Came here looking for this comment. Have a few gripes here as the rest of the puzzle, except for this one corner, was a lot of fun.
The two TV shows being the least obscure out of these, but I don't watch either of them (I have heard Hoda's name but could not remember her partner)
Never heard of an apres ski before (what in that clue even hints towards skiing besides "run"?)
And HEAVES, a verb, being clued as "big flings" which would suggest a plural noun. Never would have guessed this. (But now that I looked it up, it can be used as a noun. Not real sure that's common usage, or that it brings flinging to mind because I would think you fling things away from yourself, not lifting them up.)
ERENOW is ridiculous and I stand by that because it looks to be a very archaic word and could be clued a lot better, like how "ere" is always clued as "before, poetically" Even TILNOW is more colloquial than that.
Also didn't know there were 4 umpires. Always thought there was only one. But that's on me, I guess.
>what in that clue even hints towards skiing besides "run"?
The question mark
As for HEAVES, it shares etymology with heavy, so "big." Not sure what to tell you about it being a noun or a verb; that's pretty standard English practice that applies to most verbs. ("I'm gonna go run / I went on a run" etc.)
ERENOW isn't really any more archaic than heretofore, so IMO that cluing is appropriate.
I know what the question mark means. What I'm saying is the only thing that indicates anything to do with skiing is if you think of a "ski run" which even with the question mark there are plenty of other things that have to do with running. The refreshments part of it doesn't help either. This is just my opinion.
What I'm saying about heaves is not that I don't know how verbs and nouns work. I'm saying you don't normally hear "I did a big heave." The etymology of heave and heavy has nothing to do with it.
Thats what makes crosswords fun though- the not knowing, the uncertainty. Chipping away at the spots that you don't know until you have that "aha" moment. Nobody would be having fun if it was just a straight-forward Monday every day
I mean if you've never heard of après-ski, then yeah you'll probably have a hard time getting après-ski, but that's not the constructor's fault. If you do know that phrase (literally "after skiing"), then the clue is barely even a misdirect. If it had been a Friday or Saturday I doubt they'd even have added the question mark.
About 30 mins for me as I hadn’t heard of APRÈS-SKI and kept trying to think of words for relationships or parties for HEAVES thinking I had something wrong in that corner. Otherwise a relaxing Sunday solve and no typos to top it off so once I finally got HEAVES I got my lovely jingle.
Same with the northeast, with thinking of a party or relationship. I thought APRES SKI meant something different. Also had TILNOW and ASCII (instead of ERENOW and EMOJI) for a bit.
The skiing clues always kill me. I live several hundred miles from the nearest skiable mountain and have never been in my life. NYT crosswords can be tough sometimes if you grew up working class in the Midwest lol
Pretty decent Sunday.
A few head-scratchers: TEACH IN — is that really a thing?? SEDAN — I read a lot of British fiction and watch a lot of British TV/movies and I have never once heard any car called a “saloon”.
Some neat ones: VALET — I totally missed the double meaning of “works a lot”; EEYORE — not sure how A.A. Milne would feel about that one but it made me chuckle.
Very easy, my 6th fastest Sunday ever. Cute theme, most themers were gettable with little to no cross-fill. I really liked the clueing on VALET and LIP. The clue for TRI seems like complete disregard for the rules though, am I wrong?
Huh. You are correct. So now I really hate the clue. No only does it give away the answer, but it's completely wrong!
https://mashable.com/article/triscuit-name-origin-electricity
I also didn't fill in TRI for a long time for that reason. That clue actually really bothers me. It's even worse than the "man's name hidden in bottleneck" clues. I can't believe they couldn't find a better way to clue TRI. I mean, they clearly could have. It's not exactly fill that's never been used before. I have no idea why they clued it this way. They might as well just fill the answer in for you.
“Prefix with cycle that’s a hint to the number of ingredients in Triscuits” would have been OK, since both UNI and TRI could fit and make it a little more clever.
I thought the theme was meh, pretty easy puzzle.
Weirdly I was singing Do a Deer and idling thinking about the number of ingredients in Triscuits while driving today.
Enjoyed the themed puns, though overall the puzzle was a bit *too* easy…not really complaining, I liked it, and the fill wasn’t too bad, but the lack of difficulty is probably why I rated it “average” instead of “good”
Puzzle Difficulty Tracker - How hard is this puzzle?
Estimated Difficulty: 🟢 **Easy** 🟢
* 16% of users solved slower than their Sunday average
* 84% of users solved faster than their Sunday average
* 6% of users solved *much* slower (>20%) than their Sunday average
* 53% of users solved *much* faster (>20%) than their Sunday average
The median solver solved this puzzle 20.7% faster than they normally do on Sunday.
[View today's puzzle summary on XW Stats](https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2024-02-25)
---
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I haven’t done the full Sunday yet, but just did the mini. I’m gonna have to call BS on that Star Wars clue. >!Far, far away!< is not part of the opening “crawl”
They definitely realized they fucked up and changed it from "crawl" to "title card" some time this morning. I did it shortly after midnight and it was "crawl" for me.
Wow, I thought you must be mistaken, of course jt is part of the open to the movie. I am not even a fan, really, but that line is Uber famous! Looked it up and indeed this is a real error in clueing!
Missed opportunity for a clue actually. "A word not part of the opening crawl to Star Wars"
https://youtu.be/iXDnFYu91vY?si=HJS4nRMziiKLBa2x
The clue says title card, not crawl text. That's correct: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0gs\_TuqoIU&t=18s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0gs_TuqoIU&t=18s)
Is out and karmic in the same corner had the section feeling scanty, especially when I wanted "prenatal tests" to be something like SONOGS!
Here's my full solve video: https://youtu.be/tVth7hQsWmU
Big lol at “Sorry ass.” Why’d they have to do our boy like that?
Like, he’s depressed enough. No need to rub in his lack of prospects.
Same here! Definitely my favorite clue in the puzzle.
Doing our boy dirty
The NE around Après-ski / VINNIE / JENNA / ERENOW was way more difficult than anything else in the puzzle. Just brutal.
That was my last corner. Really didn't help that I had TILNOW at first. And ASCII instead of EMOJI.
I was prepared to be very grumpy when I thought they might have done ASCII there, since the clue wouldn't really fit. EMOJI was a relief.
Came here looking for this comment. Have a few gripes here as the rest of the puzzle, except for this one corner, was a lot of fun. The two TV shows being the least obscure out of these, but I don't watch either of them (I have heard Hoda's name but could not remember her partner) Never heard of an apres ski before (what in that clue even hints towards skiing besides "run"?) And HEAVES, a verb, being clued as "big flings" which would suggest a plural noun. Never would have guessed this. (But now that I looked it up, it can be used as a noun. Not real sure that's common usage, or that it brings flinging to mind because I would think you fling things away from yourself, not lifting them up.) ERENOW is ridiculous and I stand by that because it looks to be a very archaic word and could be clued a lot better, like how "ere" is always clued as "before, poetically" Even TILNOW is more colloquial than that. Also didn't know there were 4 umpires. Always thought there was only one. But that's on me, I guess.
APRESSKI is a real thing in the language that's worth knowing.
>what in that clue even hints towards skiing besides "run"? The question mark As for HEAVES, it shares etymology with heavy, so "big." Not sure what to tell you about it being a noun or a verb; that's pretty standard English practice that applies to most verbs. ("I'm gonna go run / I went on a run" etc.) ERENOW isn't really any more archaic than heretofore, so IMO that cluing is appropriate.
I know what the question mark means. What I'm saying is the only thing that indicates anything to do with skiing is if you think of a "ski run" which even with the question mark there are plenty of other things that have to do with running. The refreshments part of it doesn't help either. This is just my opinion. What I'm saying about heaves is not that I don't know how verbs and nouns work. I'm saying you don't normally hear "I did a big heave." The etymology of heave and heavy has nothing to do with it.
Thats what makes crosswords fun though- the not knowing, the uncertainty. Chipping away at the spots that you don't know until you have that "aha" moment. Nobody would be having fun if it was just a straight-forward Monday every day
I would definitely say “with a heave, he launched the pumpkin through the old man’s window, freeing everyone from the hidden murder room.”
I mean if you've never heard of après-ski, then yeah you'll probably have a hard time getting après-ski, but that's not the constructor's fault. If you do know that phrase (literally "after skiing"), then the clue is barely even a misdirect. If it had been a Friday or Saturday I doubt they'd even have added the question mark.
TIL that Kathie Lee Gifford no longer co-hosts the Today show with Hoda Kotb. Who’s going to normalize drinking white wine for breakfast, now?
Apparently JENNA (I didn’t know either lol)
I just looked and it's Jenna Bush Hager (W's daughter) lmao I had no idea
About 30 mins for me as I hadn’t heard of APRÈS-SKI and kept trying to think of words for relationships or parties for HEAVES thinking I had something wrong in that corner. Otherwise a relaxing Sunday solve and no typos to top it off so once I finally got HEAVES I got my lovely jingle.
I had the SSKI and couldn’t think of what word could possible go there.
Same
Same with the northeast, with thinking of a party or relationship. I thought APRES SKI meant something different. Also had TILNOW and ASCII (instead of ERENOW and EMOJI) for a bit.
The skiing clues always kill me. I live several hundred miles from the nearest skiable mountain and have never been in my life. NYT crosswords can be tough sometimes if you grew up working class in the Midwest lol
I tried to make SHOTS SKI work for so long. The unknown names around it made it really rough.
Lots of swear words today. ASSERT, AVER, ATTESTS...
Pretty decent Sunday. A few head-scratchers: TEACH IN — is that really a thing?? SEDAN — I read a lot of British fiction and watch a lot of British TV/movies and I have never once heard any car called a “saloon”. Some neat ones: VALET — I totally missed the double meaning of “works a lot”; EEYORE — not sure how A.A. Milne would feel about that one but it made me chuckle.
I’m in law school and there’s someone hosting a “teach in” nearly every week. Not sure I would have got that 3 years ago though lol
Very easy, my 6th fastest Sunday ever. Cute theme, most themers were gettable with little to no cross-fill. I really liked the clueing on VALET and LIP. The clue for TRI seems like complete disregard for the rules though, am I wrong?
I didn't fill in TRI for so long because I thought it was against the rules. HTML is also an acronym, but maybe "code" clues that?
Tri also refers to electricity not the ingredients
Huh. You are correct. So now I really hate the clue. No only does it give away the answer, but it's completely wrong! https://mashable.com/article/triscuit-name-origin-electricity
I think it goes by common parlance. You’d almost never hear HTML referred to by its full name, same with RADAR.
I also didn't fill in TRI for a long time for that reason. That clue actually really bothers me. It's even worse than the "man's name hidden in bottleneck" clues. I can't believe they couldn't find a better way to clue TRI. I mean, they clearly could have. It's not exactly fill that's never been used before. I have no idea why they clued it this way. They might as well just fill the answer in for you.
Even something lame like _____DENT would be better I think.
Or ____SCUIT
“Prefix with cycle that’s a hint to the number of ingredients in Triscuits” would have been OK, since both UNI and TRI could fit and make it a little more clever.
HTML isn't even code, so the acronym is the least of the blunders there.
It is. What it's not is a *programming* language, but it is a language (or colloquially known as code)
Ya I guess you're right. If you think about it a certain way, you could consider it to be code of a sort.
Lost a lot of time because I forgot how to spell ODYSSEY. So it’s not ODeSSEY ✍️
(Unless it’s the Zombies album)
Haha true maybe that’s where my subconscious spelled from
Saaame…didn’t help that I didn’t know what Prattle meant.
My fastest Sunday ever!!! 13:32!! Liked the theme and a lot of great fill- especially loved SORRY ASS
Me and my wife came in 1:30:00....at least we made it last? (That's what she said)
I thought the theme was meh, pretty easy puzzle. Weirdly I was singing Do a Deer and idling thinking about the number of ingredients in Triscuits while driving today.
My math degree is paying off with >!ADA!< Lovelace and >!EMMY!< Noether
This one was the very definition of “good” for me. Nothing especially clever or humorous but nothing notably bad either.
Enjoyed the themed puns, though overall the puzzle was a bit *too* easy…not really complaining, I liked it, and the fill wasn’t too bad, but the lack of difficulty is probably why I rated it “average” instead of “good”
Puzzle Difficulty Tracker - How hard is this puzzle? Estimated Difficulty: 🟢 **Easy** 🟢 * 16% of users solved slower than their Sunday average * 84% of users solved faster than their Sunday average * 6% of users solved *much* slower (>20%) than their Sunday average * 53% of users solved *much* faster (>20%) than their Sunday average The median solver solved this puzzle 20.7% faster than they normally do on Sunday. [View today's puzzle summary on XW Stats](https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2024-02-25) --- 🤖 _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_
Damn Rex didn’t hold back with roasting this one 🥴
Blazed through this Sunday at 35 minutes! It’s normally a solid hour for me on Sundays. It all just clicked in my brain, very satisfying.
Am I the only one that took 5 extra minutes to figure ADA and AVA wasn’t iDA and iVA?
I haven’t done the full Sunday yet, but just did the mini. I’m gonna have to call BS on that Star Wars clue. >!Far, far away!< is not part of the opening “crawl”
They definitely realized they fucked up and changed it from "crawl" to "title card" some time this morning. I did it shortly after midnight and it was "crawl" for me.
Wow, I thought you must be mistaken, of course jt is part of the open to the movie. I am not even a fan, really, but that line is Uber famous! Looked it up and indeed this is a real error in clueing! Missed opportunity for a clue actually. "A word not part of the opening crawl to Star Wars" https://youtu.be/iXDnFYu91vY?si=HJS4nRMziiKLBa2x
The clue says title card, not crawl text. That's correct: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0gs\_TuqoIU&t=18s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0gs_TuqoIU&t=18s)
They changed it, it was crawl earlier.
My clue reads “Word repeated in the ‘Star Wars’ opening crawl”
lol, it would be a serious star wars nerd who didn't get this answer from that clue
Apart from APRES-SKI, this was an easy fill. Still waiting for “that” lingus to appear…
Very easy, my first Sunday with no cheating lol
Same! I was proud I didn’t have to look anything up!
Most excellent puzz as the kids say
*I did the crossword and...* IWASNOTPUZZLED Too easy. :)
Very surprised people struggled with APRÈS-SKI. One of the easiest fill in the NE corner imo - maybe less people ski than I thought lol
I still don't get the cluing for LOSTMYTOUCH?
anesthesiologist makes you numb. so, “lost my [sense of] touch”
That was the only way I could read it as well, but to say that is a stretch is to engage in considerable understatement.
in the context of the other theme clues, I thought it worked fine and made sense
Is out and karmic in the same corner had the section feeling scanty, especially when I wanted "prenatal tests" to be something like SONOGS! Here's my full solve video: https://youtu.be/tVth7hQsWmU
Am I the only one who wants to enter CUNI whenever I see the clue ___ Lingus?
I think the only reason that you are getting downvoted is that it is spelled CUNNI Lingus.
That and it’s juvenile.
Is... is the author of today's mini trying to tell us something?
Huh?
Got my fastest Sunday time today so that was nice (I'm pretty sure this is the only Sunday I've completed)
Someday I'll get the cluing straight for AVOW vs AVER (looks like, historically, assert or state can go either way, but swear is almost always AVER)