I hate the clue too much to look up if there’s any merit to it.
Finished this one in 25 seconds.
NYT Mini Crossword Puzzle 2-3-22 (contains spoilers)
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Tag Archives: thursday crossword
NYT Crossword Puzzle 1-13-22 Complete (contains spoilers)
I pulled out 18A _ pan (kitchen utensil): OMELET because I posted a recipe the other day for what really is just an omelet between two slices of bread and promised pictures. Well, here they are!
Theme!
32A 2003 Pixar animated adventure: THEYFOUNDNEMO. (Finding Nemo)
40A 2004 Quentin Tarantino martial arts film: SHEKILLEDBILL. (Kill Bill Vol. 2)
52A 1993 Warner Bros. family drama: HEFREEDWILLY. (Free Willy)
20A Important warning before you answer 32-, 40- and 52-Across?: SPOILERALERT. That’s why I put the notice in the title of the blog and make sure the grid isn’t visible in the preview.
Finished this one in 18:33.
NYT Crossword Puzzle 1-6-22 Complete (contains spoilers)
Streak is to 100 boiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeee!
I pulled out 34A N.B.A. legend nicknamed “Black Mamba”: KOBE because it reminds me of when I found out that Kobe died. It was bizarre. Calah and I were at my dining room table. Her phone chimed. A message from her brother read something to the effect of “Kobe just died in a helicopter crash.” It sounded absurd. Frist of all, Kobe doesn’t die. Second, in a helicopter crash? Third, how can her brother know before we do when he lives in Israel? Of course, it turned out to be true, but it made no sense. Also it’s interesting that this is 34, the number of his rival on the team, Shaquille O”Neal.
Theme!
17A Genre for Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle: CROWCROWCROWMYSTERY -> [CROW][CROW][CROW]MYSTERY -> MURDER MYSTERY.
22A June: LIONLIONLIONMONTH ->[LION][LION][LION]MONTH -> PRIDE MONTH.
51A Early 19th-century Australia, for one: PENALANTANTANT -> PENAL[ANT][ANT][ANT] -> PENAL COLONY.
60A Intellectual conformity … or a hint to interpreting 17-, 22- and 51-Across: GROUPTHINK. It’s too bad they didn’t do another crossover with the Spelling Bee and have HIVEMIND. But Wordle has replaced the Spelling Bee as all the rage.
Finished this one in 19:39.
NYT Crossword Puzzle 12-30-21 Complete (contains spoilers)
Update on the rain in LA from yesterday’s post!
I pulled out 55A “Man, that’s something!”: OHWOW because check out what has happened here in Los Angeles over the past couple days:
Total rainfall yesterday was 1.2″ as measured at LAX.
But partway through today we were at 3.09″ at LAX, which is more than double the now-second-rainiest December 30 on record.
Final numbers will be greater. OH WOW, indeed.
Theme!
18A They stay and bite: ADULTTEETH.
27A Emmy-winning comedy series of 2007, 2008 and 2009: THIRTYROCK.
46A Gains favor using abject flattery, informally: KISSESBUTT.
58A Souse: BOOZEHOUND.
38A Symbol for the starts of 18-, 27-, 46- and 58-Across: XXX.
18A: Does XXX symbolize teeth? Or is 30 adulthood?
27A: XXX in Roman Numerals is 30.
46A: XXX means kisses.
58A: A bottle with XXX on it means it’s alcohol. And according to reddit, each X means a time distilled. Triple distilled means much higher alcohol concentration.
And on the topic of distillation, here’s a photo I took at Laphroaig pre-COVID:
Finished this one in 13:20.
NYT Crossword Puzzle 12-23-21 Complete (contains spoilers)
I pulled out 47D Start of an English auto name: ASTON because Calah and I have been watching the Bond series in order, including the non-canon ones. Aston Martin features prominently in the Bond movies. We are now on Diamonds are Forever.
Theme!
17A Reef deposit hung on the holiday tree?: ACHRISTMASCORAL. It’s A Christmas Carol but with coral.
31A Noble gas you can’t live without?: VITALARGON. It’s a vital organ but argon gas. Hellooooo tig welding.
41A Starbucks order for a man’s man?: CAFFEMACHO. Caffe Mocha but stronger. I like caffe mochas because they don’t taste like coffee but have caffeine. Also lots of sugar.
59A Buys tickets for a couple of friends for a Polynesian getaway?: TAKESTWOTOTONGA. I miss traveling.
Finished this one in 19:05.
NYT Crossword Puzzle 12-16-21 Complete (contains spoilers)
I pulled out 42A Small bouquet: POSY because that’s the name of the rabbi whose class I attend via zoom most Thursdays. It’s a class that’s about what’s in the bible and how it applies today rather than just what’s in there the end.
Theme!
15A Flummox: BEWILDER.
17A Flummox: BEMUSE.
55A Flummox: BEFUDDLE.
52A Flummox … or a classic word game represented by the central grid of shaded squares, in which 15-, 17- and 55-Across can be found: BOGGLE.
The puzzle online animates the four theme clues as they would be in the game Boggle one letter at a time. It’s way more decent a theme than I had expected.
Finished this one in 24:33.
NYT Crossword Puzzle 12-9-21 Complete (contains spoilers)
I pulled out 58D One’s parents, slangily, with “the”: OLDS because I hadn’t heard of this before. Or maybe I have and just forgot. The slang I’m used to is ‘rents. And I don’t even use that.
Theme!
18A Film adaptation with … a choir arriving at the airport? (2016): LALALANDING.
24A … a room in an environmentally friendly hotel? (2018): GREENBOOKING.
39A … a triceratops trying to find a spot for its car? (1993): JURASSICPARKING.
52A … a quick trip to purchase cutlery? (2019): KNIVESOUTING.
61A … a movement to make invoices illegal? (2003): KILLBILLING.
Finished this one in 21:17.
NYT Crossword Puzzle 12-2-21 Complete (contains spoilers)
Finished this one in 30:51.
I’m out right now, but I’ll update this later with full analysis.
NYT Crossword Puzzle 11-25-21 Complete (contains spoilers) #nytxw
This puzzle has a lot of oddly specifically relevant clues. I’ll expand upon that later.
I pulled out 1A Builder of a papery nest: WASP because wasps were building a nest under the eave of a neighboring building. I didn’t care much for that, but I wasn’t about to go knocking on doors like covid isn’t a thing. So I looked at Google maps and found a photo with the banner outside that advertised open units. I called the number only to find that the building had been sold and was no longer under the management whose number appeared on that banner. I set it aside for a few days to regroup and to be successful in other areas(?), and when I returned to the wasps issue, I did a Google search for newer listings in that building. I got through to the right people! I said either take away the wasps or charge them rent, but status quo is unacceptable. The nest stayed up for months, but activity stopped within a couple days of the call.
There’s a theme, but it’s difficult to write it out on the wp app.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Finished this one in 14:04.
NYT Crossword Puzzle 11-18-21 Complete (contains spoilers)
I pulled out 65A Not claim, say: WAIVE because it reminds me of when I worked in financial statement audit. We would encounter variances between what we expected and what appeared in the books. If the variance was below what anyone would care about, we marked it with an m for immaterial, and we would use w to indicate that we were waiving on recommending that the client correct the error. I do not miss that life.
The theme for today was decent.
16A → Di ← Gaga Godiva: FIRSTLADY. Before those words, you put LADY, and you’ve got Lady Di and Lady Gaga.
24A R.p.m. → m.p.h. ← k.p.s.: SECONDRATE. Compared to the RPM and KPS, MPH is the second rate, given the arrows.
36A Art → Calculus ← Spanish: MIDDLECLASS. Calculus is the one in the middle of those two. Also clearly there will be five of these if No. 3 is the middle. I would have preferred Statistics as the middle class because there is a lot of middle about stats.
52A Housewarming masquerade → tailgate ←: THIRDPARTY. I guess the answer is the third item in the list because it’s blank?
62A Ha-ha chortle → tee-hee ←: LASTLAUGH. Same reason as the above. Kinda quitting early and making us come up with something to round it out.
Finished this one in 14:23.
| Day | This Wk | Best | Average | 4-Wk Avg | Streak |
| Monday | 6:12 | 3:49 | 9:18 | 5:05 | 83 |
| Tuesday | 10:51 | 5:22 | 13:06 | 11:45 | 7 |
| Wednesday | 11:42 | 7:38 | 16:51 | 11:55 | 24 |
| Thursday | 14:23 | 12:12 | 27:50 | 22:16 | 10 |
| Friday | 10:29 | 29:23 | 19:16 | 23 | |
| Saturday | 20:11 | 30:33 | 23:23 | 23 | |
| Sunday | 15:11 | 50:57 | 42:39 | 10 |