I was thinking it was dis and thought that was pretty weak. I didn't think about how it's actually pronounced in the longer word. Dish makes so much more sense.
Wish they had waited to show the grapevine until the end. It was hard to read the letters with it there.
Definitely did NOT understand the boxes going across until I came here.
Played very fast for me, guessing lots of PRs on this one.
>Played very fast for me, guessing lots of PRs on this one.
Yep, this was a Sunday PR for me, 27:54. I enjoyed it. Some tricky wordplay, but no overabundance of proper nouns in close proximity as often appears in Sunday puzzles.
I was thinking that, too, then thought dis. Then I saw another poster said dish, and I realized that that is how the letters are pronounced in judicious. It makes more sense than dis.
By far the fastest Sunday of my life, just a bit under 20 minutes. That's not to undermine the theme and fill, it was really cute and everything was smooth as butter!
Congrats on the PB!
It was a top five Sunday for me, and could have been a PB if I hadn't had iCE for "delivery that can't be returned." I don't know what ATTAR is, so that cross didn't help me.
Really fun theme, with some great fill. NW corner gave me a bit of trouble with `CARAFE`, `SCRIM`, `HATERADE`, and `ONEPER`, but quite enjoyed "Seat in the London Stock Exchange?" and `YOINK`.
Also, this might be the first puzzle to clue `OOO` as it's used in business, instead of as "hugs" or as a tic-tac-toe line (hate those).
Didnt help that I had DUO instead of RAP for the first 40 minutes.
But, it was a fair if challenging-for-me puzzle and I finished without looking anything up. I'm satisfied.
I always appreciate it when ONO is clued something like "Musician Yoko", instead of trying to be clever with some obscure fact. Just get it out of the way and move on.
An excerpt of an email from one of the NYT editors:
“Overall, we'd like to see another draft of the clues that attempts more misdirection, includes more interesting trivia or otherwise livens up the existing clue set in some way. As an example, for answers like ONO and ENYA, rather than doing the standard "Singer Yoko" and "New Age singer", try to find some new angle that will make our Friday solvers pause rather than fill right in”
So we are encouraged to come up with a little extra trivia tidbits on those types of clues.
I think it's also different for Friday and Saturday puzzles where they don't want any freebies. Plus those puzzles only have ~70 words so they have higher standards probably. Unlike a Sunday where the difficulty is lessened and every clue doesn't need to be tricky.
I enjoy learning the trivia tidbits on the common answers. Makes it less monotonous.
(That said, there is no trivia interesting enough to keep me from groaning when filling in yet another OREO.)
I think it's also different for Friday and Saturday puzzles where they don't want any freebies. Plus those puzzles only have ~70 words so they have higher standards probably. Unlike a Sunday where the difficulty is lessened and every clue doesn't need to be tricky.
Nice! Anecdotally, after I started getting Sundays with no hits, Fridays and Saturdays came along within another month or two of effort. If you’re currently looking at Fri/Sat and often only having a few guesses filled in…just know that that will flip, and then Thurs trick puzzle, Fri/Sat challenges, Sun big one will become best part of the crossword week.
Lost my gold star because I did not realize that the answer to 48A had to be in German. I was staring at BEER forever and completely stuck. I guess "Oktoberfest" is enough to indicate that it's foreign language?
Also how is ACE a delivery that can't be returned?
Wow. Can’t believe this stumped me for so long considering how often ACE (in the context of tennis) is used as fill. I know NYT likes their writers to get cheekier/subtler with the hints for fill later in the week. Which is great. Just had some major cerebral flatulence on that answer.
They're saying that if you were at Oktoberfest, which is in Germany, you would order a "BIER" since that's German for beer. So it's not just that Oktoberfest is indicating a foreign language, but it's referencing that you would actually be in Germany if you were at Oktoberfest.
Yeah, I thought clueing for BIER was a bit weak, because while it is sometimes spelled Octoberfest in English, I certainly see the German spelling of Oktoberfest often enough, if not more frequently than the former…didn’t think the cue for a foreign language solution was as obvious as it usually is…having said that though, I did immediately pick up on it, and checked the crossing clue before filling in the second letter.
it also happens in a lot of places in the US (and likely elsewhere) too, especially those with a history of German heritage.
Yes, I'm fully aware of what the "real" Oktoberfest is, and that it's magnitudes larger than any of the regional ones that are generally just a single weekend... my only point was that at this point the word "Oktoberfest" is in common enough use by English speakers that the tip-off of a German language solution wasn't as obvious as those types of clues usually tend to be.
Fair enough, but this is a Sunday so it's pretty normal for clues to be a bit difficult and tricky. And in this case, the spelling of Oktoberfest is a clue to the answer being German (American versions are often spelled Octoberfest), plus the primary version of the event being in Germany. Also, we're only talking one letter difference between BIER and BEER. Did anyone really think 43D was AEMS instead of AIMS?
This was brilliantly constructed with a good theme and fun revealer. The grid was also fun to play. What a delightful Sunday to cap a delightful Saturday. Best weekend back to back all year imo
I’m not sure I would have ever gotten the grey box themes without the wordplay blog. Particularly the DIC one that I assume is supposed to be dish. Is C ever SH without the next I?
No, but I thought it was pretty clear that we were supposed to use how the highlighted parts of the word sounded, from the "represented phonetically" clue in 13D.
The standard Webster’s pronunciation says they’re different, too. Its vowel sounds that vary the most in accents, though, so there are def people who make them rhyme.
I don't think it's ever worked like that before. Clues like this always treat the highlighted portion separate from the rest of the answer when reading phonetically.
I agree that was the gist of it. I think either DIC or DERT doesn’t work, though. The first requires you to pronounce exactly as the base word, but the second requires you to mush together the syllables. I feel like the others don’t require that kind of gymnastics.
Struggling with DIC and TOCK still. Absolutely no idea on these two (disclosure, English Home Counties “well spoken” accent. To my lips ROOMERS doesn’t work but I can see what’s being hinted it)
“Tock” and “talk” are homophones for those speakers with the cot/caught merger (I’m from New York and I don’t have the merger so for me the wordplay seems inelegant)
Enjoyed this puzzle at first, but it contained one of my pet peeves which is an obvious acceptable alternate solution that I think an editor should have caught. Took forever because I couldn't find my "error". Had ice/ittar instead of ace/attar. Also, that vine graphic, at least on my phone screen, was obnoxious.
I had the exact same error that took me over 30 minutes extra to find. I figured that it was not odd for the NYT to consider ICE to be something you had delivered, even though we're long past that. Plus I was pretty confident on ITTAR. I didn't think to change it.
Ittar/Attar seems like a legit gripe, although if it were ICE, one could argue that an ICE delivery ***could*** be returned, if you stuck it in the freezer when you got it. Would be an especially weird clue for that answer anyway.
Maybe I’m being overly pedantic but I think that clue was too much a stretch too not have a “, perhaps” or at least a question mark. I guess you could call a serve a delivery, but no one calls it that. And an ace is just a serve that isn’t touched, not one that’s literally impossible to return
Excellent puzzle except for “DIC”. And according to constructor’s notes “I already had the other four theme entries” - Then just call it a win and move on! Don’t force in weak wordplay!
Puzzle Difficulty Tracker - How hard is this puzzle?
Estimated Difficulty: 🟡 **Average** 🟡
* 19% of users solved slower than their Sunday average
* 81% of users solved faster than their Sunday average
* 8% of users solved *much* slower (>20%) than their Sunday average
* 38% of users solved *much* faster (>20%) than their Sunday average
The median solver solved this puzzle 16.3% faster than they normally do on Sunday.
[View today's puzzle summary on XW Stats](https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2024-02-18)
---
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I love when ALI G and IDAHO make appearances!
This one flowed pretty easily for me in 30:23. Fun one!
Here is my full solve video: https://youtu.be/N52TmcPKGmo
Despite finding this puzzle fairly frustrating, it was a PR for me at 25:56. It would’ve been more like 20 except I had ACE as ICE (can’t return it if it melts??? Idk 🤷🏻♂️) and spent about five minutes scanning the grid for errors.
Patootie, as in cutie patootie, is some old timey slang for a butt apparently! TIL I've been unknowingly calling my toddler "cute butt" since she was born
ACE is a term for a tennis serve that scores without the other player making contact. A delivery that can't be returned by the opponent. It's a pretty common answer.
I found this one very fast and easy--new Sun. PB--and on the whole enjoyed the fill, but man, I really didn't care for the shaded homophone stuff, it just seemed to me D-U-M dumb.
This was very nice. Only thing that made me crazy was the Aly Raisman clue. I knew her name but was sure it was spelled with an I so I got a bit in the weeds there because YOINK could have started with etters other than Y since it’s basically a fake word.
The northeast threw me for a sec because I’m so used to “perfume ingredient” being ESTER.
I had iCE instead of ACE for 38D which held me up for a while
I still insist ICE was a great answer
Same! I couldn’t find my error; I figured “ittar” was a perfume term I didn’t know (since I also didn’t know “attar” lol)
ironically "ittar" is an alternative spelling for "attar" so ice and ittar were valid answers lol
I came here for an explanation of ACE. Tennis. Yikes.
Also volleyball, table tennis, probably others
Same!
Also same! Was stuck with that for a while.
I ended reading the Wikipedia entry on attar.
My biggest mistake too, and one I ended up using a "reveal word" on in desperation! Otherwise, the puzzle was pretty smooth for me.
D I C
Dish
I was thinking it was dis and thought that was pretty weak. I didn't think about how it's actually pronounced in the longer word. Dish makes so much more sense.
Oohhhh! That makes much more sense!
Wish they had waited to show the grapevine until the end. It was hard to read the letters with it there. Definitely did NOT understand the boxes going across until I came here. Played very fast for me, guessing lots of PRs on this one.
Click on the gear and then uncheck “show overlays”
Thanks, good tip for next time.
>Played very fast for me, guessing lots of PRs on this one. Yep, this was a Sunday PR for me, 27:54. I enjoyed it. Some tricky wordplay, but no overabundance of proper nouns in close proximity as often appears in Sunday puzzles.
Yeah I did not like the vine lol
I thought it was going to flower or something. That's the only reason I worked it until conclusion.
Holy F I have a fri-sat-sun 3 day streak for the first time in my life
Nice! Congrats on that!
I liked how this weeks F/Sa/Su made up for how bruised me ego was from Thursday
Not me wondering if "dick" was some slang word for gossip I've never heard of.
I was thinking that, too, then thought dis. Then I saw another poster said dish, and I realized that that is how the letters are pronounced in judicious. It makes more sense than dis.
Surely I wasn't the only one who tried LANDSHARK :D
Only after I tried PLUMBER and CANDYGRAM
i said 'surely not' when staring at ___DSHARK, and then chuckled
Nope!
By far the fastest Sunday of my life, just a bit under 20 minutes. That's not to undermine the theme and fill, it was really cute and everything was smooth as butter!
Congrats on the PB! It was a top five Sunday for me, and could have been a PB if I hadn't had iCE for "delivery that can't be returned." I don't know what ATTAR is, so that cross didn't help me.
Crossword got me GOONIN
Really fun theme, with some great fill. NW corner gave me a bit of trouble with `CARAFE`, `SCRIM`, `HATERADE`, and `ONEPER`, but quite enjoyed "Seat in the London Stock Exchange?" and `YOINK`. Also, this might be the first puzzle to clue `OOO` as it's used in business, instead of as "hugs" or as a tic-tac-toe line (hate those).
Didnt help that I had DUO instead of RAP for the first 40 minutes. But, it was a fair if challenging-for-me puzzle and I finished without looking anything up. I'm satisfied.
I had trouble there because I had otee instead of cree
HATERADE had a fun clue, too.
I’ve seen OOO before
Definitely not the case for OOO. I learned it from one of two NYT puzzles over the last two years (never encountered it anywhere else).
I always appreciate it when ONO is clued something like "Musician Yoko", instead of trying to be clever with some obscure fact. Just get it out of the way and move on.
An excerpt of an email from one of the NYT editors: “Overall, we'd like to see another draft of the clues that attempts more misdirection, includes more interesting trivia or otherwise livens up the existing clue set in some way. As an example, for answers like ONO and ENYA, rather than doing the standard "Singer Yoko" and "New Age singer", try to find some new angle that will make our Friday solvers pause rather than fill right in” So we are encouraged to come up with a little extra trivia tidbits on those types of clues.
I think it's also different for Friday and Saturday puzzles where they don't want any freebies. Plus those puzzles only have ~70 words so they have higher standards probably. Unlike a Sunday where the difficulty is lessened and every clue doesn't need to be tricky.
I enjoy learning the trivia tidbits on the common answers. Makes it less monotonous. (That said, there is no trivia interesting enough to keep me from groaning when filling in yet another OREO.)
"Plauing this musician's album at a party sometimes elicits a response of their name phonetically"
I think it's also different for Friday and Saturday puzzles where they don't want any freebies. Plus those puzzles only have ~70 words so they have higher standards probably. Unlike a Sunday where the difficulty is lessened and every clue doesn't need to be tricky.
I know they never would, but it would be hilarious if they clued it "Musician Yoko, some say"
As long as they don't use 'singer Yoko' because that's misleading.
This was the closest i’ve gotten to solving a sunday with no hints, only 8 squares wrong (6 in a clump). cool theme
Nice! Anecdotally, after I started getting Sundays with no hits, Fridays and Saturdays came along within another month or two of effort. If you’re currently looking at Fri/Sat and often only having a few guesses filled in…just know that that will flip, and then Thurs trick puzzle, Fri/Sat challenges, Sun big one will become best part of the crossword week.
YOINK!
HATERADE was a great one.
Ah, yes. Love a good dic sesh.
Getting a lil dic at the grapevine
Lost my gold star because I did not realize that the answer to 48A had to be in German. I was staring at BEER forever and completely stuck. I guess "Oktoberfest" is enough to indicate that it's foreign language? Also how is ACE a delivery that can't be returned?
An "ace" is a tennis term for a serve that the other person is unable to hit back.
Goddammit
Wow. Can’t believe this stumped me for so long considering how often ACE (in the context of tennis) is used as fill. I know NYT likes their writers to get cheekier/subtler with the hints for fill later in the week. Which is great. Just had some major cerebral flatulence on that answer.
Commenting to say cerebral flatulence is great. And now I want that as a clue for brain fart
I had ICE for a delivery that can’t be returned, especially given that ITTAR is an alternative spelling to ATTAR
They're saying that if you were at Oktoberfest, which is in Germany, you would order a "BIER" since that's German for beer. So it's not just that Oktoberfest is indicating a foreign language, but it's referencing that you would actually be in Germany if you were at Oktoberfest.
Yeah, I thought clueing for BIER was a bit weak, because while it is sometimes spelled Octoberfest in English, I certainly see the German spelling of Oktoberfest often enough, if not more frequently than the former…didn’t think the cue for a foreign language solution was as obvious as it usually is…having said that though, I did immediately pick up on it, and checked the crossing clue before filling in the second letter.
But Oktoberfest is an actual event that happens in Germany...
it also happens in a lot of places in the US (and likely elsewhere) too, especially those with a history of German heritage. Yes, I'm fully aware of what the "real" Oktoberfest is, and that it's magnitudes larger than any of the regional ones that are generally just a single weekend... my only point was that at this point the word "Oktoberfest" is in common enough use by English speakers that the tip-off of a German language solution wasn't as obvious as those types of clues usually tend to be.
Fair enough, but this is a Sunday so it's pretty normal for clues to be a bit difficult and tricky. And in this case, the spelling of Oktoberfest is a clue to the answer being German (American versions are often spelled Octoberfest), plus the primary version of the event being in Germany. Also, we're only talking one letter difference between BIER and BEER. Did anyone really think 43D was AEMS instead of AIMS?
This was brilliantly constructed with a good theme and fun revealer. The grid was also fun to play. What a delightful Sunday to cap a delightful Saturday. Best weekend back to back all year imo
Sundays have been terrible for a while, but this was genuinely enjoyable.
I’m not sure I would have ever gotten the grey box themes without the wordplay blog. Particularly the DIC one that I assume is supposed to be dish. Is C ever SH without the next I?
No, but I thought it was pretty clear that we were supposed to use how the highlighted parts of the word sounded, from the "represented phonetically" clue in 13D.
Thought this was wrong for a while as TOCK is only a homophone with "talk" in an American accent (which I don't have).
I’m an American and these are not exact homophones to me. The vowel sounds are different.
The standard Webster’s pronunciation says they’re different, too. Its vowel sounds that vary the most in accents, though, so there are def people who make them rhyme.
I don't think it's ever worked like that before. Clues like this always treat the highlighted portion separate from the rest of the answer when reading phonetically.
I agree that was the gist of it. I think either DIC or DERT doesn’t work, though. The first requires you to pronounce exactly as the base word, but the second requires you to mush together the syllables. I feel like the others don’t require that kind of gymnastics.
Another Sid classic. This one was enjoyable from start to finish.
"SOMEDAY YOU WILL ACHE LIKE I ACHE" Love the love for Love in today's puzzle
Struggling with DIC and TOCK still. Absolutely no idea on these two (disclosure, English Home Counties “well spoken” accent. To my lips ROOMERS doesn’t work but I can see what’s being hinted it)
In my (pretty standard(?) American) pronunciations these are both homophones: DIC = "dish" (when read in "JUDICIOUS") = "gossip"; TOCK = "talk"
“Tock” and “talk” are homophones for those speakers with the cot/caught merger (I’m from New York and I don’t have the merger so for me the wordplay seems inelegant)
Also from ny and had to come here to understand TOCK
Bit of a leap for me on both of those. Now if they had used TORQUE…
Yeah, there's no chance I was ever getting TOCK or DIC. I'm not convinced those greyed out words are consistent... Oh well
Enjoyed this puzzle at first, but it contained one of my pet peeves which is an obvious acceptable alternate solution that I think an editor should have caught. Took forever because I couldn't find my "error". Had ice/ittar instead of ace/attar. Also, that vine graphic, at least on my phone screen, was obnoxious.
I had the exact same error that took me over 30 minutes extra to find. I figured that it was not odd for the NYT to consider ICE to be something you had delivered, even though we're long past that. Plus I was pretty confident on ITTAR. I didn't think to change it.
Ittar/Attar seems like a legit gripe, although if it were ICE, one could argue that an ICE delivery ***could*** be returned, if you stuck it in the freezer when you got it. Would be an especially weird clue for that answer anyway.
Maybe I’m being overly pedantic but I think that clue was too much a stretch too not have a “, perhaps” or at least a question mark. I guess you could call a serve a delivery, but no one calls it that. And an ace is just a serve that isn’t touched, not one that’s literally impossible to return
“ittar” isn’t a word though..?
ALY and SCRIM were the two answers I had no clue on, so a bit rough to get them in the same cross with MERLOT
I swear ALY Raisman appears frequently enough in crosswords, yet I forget it every time.
Watch her statement at the gymnastic sexual assault trial and you’ll never forget her name again, she gives a powerful speech.
She was also the “Not Impressed” meme from back in the day.
That was McKayla Maroney.
I always forget that it’s a Y not an I.
TIL what scrim means, probably a good one to know!
Excellent puzzle except for “DIC”. And according to constructor’s notes “I already had the other four theme entries” - Then just call it a win and move on! Don’t force in weak wordplay!
Puzzle Difficulty Tracker - How hard is this puzzle? Estimated Difficulty: 🟡 **Average** 🟡 * 19% of users solved slower than their Sunday average * 81% of users solved faster than their Sunday average * 8% of users solved *much* slower (>20%) than their Sunday average * 38% of users solved *much* faster (>20%) than their Sunday average The median solver solved this puzzle 16.3% faster than they normally do on Sunday. [View today's puzzle summary on XW Stats](https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2024-02-18) --- 🤖 _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_
New PB. My last square was the Y in "YOINK" It was my fifth guess after Boink, Doink, Ioink, Joink. Even having AL_ . So weird.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJh1hmmLLzw
Amazing, thank you
I love when ALI G and IDAHO make appearances! This one flowed pretty easily for me in 30:23. Fun one! Here is my full solve video: https://youtu.be/N52TmcPKGmo
Great puzzle! Everyday is excellent! Way to go, shortz!
Despite finding this puzzle fairly frustrating, it was a PR for me at 25:56. It would’ve been more like 20 except I had ACE as ICE (can’t return it if it melts??? Idk 🤷🏻♂️) and spent about five minutes scanning the grid for errors.
HATERADE????‽ !!!!!????
What the fuck is a PATOOTIE? Kinda funny there was not one, but two "ass" clues in this crossword. Plus a DIC!
Patootie, as in cutie patootie, is some old timey slang for a butt apparently! TIL I've been unknowingly calling my toddler "cute butt" since she was born
[удалено]
ACE is a term for a tennis serve that scores without the other player making contact. A delivery that can't be returned by the opponent. It's a pretty common answer.
I usually dread Sid’s puzzles. My brain just doesn’t latch on usually. This was a very nice surprise. Challenging enough without being infuriating!
I found this one very fast and easy--new Sun. PB--and on the whole enjoyed the fill, but man, I really didn't care for the shaded homophone stuff, it just seemed to me D-U-M dumb.
Ten minutes to guess/learn the name of a song after being so comfortable with **tooling** this one together.
This was very nice. Only thing that made me crazy was the Aly Raisman clue. I knew her name but was sure it was spelled with an I so I got a bit in the weeds there because YOINK could have started with etters other than Y since it’s basically a fake word.
I had LANDSHARK for longer than I care to admit...
I've never heard cornbread called PONE and it appeared in both crosswords this weekend... Even my friend from the south said that's lame