| Author |
Message |
    
Debby
Citizen
Username: Debby
Post Number: 1701
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, March 6, 2005 - 9:58 am: |     |
I'm usually pretty good, but the lower right hand corner is really giving me a tough time.
What the hell is "tub-thumped"? |
Joan
Supporter
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 5090
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, March 6, 2005 - 10:43 am: | |
How many letters? |
Debby
Citizen
Username: Debby
Post Number: 1702
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, March 6, 2005 - 11:18 am: | |
6 _ _ ated, I think |
jem
Citizen
Username: Jem
Post Number: 1190
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, March 6, 2005 - 11:26 am: | |
haven't looked at the puzzle yet, but try "orated" |
Rob
Citizen
Username: Rob07040
Post Number: 26
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Monday, March 7, 2005 - 9:13 am: | |
Orated it is.
Isn't it weird how one week you can fly through it and some friends have a hard time and the next week they fly through it and you draw a blank? I prefer a puzzle that takes a couple of days to complete (like most Saturday puzzles!) |
magmasystems
Citizen
Username: Magmasystems
Post Number: 292
Registered: 1-2002
| | Posted on Monday, March 7, 2005 - 9:23 am: | |
Orated
I just started doing the Times Sunday xword puzzles about 3 months ago, and now much to the chagrin of my wife, it has taken over my Saturday mornings (I get the magazine section delivered on Saturday).
I know that I am getting better at it because, every week, I am using Google less and less... |
Debby
Citizen
Username: Debby
Post Number: 1703
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 7, 2005 - 9:39 am: | |
jem - thank you. It was, indeed, orated.
Ooh, Rob...I've NEVER finished a Saturday. I bow in your presence.
But, yeah, I definitely have that experience of either zipping through or taking all day.
I find that the word-play ones are my faves, and the multi-part quotes tend to trip me up more.
I think my favorite ever was the Al Hirschfeld tribute puzzle, in which all the long answers contained "NINA". |
Rob
Citizen
Username: Rob07040
Post Number: 27
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Monday, March 7, 2005 - 10:15 am: | |
I did the Sunday puzzle for years without ever finishing one. Then I met someone who I watched finish it and was amazed. Its all a matter of being less literal and learning to think like the editors do. Now I can usually complete a Sunday (not always). Now the saturday puzzle is a whole other story! |
Mark Fuhrman
Citizen
Username: Mfpark
Post Number: 1365
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 7, 2005 - 11:12 am: | |
I like the acrostic puzzles at the bottom of the page. Took a while to get the hang of them, but like the "normal" Sunday puzzles it is a matter of thinking the right way, as Rob said. It is fun to see the quotation slowly forming out of chaos. But the puns and anagrams and the diagramless puzzles are beyond me. |
Rob
Citizen
Username: Rob07040
Post Number: 28
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Monday, March 7, 2005 - 11:50 am: | |
Let's not even talk about the diagramless ones. Who has the patience to even figure out where the first clue goes?? |
greenetree
Supporter
Username: Greenetree
Post Number: 3967
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 7, 2005 - 12:48 pm: | |
You are all sick. I feel my IQ dropping just reading this thread.
In my long ago, single, NY-dwelling days, I would pick up the Times when it got to the newsstands, around 11:30-12a Sat. night I'd start the puzzle & whatever I didn't finish by Sunday evening went out in the trash.
I guess I'm not very goal-oriented.  |
kmk
Supporter
Username: Kmk
Post Number: 481
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 7, 2005 - 2:28 pm: | |
I've decided that they are only "easier" now because I am over 40! Life experience counts for something...
My husband and I would get no work done on Sundays because we would read the Times cover to cover. We consciously changed our subscription to Monday to Saturday delivery ONLY. As luck would have it.....we get a Sunday times 99% of the time! I guess the delivery guy just thinks it's easier... |
Lizziecat
Citizen
Username: Lizziecat
Post Number: 533
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, March 7, 2005 - 5:26 pm: | |
I finish the puzzle every day. In ink. I've been doing them since college--that's more than 40 years. I have a lucky pen, which helps. |
Soulful Mr T
Citizen
Username: Howardt
Post Number: 148
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 7, 2005 - 6:24 pm: | |
Me, too, Lizzie. I'd aver that I enjoy Saturday's puzzle the most because it's challenging. 
I started doing them when I was 19 and now I'm, well, let's just say it's been well over thirty years.
The nice thing is that my 15 year-old son has taken up the Times crossword, too. He's finished a few Monday puzzles and it made him feel great. |
Lizziecat
Citizen
Username: Lizziecat
Post Number: 534
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, March 7, 2005 - 8:05 pm: | |
It is nice, isn't it, when one's children take up the same interests. My dad always did the Times puzzle, and my 43 year old son has been doing the acrostic and the diagramless for years. |
jem
Citizen
Username: Jem
Post Number: 1191
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 7, 2005 - 8:38 pm: | |
I'm another one who finishes the puzzle every day. The Monday through Wednesday puzzles go really quickly once you've been doing puzzles regularly. I find doing crosswords both challenging and relaxing in a weird way. I'm with Debby on enjoying the word-play puzzles the most.
I've attempted the diagramless puzzles a couple of times, and I give up on them pretty quickly. |
Debby
Citizen
Username: Debby
Post Number: 1707
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 7, 2005 - 9:13 pm: | |
My mom has always done the puzzle every day, and spent Sunday mornings bent over the magazine. My job, as a child, was to bring her Roget's Thesaurus when she got up to the Acrostic.
Does anybody do the diagramless?
P.S. Lizzie - ink's the only way to go. Pencil drags on the paper.
SMT - loved the use of aver. When we got our greyhound I was thinking of naming her "Asta", but it never would have worked with my 3rd and 5th grade boys |
Soulful Mr T
Citizen
Username: Howardt
Post Number: 153
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 7, 2005 - 9:32 pm: | |
Debby,
My next door neighbor's dog is named ASTA.
I liked TUBTHUMPER today. Not a term I'd heard before, but my wife, who is a BRIT, says it's a term used over there, across the pond.
|
Mark Fuhrman
Citizen
Username: Mfpark
Post Number: 1371
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 7, 2005 - 10:12 pm: | |
Rob--they give you the first clue on the answers to last week's puzzles, but even with that cheat I still can't get very far with the diagramless.
Oh yeah, I love the ones where they give you two words with two letters in common and you have to solve a few dozen of these interlinked words. Also like the spiral conch shells where the words work both backwards and forwards. Can you tell I don't get much done on certain Sundays? |
Debby
Citizen
Username: Debby
Post Number: 1708
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - 9:01 am: | |
Hey Mark - I love those, too. Forgot all about the nautilus ones - it's been too long.
Anyone else love Games mag Puzzlers ?
My favorite from them is "Pencil Pointers" |
filmboy
Citizen
Username: Filmboy
Post Number: 63
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - 9:08 am: | |
I love the diagramless...but it could take a week or more to finish. |
jeffl
Supporter
Username: Jeffl
Post Number: 1023
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - 11:46 am: | |
I used to be addicted to the Times puzzles and then I realized that the first thing I did when I got the paper, including the Sunday paper, was turn to the puzzle. I stopped reading the damn thing. That's when I stopped. Now I read the sports. |
Andrea Weisbard
Citizen
Username: Njnetsfan
Post Number: 51
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - 11:58 am: | |
I don't do the NY Times X-word, but my mom does. As well as the ones in the Star ledger. She says it keeps her mind sharp. If it comes to sports she usually calls me, since I am the only one in my family who is totally into sports of all kinds. I do the X-word puzzle in the TV Guide though and I also by X-word puzzle books. |
Soulful Mr T
Citizen
Username: Howardt
Post Number: 155
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - 1:01 pm: | |
I always look at the sports section first during baseball season. This year the Mets may actually make it exciting. In the off season, I go to the obituaries first. I'm not sure why, but I do know I don't want to think about it. |
kathy
Citizen
Username: Kathy
Post Number: 1063
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, March 12, 2005 - 11:52 pm: | |
I do the diagramless but I do start by seeing which square it starts on. My grandmother always did the diagramless on graph paper--that way you don't have to commit yourself to a starting square right away. And pencil is too hard for my aging eyes to see--I usually use a red felt-tipped pen. (Which is not to say I don't sometimes have to write over mistakes....) |
Debby
Citizen
Username: Debby
Post Number: 1722
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2005 - 8:17 am: | |
So it's genetic!
I'm very impressed. |
Andrew Zorn
Citizen
Username: Andrewzorn
Post Number: 158
Registered: 1-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2005 - 11:45 am: | |
I see Maplewood Online made the Sunday Times puzzle today. Impressive |
D.
Citizen
Username: Dave
Post Number: 5578
Registered: 4-1998
| | Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2005 - 1:29 pm: | |
What was the question? |
extuscan
Citizen
Username: Extuscan
Post Number: 446
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2005 - 2:39 pm: | |
Got no idea what ur talking about Andrew... and we only missed 2 and 3 down... btw, what were they?
Unless it was the bottom puzzle, laundry won out on that. |
Andrew Zorn
Citizen
Username: Andrewzorn
Post Number: 159
Registered: 1-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2005 - 3:23 pm: | |
I shouldn't really give out an answer to the NYT Puzzle on a public message board. I wouldn't want the Gray Lady going after unathorized readers.
(104 Down) |
extuscan
Citizen
Username: Extuscan
Post Number: 448
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2005 - 7:04 pm: | |
retell? The MOL connection is still eluding me  |
Andrew Zorn
Citizen
Username: Andrewzorn
Post Number: 160
Registered: 1-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2005 - 9:12 pm: | |
Does this really "matter" to you?
104...down |
Dave
Citizen
Username: Dave
Post Number: 5588
Registered: 4-1998
| | Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2005 - 9:14 pm: | |
Is it like this?
D104: Ms. Pitcher
M
O
L |
Andrew Zorn
Citizen
Username: Andrewzorn
Post Number: 161
Registered: 1-2002
| | Posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 - 1:13 pm: | |
Slightly more profound but you got the idea. (Seemed funnier yesterday.) |
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