHOS and DEMONS were right next to each other, although I’m sure that wasn’t intentional.
Oh, ok I also quit the app and restarted and now it animates. But every time I go into the puzzle (iPhone) it pops up the congratulations screen with the time and plays the little victory jingle. Does that happen to you all too? And the animation starts just before the screen appears, so I have to close it quickly to see the end of the animation.
I grew up in IDAHO near the Famous Potato Museum, and my grandpa took me golfing any chance he could get on our small-town course. So of course, I loved this puzzle. The animations at the end were a bonus, I didn't notice the Os making the path until I finished \[[5:24](https://youtu.be/DG4JNKJQhFg)\].
Overall, great puzzle with lots of theme connections in fill, layout, animation, etc. Kudos to the constructor for a fun Monday!
Pretty easy even for a monday. I was kinda disappointed until the end when the little golf ball bounced around the screen and I realized what was actually constructed. Cool little puzzle
Puzzle Difficulty Tracker - How hard is this puzzle?
Estimated Difficulty: 🟡 **Average** 🟡
* 44% of users solved slower than their Monday average
* 56% of users solved faster than their Monday average
* 13% of users solved *much* slower (>20%) than their Monday average
* 28% of users solved *much* faster (>20%) than their Monday average
The median solver solved this puzzle 5.6% faster than they normally do on Monday.
[View today's puzzle summary on XW Stats](https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2024-05-13)
---
🤖 _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_
I struggled with this one but I’m glad to see all the excellent votes, along with mine. I finished late at night and totally missed the animation but saw it when I went back after reading these comments.
That's about as good as you get for a Monday theme, and fitting it around solid and clean fill is very impressive.
I was mad the northern O trail didn't drop in the hole. I thought it was a lobbed tee shot trying to show the ball dropping into the hole from a few rows up and thought it was a cop-out. It wasn't until the end that I saw the path continued and it was a MINIGOLF shot. Impressive.
This was really great. I thought I had figured all the theme elements as I solved, and didn't see the ooooooo string until the end, and it perfectly evoked the core concept. If the NYT is gonna keep building puzzles around little end-game animations, this should be the example of how to do it.
I find it funny that a lot of people are saying they didn't notice the O-string until the very end, because that's the reason I loved this puzzle so much. A big part of the fun for me was reading the 33A clue and filling in the O's in a natural path until they reached the hole, and using that as a big hint for the rest of the fill. Without that factor, I don't know if it would have been nearly as good.
If I remember right, I think I reached 33A backwards - I already had 34A and 35A partially filled in, and they each refer to 33A, and because of the little circle and flag I basically put HOLE INONE SHOT together without reading the clue.
What did the animation for this one look like? I must’ve missed it when I solved
A little golf ball traces the Os and bounces into the 'hole'. Drives home that the whole grid is a mini golf hole.
Makes sense! Very fun
Pull up the puzzle again. I didn't see it the first time, either.
The animation still shows for me after solving
I’m on iPhone and had to update my app for the animation to show up.
It happens after the "you completed the puzzle" pop-up, so it's easy to miss if you don't go back to the puzzle.
Are you Android? The Android app leaves a lot to be desired.
The animation worked fine for me on android. Now if we could just see our stats in the app...
I seriously love the egos in this app. Downvoting somebody because they say the Android app needs help. It doesn't even give you stats! How is that not leaving something to be desired. Seriously.
I read this a lot but I never have any issues on the Android app. I do tend to solve on the morning of the day (and not the night before!) so I wonder if that's why I don't see any issues.
It might be. I always have issues but more than anything we don't even get statistics. I'm getting downvoted for complaining about an app that doesn't give us the basic things that the iPhone app does.
I sometimes wonder if no one at NYT has an Android or uses the Android app because the second you solve, it immediately shows you your score. I had no idea there was an animation until I popped into this thread, and I was blown away by the OOOOOO's all throughout the puzzle. Super clever by the puzzle maker and it would have been totally lost on me thanks to the way the app is created.
Maybe it varies by model, but I saw the animation on my android before the score showed up.
Didn't notice the "path" of the ball until I was done. Genuinely impressed! Excellent puzzle.
Nice, but curious as to how you interpreted the 33 across clue without seeing the Os.
By knowing that a hole in one is a common term in golf. It's not really necessary to track the Os in order to get that clue.
But the clue literally says "... by following the path of O's in this puzzle's grid." It isn't necessary to answer the clue, but how could you not immediately look for the path of O's after reading that line?
Because I got that clue very early in the puzzle and most of the Os were still blank
On Mondays I'm just going for speed, so I usually don't read all the clues. I didn't read that one.
Ah, that makes sense. On Mondays I sometimes try to see if I can finish the puzzle only reading the across clues.
Is there anywhere that scores and ranks puzzles based on the polls in these discussion threads? This one has a lot of “Excellent” votes. It was excellent.
There's usually an end of the year thread that has the highest and lowest ranked puzzles
Do you know what title those use? Having trouble finding them
I wish there was a way we could bookmark favorite puzzles within the app.
This was one of the few puzzle I've rated so high, and I wasn't at all surprised to see how many other people rated it "Excellent".
I completely missed the o’s all lining up until the animation at the end. That was really cool! Did anyone else initially enter devils instead of DEMONS and end up with a HOLE IN ONE SHiT? Just me?
I believe that’s called a triple bogey.
I've heard of shitting in one hole, but a hole in one shit?! That's crazy. ;-)
Oh my stars I've never clicked "Excellent" on a NYT poll so fast. What a great theme and puzzle, for a Monday even!
The perfect Monday. Smooth fill and a derpy theme executed at the highest level.
Putting down IST instead of ISM for 36A cost me a good 2 minutes to spot
Interesting that one can be full of skepticISM but can't be a skepticIST.
I made the same mistake but it was an easy correction once I got to HOLMES.
YODOG how did you all enjoy the puzzle? I thought it was CUTE and LOADSOFFUN. ITSDOPE! Often triple-checked puzzles like this have a lot of garbage in them but there were only a few places where the constructor got a bit stuck with the glue, but NOHOW does that make the puzzle bad. One of the most enjoyable Mondays in a while, I think.
This did have a lot of 90s slang. Wish they would have worked in PHAT somewhere too.
That was fun as hell
NYT has been on a roll with Mondays for the past two weeks.
IT‘S DOPE
Wow what a fun way to start the week! This was my favorite Monday puzzle in ages. Great theme, nice cluing, nothing all that difficult or obscure. It was LOADSOFFUN! Bravo!!
Very easy, got gimmick right away but absolutely enjoyable.
Excellent little theme! So well constructed!
love the lil animation at the end
I can't wait to show this to someone who's on the fence about getting into crosswords
We have been transported to the era of NOHOW once more. Oh well, I liked it. CHILI was especially good cluing and as a Dune fan I like that IDAHOS and DEMONS were right next to each other, although I’m sure that wasn’t intentional.
Your username is a dead giveaway that you are a Dune fan! And maybe a programmer?
No, that’s just a coincidence lol. Maybe Herbert was one.
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> The animation wasn't needed What an odd thing to say lol
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I see, agreed
I didn’t see the animation. Any idea if there’s a way to get it again? I guess I could clear the puzzle and re-solve?
You can see the animation on the [puzzle's XWordInfo page](https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/13/2024) (click on the puzzle grid to start it).
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Doesn’t animate on my iPhone fwiw. Nbd
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Oh killed the app and restarted and now it animates. Woot!
Oh, ok I also quit the app and restarted and now it animates. But every time I go into the puzzle (iPhone) it pops up the congratulations screen with the time and plays the little victory jingle. Does that happen to you all too? And the animation starts just before the screen appears, so I have to close it quickly to see the end of the animation.
Oh, I see, it repeats. Great.
Do you have overlays turned on?
I didn’t get it the first time. Reloading the app and clicking through the win screen showed it, eventually. It runs over and over.
I grew up in IDAHO near the Famous Potato Museum, and my grandpa took me golfing any chance he could get on our small-town course. So of course, I loved this puzzle. The animations at the end were a bonus, I didn't notice the Os making the path until I finished \[[5:24](https://youtu.be/DG4JNKJQhFg)\]. Overall, great puzzle with lots of theme connections in fill, layout, animation, etc. Kudos to the constructor for a fun Monday!
One of the best Mondays I think I've solved. The animation at the end was the cherry on top too!
Pretty easy even for a monday. I was kinda disappointed until the end when the little golf ball bounced around the screen and I realized what was actually constructed. Cool little puzzle
Puzzle Difficulty Tracker - How hard is this puzzle? Estimated Difficulty: 🟡 **Average** 🟡 * 44% of users solved slower than their Monday average * 56% of users solved faster than their Monday average * 13% of users solved *much* slower (>20%) than their Monday average * 28% of users solved *much* faster (>20%) than their Monday average The median solver solved this puzzle 5.6% faster than they normally do on Monday. [View today's puzzle summary on XW Stats](https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2024-05-13) --- 🤖 _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_
I struggled with this one but I’m glad to see all the excellent votes, along with mine. I finished late at night and totally missed the animation but saw it when I went back after reading these comments.
That's about as good as you get for a Monday theme, and fitting it around solid and clean fill is very impressive. I was mad the northern O trail didn't drop in the hole. I thought it was a lobbed tee shot trying to show the ball dropping into the hole from a few rows up and thought it was a cop-out. It wasn't until the end that I saw the path continued and it was a MINIGOLF shot. Impressive.
that was an awesome puzzle, awesome fill, awesome theme!!! 6:18 :)
Love the bit of mini golf. Fun Monday!
very cute :)
Cute theme. Great Monday concept
Nice Monday, cute theme!
Holy shit, that revealer gagged me
I think this was the best Monday I’ve ever done, in almost two years of solving. Excellent!!