0311-23 NY Times Crossword 11 Mar 23, Saturday

20 thoughts on “0311-23 NY Times Crossword 11 Mar 23, Saturday”

1. 38:16, 2 errors: OH (T)ELL/(T)ORCRUX. Have never heard of the card game, and not very familiar with Harry Potter (only watched the first movie). So many unknowns, frustrating to miss by one letter.

2. 42:28. Several errors where I guessed. Tough one.

   I was surprised to learn that giraffes can weigh as much as 4200 lbs. Pretty heavy for a vegetarian…

   If you were afraid of retinas, would that be FOVEAphobia? Say that 5 times fast.

   Best –

3. 21:13, no errors. I’ve actually read all of the Harry Potter books (twice 😜!) and it does come in handy occasionally.

   I just finished today’s “Saturday Stumper”, from the WSJ, five hours and forty-four minutes after starting it. Much of that was necessary walkaway time due to hanging up in one obstinate corner, but still … this week’s incarnation of that series definitely lived up to its name! (Either that, or I’m totally losing it … 😳.)

   1. Yeah but you admitted on the Mar. 3 puzzle comments that you look shit up i.e. cheat.

      1. @Nick …

         No. The “admission” you’re talking about occurred on the March 2nd blog. Please go back and reread it. I said what “some” posters here do, not what “I” do. I assure you that I did not cheat in any way on either of the two puzzles I mentioned here since, if I had, I would have said so explicitly in my post. (And, actually, I think most posters here would do the same.)

         In the past, some posters have made a point of criticizing others for advertising results that do not conform to their rules; I’m glad to hear that this was not your intention, but I hope you understand that past history has made some of us a little sensitive about the issue.

         The bottom line, as I said on the March 2nd blog: This is not a contest. Enjoy the puzzles in your own way and, if you’re comparing yourself with others, be aware that their way may be different.

      2. Lighten up there Francis …

      3. @ Nick
         Lighten up there Francis …

         1. Re Jeff:
            “Lighten up,” i.e. “go ahead, cheat like I do.”
            Who’s Francis?

      4. @Nick …

         One more (slightly less conciliatory) comment: On the March 2nd blog, you said that you were merely telling us your rules (as opposed to insisting that others obey them). But then you misunderstood my comments and accused me of cheating … by your rules! I’m not sure you understand your own motivations … 🤨.

         I would also add that there are puzzles on the internet so difficult as to almost require lookups in order to make any progress at all. For me, such puzzles are not to be found in the NYT or the LAT. (The “Saturday Stumper” in the Wall Street Journal very occasionally strays into this territory, but most of the ones I do are on indie sites.) Now, I’m not talking about using an answer key for such a puzzle, but about researching an area that is simply outside one’s knowledge base. Such puzzles can be frustrating, but also, in the end, very rewarding, and well worth side-stepping an arbitrary rule against “looking up s—t” (as you put it).

         Enough … 🙂.

         1. So you’re saying you solved this puzzle in 21:13 with no errors without cheating? So you blew away Bill? I”m new here but I thought Bill was the master.

            I never thought of posting my results until recently when stumbled on this site which allows you to post without creating an account. I’ve been doing crosswords for the intrinsic satisfaction of it for a long time without talking about them to anyone.

            My interest in posting the rules was to compare how people are defining success. I never used to do crosswords on a computer, I did them on paper, usu. the newspaper. In my view, if you complete all the squares in the grid but you don’t get a success message, if you correct your wrong answers, you completed it with assistance from the computer because the computer clued you in that you have errors. I found it odd that people posted ‘completed with no lookups’. I didn’t think you had to say that because ‘completed with lookups to me is an inherent contradiction.

            I think you’re taking the ‘woke’ approach to crosswords , that anything goes, and I’m being told to ‘lighten up’ meaning accept people who cheat as equivalent solvers to those who do not. Sorry, they’re not. An A+ means something, it’s not the equivalent of a participation recognition certificate. The game has rules.

            1. Since you said you completed this one with no look ups or assistance I take that at face value and withdraw any implication you cheated. That means you da man.
               I think the invitations thrown my way to lighten up wierd. All I did was mind my own business and post my rules and definition of solved etc. and that set Dave off on a harangue that I’ve let myself get drawn into. I never would have dreamed that an innocent pastime like crosswords might lead to fisticuffs. I find the people offended by normal behaviour (i.e. not cheating at solitaire, so to speak) are the ones who need to lighten up. What I’m hearing is, if some opt to cheat at solitaire that should be considered as a valid and normal behaviour.It’s not normal. And I’m not talking about super hard puzzles, we’re talking about the NYT puzzle published in a major newspaper and designed to be accessible not abstruse. It may contain an abstruse word but most adjoining answers are generally accessible enough to help you get the abstruse one.
               I may go back to what I did for a very long time and just do the puzzle for fun and shut up about it lest blogging about it spoil the pleasure. I just wanted to see what my level of skill was compared to expert solvers. Hence it was a disappointment when Dave said “many or most” of the posters here cheat at solitaire. I don’t know how he’d know that nor do I believe it. I think I already got an answer and I’m about intermediate. My times are slower and I have more errors but overall I’m good with how I stacked up. I was always happy with 95% + completion and that kept it relaxing and fun. I don’t think I need to keep posting here but may check in to see how others found the puzzle to get a sense of the level of difficulty. That was the main motivation originally for seeking out this site. But it does inevitably become a pissing contest and nothing else if you all blog how far you pissed. Let’s get real.

            2. @Nick
               For what it’s worth, people have about as many “rule sets” they use for solving crosswords as there are people. It’s unfortunate you’ve run into what you’ve encountered, and (partly) for that reason I’ve stopped posting my times on either of Bill’s blogs.

               People do get touchy about this because they can feel it’s a competition (or others see it as a competition) or get sucked into exactly *how* they define success as a great many do feel they “finished” the puzzle when they get tons of help. Personally I always thought the idea of habitually Google searching answers defeats the exercise of doing puzzles at all, but as you noted others do and a lot of the editors openly encourage that.

               For me when I’ve posted here lately, it’s always been if I receive any help that I didn’t finish the puzzle (DNF). I usually have hand-written the NYT and electronically did the LAT. Course the problem with doing it online (I never set anything to prompt errors) it’s unavoidable to get that “almost” or “done” screen at the end, so if I know right then I want to change something I go with it, but I leave the puzzle alone if I don’t know anything is wrong when I get the “almost” message. Admittedly another big “standards” war is how errors are reported (by squares or words?). But at other times, I’ve had more laxer standards, because I indeed start posting on Bill’s LAT blog when I started into crosswords. Each person tends to have their own standard of success and times are relative anyway.

               That said, I do think you probably could have communicated your intentions a little bit more directly in a way that doesn’t make others feel you’re challenging their standards.

               As for standards, Bill or myself or anyone else here are far from “masters” at this if you see how well some of the ones that are (mainly ACPT high finishers and winners) do these things.

4. DNF. got halfway.

   Got about halfway after an hour then gave up.

   If I had know it took Bill 33 minutes, I wouldn’t have even started.

   ZOUNDS, EGAD, OH MY,

5. 58:50, 95+% solved.
   Stymied by:
   Alohaoe
   Chineseteas
   Eliashowe
   Horcrux

   I had most of the correct letters filled by crosses, just didn’t know the words; unable to seal the deal.

   1. oh Chinese teas. Duh.

6. congrats puzzle maker. such a bunch of obscure and misleading clues that it made me say “why bother”. great job making a puzzle no one can have any fun solving. because that is the objective, right?

   1. @Anaymous…ditto…couldn’t have said it better.
      Stay safe😀

7. Too tough for me. I got seven crosses and thirteen downs before giving up. Piffle? Congrats to those who finished. Bah to those crying about nonconformists.

8. Challenging one today! Finished with 2 errors Hoc instead of Hic and Win instead of Wen. Darn vowels!

9. Has the spirit of the current American “civil war” now entered and become “la guerre incivile des mots croisses”?!
   Incroyable!!

   Lighten up, America!!

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