That was a proper Thursday! I will say that I struggled for sure, but it was largely rewarding. The puzzle is credited to Natan Last and the JASA class. The Wordplay blog explains that this is
the crossword construction class he teaches for the Jewish Association Serving the Aged. J.A.S.A. provides services that support older New Yorkers and partners to build strong communities.
My one gripe, before some notes, is that - as often happens - the stupid NYT xword app had a very particular way that everything needed to be entered to register as complete. I had to try 3 or 4 different variations before I got it.
I thought the revealer worked well
A Freudian conception of impulse control, requiring you to pair the id and ego. I worked this out with the first cross that required a rebus: I knew “MAMA SAID there’d be days like these”, but there wasn’t room for that to fit. The crosses helped me figure out that it had to be ID crammed into one box, then I got “dish near the water cooler” had to be the Thursday-level alternative meaning of OFFICEGOSSIP, EGO overlapping with ID, Freud in the revealer, and we were off (after a struggle to piece all of that together).
But I tried IDEGO and EGOID in each box before I figured out that you only had to write in one or the other in the app, or apparently per Wordplay I could have also separated them with a slash. Still, annoying… But shouldn’t be held against the actual puzzle, which I really liked.
Otherwise I thought the fill was good, the clues witty and tough but fair for a Thursday, and some fun words. Like LISSOME, SEASLUG, and a great piece of trivia for RUBEGOLDBERG.
Started off strong with the corners, got stuck after that.
theme discussion
I did get “IMPULSE CONTROL” but not the other theme clues. Forgot it’s a Thursday, and that rebuses are possible. I do now remember learning id, ego and super-ego in college.
SCHWA, ROEG, SUI and LISSOME were complete unknowns to me, so was the “N’awlins lunch, maybe” clue that referred to New Orleans. Had I scrolled down the website to see the cafe shown in the Wordplay article, I might have been able to guess it.
I’m reminded of yesterday’s “Part of La La Land” clue - another location clue, referring to Los Angeles.
Mini crossword link (free to play, account not mandatory): https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/mini
Share your time!
1:21
Fixing the errors I made took up my time.
Can someone explain how “He Got Game” is supposed to fit into seven letters?
Rebus!
I follow Chris Remo for the daily crossword. He goes over the rebus and explains how it works. You can watch the video regarding today’s crossword here. Rebuses are usually seen on Thursdays.
NYT also has an article about it here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/crosswords/yes-you-can-write-more-than-one-letter-in-a-square.html
I see. How annoying.
I found them annoying at first but now I like the challenge. They only show up on Thursdays, really, which tend to have tricks like this - so you don’t have to worry about them on other days. (And they’re why many people have slowed average solve times on Thursday than Friday!)
Ok, I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks.
