Tag Archives: Brian Thomas

NYT Crossword Puzzle 7-31-21 Complete (contains spoilers)

I pulled out 49A Operation that yields the remainder from dividing two numbers, in math lingo: MOD because it’s not just math lingo but programming lingo. An early, early thing they teach in Python is modulo (mod), and the symbol for it, %. So 7 % 2 (seven mod two) is 1 because its 3 remainder 1, and all we care about is the remainder.

There was no theme for this puzzle.

20A Specs for a modiste: DRESSSIZES. A fashionable milliner or dressmaker.
32A “Wow, that’s wild!”: WHATATRIP.
47A Most times: ORDINARILY.

Finished this one in 34:23.

DayThis WkBestAverage4-Wk AvgStreak
Monday7:013:499:288:2067
Tuesday7:515:2213:4012:3810
Wednesday29:357:3817:3617:198
Thursday31:1012:1229:1927:308
Friday30:4216:2334:4630:468
Saturday34:2327:4334:0833:238
Sunday15:1156:4742:247

NYT Crossword Puzzle 6-12-21 Complete

Argh! I excitedly hit the thing too early, and the finish screen went away! But I finished a Saturday, and it said I’m on a one-day streak, despite it actually being a six-day streak. See, it’s 10pm here in LA, so it’s tomorrow already in New York. For streak purposes, it’s still Saturday in LA, so tomorrow should show a seven-day streak if I solve the Sunday puzzle. I got a more generic image, but at least it shows that it’s a six-day streak.

I pulled out 32A Fragrant rice: BASMATI because it’s pretty much the only rice I buy. Do I sometimes want short grain rice? Maybe. Do I find Basmati rice to be fragrant? Not really. Do I wash Basmati rice three times like it says to? Oh absolutely not. I just know it’s fragrant rice because it says so on the bag.

I was really hoping for a theme in this one, but it doesn’t have one. I had thought that 6A Stick around on July 4?: SPARKLER would be FCRACKER or something fun like that so I’d know that letters were missing. IRE is a word. But no such luck.

Finished this one in 37:43. That’s actually my only Saturday score. I used to do the Saturday crossword with friends Tuesday nights. We just started doing board games in person again after more than a year online for covid safety, but we haven’t done the Saturday crossword together in a while. When we do it together it takes like six minutes. Alone is slower.

OK now off to the Spelling Bee!